"What's In A Name?"
Philippians 2:9-11
Sunday, December 22, 2013

Introduction: We are in a study in the book of Philippians, and today I want us to think about “what’s in a name”. If I were to say some names to you, you would have thoughts and reactions based on the name. So let me throw a few names out to you….

Michael Jordan… Lindsay Lohan… Mother Theresa… Miley Cyrus… Nelson Mandela… Jesus Christ…

            What was it that impacted your thinking about each name? Mainly, the way they had lived (or are living) their life. Right? The point I want to make today is that there is something about our name. But even more, there is everything about the name of Jesus Christ! Today we look at Philippians 2:9-11…

            The “therefore” at the beginning of verse 9 refers to everything Paul has said about Jesus up to this point in chapter 2. Jesus lived with humility, not selfishness, giving Himself completely to us. Jesus thought of others before Himself. Jesus left the confines of heaven to take on a human body and the limitations and struggles that came with that body, for your sake and for mine. Jesus died on a cross so that He could take the sins of the world onto Himself, and so that we could have eternal life in Him. THEREFORE, Christ’s name is the name above all names.

            Let us pray…   We have been

I.                   Highly Exalted- (Philippians 2:9)

a.      Born in a manger- One of the profound truths of the Bible is the fact

that Jesus was born in a barn, not a palace. Jesus was born to simple people, not into the family of a king or an influential person. In fact, when Jesus’ parents were looking for a place to have the baby, there was no place to be found. They had to beg just to be able to use the barn. You wonder if Jesus’ parents lamented over having to have Jesus in such a lowly place.

            But this is who Jesus was. As we are told in Matthew 20:28, “Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus’ life was one lived in humility, and yet not weakness. Jesus’ life was one that sought to serve and love His people. Jesus knew that there would be a time when He would be exalted, but His time here on the earth was not that time.

            As a human, Jesus was humbled by the desires and temptations he experienced, unlike anything He had experienced in heaven. But He was able to humble Himself and empty Himself of His desires. By emptying Himself of His desires, and keeping Himself focused on the will of the Father, He was able to live a life of example, and put Himself in the place to die for our sins. This was not without struggle, like when He prayed in anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane. But in the end, Jesus kept Himself humble so that He could be filled with the power and presence of God.

It was Jesus’ humility that allowed Him to be obedient. We need to learn from Jesus’ example. When we are disobedient, we are choosing our own way over God’s. Jesus knew He couldn’t do this and stick to the plan. As Philippians 2:8 tells us, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” Death on a cross is not what any of us would choose for ourselves, including Jesus. But it was a needed event for Jesus to fulfill the plan of saving us from our sins. So obedience was the route that had been chosen for Jesus, and the path He willingly and faithfully followed.

            In humility Jesus lived to glorify the Father. In humility, Jesus lived a life of power, because it enabled Him to walk in the will of the Father and accomplish all that He had come to do! It started in a manger, but Philippians 2 reminds us that it ended in a much different place!!

b.      Name above all names- I think most people care about what others

think about them. I know that I care about what others think when they hear my name. We all want to make a name for ourselves. Some want this more than others. And the way they go about it is by trying to do something spectacular, or awe inspiring, or significant.

            They try and invent something that will make them rich. They try and rise to a position of significance. They try to get themselves in the media in a way that causes others to hear their name. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:26- “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” The problem with trying to make a name for yourself is that you give up your quest for God and substitute it with a quest for notoriety.

            We are told in Philippians 2:9, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.” Jesus was not the one who exalted Himself, but the Father. Jesus was not the one who made His name above all other names. It was the Father. Jesus didn’t live with the purpose of making a name for Himself. Jesus fulfilled the purpose that was given to Him, and in that faithfulness He was exalted to the place of honor He deserved.

            What makes Christ’s name above all other names? There is so much we could say to answer this question. We could do a whole series on the name of Jesus and its significance. But let me highlight a few things that centers around salvation, because this is one of the main points Paul is talking about here in Philippians chapter 2.

First, we are told in  Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: ‘Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (which means God is with us).’”

            Colossians 2:9- “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity (Godness)

                                                lives in bodily form.”

