Incarnation: The Mystery of Christmas: Lord of All [Philippians 2:9-11]

Good morning on this Christmas day! How glorious it is to worship our Lord on this day… Amen. Turn with me to Philippians 2:5-11. We come to the end of our Christmas series on the incarnation. Let’s look at the whole text again before finishing looking at the last three verses.

Stand for the reading of the word. Let’s all read it together

What I want us to do is I want us to think about those last three verses. “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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 (Phil. 2:9–11).

Jesus is Lord …

That’s where I want us to focus. This proclamation that Jesus is Lord was at the central core of the early church. In the first Christian sermon ever preached, Acts 2:36, Peter stands up and says, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ”, and throughout the rest of the New Testament this proclamation is central over and over and over again, Jesus is proclaimed as Lord. About 750 different times in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as Lord.

So I want us to unpack what that means, because I think it is at the heart of the incarnation. The fact that this baby, born in a manger, would one day be exalted as the Lord over everything, what does that mean?

Even the word “Lord”, I think, kind of loses its meaning, even in our Christian vocabularies. What does it mean for Jesus to be Lord? I don’t want that to be a lifeless word for us, a lifeless title for Christ. What does it mean for him to be a Lord, especially as we celebrate Christmas?

I want you to see four facets of His lordship that unfold here in Philippians 2:9–11, as well as the rest of the testimony of Scripture.

Jesus reigns in the utmost position

First of all, for Jesus to be Lord, basically means, that He reigns in the utmost position. Or rules in the highest position. “Therefore God exalted Him.” Some of your translations might say, ‘God highly exalted him.’

This phrase in the New Testament, in the original language, the whenever it is used throughout the whole New Testament, it literally means, ‘super exalted Him,’ or ‘super imminently exalted Him.’ There is an emphasis on the fact that He was highly exalted, exalted to the utmost position and gave Him a name above every name.

Now I want us to think about this. For Jesus to be highly exalted, exalted to the highest place, did that mean that He was greater after the incarnation than He was before He came to the earth? That after He died on the cross, rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven … Does that mean He was greater then He was before He came to become a man? Well obviously He was not greater in the sense that He is fully God before and He is fully God after. So the essence of who Jesus is has not changed.

What has changed? What does Jesus have now in heaven that He did not have before He came to the earth? The answer is clear based on what we have studied the last three weeks. It’s His humanity. He became a man, and He was resurrected as a man, and He ascended as a man. His humanity is with Him forever. He is fully God and fully man through all of eternity, through the rest of eternity. So He is exalted.

So that leads us to see exactly what we have seen the last few weeks when talking about when Christ humbled Himself and became a man. The picture is, when we get to Philippians 2:9, He is now gone from the humiliation of man that we have talked about in the last few weeks. He has gone from the humiliation of man to the honor of God, to the exaltation of God. He has gone from the humiliation of man to the honor of God.

Now I want you to put yourself in the mind of a Jewish person in Philippi who is reading this, somebody who is very familiar with the Old Testament. You know that throughout the Old Testament as a Jewish person, the name that God has revealed Himself as, is the Lord, Yahweh, the I AM. That’s the name of God. All the majesty, grandeur, infinite greatness of God, is summed up in that name. He is the Lord.

When you get, though, to the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek word that is used to describe the Lord, that title for God, is the same word that’s being used here in Philippians 2:11. What that means is, that the New Testament is equating Jesus with the Lord God of the Old Testament.

Jesus, highly exalted, as the Lord, just as we see God exalted as the Lord all over the Old Testament, now we’re seeing Jesus exalted as Lord. What that means is all the praise that belongs to the most-high God in the Old Testament, now belongs to Jesus, according to Philippians 2:11.

Let me give you a few examples in the OT. Look at Psalm 83. Look at verse 18. Psalm 83, “Let all know that you, whose name is the Lord”—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth” (Ps. 83:18).

In Psalm 97:5-9 it says, “The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before”—who? The LORD—“before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.... For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all” (Ps. 97:5–9).

The picture we’re seeing here is that the Lord is in a class by Himself. Now remember, we’re equating Jesus with Him, with the Lord here. That, Jesus is in a class by Himself, He is the incomparable one, He is exalted far above all, all bow down to Him, He is exalted.

Psalm 103:19-22, says, “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul” (Ps. 103:19–22).

