Over this season of Advent and Christmas, we’ve been
examining together the songs that were sung by saints of old, recorded for us
in the Gospel According to Luke, that celebrated the birth of the Savior. We
looked at Zacharias’ song of praise, the Benedictus.
We also examined the Magnificat, the
song of Mary, an amazing, ordinary woman. Then we took up the Nunc Dimittis,
Simeon’s beautiful song of salvation. And on the last Lord’s day, we looked at
the Gloria, the angels’ song of glory
to the newborn King. But though Christmas has passed, the songs go on. We know
that music was an important part of the worship of the church from the earliest
time. They sang psalms (the same Psalms you can read in the Bible today); they
sang hymns (songs written to proclaim the glories of God in Christ); and they
sang spiritual songs (songs that likely expressed the joy of the life of the
Christian). Thankfully, some of those early songs have been preserved for us,
in portions and fragments, in the New Testament and in the writings of the
church fathers. One of the most well preserved hymns of the early church is
this one that we find in Philippians 2:5-11. The text is known to many as the Kenosis, a Greek word that means
“emptying,” which is found in verse 7 of this hymn. It is a song about how the
Lord Jesus “emptied Himself,” and became one of us. Thus, though Christmas
celebrations as we know them arose much later in Christian history, this song
is a fitting one for this time of year, and a fitting one for us to conclude
our series of messages on the Songs of Christmas. This is not the song of an
ancient Hebrew who was looking forward to what the incarnate Christ would do.
This is a song for the church to sing – a song of wonder at the miracle of
Christ’s coming for us and for our salvation.
Soon, if not already, the gifts will have all been given,
regifted, returned, or put away for time indefinite. The decorations will all
disappear until next November or December. Our snowy wintery scenes will be
replaced by images of the flowers of spring. But the wonder of Christmas is not
found in these things. The true wonder of Christmas is a reality that abides
with us throughout the year and throughout all of time and eternity. It is that
wonder of which we sing as the redeemed people of God, expressed so beautifully
for us here in the Kenosis hymn.
I. We sing of the wonder of Christ’s eternal existence (v6a)
– “He existed in the form of God.”
In this brief phrase, the Apostle Paul tells us two things
in particular about Christ’s existence prior to that holy night in the little
town of Bethlehem .
Though we celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas, we are not celebrating the
beginning of his existence at this time. In fact, there is no passage in all
the Bible which says anything of Jesus coming into existence. Rather we read
over and over again that He is the one who brought all things into existence. “In
the beginning,” John says, “was the Word,” and this “Word became flesh.” Jesus
said to His critics, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” The prophecy of Isaiah
9:6 was that a child would be born, but a Son, it says, would be given. Jesus
did not come into existence on Christmas day at Bethlehem . It is biblically accurate to say that
He came into the world. This is the wording of John in his gospel and his
letters, and it is the wording of the writer of Hebrews. Paul says that for all
of eternity past, “He existed.”
Not only did He exist, but He existed in the form of God. The
wording that is used by Paul here is a word that indicates a correspondence
with reality. He existed in the form of God because He really was God. From the
very first page of the Bible we are presented with the mystery of the Trinity.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the Hebrew text,
God is Elohim, a plural noun; but the
verb created is singular. This God Elohim speaks to Himself saying, “Let us
make make man in our image.” Then in Deuteronomy, the great Shema
passage, the Israelites are told that Yahweh is Elohim, and He is one. The
mystery of the Trinity is this one God, existing in three persons – God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God is three persons, each person is
fully God, and there is only one God. That is a complicated truth, but it is
nonetheless explicitly clear in the Scriptures.
Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” The Isaiah prophecy about this child
being born, this Son being given, says that He shall be called among other
things, “The Mighty God.” John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God,
… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The writer of Hebrews said
that the Son “is the radiance of” the Father’s “glory and the exact
representation of His nature.”This is one of the wonders of Christmas – this Jesus whom we celebrate on Christmas has always existed and always will, and He is God. But consider also …
II. We sing of the wonder of Christ’s incarnation (vv6b-8a) – He “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8Being found in appearance as a man ….”
