Every Knee Should Bend, Every Tongue Confess
Read: Philippians 2:5-11
How do I explain to my non-Christians friends? What are you Christians celebrating this day? Jesus’ victory? What victory? His victory in entering Jerusalem. Enter Jerusalem for what? The problem is, how do I explain the Good Friday that is to fallow this victorious day?
I could understand those people in Jerusalem on that day who laid down the palm leaves and their clothes for Jesus and his little colt to pass by. For those who knew the Hebrew Scriptures, they knew that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9. They celebrated it because they thought Jesus came to overthrow the Roman occupation and establish himself as the king of the Jews. They celebrated it because they didn’t know Jesus would die a few days later. But for us who know all these things, why do we still celebrate this day. It just sounded very awkward for me.
Do you remember in May 1, 2003, when President George Bush visited our troop in Iraq and delivered the “Mission Accomplished” speech on the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln? It was understandable for that moment because no one foresaw the war to be dragged on for another seven years and more. But what if we Americans decided to celebrate the victory every year on May 1st? That would be quite awkward, wouldn’t it? That’s the feeling I had as a young man on Palm Sunday.
Another issue that confused me was, before this event, Jesus always told people to shut up when they identified him as the Messiah, or the Son of God. Why all of a sudden, he exposed himself so openly and allowed people to hail him, “Hosanna, Blessed is the king, who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”? One day, as I study the Bible, everything began to fall together. I was studying John 10:17-18, when Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
What he was saying is that he came on earth to lay down his life to save the world. But, the key clause is “No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” No wonder Jesus shut people up when they identified him as the Messiah because his hour hadn’t come yet, and now the hour has come. It’s all because he is in charge of his life and he is in control of his time. Nobody takes his life from him. That means, his death wasn’t an accident! His death wasn’t a potential new king of Jews who was killed by those in power who were afraid of his rising to power. His death was his divine plan. He chose to lay down his life at the time he decided to lay down. Got it?
So he determined when to die and when the time came he set people loose, allowing them to hail him the king, so that it would provoke the ultimate decision of the religious and civil authorities for him to be killed. They told him to silence the crowd, but he said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” It was the divine plan for them to shout. If they didn’t, the entire creation would make noise. For three years, those people that saw his divinity have been holding their tongues from hailing him the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, or the king of the Jews. For three years, the religious and civil authorities plotted to kill him and silence him because they hated the light from him that shines through their darkness. But he didn’t allow it to happen because the hour had not come yet. But when the hour came, he opened the flood gate and allowed himself to be slain as the Lamb of God, exactly according to the prophecy, thus fulfilling what John the Baptist said at the beginning his ministry, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
The Lamb of God laid down his life of his own accord, and He said, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” It means he is sovereign over his own life, and he is in control in fulfilling his father’s plan as he described in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Now, as those who have received this eternal life, you and I have a calling to live a life that resembles our Savior. Many people know John 3:16, but few people know 1 John 3:16, which says, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” The love that is shown by laying down his life for us is known as the passion of Christ. That’s why this week is also called the Passion Week, and Passion Sunday. That’s why the crucifixion drama is often known as the Passion Play.
Our scripture lesson this morning is in fact a beautiful hymn written by Paul to illustrate the mind of Christ in Philippians 2:5-11. Paul was teaching the Christians to love one another and lay down our lives for one another. He said, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” This mind is the mind of passion. So this is our first and foremost calling. So if you want to have the mind of Christ, first live with passion.
1 – Live with passion
I know most of you have seen the movie, “the Passion of the Christ.” I was probably the best movie of the Passion ever made. A fellow pastor of mine is showing this movie at his Church on the Good Friday. Maybe we should do that some time. Jesus wants us to respond to the passion of Jesus Christ with passion for one another. He says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” The passion of Christ is expressed in the way he used his privilege. Paul said in verse 6, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” First, he was in the form of God means he is God. Anyone who thinks the Bible never mentions that Jesus is God has a great deal to explain this verse and many other verses like this. Paul said that he didn’t exploit his privilege but use it for the good of others.