I could go on and on all throughout the OT but you get the picture when we hear the title Lord it is referring to the One with all authority over everything.

He is exalted above all powers in heaven and on earth, all nations and all rulers on the earth. He is zealous for His name, and all people, all nations bow down to Him. That’s what’s pictured when we hear the word ‘Lord.’

So when you get to Luke 2, and the angelic host comes, and says—you know the passage, you read it over Christmas—‘today is born to you in the city of David,’ who? what’s His name? His name is “Christ the Lord”, Luke 2:11. Get the magnitude of that proclamation!

The baby born in this manger is the Lord of all creation! He is the Lord of the heavens! He is the Lord over the nations! He is the Lord of all the heavenly beings! He is the Lord over everything, everywhere! He is exalted above all gods! He is therefore the object of all of our worship! He is therefore worthy of all of our praise! He is Christ the Lord!

This is an incredible picture, and we’ve got to get a hold of it at Christmas. From the humiliation of man to the honor of God.

Don’t miss the context though. The picture is not just of One who is the object of all of our worship. This is Paul in Philippians 2, and he is writing to a group of believers that were engrossed in themselves, and they began to take advantage of each other for their own sake.

They had began living to exalt themselves, to assert themselves. He starts off in Philippians 2:3–4, he says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.

Don’t miss it! Not only is Christ the object of our worship, but He is the pattern for our lives. What we’re seeing here in Philippians 2:9–11, is that Christ, yes, has gone through the humiliation to the honor of God, but He is also showing us that the path to success before God is paved with selflessness before man. Let me say that one more time, we’ve got to get a hold of this. The path to success before God is paved through selflessness before man.

Now this goes against everything in the Philippian culture in chapter 2, and it goes against everything in our contemporary culture today.

Everything in our culture is developed, built upon building up yourself, asserting yourself, defending yourself, defending your rights, and in Christ we have sacrificed our rights, we have sacrificed ourselves so that we not will be asserted, but that we will be humiliated so that others might know He is good. That is so foreign to our world.

That’s the pattern throughout Scripture. God’s servants go through selfless humiliation and God exalts them. Philippians 2:9. Who exalted Jesus? God did. God exalted Him. Once He humbled Himself and He gave Himself, God exalted Him.

It’s the same story we see in the book of Genesis with Joseph. He goes through 13 years of suffering and of service, and then God exalts Him.

David, yes he is anointed as king when he is very young in life, but he goes through much suffering before he is given the reign as king. We see him go from suffering humiliation to glorious exaltation.

That’s the story in all of Jesus’ teachings. In the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”—humiliation—“for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”—exaltation.

We see it all throughout Jesus’ teachings. He always talks about, whoever humbles himself will be what? Exalted. In Jesus’ life, in the way He lived, He Himself was baptized, He Himself was tempted, He Himself became like us so that He might be exalted. That’s the picture and it’s the message of Christmas for us today.

We do not live to assert ourselves, to defend ourselves, to defend or exalt our name, we do not live for that. We live to sacrifice our lives, so that the glory of Christ may be known around us. That’s the message of Christmas we need to get a hold of.

Jesus holds unending power

The second facet of the Lordship of Christ, not only does He reign in the utmost position, but second, He holds unending power. He holds unending power. Now, we’ve taken this idea of Lord from the Jewish mindset, now let’s come into a more Greek/Gentile mindset.

Maybe you’re not familiar with the Old Testament, but you are a Gentile and you’re hearing this, you’re not a Jew and you’re hearing this in Philippians 2, that He has exalted Jesus as Lord and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

Well for the Gentiles, this was a word that was used to describe a master or an owner, an owner of slaves was called a “lord.” This is an incredible picture here even when you think about Philippians 2:5–11, He who became and took on the nature of a slave, became the owner of all things. The picture here is One who has absolute power and absolute authority over others. That’s what it means to be Lord, and that’s the picture we’re seeing of Christ, Him being exalted. He has absolute power and authority.

Once He died on the cross and rose from the grave, you get to Matthew 28:18, what does He say? How much authority has been given to Jesus? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus.”

I want you to think about His dominion, His authority on two levels.

First of all, He has the power to save. Philippians 2:9, starts off with that word, “therefore.” It literally means, “that is why,” and it’s referring to everything that has happened in verse 6 through 8, because He became obedient to death, even death on a cross, therefore, that’s why He is now exalted to the highest place. He is given the name above every name. He has the power to save.

