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[0:00] This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. Open your Bible with me, if you would please, to Philippians chapter 2.

[0:21] As we continue in our study through this New Testament letter known to us as Philippians, and more specifically, these last couple of weeks in verses 5 to 11, as we look at this incredible passage about the Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:42] Look at it again with me, it's where we began last week, verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[1:12] Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[1:33] As we look at the person and the work and the nature of Jesus, we're looking at four specific terms that we get from this passage.

[1:44] We looked at two last week, we will look at two more this week. But as a review from last week, the first thing I asked you to note was the word eternality. Eternality, that Jesus has always existed.

[1:58] He is not created, he has always existed. The text tells us that he was in the very, verse 6, in the form of God. I mentioned last week, there are a couple of different words for our English word form that can be used in the Greek language.

[2:15] You have morphe and schema. Morphe referring to that which is the essential nature, the essential essence of something.

[2:26] Schema referring to that outer appearance that can change. So, the example I gave you last week that's quite common is that your morphe is that you are a human being.

[2:37] That's who you are. That's your core essence. You're a human being. But your schema, your outer appearance changes. You can go from a baby to a toddler to a teenager to an adult.

[2:52] Your look, your appearance changes. That's the schema. The morphe, the form of the essence of who we are, is that which is essential to our nature.

[3:04] Jesus is the very form, morphe of God. His essential nature is he is God, which means he has no beginning and no end, which is why we start with the word eternality.

[3:18] When Jesus becomes a man, he does not cease to be God. And so, if you weren't with us last week, you might go back and listen to the message from last week because understanding the nature of who Jesus is and avoiding some of the errors and doctrine that have existed and continue to persist even to this day is something we want to be very clear and very precise on.

[3:46] Jesus never ceased to be God. He is eternal. His essence, his being is that he is God. He can never not be God.

[3:58] The second word we looked at was the word incarnation. incarnation. This coming from the phrase that Jesus emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant.

[4:10] He emptied himself. We spent a lot of time last week looking at what that does not mean and what it does mean. He did not give up his deity. He didn't empty himself of his deity.

[4:23] He didn't empty himself of his divine nature. He didn't empty himself of his attributes. He can't stop being who in essence he is.

[4:34] What he did in the incarnation is he emptied himself by the addition of a human nature. The best way to understand the emptying of Jesus is to see the emptying as an addition.

[4:51] He took on this human nature. He took on the form of a servant. Morphe, same word used again. 2 Corinthians 8, 9.

[5:02] He was rich, but for your sake became poor. It is incarnation. Leaving the glories of heaven. Taking on human flesh. He becomes what he wasn't without ceasing to be what he was.

[5:19] Always God. That's what he was.

[5:31] He still is. And he takes on a new nature, a human nature at the incarnation. incarnation. Let's pick it up there.

[5:42] Still thinking about this second term of the incarnation. When you look back in church history, in 451, the Council of Chalcedon is very helpful for us to think of that.

[5:55] They put in a very clear way what the Bible's teaching is on the nature of Christ. And that Council in 451 described the nature of Christ with these four terms.

[6:11] That his nature exists without confusion. Meaning there are two natures. A human nature and a divine nature. They don't dissolve into a third nature.

[6:23] They are without confusion. Second, they are without change. The human nature doesn't change into a divine nature. Divine nature doesn't change into human nature.

[6:36] It is without division. Meaning the two natures don't constitute two persons in Christ. You have one person with two natures.

[6:49] And without separation. The two natures remain inseparably united in one person. And what does that mean for us?

[7:01] It means that His divine nature is not weary. Though in His human nature He will sleep. His divine nature will have no need.

[7:13] Though in His human nature He will need daily nourishment just like we do. He never stopped being God. He added a human nature and therefore emptied Himself or as some translations say nullified Himself.

[7:32] He emptied by adding. He emptied Himself by adding a human nature. I was so encouraged even last Sunday right after church and in the afternoon and after evening service and in conversation this week just with all the conversation that was a part of our church congregation all week long as people were trying to better understand the person of Christ and coming up with ways to explain to their children to make sure that we are as biblical as we can be.

[8:09] There is nothing better we can do than strive to in truth know who Christ is. We speak of this union of two natures divine nature, human nature in the one person Jesus.

[8:26] We speak of this what we call the hypostatic union. The hypostatic union. One person with a distinct human nature and divine nature.