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the central focus of
Christmas. The word incarnation means
that God took to himself a human nature; the Word became flesh; God became a
man. This union of the two natures has been called the hypostatic union, meaning that the divine nature and the human
nature are united in one being in Jesus Christ. He is not half-God and
half-man. He is fully God and fully man. He did not stop being God to become a
man, but rather manifested His divine nature in and through His human nature.
Paul details two movements of the incarnation. First, he describes
the divine movement of the incarnation in vv 6b-7a. We read that Christ “did not regard equality with God a thing to
be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself.” The first part of this phrase is
difficult because the Greek wording that is used is rare in the Scriptures and
in secular Greek. In some places it was used to describe the act of robbery,
hence the KJV translates this that Jesus “thought it not robbery to be equal
with God.” This, however, is a rather poor rendering of the text, because it sounds
to us like it is exactly opposite the intention of the context. This sounds
like equality with God was what Jesus
was aiming for. But the context makes it clear, this was not His goal; it was
His starting point. He was equal with God because He was God. It is helpful for
us to know that the Greek word used here was often used to describe an
advantage or benefit, and in the case of robbery, it was what the person sought
to gain in the robbery. So the real idea here is that even though Jesus existed
in the form of God, He did not see that as a
benefit to take advantage of. He did not try to hold on to His deity, but He emptied Himself.
This idea of emptying is
found 5 times in the NT, all in Paul’s writings, and each time it has the
figurative notion of nullifying something or making it of no account. So the
idea is not that Jesus purged Himself of deity. In one of my favorite hymns,
Charles Wesley’s “And Can It Be,” there is a line that says, “He left His
Father’s throne above, so free, so infinite His grace—Emptied Himself of all
but love.” This line can be confusing because it suggests that the only divine
attribute that Jesus retained in His incarnation was His infinite love. Yet
that is certainly not what Paul means here, and it is most likely not what
Charles Wesley meant when he wrote “And Can It Be.” Rather, Christ emptied
Himself by “taking the form of a servant.” His human form “served as a
temporary veil cloaking” the form of God, which He still possessed in the
fullness of all of His glorious divine attributes.[1] At
the Mount of Transfiguration, the fullness of His divine glory was made visible
through the veil of His humanity. So it was not that He became any less God in
the incarnation, but rather that He did not cling to His deity. He made Himself
of no account, and took upon Himself a human nature. In 2 Corinthians, Paul
says it this way, “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor.” He
gave up His glorious prominence in heaven, and came to live among us.
This brings us to the human movement of the incarnation,
described in vv7b-8a. Jesus emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8Being found
in appearance as a man. Notice that Christ took the form of a bond-servant.
The One who was the rightful Master of all that is became a servant. Jesus said
in Mark 10:45 that He came not to be served, but to serve. In John 13, we read
that during His last supper, as the disciples were clamoring over who was the greatest
in the kingdom, the One who truly is the greatest took up a basin and a towel
and began to wash the feet of the others. The One who deserves to be served by
us came to serve us and meet our most pressing need – the need for salvation
from sin.
Then we notice that Christ was made in the likeness of men. He experienced a natural birth,
though He was born of a virgin. He might have had his mother’s eyes, or her
nose. Contrary to much of the art through the last 20 centuries, He did not
have a halo around His head (and neither did His mother for that matter). He
looked no different from any other person around Him. But it is not sufficient
to say that Christ merely appeared as a man. In the latter first century, a
group of heretics called the Docetics began
teaching that Christ merely appeared to
be human, but that He really did not become a man. For example, they
claimed that Jesus did not leave footprints in the sand where He walked, or
that if you attempted to strike Him, your hand would pass right through Him.
These were some of the early forerunners of the Gnostics that get so much
publicity today in the writings of biblical critics and skeptics. And the
really interesting thing is that it is claimed by so many today that the
Gnostics got it right, because they knew Jesus was just an ordinary man, but it
was the apostles and their followers who erred by making Jesus out to be God.
