The Lord Jesus Christ, Decent and Exaltation

March 19, 1988

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Introduction: It was a tremendous reversal from the Triumphal Entry on a sunny Sunday to the gloom of the Via Dolorosa and the supernatural darkness that hung over the crucifixion that following Friday. Christians often make commentary on the great change, the fickleness of the people, the indignity and shame heaped on our Lord, that week.

But Jesus began His journey of condescension to the cross long before the crowds waved palms and cried "Hosanna!" And the descent that our Lord Jesus made into the abyss of night and evil to redeem us was far more than that stark week's contrast of the cheers of the crowds to the loneliness of the dark-stained cross. That pouring out of His love and life and glory began before time, in the love of God. It did not stop at the demands of shame and death for our redemption. And even today, it reaches to wherever there is sin and death and pain.

And even today, before Easter, and before Good Friday, we need to remember that just as there is a descending and a humiliation and an outpouring, there is also an exaltation. There is a name which is above every Name, and before the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I. THIS DESCENT BEGAN IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE GODHEAD

Christ was not the highest of created beings, and the flowering of all that is finest and best in mankind. He is Eternal God. He was not created to bring us salvation: He created US to bring us into His life!

The Creation of Adam and Eve, and of all humankind, of you and me, and then God's identification with us, sinful though we be, is an expression of ineffable love. Bethlehem was the expression of a love which we will never understand.

It has been preached at times as though Christ came to earth because of a desire by God to fill a need. If this were true, then Creation— Bethlehem— the Incarnation— would indicate a God who acts from a sense of need. But God eternally needs nothing!

And yet in His love God did want to share His life with you and with me. Out of the Fullness that is God there came this act of Creation and Love and Giving. God's goodness and His love are the best reasons we can grasp at the "why" of salvation. And God stooped to breath His image and likeness into clay.

[From that fullness, the completeness of the Godhead,]

II. JESUS DESCENDED TO WHERE WE ARE AND HAS IDENTIFIED WITH US

He came fully experiencing our finite humanity. He was somehow limited in understanding, for the Bible tells us that Jesus grew in stature as well as in wisdom. He knew weakness, for we read how Jesus was wearied, and hungry, and faint. He knew temptation, in all points even as we are tempted.

At this level of complete humanness Jesus fully identified with us:

  1. By being fully Jewish. We don't think of Jesus as a Jew first, we think of Him as the new Adam, leading us into a humanity that is perfected. But while Jesus was on earth, He was subject to the laws and customs of His human ancestry. He was circumcised the eighth day. He was subject to His parents, even when they did not understand him in the Temple when He was twelve years old. He was faithful in His growing years to the synagogue and public worship.
  2. By being baptized by John, who was baptizing people for the remission of sins. II Corinthians 5:21 says "God made (Jesus) to be sin for us, even though He knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And this identification with sinners, this bearing of the weight of sin, was manifested in His public baptism.
  3. By His manifest compassion for us after His anointing with the Spirit. Jesus cared for us! For little children. For the rich young ruler. For the multitudes. For Jerusalem. For you! Just about the only people Jesus did not have patience with were the people who were so holy in themselves that they didn't need a Savior.
  4. As He taught with precept and story, but always with great Authority! He was the Liberator from the mind-games and the institutional rigor mortis of the self-righteous dead. He taught people how to give of themselves and be audaciously happy! "Blessed are the poor in spirit!" he said.
  5. And Jesus fully identified with us: (finally) By becoming our Paschal Lamb!

    He took my sins and my sorrows,
    He made them His very own;
    He bore the burden to Calvary
    And suffered and died alone!

[But where is Jesus just NOW?]

III. THE ASCENSION OF JESUS ENDED IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE GODHEAD

Jesus came all the way to where we are; then He returned to the glory that was His before the worlds began:

[John 17:4,5 "Jesus: "I glorified Thee (God the Father) on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.

"And now, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."]

But now there is one difference: HE CAME DOWN IN ORDER TO BRING US UP!

[Ephesians 2:6 (God) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ."

Jesus who has been seated with the Father [Ephesians 1:20 "(God) wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places."], brings US into that fellowship with Himself!

JESUS INVITES US, NOW, TO IDENTIFY WITH HIM: But how?

  1. WE MUST BE CALLED! And then it takes a leap of faith to follow! Faith calls to faith.

    How might we have recognized Jesus as Messiah then? How do we recognize Him now? [Is Jesus calling YOU? "Follow Me!"]

  2. WE MUST RESPOND TO GRACE BY FAITH! It is a humbling thing to be died for! "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." (John 3:14)

    WE SIMPLY LOOK TO JESUS IN FAITH! [Numbers 21: the story of the fiery serpents in the wilderness; and the serpent of brass]

    1. This "look of faith" is a look of helplessness! (As in AA!)
    2. But it is also a look of HOPE!
    3. And it IS the look of LIFE! When we respond, and identify with Jesus in His humiliation, and begin to understand that He has died for us, we begin to find that we are already bound to Him for all eternity in His glorious exaltation.

ALREADY, HERE AND NOW, BEFORE WE DIE AND GO TO HEAVEN, THE POWER AND THE GUILT OF SIN ARE BROKEN WHEN WE IDENTIFY WITH JESUS.

Paul put it this way (Galatians 2:20) "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me! And the life I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me!"

CONCLUSION:

  1. THIS WILL BE a glorious Creation when Jesus Christ renews this Universe and we see new heavens and a new earth that is totally in harmony with the holiness and the glory of God. We will be a part of that new Kingdom of Love and Light.
  2. BUT RIGHT HERE AND NOW the Kingdom of God breaks in on us because of Christ's descent to where we are in order to bring us up to where He is.
  3. HOW ARE WE TO RESPOND to the descent and the exaltation of our Lord, when we begin to see that Jesus came down from heaven's glory because he loved us, and that He has taken His seat at the right hand of the Throne of Glory that He might bring us there with Him? There is only one way:

    "Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise!"

    1. We can praise Jesus with the love of our hearts. We can praise Jesus with the words of our lips, both to each other, and
    2. We can (sometimes) praise Jesus by letting Him descend in us and through us to where there is sin and need, and, introducing Him there, watching Him bring His exaltation and victory where there has been defeat.

(Final summary:) THIS GLORY IS A FUTURE REALITY! "It doth not yet appear what we shall be! " and "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself!"

BUT IT IS ALSO FINISHED FACT, AND PRESENT SPIRITUAL REALITY: (Colossians 3:1-4)"If you then have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

Lifted up was He to die "It is finished!" was His cry. Now in heav'n exalted high: Hallelujah! What a Savior!

#71 (Words only; different tune) I Will Sing of My Redeemer