Jesus - God Left Heaven to Become a Man

Well, like I said earlier in our scripture reading, we're starting a new Christmas series, and I am titling this series, "The Incarnation of God." Of course, Jesus has to be in that series title. So it is Jesus, the incarnation of God. Although I read some verses in the Gospel of John earlier, in the message will be in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11. And I'm sure you've marked your place there in Philippians, if you would. Turn to the book of Philippians, and I want us to look at these verses together, starting in verse 5.

Now usually I'm preaching from my English Standard version, but this week as I was doing some studying, even the weeks before, I just picked up my old New American standards. So if it reads a little different than you're accustomed to, I apologize. Start with verse 5. Paul says, "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 He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Verse 9, "Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and He bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Now here before us in these passages, we really have some of the most important teaching concerning the greatest thing that God ever did for mankind. That would be God becoming a man. That's the incarnation.

It's commonly called the incarnation. And this teaching is a part of a correct understanding of the person of Christ. For us to have a correct understanding of the person of Christ, we must have a correct understanding of what? The incarnation. Understanding the incarnation is a part of possessing what theologians call a proper Christology. We've dealt with much of that in the past, especially in our study through the Gospel of John. And if we miss the mark here on the incarnation, really we create a faulty Christology, and we really can't even shipwreck the faith. And we're not going to do that.

But on a more practical level, and some of you would say a more relevant level, most of us here are turning our attention to Christmas. We've discussed that. Some of you here are beginning to enjoy the Christmas season already, while some of you are not quite over Thanksgiving yet. But think about it. Although we may all live out this time of the year differently, we are and we'll be celebrating all that Christmas means to us. I made a little short list of things that we do when we celebrate Christmas. You know, Christmas can be a wonderful time of family. We can get together with family at Christmas.

That can be a part of celebrating Christmas. Now for me, I cannot imagine celebrating Christmas without a lot of family. But you know, I have known people that Christmas is a sad time because of family. And you know, sometimes Christmas can involve feasting, can it not? I mean, that's just kind of what we do. We feast at Thanksgiving and we catch our breath and then we start feasting at Christmas. And that's all good and fine. We learn in our study of Proverbs that there are times of feasting and times of fasting. And we eat in moderation in between. And in our culture, a part of celebrating Christmas is presents. I mean, we give gifts.

Those are good things. We have time off. Sometimes we enjoy recreation. Some of you have certain family traditions that you just adhere to throughout the years. I was talking with my mother this week at Thanksgiving and she was explaining to me a tradition that I have heard her talk about before. When she was a little girl, her dad always went on the family farm, probably dodged a few cows and cut down a Christmas tree for Christmas. And it was the tradition. And she said, I don't know why it was me, but I was always the one that went out to cut the Christmas tree. Some of us travel. I know people who have trips at Christmas.

But what am I trying to show you? We all live out this time of the year different. And I think that you would see and agree that we can all live out Christmas different as we celebrate what Christmas means to us. But the one thing we certainly should celebrate at Christmas is the incarnation. Truthfully, the incarnation is Christmas. Most everything else we celebrate is an add-on. Now I don't mean that that's necessarily bad, but it's not essential to a biblical celebration of Christmas. The contrast I give you will help you see what I mean. We could celebrate with family. We could celebrate Christmas with food.

And we could celebrate with all of our traditions and miss out on celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. But you know, we could be all alone. We could have little or no food. And we could have no earthly pleasures. But if we celebrate the incarnation at Christmas, then we have truly celebrated Christmas. Well, in our verses this morning, we have a brief but profound explanation of how the promised Messiah written about all throughout the Old Testament came down from heaven and He became a man. We have the second person of the Trinity becoming a man. That would be God the Son becoming a man, Jesus. Simply He was born a baby.

He lived as a man. Ultimately, He died as a man to provide redemption for mankind. And in the end, He rose from the dead and He went back to heaven. And that is the incarnation, which is the greatest thing that man ever did. And that must be central to Christmas. And that's the theme of what we're going to examine this morning. And when I say theme, I mean the theme of the message and the title of the message. We have Jesus, God leaving heaven to become a man. Now if you would, let's turn our attention to our scripture again. And I want to make a few broad observations. I want to make a few broad observations. First we have the practical.

If you look at verse 5, it's all about the practical. Paul is writing to people. He's saying, "Have this attitude in yourselves." But then it becomes very theological real quickly. And we see that starting in verse 6. Now practically, we have the Apostle Paul and he's writing to a church. This is a local church. This is the church located in the city of Philippi. And this was a church with real people and real needs. And so Paul had a very practical purpose in all that he is writing here. But then theologically, we have Paul explaining certain things that took place in the incarnation.