Well, that’s not just bad theology, it is bad history. In fact, the Gnostics
did not view Jesus as “just a man.” They did not view Him as a man at all. The
Docetics were one of many proto-gnostic groups that viewed Jesus as thoroughly
divine and supernatural, and his humanity was merely something of an illusion.
Certainly the apostles and their followers did proclaim Christ as divine, but
not more divine than the Gnostics.
The apostolic teaching was that Christ was fully divine, but that He was also
fully human, something that the Gnostics seldom if ever claimed. He was made in the likeness of men. In Jesus
Christ, God truly became one of us! Thus, the Apostle John says that one who
says Christ has not come in the flesh is antichrist
(2 John 1:7).
He was fully God and fully man. Consider this: In the
Gospels we read that He hungered, and yet He also multiplied the loaves and
fish to feed 5,000. He thirsted, and He also turned water into wine. He slept
in the hull of a ship, and yet He woke up to calm the raging sea. He wept at
the tomb of Lazarus, and then He called him out from death and restored Him to
life. He died. And then He rose again! All these instances point to the fact that
Jesus was fully man and fully God in one being. This is His incarnation, and
this is the wonder of Christmas.
III. We sing of the wonder of Christ’s mission (8b-9) -- He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name.
Often in the midst of our singing and storying during
Christmas, we lose sight of the fact that this baby in Bethlehem ’s stable came for a purpose. The
hands and feet of this little baby would be pierced at the cross. The sacred
head would be wounded with a crown of thorns. The popular Christian writer, Max
Lucado, captured this reality very well in his book God Came Near as he imagines a prayer that Mary could have prayed
following the birth of Jesus:
… God, O infant-God. … Sleep well.
… Rest well, tiny hands. … Your hands, so tiny … clutched tonight in an
infant’s fist. They aren’t destined to hold a scepter …. They are reserved
instead for a Roman spike that will staple them to a Roman cross.
Sleep deeply, tiny eyes. Sleep
while you can. For soon … you will see the mess we have made of your world. …
You will see our selfishness, for we cannot give. You will see our pain, for we
cannot heal. O eyes that will see hell’s darkest pit and witness her ugly
prince, sleep … sleep while you can.
Lay still, tiny mouth. … Tiny
tongue that will soon summon the dead, that will define grace, that will
silence our foolishness. Rosebud lips—upon which ride a starborn kiss of
forgiveness to those who believe you, and of death to those who deny you—lay
still.
And tiny feed cupped in the palm of
my hand, rest. For many difficult steps lie ahead for you. Do you taste the
dust of the trails you will travel? … Do you wrench at the invasion of the nail
you will bear? … Rest, tiny feet. Rest today so that tomorrow you might walk
with power. For millions will follow in your steps.
And little heart … holy heart …
pumping the blood of life through the universe: How many times will we break
you? You’ll be torn by the thorns of our accusations. You’ll be ravaged by the
cancer of our sin. You’ll be crushed under the weight of your own sorrow. And
you’ll be pierced by the spear of our rejection. Yet in that piercing, … you will
find rest. You hands will be freed, your eyes will see justice, your lips will
smile, and your feet will carry you home. And there you’ll rest again—this time
in the embrace of your Father.[2]
So it is that the life that we celebrate the birth of each December
will eventually experience the death that we recognize each Easter. He came to
die. And He came to die for us. This was the mission of His coming. Paul said
in 1 Timothy 1:15 that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Notice
that here, in this Kenosis song, the church sings, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Jesus
did not exercise His divine power to escape death. He went to Calvary
knowing that it was for this very reason that He was born.
Even death on a cross.
