April 9, 2000

• Christ Humbled, Christ Exalted by John Mac Arthur

  The Humiliation of Christ

  Philippians 2:5-8

  "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

  From Miracles by C.S. Lewis.  "In the Christian story God descends to reascend.  He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down further still, down to the very roots and sea bed of the nature He had created.  But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him.  One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden.  He must stoop in order to lift.  He must also disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders.  Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness then glancing in mid air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death‑like region of ooze and slime and old decay.  Then up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping precious thing that he went down to recover.  He and it are both colored now that they have come up into the light.  Down below where it lay colorless in the dark, he lost his color, too.  In this descent and reascent, everyone will recognize a familiar pattern, a thing written all over the world.  It is the pattern of all vegetable life.  It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike.  It must fall into the ground, thence the new life reascends.  It is the pattern of all animal generation, too.  There is descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and ovum and in the dark womb, a life at first inferior in kind to that of the species which is being reproduced, then the slow ascent to the perfect embryo, to the living conscious baby and finally to the adult.  So it is in our moral and emotional life.  The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial.  But from that there is a reascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way.  Death and rebirth go down to go up, it is a key principle.  Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies," With those words, Lewis then approaches the incarnation, the central miracle of Christianity, the most grand and wonderful of all the things that God ever did.  And that is the theme of these great verses before us.

  What does he mean by the word "form"?  Morphe is the word, which signifies a form which truly and fully expresses the being which underlies it.  In other words, it is a word that refers to essence or essential being or nature.  Here applied to God, the form of God.  It means His deepest being, what He is in Himself, His essential being.  The statement then is saying that Jesus Christ existed in the essential being of God.  And He has always and continuously and unalterably existed in that essence.

  "Form" or morphe is the essential character of something, what it is in itself.  Schema is the outward form that it takes.  The morphe never changes, the schema changes.  I am a man, I possess manhood.  I have possessed manhood since I was conceived and I will possess manhood until I die, that is my morphe.  But that essential character of manhood is manifested in many different schema, if I can transliterate a bit.  In other words, there was a time I was an embryo, there was a time I was a baby.  There was a time I was child.  Then I was a boy, then I was a youth.  Then I was a young man, then I was an adult, and some day I will an old man.  But, you see, my morphe is manhood, my schema changes. 

  When Paul selects the word morphe he is saying something very specific.  He is saying that Jesus has always existed in the unchangeable essence of the being of God.  To make it simple, he is saying Jesus is God.   He possesses the very being and the very nature of God and He has always possessed that.  And that interpretation of that first phrase is certainly strengthened by the second phrase in which He speaks of Jesus having equality with God.  And thereby he describes, of course, what he meant by being in the form of God, he meant being equal with God. This is the heart and soul of the Christian faith.  And When people attack the Christian faith, when forms of religion other than the truth attack us, they attack at the point of the deity of Christ.

  In John's gospel it seems to be his particular concern under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to leave the reader with absolutely no doubt at all in his mind that Jesus is God, and so he even begins with that statement, "In the beginning was the Word," referring to Christ, "and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  And then to demonstrate that, he says, "All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life and the life was the light of men.  He is creator."

  In verse 14 he says of Christ that He became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory and the glory that He had was that of the only begotten from the Father.  He is God.  He has him saying, of course, in the wonderful record of John 8:58 that "Before Abraham was, I am," taking on Him the very name of God who said "I am that I am hath sent you."  In Colossians 1:15, the Apostle Paul speaking of Christ, says, "He is the image, or the exact replica, of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."

  Twice then, John and Paul, we find that the great evidence of the deity of Christ is His ability to create.  And He gave evidence of that.  Plenty of evidence.  If you ever wonder whether Jesus is God, look at how He can create.  Not only in the past, not only at the point of creation, but look at His creative miracles in His life.  He created fish, He created bread.  He created an ear when Peter chopped one off.  He created new legs and new eyes and new ears and a new mouth.  He created new internal organs to replace the diseased ones, acts of creation.  He is the creator.  He is God.

  Hebrews 1:3 "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature."  It all starts with the recognition that Jesus Christ existed in the very essence of the eternal God.  Christianity is a tremendously simple and yet infinitely profound truth that God became man and we now follow the path of His incarnation.  Look back at verse 6, "Although He existed in the form of God He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped."  He did not consider it something to clutch.  That word "equality" is interesting.  The Greek word is the word isos.  It means exactly equal.  We could say its schema may be different but its morphe is the same.  Isomorph means having the same form.  He was exactly equal with God.  He is in the form of God.  He is God, that's what Paul is saying.  In fact, literally the Greek text reads in verse 6, "He did not regard the being equal with God," a tremendous statement, He is equal with God.

  Here's the first step down, He didn't possess it as something not to be yielded up even though He was equal with God.  There was no question that Jesus claimed this and there was absolutely no question at the people who listened to Him knew He claimed it.  In John 5:18 it says the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him.  Why?  Because He was not only breaking the sabbath was also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.  And when any of those people come along who want to deny that Jesus is equal to God, it's most interesting to say to them, "It's strange to me that you don't even know what His worst enemies knew because His worst enemies, the apostate Christ‑rejecting Jews who were bound up in self‑ righteousness, didn't miss what He said, they knew exactly what He was claiming.  He was claiming to be equal with God."  No one can miss that who reads the New Testament.

  In John 10:33 the Jews answered Him again, "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy."  Why?  "Because You being a man make Yourself out to be God."  They knew what He was claiming...patently obvious.  And He said to them, "You ought to look at the things I do and know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father."  And He says to His disciples, "Have I been so long with you and you don't yet know who I am?  If you've seen Me you've seen the Father."  Thomas in chapter 20:28 says, "My Lord and my God."

  Though He had all the rights and privileges and honors of being God, He didn't clutch them. That word originally meant robbery, or a thing gained by robbery or a thing seized. But it came to mean anything clutched, embraced, held tightly, prized, clung to.  He existed as God but He refused to cling to that favored position.  He refused to cling to all the rights and honors that went with it.  He was willing to give them up, that's the idea. 

  That's the incredible message of Christianity.  It's not the same as other religions where you watch the people trying to appease a god so he won't be angry with them.  In Christianity you see God looking down on wretched sinners who hate Him and are His enemies and willingly yielding up His privileges to come down for their sake.  That's the attitude of humility that begins the incarnation.  It begins with the unselfishness of the second person of the trinity.

  "But emptied Himself."  A profound statement introduced by a Greek term that means "not this but this."  He didn't think this something to be clutched but rather on the other hand emptied Himself.  The being equal with God didn't lead Him to fill Himself up, it led Him to empty Himself.  The verb "empty" kenoo is the verb from which we get that classic theological term the kenosis which is what theologians have called the self-emptying or the incarnation the doctrine of the kenosis, the self-emptying of Christ.  It's a very graphic expression.  He emptied Himself...self-renunciation, refusal to use what was rightfully His, refusal to cling to His advantages and privileges as God. Can you imagine?  God who owns everything, who can do everything, who has a right to everything, who is fully satisfied within Himself...but He emptied Himself.

