Title: Most High Name (Philippians 2:5-11)
Contents
(20070114 Sunday afternoon) Philippians 2:5~11
But what about the real church? It is true that it is not. I don't know why you fight so much. We hate each other, we fight with envy and jealousy, and we fight with each other even though we have good ideas.
What would be the reason? The biggest reason is the competitive spirit in the church. And vanity. Vanity is seeking glory in vain. It's not about thinking how God will see this, but about seeking glory in vain when you're conscious of people's gaze, thinking what people will think. Because of this vanity, beautiful exhortations, consolation, compassion, and mercy also become conditions for battle.
The mind is actually a person. It means that the person of Christ must come into our person. Paul does not tell the church to imitate actions or to embrace His Word. Why?
Because hearts and words can be different. Actions or words can be imitated. On the contrary, scammers can speak better and do good things. Cheating with words is really unacceptable. But it is an imitation. It is cheating. But personality is not something that can be imitated. You can learn how to speak in order to impress others and learn manners. However, what the Bible tells us today is, “Have a heart in Christ Jesus, and be like him.”
Who is really great? Are you a good talker in front of others? Are they people who act as if they are doing something big or doing something? Historically, great people have been more than talkers and activists.
Everyone wants to be high. They want to be respected and live a life of competence. I struggle to get ahead. Fight and fight to get higher. How do you feel about the elevated position? Even these days, how many times do we see people who rise to the power of dropping flying birds and then fall with an ugly appearance?
Even the disciples of Jesus quarreled with each other to ascend to high places, and they heard Jesus' rebuke.
“He said, “In your glory, let us sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left.” [38] Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. You may drink the cup of my drink and be baptized with me. [39] They said, "It can be done." Jesus said to him, "You will drink of the cup I drink and be baptized with my baptism. 40 It is not mine to sit at my left or right side, but for whomever it is prepared, they will receive." ” (Mark 10:37-40)
Everyone loves to climb high. There is already a lot of talk about the presidential election. All of the presidential candidates are competing for the top spot. I hope you think that it will be lowered to a position to serve the people. But I'm just trying to climb. Each successive president has seen with his own eyes how miserable he has become, yet he tries to push his colleagues away, thinking that he has nothing to do with him until he is hit. When will this fight end? Does this only happen to those people? Isn't it me and you?
It's actually good to go higher. The power of the world is also very attractive. Isn't it said that even birds that fly in the air are dropped because of how high the authority is? However, when a person who is difficult to climb up to meet and even dare not to look at resigns from his seat and grows older, he becomes an ordinary uncle. Everyone is the same.
So do my parents. Children think of their parents as God. There is no one in the world greater than your parents. But what if those parents get older too? They fall into beings who have to get pocket money from their children to spend. It sounds pitiful, but that's the way the world is. So will all the little kids here.
What do these mean? The glory of the world is that all of them are temporary. The glory of the world is given by God, but it deteriorates over time. fades away. And then it disappears.
However, there are people who have lived the opposite way. He is our Lord Jesus. He is the original being of God, God Himself. But he did not consider equality with God to be robbery; he emptied himself. Among his emptiness, he appeared in the form of a servant, in the form of a man. Christ, who came as a man, took the attitude of obedience to humble service to God the Creator. You obeyed. He was not an ordinary obedience, he was obedient to the point of death. Death was not an ordinary death, but ended his life with the most humiliating and painful death on the cross among the punishments at that time. There seems to be no more hope. Looks like it's over. Enemies call the triumphal dog. But guys, what happened three days later? He broke the authority of death, opened the door of the tomb, and welcomed a glorious resurrection. The Lord took on a glorious body that transcends time and space and was resurrected.
“Therefore God highly exalted him,” giving him a name that is above all names. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow for all creation and those in heaven, on earth and under the earth. And the name you gave him is ‘Lord’. He said that when we call Him Lord, God is glorified.
