Sermon Tone Analysis

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Intro
So, since last week, we’ve been looking at the Christ Hymn in .
And as I mentioned last week, this is one of the most beautiful passages that explains who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and it gives us an example of how we are to live our lives in humility.
And living humble lives is hard.
The world and everyone and everything around us is telling us to work hard, study hard, so that us as individuals can get to the top.
Our natural inclination is to do what’s best for us.
Out natural inclination is to glorify ourselves.
Let's open our Bibles this morning for our continued study in Paul's letter to the Philippians....Philippians chapter 2. And we come this morning to verses 9, 10 and 11 as we continue to flow through this great epistle.Philippians chapter 2 and I will read verses 9, 10 and 11 that you may fix in your mind the Word of God on which we desire to comment this morning.
"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."
So, brief confession… I’ve done like nothing this week except play video games.
Now, I never play video games.
I don’t even own a game system.
I grew up with a Nintendo 64, and I played super smash brothers, and then I had a PS2, and the last game system I ever owned was a Wii.
So, for years, I haven’t really played video games.
But, one of my friends from school is in Japan for six weeks, and he was like, yo, if you wanna play my ps4, go for it.
So, Monday, I go in there, and I log onto it, and I see this video game.
And I’m like “hmmm, this looks interesting.”
Now, the game is Grand Theft Auto 5. I know… I know… I’m a little ashamed that I’ve wasted my whole week playing video game, and I’m even more ashamed that I’ve been playing GTA V.
If you’ve never played this game, I cannot recommend it as your pastor, because the game is terrible.
But, the premise is you’re three different characters, and each of these characters are like high level thieves.
And they have one goal: to make a lot of money, and get to the top by literally stomping on everyone else.
The entire premise of the game, at least to the point that I’ve played it, is: Do everything possible to make sure you get to the top.
Now, sometimes these characters are forced to work together.
But, with each one working to make sure he comes out on top, there’s a lack of trust within the group.
And you know, I think this is a good illustration of how we’re often taught to live our lives.
Now, not to this extreme, and maybe I’m just looking for a way to redeem my wasted week of video game binging, but to some extent, each of us acts or has acted in a way that seeks to put us first.
That seeks to make sure we come out on top.
We do all sorts of things, even good things, so that we move towards the top.
And sometimes we do these things at the expense of others, because generally, we consider ourselves to be the most important people.
Because of our sinful nature, this is something we struggle with as Christians.
But, God has a specific, and better way in which we are to live our lives.
So, open to Philippians chapter 2, and lets look at verses 9-11.
A familiar text to me, to most students of God's Word.
It speaks about the exaltation of Jesus Christ.
In fact, it is God's great response to Christ's humiliation.
Go back with me for a moment to verses 5 through 8.
You remember the great section that we have studied on Christ's humiliation, how that Christ Jesus existed in the form of God but did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself taking the formof 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.
Therefore, says verse 9, God highly exalted Him.
Paul then takes us from the humiliation of Christ to the exaltation of Christ.
This is Paul's great declaration of how God responded to Christ's incarnation and humiliation.
And let me remind you that it is very likely thatverses 6 through 11 were a hymn of the early church.
The form indicates to most commentators all that is necessary to make that conclusion...very likely a hymn.
Certainly the theme of all the Christian faith is bound up in this wonderful hymn.
And it has basically two parts: the humiliation of Christ and the exaltation of Christ.
His humiliation pointed out in verses 6, 7 and 8; His exaltation pointed out in verses 9, 10 and 11.
And you will remember that Peter said that the great theme of the Old Testament prophecies was the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow, .
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,.
Christ understood His sufferings in the light of His exaltation.
He endured the pain because He could see the joy.
This is the word of the Lord.
And so, the Apostle Paul is showing us here both the humiliation and the exaltation of Christ.
But you will remember also that his purpose here is not simply to detail the humiliation and exaltation of Christ but to use this section as an illustration of a practical point.
Verse 5 points that out, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus."
And then he goes on to describe His humiliation and exaltation.
In other words, it has application to us.
You should have this same attitude.
What is the attitude?
The attitude is one of humiliating oneself in order that one may be exalted by God.
That's the attitude.
And that's the message here of a pragmatic moral and ethical nature.
Recap of Last Week
Now, last week we talked about Christ’s humiliation.
And we discussed the truth that Jesus was both fully God and Fully human.
And as fully God, Jesus did not use his divinity to serve himself, rather he used it to serve us.
We looked specifically at verses 5-8, and these verses ended with Jesus being at the lowest point in his ministry, and that was death on a cross.
Jesus humbled himself and became a slave and served us, and he went further: he died for us.
And this is where we ended last week.
We ended last week with two things:
Jesus gave up everything for us.
He humbled himself to the point of death, and he did this for us.
We ended by saying that this is what a Christ-centered life looks like.
We are to be humble.
We are to serve each other and we are called to serve our church and our community.
Verse five, which we looked at last week commanded us to have this kind of mindset.
A mindset of humility and a lifestyle of humility.
Now, because Jesus gave everything out of his humility, verse 8 ended with Jesus’ death.
And so, this entire section ends with verses 9-11, and they outline Jesus’ exaltation.
God has Exalted Him
Look with me at verse 9. Paul writes: “Therefore, God has highly exalted him...” The first thing we notice is the word “therefore.”
Anytime we see this word in scripture we should ask “what is it … can you guess … therefore?”.
This “therefore” points back to the previous four verses about Jesus’ humiliation.
Because Jesus was obedient to God the father, because, even though he himself was God, he didn’t consider his divinity as something that should be used for his advantage, because he humbled himself, God the Father has exalted him.
So, right at the front, we have to ask ourselves: What does it mean for Jesus to be exalted?
The word Paul uses here is very strange and it carries the meaning of super-exalted.
In one sense, Jesus is restored to the former glory he had with God the Father before he came down to us.
So, his exaltation includes his restoration.
But there’s more to it than this.
And this gets kind of complicated, because on one hand, we don’t want to say that Jesus was elevated to a higher position than he had before.
Jesus wasn’t somehow made better because of his humility, because he’s Jesus.
He’s perfect in every way.
Yet, something happened, because it says that God has highly exalted him.
One author puts it this way, and this makes the most sense to me, he writes that Jesus’ exaltation is “divine confirmation of Christ’s true identity, not as an acquisition of a new position.”
God confirms that Jesus is the highest exalted being.
God the Father has exalted Jesus to the highest possible position, a position that was already his, but is now confirmed.
Application
Okay, so let’s apply this now.
This passage works on two levels.
On one hand, it’s about Jesus and his exaltation and his Lordship, but, on the other, it’s a model for us to follow.
And, the lesson here in this section is the humble are exalted.
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