  What does it mean He emptied, what did He empty?  He did not empty Himself of His deity or He would have ceased to exist.  And if He ceased to exist, so would God the Father and so would God the Holy Spirit because their life is one life.  He did not empty Himself of His deity or of any portion of His deity because He couldn't be less than who He was.  He is eternally in the morphe of God.  He did not cease to be God.  In fact it's very clear in Luke 9:32 that when He went on the Mount of Transfiguration and pulled back His flesh they saw the glory that was there.  He didn't exchange deity for humanity.  He didn't stop being God and start to become man.  If He had done that He would have died on a cross and stayed there in the grave because only God had the power to die and in dying conquered death.  Only God could create and do the miracles that He did.  Only God could say the words that He said.  He did not stop being God nor was there any part of His essential divine nature at all that was given up, none of it.  He couldn't cut out some piece of who He was.  There are those who would advocate such a blasphemous view.

  What did Jesus set aside?  First, He gave up His heavenly glory.  He dove into the water and went all the way down to the black cold water to the slime and the ooze of this world.  He cries out in John 17 and says, "Father, restore Me to the glory I had with You before the world began."  Glory when He was face to face with God.  He gave up His glory for the muck of this earth.  He gave up the worship of angels, the adoring presence of angels for the spittle of men.  He gave up all of the shining brilliance of the glories of heaven for the dark prison where He was kept before His death.  Yes, He emptied out His glory in that sense.

  Another way to look at it is that He covered up His glory.  He veiled it.  They saw a glimpse of it on the Mount of Transfiguration.  There were glimpses of it in all His miracles.  There were glimpses of it in His attitude.  There were glimpses of it in His words.  There were certainly glimpses of it even on the cross.  There was a blazing manifestation of it in the resurrection, the ascension.  But He emptied Himself of some of the outward manifestation and the personal enjoyment of heavenly glory.

  Second, He emptied Himself of independent authority.  In the Trinity's perfect harmony there would be no discord and no disagreement.  But nonetheless in some way mysterious to my mind which I will never understand, He completely submitted Himself to the will of the Father.  But the point is He laid aside a voluntary exercise of His own will and He learned to be a servant and He submitted Himself.  He was obedient, it says in verse 8.  I don't understand that but He was obedient.  In the garden He says, "Not My will but Thine be done."  He learned obedience by the things He suffered, Hebrews 5 says.  He said I am come to do the Father's will, John 5:30.

  Third, He set aside the prerogatives of His deity, meaning the voluntary use of His attributes.  You say, "Did He stop being omniscient?"  "Did He stop being omnipresent?"  "Did He stop being unchangeable God?"  No, He didn't stop being anything, He just didn't use those attributes.  He knew everything cause He knew what was in the heart of a man, John 2.  I know He was omnipresent because He saw Nathaniel when He wasn't even where Nathaniel was in His human form.  He didn't give up any of His deity but He gave up the free exercise of those attributes and limited Himself to the point where in Matthew 24:36 He says, "No man knows when the Son of Man will come," not men and not even the Son of Man.  He restricted His omniscience.  So He gave up the prerogatives of His deity.

  Fourth, He gave up His personal riches.  Though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor, 2 Corinthians 8:9, that you through His poverty might be made rich.  He became terribly poor in this world.  He had nothing.

  Fifth, He gave up a favorable relationship to God.  "He who knew no sin was made sin for us...He who knew no sin was made sin for us."  As a result He says, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  He gave up a favorable relationship to God.

  Though He gave up the full expression of his heavenly glory and the full enjoyment of it, though He gave up independent authority and exercise of His own will and learned obedience, though He gave up the prerogatives to express all of the majesty of all of His attributes which He could have done, by the way, and though He gave up personal riches for the poverty of this world and though He gave up a favorable relationship with God when He was made sin,  He never ceased to be God, never.  He remained fully God.  At any moment in time He could have blasted His enemies off the face of the earth with the breath of His mouth.  But He didn't.  He emptied Himself.

  There's a sense in which He emptied Himself not by giving something up alone, but He emptied Himself by also taking something on.  First,"He took the form of a bondservant."  Notice the word "form" again, there it is again, morphe, the essence.  This is not a cloak, this is not an outward schema.  He literally took on the essence of a servant.  By the way, the only other New Testament use of that word, morphe, is in Mark 16:12 where Jesus takes on resurrection morphe, the nature of a resurrected body.  But here He really became a doulos, a bondslave.  And He came to serve God's will and God's purpose and submit to God and therefore submit to the needs of men as well.  It goes all the way back to Isaiah 52:13-14 which identifies the coming Messiah as the servant, really the servant, became poor, became a slave. 

  Imagine, He owned everything.  But when He came into this world He was borrowing everything from men, unthinkable.  He had to borrow a place to be born and not much of a place at that.  He had to borrow a place to lay His head, He didn't even have a home.  Many nights He slept on the Mount of Olives.  He had to borrow a boat to cross the little Sea of Galilee.  He had to borrow a boat to preach from.  He had to borrow an animal to ride into the city when He was being triumphantly welcomed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He had to borrow a room for the Passover because He didn't even have a house in Jerusalem. He had to borrow a tomb to be buried in.  The only person who had the right to everything wound up with nothing, became a servant.  He came into the world as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, rightful heir to David's throne as well as God in human flesh, but He had no advantages, He had no privileges in this world.  He came as a servant.  Nobody gave Him anything. Nobody entrusted Him with any treasure.  Nobody gave Him a home.  Nobody gave Him animals to ride.  Nobody gave Him land to call His own.  Nobody gave Him anything.  He served everyone.  He had no advantages.  He had no privileges.  This is God, you remember this?  This is God.  This is the God of the universe we're talking about, who made all things, "By Him were all things made and without Him was not anything made that was made and of Him and through Him and to Him are all things and yet He has nothing."

  Second, it says in verse 7, "And being made in the likeness of men."  He's just like men.  He was given the essential attributes of humanity.  He was homeo mati, He was homogenous to men, kind of the idea.  He became man...truly human.  Didn't stop being God.  And He didn't take on some body.  He isn't God in a body, He is God-man and man is more than a body.  All of the essence of humanity...body, soul, mind, truly human.  That's why in Luke 2:52 it says, "He grew in wisdom and stature."  He was growing as a human.

  Colossians 1:22 it says, "Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body."  He had a body like your body, a fleshly body.  He's not a phantom...a real body.  In Galatians 4:4 it says He was made of a woman, made under the law.  In Hebrews 2:14, "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same."  The same flesh and blood that we have.  It was not a kind of pre‑Fall humanity like Adam's but a post-Fall humanity in the sense that it could know sorrow and tears and crying and suffering and pain and thirst and hunger and death.  And death can only touch humanity that is touched by the Fall already.  So He felt the effects of the Fall without ever knowing or experiencing or touching the sin in the Fall.  And Hebrews says He partook the same as the children who take flesh and blood.  He was made like His brethren in all things, Hebrews 2:17.  Why?  That He might become a merciful and faithful high priest.  How is He going to know what we feel unless He's felt what we feel.  If He feels it in an unfallen humanity, He won't feel it cause it isn't there.  He was human in the sense that He experienced all the test and temptation of men.  And that's why He's such a faithful and understanding high priest.  Yet He never sinned, Hebrews 4:15, yet without sin, never sinned, couldn't sin because God can't sin.

