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The Exaltation of Christ

December 20, 2015 Preacher: Scott Hollingshead Series: Unwrapped

Topic: Holiday Messages Scripture: Philippians 2:4–11

BIG IDEA: Christmas from start to finish

1. Jesus’ humble incarnation
who though he was in the form of God

did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

7 but he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

2. Jesus’ glorious exaltation
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him-

John 17:5 Jesus says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

And bestowed on him the name that is above every name 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord-

Isa 45:22 “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”
It was declared at his birth- Luke 2:11 “for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

He’s not your Savior if He isn’t your Lord. Why? Because salvation comes to you when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Have you done that?

C.S. Lewis The Case for Christianity- “Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else -something it never entered your head to conceive- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”

 

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