The Exalted Christ #1

The resurrection, the ascension, His session at God's right hand, and His second coming. We call all of that the exaltation of Christ. And here's what we need to see today. Hello, and welcome again to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I'm Bill Wright. When Jesus willingly gave His own life as payment for our sins, it was the ultimate act of humility. Today, we'll begin a message that will show us what God the Father's response was to such an incredible sacrifice. And later, we'll see how we should respond as we come to understand the world-shaking impact of what Jesus did for us more than 2,000 years ago on the cross of Calvary. Open your Bible to Philippians chapter 2 for part 1 of a message called Exalted Christ.

Here's Don Green in the Truth Pulpit. Look at Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of 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. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

We looked at verses five through eight and considered what we titled the humble Christ. We saw Christ in his humiliation as he took on human flesh, as he lived under the law, as he suffered earthly affliction and rejection, went to the cross, bore our sins, was buried and suffered under the realm of death for a period of time, thoroughly humbled, thoroughly far below the greatness of his pre-incarnate glory. That's how great the humility of Christ is that he did that, that he was willing to undergo that in obedience to his Father, that he was willing to undergo that for the redemption of his people. The incomprehensible glory of Christ is revealed in his incarnation and in his humiliation. The fact that God is so high and lofty that he must stoop down to look upon creation, that all of the universe and the majesty of the celestial bodies is beneath him as creator, for a God like that to step down like that is a revelation of his glory.

He is majestic in his humility. If that was all that we had, we would worship him and honor him and he'd be worthy of our praise and adoration forever and ever without end. That a God of glory would be a God of humility, a God of condescension would come down to live amongst sinful rebels against him for their well-being, there's nothing like that in humanity apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. The text that we looked at last time ended at the death of Christ. Today's text that we're going to look at rises in glory. We saw last time the humble Christ. If you want to put a title on this message in your notes, it's the exalted Christ. We've seen the humiliation of Christ, now we see the exaltation of Christ. And look at it there again in verses 9 and 11 with that introduction stated, for this reason also, because Christ humbled himself like he did, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.

So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What we see in this text are two responses to the humiliation of Christ, two responses to the humbling of Christ and what the outworking and what the consequence is of his great work in his condescension, his incarnation, and in the atoning work by which he satisfied the justice of God that required payment, required penalty upon sinners if they were ever to be reconciled to him. Christ humbled himself to do that, and we love him and we worship him for that, but that humiliation was not the end of the story.

It's set in motion in human time. It set in motion a long unfolding of consequences that will reverberate throughout all of eternity. You cannot hear about the humbled Christ and not respond to it. There are consequences for every man, woman, and child that have ever lived to the humiliation of Christ, but before Paul talks about the human response, he speaks first of all of the response of God the Father. He speaks of the response of God the Father. That's the first point if you're taking notes.

We're looking at two responses today. Because Christ, the second person of the Trinity, because the eternal Son of God voluntarily humbled himself, God the Father exalted him and raised him on high. Look at verse nine. It is a shorthand verse for many profound aspects of what happened to Christ and what Christ did after his resurrection. Verse nine, for this reason also God highly exalted him. God the Father highly exalted God the Son. You see a distinction in the persons of the Trinity there.

And bestowed on him the name which is above every name. You know, human lips are not worthy to preach the Scriptures. It's only a gift of God that we have a Bible in our hands and that any of us are able to read it and to speak about it in any setting whatsoever.

Human lips are just not worthy of it. It's only by the grace of God that we come to Scripture and are able to read it. But here in particular to talk about the exaltation of Christ, we come to particularly holy ground. If the burning bush for Moses was holy ground that required him to remove his sandals, I want to tell you that we're on infinitely higher ground as we talk about the person of Christ. And as we are speaking about his exaltation, it is appropriate for us to humble our hearts and to receive the Word of God in a repentant spirit that mourns over sin and is eager to embrace the worship of Christ to the highest degree forever without end.

That's an introduction to the significance of the text that is before us. And so God exalted him. The Father elevated Christ in superlative, highest possible degree.

How so? Well, we won't take time to look at all the Scriptures. If you will, the course of Christ's subsequent life is known, these facts are known to you, and so we can just refer to them briefly. What did the Father do? He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. By supernatural power, God raised his Son out of death and into life, Acts 2 24. A short time later, Christ ascended into heaven.

He supernaturally rose from the earth, supernaturally ascended into the skies and took his seat at the right hand of God. As men looked on in wonder and astonishment at such a magnificent act, Acts 1 verses 9 to 11, Christ ascended into heaven. Scripture tells us that Christ now sits at the right hand of God in glory. Look over at Acts chapter 2.

I want to spend just a moment considering this text, Acts chapter 2. And so Christ is resurrected. Christ is ascended into heaven.

He now sits at the right hand of God in glory. Verse 32 of Acts chapter 2, this Jesus God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but David himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

That's exaltation. And therefore, verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. And from that right hand of glory, he sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples. At that right hand of glory, Jesus Christ intercedes for his saints. In Hebrews chapter 7 verse 24, it says that Christ always lives to make intercession for them.

We're not done yet. He's resurrected. He's ascended. He's at the right hand of glory.

He's interceding for the saints. And we haven't talked about all of his exaltation even at that. As magnificent and wonderful as that is, that's not all.

That's not all. Because one day Jesus Christ will return to judge the world and usher in a new age. As he ascended, so he will return and make his presence known. And then we'll see who's king.

Then we will see who the real leader is. We call all of this the resurrection, the ascension, his session at God's right hand, and his second coming. We call all of that the exaltation of Christ. The exaltation of Christ is a shorthand term for all of those individual aspects of his glory that we have just rehearsed.