A reporter was interviewing a successful job counselor who had placed hundreds of workers in their vocations quite happily. When asked the secret of his success, the man replied: “If you want to find out what a worker is really like, don’t give him responsibilities—give him privileges. Most people can handle responsibilities if you pay them enough, but it takes a real leader to handle privileges. A leader will use his privileges to help others and build the organization; a lesser man will use privileges to promote himself.” Jesus used His heavenly privileges for the sake of others—for our sake.
So he left heaven and enter the human body. Paul says in verse 7, “but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form.” From God form to human form, from the state of divinity to the state of a slave, Jesus lowered himself for our own sake. It’s beyond imagination. It is like for a human being to lower himself to a form of a bug, such as an ant, so that he can relate to the ants and give them direction so that they won’t get destroyed by entering the wrong places. In fact, it’s more than that because the difference between God and us is more than that of us and ants. We are his creation, but we aren’t even able to create ants. Jesus emptied himself all because of his passion. Passion can allow you sacrifice everything.
Remember when Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had, give it to the poor and followed him? He was testing his passion. He is saying, “If you are serious about what you are seeking, show me by giving up everything for that.” Passion makes you sacrifice everything. Jesus said in Mat. 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
A Christ-like passionate person is also a humble person. Verse 8 says, “he humbled himself.” Humility is when you empty your prestige and privileges, just as sacrifice is when you empty your power and possessions. So we are to lower ourselves, empty ourselves, and humble ourselves with passion.
Another element of having the mind of Christ is to act by obedience.
2 – Act by Obedience
Obedience is probably one of the hardest acts to follow. All over the Bible, Jesus was described as an obedient Son or Servant. Verse 8 says, “he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” If you want me to be obedient, I might be able to do that because I am trained to be obedient. But to be obedient to death is not something I will be able to do at this moment. I think it’s more difficult for the Americans to be obedient because we are taught from the young age to speak up. We are taught that even “civil disobedience” is our duty, and that freedom of speech includes speeches of disobedience. Sometimes, we just confuse the two—between what the Scriptures taught us and what we are taught by the society. In fact there should be no conflicts because we are supposed to speak up against injustice, in obedience to God. And we are supposed to practice civil disobedience when necessary, in obedience to God.
Jesus said he spoke only with obedience to God. John 12:49, “for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.” Can we all speak only what our heavenly Father told us to speak, even when it is not so pleasing to people?
And John 8:28, Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. 29 And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” When Paul says that we must have the mind of Christ, it is to have the mind of obedience and the mind of doing things that is pleasing to God.
The third act of having the mind of Christ is to aim for God’s glory.
3 – Aim for God’s Glory
Jesus’ passion brought him God’s exaltation. Paul said, “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus brings glory to God with his passion and as the result we glorify God by our passion for Christ—by bending our knees and confessing with our tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That’s why we have this slogan for our church: “God is most glorified in us, when we are most gratified in Christ and become fruitful.”
He is worthy of bending our knees to worship, and confessing with our tongue in praise because Jesus appeared to be an average normal human being, except that he was God incarnate.
Jesus was just one of probably hundreds of wandering prophets, preachers, teachers, making his way among the poor, the seeking, the lost, in first-century Palestine, except that he was the Messiah.
Jesus held no position of power or influence, except when he healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the multitudes, and walked on water.
Jesus didn't exploit the power structure in order to reach the world, except when he exploded the power of death through his own crucifixions and resurrection.
Jesus ultimate mindset is to glorify God and that’s the mind we must have. Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” That’s why we pray before every meal because we glorify God by giving thanks to him. God says in Psalm 50:23, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.”
The Westminster catechism teaches us that, “The chief end of men is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” That’s the mind of Christ. So, let us live with passion, act by obedience, and aim for God’s glory. Have a blessed Holy Week! Amen!
What's Related