This Mind in Christ Jesus

We're going to be looking at Philippians chapter two. We'll be carrying on. I'm actually, in a sense, relieved because we get to get our eyes on the Lord, and very much so in this passage in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. You'll recall that last week we did cover verses 5 through 7, and there's overlap, and I did that intentionally. I wanted to showcase the connection of man to God.

And in this week, I want to recap that, but more with the emphasis on God to God. And so before I get into the introduction, let's go ahead and bow in prayer and align our hearts with the Lord, and we'll continue to jump right in. Heavenly Father, we come before you in prayer and in humility. And I don't think that this message is coincidental by that means or any means whatsoever, as we're going to see the humility that you had in serving us.

So, Father, I pray that you, as you already have gone before us, but that you would help me with the preaching of your word, that I would be faithful, that I would stay within the lanes that I'm to stay in, and that your word is what is exalted, that the application doesn't get honed down too much. My job is to present the implications of the text and also what the text teaches. Lord, it's your Holy Spirit's work to do the application. We're going to trust you with that today, Father. I trust that the folks here will look past the mistakes of a fellow sinner and see the glory of the Savior that came to save the sinner and every sinner in the room for your glory and for your exaltation, as we will see in this passage.

We thank you and praise you, and it's in your Son's name we pray this. Amen.

So the purpose of this message today is to be encouraged and reminded that any church can be encouraged in the middle of frightful things they deal with, as with the Philippians, as they were by Jesus and in his example. That's what we'll see in this passage today. But by way of introduction, I wanted to cover some things and maybe even clarify things that should have been a little bit more clear in last week's message. I want to draw our attention to four reasons why Philippians has been written. The four reasons we're going to look at in our introduction is, number one, Paul wrote the letter to encourage the church at Philippi.

That's one of the reasons this letter was written. Second, Paul affirms Some of their concerns, we'll see thirdly, that Paul comforts the church at Philippi through several reminders. And fourthly, that and this gets a little more specific into chapter two as well, but that Paul writes the letter to motivate the church's faithfulness both to the Lord and to one another. So we will see that in review of chapter one, which I preached about a year and a half ago.

So why was Philippians written? Well, first reason and all these are simultaneous. I'll add the first reason is that Paul wrote this letter to encourage the church at Philippi. They were suffering immense discouragement. That was both internally and externally.

Internally because the gospel was being taught with ulterior motives. And you can have your Bible open to chapter one of Philippians. You're going to look and see that in verse 15, where Paul says some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and also some from goodwill. And then externally the government persecution of Paul. As you might recall, Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel.

And we see that Paul addressing that in verse 12 in the previous verses. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me, his imprisonment, have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. And Paul reminds them that God will complete the work he started in their church. He says that very early on. In fact, you see that as early as verse 6, where Paul says, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

So Paul reminds them that God will complete the work he started. He also reminds them to abound in love and righteousness. You'll see that in verses 9 through 11 that we had covered a year and a half ago. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

And finally, Jesus in his Gospel is more powerful than the ill motives of those trying to make a name for themselves or spite Paul, which was exactly what was happening. Those are the reminders that Paul gives. And then Paul also, simultaneously throughout this chapter, as you're seeing, affirms their concerns that there indeed are people who will take God's things and handle them incorrectly. Again, that was verse 15, the concept that Paul is stating. Indeed, some are preaching out of vain motive and for selfish ambition.

They want to make a name for themselves.

But then he also affirms the opposite, that some will take God's things and use them well with love for him and his people. And you see the continuation of that thought in verses 16 to 17. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel.

And then Paul also comforts the church at Philippi by reminding them, number one, the Spirit will use these trials for Paul's deliverance. You see that in verse 19. For I know that this, this imprisonment, this misuse of the Gospel, or the motive rather behind the gospel being preached, all of these things will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Christ will also be magnified. You continue to read in verse 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

So Paul's confidence that the Lord will be magnified, no matter what the outcome is, is to encourage us, and specifically in the context of the Philippian Church. Finally, his desire is to return to them in person, to encourage them and make more abundance their rejoicing in the Lord. Paul wants them to be rejoicing, a rejoicing church. This is not a church or a letter of correction to the church. This is a letter of encouragement, and we should receive that as well.