  "And being found in appearance as a man."  It looks at His humiliation from the viewpoint of the people who saw Him.  Yes He is God/man, but as people viewed Him they saw Him in the appearance of a man.  They looked at the outward form and they saw a man.  But there was so much more that they didn't see and that's part of His humiliation.  He came all the way down to be the God/man but they never saw the God part.  They looked at Him and His appearance was a man.  And the schema of a man was all they saw.

  It would have been one thing for God to become man, that is humbling enough but for God to become man and man to think He is only man is indeed a humbling thing.  That's humiliating.  And He did all the works and He said all the words, performed all the miracles and they said, "This man has a demon."  And the Jews said, "We know this man, we know His mother and father.  We know where He's from and where does He come off saying, I came down from heaven?  Where does He get that?"  They just saw Him as a man.  And that was so humiliating.  Their minds were darkened by sin.  They recognized His humanity.  They missed His deity.  They didn't know who He was.  How humbling.   Here He is God in human flesh, King of Kings, the regal royal majestic King of the universe and they don't even know it.  And they treat Him not only like man but the worst of men.  They treat Him like a criminal.

  Did He fight back?  No.  He went down even lower.  Verse 8, "He humbled Himself" under that treatment.  He was already humiliated.  It would have been enough for Him to just be willing not to clutch His rights, but then to empty Himself of the exercise of those things and then to come all the way down to be a bondservant who was a King, and then to be made exactly like human beings, to suffer everything they suffer and feel everything they feel, except sin, and then to be seen only as a man would have been enough, but by then you would have screamed and said, "I want My rights, that's enough.  Do you know who I am?"  And you would have blown over a tall building or something...or created something, fought back.

  He humbled Himself.  He just went down another level.  Look at Him at His trial.  The humiliation is absolutely unbelievable.  And the thing that amazes you in this humiliation is that He answers never a word.  Finally He admits who He is when He's asked and He says, "You said it."  Utter humiliation.  They are mocking Him.  They are punching Him.  They are pulling out His beard.  They are treating Him like scum and He is God.  And He doesn't say a word.  And they pass Him from mock trial phase to phase and He doesn't say anything and He accepts it.  And He doesn't demand His rights.  Oh my, what a picture of humility that is.  He humbled Himself. 

  He went even lower.  How low did He go?  Verse 8 says, "By becoming obedient to the point of death."  Now somewhere short of that you would think He would have said, "Stop...that's enough."  Somewhere in the middle of that trial you would have assumed that He would have blasted them with fire from His mouth and consumed the whole rotten bunch.  But He doesn't.  Somewhere when He's being mocked and dragged half naked through the city of Jerusalem with a cross on His back you would have thought that He would have stopped and said, "Halt, that is enough, you are not worth this effort.  I demand for you to know who I am."  But He doesn't.  Somewhere on the cross you would have thought He would have screamed out who He was but He never says it...never.  He was obedient to the point of death...all the way down to the muck and the slime and the ooze of the deep dark places in order that He might bring us up to the color again.

  And, says Paul, not just death but the last statement, "Even death on a cross."  Not just death but even death on a cross, crucifixion, excruciating embarrassing degrading painful humiliating cruel...devised originally by the Persians and perfected by the Romans it was only fit for a slave and the worst riff‑raff among the criminals.  The Jews hated it because they remembered Deuteronomy 21:22 which said, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree," Paul quotes that in Galatians 3.  They hated it.  They despised it.  This is the ultimate in human degradation, hanging in the sky, stark‑naked, as it were, before the watching world with nails driven through your hands and feet, the mocking object.  There He is.  This is God.  This is the God who created the universe.

  Somewhere along the path down you'd think He'd say to Himself, "You know, these people aren't worth redeeming.  This is too degrading.  This is too humiliating."  This is what He did.  That's the grace of God.  That's the love of God for sinners.  And He did it to die for you and die for me.  This is an amazing plan, is it not?  This is a plan that no man would have devised.  Is it any wonder when the Apostle Paul looks at salvation not from the historical perspective here but from the doctrinal perspective and for eleven chapters in Romans he shows how God became man and died and rose again to provide salvation, and at the end of it all in Romans 11:33 he says, "O how unsearchable are Your judgments and Your ways passed finding out."  He's literally in awe.  God, what a plan. Who would have ever dreamed of this?  Who would have imagined that God would do that?

  If we had planned it, we would have sent Him to a palace.  We would have Him born into wealth and a prominent family.  We would have had Him educated in the finest universities with all the most elite teachers and the finest tutors exposed to the very best of human wisdom and information.  If we had orchestrated God coming into this world we would have made sure everybody loved Him and revered Him and honored Him and respected Him.  We would have made sure He was in all the prominent places, meeting all the prominent people.  We would have been sure that there was a public relations campaign to end all to promote great affection for Him.  We certainly would never have let Him be born in a stable.  We would never have let Him be born to a family in poverty.  We would never have let Him spend His time in a carpenter shop in an obscure town in Galilee.  We would never ever have allowed Him to live without any earthly goods, nor would we have allowed Him to go through His life and ministry with a rag‑tag band of followers like He did.  We would have made sure that we had people qualified to be His disciples and the qualifications would have been very stiff. 

  We would never have allowed Him to be humiliated.  We would have imprisoned or executed anybody who spit on Him, or pulled His beard or mocked Him to the face or drove nails through His hands.  We would have done it very differently and we wouldn't be saved.  Is it any wonder that the psalmist says in Psalm 36:6, "Thy judgments are like a great deep?"  This is too much for us, we can't understand this.  How unsearchable are His ways, untrackable.  You can't find the end of them.  You can't get to either the source or the goal.  You don't understand it.  Such profound truth, such deep divine purpose.  And this God has done for us

  Let's bow in prayer. Lord, we say with the Apostle Paul, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways, for who has known the mind of the Lord or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever, amen."  O God, we cannot understand such a miracle as the incarnation, too deep for us...too deep.  Surely Your judgments, Your decisions are a great deep.  But, Lord, even though we cannot understand, You have said, "Except a man become as a little child he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." And what our minds cannot grasp our hearts can and we can grasp that You loved us so much, You loved us so much that You came into this world and died on a cross to pay the death for our sin that we should pay.  And that if we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him our lives, as we believe and as we follow, we receive eternal life.  O Lord God, I pray for every person here that each may search his or her own heart.  The humiliation is enough, all the way to death.  But there is yet another step, and that is the further humiliation of having done all that and being rejected by the people You did it for.  Forgive us, Lord.  Forgive us for the time of our unbelief when we further humiliated Christ by rejecting His humiliation.