Theologically Paul is explaining some profound truths really that have confused even the brightest of minds. Some of these things we can never explain fully. But back to the practical. The theological was for a much needed practical purpose in their lives. These theological truths were not revealed to swell the head or to foster some sort of spiritual ego. These theological truths were to be practically worked out in the lives of these people. But more importantly, these deep theological truths had a practical purpose for church life. Not just individual life, but church life. So we will see the practical and the theological.

They are separate, but in many ways they are inseparable. Now in the message, we will cover the theological first. That's just the way it hit me this week, in the previous weeks. And within the theological passages, we have two sides of things. First we have what God the Son did in the incarnation. Then we have what God the Father did in the incarnation. That's how I'll start us off. And then we'll get into the practical. We'll go back up to verse 5. It'll be more simplistic and it will be a little quicker. So I'm giving you how we will break down these verses. So first we have what I'm calling a purposeful humiliation.

And that might surprise some of you. We have out of verses 6 to 8 a purposeful humiliation. Look back at verse 6 with me. And let's read down to verse 8. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. God 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 in becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So in these verses, verses 6 to 8, we have a purposeful humiliation of God the Son by God the Son.

Now out of these verses there are 8 different things that Jesus did in humbling himself. Yes I did say 8. Now I'll be rather quick here, I promise, or I'll try. Don't hold my feet to the fire. Now before we get into the how. How Jesus humbled himself, we must see who Jesus was and is. We see this in the beginning of verse 6. Go back to verse 6. Who although he existed in the form of God. Here we see that before Jesus humbled himself in any way, he was God. By his very nature he was fully God. The word existed that I'm reading from here in the New American Standard speaks to a previous existence and a continued existence.

Simply Jesus existed as God before the incarnation, during the incarnation, and after the incarnation. He has always existed as God, unaltered, unchanged, always the same. And this phrase form of God speaks to an outward manifestation of an inward reality and truth. Simply before the incarnation that would be Jesus becoming a man. In all eternity past Jesus existed in the form of God, equal with God the Father in every way. In his being and nature he always was, is, and always will be fully divine. And we can't make the mistake of thinking Jesus simply resembled God or was some type of copy of God. No that's not the truth of the matter.

He truly was and is and always will be God in the truest sense. Remember the one verse we read earlier? John 1.1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So we see who Jesus was and is and always will be. He has always existed as God in his very nature and being. He has never changed, he's never been altered in any way. And this God humbled himself to become a man and in so doing Paul shows us eight different things that God the Son willingly, purposely did in his incarnation. First we see that Jesus did not consider equality with God. We see that in the beginning of verse 6.

He did not consider equality with God. Now here we must distinguish between two things and this is very important. First Christ's person and second Christ's position. As to Christ's person we have seen that he was, he always has been and he always will be God. It is and always will be impossible for Christ Jesus to give up his person. But positionally, positionally equality is entirely different. Therefore Jesus did not consider this position that he enjoyed in eternity past something that he had to hold on to.

As one writer I read this week said, "When a world of lost mankind needed to be redeemed, he," that's Jesus, "was willing to relinquish his positional equality with God." And then Jesus emptied himself. You see that's at the beginning of verse 7, "He emptied himself." Now a question, what does it mean for Jesus to empty himself? This sounds strange and it can be very confusing. Really this can be confusing but it is simple. Jesus emptied himself of what? Of his positional equality with God. He veiled or recovered his deity in human flesh and the next phrase highlights this reality. First he empties himself taking on the form of what?

A bond servant. We're going to see that really mean slave. And then third, Jesus took on the form of a bond servant. Look back at verse 7, "But he emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant." Now it wasn't just that he emptied himself and became a human in flesh. There is a descent here and I think you'll begin to see that. He came as a man and he took on the form of a bond servant better translated as a slave. And although he inherently had the form of God, he took upon himself the very nature of a slave in its fullest sense. Now we learned this last week. In their culture, a slave owned nothing.

Everything the slave had, everything that he ever was, it belonged to who? His master, even his life. And that's what Jesus became, a slave. I ran across a list in some study this week and I just jotted it down. Notice how much he gave up. He had to borrow a donkey when he rode in the town on the Passover. He had to borrow an upper room when he wanted to celebrate the Last Supper. He had to borrow a tomb when he died. What am I trying to show you? He owned nothing because he was a slave. He had emptied himself and he had become a slave in every way. But fourth Jesus was made in the likeness of men. We see that in the end of verse 7.