Finally, Paul writes this letter to motivate the church's faithfulness both to the Lord and to one another. We see this crossover from chapter one to chapter two. We see the call and the encouragement to the faithfulness to the lord in chapter one, verses 27 to 28. And I read only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.

And then the charge to be faithful to one another is found in chapter two, verse five, which we spoke of last week. Let this mind, or excuse me, verse two, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind, Paul affirms the concern the church had that faithful followers of Jesus do not serve each Other out of selfish ambition or conceit. Rather, he instructs to serve in humility and in ways in which esteems others interests as more important than their own. We talked about that, that the idea of faithful Christian ministry is that you do not see your brother or sister's ministry as equal to your own. The text very clearly outlines that you see your brothers and sisters ministry as more important than the one that God called you.

And then make no mistake, as we talked about last week, God still has called you to your ministry. So it's not a baby out with a bathwater where you say, okay, well if I'm supposed to esteem their ministry more important than mine, then I guess mine doesn't matter. That is incorrect. That's not what Paul's encouraging. Paul is encouraging, be faithful in the ministry God has called you, but even be more attentive to the ministry God has called your brother and sister to.

That's how unity is built. That is how we love one another and encourage one another and stay, stay unified together as the attacks come, both within and without the church. And we know that because we've seen the attacks come in the church when we preach through First Timothy that people in the leadership, people filling the pulpit, not using that correctly, people from outside persecuting the church.

The unity is very important and Paul wants to encourage this church. They're disheartened. Their concern is if Paul, to reiterate from last week, if Paul the Apostle going around and founding a lot of the churches, even at times being the pastor before setting up pastors as he continues on to the next church, is in prison, and then people, even within the church aren't even preaching the gospel for the right motives. How is this thing called Christianity supposed to flow, flourish and survive? The concern is that it would die.

But Paul's encouragement to this church is no, no. The Christ, the Jesus, the Savior of the gospel that we believe in, that has redeemed and saved us, is the same God that will complete this work. He is more powerful than any of these circumstances. Be encouraged. Philippians and sovereign grace, I would say to you, be encouraged regardless, whatever storm our church weathers and faces, our God is bigger than those storms.

Our God is bigger than people messing up and wrong motives, wrong ambitions. God is far more powerful than that. We're going to transition into chapter two and I'm going to read verses five through 11 and then we'll jump into the main message for today. 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.

The three things I want to focus on. Well, actually, first, before I mention that the transition phrase that is really important to look upon here is the phrase, let this mind be in you.

The idea of let this mind. And it is the phrase not just mind, the word itself, but let this mind means to exercise the mind, to entertain or have a sentiment or opinion. There's a level of investment here that the thing you're focusing on, you are engaged in the other way. To define this is to interest oneself according to the Greek. I like that.

And I think the emphasis on that is important to interest oneself in the mind that Christ has. And in so doing, what we're going to see in these verses are three main points. We're going to look to Christ as our example. That's point number one of today. We will look to Christ as our example.

We will then look at Christ as humbled for us. We will look at Christ as humbled for us. And finally, we will look upon Christ as glorified for the Father. We will look upon Christ as glorified for the Father.

So in verses five through seven, that handles the idea of looking to Christ as our example, the Philippians were told to interest themselves with the mind of Christ to make it theirs as well. The idea there is that Christians think like their Savior. They want to be like him in character and in purity. They want their life to clearly reflect the gospel.

They care for the Gospel being unadulterated. The care that the Philippian Church has for that should be modeled in our life as well. And is the hope that Paul has for them in their church that their care for the gospel, being unadulterated, would be lived out in their life. And the way in which that happens is by taking on the mind of the Savior of the Gospel that you are trying to proclaim.

That becomes important because if you notice in this verse here, in verse five, it doesn't just Say, let this mind be in you, which was also in me. Jesus, please take notice. It says, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ. Jesus, when God preserved his word for us, and really when he wrote it through his inspiration, through the men that he used to pen his words. No word has any sub meaning or lack of meaning.

Every word is there for a very important reason. That's a hermeneutical principle that we've talked about at our church. Christ is mentioned. The title Christ is mentioned for a very important reason. And that's the second element of why it's important to take on the mind of Christ is because Christ, meaning the anointed Messiah, served others sacrificially.