  And I pray, O God, for any in our fellowship this morning who have not confessed Jesus as Lord, who have not come to Him for forgiveness and life. 

  While your heads are bowed, we can't close this message without asking you in your own heart to look to God and just perhaps the Spirit is moving in your life and maybe this is the time for you to pray a prayer that says, "O God, I see what You've done in Christ for me and I ask Christ to forgive my sin, come into my life and be my Lord."  Can you pray that prayer?  Christ has died for you but if you reject it, it does no good for you. 

  You say, "How do I make this my own?"  By faith, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and that faith involves turning from your sin and turning to follow Him.  Can you pray that prayer?  Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin to follow You who have died for me.

  ---

  The Exaltation of Christ, Part 1

  Philippians 2:9

  "Therefore God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

  This is how God responded to Christ's incarnation and humiliation.  Peter said that the great theme of the Old Testament prophecies was the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow, 1 Peter 1:11.  Those are the two themes that always make up the life and ministry of Christ...the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow, humiliation‑‑exaltation.  The writer of Hebrews says of Christ that He endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him, Hebrews 12:2.  Christ understood His sufferings in the light of His exaltation.  He endured the pain because He could see the joy.

  This has application to us.  We should have this same attitude, one of humiliating oneself in order that one may be exalted by God.  The main idea in this section is unity.  Back in verse 2 Paul says, "I want you to be of the same mind, I want you to maintain the same love.  I want you to be sure that you are one in spirit, one in purpose."  Then he says in verses 3 and 4, "Your unity is a product of your humility.  As you consider others superior to yourself and as you look on the things of other and not only your own, you will work out a humility that will manifest unity."  Then he says, "If you need an example of such humility, take it from Christ.  Christ humbled Himself and that is the way you are to humble yourself."  Then he turns to say, "And Christ was exalted," and the implication is "so will you be exalted who have humbled yourselves as well."  So, "Let this attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" is simply saying when you humble yourselves willingly, God will lift you up. 

  It's the promise of a reward for faithful humility (Matthew 23:12, Luke 18:14, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6) .  It's a promise of blessing for sacrifice.  It is by giving that a person receives, it is by serving that a person is served.  It is by losing one's life that one finds it.  It is by dying to self that one lives.  It is by humbling oneself that he is exalted. Self‑sacrifice and humility is rewarded by God.  Jesus becomes then an example of the kind of exaltation that God will grant to every humbled believer.  As Christ humbled Himself and was by the Father wonderfully exalted, so shall we who humble ourselves be so exalted. 

  As we examine the exaltation of Christ, the first issue is the source of His exaltation.  Verse 9 indicates that the source is God.  "Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him,"  Whatever Christ was given came from God.  God exalted Him and God literally gifted Him.  The word "bestowed" is gifted, ekaristo.  Because of His humiliation therefore also God exalted Him.  The two are inseparable.   If you desire to be lifted up by God, you will humble yourself.  And so it is in Christ's case.  He who so magnificently lowered Himself to death, even the death on a cross, is equally magnificently lifted up and exalted by God. 

  In Acts 2:32 Peter preaching at Pentecost says, "This Jesus God raised up again."  Verse 33, "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God."  So the exaltation of Christ includes the resurrection and it includes the coronation.  He was raised up and He was exalted to the right hand of God.  He went to sit on the Father's throne at His right hand, that's resurrection and coronation.  Those two elements are part of the exaltation of Christ.

  In Acts 5 Peter and the Apostles are speaking and they said, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus," again God exalted Him through resurrection.  Verse 31, "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a prince and a Savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."  The exaltation of Jesus Christ involved His resurrection, His coronation and His intercession.  He intercedes as the one whom God has ordained to forgive sins.

  Ephesians says that Christ was raised from the dead, that's resurrection, seated at the right hand in heavenly places, that's coronation.  And then it describes that coronation.  Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. That gives us even more detail about His coronation.  He is far above all rule, authority, power, dominion and every name that is named in this age and in the age to come...resurrection, coronation and intercession were elements of exaltation.

  Hebrews 4, "God granted to Jesus Christ that when He went into heaven," verse 14, "He became a high priest who has passed through the heavens."  There a four‑fold factor in the exaltation of Christ...resurrection, ascension, coronation and intercession.    Raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, seated on the throne of God to intercede as the high priest for the sins of His people.  We have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God  Not a high priest who can't sympathize with our weakness but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.  Hebrews 7:26 says that He is a high priest holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners and exalted above the heavens.  And verse 25 says He always lives to make intercession for them.  Resurrection, ascension, coronation, intercession, that's the exaltation of Christ, the steps up.  We saw the steps down.  He was in the form of God but was willing to let go of it, humbled Himself, became a servant, made in the likeness of men, found in fashion as a man, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, all the steps down.  The steps up: resurrection, ascension, coronation, intercession.

  There's a sense in which we shall even follow that partially.  The day will come when we experience resurrection.  When we experience resurrection we will also experience ascension, that in the Rapture but that also for the bodies of all believers.  When we get to heaven we will experience coronation for we will sit with Christ on His throne in the throne of God.  We will no longer need intercession for the work will be complete.  But the path of glory which Jesus followed from resurrection to ascension to coronation is the path of glory that believers will follow as well.  That's the promise of God.

  Who is the source of all of this?  God.  God raised Him from the dead.  God lifted Him to glory.  God crowned Him and sat Him at His right hand.  And God gave to Him the ministry of intercession as the high priest of His people. How can Jesus who is already God, how can He be exalted?  How can you lift up one who is God?"  Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer of John 17, "Restore to Me the glory that I had with You before the world began."  So there's an indication that He gave up something which God gave back to Him.  "Give Me back the glory I had with You before the world began."  There was something given up, we saw that, something really given up in His incarnation.  There was something given back in His glorification that in His coronation and His exaltation He received more than He had before. 

  He was already the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  As the God/Man which was a new being for Him, He suffered things and was given things that He would not have experienced had He not become the God/Man.  For example, He would never have had the privilege of being the interceding high priest if He had never been touched with the feelings of our infirmities, if He had never been tempted in all points like as we are, if He had never become the substitute for our sin by bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.  As God He was incapable of elevation, but as the God/Man He could be lifted from the lowest degradation to the highest degree of glory.  And there's a sense in which He received from the Father privileges that He didn't have before that He gained because of His incarnation, the privilege of being the intercessory high priest for His people.  He entered upon all the rights and privileges not only of God as God but of God as the God/Man who had accomplished all that He had accomplished in His incarnation.  His exaltation is not in regard to His nature or eternal place within the Godhead but rather it is in regard to His submission and sacrifice as the God/Man that He was lifted up.

  He has entered into an exaltation and a glory that is the same glory He had before the world began and yet with new rights and privileges because He is now the God/Man who has accomplished the work of His incarnation.  And God did all of this.  God is the source of all of it.  God gave to Jesus this right, this privilege and this exaltation. (Romans 14:9, 1 Corinthians 15:24)

  The word there in Philippians that we mentioned briefly that says "and He bestowed," The word "bestowed" means to graciously give whole heartedly.  Christ so totally and utterly satisfied God's desire for the work of His incarnation, He so fully and completely accomplished redemption that God wholeheartedly and generously and graciously and beneficently poured out on Him gifts, the gifts of exaltation.