[8:39] So let's pick up from here. He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of man. It means that when people saw Jesus when they interacted with Him they were interacting with someone who in every sense is truly human.

[8:59] fully man, truly man, no sin nature, truly man just like us without a sin nature. Jesus in the incarnation emptied Himself by adding a human nature.

[9:20] Now this is critically important because we are sinners. And because of our sin we have the wrath of God against us.

[9:35] The single most important thing about your life is what happens with your sin.

[9:45] If you die apart from forgiveness from the Lord you will stand in front of the Lord guilty of your sin.

[9:58] But the whole message of the gospel and the message of the cross is that Jesus died in our place to pay for our sin. Now how is He able to do that?

[10:10] He's able to do that because He is our perfect representative to be our representative He has to be one of us. This is why the incarnation is so important.

[10:24] This is why what we're laboring these two weeks to study and to learn isn't just theological conversation up there somewhere this gets right down into the very heart of the most important part of our life.

[10:39] Do you understand that Jesus Christ the Son of God became man took on flesh so that He could be our perfect representative so that He could die on the cross so that those who believe in Him would find forgiveness.

[11:01] It is no stretch to say that understanding who Christ is and what He has done is the most important truth you can know.

[11:13] So children, teenagers, adults, this is not just theological conversation. This gets to the heart of the most important thing about you.

[11:28] Are you trusting today in the work of Jesus Christ who took on flesh to be your substitute on the cross that you would by His righteousness find salvation for your soul.

[11:47] There's a third word I want you to write down. It's the word propitiation. Just for fun children, you can ask your dad how to spell that, alright?

[11:59] Watch him squirm just a bit. Propitiation. Propitiation. It's a big word, not a word we use a lot, but it's an important word. You need to know what it means. You don't have to know how to spell it, but you need to know what it means.

[12:13] It means Jesus paid our price. Jesus paid our price. Let's do a little work here together. Go to verse 8.

[12:25] And being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

[12:39] Now, just to help connect this week with last week, in verse 6, he was in the form of God. That's morphe.

[12:50] That's the essential nature. In verse 7, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. That's morphe. verse 8, being found in human form.

[13:05] This comes from the word schema. We're talking about that outer appearance. Here's the distinction that's being made. It means that Jesus didn't just seem to be a human.

[13:19] He was a human. It wasn't an illusion. He was a real person. Real flesh. Real bones. human beings. And the unique distinction that's being made here is that while he was truly a human, he was more than that.

[13:43] When you look at me, you are seeing in me my morphe, my essential nature as a human being. That's who I am. That's all that I am.

[13:53] I'm a soul. I've been given a body. I'm a human being by nature. When they looked at Jesus, what the form you saw was real.

[14:05] It was tangible. You could touch his flesh. It was real. It wasn't an illusion. But, there was more to him than just a man because he is the God-man.

[14:21] man. Fully, truly man, but also fully, truly God. We don't see that distinction in our English as well because all of those terms are translated as form.

[14:38] that distinction, that nuance is helpful for us to know. Isaiah 53, 3, speaking prophetically of Jesus, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces.

[14:57] He was despised and we esteemed him not. When people saw Jesus of Nazareth, they were seeing a real man.

[15:08] You could touch him. He was real. He wasn't a ghost. He was a real man. And yet, most people would see him and think nothing of him.

[15:19] though he was divine, most did not recognize it. That's what's being communicated in that single phrase.

[15:31] Found in human form, he humbled himself. I want you to make this connection in your mind here in verse 8. He humbled himself with the teaching in verse 7 that he emptied himself.

[15:47] He emptied himself. We say he emptied by addition. He emptied himself by adding a human nature and he emptied himself, verse 7, as he, verse 8, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

[16:13] Why is it important that Jesus died? God. Because the punishment for our sin, he has to take on himself. We are reading now about the central heart of the gospel message.

[16:34] Why do we do Awana? Why do we do Sunday school? Why do we do disciple now weekend? Why do we have adult classes? Why do we gather here on Sundays and Wednesdays?

[16:47] Why do we do everything we do? This is no stretch. Everything our church does, we do to help people understand that Jesus died for us.

[17:04] Everything we do. This is the heart of our church. This is the heart of every true biblical church that we exist to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel that Jesus Christ died for us.

