in all the cities we moved to over the years, didn't always count as a form, as a form, just a form to earth, and she's not a form. That's not a version of form. I'm glad to be back. Glad to see you again. I don't know why you sit so far away from the front, but I wish we had a lapel, Mike. I would come down to you, but now you won't come to Muhammad. Muhammad would be glad to come to the mountain, but I'm glad to be here, and I have an apology to make. Sure, I'm glad you sang that song. I am not going to speak on mothers. The wounds in my heart from the loss of Jenny are just too tender. They do that, and I hope you forgive me for not speaking about mothers on Mother's Day. I will say that my children and grandchildren were very, very blessed to have a mother and grandmother, not Jenny. When we were preparing her funeral, she had laid it all out ahead of time, but we were preparing the eulogy. We had the family around just to talk about her and what we wanted to say. I turned to grandchildren and said, what do you think of when you think of grandma? And one of the five-year-old girls immediately piped up and said, Jesus. I thought that's the highest accolade that a grandchild could give her when she thought of grandma, she thought of Jesus. The mothers, God bless you all. You have a tremendous privilege as well as a tremendous responsibility. I keep going. I'll talk about mothers and didn't mean to. You are honored. I think God in the Old Testament describes himself more than once in terms that we associate with mothers, not with fathers. God has all the tenderness that we think of in mothers. God has all the nurturing desire that we think of in mothers. God speaks of himself in those terms. And to me, it's a high honor for him to be a mother and to reflect something of the character of God in your own family and in your own life. And it's a tremendous, tremendous privilege. But I couldn't carry on with that. So I want to turn this morning's book in chapter two. Passage you know well that I admit since Jenny's death, I am reluctant to give up celebration of Easter so quickly and I want to talk about our Lord in his resurrection and exaltation in Philippians chapter two verse five your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grabbed but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That, at the name of Jesus, every knee is bowed in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue contests that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In his book of Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway wrote that the world breaks everyone, and some are made strong at the broken place. And on Good Friday the world broke Christ. With his permission. But on Good Friday the world broke Christ. And on Easter Sunday he was made strong at that broken place. And this is a story of that brokenness and being made strong in Philippians chapter two. It's the story of the three great Christian festivals of Christmas and Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And you'll find Christmas in verse seven, that he took on the very nature of the servant being made in human likeness. And you find Good Friday in verse eight, he humbled himself and became obedient to death. And you find Easter in the resurrection, ascension, and exaltation in verse nine. And those are the three great festivals of the Christian church. And of the three, it's not to say one is more important than the other. One couldn't exist without the other, but the emphasis in the New Testament is on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. The pivotal change in the world is not primarily the incarnation. The pivotal change in the world is not primarily that Christ died. The pivotal change in the world is that Christ rose the third day out of death and lived triumphant forevermore. If he had been born and if he had died, There would have been a tragic story and that's all. Unless he was raised for a third day, there is no Christianity. Paul is clear about that in I Corinthians chapter fifteen. And the emphasis falls on the resurrection and the exaltation of Jesus Christ, that he rose from the dead. And so I should stand at Jenny's grave and I I can say in one sense, much the sense in which the angel said it on that Easter morning, I can say she is not his. Her body is his, but she is not his. I cannot yet say she is busy. But one day, I will, when Jesus returns. And the key, the core of Christianity, is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead the third day. But I want to look at what Paul says, and I want to examine what he says in those earlier verses before we come to his exaltation. If I could title this, by the way, I would title the law of the kingdom and the life of Jesus, because that's what it is. But I'll explain that all through in a minute. Paul is not writing theologically. Paul is writing pastorly, and yet he has written the greatest theological passage in the New Testament on the First and Christ. This is the one theologians go to when they want to explain how Jesus Christ is both God and man. And the basis of Christianity is here. And yet Paul was writing pastorally. He is trying to get us to develop in ourselves the same kind of attitude Jesus Christ had when he left heaven and came to earth and on earth and humbled himself and was willing to be obedient to God as far as death. He wants us to live like that. We may not be called on to die for Christ as Jesus did for God. who may not be called to do that. But the attitude that led him to that point is how Paul wants us to be and how