  I want to take you to a second point: the title of His exaltation is Lord.    Verse 9 says that God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him this key phrase "the name," definite article, "the name which is above every name."  What is THE name which is above every name?  Whatever name it is Hebrews 1:4 says it is a more excellent name than the angels have.  Whatever name it is consistent with Scripture, Old and New Testament, it will imply not just a means of distinguishing one person from another like we use Bob and Joe,  but it will imply something of the nature of Christ, something of His person, revealing something of His inner being.  It will not just be a title to distinguish Him from all other beings, but it will be a title that will literally cause Him to be ranked above all other beings. It will be a title that is characteristic of His essence that will identify Him as superior to all other beings because it is the name which is above every name.  It isn't a comparative here, it is a superlative.  It isn't a comparative name for distinguishing purposes, it is a superlative name, one beyond.

  Why is God going to give Him a name? God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name.  Abram met with God, God covenanted with him, God entered into a very unique relationship with Abram.  God changed his name to Abraham.  God entered into a unique relationship with Jacob and He gave his name Israel.  Jesus called Simon to follow Him and Jesus gave to that man a new name and his new name was Peter when he entered a unique relationship with Him.  Do you remember that to the church at Pergamos and the church at Philadelphia in Revelation 2:17 and Revelation 3:12, the Lord promised to those who overcome He would give them a new name? 

  New names are uniquely given to mark out a definite stage in a person's life.  He does it even in the case of Christ, amazing.  He literally gives to Christ a name.  He bestows on Christ a name.  It is not a name that will shock us or surprise us, He has had many names.  He has been called Jesus, Christ, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, but He here receives a new name.

  God gave Him the name that is above every name and the name that is above every name is Lord.  Whoever is Lord is in charge, right? That's the name that is above every name.  That's the supreme name. That is a New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament Yahweh, the name of God, Jehovah, which indicates sovereign ruler.  It signifies rulership based on power and authority.  Out of His humiliation He becomes ruler.  He becomes Lord.  He had already given hints that this was going to be His name.  Pilate looked at Him and wondered if He was a king, wondered if He was really a master and He acknowledged that He was Lord.  Thomas looked at Him and said, "My Lord and my God."  It was evident all along that He was the living Lord but here in His exaltation He is formally and officially given the name Lord.  He now has it as the God/Man.  He was Son of Man on earth.  Sometimes, a few times, Son of God.  He was Jesus, a common name.  He was Christ Messiah, now the Father says from here on out you must confess Jesus Christ as Lord.  That's the name which is above every name.

  We know that because you will notice in verse 10 that it says, "And bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow."  And verse 11, "Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."  It does not say...that at the name Jesus every knee should bow.  It says that at the name OF Jesus.  And what is the name OF Jesus that the Father has just given Him?  Lord.  The name Jesus doesn't make people bow, that's the name of His incarnation.  The name Lord makes people bow.  It is the name Lord that men must confess to be saved. 

  This is indicated clearly when you consider what is in Paul's mind here when he says that at the name of Jesus, which by the way is Lord, every knee should bow, verse 11, every tongue confess.  Isaiah 45:21 and following, verse 21 he says, "Declare and set forth your case, indeed let them consult together, who has announced this from of old?  Who has long since declared it?  Is it not I the Lord?  And there is no other God beside Me, I am the Lord and there's no other God.  I am a righteous God and a savior, there is none except Me, turn to Me, be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself.  The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back and to Me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance."  That's talking about sovereignty and Lordship.  That's where He got that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess.  And God is saying I am the Lord, I am the Lord, there's nobody but Me.  I am righteous, I am savior, turn to Me and be saved for I am God, there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself.  In other words, I'm in charge, I ask nothing, I need no other authority.  The word that goes out of My mouth is all there is and it never comes back and you will bow to Me and you will bow to My Lordship.

  When he says that He has a name, a name at which every knee must bow, a name at which every tongue must confess, that name can't be Jesus, that name must be Lord.  That's the context of Isaiah 45, that's the only name that makes sense in the context that we are to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.  Who declared Him to be Lord?  The Father exalted Him and gave Him a name and the name He gave Him was the name Lord.  And Lord is above every other name.  If you are Lord, you're above every other name.  It implies deity, yes.  But it carries the power of sovereignty.  It is not just to say that you are God, it is to say that you as God rule.  It has to mean that. 

  The source of the exaltation of Christ is God and the title of the exaltation of Christ is Lord.  We cannot know Christ any other way than as Lord.  Every Christian must say that.  That's the substance of Christianity.  Lord is above every other name.  You don't make Him Lord.  Every time I hear someone say that, it's like fingernails going down a blackboard.  Don't talk about making Him Lord, God did that.  He is Lord.  Everyone who receives Him surrenders to His authority.  He's Lord. 

  This truth rings through the New Testament, literally rings through the New Testament, that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Though the Father didn't bestow it until the exaltation, it was coming and we could feel it coming all along.  You can go all the way back to Luke 2:11, "Today is born in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord."  Even at His birth it was affirmed that He was Lord and that the name would be bestowed upon Him is no surprise to anybody.  That's who He was and rightfully did He bear the name.  God held back giving Him the official bestowal until His work was done.

  Jesus even said it.  John 13:13, "You call me teacher and Lord and, He says, you are right, I am."  And then, of course, after His wonderful work and after He was lifted up and exalted in heaven, Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, "Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him Lord."  Oh, I love that.  Acts 2:36.  God bestowed the name that is above every name on Him.  Who?  "This Jesus whom you crucified."  God made Him Lord.

  Chapter 10 as you flow through the book of Acts, you hear so much about Christ being Lord...by the way, Christ is referred to as Lord 92 times in the book of Acts...twice as Savior...92 times as Lord.  Acts 10:36 says, "The word which he sent to the sons of Israel...here's the message of the Apostles...preaching peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all."  You preach Christ?  You preach Him as Lord.  You preach Christ?  You preach Him as Lord.  And so did the early church, 92 times in the book of Acts as they preached the gospel they refer to Him as Lord.

  Romans 10:9, "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness; with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all,"...that's who He is...and you confess Him not only as Lord deity but Lord of all.  He is Lord over all, abounding in riches, it says.  "And whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

  A lot of people like to talk about Jesus, but don't like to talk about Lord.  Romans 1411, "As it is written as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me and every tongue shall give praise to God."  Who's he talking about?  Back to verse 9, "For to this end Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living, and you will bow your knee to His lordship."  By the way, Romans 14:9-11 is also a quote of Isaiah 45:23, the same passage used in Philippians 2. And again it emphasizes that Christ is Lord and it is to the Lord that every knee bows.  "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me."