This was his mindset. So the Christ, the Messiah of this gospel that we are, that the Philippians are so concerned about, and rightfully so, of the concern of what's going to happen with this Gospel. Look to your Messiah. Look to the, to the author and finisher of your faith and what is his mind. And you take that mind on Philippians is what Paul is saying.

So lastly on that point, if they put on the mind of Christ, they too become able to serve and love sacrificially. Don't you see that if you do not have the mind of Christ, you cannot proclaim the Gospel faithfully, You cannot expect to live the Gospel reflectively. In fact, it would be hypocritical. And that in fact in some cases is exactly what was happening, that some people were doing it out of selfish ambition. So Paul encourages and motivates the church, say, hey, don't be the people of selfish ambition.

You be the people that are consistently walking faithful to the gospel call. You be the people that have humility and take on the mind like Christ has. And we're going to delve into that a little further because the second point on this is that Jesus not only interested himself with the mind of his Father, but also, and this might surprise you, lusted after it. That's an interesting word. We've heard that before in other sermons when we, when Matthew was being preached.

But I want to draw attention to this here because the word in verse six, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. The word be means to exist, but also has an emphasis on the idea of to lust after. It's the idea that. Because the point that Paul is making here is that Jesus is setting himself up and claiming to be God. And actually when you read the text, it almost kind of seems a Little confusing at first glance because you're thinking to yourself, I thought Jesus is God, so what do you mean that he's in the form of God?

Doesn't consider be robbery to be equal with God. Who would think that Jesus isn't God? I don't understand why this is being stated.

The Son of man is also the Son of God. He isn't just donning the mind of his Father as we would of Jesus mind. You see that we're being told in verse five to put on this mind which is in Christ Jesus. And then Jesus is doing this by example. But Jesus doesn't have to put on the mind of the Father.

He is one with the Father. That's really important to see. So there's a very important and technical distinction there. This points out and there will be multiple points in which we re approach this doctrine in this message today. But that the doctrine of Jesus being 100% man and 100% God is present here.

You see that this is the same type of existing and strong. When the Bible talks about lust, it's this idea of the strong compulsion for something. And forgive me, I said Matthew. I'm thinking of first Timothy, chapter three, the qualifications of a bishop. He who desires the office of a bishop.

The word is lust. I'm thinking of Matthew because it's also used in Matthew. It's the idea when Matthew or Jesus is talking about he who lusts after a woman, commits adultery already in his heart. Those are the same words. That's not the same word that necessarily is being used here, but the same emphasis is being drawn towards that.

That it's an existing with a strong desire for that. So another example would be John 7:4. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. There's a strong desire to exist in a known way. You're craving and desiring that.

That. That attention. And whether that is right or wrong in this case it is right for our Lord to desire that because that is Him. It's his nature, it's his character. He's a jealous God.

It wasn't robbery for the Son of Man to say that he thought like the Father because He is one with Himself. Different persons of the Godhead, same singular God. And the interesting thing to notice too in this verse, when you look at verse six, the word robbery is translated plunder. And the idea there is God isn't taking something for himself that he doesn't deserve. He deserves all the worship and all the glory.

And he deserves and has every right to say that this mind is mine.

Also, the Son of God didn't stop being God when he took upon the likeness of man. This is really important to hone in on. Jesus isn't attaining to be God, and Jesus isn't losing any part of being God. Jesus doesn't have to attain to be God because he is God, but because of the two natures that Jesus has, that he's 100% man and 100% God. He's also not losing his divinity, his deity.

But Jesus does, in the part of his Godhead, choose to limit his glory. But please make note, Jesus limits his glory, but not his Godhead. He is still fully God.

He is still receiving worship as the Father, but he limits that as a Son, for example. How is it limited? Well, there's a couple different ways that it's limited or he's limited himself. The first and most obvious one is he left glory. He is not on the throne, receiving worship in that moment all the time, at every moment.

You may think, well, wait a minute, if he's God, isn't he? Yes, he is. But he's doing that as God the Father, but as the God the Son. He humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a man. Came in the cradle as a baby, in swaddling cloths.