Here we see that the very Christ which was preexistent put on flesh and truly became a man. We see this in his miraculous conception and this virgin birth. It was God himself that caused the virgin to conceive and to give birth to the Christ child. And this was real flesh. This was real blood, the Christ child. And this word likeness speaks to that which is made to be like something else in reality. He did not simply appear to be a man. He was a man in flesh and in blood. And then fifth, Jesus was found in appearance as a man, the beginning of verse 8. Here we see a continuation of Jesus being made in the likeness of men. Jesus was found.

Jesus was seen. He was recognized as a man by all of those who interacted with him during his, what, his incarnation. And they saw and understood that he was indeed a man, but yet they saw that he was more than a man. Why? Because he was the God man. Now before I continue, notice how we've seen this descent. I mentioned the descent. God, God the son did not consider equality with God something to be held onto. So he emptied himself of his positional equality with God. He left the glories of heaven and he took on flesh becoming a man. Oh, but not just a man.

He became a slave in every way and being a man and slave in his likeness and in his appearance as he revealed himself to mankind, the incarnation. But let's continue. Sixth, Jesus humbled himself. Look back at verse 8 and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Here we move from Jesus and his nature to Jesus and his attitude. We have seen that he humbled himself lower than God. Yes. But we will also see that he willingly lowered himself even lower than other men, which is what the willing slave does.

You see, he lowered himself below God and he lowered himself even lower than other men because that's what a willing slave does. But Jesus went even lower because he became seventh, obedient to death. In perfect humility, Jesus was obedient even to death because it was God the Father's will to put God the Son to death. And we see this expressed all throughout the scriptures. What did Jesus pray? He prayed if the cup could pass by him, this cup of death. But ultimately what did he pray? It's not my will, Father, but it is your will. And then eighth, last, Jesus even died on a cross.

Here we see that Jesus willingly chose to become even lower in death. He died the lowest, the most shameful death, crucifixion. This death was an execution and this death was an execution for criminals. This death was an execution for murderers. As one writer said it, "Heaven's best was not allowed to die a natural death or even an accidental death, but a shameful death, a shameful death on a cross." So notice what we have seen here. Really this was a lot and there's a lot more that I could say. We've really had a fast flyover. When a world of lost sinners was wallowing in sin, he was willing.

When God the Father desired to save lost sinners, he was willing. God the Son willingly and purposely turned his back on his position of equality with God. He left his position in glory to come to earth as a man. He emptied himself as he became a man and even more. He became a slave and even more. He humbled himself below God and below man. He humbled himself to death, even the lowest of deaths. He humbled himself to die as a criminal. Ultimately, 1 Peter 3, 18 says it, "The just died for the unjust." That's the incarnation. God became a man to die in the place of man, to reconcile men to himself, all out of obedience to God the Father.

And listen folks, it's all right that we celebrate Christmas in all of these ways. It's all good. I mean as we celebrate Christmas with family, as we celebrate Christmas in feasting, as we celebrate Christmas with gifts, as we take time off for work, maybe even a vacation, as we enjoy even recreation and our traditions, it's all good to celebrate Christmas in this way. But the real meaning of Christmas is the incarnation. God became a man and we must make the incarnation the central celebration of Christmas. Let me repeat that. We must make the incarnation the central celebration of our Christmas. We must.

Now, one more question and application before we move on. How might we make the incarnation the central celebration of our Christmas? We're all different. But how? How might we make the incarnation central to our celebration of Christmas personally and everything that we do, but also in our families? So next we have number two, what I'm calling a powerful exaltation, a powerful exaltation. Let's read verses nine on down to verse 11.

"Therefore," see the transition, "also God highly exalted him," that's Christ, "and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Now here in verses nine to 11 we have a powerful exaltation of God the Son, noticed by God the Father. Now starting in verse nine, we have a very abrupt and noticeable change. I think you saw that. Whereas in verses six to eight, they were all about Jesus in the incarnation.

Here in verses nine to 11, it's all about God the Father and what he did in the incarnation. Now in these verses we see four things about Christ and this exaltation. First the source and the size of the exaltation. We see this at the beginning of verse nine, the source and the size. "Therefore God highly exalted him," now from a quick glance of the verse, "it is easy to see that God the Father, he exalted God the Son." Yes, but notice what I call the size of the exaltation. Jesus was highly exalted. He was lifted up in a magnificent and miraculous manner. First, in his resurrection from the dead. Second, in his ascension back to the Father.