And here's what we need to see today. This is what we need to consider deep in our own hearts, is that the humiliation of Christ is over, and he is now in a state of transcendent glory. And God, in response to the humiliation of Christ, blessed him, as it were, blessed his son with that exaltation. And God the Father also granted a name to correspond to this high state that Jesus Christ holds. Look at Philippians chapter 2 again, verses 9 and 10.

Verses 9 and 10. For this reason also God highly exalted him, and, he went further, something additional to be joined with the exaltation, he bestowed on him the name, which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Three times in those first two verses, Paul emphasizes the name.

Look at it there. He bestowed on him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Now, you and I are used to thinking of a name in a different sense and a different context. We just use a name as the designation by which we recognize and call each other, and the name doesn't have a same sense of conveying a significance about the character of a man that it did in biblical times. You know, my name Don doesn't mean anything to you beyond that's what my parents called me at birth.

It doesn't communicate anything to you about my character or anything like that. Not so with Christ and the emphasis on his name. As we've said many times from this pulpit, in biblical theology, in biblical terms, the name communicated something about the very character and essence of the man who held that name. And so when Paul is talking about the name, he's talking about a designation that expresses the fullness of who Jesus Christ is. And in response to his humiliation, and in conjunction with his exaltation, God recognized and assigned to Christ the name by which he is called, and what is that name?

What is that name? Well, the climax of the passage is there in verse 11, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord. This word Lord in the New Testament translates the divine name Yahweh in the Greek Old Testament. This word Lord, let me repeat myself because I stumbled yet again, this word Lord translates Yahweh in the Greek Old Testament.

Old Testament originally written in Hebrew, a couple of centuries before Christ, they translated the Old Testament into Greek. The Hebrew name for God, Yahweh, I'm oversimplifying here, Yahweh, the Greeks saw that name and used this word Lord, kurios in the Greek, to translate that name. And so it's a name that expresses deity. And so the Father's response to Christ's humiliation was to exalt him and to assign the name Lord to him, that this is the name by which he shall be addressed. And that name therefore, watch this, that name indicates that Christ possesses all the qualities, powers, and attributes of absolute deity without exception and without diminishment.

Christ shares the full essence of deity and he always has in the same way that the Father always has. The one essence of the Trinity shared equally by three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the name Lord recognizes that when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the reason that God did this, the reason that God granted such a name like that to Jesus was this.

God granted the name to him so that he will be honored in the highest and most superlative manner possible by all of intelligent creation. To call Jesus Lord is to call him God. And to call him God is to say that he has all of the attributes of deity. He is a very essence deity himself. And because that is who he is, all of creation is to respond into giving him honor and worship and recognition of his high and superlative position. Jesus Christ has, listen, listen, listen, listen. Jesus Christ has full undiminished glory, full undiminished honor, and full undiminished power at the right hand of God.

That is who he is. Look over at Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. And before we read this text, my friends, let me just give you a little word of encouragement and exhortation and application, shall I?

The fact that Jesus Christ is who he is, the fact that he possesses all of the qualities, powers, and attributes of absolute deity because he is at the right hand of God in glory, where he exercises all power over all things. Do you see, my friends, that if that means anything at all, if that's true at all, and it is, that Jesus Christ is not to be trifled with? That you don't trifle with that kind of exalted glory?

You don't trifle with one like that? You don't treat him lightly? That there is a sense in which we recognize his exaltation, and in his exaltation, we come to him with a sense of holy reverence and fear and a sense of worship because of who he is? Oh, we love him and appreciate the fact and we depend upon the fact that he is the friend and savior of sinners, but we never so forget his exaltation that that makes us deal with him on less than holy terms. Christ is Lord. He is exalted, and that must be reflected in the way that your heart responds to him. And speaking further, it should be reflected in the way the entire church of Jesus Christ responds to him, and it should be reflected in the way the churches conduct their worship even, that there would be an atmosphere of holiness and reverence and worship that attends the proclamation of the word of Christ.

How could it be any other way than that if that's who he is and he is exalted such as he is? So, Ephesians 1, verses 19 through 21, we see this passage also from the pen of Paul, explaining to us the nature of the exaltation of Christ. He's praying for the Ephesians here, that they would understand something of the majesty of who Christ is, and certainly a message like this needs the attending prayers of all of God's people because you and I, you know, we're just too dull to appreciate the full significance of this.

We're sluggish, we're sinful, we're indifferent to things that should capture our highest thoughts and imaginations, and we're slow and sluggish to hear it all, and we don't even have a mind. Our sinful minds, our sinful created minds don't have the capacity to grasp the full significance of the things that we're talking about here today. And so even as we're here in this room in this hour, we need the help of the Holy Spirit, of which Paul prays, to help us grasp something of the reality of it, to lift us beyond our natural mind, and with supernatural help be able to grasp something that goes beyond our meager abilities. And so Paul says in verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. Paul says, I'm praying for a work of God that you could understand that which you otherwise would miss.

It's humbling to realize that we are so cold and indifferent to such great spiritual realities, isn't it? And so he goes on and says in the middle of verse 19, these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. And every name that is named, see the emphasis on the name again, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. It's not just now, it's not just this time before the coming of Christ, this echoes throughout all of eternity in the ages yet to come. That's how great the exaltation and that's how far-reaching the consequences of the exaltation of Christ are.

Verse 22, he put all things in subjection under his feet, gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. That's Don Green with part one of a message called The Exalted Christ. Well, we hope you've been blessed and edified by today's lesson. If you'd like to hear it again, just go to thetruthpulpit.com. You'll find today's message along with all of Don's teaching. Again, that's thetruthpulpit.com.

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