He left that throne of receiving worship for the human death that would in part yield to life. I say in part because there's more to that. Of course. Of course. Thank you.

Such as the resurrection and a lot of other factors play into that. But there's a limiting. But that doesn't mean our God is any less. And that must be made abundantly clear.

And then finally, on a point of looking to Christ as our example, the Father's mindset is to dawn an unidentifiable nameless humility. What do I mean by that? I mean that by three points. Number one, Jesus took on the form of his creation. Two, Jesus isn't easily seen or understood by many as the God of glory when he first comes.

Three, Jesus exemplified that loving service to believers is to decrease oneself, so the other believers exalted or increased. Let's unpack that briefly. Number one. Jesus took on the form of his creation, namely a man. This was necessary for salvation.

There had to be a substitute for mankind. It was important that God became man, perfect, unblemished, a true sacrifice that has no spot or wrinkle. Only God could do that. And he came in the form of his creation. By the way, it's a marvelous thing to Worship at the idea that God Himself, the Creator of us, took our form on Himself in order to redeem us.

It's a beautiful concept. Again, two points to stress and distress is he did not become less God. He took upon Himself the nature and likeness of mankind. And this was his plan from the foundations of the world. By the way, God's not changing who he is.

This is how He. This is who he is. This is his existence. Eternal existence. But Jesus would also be able to demonstrate ambitionless love and service as God and exemplify it as man.

You may say, well, wait a minute. Wouldn't Jesus have an ambition? Wouldn't for his own glory? Yes, but that would be in the person of the Father. Jesus came to do not his own will, but the will of His Father.

So as Son of Man, he set aside again his glory, his ambition to love and serve His Father, and also exemplify that to us. So we would have an example to model after.

Jesus isn't seen easily or understood easily by many as the God of glory. What does the passage say? Says he in verse seven made himself of no reputation. That literally means to make empty, to abase, to neutralize. Even in some verses, the context is to be in vain.

Took upon himself the form of a bondservant. In the Greek, that word is doulos, as some of you are well familiar with. And that word means exactly what you might fear. It means slave, and the ugly kind people try to wiggle out of that. It actually means slave is how you would think of it in the negative context.

Jesus came to be a slave to do His Father's will, not his own. And that's exemplified for the Philippians. And then, of course, by us, by application or implication.

And then coming in the likeness of men, Jesus came down, seen as common, though he wasn't. Jesus was nothing common or ordinary. One of the defining elements of what holiness is separation from sin, separation to God, and separation from the common and ordinary. Jesus is far from common and ordinary, but that wasn't easily seen.

Then Jesus exemplified that loving service to believers is to decrease oneself so the other believer is exalted or increased. You know who I thought of? John the Baptist. John the Baptist. A decreased so that Jesus could increase in his earthly ministry.

And what does Jesus do? He decreases so that we can be increased by redemption and then ultimately glorification, so that we can be saved and redeemed by the blood of Christ, and then glorified where we can have perfect fellowship and union with him for all eternity in glory. To the praise and glory of the Father. And then by doing so, we're now to then decrease so that others hear. This would be the Philippian Church.

But by application us, we can exalt one another in the ministry that God has called us to. That's the example set. John the Baptist did it, Jesus did it. And Paul's saying, you do it too. The second thing that we see, so that was the first to look, to look, sorry, look to Christ as our example.

And now we're looking at Christ as humbled. For us.

There's a few three points on this. Christ humbled himself in three different ways. In form, from glory and in action. We'll delve into that here.

Christ humbled himself in form by taking on the form of his creation.

You remember in the Old Testament you could not look upon God and live. His glory is such that no man can see God and live. This is why even when Moses saw the back of God, even, even he was still ashen and trepidatious and fearful.

So this is unique and special that God Himself would take on the form of his creation so that we can learn from Him. The believers at that time could actually interact with God himself in human flesh. So he humbled himself in a way where his glory wouldn't kill you, because that's what it did in the Old Testament. If you saw God, you died. And the reason for that is he is so perfect and so holy that no element of sin, whether intentional or unintentional, whether high handed or, or ignorant, none of that could be present in you.

You must be fully glorified. So if you're going to see the glory of the Lord, you, the only way that's going to happen is by going to glory. And then you can see it unveiled.