And then third, in his coronation as King. At the great commission he stated what? All power and authority. Only kings say those words folks. All power and all authority has been given to him. This was all done by God the Father and it is seen in this great exaltation. And then second, the title of Christ's exaltation. What does the verse say? "Therefore God highly exalted him and bestowed or gave on him the name which is above every name." Here we see that God bestowed. He gave to his Son a name that is above every name. Jesus completely and he fully obeyed God the Father's will.

He completely and fully fulfilled the Father's plan to redeem mankind. And because of his perfect obedience God the Father gave God the Son a name which is above all names. I like how John MacArthur says it. This name was given to him to emphasize his rank above all themes. But then third, the response to Christ's exaltation. I really do want us to read those verses. Verse 10 and in the beginning of verse 11.

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth, those who are under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Here we see that every living being in the universe will be called upon and compelled to worship Jesus as Lord. And this includes many folks. Revelation 4 2 to 11 tells us that this includes the angels in heaven and the redeemed who have gone on before us to heaven. Romans 10 9 says that this includes the redeemed who are left on earth. Second Thessalonians 1 7 to 9 tells us that this includes the unredeemed left on the earth.

And 1 Peter 3 18 to 22 says that this includes even the demons and lost humanity who have gone to hell. And then fourth, the purpose of the exaltation. Look at the end of verse 11. "And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Here we go to the glory of God the Father. Really folks, this is the purpose of it all. The purpose of the incarnation was to redeem lost humanity. And because of Christ's obedience, God the Father exalted His Son and He gave Him a name which is above all names because He possessed all power and all authority. And He has even exalted His Son as judge of all of the world. Why?

For the glory of God the Father. Ultimately, this is all for the glory of God. And so notice what we have here. We see this magnificent and miraculous exaltation. We see that God the Father exalts God the Son to a place higher than any being in the universe. The judge of all humanity, even the angels in heaven and even the angels who have fallen. He has exalted and given a name which is greater than the name of any being who has ever lived. Remember His rank. His rank and name is above all other beings. And listen folks, this is a part of the Christmas story as well. You need to be reminded here that God did not leave Jesus in the manger.

And He did not take Him to the cross and leave Him there on the cross. And He did not take His Son to the tomb and leave Him there in the borrowed tomb. He exalted Him to the greatest of names. He exalted Him to the highest of places. In this same Jesus that was and is the Christ child of the incarnation, He will judge the earth. He will judge the earth. And listen folks, it's one thing to stand in front of the Son of God while He's in a manger. But it's a whole another proposition. It's a whole entire, entirely different thing to stand in front of the Son of God who is exalted and He is on His throne.

Listen folks, don't stand before His throne not being redeemed. Standing before Jesus in a manger is one thing when you're a lost man. But if you don't know Christ, don't leave this earth and ultimately stand before this Jesus while He is on His throne. Now how might we make the incarnation and Christ's exaltation the central celebration of Christmas? How? I mean, think about it. How might we take what we've learned, yes the incarnation and the exaltation which is a part of the entire story. How might we make that a central part of the celebration of Christmas in our personal lives and in our family lives?

Now I want to move to the third part. Last we see a practical application. You might say, "Pastor, why did you take verse 5 out of order?" Well, forgive me, it just kind of happened that way for me. But here in verse 5, and really a lot more of the verses, there's a lot more going on here with this practical application. It's a lot more than what we see in verse 5. But I want us to read verse 5 and I think you'll see the practical aspect of this verse. Have this attitude in yourselves and some of the language study that I did, this word yourselves is plural, it's not one individual, it's the church.

And what Paul is saying is, "Church, have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus and the rest of the theological explanation shows us Christ's attitude." We have a practical application of the teaching. Here we have the Apostle Paul writing to the church. Where? The church there at Philippi. And this was a real church with real people, real individual spiritual needs. This was a real church with real people and real corporate spiritual needs. And this great theological teaching was a part of the great practical teaching. The theological and the practical are separate, but yet they are inseparable.

Now practically, to use that word again, what's the point? Paul wasn't setting out to write a great theological paper explaining the incarnation, although that's just what he did. He wasn't trying to set forth a list of great theological realities about the incarnation, although that's what he did. But listen, Paul was seeking to correct selfishness in the lives of the believers. Oh, there was a party spirit in the life of the church. There was a little division in the church and in their attitudes. And he was seeking to correct these behaviors and attitudes in the lives of the believers in the church. Real people with real problems.