The Scriptures speak plain and clear, Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus proved this to us time and time again….He turned water to wine, He walked on water, He calmed the storm, He healed a blind man, He brought Lazarus back to life!

Why is this so important that we understand that Jesus is God in the flesh? Because unless Jesus is God, He could not be anything more than a good man and a great teacher. He could not be the Savior, because He would not be without sin. Only one without sin could have sacrificed Himself for us to bring us forgiveness of sins, and only God in the flesh could have been sinless.

            2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us- “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

            Second, we read in Matthew 1:21 how an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: “She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus very name means “he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus’ name is above all other names because He is the Savior of the world; He is the Lord of all; He is the King of Kings!

II.                Every Knee Should Bow- (Philippians 2:10)

a.      From humility- Many people have stories of humiliation. Stories of

being dumped in a trash can by the seniors when you were a freshman. Stories of your underwear being hoisted up the flag pole. For some reason, people like to humiliate others. However, this kind of humiliation does not serve a purpose. The humility and humiliation that Jesus experienced was allowed to happen by God for the purpose of Jesus fulfilling the ultimate plan.

            As I said before, Jesus left the confines of heaven to take on flesh. You might take this for granted, but let’s think about that for a moment. Jesus, God the Son, in full glory in heaven; perfect and powerful. He chooses to leave this perfect place to come to the earth, an imperfect place. He chooses to be born; to become helpless. He must rely on others to care for His needs. This is quite the change of circumstances. He goes from being fully God to being fully God and fully human.

In His human form He is limited in many ways. He experiences temptation (but does not sin). He experiences the emotions that any human would experience. He gets tired. He is bound to be at one place at a time. And on and on it goes. You and I might not think this to be humiliating, but if this were forced on Jesus without a purpose, then it would be quite humiliating.

Once He starts His ministry He is questioned, and doubted, and challenged. Something that would never happen if He was in His glorified form. That too could be humiliating. And then ultimately He is hunted down, arrested, ridiculed, beaten, questioned, and crucified! The most humiliating of experiences someone could go through in Jesus’ time!!

            Again, it is easy to miss all that is going on, because we know the story so well. But Jesus allowed Himself to go through all of this because He knew what the outcome would be. In responding to Pilate at His trial, Jesus said in John 19:11, “Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” Jesus, in the midst of all of this humiliation, and in the midst of Pilate lording his power over Jesus, is standing there and accepting it! He does this because He knows that the authority comes from God to carry out the plan that has been enacted!

b.      To exaltation- In my life I have had many times when I was exalted by

what I had done. I remember pitching my baseball teams to important wins and receiving glory for my efforts. I have been able to bless families in their time of need and gotten great appreciation and thanks. And when we receive this exalting, we relish it. But hopefully only for a moment before we realized that there is only One who truly deserves to be exalted!

            So the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus made Himself nothing; He took the form of a servant; He humbled Himself; He experienced death as a criminal on a cross. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He continues on to tell us the full story. He tells us that Jesus is Lord of all. He tells us that Jesus’ name is the name above all names. He tells us that every knee should and will bow down to Him. He tells us that Jesus will be exalted in heaven by the Father.

Jesus will be exalted because He is our Savior. One of the most important things we can do is admit that we need a Savior. This is often difficult to do, because our sin causes us to be hard-hearted and not seek after our Savior.

EX. There is a story of a cow that got her nose stuck in a paint can. She couldn’t shake the can off, and it was causing her difficulty in breathing. Of course, she also couldn’t eat or drink with this can on her nose. So along came some people to rescue her. But you know what she did when she saw the people? SHE RAN. The cow was able to avoid her rescuers for 3 DAYS! They finally had to use a pick-up truck and ropes to corner and de-can the cow.

We are amazed at this story, but this is what we do when we are hard-hearted. We run from God when he tries to rescue us. We need to praise the name of Jesus because He helps us when we are hard-hearted!

Jesus comes to us when we are lost and confused and don’t know which way to turn. Jesus knows which way we need to go, for His is the way, and the truth, and the life. As our Savior He is able to guide us away from that which is destroying us, and bring us to a place of peace, and joy, and love, and hope!