So the Father had mercy on us really by sending Jesus in the form of a human, in the form of man. And then he limited himself also from glory, as we're speaking of, by limiting himself in the person of Jesus. And I want to also again add more clarity to this. We're looking at verse eight here. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to the point of death.

So when we talk about Jesus limiting himself from glory, what does this not mean? We've already touched on that a little bit, but I want to delve into this a little bit more. It doesn't mean that he's less God. Again, Jesus is 100% God. Even still, his role in the Godhead accomplishes a very specific Purpose that has him leaving glory where he is worshipped non stop.

What it also doesn't mean is that Jesus is inable or cannot function in capacities unique to deity. What do we mean by that? Well, we can look at what he is, what this does mean for him. Jesus still can receive worship. Matthew 14:33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, truly you are the Son of God.

A mere man cannot receive worship. Angelic beings cannot receive worship. Only God can receive worship. His full deity is at display there, even through his humanity. Christ can also forgive sins.

We see this in Matthew 9:4:6. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you? Or to say, arise and walk. But that you may know the Son of Man has power on earth.

Love the emphasis on Son of Man. But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, arise, take up your bed and go to your house.

Only God has the ability to forgive sins. This is one of the reasons they wanted to kill him. They understood that. You read the New Testament in the Gospels, it's really clear that the religious leaders fully understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. That's why they wanted to kill him.

It threatened their power, it threatened their ambition.

And then they hid behind the idea of it being blasphemy. So they understood. But Jesus humbled himself from glory, but he didn't stop being God. And then Jesus humbled himself in actions. Do you think of Jesus as submissive?

I sound like an odd way to ask the question. But Jesus is the supreme ruler of this universe. He's the one that called things into motion. He spoke and light existed. He spoke and the earth was formed.

So it's a really odd concept of the fact that the God of the universe would limit Himself. But what does he do? How does he humble Himself? How does he limit Himself in action? Well, he does it in three different ways.

The first is to the will of the Father. We see this in John 6:38. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. He also humbled himself to his death. John 15:13, 14.

Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends. You if you do whatever I command you. And finally, to our redemption. Jesus came with a purpose.

He came with a ministry that in the technical terms, in the Intra trinitarian covenant where God speaks to God and God does things for God, for himself. The plan before the foundation of the world would be that there would be a Savior and a Redeemer for mankind. These things were already settled and established. And Jesus is here fulfilling his ministry that he has called himself to, you can say. And so why does that matter?

Well, because it's the example for us that the ministry that God has called us to requires humility. And we did touch on that in the last week's message. And then finally, we might be coming short up on time and. Or I think that's the wrong way to say it. We might be wrapping up early, but that that might be okay.

To look upon Christ as glorified for the Father. This is verses 9 through 11. Therefore God also has highly exalted him. That's really interesting because the idea of it, of the first of all of the therefore, oftentimes we've heard in a lot of the preaching, that therefore means it's there for a reason. This is actually not that same word.

This is actually the word wherefore truly meaning through which thing or consequently. This is really important because what is being stated here is through Christ's submission and obedience. And I forgot to emphasize that element of to death, that Jesus is going all the way. And one of the quick questions you could even draw if you wanted to grab a quick application from that is, even in our ministry, or in this case for the Philippian Church, is the Philippian Church willing to go to death? Because they were concerned about that, were they not?

What happens to you, Paul, if you die? Well, Jesus died. Was his ministry. Was the Gospel failing? Was it insufficient?

No, it was sufficient. It was fully sufficient. It did accomplish everything it set out to accomplish. That's why Paul can say in the earlier chapter of chapter one, whether I live or die, I'm fine. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

I'm good, don't worry.

So to look upon so all of those elements of how Jesus humbled himself through those, consequently, you could even say because of that, Christ is glorified by the Father. So we can thirdly look upon Christ as glorified for the Father. And this is done in four ways. One is in position, second is with a name, as we sang about this morning. Thirdly, by the bending of all knees, and fourthly, by the professing of every tongue.

The verse is in position. The text reads in verse 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted him. When I was doing my actual translation of the way I do my prep is I will look at all the Greek words and their meanings and then I will essentially write it out. So when you read it, it almost doesn't necessarily make sense at first.