he wants us to live. So the whole thing is to ask for. Let this attitude, let this mind be in you. Think like this. Because nobody in the non-Christian world is going to think like this. To give up what he gave up, including his life. To eliminate all the possibilities of the abilities that he had here on earth. to use them for himself. But even for the good of others, I could put that in. To give all that up and commit himself to obey as far as death is not the way we think. Self-development, achievement, accomplishment, moving up in the world, that's the way we think. And what Paul is saying in this passage is, this is how Jesus thought. and this is how I want you to see this is how I want you to look at life and yourself the way Jesus is so he begins this passage in verse five or verse six rather who being in very nature God who being in the form of God let me get technical for just a moment that being in the form of God being is a present part of this and I'm not going to explain but the key to the Greek language many Many grammarians say the key to the Greek language is part of this. And the present part of this has the meaning that this holds true while all the finite verbs that follow occur. That being in the form of God, whatever he means by that, being in the form of God was true of him while he was doing everything else. So when he emptied himself, the King James translation, when he took the form of a servant, when he became human, being in the form of God was still true. When he humbled himself as a man, became obedient to death, when he was hanging there on the cross, being in the form of God was still true. That never changed. Gramatically, that's what Paul is saying. Being in the form of God, he did all these things while being in the form of God. Are you with me? That never changed. And what we mean by form is shape. Something we can see. What the Greeks meant by form, this particular word, is everything. that makes something what it is. It's got to include more than the outward appearance, what we call form. It's everything that makes God God is the word form. Who being in the form of God, who being everything that God is, that makes God, God. That was true of him while he did everything else with his friends. He never ceased to be God. Being in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Now Paul may mean he did not consider that equality with God something to be held on to. He may also be You may also mean grasping, and here grasping the quality of God. Grasping is not what it means to be God. Holding on is not what it means to be God. It's not the closed hand that describes God. It's the open hand that describes God. It's not God holding on to all the rights that belong to him of God, but God giving them away. That's what God is about. We think differently. God thinks that being God means he didn't, not giving, not holding on to him. In the parable of the prodigal son, When Jesus, in that parable, betrays what the father is like. When that younger son comes and asks for a third of the good, that's his right at the death of his father. The younger brother gets a third, the older brother gets two thirds. So he came to the father and asked for his portion, the one third that would come to him when his father died. And I don't know how his father did. Did he sell off one third of his property and forever after look at that one third now owned by a neighbor? However he did it. He gave that younger son the third that was rightfully the father's until the father's death. He gave And when that younger boy squandered it and came home, what did the father do? Opened up his treasury, the best robes, the rings, the sandals, the feast, the music, the dancing. He gave, he gave. And when he went out to the elder brother, who refused to come in and enjoy the festivity, who complained, you've never done this for me. What does he say to that older brother? All that I have, the remaining two-thirds, all that I have is yours. It's not mine. It's yours. That's God. Not holding on to, not grasping, but giving, giving, giving, sharing. So we are told that we as Christians are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And God is saying, God, everything I have is yours. That's what God is like. A great giver. And so Jesus being in the form of God would not be the kind of person who grasps and holds on to. That is not God. That's Satan. That's us, but that's not God. And so, being God, he emptied himself. King James translates. Good translation. The literal one. And the word is used literally by taking any kind of vessel that contains a liquid in it and emptying it out. But it's also used metaphorically to make oneself nothing. And that's this translation. He made himself nothing. How did he do that? Here in the passage, not by surrendering something, but by taking something. How did he empty himself? How did he make himself nothing? By taking on the form of a slave. He did not merely perform the duties of a slave he became one and the same word form is used here that was used to describe him as God who being in the form of God everything that made God God he was and he took on himself everything that makes a slave a slave And that involves taking on our humanity. The Son of God did not indwell a human body. The ancient Greek God, the Roman God, did that. He did not just come down and inhabit a human body. He became human. Everything that makes us human, he took. And what makes us human is far more than having a body. Everything that makes us human, he took to himself. He became that. Why? Because he's God. Taking