BIBLE MESSAGES ON EASTER
Bob Marcaurelle
freesermons@homeorchurchbiblestudy.com
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Message 10
The Christian Faith from A to Z Sermon 26
The Doctrine of Christ Phil. 2:5-11
OUR EXALTED LORD
1. The Ministry of His Life (Acts 10:38; Isa. 66:13).
The ministry of Jesus’ death was primary in importance. He came to “die for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) by offering His sinless life “without blemish” (1 Pet. 1:19) to God. But His life is far more than simply a means to an end. God came to earth to share our humanity (Heb. 2:17-18) and love us face to face, personally. Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth ... went about doing good ... for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). He showed kindness because God is kind. He loved because God is love. Isaiah compared God’s love to a mother’s love (Isa. 66:13) and no mother loves long range, but up close and personal. Following the ministry of His earthly life we have ...
3) The Ministry of His Ascension
(Acts 1:9-11; Phil. 2:5-11; etc.).
Paul, in Phil. 2:5-11 shows the three stages of the life of God’s Son, the last two showing the ministry to us. He shows: (1) His Prior Exaltation - Where He preexisted with the “nature” of God, “equal” to God (2:6). He shows (2) His Humiliation (2:7-8) where Jesus “made Himself nothing” (NIV) and took the “form of a servant” (2:7) and died on a cross (2:8). Because He did, we have (3) The Grand Exaltation (2:9-11) where God gives Jesus heaven’s highest place and name and has all creation bowing before Him as Lord. Today we look at the last two.
I. THE HUMILIATION (Phil. 2:7)
When the pre-existent Son became the God Man He “emptied himself - KJV - made Himself nothing - NIV” (Phil. 2:7). What He gave up has been the subject of endless debate. It is best to see that He gave up nothing of the power that is God’s but voluntarily chose to limit and restrict its use for the purpose of salvation. We saw this in the analogy of the three legged race. What Jesus did give up was the splendor and shelter of His exalted position. Paul said he “took the nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). He said, “He who was rich for our sakes became poor” (2 Cor. 8:9).
Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe
Only His great eternal love made my Savior go
II. THE EXALTATION (Phil. 2:9-11).
1. The Resurrection (Mt. 28; etc., 1 Cor. 15:4-8; Lk. 23:43)
. Paul said because Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient to death on the cross, God “highly exalted Him” (Phil. 2:9). This exaltation was in three steps or stages, the resurrection, the ascension and the seat at God’s right hand.
1) The Fact of the Resurrection.
When Jesus died, His spirit, who He was, went back to God (Lk. 24:46). He took a thief with Him (Lk. 23:43), heard the praises of heaven (Ps. 24) and for some reason went and preached to the spirits of those who disobeyed Noah (1Pet. 3:18). On the third day God (Acts 5:30), the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18) and Jesus (Jn. 2:19), united His spirit with His body and changed it into the kind of resurrection body we who are saved will receive (Phil. 3:21).
It was visible and touchable but not easily recognized (Jn. 20:15) and was not subject to gravity (Acts 1:9-11) or hindered by locked doors (Jn. 20:19).
We take the fact of the resurrection by faith, but it is based on solid historical grounds. Jesus didn’t swoon, He died, the Romans knew how to see to that.
We have the New Testament records of ten or more appearances (Acts 15:1-8).
We have the change of the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, something unthinkable to a Jew.
We have the transformation of the disciples from cowards (Jn. 20:19) to heroes (Acts 5:29), ready to die.
We have the Christian Church built not upon His teachings but upon His life, death, resurrection, ascension, presence with us, and promise to receive us when we die.
2) The Importance of the Resurrection.
Why stress the resurrection of Jesus’ body? Why not be content to say His spirit survived death and touches our spirits today?
First, because God’s word teaches the resurrection of Jesus’ body, in which He ate (Lk. 24:30) and was seen and touched (Jn. 20:17, 27).
Second, because it is vitally important.
It declared Jesus as the true Son of God (Rom. 1:4) and shows that God accepted His sacrifice. Paul says He “was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25), and without it our preaching is in vain (1 Cor. 15:14).
It proves we survive death. Paul says without it we have no hope (1 Cor. 15:8).
It shows us the kind of body we will have. Our body will be “conformed to His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
And sadly, it is a guarantee of judgment upon the lost. Paul said God “has appointed a day in which He will judge the world” by Jesus and “has given assurance of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9). The resurrection was real and after it came step two ...
2. The Ascension (Mk. 16:19; Lk. 20:51-52; Acts 1:9-12)
After forty days of teaching the disciples, Jesus took them to Bethany, a town just outside Jerusalem by the Mount of Olives. There the cloud of God lifted Him up bodily and He slowly disappeared from sight as He was “received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk. 16:19). This leads to step three ...
3.. The Elevation to God’s Right Hand (Heb. 1:3; Mk. 16:19)
1) To Proclaim His Victory
(Col. 2:15; Eph. 4:8; Ps. 68:18; 1 Pet. 3:18-19). Jesus proclaimed His victory:
(1) In Heaven.
Jesus ascended as a Victor over the forces of evil that tempted Him and had beforehand conquered all men. Col. 2:15 says, He “disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them” (Col. 2:15).
