The Exalted Servant King

Introduction

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We talk of Christ dying for our sins, but what does that really mean? We can become desensitized to that phrase and lose the full meaning of what all that entails.

Philippians 2 helps to give us a picture of everything that Christ did and endured in order to defeat sin and death on our behalf and it shows us why we celebrate at Easter and why Christ alone deserves our worship!

I. The God Who Became a Servant (vv. 5-7)

Philippians 2:5–7 ESV

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.

First thing we have to realize when we talk about Christ dying for our sins is that we worship a God who became man.

Jesus is Fully God

First we want to recognize that Jesus is fully God. Some teach that Jesus became a god at His baptism or that He is God’s son, but not really a god Himself.

However, through the pages of Scripture, we see the testimony that Jesus is fully God.

John 1:1 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

We have been looking at the I AM statements and still have a couple more looking at the fact that Jesus Himself made the direct claim that He is God Himself. When we see Yahweh in the Old Testament, God the Son is Yahweh along with God the Father and God the Spirit. Every time Jesus says “I am” He is making the claim to be Yahweh.

Why is this important? Because only God has what it takes to be able to make the payment for sin that is required.

When man sinned against God, we failed to glorify Him like we should. We were created to give God all glory and honor and every time we sin, we have given less than what He deserves. And because even when we live our lives to give Him all glory, we cannot give Him enough to make up for what we failed to give Him. It is like have a perpetual debt that continues to grow with no ability to pay even what we have, much less pay down how much it is growing by.

Therefore, the only One who could glorify the Father fully and make up where we failed to give Him glory is Christ. Christ alone lived His life to the fully glory of the Father and was able to make payment towards the debt we have incurred to make up for our debt. Only God could pay this debt on our behalf.

2. Jesus is Fully Man

However, while we acknowledge that Jesus is fully God, we also have to acknowledge that Jesus if fully man. When He came to earth He did not just come in the appearance of a man.

Jesus, who is God, emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant by being born in the likeness of men.

Jesus, born of a virgin took on a fully human nature and experience. This is why it is essential for us to accept the virgin birth. It is a birth that is different to show us that Jesus is not just another human being, He is the God-Man, but His birth does show that He is fully Man, with a fully physical body that grows, hungers, thirsts, feels emotions, pain, joy, humor, sadness, etc. And it is a body that can grow old and is subjected to the death that all other humans are subjected to.

What does it mean that He emptied Himself? This can cause some trouble if we do not properly understand it. Some might think that Jesus gave up His divinity to become human, so He might be more man than God. But that is not what Paul is saying here. He is saying that Jesus willingly laid down His right to use His divine nature in order to submit Himself to the will of the Father, so now the Father alone decides when and how Jesus can use His divine knowledge and power. Jesus is willing becoming a servant, completely submitting Himself to the will of the Father. He is still fully God and could do whatever He wanted at any time, but He chose to lay it aside for the glory of His Father.

Again, we have to acknowledge that Jesus is fully God, because if He wasn’t He would not be able to make the payment our sin deserved. However, Jesus became fully man because man alone was responsible for making this payment. It was man who sinned and rebelled against God and therefore, it is man alone who is responsible for making this payment.

So what is God’s solution? The God who is able to make the payment for sin became a man in order to take the responsibility for making that payment upon Himself. And so now we have a second Adam, where the first Adam as our representative brought sin into the world, the second Adam as the representative for all those who would trust in Him, would make payment for the sin of humanity.

Think upon the love God has for us to be willing to do this. The Creator King, who has all authority and sovereignty over all creation, left His throne in heaven in order to take on the form of a servant to be able to make the payment for sin on our behalf.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ex. Aragorn took On a form of a servant though he was rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. You don’t realize til later in the story that he is the true king.

we love seeing leaders step down off their thrones in order to lead their people because we have a longing to experience what Jesus has done for us.

II. The Servant Who Became Obedient to Death (v. 8)

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus Submitted Himself to Death

Because Jesus, who is God, took on a human body, He became obedient and subjected Himself to death.

Because God is Holy and He is Spirit, God cannot die. It is impossible for God to take upon Himself the punishment for sin since He cannot die Himself. Which is a good thing for us. The news that God is dead has been highly exaggerated and should not be taken seriously at all since God cannot die.

However, when God the Son took on a human body as Jesus, He submitted Himself to death. Now there is a way that God can and will die.

Think about the reality of this truth! Jesus, who is God and is the source of all life, or as we looked at last week, He is the Resurrection and the Life, has now made it possible for Him to taste and experience death! Why would He be willing to do this? Because of the great love which God has demonstrated for us in Christ!

ex. The president of Ukraine stepping down as a soldier and being willing to die along with his people. Now he can’t die for his people, but he was willing to die alongside his people.

Jesus Endured a Criminal’s Death Facing the Wrath of God

But Jesus did not just submit Himself to any kind of death. He became obedient to the worst kind of death imaginable, death on a cross.

There probably is no worse death in all of human history as what the Romans developed through the invention of the crucifixion. It was meant to be a slow, painful, humiliating kind of death. It was a gory torture show to help dissuade others from disobeying the laws of the land. It truly is the ultimate form of punishment for criminals.