III.             Jesus Christ is Lord- (Philippians 2:11; Luke 1:26-38)

a.      Not just savior, but Lord- But there is one more point that Paul makes

in this passage, and that is that Jesus isn’t just our Savior, He is our Lord. We read in Philippians 2:11, “and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It isn’t enough for us to make Jesus our Savior. That is good, because as I said before we need a savior. That is good because without Jesus as our Savior we could not be in a right relationship with God. Without a Savior we could not spend eternity in heaven.

            But Jesus needs to be our Lord as well, because we are His. Jesus has bought us with a price; the price of His crucifixion. Jesus needs to be our Lord so that we will live the life we have been called to live. As Jesus lived out the will that was given to Him from the Father, so we must live out the will given to us by Jesus, our Lord.

            In our sinful state we really don’t know what is best for us. Left to our own choices and desires, our default mode is to sin. We need Jesus as our Lord to guide us, and direct us, and yes, even to command us! We need to be the humble servant and let Jesus be our mighty Lord. We need to respond as Mary did, as a humble servant. However, Mary’s response wasn’t that way at first.

            In the narrative in Luke 1:26-33 we read about how Mary found out about God’s will for her. The angel comes to her and says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Usually when someone says “Do not be afraid,” you might have reason to be concerned. But Mary is not to be afraid because she has been favored by God and given a wonderful task. Mary did not fully comply with this task immediately. She had some questions; concerns; reservations. In the end Mary’s response in Luke 1:38, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

            We see that Mary acknowledges that she is a servant of the Lord as she has been called to give birth to the Son of God, who is the Lord of all. We cannot exalt Jesus’ name if we do not acknowledge Him to be Lord of all, and if we do not humble ourselves to be His servant!

b.      His name is exalted as Lord- So, Paul concludes this passage by telling

us that Jesus’ name will be exalted because He is the Lord. We are called to “confess” that Jesus is Lord.

            What does it mean to confess? The dictionary tells us it means “to confess ones faults,” or “to declare faith in.” We are called to confess in both of these ways. We are to confess our faults, that we are sinners in need of a savior. But we are also to confess that we declare faith in Jesus to be the One who came to this earth, died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and now reigns in heaven as Lord of all!

            To declare Jesus as the name above all names acknowledges that Jesus is the Only One who could save us from our sins, and as such, has established His place in our lives, in this world, and in heaven. In reality, what we are being told by Paul here is that Jesus is to be our master, and we are to be His slave.

            Why would anyone choose to be a slave? A person who chooses to become a slave is one who loves the master greatly. The person who chooses to be a slave is one who is blessed by being in the service of the master. The person who chooses to be a slave understands who this person truly is, and the greatness of their name.

            To acknowledge Jesus as Lord you have to be willing to give up anything that has control on you. You might not think you are being controlled, but you are. Take for example the rich young ruler in Matthew, chapter 19. He comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell his riches and follow Jesus. Jesus told the man this because Jesus knew that the only way to heaven was for the young ruler to make Jesus his Savior and Lord. But Jesus also knew that his riches were controlling his life. The rich young ruler can do what Jesus tells him to do, and he chooses to leave.  After he leaves Jesus it is said in Matthew 19:22, “He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Do you see what is going on here? The rich young ruler wanted to follow, but he couldn’t because his wealth had power over him; power he couldn’t give up! He couldn’t give Jesus the place of Lord in his life. He couldn’t confess Jesus as Lord.

Conclusion: In a Peanuts coming strip Peppermint Pattie and Marie call Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty starts, by saying:

"Marcie and I are about to leave for camp, Chuck. We're going to be swimming instructors." Then Marcie gets the phone and says, 

                   "We just called to say goodbye, Charles. We're going to miss you. We love you."              At this Peppermint Pattie yells our: "MARCIE!!" Charlie Brown hangs up the phone, and his sister sally asks: "Who was that?" To which Charlie Brown responds: "I think it was a right number."

 

As we think about Christmas coming in just a couple of days, we need to remember that all that Jesus did was because He loved us. He loved us enough to humble Himself and come to this earth, to die for us, and to be our Lord. May we exalt the name of Jesus in Christmas, but even more, every day of our lives, for His name is the name above all names, the name to be highly exalted!! Let us pray…Amen.