  1 Corinthians 8:6 we read this, "For us there is but one God the Father from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ," that's His new name after His exaltation. After He went up into heaven and the epistles were written He was the Lord Jesus Christ, always the Lord...always the Lord. First Corinthians 12:3 says, "No man calls Jesus Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit."  The Spirit moving on the heart enables one to call Jesus Lord.

  Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 says, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."  Always Lord.  Second Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves but we preach...I love this...Christ Jesus as Lord."  Christ Jesus as Lord.  Revelation 17:14; 19:16, "King of Kings, Lord of Lords." 

  The centrality of the lordship of Christ is very clear in the New Testament gospel.  You can't separate Savior from Lord.  Now some have said, "The word Lord just means deity, doesn't mean sovereign master, doesn't mean ruler."  From a linguistic viewpoint the word Lord is kurios, which overwhelmingly refers to the idea of rulership.  In fact the word is used to refer to people who aren't even God because they are rulers.  So its inherent meaning is not deity, but rulership. 

   It is at the very center of the Christian confession that Jesus is Lord, is at the very center of a gospel message that Jesus is Lord.  That's what you must affirm to be saved.  And that's what Paul says every tongue will ultimately confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  The source of that exaltation is God.  The title of His exaltation is Lord.  And Paul says everyone is going to acknowledge it sooner or later.  It would be my prayer for you that you would acknowledge that He is Lord by choice and not by force. 

  ---

  The Exaltation of Christ, Part 2

  Philippians 2:10-11

  There are four steps in the exaltation of Christ; resurrection, ascension, coronation and intercession.  You remember that God raised Him from the dead.  In Acts 13:33 the Apostle Paul preaches on this subject.  He says  that God raised up Jesus.  As it is also written in Psalm 2, "Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee."  And then he says in verse 34 of Acts 13, "And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David."  In other words, I'll give you the promise made to David, the promise of a kingdom.  Therefore he also says in another Psalm, "Thou wilt not allow Thy holy one to undergo decay."  For David after he had served the purpose of God in His own generation fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay, but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.  Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses. God raised Him from the dead and through that resurrection provided forgiveness and freedom from sin and the law and death.  God raised Christ.

  Step two, the ascension, is recorded in Acts 1:9.  Jesus when He was speaking with His disciples, completed what He was saying and He was lifted up while they were looking on.  And a cloud received Him out of their sight.  And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold two men in white clothing stood beside them, two angels, no doubt.  And they said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?  This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."  Where in heaven?  To the right hand of God. Acts 2:33

  At the right hand of God to the third phase of His exaltation, His coronation.  There He was given the right to rule.  In Matthew 28:18 it marvelously records the words of Jesus who said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."  When He ascended to the right hand of God the Father, God gave Him all authority.  In Mark 16:19, Mark puts it this way, "So when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God."  At that moment He received all authority in heaven and in earth. John 5:22 says, "All judgment was given into His hand.  He was put in the position to adjudicate in the case of every matter that comes before holy God.  He therefore became the supreme ruler on the very throne of God at God's right hand.

  The significance of God's right hand is that the right hand was always the symbol of power and authority.  The King moved in power and authority with his right hand. Christ then becomes the right hand of God, that is the one who acts with the authority and the power of almighty God.  In Acts 7:55 where Stephen is being stoned, it says  that he was full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into heaven. God gave him a glimpse of glory and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said in an earthly voice, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  The crowd was irate and they cried with a loud voice and covered their ears and they rushed on him with one impulse and drove him out of the city to crush him under the stones.  It was when they were gnashing at him with their teeth, was when they were railing at him for preaching Christ that God gave him a glimpse.  And there as he died under those stones that vision was vivid in his eyes.  Yes, Jesus was lifted to the right hand of God, the place of power, the place of authority.

  How much power?  How much authority?  Ephesians 1:20 tells us that having been restored to that place it says, "He is seated at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come."  He is above everything, every rule, every authority, every power, every dominion, every name in every age.  And verse 22 says God has put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  He rules everything.  He is the right arm, the right hand of God...power, authority, rule, dominion over everything. Ephesians 4:10 says, "He ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things."  That's the exaltation of Christ.  That's the coronation element...resurrection, ascension to the right hand, coronation, to rule over everything and everyone in existence.

  Hebrews 2:9 "We see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels...namely Jesus...because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor."  How much glory?  How much honor?  He is the sovereign of the universe.  He is the right arm of God, the right hand of power, dominion and authority.  And so when you see Christ you must see Him not only in humiliation but in exaltation...resurrection, ascension, coronation.  He rules over all the universe.  1 Peter 3:22, "Angels, authorities and powers have been subjected to Him who is at the right hand of God in heaven."  That's His exaltation.

  There's a fourth phase of intercession, or as some would chose to call it, session.  He is open session as high priest.  His first act, He dispensed the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 2:33).  He sits in that seat of intercession.  He is the head of the church as we saw in Ephesians 1.  He is the high priest, the sympathetic high priest who has been touched with all the feelings of our infirmities, who ever lives to make intercession for us, says Hebrews.  And you can read about His priestly work in Hebrews 4-9.  All of those chapters celebrate His intercessory work.  He is the one in Ephesians 4:8 who bestowed on the church the gifted men.  He is the one who grants to us faith, the one who grants to us repentance, the one who grants to us forgiveness as the exalted majestic Son of God.

  In Hebrews 1, the resurrected ascended coronated and interceding Christ is seen in His majestic glory.  It says of Jesus Christ that He is appointed heir of all things.  He has literally inherited all things.  That is why in Revelation chapter 5 you see Him take the scroll.  The scroll is the Title Deed to the earth.  And the scroll was sealed.  In those days when they gave Title Deeds to people they sealed them so that when broken it could be acknowledged that they had been broken and perhaps adulterated.  In this case this was a last will and testament, the seal of Revelation 5, which was the Title Deed to the earth.  To make sure that no one broke it open but a rightful person it was sealed seven times.  And Jesus breaks the seven seals as He unrolls the Title Deed to the earth to take possession of the earth, to take possession of everything in the universe.  The unfolding of the book of Revelation is the unfolding of Christ opening the Title Deed and taking possession of what is rightfully His as heir of all things. He is appointed heir of all things.  He rules over all things and some day will enact the full title to the earth and the universe in His majestic and eternal Kingdom.

  It further says about Him that He is the radiance, verse 3, of the glory of God.  He is the exact representation of the nature of God.  When He had made purification of sins, that is when He had accomplished redemption on the cross, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Having accomplished His work on the cross, God raised Him from the dead, lifted Him into heaven, sat Him on His right hand and He inherited not only a better personage than the angels, but a more excellent name than the angels.  He was exalted above the angels...far above the angels.  For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You're My Son, today I've begotten You," the answer is none of them.  To which of the angels did God ever say, "I'll be a Father to Him, He'll be a Son to Me."  The answer is none of them.  And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, when Jesus was born, He said, "Let all the angels of God worship Him."  He's higher than the angels.  None of them is the Son of God in the sense that Christ is.  None of them is called to be worshiped.  They are called to worship the Son.