The criminals, after being sentenced to death, would be forced to carry their own heavy cross to the place of their execution. And then they would have their hands and feet nailed to the wood of the cross. Without going into much gory detail, it was a terrible and painful way to die.

Jesus did not just die for us, He died a criminal’s death on our behalf.

There was a little four year old girl Shari was teaching in one of her preschool classes, maybe Cubbies in Awana, where they were talking about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. As they were talking the little girl’s eyes got big and said, “So Jesus got hurt for me?” While she had heard of Jesus dying for us, dying can be a concept that is hard for us to get our minds around. But for this little girl, she understood what it meant to feel pain and to think of how Jesus willing took on that pain for her sin made her see just how much Jesus loved her.

And as Jesus was dying a criminal’s death on the cross, He was also dying a sinner’s spiritual death as He faced the wrath of God on our behalf.

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

The Father was crushing His son as a guilt offering for the sins of the world.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As Jesus was dying on the cross, He took on our sin and became our sin, so the wrath of God against sin was coming upon Jesus. Why? So that all those who would place their faith in Him would become the righteousness of God.

When we place our faith in Christ, our sin is placed upon Him and is punished in Him. So those in Christ have no need to fear punishment for God will not punish sins more than once.

Jesus died a criminal’s death and endured the pain and wrath of God our sins deserved!

III. The Risen Servant Who Is King (vv. 9-11)

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

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.

How does verse 9 begin? Therefore. Every time you see the word “Therefore” you need to ask yourself, what is it there for?

Based upon what we have seen so far, God the Son willingly chose to take on a human body and to step down from His throne and took on the role of a servant for the express purpose of becoming obedient to death, but not just any death, a criminal’s death upon the cross in order to pay the debt of sin for all those who would believe and trust in Him.

What is the result of all this?

A. We all will worship Jesus

God has highly exalted him! He has bestowed on him the name that is above every name. There is no name greater in all of human history than that of Yeshua Mashiach, Jesus the Anointed One. The King who stepped down from His throne on took on the form of a servant and died a criminal’s death has now been raised from the dead. God the Father accepted the payment God the Son made on behalf of all humanity and we know His payment was accepted because God raised Jesus from the dead. He is no longer in the tomb.

This is what separates Jesus from all the other religious teachers in the world. Muhammed is still in the grave, buddha is still in the grave, Krishna is still in the grave, Joseph Smith is still in the grave, The Pharaohs of Egypt are still in their graves, or in a museum, the Caesars of Rome are still in their graves. Only one tomb is empty and one man has risen from the dead and that is Jesus Christ. And it is because of His resurrection that anyone who believes in Him can have the hope of resurrection and eternal life with Him.

So what does this mean for us? There is hope for all those who place their faith in Him. But there’s a responsibility we all have as creatures of the One who has created us.

God the Father has exalted the Son to the point where all creation will worship and submit to Him alone. Now, God deserves our worship no matter what, even if Jesus had not come to die. But through His death and resurrection, God has so exalted Jesus that every person WILL worship Him, submit to Him, and confess Jesus as their Lord.

The Question is not, “Is Jesus Lord of Your Life?” Whether we receive Christ as Lord or not, there will come a time in which you will confess Jesus as Lord. The Only question that we can ask is “Will you submit to Jesus as Lord willingly now and receive the blessing of getting to spend eternity in His gracious and beautiful presence, or will you reject Him now and bow your knee to Him as Lord forever submitted to His wrath against your sin?” We will all one day submit to Jesus as Lord, but only those who do so now will get to experience the blessing of getting to worship Him in His presence and eternally experiencing His grace and mercy towards us.

B. We can choose to worship Jesus by Submitting our lives to Him today.

But even for those of us who have already received Him as Lord, there are times in which we do not worship Him as He deserves. Easter is a time of celebration and refocusing on who Christ is and our proper response to Him. It is a time for us to repent of the ways in which we have not always submitted to Him as our Lord and given Him the worship He deserves. It is a time to remember the grace and mercy He poured out for us on the cross and the throne He rightly occupies now as a result of His resurrection from the dead. Today is a day to recommit our lives to worship and submit to Him as Lord of our lives.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We worship Him by how we live in this world. Do we live in conformity to the world around us or do we live transformed by the power of God’s Word so that as we live people will see the reality of Christ’s image in us?

Does our level of obedience to God reflect His glory and His kingship to a lost world around us, or would the world even know we are followers of Jesus based on how we live? Easter reminds us of the grace God poured out on us despite our sins, but Easter also reminds us that Christ is King and deserves our spiritual worship as we live transformed lives. Worship is not just coming to this building once a week and singing our songs. Worship is submitting our lives to Jesus as Lord and allowing Him to change us.

And because of the Resurrection, we know that Christ has given us the power to follow Him in obedience.

Romans 8:10–11 ESV

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

If we have been saved by the grace of God, then we have within us the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead.

yes we sin and mess up because we are sinners, but as believers that should no longer be our excuse to continue in sin. We have the boldness and the ability to be obedient to Him because of the power He has given to us that was purchased fir us on the cross and through His resurrection.

Which means we have the same power to live lives of holiness in worship and obedience to Christ. While Easter serves as this reminder that we ought to live lives of worship, our worship is not limited to this one time a year. Christ deserves this worship every day of our lives. The only proper response to Christ is our true spiritual worship!

Conclusion