[17:23] And he had perfect obedience. Not just perfect obedience in his death, he had perfect obedience in his life. Jesus, who is our representative, lives the life you and I could not live.

[17:41] All throughout Bible history, you have good and faithful people, but they fell, they sinned. All the heroes in the Bible, though they may have been used by the Lord through many great things, they sinned.

[17:59] Abraham sinned. David sinned. The prophets were sinners. The disciples were sinners. Jesus Christ comes and lives a perfect life, because if he does not live a perfect life, he cannot satisfy the wrath of God.

[18:22] So that big word, propitiation, matters. Moms and dads, help your little children, four, five, six, help them understand what it means that Jesus on the cross is paying for our sin.

[18:45] We're not saved because we come to church. We're not saved because we read the Bible. We're not saved because we obey mom and dad.

[18:55] Our only hope of salvation is that we believe in the work of Jesus Christ, and we're saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

[19:08] Not ourselves. Jesus is our propitiation. Jesus satisfies the wrath of God.

[19:19] And that can only happen because Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. God would, like every parent in this room, like every grandparent in this room, I would die in a moment for my wife, for my family, for my grandkids, in a moment I would do that just like you would do for yours.

[19:51] sinners. And while by doing that, I may could extend their life for a time, my willingness to die for them could never change their sinful condition.

[20:07] Because I myself am a sinner. The difference when Jesus takes on flesh and dies for us is we have a man, the Lord Jesus Christ who is truly man like us, but He is perfect.

[20:26] He is sinless. He is our substitute, but He is our perfect substitute which allows Him to take our place and satisfy the wrath of God.

[20:42] He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Look at this next qualifying phrase. Even death on a cross.

[20:56] To die on the cross was a violent, gruesome, degrading, cruel way to die. Jesus would not die simply in some peaceful way.

[21:14] Jesus isn't dying in His sleep. He's dying, it says, even death on a cross.

[21:27] Crucifixion. This death invented by the Persians, perfected by the Romans, was done in a way that provided a delayed death with maximum pain and maximum humiliation.

[21:46] You could put someone to death much more quickly than crucifixion. The goal was not speed. The goal was torture and humiliation.

[21:59] The goal was torture. Notice what the Scripture says here. obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[22:13] And everybody in that day, when you talked about death on a cross, understood you were talking about maximum humiliation.

[22:29] Which is why verse 8 begins, found in human form, He humbled Himself. when it says He died on the cross, this isn't talking about location.

[22:45] It's not saying He died. He died in the house? Did He die in the street? Did He die in a hospital? Oh no, He died on the cross. Oh yeah, over there on the cross. It's not talking about location of where He died.

[22:58] It's talking about how He died. It's talking about the humiliation destruction of His death. Or as one theologian put it, the cross is the bottom rung in the ladder from the throne of heaven.

[23:18] It's as low as you can go. And yet, the torture of the cross is not ultimately about nails and spears and spikes and thorns.

[23:38] It's the bearing of our sin. Isaiah 53, 5, He was pierced for our transgressions.

[23:49] He was crushed for our iniquities. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[24:05] Jesus emptied Himself by adding a human nature to be one of us to die in our place and to suffer that He would pay for our sin.

[24:33] Now, I want to keep the whole context of chapter 2 in front of you. Remember verses 1 to 4 is talking about the unity that the body of Christ experiences.

[24:48] It's talking about the humility that we are to have. Verse 4, we are to look not to our own interest, but to the interest of others. Then, in verse 5, Paul gives us the example of the suffering of Jesus as how we, verse 5, are to have this mind in us.

[25:13] How are we to think? We're to think like Jesus. We're to be humble. obedient like Jesus in order that we would experience the unity that we should have as Christians.

[25:33] So, the next time you think that some act of service is beneath you, remember Jesus.

[25:45] Jesus. The next time you think you didn't get enough credit or recognition for what you did, remember the suffering of Jesus.

[25:59] The next time you think that you've paid your dues and you've outgrown having to serve other people, remember Jesus.

[26:11] Jesus. Jesus. The next time you're tempted to be selfish, remember Jesus. Praise God, He is far more than just our example of humility.

[26:30] He is our sin bearer, our burden bearer, our Savior, and our Redeemer. He is more than just our example of humility. But in Philippians 2, His suffering is given to us as an example of humility so that we would live in unity.

[26:51] Our relationships are held together by what we believe about Jesus. So serve your spouse.