  But of the Son, verse 8, He says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His Kingdom.  Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions."  He is eternal God.  He is called God forever and ever.  He is righteous God.  And He is anointed above His companions, the angels.  And which of them could compete with one of whom it is said, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth?"  He's the creator God.  "And the heavens are the work of Thy hands."  John says that.  Without Him was not anything made that was made.  Paul says it in Romans 11:36, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." Christ is the one who made the heavens.  They will perish but you remain.  They all will become old as a garment and as a mantle Thou will roll them up, as a garment they will also be changed but Thou art the same and Thy years will not come to an end.  He is the eternal creator, sustainer God.

  To which of the angels did He ever say, "Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet?"  .  He didn't say it to an angel, He said it to Christ.  Christ is beyond the angels, above the angels, superior to the angels.  They are simply ministering spirits who serve those who inherit salvation.  Angels serve men who are redeemed, men and angels worship the Lord Jesus Christ who is exalted.  The writer of Hebrews sums it up.  He is the exalted Christ, lifted far above any creation, angelic or human.  That is the thrilling central truth of Christianity.  Jesus Christ is Lord as I told you last week is the main thought in this entire passage noted there in verse 11.  Jesus Christ is Lord.  And it is not a full understanding of the gospel unless you can comprehend that He is Lord, unless you confess that He is Lord and affirm that with your heart and mouth.  That is Christianity.

  The exaltation of Christ brings about very essential elements.  Because He is exalted we have the assurance that redemption is complete.  Because He is exalted we have the assurance that the hope of heaven is secure for He is our anchor within the veil wherein our hope is anchored.  Because Jesus Christ is exalted we have the assurance that there is ongoing forgiveness for those for whom He intercedes.  It is an incomplete gospel that stops in the humiliation.  He must be seen as the resurrected ascended coronated and interceding exalted Christ. And we have made so much about grace and rightfully so, but we have left it without a balance.  We have made salvation so much an act of grace that we talk about it as receiving a gift.  Jesus died for you, receive the gift He offered.  There's more than that.  It is more than a humiliated Jesus who died for you and offers you a gift, it is a coronated Jesus who calls for you to bow the knee in submission.  Both are essential.  This is our faith. We have to go all the way through verse 11, people, in proclaiming Jesus Christ.  Not just a humiliated Christ, an exalted Christ who is Lord.  And I think that preaching half of that message has produced tragic results.  People who believe that Jesus is just a humbled person who died to give them a free gift and they have no sense of the allegiance to His sovereign lordship.

  That means that if you're a believer you're stamped with the name God.  You're stamped secondly, heaven.  You're stamped thirdly with...what's Christ's new name?  Lord.  What does that mean?  That's your brand, folks.  And your brand indicates who you belong to.  Isn't that wonderful?  You belong to God.  You belong to heaven.  You belong to the Lord.  And some day His name, Lord, will be expanded, Revelation 19, to become King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's the name given to Him in exaltation.  The source of His exaltation is God, the name of His exaltation is Lord.

  The third response to His exaltation, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  That's the response: worship.  The source, God.  The name, Lord.  The response, worship.  He is given the name which is above every name in order that or with the result that at the name of Jesus every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ is Lord.  The purpose of Him being given that name was to put Him in authority and cause everyone to bow to that authority.  The response to His exaltation is our worship.  We're to worship Him and first of all that means that at the name of Jesus which is the name Lord we are to bow our knees.  All must submit to His lordship...they must, they will...either by choice or by force, every knee will bow.

  He was exalted and given a name for the purpose that every knee will bow. Some by God's grace have been enabled to bow by choice and others will bow by force.  That phrase "every knee should bow," and then in verse 11, "every tongue should confess," those two phrases are taken from Isaiah 45:23, one of the great Old Testament texts which most strongly emphasizes the sole authority and sovereignty of God.  It's the name Lord not the name Jesus that is the name above every name because of the context of Isaiah 45.  He says here, I'm giving Him a name, the name of Jesus which is above every name, the name of Jesus which should bring every knee to bow.  Isaiah 45 is directly speaking of the sovereign majesty of the Lord God.  Isaiah 45:21 "There is no God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior, there is none except Me, turn to Me, be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God, there is no other, I have sworn by Myself."  In other words, I don't swear by any higher authority, there isn't any.  "The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, everything I say is righteous and everything I say happens."  Then He says, "To Me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance and they will say, Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength."  You see, Isaiah is speaking about lordship and sovereignty and majesty.

  Isaiah 46:5, "To whom will you liken Me, God says, and make Me equal and compare Me that we should be alike?  Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on a scale, hire a goldsmith and make it into a God?  Are you going to liken Me to an idol?  They lift it on the shoulder and carry it, they set it in its place and it stands there, it doesn't move from its place.  The one may cry to it, it can't answer, it can't deliver him from his distress.  Are you going to liken Me to that?  Remember this and be assured, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things long past, I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all My good pleasure."

  Isaiah 45-46 is clearly saying God is Lord and God is sovereign,  in charge and rules.  Paul is saying that at the name of Jesus which is Lord, the same response, every knee bows, every tongue confesses Jesus Christ is Lord.  That's the name He bears in exaltation. That's why we know Him as the Lord Jesus, the name of His exaltation and the name of His humiliation.  But we must know both.  You don't just receive Jesus, you receive the Lord Jesus.  You don't just take a gift from a humiliated Savior, you bow the knee to a coronated and majestic sovereign God.

  The whole intelligent universe is called to worship Him.  Three categories, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  By "those who are in heaven,"  he means angels and the redeemed believers...their spirits are there.  Their resurrected bodies are still in the graves yet awaiting the resurrection day when the Lord Jesus returns but their spirits are there now.  So those who are in heaven already are acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord.  They are bowing the knee, worshiping and confessing His lordship.  It's the holy angels, the elect angels, the unfallen angels, seraphim, cherubim, myriads and myriads, the murian and murian to use the Greek term, ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels who worship God in heaven.  And then it's the saints.  It's the saints, not the saints militant but the saints triumphant.  It's the saints who are already in the presence of Christ.  Hebrews 12:23, "The general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, the spirits of righteous men made perfect."  Throughout all of their time since they've been in heaven they've been doing it...the angels nonstop and the redeemed non-stop have been worshiping the Lord of glory.

  In Revelation 4:2, John has a glimpse into heaven and sees a throne, he sees one sitting on the throne who is God in a majestic picture of the throne in verse 3. Then around the throne 24 elders, lightning and flashing and sounds and peals of thunder, lamps burning indicating the presence of the Spirit of God, a sea of glass crystal and all of this.  Then he comes down to verse 8, the four living creatures, no doubt referring to significant angels, the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings and so forth.  And they're crying out, look at this, day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come."  That is unending eternal non-stop angelic worship of the exalted God.