human form, becoming a slave, is not contrary to being God. That's exactly, when presented with our needs, what God would do. You see that? This is not something different from being God. This is exactly what God will do. Seeing God, the kind of God he is, and faced with our needs, that's what he needs to do. That's exactly what God needs to do. It's not something unusual. It's not something different. It's not something... Please understand me when I say it. It's not something remarkable. It's natural to God to do that. And the Son of God emptied himself by taking that form of a servant, a slave, and then his further steps. That was Christmas. And having done that, as a human being, He can now go again in two directions. He can grasp or he can give. And having become human, he humbled himself. As I was suggesting in the Bible class this morning, only strong people can be humble. Most people cannot be humble. Only strong people can be humble. And the Son of God, being God, could humble himself. and become obedient unto death, even the cross kind of death. And that's good Friday. And pinned to the cross, with all the human shame, with that involved, this is God, being in form of God, who has become human, that he might do that very thing. One of the reasons that that message is a stumbling block to the Jews is that that is not their picture of Christ. The idea of Messiah pinned the cross executed by Rome, that cannot, cannot, cannot be identified. But what Paul is saying is that happened precisely because he is the Messiah. Precisely because he is in the form of God. So he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. What I want to look at in the time of the year of life is what God did and why God did it. God's response to that begins in verse nine, therefore God exalted him to the highest place. And that takes the resurrection and the ascension and the exaltation. Theologians like to provide it in one verse. Paul sums it all up in one word. God exalted him to the highest place. Note, it's not a comparative, it's a superlative. God did not exalt his whole place higher than everybody else. He did that, but that isn't what Paul is saying. God did not exalt Jesus to a place higher than human beings but say less than angels. God did not exalt him to a place that's just higher than angels but less than the position God had. Paul puts it in the superlative. God exalted him to the highest place. There wasn't any higher place God could give him. He exalted him to the highest place. Now that is not a reward that Jesus earns. That is the law of the kingdom of God. That's how God's kingdom works. He that humbles himself shall be exalted. That's just the way God works. And when his son humbled himself, the God-like responsibility response is to exalt him. And that's just the reverse of how we think. And Jesus tried so hard to get his disciples to see that. And how often did he say to them, the first should be last, and the last should be first? How often did he say to them, he that is greatest among you shall be your servant? We don't think of the slave as being the greatest person in society. That isn't the way we think. That's the way God thinks. That's how his kingdom works. So one day Jesus said to his disciples, who's greater? The one who sits at the table or the one who serves? Well, their response was natural. The one who sits at the table. And then Jesus' response is, but I am among you as Jesus serves. In God's thinking, the one who serves is greater than the one who is being served, In our thinking, the one who is being served has to be greater than the one who serves. When I go into a restaurant and I'm waited on, I have to admit sometimes I don't even remember the name of the waiter and the waiter. He or she is not that important. They are there to wait on you. I am the important one. I am being waited on. I might want her or him to remember my name, but I'm not interested in remembering his or her name because that's the waiter or the waitress. That's the way we think. Who is greater in a corporation, the president or the janitor? Who is greater, the boss or the laborer? In our society we know. But what we know in our society is not true in God's kingdom. In God's kingdom, the one who served in the group, that is so true that Jesus talks of the coming kingdom and he tells his disciples, I will make you sit down and I will wait on you. Even when he is king, that's what God as king is like. He will serve his people. That's God. That's what he is for God to be God. That's the kind of God he is. And so I think, as I told you before, you go to the book of Revelation, everything ends up. He will wipe away all tears from all life. And at least the picture is of God going around with his handkerchief, wiping our eyes dry and humid. That's what it means to be God. And so God exalts the humble. God exalts the servant. And Jesus never did get that across in his right time in his right time. I know he did. hadn't gone to the cross in my life yet. But the last meal he had before the crucifixion that night in that upper room while he was talking about going to the cross and the significance of the bread, etc., his body and his blood, what brings the same with him? Arguing the chauvin was true. It never got true to them that he was serious that we serve as the greatest law in God's kingdom. That that law now operates in the life of Jesus. And he humbled himself. And God's response is, well, he called him. He called him to the highest level. That's the attitude that Paul wants to develop in us. that we compete, as I read