This was the worst death one could experience. It was reserved for slaves,
the most horrible criminals and most treacherous traitors of the Roman Empire . The death of a cross was slow, torturous,
and vicious. It was a prolonged death of blood loss, thirst, hunger, and
suffocation. This was the death Christ endured for us. He went from the
glorious throne of heaven to the brutal cross of earth. There He experienced
the most horrendous treatment humanity can inflict on one of its own. And there
He experienced the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins. I deserve that
cross. I deserve to die like that because of my sins. Yet Jesus took my place
in that death.
For this reason also,
God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.
In this one statement, we have the summary treatment of the resurrection of
Jesus, and His ascension into Heaven, and the consummation of His enthronement
in heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the judge of the living and the
dead. Before His death, Jesus prayed to the Father, 4"I glorified
You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with
the glory which I had with You before the world was.”[John 17:4-5 (NASB)].
The statement here in Philippians tells us that the Father answered this prayer
of the Son. His mission is completed, and this is one of the wonders of
Christmas.
But now we come to the coda
– the final stanza. And in it …
IV. We sing of the wonder of Christ’s worship (vv10-11) -- so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is worthy of our worship because of Who He is. And the
Father has given Him, along with His eternal glory, the name that is above
every name. At the sound of this name, we are told every knee will bow, and every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But this has not happened
yet. Many have not uttered His name in worship. Some have never heard His name.
Just a few weeks ago, we heard a missionary from North Africa and the Middle East speak of how a colleague had asked a group of
refugees if they had ever heard of Jesus. They walked away from the missionary
and returned a few moments later to say, “We are sorry sir, but your friend
Jesus does not live in this refugee camp. You might try the next camp down the
road.” Paul says in Romans 10:14, “How will they call upon Him in whom they
have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” We
must go and proclaim His excellent name far and wide so they can hear, so they
can believe, and so they can call out in worshipful adoration that Jesus Christ
is Lord!
Others know His name only as a vulgar exclamation that they
vainly utter in exasperation. Some scoff at the sound of His wonderful name and
mock those who proclaim Him. What are we to say of them? We say what the Bible
says: Every knee will bow. There are no exemptions – those who
are in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth. That is everyone! Every tongue will confess. Some
have done it already, others will wait until it is too late. And their
recognition of Christ as Lord will not result in their salvation, but will be a
reluctant resignation to their condemnation. Standing guilty before the throne
of Christ, they will recognize, as they receive their eternal sentence, that
Christ is Lord, and their life was wasted because it was spent glorifying
something or someone else other than Him, rather than bending the knee in
worship and surrender to Him. That day is coming when they will be able to
ignore or mock Him no longer.
For those who have bowed the knee and confessed the name in
the here and now, they enjoy the blessing of salvation, of eternal and abundant
life invested in the worship and service of the Lord Jesus Christ. These truly
know and fully experience the wonder of Christmas, for they have received the
greatest gift ever given. The gift of Jesus Christ, given to us to save us from
our sins, and reconcile us to the God who created us, who loves us, and who has
redeemed us. These are the followers of Christ – those who worship and serve
Him. And these are they who can sing the Kenosis hymn in joyful adoration to
Christ as Savior and Lord!
But I will remind you that Paul is not simply giving a
theological discourse here. He begins this passage with a very practical
admonition. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” If
He, being equal and of one nature with God, humbled Himself to obey the will of
the Father and to serve humanity, then so should we. As we worship Him and
serve Him, we should seek to be like Him, knowing that God honors humility,
obedience and the servant-attitude. He opposes pride, arrogance, selfishness,
conceit, and vainglory. So when we want to know how Christ would have us to
live, how we should serve God, and how we should relate to others, God directs
us to the stable where we behold the wonder of Christmas.
If you have never received the greatest gift ever given –
the gift of Jesus Christ – then we offer Him to you today. The Christ of
Christmas ransomed you from sin and death at Easter. And every day of your life
can be filled with the wonder of His salvation if you know Him as Savior and
Lord. Turn from the emptiness of the life of sin and trust in Him to rescue
You! And when your heart is captivated by the wonder of who He is and what He
has done for you, you will not be able to contain the song of wonder that will
erupt from within as you worship Him!
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