[27:09] Serve your family. serve your church. Serve your fellow man. Because Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[27:33] His eternality teaches us that He's always existed. His incarnation teaches us that He emptied Himself. As our propitiation, it teaches us He paid for our sin.

[27:50] And now the glory of the whole passage, there's a fourth term right down the word exaltation. Exaltation. Jesus is glorified.

[28:00] therefore, therefore, so verse 9, is going to give you the effect.

[28:13] Verse 5 to 10 is the cause. Here's what Jesus did. Therefore, because of those facts, verse 9, God has highly exalted Him.

[28:31] The term here is interesting. This term is only found here in the New Testament. It's a compound word. It literally would mean to lift up above. It's a compound word.

[28:43] It means to be super exalted. God has highly exalted! He is super exalted! He has lifted Him up above. The whole point of this word found only here in New Testament is to bring attention to the extreme magnification of Jesus Christ.

[29:07] Therefore, because what Christ endured, God has highly exalted Him. He experienced humiliation and then He was exalted.

[29:22] The Father vindicates the Son. Acts chapter 5 verse 30 says, The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree.

[29:35] Verse 31, God exalted Him at the right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Christ was humiliated and then exalted.

[29:55] And again, this entire passage dealing with the exaltation of Jesus is in context with how you and I are to live. This is why, as I mentioned last week, you don't need to make a distinction between being theological and practical.

[30:13] They're inextricably linked together. In Philippians 2, it's your Christology, the knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, it's your Christology that enables you to know how to think, and it's what you think that determines how you live.

[30:31] So the way you treat each other, verses 1 to 4, is determined by what you know and believe about Jesus. Christ was humbled, therefore, exalted.

[30:50] And while I keep saying Christ is more than our example, He's not less than our example. And in Philippians 2, we're to have this mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, verse 5 says, and the mind in Jesus was to be humbled, and the Father exalts Him.

[31:11] And in this way, He is our exact example, more than that, yes, but our example of how we are to embrace humility, trusting the Lord to exalt us.

[31:30] Where do I get that? James 4, 10, humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

[31:40] 1 Peter 5, 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.

[31:51] We won't be exalted as Christ is exalted because we're not worthy of worship, Christ is, but the point is this, that as we humble ourselves to serve and to obey, our reward will come.

[32:11] You need to believe that. Your reward, Christian, will come. It's hard to serve each other.

[32:24] It's hard to deny yourself. It's hard to continually put the interest of other people above your own. Your reward will come.

[32:37] As you're serving, as you're studying, as you're teaching, as you're expressing generosity, as you're bearing the burden for each other, do that knowing that the Lord will reward you.

[32:50] It will not be in vain. It's hard to be a young mom. The Lord will reward you. It's hard to be a Sunday school teacher and to be at church.

[33:04] Week after week after week and to give hour after hour in studying and service. The Lord will reward you. It can be hard to be financially generous to others to help their needs and to faithfully worship the Lord by giving through the local church.

[33:23] There's other things you could do with that money. The Lord will reward you. It's hard sometimes to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus.

[33:36] But here's the pattern that we see in Scripture. Those who are humbled and obedient will be rewarded. rewarded. This is hard for our adults.

[33:52] This is hard for our teenagers. Our teenagers inundated in a world telling them that to be valued they need to have the stuff of the world and frankly if a life of following Christ may be a life of pain and persecution why do we endure that?

[34:10] Because we will be rewarded. So as we immerse ourselves in this glorious Christology don't separate it from its context of it explaining to us verse 3 how we can do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility we count others more significant than ourselves.

[34:42] How would we learn how to do that? By looking to Jesus. your Christology is directly reflected by the way you treat your spouse.

[35:00] Your Christology is directly impacted in everything of your life.

[35:11] The way you treat your parents the way you treat your boss the way you treat your coworkers everything about us is affected by our view of Jesus Christ.

[35:25] If we are going to live in humility verse 3 and not selfish ambition we need to look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

[35:42] we as a church will experience true unity as long as we joyfully embrace true humility and in Philippians 2 the way that we do that is to look to Jesus.

[35:59] Therefore God verse 9 again therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

[36:13] The definite article the is in the original he has bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

[36:26] What's the name? We're not talking about just the name Jesus that was a common name in his day. We're talking about the name Lord. Jesus is the Lord.