So you have to kind of. That's why when we have this, it's not an exact. How do I word this? It is an exact translation of the Greek, but it's used in our modern English. But I'm being very technical.

Kind of like how when you read the King James or the new King James, or actually, new King James isn't the best example. King James and nasb, it always reads a little more technical. It falls in line with that. Whereas you'll read something like esv, for example. And that seems a lot more smooth.

It's because it's the way the language, the English language is used, is used a little differently. One is to protect more of the grammatics of things. Not that the other is trying to suffer on that, but the other is trying to be more readable. They're both trying to honor the text, the thought for thought or the word for word. But that looks.

That might look different. So the way I do this, for example, I think maybe the easier way is just to read and show you and demonstrate you how this was. So you. You see verse 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name.

That's verse nine. Through my work, this is how I had this written out. Through which thing God also has elevated him above others to the highest position and granted as a favor Jesus the name which is above every name, from breaking down all of that, that Greek. And I'm not claiming to be a Greek expert, by the way, I'm not.

Through which thing God has also elevated him above others to the highest position.

So Christ glorifies God the Father in his position, and he does. And that position is as God. Now, I know we've already touched on that, but how can I prove that? Because when you read it here, in this case, in the new King James, therefore God also has highly exalted him. It doesn't seem to be really what we kind of lose in that is we don't exalted him to what?

You don't quite see that. But again, when you look at the means or the words, it draws it out more to the highest position. What is the highest position? It is as God. And how do we know that?

I mean, after all, wasn't he always God? There's two explanations for that. And I'm going to show you why it is that the position is as God number one. We know that the Father shares his glory with none. And how do we know that?

We see that in Isaiah 42:8, I am the Lord, that is my name. That's going to be really interesting. The second point. I am the Lord, that is my name. And my glory I will not give to another, nor am I praise to carved images.

What position was Jesus elevated and exalted to? The highest position. Is God going to share his glory with Jesus if Jesus is not God? Secondly, Jesus is given the name above all names, just as we saw in Isaiah. By the way, side note, I think this is very special that Paul is sharing this.

This is very doctrinal and technical. But it's also, again, doctrine is to inform our doxology. Theology is supposed to inform our doxology. So doctrine is supposed to inform how you worship. Well, how can the Philippian Church worship from this doctrinal note, the Philippian Church can worship in the fact that Jesus name is above all names.

Well, what names are we seeing here? We're seeing people who are humbling themselves when they preach the gospel and not trying to make a name for themselves. That's a name. The other name that we saw are people trying to make a name for themselves to spite Paul for selfish ambition, for selfish desire to achieve to something for their own sake, not the sake of the gospel. So why is this important?

Because it just shows the power and awesomeness of Jesus because he shows he is so much higher than even the people that are that their names are. They're trying to make a name for themselves, but they can't get there. They can't get to the level of Jesus. They're trying to get up here. Jesus is way up here.

He is the name above every other name. That doctrine means something and it's an encouragement to the Philippian believers. But why is that important? Well, wouldn't you think that God the Father's name would be the name above every name would be. So it's shared.

This isn't. There's no contradiction here. This is. This is unity.

Trying to quote off the top of my head, Be one as I and my Father are one.

God has unity within himself. He's calling us to have unity with Him. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, which was also in God the Father, which Jesus submitted to. We've talked about the name already a little bit. But something I want to point out too, in verse 10 when you cross over in verse 10, that at the name of Jesus, well, what is that name?

Above every name, it's Jesus. Jesus is that name, and it is given in favor. The other two ways in which Christ glorifies the Father or will be glorifying the Father is by the bending of all knees.

In heaven, in earth and under the earth. Every knee will bow at that name, and that glorifies the Father. The work that the Father has called the Son to, to be the Savior of his creation. When we bow the knee, and also when people who do not have a right relationship with the Father also bows their knee, God is glorified. Of course, there's a lot more beauty, and it's more special the fact that his creation, who is redeemed, is glorifying Him.

But make no mistake, God will also be glorified in the judgment of those who reject Him. God will be glorified regardless. So in the heavens, that mean. That can mean both outside in space, but also in the actual throne room of heaven, all beings and all creation will bow the knee on the earth. Here, you and I, the Philippian Church, we will bow the knee and worship the Lord.