Well, what was the cure? We've read it. Verse five. What does he say? "Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, the Lord." Simply Paul was seeking to spiritually motivate these believers to live as Jesus did their Lord, how he lived. He gives them the greatest example of humility to motivate them spiritually to seek to possess the same humility in their lives. He knows that Christ's selfless, sacrificial, serving example was the example that they needed to follow. Paul knows that Christ's self-denial, his self-giving, and his self-sacrifice was the example that they needed to see and they needed to embrace.

And listen, folks, this wasn't a theological treatise. This was a theological and practical example to spiritually motivate these believers in this particular church to what? Christ-like behavior. Why? Get rid of the problems. Iron out those issues. Think about repentance, to promote spiritual health in their Christian behavior and in the life of the church, to benefit God's people and the reputation and the work of the church. And for us, we must see that most of the problems in the church can be fixed with a good dose of this teaching. Someone in the life of the church doesn't have a family to celebrate Christmas with, just be a slave.

Put them in your family. Someone in the life of the church doesn't have money to buy presents for their children, just be a slave and bless them. If there are needs in the life of the church, willfully, purposely, empty yourself of self and take on the form of what? A slave. Serve those children in vacation Bible school who need to hear the truth of God's Word so it will form them into the people that God wants them to be. Minister to the ones who are hurting in your small group. You know, you go to small group and someone has problems to your right, someone has problems to your left.

Don't swell up in pride and say, "Oh, I just can't deal with their problems." No, humble yourself as a slave and be used in their lives. Be involved in small groups to minister to people over God's Word and to help them through life. That's just a few examples. But I thought about a practical one. If the floor is dirty, don't complain. Empty yourself of self, find a broom and sweep the floor. All for the glory of God. Listen, folks, the way up is down. The way up in the Christian life is down. The way you are exalted in the Christian life is through humiliation.

On a more personal level, if you have a disagreement with someone in the church, you don't attack them. You don't alienate them. You don't gossip about them behind their back. You empty yourself of self and you go to them and you make things right. You work things out. You know, we've had some folks in the life of the church in the past who needed a good dose of this teaching. Rather than coming to folks and working things out, what did they do? They went behind everybody's back. They talked to this group and that group. And what did it do? It alienated, it divided, and it created parties, and it damaged, and it hurt.

And if you find yourself in a position where you could divide and you can have the party spirit like the Philippians had, don't do what the flesh says. Empty yourself of self and go and make it right. Otherwise, you'll end up doing the very same thing that Paul was trying to fix in the life of the Philippian church. Now as I begin to close, what have we studied? God left heaven to become a man. Jesus. He did much more than just come as a baby in a manger. Isn't that right? I think you see it. Yes, we live out this time of the year differently. We do different things at Christmas.

In many ways, we all celebrate Christmas in different ways, and that's all good. If family is a big part of your Christmas, do it. Celebrate with Christmas. Be with your family. Do it all for the glory of God because family is a gift. And listen, if eating is a big part of how you celebrate Christmas, listen, do it all for the glory of God. Who's a gift from God? There are times of feasting and times of fasting, but in between, we eat in moderation. But do it for the glory of God. If recreation is a part of your Christmas, if vacation is a part of your Christmas, listen, time off. Do it all for the glory of God.

You may say, "Pastor, how do I do these things?" Even giving gifts to others and do it all for the glory of God. How? How you're making the incarnation and the exaltation of Christ central in your celebration of Christmas. The incarnation and the exaltation take center stage in all that you do and share it with others. Share with brothers and sisters in Christ how you're making the incarnation and the exaltation of Christ the centerpiece of your Christian Christmas life. Now I don't mean to bring up politics. You know, there are two things that divide people, politics and religion. I'm losing out on the religion part.

I usually try to stay away from the politics. But I couldn't help but think about an example. I think we all know that our president, Donald Trump, has a famous slogan. We have seen it on those big red trucker hats. I don't really look good in a trucker hat. But what is the slogan? Make America great again? Well, for us, let's make Christmas great again. Let's make Christmas great again by making the incarnation and the exaltation of Christ central to our celebration of Christmas. Listen, folks, God left heaven and he became a man. It's the greatest thing that he ever did for mankind.

Let's let God get the glory in our Christmas season that he deserves. Let's pray.