[36:42] Christ defeats sin and hell and the grave. His death and resurrection give evidence that the sin payment has been paid in full. He is exalted as the God man truly God truly man son of God son of man.

[37:02] Romans 14 verse 9 for to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

[37:16] Jesus is Lord. That's who he is. Verse 10 gives another conclusion so that just like verse 9 therefore what happened verses 5 to 8 leads us to the reality of verse 9 verse 9 reality leads us to the conclusion of verse 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow Jesus is Lord he is exalted as Lord and look what's going to happen in his exaltation every knee will bow bow joy read Isaiah 45 earlier in the service that's the background from where this statement in Philippians 2 comes from that our God will be recognized as the true

[38:22] Lord of all lords so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow look how complete this is in heaven and on earth and under the earth the day is coming when every person every single one of us every created being made in the image of God that is to say every human being will fall before Jesus Christ and acknowledge Jesus is Lord every knee every tongue so when you look on the news and you see people mocking the things of God and you say I can't believe they're getting by with that know this they are not getting by with it and the day will come when the tongue they used to curse

[39:28] God will confess that Jesus is the Lord of all Lords but let's be very very clear here we're not talking about universal salvation we're talking about universal acknowledgement!

[39:45] of who Jesus is massive difference this text is not in any way saying that everybody will be saved that everybody is going to heaven if you read that into this you've missed the entire teaching of the gospel this is not saying there's universal salvation it is saying the day will come where there will be universal acknowledgement and affirmation that yes Jesus is Lord of all in other words even those who have rejected Christ will look at the one who is their judge and acknowledge you are the Lord there will be no debate none an unbeliever stands before the Lord there is no discussion there is no argumentation there is no doubt they will know we rejected the only savior who exists at the name of

[41:04] Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord every person will confess Jesus Christ is Lord for those who have known him and were saved by his grace it will be a confession of worship and love and adoration for those who rejected the gospel and stand in his presence guilty and condemned it will be a confession filled with terror and horror but every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord and all of this verse 11 look at your very last phrase is done to the glory of

[42:06] God the Father let me help you connect the theology with the practical again this text is rich in Christology the study of the doctrine of Christ verse 10 and 11 gives us some eschatology study of the last things your Christology and your eschatology that theology part let me show you how practical it is it reminds us that everything we do is to be done to the glory of God how practical does the Bible get on that it says whether you eat or drink do all things to the glory of God you want practical application today here's as practical as the

[43:10] Bible can possibly make it when you eat the most normal common routine thing you do when you eat and drink connect in your mind this is about the glory of God!

[43:22] God when you teach when you sell insurance when you coach basketball when you're raising your kids when you're studying for your Sunday school lesson when you're running your business when you're paying bills when you're mowing the lawn when you're doing laundry everything you do is to be done to the glory of God there's not one part of your day that you should live apart from thinking of the beauty and wonder that you a sinner have been saved by grace and called a friend of God and how could we how could any people any church let division slip in and people live in arrogant conceit if they're thinking like that you'll never do anything greater than live for the glory of

[44:45] God the one who has saved you and rightly deserves your unending worship and the beauty of the gospel is that we who were enemies have been brought near forgiven redeemed and that we who were once his enemy by grace today is called his friend you'll get nothing more practical in your life than a clear vision of who Jesus is and if your knee is going to bow and if your tongue is going to confess why not this day confess those very truths that

[45:58] Jesus Christ is Lord that you this moment would be saved if you don't know Christ is your savior today this gospel message is the greatest news you'll ever hear that Jesus Christ died was raised to life and that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life so if you're five years old today or fifteen years old today or eighty five years old today there's just one gospel because there's just one Lord and that gospel is that we are sinners and judgment awaits but our

[47:03] God has made a way in sending his only son who took on flesh lived a perfect life died on the cross for us was buried and raised back to life and his righteousness is given to all who believe in him would you even this day in your heart confess Jesus Christ as Lord and ask him to forgive you in this day is the day you would find everlasting life to the glory of God the Father Lord your word is rich for our souls today and we pray through the work of your spirit that we would find understanding that you would grant us belief and obedience that we would never cease to be amazed by the truth that though once your enemy in

[48:14]  Christ you have made us your friend in the name of Jesus we pray amen on an one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one fathers one fathers one one one fathers one one one one one one from one one one one