I find it really interesting too, under the earth as well. So those who are dead, they will also be worshiping the Lord and bowing the knee and by the professing of every tongue, tongue meaning exactly that tongue, or by implication, a language. And the idea of to confess is to acknowledge or fully agree with, to profess or to promise. Every tongue will confess that. And the interesting element here is the word that means because here we'll confess because Jesus is Lord.

This is already an established truth again, before the foundations of the world, the world will acknowledge Jesus as who he is. And that's an encouragement again. Why is that an encouragement to this Philippian Church? Because everything seems to be turning upside down. The Gospel is not being preached for the reasons that probably should be preached.

There's. They're trying to spite Paul. Paul's in prison. How's the work of this whole ministry of not just the Philippian Church, but all of the church is going to continue on. The name above every name, the one that completes the work will see it through to completion.

Every tongue will bow or, excuse me, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. It's an encouragement. It's a refortification of the truth. And that's what we need sometimes. That's what the Philippian Church needed.

They just need to be reminded of the truths of God and of his plan. And by Application. We can as well. These truths are here for us as well. Well, the Father is exalted and glorified.

There actually is a fifth point kind of missed that here. The Father is exalted and glorified. He's honored, praised and worshiped. And that's what glory means, is to honor, praise and worship.

And it's also, I think it's very interesting, as I mentioned in the beginning of verse 5, where it says also in Christ Jesus. I think it's also just as important at the very end to the glory of God the Father. There's an emphasis there. I want to hone our attention to.

God is seen as a parent, as a father to his people. This encourages the Philippians for two reasons. Number one, that the Father who began that good work in their church will see it to completion again. That was as said in verse 6 of chapter 1, and I quote Matthew 7, 9, 11. For what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent?

If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good gifts to those who ask him? Why are we drawing an attention to that passage? God is not some distant being. There's theologies out there that hold to the idea that God is kind of like a clock. He winds things up, sets it and lets things go in motion.

No, God is a very personal God. He's active and involved in his creation.

This God of the Gospel is a personal God, a deity involved with his creation and in love with his people. He has a deep compassion for their fears and their hurts. This church is hurting. They have fears. They're not being rebuked.

They're being encouraged. I look to Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. Psalm 103, 13. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.

So in conclusion, the personal, loving Father has not left his children in the church at Philippi without an example of how to love and serve one another, bringing God glory.

Jesus demonstrated it in humility, as their church also can, without fear of what might happen.

Just as Jesus submitted to the Father in the face of death, so Jesus is showing my church at Philippi. You can do this. I've done it for you. I've set the example. Continue in it.

Press on in it. Let this mind be in you, which is also in me. That circles back to Philippians 1:21 I said I quoted it earlier, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Either way, God's purposes are completed, fulfilled in and through us.

And where is that land for us? Well, just as the Philippian believers could glorify God amidst internal and external problems at their church, we can too. There's three thoughts I want to leave you with. Number one, the same God then has compassion for us. This is the same God we talk a lot about at our church, that it's not right to approach the Bible as a love letter written to us.

We hear that language a lot, but that's grammatically and technically not. Not correct or safe. It's not that we. There's. There aren't things in the Bible that can comfort and encourage us.

It's actually my point. But these are written to specific people about specific things. This was a letter written to the Philippian Church, specifically dealing with their specific issues and struggles and troubles. And it's to encourage them, just like the letter to First Corinthians is written to the Corinthian Church in that case to actually correct wrong behavior. There's purposes for why each book is being written.

That's why we say in our hermeneutics class at this church that there is only one correct interpretation of Scripture, but there can be multiple applications. Why am I saying that this meant something to the Philippian Church? What we just walked through was written for them. We get the blessing and the benefit of being able to pull the curtains back and look in on the conversation that God is having to his church through his Apostle Paul. And by application, you and I can also be blessed by that as well and comforted.