Ephesians 4:8, quoting Psalm 68:18 says, “He led captives into captivity” (Eph. 4:8). The picture in both New Testament passages is that of a Roman general returning to Rome in a “Triumph” with captives chained behind him.
By His sinless life, obedient all the way to His sacrificed life, Jesus conquered Satan and all his demons; won the right to every human being and was exalted in heaven because of it. Dr. Herschel Hobbs said this may have had special meaning for Old Testament saints who were “in heaven on credit” waiting for the sacrifice to be made. This was what Peter meant by the gospel being preached to the dead (1 Pet. 4:6), some say.
(2) In Hell (1 Pet. 3:18-19).
Peter tells us that Jesus “made alive by the Spirit went and preached to the spirits in prison who were disobedient ... in the days of Noah” (1 Pet. 3:18, 19). Some say here He “preached the gospel to the dead” (1 Pet. 4:6) and gave them a second chance at salvation. Others say He told them Satan was defeated and that they were hopelessly lost forever. The truth is we do not know what He said, but this tells us Jesus is ruler, Lord of all men, all creatures, all places for all time, even hell.
2) To Present His Sacrifice (Heb. 10:10-12).
In the Old Testament religion, set up by God (Lev. 1:1-2), sinful people could only come to Him by blood sacrifices offered by the Priest (Heb. 5:1; 8:3).
The author of Hebrews says this was a “shadow” (Heb. 10:1) of the cross - the cross was the REAL sacrifice. It says the “blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin” (Heb. 10:5). But Jesus death did. He says, “We have been made holy (acceptable to God) through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all ...After He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time He sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:10-12).
He even pictures Jesus entering heaven’s “Holy of Holies” to present His blood (9:11-12). 1 John 1:7 says the blood keeps on cleansing us from all sin. This does not have to mean there are bloody altars in heaven, red with the blood of Jesus. He with the scars on His blessed body is the living offering for the sins of men. The Bible says “He appears in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24).
3) To Preside Over Heaven and Hell
(Heb. 2:9; Phil. 2:9-10; Heb. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; 1 pet. 3:22).
God the Father has rewarded His Son, Jesus, the highest place in the universe. John 17:5 says Jesus went back to the “glory” He had with the Father before creation. This was his by RIGHT but now as God Man, because of Calvary, He has EARNED the highest place. Paul says, “He was obedient ... even to death on the cross, THEREFORE God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ...” (Phil. 2:9-10).
Hebrews says He “was crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death” (Heb. 2:9). Jesus said He “had to suffer to enter His glory” (Lk. 24:26).
This exalted place is called SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND of God (Heb. 1:22); of power (Mk. 14:62) and of majesty (Heb. 1:3). This is not a literal sitting but word denoting honor and rule. God is Spirit and is not a visible person on a throne (Jn. 4).
The exalted Jesus is seen “standing” (Acts. 7:55) and “walking” among His churches (Rev. 1:13). This is His earned position where “Jesus” is the highest name in the universe, earned on Calvary, As Peter says, “with angels, powers and authorities made subject to Him” (1 Pet. 3:22), the ruler of earth, heaven and hell.
He waits and works through the Holy Spirit and the church until God puts all His enemies under His footstool - a picture of submission (Heb. 1:13).
Then, when the Judgment (Mt. 25; Rev. 20) is over and all beings and men are in heaven or hell (Rev. 21-22), Paul says Jesus “will deliver the Kingdom to God the Father ... the Son will be subject to Him, the one who put all things under Him, so God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:24,28).
We are not to see division here. Right now Jesus is still “under God” accomplishing His mission of redemption, but in the end, God, the Blessed Trinity, will rule as in the beginning, co-equal and co-eternal. God will be “all in all.” Christ, still being human, will reign over us in submission to the will of God, but He will reign as God.
4) To Pray For His People (Heb. 4:14-16; 7:25).
The High Priest in Israel represented the people before God. Jesus, taking human nature into the Godhead, is the perfect high Priest. Hebrews says, “...we have a great High Priest who has passed through heavens ... who can ... sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb. 4:14,15). He tells us to come to the throne for help (Heb. 4:16).
Jesus, he says, “lives forever to make intercession” (Heb. 7:25). This is why we pray in Jesus’ “name” (Jn. 14:13). Our greatest ally and friend in our earthly struggles is Jesus. He knows what we go through. He prays in us through His Spirit (Rom. 8:26) and for us before the Father (Heb. 4:14-16, 7:25). Conclusion: Jesus ascended to
5) To Prepare Us a Place in Heaven (Jn. 14)
6) To Pour Out His Spirit (Acts 2), and ...
7) To Personally Return (Acts 1:11).
These will be studied later, but we see the final reason today ...
8) To Pilot Us To Heaven (Heb. 6:18-20).
Jesus here, in heaven is the “anchor of the soul” (6:19). We, as part of the body of Christ, are anchored to the exalted Jesus and sing,
“Jesus Savior pilot me, over life’s tempestuous sea.”
AND HE WILL! In Him we are eternally secure in our salvation and will “never perish” (Jn. 10:28).