this morning, we compete to serve each other. That's the competition. Most competition is, who's going to be bought? In the kingdom of God, the competition is, how can we serve each other? That's the law of the kingdom of God. And it's simply that law working in the life of Jesus. Well, God exalts him to the highest place because he went down to the lowest. And then God tells us what he did, in addition to exalting him, he gave him the name that is above every name. Now, in my thinking, that cannot be the name of Jesus. It's not Jesus. God already gave him that name. Before he was born, you should call his name Jesus. For the Jew, the name. Hashem, the name. It's the verbal representation of God. It's not just something you call somebody. It's the verbal representation of what that person is like. And so they had such reverence for the name. But they would not pronounce it. And now today we don't know what it sounded like. It is. We know that the consonants. But the vowels that give sound to those consonants, we have no idea. They substitute it when they finally put vowels in their text. They substitute it with the vowels for the word ebonai, which in our King James Bibles or other Bibles is translated Lord with a capital L and small letter after that. And we don't know how it was pronounced. We got Jehovah out of that. That's not how it was pronounced. Now scholars would say, Yahweh, we don't know how it was pronounced. We've lost how that name was found. They're so sacred to the Jews. And when they were caught in the manuscript, they took a separate pen to put in letters for the name of God. But that tells me a couple things about God. He's personal. He has names. He has names. And it's possible to relate to him on a personal level he's a God with a name but anyhow back to Exodus chapter thirty thirty four for just a minute in the Old Testament the book of Exodus chapter thirty four Moses wanted to see God's glory And then God says, and what God does in verse five, the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name. What is his name? The Lord. That name we don't know the pronunciation of. But that's it right there. The Lord. That's his name. He proclaimed his name the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming. This is what that name means. The Lord. The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, that's God. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. That is those who refuse to let him forgive them. He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of their fathers to the third and fourth generation. The death of those who refuse to bow to the name. But the name of the Lord means compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. That's what the name means. And what God has done is given that sacred name of Jesus. He is that Lord described in the Old Testament. That's the name of God. God don't name whether it's Yahweh or Jehovah or whatever it's known. That name belongs to Jesus. God gave him that name. And didn't tell us why he did that. two intermediate reasons, one that every knee should bow. And then those three prepositional phrases describe heaven, earth, under the earth, whether it's angelic, human, or demonic, every knee should bow. Because he is that God, that Lord. And ultimately, everything is going to be brought under his submission. And every knee will acknowledge the truth that Jesus is that Lord. So every knee shall bow. The second intermediate reason is every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There will be the verbal acknowledgement at last of truth that every tongue will admit what is true. Jesus Christ is that Lord. The ultimate purpose is to the glory of God. And he didn't stop there. To the glory of God the Father. Ultimately, at the heart of the universe, it is loving relationship. to the glory of God. Not the sovereign. He is the sovereign. But to the glory of God the Father. And at the heart of the universe, there is that loving relationship with Father and Son. What do I say from this? I have to acknowledge from the passage before there was ever an Easter Sunday, there had to be a Good Friday. And Jesus could not reach Easter except through Good Friday. And he had to be pinned to the cross before he was exalted to the throne. That says a great deal to me. We get pinned to pain in life, various situations. We get pinned to pain. It may be because we are victims. We had no choice. We bear that pain. We could not. I think a greater pain that some of us had to bear is that we were victimizers. maintain the people we are cursed. And we get pinned to that pain. It may be the pain of our circumstances. I had never felt that pain in my life with no opportunity. Never. I had no idea what suffering was like until I lost her. And we get pinned to that pain and there's no way to get away from it. We can't escape. Whatever pain is in your life, and you feel pinned to it. What I want when I'm pinned to that pain is some divine anesthetic to relieve the pain. And I remember Jesus refused to drug wine. He felt all the pain of Good Friday. I asked for a divine anesthetic. and instead I am given a divine presence with the presence of one whose good Friday preceded and exceeded my own and in your pain you can have the divine presence of Jesus. God, amen. That's great. Lord Jesus, we bow before you this morning in worship. Help us to bow in obedience. know your presence with us and to a greater degree than ever before to live as you live. May your presence be with us in this hour and in all the hours of our lives. I pray in your name Amen.