He alone is Lord over sin. Who else in all of history can make the claim to be lord over sin? Anyone? Is there anyone in this room who has conquered sin completely? Is there anyone in all of history, any of the greatest religious teachers in the history of the world? Not one of them can claim to be lord over sin.

Let’s take it a step deeper, there’s no one in all of history that can claim to be Lord, not just over sin, but over death itself. Who has conquered death apart from Jesus? Absolutely no one has conquered death apart from Jesus. He alone has the power, the dominion, the authority to save. That is exactly why Hebrews 2:14 tells us that He took on our humanity so that He might destroy him who holds the power of sin and death.

I know that every Christmas, for many families, it’s a painful time, especially when you remember loved ones who have passed away. The pain of death just seems to open up at holidays sometimes, and I want to remind you that in the incarnation we see a picture of the One who is Lord over death. He has all authority over death, therefore, we need not fear death, because of who He is. That is good news at Christmas.

Who else will save you from your sin? Who else will you look to, to give you power over death? Who else could do it? Jesus alone has the power to save.

Not only the power to save, but He alone has the power to rule. He is the owner, He is sovereign, “He is” basically means He is in control over all things, He is sovereign over everything. That’s the picture we’ve got of Jesus here. He is the ruler. Colossians 2:9–10 talks about how He is head. It talks about how all the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and it says He is the head over every power and every authority. So that’s the picture we’ve got. He has the power to save and the power to rule.

Now, I want us to pause here for a second and I want us to think about how we have a dangerous tendency to separate these two. It’s at this point that we come face to face with a couple of things that I hear people say all the time that are far from biblical.

The first thing is when it comes to this idea is, “Well I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, but I have not surrendered to Him as my Lord. Jesus has saved me from my sins, but He is not the Lord of my life every day.” And we separate His power to save from His power to rule.

“I’ll take the power to save, and I’ll bypass the power to rule.” So we pray a prayer and we sign a card, as we say, “I’ve asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins.” Then we live our lives that are far from under the Lordship of Christ, but our lives look just like everyone else in the world, there’s no difference, there’s no fruit of Christ in our lives.

He’s not the Lord of our lives but we call Him our Savior. This is not an option for us biblically. If you look throughout the book of Acts, 92 times you will see Jesus referred to as Lord. Two times you will see Him referred to as Savior. We cannot separate who Jesus is, “I’ll take Him as Savior but I won’t take Him as Lord.” We cannot use Him as our Savior if we refuse Him as our Lord. Let me say that one more time, we cannot use Him as our Savior if we refuse Him as our Lord. He is Lord that is who He is.

So I want to invite you, not to come before Christ this Christmas with any patronizing nonsense, singing about how He is Christ, the Lord of all, if that truth is far from a reality in our lives. God help us not to play games with the Lordship of Christ. This is too important. He is Lord.

The second misconception we often think, some people say, “I’ve decided to make Jesus Lord of my life.” Well, let’s think about that statement in light of what we’re studying here. You’ve decided to make Jesus Lord of you life? Well you didn’t really have a choice in the matter. He is Lord.

We’ve got to see this. He is Lord regardless of what you or I think. You and I don’t have the privilege of redefining who Jesus is, or determining who He is. He is Lord. That is true. The question is not, “Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?” He is Lord of your life. The question is, “Have you submitted your life to His Lordship?” That’s the question.

In the phrases in Philippians 2:9–11, they ask this, “Have you bowed a knee to His Lordship?” Because the truth of Scripture is, one day every single knee will bow. One day, every single tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. The real question is, will you bow now or will you bow when it’s too late?

That’s the decision with which Christmas confronts us. It is the reality on this Christmas day that we have all got to come face to face with.

It’s the question for us all. Have you bowed the knee to His Lordship? Have you bowed your knee to His Lordship?

That is the core question, and it is the core question upon which our eternity is based. What do I mean? Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

That’s the gospel. Bow the knee to His Lordship, confess Him as Lord. That is the picture here, that is the driving stake upon which all of our lives revolve, and upon which all of our eternity is based. Have we bowed a knee to His Lordship?