  The living creatures are giving glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever.  That's the angels.  And they are representative of the angelic hosts.  Then it says in verse 10 the 24 elders, most likely representative of redeemed men.  They fall down before Him who sits on the throne and they worship Him who lives forever and ever and they cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy art Thou, O our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou didst create all things and because of Thy will they existed and were created.  In other words, You're the Lord.  You're sovereign.  You're in charge.  So in heaven the angles and the spirits of just men made perfect, the firstborn, the assembly already in the presence of God are confessing Jesus as Lord, are bowing the knee in worship to Him.  Magnificent...absolutely magnificent picture.  The angels and the redeemed are worshiping Him.

  Not only of those in heaven but he says also of those on earth.  We bow our knee and every person on this earth today will bow the knee.  We bow the knee by God's wonderful grace and submission to Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We are part of the "on earth" group, men and women who bow the knee to Christ, who confess Jesus as Lord.  We're of those who will follow the pattern of Romans 10:9-10 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead.  Because it's Jesus as Lord because God raised Him, that's the exaltation, step one.  We believe that.  Because we believe that and have submitted to His lordship, we then bow our knees and we confess Jesus Christ as Lord as those representative of the on earth group.

  The rest of the people on this earth will also bow the knee to Jesus Christ. The day will come when He comes back to this earth and they will bow the knee by compulsion.  They will have no choice.  2 Thessalonians 1:7. "When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, He will deal out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."  They'll bow the knee all right, every human being in the earth will bow the knee when Jesus comes.  Some will bow in homage, adoring love and worship like we have. Some will bow in terror and fear and horror to enter into eternal punishment and damnation.  But every one on this earth will bow.

  When He comes back to subdue the earth, He will destroy the wicked from off the earth and cast them into hell and establish His Kingdom.  And take into that Kingdom His own people.  We are the sheep of Matthew 25.  He takes us in to the Kingdom. The goats, they will bow to His lordship, too.  They will succumb to His lordship, too, but they will be destroyed.  The sheep will be taken into the Kingdom. The goats will be cast out.  Where will they go?  He says in Matthew 25:41, "Depart from Me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." 

  That brings us to the third level...under the earth, the place of eternal punishment we know as hell.  It is occupied by damned demons and damned men.  Jesus Christ now is receiving unhindered homage from the elect and holy angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, the redeemed saints in His presence.  He is now receiving homage on this earth from the saints who love Him and believe in Him and by grace have been saved.  He some day will come to the earth and He will demand by compulsion the homage of the unbelieving world.  They will bow the knee to Him and they will confess Him as Lord without any option.  And then He will cast them, says Matthew 25:41, into the place prepared for the eternal punishment and incarceration of the devil and his fallen angels.  The under the earth category will be occupied by damned demons and damned men who will also bear the lordship of Christ in unending expression of His wrath forever and ever and ever.

  Even when He died on the cross, 1 Peter 3:18-22 says, that His body was on the cross and in the grave but His Spirit descended into prison where the demons are bound and He proclaimed in that pit where demons are bound in punishment His triumph over them.  He is Lord and He will be Lord forever and ever and ever and He will subdue the kingdoms of this earth as Psalm 2 says, God will give Him the nations of the world as His inheritance.  There will be some who will come willingly...the rest He will break with a rod of iron, it says in Psalm 2.  He will rule one way or another, by choice, by force.

  We're headed to the day when Jesus is supreme ruler of the universe.  He already sits in that seat but He is not yet brought the universe under His full authority, because this is the day of grace in which He calls to men and women to acknowledge Him by choice rather than face Him as Lord by force.  But all created beings will bow the knee and confess in whatever language they confess that Jesus is Lord.  This is the salvation confession of the soul.  Yes, I receive a gift from a humiliated Christ who died in my place, I also bow my knee and confess an exalted Christ as Lord...sovereign.

  The source of His exaltation is God.  The title of His exaltation is Lord.  The response to His exaltation is worship.  And finally, the purpose of His exaltation is glory.  "To the glory of God the Father."  In Isaiah 45, God says I am God there is no other.  I am God, there's no one like Me.  Who you going to compare Me to?  I don't ask anybody's counsel.  I don't seek anybody's advice.  I don't look for information from anybody, I do exactly what I want to do. I accomplish all My purposes and all My ends come to pass.  I am God and I am God alone.

  Every knee is bowing to the one who is called Lord.  And you might assume here that when every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ is Lord it is to the irritation, embarrassment or to the blasphemy of God the Father.  Isn't this a competing deity?  Therein is the mystery,  that when the Son is glorified the Father is glorified.  Perfect glory to the Son is perfect glory given to the Father.  He who honors the Son honors the Father.  He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, John 5:23.  That's the mystery of the trinity.  That's the majesty of it that God is glorified when the Son is glorified, that God is glorified when His Son is exalted.  That's why the Father looks down on the Son and said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him."  That's why when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord you not only exalt the Son, you exalt the Father.  He is not calling on us to worship God through Jesus, He's calling on us to worship Jesus as God.  And that doesn't compete with God the Father, it gives Him glory.  That is the mystery of the trinity.  God is exalted in what He accomplished in Christ.  Because they are one there's no competition.  There's no embarrassment.  There's no blasphemy with this.

  Romans 9:5, "Christ according to the flesh who is over all...all right, Christ is over all...God blessed forever."  When Christ became the sovereign of the universe God blessed Him forever.  No competition there.  1 Corinthians 15:25-28 says Christ will subdue everything in the universe.  When He has it all subdued and He is ruler over all of it, He'll dissolve it into the rule of the Father.  They're one and the same.  God is glorified in anything that glorifies the Son.  God is glorified in anything that lifts up or exalts the Son. We read the testimony of Jesus Himself in John 13:31, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him.  If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself."  It's just inextricable.

  The purpose of the exaltation of Christ is the glory of God.  Isn't that the way it is when we glorify Christ for what He did, we also glorify God who did it in Him?  When you say Jesus Christ is Lord, you're not displacing,  dishonoring, rivaling, blaspheming, ridiculing or embarrassing God.  You're not pulling God down, you're exalting, glorifying God.  That's the gospel.  It's the gospel of humiliation and exaltation.  Jesus Christ is Lord.  When you present the gospel you must call people to bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  

  What is the issue of Philippians 2:1-11?  Paul says the path to unity is through humility.  Doing nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind.  He says, "If you need an illustration of humility, here's Christ who humbled Himself and was exalted by God."  He wants us to know that the same God who exalted a humbled Christ will exalt a humbled believer.  James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He'll exalt you."  This marvelous truth about Christ, this tremendous soteriology, this great treatment of the doctrine of salvation is but an illustration of the need for humility.  One of the compelling things for you to seek humbleness in the same way Christ sought it is that you know on the other side of your humiliation comes the exaltation of God the Father.  He who exalted His Son will exalt you.  We need unity in the church, beloved, you know that.  We want to have that unity that maintains the same love, that has one soul that is intent on one purpose.  The only way it will happen is through humility.  The example of humility is Jesus Christ and the compelling thing that pulls us to humble ourselves is that if we humble ourselves God will lift us up.  If you lift yourself up, God will push you down.  If you push yourself down, God will lift you up.

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