The Incarnation: Lord of All

Incarnation: The Mystery of Christmas

As we come to the end of this series, looking at the incarnation, I want us to come face to face with the ultimate decision that the Christmas season confronts us with. It is a decision that is far more serious and far more important than any other decision we will ever make in this life. It is a decision that causes us to come face to face with the reality of Christmas. I want us to see it in Philippians 2:9–11, the last part of this passage that we’ve been studying.

Philippians 2:5–11 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What I want us to do is think about those last three verses.

Jesus is Lord...

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.

What does it mean for Him to be Lord? Especially today as we celebrate His birth.

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.

He reigns in the utmost position

First of all, for Jesus to be Lord, means that He reigns in the utmost position, the highest position. "Therefore God also has highly exalted him."

This phrase in the New Testament, in the original language, the only time 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. He exalted Him in the highest place, in the utmost position, and gave Him a name above every name. We see later the name of Jesus that He is given is Lord.

And think about how Jesus is different today than in eternity past. Think about it. He became a human being over 2000 years ago. Fully God and fully man. How did He go back to heaven? In a resurrected body. He's retained His humanity, so to speak. We believe we'll be resurrected in a similar body as Jesus had when He went up to heaven.

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.

From the humiliation of man to the honor of God

Now I want you to put yourself in the mind of a Jewish person 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.

That is the identity of the baby in the manger. He is Christ the Lord, and He is worthy of all of our praise. He is exalted to the utmost position. 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 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”—who? 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

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’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 was humbled 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.

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 if 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 me? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” If He has all authority, what is not under His authority? That little three-letter word pretty much covers it. He’s got it. He has allL authority. 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. He is Lord over death. Our loved ones who have gone on before us in Christ...we shall see them again.

He 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.

Every knee will bow to Jesus as Lord. We have a decision to make... Our decision...

Bow the knee today...salvation

Because Jesus is Lord everyone will bow to Him. Either now or later. We can bow the knee to Him today, and 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.

Bow the knee then...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.

He is reigning in the utmost position and He holds unending power as Lord over all of our lives. He is in control. Let me remind you, it is good that He is in control! Because He has all authority and all power, He is able to protect and watch over His people with the power of the creator of the universe. It is a good thing that He is Lord.

Jesus is Lord. The final two things that that means...

He deserves universal praise

Everything will offer praise. So what does it mean, those in heaven and on the earth and under the earth. Well, for one...

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

When it says “every tongue will confess,” that’s a word that’s used to describe the proclamation of the mouth every tongue will confess, but this word is used throughout the New Testament to sometimes refer, not just to tongues, but to nations, tribes, and languages.

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.

At Christmas, we look back to His revelation of the Father's glory

At 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. 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 forward to His return with the Father's glory

Yes, Christmas is a celebration of the fact that Christ came to the earth, undoubtedly, and for that we rejoice. But our rejoicing does not stop there, we do not just rejoice that He came, we rejoice that He is coming back! He is coming back for His people, He will return and show the fullness of the Father’s glory. 1 Corinthians 15, says, “All things under His feet, so that God may be all in all.” Then you get to the end of 1 Corinthians 15, and it says then the trumpet will sound and the last shall be first and we will be raised with Christ and we will say, “Death where is your victory? Death where is your sting?” Sin and death have been conquered thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming back. 1 Corinthians 16:22, says, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

At Christmas, let’s not just look back, let’s look forward to the fact that He is coming back for you and me. We talked about how He gives victory over death, death is not a guarantee for you, it’s not a guarantee for me, because the Lord has promised that one day He is coming back. We will be with Him forever, and that’s the beauty of the incarnation.

The bottom line, our prayer 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 2017.

I think the most appropriate thing for us to do in light of Philippians 2:9–11, is to give Him praise and honor and glory. So I’m going to pray for us and I’m going to invite us stand and we’re going to sing of His greatness, and we’re going to call Him Lord and great and mighty. We’re going to turn our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection completely to Him and we’re going to sing out with all of our hearts.

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.