Because the decision we’ve got is that either we bow the knee today, and the result of that is salvation; if we bow the knee today, if we trust in Christ and call Him Lord, submit to His Lordship in our lives, and our lives come under His Lordship, then we experience the salvation by His grace and by His mercy that is salvation.

The other option is to wait until this life is over, and bow the knee then. If that is the option we take then the result is not salvation, if we bow the knee then, the result is condemnation.

For all who trust in His salvation there is absolutely no condemnation anymore. But for all who don’t come under the Lordship of Christ, then we stand before God soaked in our sins with no one to take the payment of that sin upon them, and so we stand guilty for our sins, and then we experience the condemnation that our sins bring. This is huge friends and I invite you and urge you if you have not bowed to Christ’s Lordship then do so today!

Jesus deserves universal praise

Jesus is Lord. The final two things that that means. Third, He deserves universal praise. We’re going to fly through this, but we’ve got to get the picture. “Every knee will bow.” This is a picture from the Old Testament of worship, adoration, of falling before someone who is worthy of honor and glory and worship, not even being able to stand in the presence, but that you fall on your knees. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess literally means, to declare openly that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now that’s in heaven and on earth and under the earth. What do each of these mean? Well I could take you on a journey and we could examine all of the biblical scholarship of what “in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,” means and the differentiation between the three.

But the conclusion I’ve come to after studying over what everybody has to say, is that it just means everybody. Okay? So, that’s what we’re going to assume at this point. It doesn’t really matter who it’s talking about in heaven or on the earth or under the earth, the point is, all of us fall in there somewhere. In fact, all of everybody falls in there somewhere.

What this means is, every angel, whether it’s in heaven or under the earth, the picture is of angelic beings in all creation who worship Christ and who bow to His Lordship. He deserves universal praise from every angel. Now that means holy angels, and fallen angels. The devil and all his demons bow the knee to the authority of Jesus Christ. He deserves universal praise from every angel.

Not just from every angel, but from every people. From every people whether living or dead, whether in this continent or that continent, all over the world, all throughout history, every person bows the knee, every tongue will confess. He deserves universal praise from every angel, from every people, and from every language every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord!

Jesus fulfills the ultimate purpose

Finally, He fulfills the ultimate purpose. He fulfills the ultimate purpose. Don’t miss this. When you get to Philippians 2, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above every name. Why did God exalt Him? That’s the question I want you to think about. The ultimate purpose, why did God exalt Him?

So that every knee will bow? Well no, go a little further. So that every tongue will confess? No, go a little further. That Jesus Christ is Lord? Well, go a little further, why did God exalt Jesus? He did all this to the glory of, who? God the Father.

God exalted Jesus to bring glory to Himself, that’s the ultimate purpose and the purpose for which Christ came to the earth, died on the cross, rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven, so that God the Father would be exalted to the glory of God the Father. John 1:14, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

That’s what it means for the Word to become flesh. So what we’re seeing here as the ultimate purpose at Christmas, we look back to His revelation of the Father’s glory. That is the picture of Christ. When we think about Christmas, when we think about Christmas, we see the Father’s glory in Christ. We behold His glory, John 1:14, we reflect on His glory, we are captivated by His glory.

John 12, before Jesus is about to head to the cross says, “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”—John 12:28. “I came to bring glory to your name.” John 13:31, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.”

That’s the picture. So at Christmas we look back to the revelation of the Father’s glory in Christ, but that is not where we stop. That’s not the only picture. Yes, we look back to revelation of the Father’s glory in Christ, but at Christmas we also look forward to Christ return in full glory. Wow! We can’t miss this. And we’re going to be diving into that the beginning of next year as we dive into the book of Revelation. I’m excited about that..but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The bottom line and my prayer for us this Christmas is simple.

God, open our eyes that we may see the magnitude of your glory. Open our hearts that we may feel the weight of your grace. God, open our mouths that we may declare the wonder of your gospel today, and tomorrow, and throughout 2023.

Pray

God, we praise you. We praise you for your plan of redemption, that you sent your Son and now have exalted Him to the highest place. So we bow our knees today and we call you Lord. Lord, we long for your return.

We look back on this Christmas day to what you did when you came to us, and we look forward, oh God, to what you will do when you come back.

God, we pray that until that day, that our lives would show the glory of our Lord in everything we do as individuals and as a church so that it would be said of us that you worked among us to the glory of God the Father. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.