The humiliation of the Lord is the humiliation of the Creator into creation. No matter how low we are, how low can we be? Even if it is lowered to a protozoan like a cockroach or an amoeba, it is only a lowering of the creature into a creature. The Lord has been humbled by a humiliation that we cannot even imitate. But we must have the heart of the Lord. Only then will the great life of Christ be repeated in us.
We are people who cannot humble ourselves, but sometimes when we are filled with the grace of the Lord, we really try to humble ourselves like the Lord. Then I suddenly think that I am being trampled on by being lowered like this. But please believe that it is not. Have you not experienced many things that the Lord exalts you? The Bible tells us to cast all your anxieties on the Lord.
These are the words given through the apostle Peter. “Everyone, put on each other's clothes of humility. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourself under the hand of God's power. In time, God will exalt you. Leave all your worries to God. God cares for you” (1 Peter 5:5-7).
Heavenly Father exalted you. The Bible says that Jesus is the one who ascended to the highest place in the world. “For this reason God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name” (9).
There is something we cannot understand. It is about how the life of a young man who lived for 33 years became the greatest name in the history of the world. Because Jesus went down to the bottom of hell for us. Why did Jesus roll down to the very bottom of his life, rejecting the status and position that could be glorified forever? What did you do wrong? It was just for love. Jesus gave himself all for me and for you, whom I love. The Lord humbled himself. Then Heavenly Father exalted Him so much. He exalted him, but he exalted his name above all names.
And every knee bowed before him. The knees of beings in heaven, the knees of beings on earth, and the knees of beings below the earth will bow before the name of Jesus. This means that the angels of heaven are kneeling before Jesus. On the other hand, it means that everyone who has ever lived in this world kneels before Jesus. Furthermore, an amazing work will occur when Satan and his men in the abyss kneel before the name of Jesus and confess that Jesus is Lord.
Believers and unbelievers alike, when our Lord returns one day, we will make the same confession. “Jesus, you are truly the Lord.” It's a confession. At that time, please do not force yourself to go and believe from now on with joy and emotion. Jesus is the name worthy to be praised for eternity. We gather today to praise Him.
There is a reason the name of Jesus is so exalted. It is to show who is precious to God. The most honorable person in the sight of God is the person who has given up the most for others. That is great love.
“You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” is the message that teaches us what the mission of the church is. Everyone, even if it is small, I hope that you will make a donation for the mission while praying. There is a man named William Carey who is called the father of world missions.
In 1779, when Carrie was 19, she deeply received the words of Hebrews 13:13 at a prayer meeting. “Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. So, let's go out to him outside the gates with that humiliation.” Through these words, he repented of the lukewarm faith he had lived in compromise with the world in the past, and made a decision to emulate the person of Christ. I pray that I will dedicate my whole life to Christ.
One day, God poured out his passionate love for souls in the East into his heart. He wholeheartedly begins preparing for the unheard of souls. He had several jobs before going to the mission field, such as a soldering iron, a shoemaker, a shoe salesman, and a handyman. He obtained a map of the East and pasted it in the shoe shop where he was working, and whenever he heard news from the East, he scraped it and pasted it.
Despite severe opposition and obstruction, he went to India. Later, he left great achievements such as translating the Bible into Bengali and compiling a Bengali-English dictionary. He became a celebrity because he made a great contribution to the missionary work in India. Later, when he returned to England after a sabbatical, British high society treated him with great hospitality and invited him to various gatherings. But one day at the Queen's dinner, an atheist general asked a question to insult Carrie in front of a large crowd. “Mr William Carey, aren’t you a shoemaker by profession?” "Yes. That's right. It was also working in a sleazy little shop on the outskirts, not a big, big shoe store in the city centre. How confident are you? How arrogant are you? He knew that the true height of life was in God. Those who know God's recognition, love, blessings, and His grace beyond human evaluation are not shaken. Only a humble heart can experience this grace.
“Surely he scorns the haughty, and shows kindness to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34). The glory of the Lord belongs to the humble.
What does God want from us today? He wants the great life of Christ to be repeated in us. In the name of Jesus, I pray that you will become believers who humbly serve the Lord and neighbors.