So we talk about sometimes in prophecy, you hear the idea of a near and far fulfillment. Well, if you want to use that language, you could kind of use that here, that there is a then purpose and fulfillment for that. But God also, in his eternal wisdom and compassion, allowed us to be able to look in on this and also glean and be encouraged by this, just the same way the Philippians did, and by the way, the same way, meaning the same impact it would have had on them. We can have. We're not even necessarily removed from the same impact.

It's the same God doing the same thing, encouraging us like he encouraged them. So the same God then has compassion for us. Second thing I want to leave you with is the same God then has preserved his encouragement to the church at Philippi for us to be encouraged by as well. Well, I kind of jumped ahead of Myself, now, didn't I? He preserved this Word for us.

That's really important. God cares about us. He wants us to know his heart. And the way we know his heart is by opening up His Word. That's the importance of the supremacy of the Word, of God.

We don't have to wonder what God thinks about something. We don't have to wonder, well, what does God think about this? What's his heart? He's shown it to us. Maybe what we need to do is know how to handle it.

That's important, that's helpful. But when you do, when you do know how to handle it, oh, it's so rich. I mean, even before me preparing this, I understood that there's a lot of richness in this text. And I don't know that I did a good job conveying this this morning. But there's so much here that at first glance, you might not catch if you go too fast.

But if you slow down, if you handle the Word as it's supposed to be handled, all these rich, profound truths and realities just come to light. And it's just. It glorifies the Lord and it encourages us. So the preservation of God's Word is beautiful, and it's for us, our encouragement as well. And finally, the thing I want to leave you with is the example Jesus modeled.

This is really important. Didn't merely signal that we could glorify our Father above, it actually did. What do I mean by that? Jesus isn't just saying, yeah, you know, there could be a salvation. You could humble yourself, or let me give you a story or an example of how that could be done.

Jesus actually did it. And his humility and his submission to the Father's will and his obedience even to death wasn't just efficacious or effective for the believers at Philippi. It is effective for you and I. We are presently still reaping the benefits of Jesus submission to his Father. And so the encouragement, again in the idea of unity, which is what Chapter 2 is handling in its introduction and the whole idea of chapter one and really the idea of the entire book of to not.

To not lose heart, to not be discouraged, is that God can be glorified. You can be encouraged in Jesus, who, by the way, I didn't think to add this, but I'm going to state this now because this is important. We talk about this when it deals with eternal security. The idea that when Jesus says, who can pluck me from my Father's hand, that includes yourself, you cannot pull yourself out of The Father's hand. So some people say once saved, always saved.

I appreciate much what our pastor teaches. If saved, always saved might seem a little nuanced or semantical to say that, but it's important. It's an important nuance. If saved, always saved, that the Lord does preserve his saints. So if you can't even pluck yourself out of the hand of the Father, if you can't walk away from the faith, that same idea.

If the gospel is that powerful, then what can man do? So. So what? Someone has the wrong motive in sharing the gospel. We're not saying that.

That's right. We're not saying that that person. That's just a free pass to go do whatever you want. But we don't need to be discouraged by it. Jesus is more powerful.

He is the author of your life. He's the author of the ministry that he's given you in your church. He. He's the author of the ministry he's given the church. And that means locally and universally, Jesus is the author and finisher of it.

He will see the work through to completion. Be encouraged. Jesus. Jesus name is above every name, including the names of those who don't want to honor him. But we can be encouraged to be among the names that do desire to honor him and bring the Father glory.

Let's bow in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and that your word is preserved, for our encouragement and for your glory.

Pray that I pray that I got out of the way, Lord, and that your message was on disposal and that folks here, through the encouragement of the Philippian Church, were also encouraged, I think, especially in light of last week's message. I also pray, Father, that we see your glory on display even more. The beauty that you're not a distant God that is just telling us to go do something. You've done it too. You've set the example.

You've gone before us, not only preparing us for our works like Ephesians 2 talks about, but you've done the work.

In fact, we could even go eschatological. The battle's already won.

So, Father, may we rejoice in that. May we be encouraged in that. May we strive to be unified, have the same mind as you, to display your gospel faithfully and to be named among those who desires to glorify you and not ourselves, to have humility. And then that transfer and translate into one another as we piggyback off of last week's message that trickles down even to us, exalting one another's ministry. Like your son exalted yours.

Help us to exalt one another as well. And may you be praised and glorified in all this. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.