God exalted the Son who humbled Himself to save.

 

Sermon for Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Philippians 2:5-11  ⁵Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.  ⁶Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, ⁷but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant.  When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.  ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (EHV)

God exalted the Son who humbled Himself to save.

Dear beloved ones in Christ,

            Everyone would like to be Superman.  At least, that is what one might suppose considering the success of the comic strips, television programs, and movies that have portrayed superheroes of one form or another for the last eighty-five years or so.  Now, maybe we don’t all want to be superheroes, but we likely all secretly desire to have some sort of superpower, some way to change reality to suit our desires.  In fact, we all secretly desire is to be equal to God.

Now, that might be a shocking way to confront our human nature.  Yet, when you analyze our natural condition, it is the truth.  We desire to rule over God, and I can prove it.  Consider any sin against any commandment—no matter what sin we commit, we are breaking the chief and greatest commandment which is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” (Luke 10:27)  Any time we break any commandment we also break the First Commandment because we have overruled God’s intention for our lives.

The inherited sin that makes us want to be God, or at least His equal, means that every thought, word, and deed of our lives has been corrupted, and no matter how hard we try, we can never make ourselves holy, and nothing we do can save us.  Without someone to rescue us from the end we deserve, we can have no hope of a future and no hope of pleasing God.

There is a verse in this sermon text that may sometimes be overlooked.  St. Paul is writing to tell us how to live godly, sanctified lives as Christian believers.  However, on our own we can only fail.  Yet, one verse changes the picture: “Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant.”  This is where we see how Jesus became our Savior.  Of all people who have ever lived, only Jesus rejected the temptation to take God’s authority to Himself.  Unlike us, the Man Christ Jesus never once desired to put Himself in God’s place.  Even though He is also by nature true God, Jesus submitted Himself, as a Man, perfectly and completely to God’s holy will.

Jesus did not consider equality with God as something He should seize.  In that, He humbled Himself to live perfectly in accord with the First Commandment.  Unlike Adam and Eve who were created in the holy image of God yet were deceived into wanting more and thus fell from perfection, Jesus, who is the divine Son of God, came down to earth to inhabit the form, or flesh, of man, so that He could obey the first and every other commandment, perfectly, for us. 

Paul wrote, “He emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant.”  As you read through the Bible, you discover that whenever God allowed His glory to be witnessed in even an indirect way, it terrified people.  It should terrify sinners, because we cannot stand in God’s presence lest we face destruction.  Therefore, to come dwell among men, Jesus laid aside that glory and power while living as a Man for us.  How this can be, is ultimately beyond our ability to understand in our corrupted condition.  Still, in doing so, Jesus experienced every trial, temptation, sorrow, and hardship we will ever endure, yet He remained without sin.  As Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Thus, when Paul writes, “Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” what he means is that we submit to God’s authority in everything without fail, and that we live to serve others without seeking any reward for ourselves.  It requires a completely unselfish attitude and humble servitude to God and our neighbor.  For all of us, this is the time we start trembling in our boots, because not only have we not lived that way previously; we never could.  Our inherited sin will always trip us up.  One of Christ’s greatest apostles explained how our flesh frustrates our good intentions when he wrote, “Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh.  The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out.  So I fail to do the good I want to do.  Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing.” (Romans 7:18-19)

Given this explanation, one would expect all mankind to be hopeless, and that is our natural state.  Yet, that isn’t what God intended for anyone, especially for those He calls to faith in Jesus.  You see, Jesus came into this world to end our hopelessness.  He willingly left the throne room of heaven to live for us, but He didn’t stop there.  “When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”  Jesus admitted to His friends, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.” (John 15:13 NKJ)  Because He loves us, the Son of God came into this world to die.  He came to suffer the worst this world could do yet He remained holy and completely without fault, stain, or guilt, so that His death could take away the sum total of our failures.

Our sermon theme this morning declares, God exalted the Son who humbled Himself to save.  As Paul wrote this letter from a prison cell, he rejoiced in the knowledge of what Jesus has done for us.  You and I rejoice likewise every time we remember that Jesus has lifted our guilt and we never have to pay.  As we celebrate Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as a King, we need to remember the humility of His entrance.  Yes, the people welcomed Him that day like a conquering Prince, but a few days later, many of those same people called for His crucifixion.  They didn’t yet see that Jesus entered the city that week to bring peace—peace between God and mankind.  That peace would not be won by earthly warfare as the crowds expected, but only by perfect submission to the law and to God’s will to save sinners.

Several times throughout His earthly days, Jesus allowed a glimpse of His divine glory and power: His transfiguration on the mountain being, perhaps, the most glorious, but His many miracles also testifying to His divine nature and power.  Still, the greatest display of Jesus’ love and faithfulness, and indeed His holiness, is seen on the cross.  For sins He didn’t commit, Jesus allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross like the worst of criminals and traitors.  He did so without complaint, with no cry of injustice, and no plea for His followers to help, but only this prayer on His lips, that the Father forgive those who caused His suffering and pain.  Jesus did everything to satisfy the law in our place, and in so doing, He destroyed the devil’s power over us.

God has a reward for the One who sacrificed all to gain salvation for all who believe in Him.  “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  For the life He lived, and the sacrifice He made, God raised Jesus from the dead, delivering Him from the grave never to die again, and God restored Jesus to His rightful place at His right hand.  His Father put all authority under Jesus’ control, so that we now have a human Brother ruling all creation for our everlasting good, whose name, Jesus, means The LORD saves.

When Jesus entered this world to save, He laid aside His glory and power to appear and live as a Man just like all of us.  Many didn’t recognize Jesus then.  In fact, many mocked, jeered, and plotted against Him instead.  However, that is not the end.  The end will come when Jesus next returns to earth.  However, this time, no one will miss it, and no one will miss the glory and power of the One God-Man when He returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.  Paul reminds us, every knee will bow.  The saints and angels in heaven will worship Him for His triumph.  The believers on earth will join them to do the same, but ahh how terrible it will be for those who reject Jesus and for the wicked angels that rebelled against God.  Even in hell, every being will know that Jesus is Lord and He is God.

Now, the command for us is to be like Jesus, and we all know we fail, but that is the beauty of God’s love for us.  What Jesus did to accomplish our salvation is transferred to us who are now connected with Him through faith.  His perfect obedience is credited to us.  His glory now covers us.  Our record of wrongs, our sins, failures, and weaknesses have all been wiped away by the blood of the Lamb who was slain.  At our baptisms, we were cleansed of all guilt, and God claimed us as His own.  The resurrection guarantees that we will live, also, for in Christ we are one.  With the Lord living in us, we too can strive for the holiness God desires to see in His people.  His love empowers ours.  More than that, Jesus’ holiness covers our shortcomings and keeps us acceptable to His Father in heaven, and God is glorified by His Son’s triumph over sin, death, and Satan.

Dear friends, we no longer need to fear punishment for sin, because Jesus has taken away our sins and guilt.  That is our motivation to live the life of love and faithfulness God intends for us eternally.  Because of what Jesus has done for us, God has placed our future in Jesus’ hands.  Jesus promises that He knows those who are His.  Because God has made us His own beloved children by the purchase price of Jesus’ blood, we can humbly and joyfully approach the judgment throne of our God in peace, because there we will see that God exalted the Son who humbled Himself to save us.  Amen.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all time, now, and to all eternity.  Amen.