LESSON 11

Classroom Goals of this time together:
* here to see and meet and learn of Jesus
* not to learn about another book in the Bible, but to MEET HIM...here and now; not to finish another epistle, but to grow in each one of our own personal lives/relationships with Jesus
* to grow in our daily day-to-day JOY IN Him
* to grow in our vision /understanding of Jesus as our SAVIOR and REDEEMER everyday in the midst of our lives in a pagan world

ROE: 
* all questions are encouraged all the time
* we are not obligated to agree with me or each other
* TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER THROUGHOUT OUR TIME TOGETHER, WHETHER WE AGREE OR NOT WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER

SUMMARY:
1:1-11  Greetings and Gratitude

1:12-26  "Pauls Personal Circumstances: the Preaching of Christ"

1:27-2:30  "The Pattern of Christian Life: The Humility of Christ"
1:27-2:4  The Exhortation to Humility  HERE is the Goal
2:5-11  The Epitome of Humility  Jesus - here is the Divine Example
2:12-18 The Exercise of Humility  here is HOW YOU experience this in YOUR daily life
2:10-30  The Examples of Humility  Timothy and Epaphroditis

How do the things he presented in this section become a REALITY in the life of a Church and it's believers??
ONLY THROUGH HUMILITY, ONE TO ANOTHER.
IT IS A POWERFUL WORD FULL OF MEANING CARRYING A PICTURE OF ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE, OF HAVING NOTHING BUT RECEIVING ALL THINGS FROM GOD; We WILL have such a heart when we SEE OURSELVES AS WE TRUELY ARE: SINFUL AND HOPELESSLY LOST IN OUR SINS WITHOUT THE LORD TO SAVE US CONSTANTLY; 

2:5-11  NOW Paul goes even deeper into the meaning of what true humility REALLY IS and MEANS; NOW he is going to tell them about the "EPITOME OF HUMILITY"; This can ONLY be our precious Lord Jesus.

2:5  Because the ideas of "lowliness" and "humility" were and are such naturally distastefull concepts, Paul knew that ONLY JESUS could be a sufficient enough basis for imitation; They would have to see it in Him before they would be willing to desire it for themselves;

2:6  Dr. Ryrie offers this paraphrase: Who, though of the same nature and essence as God, did not think this something to be exploited to His own advantage.
This "BEING" was NOT something NEW or ADDED at some LATER date, subsequent to His Incarnation, He had it BEFORE HE EVER SHOWED UP HERE AS A MAN; 
Christ's great objective was to identify Himself with humanity; NOT to appear to men as divine, but as human. Had He come into the world emphasizing His equality with God, the world would have been amazed, BUT NOT SAVED. 

2:7  The lit trans is "emptied himself"; The best sense is that He laid aside that FORM of God; when He laid aside that "form" and assumed a new "form" as Jesus the Man, He did NOT give up ANY of His Divine Nature, He DID NOT become ANY LESS God; the SAME essence expressed itself in a new form: Jesus THE MAN.
NOTICE the choice of words: "likeness"; NOT BY ACCIDENT! Was Jesus IDENTICAL to us? NO!! He was like us, Scripture says He shared our human nature in all its frailty and finitude (Ro8:3; Heb2:7, 14) and entered into the restrictions that nature imposes EXCEPT that He was without sin. He had ALL that WE HAVE, BUT HE ALSO HAD MORE! He was all that we ever could or will be; BUT HE ALSO WAS MORE! 
HE WAS ALSO FULLY GOD; Humanly He was like men, but regarded with reference to His WHOLE self, He was NOT IDENTICAL with man, because there was an element of His personality which did NOT dwell in them: HIS EQUALITY WITH GOD; 
To all outward appearances, Jesus was a Man among men; However, His DIVINE stature was concealed in the weakness of His mortality, His glory was veiled in His humanity. 

[READ THE AMP VERSION OF vs 7 AS A SUMMARY]

2:8  (KJV) "...being found in fashion as a man..." The Gr word trans as "fashion" now refers to His outward appearance as it appeared to the world; "likeness" states the FACT of REAL resemblance to men in mode of existance; "fashion" defines the outward mode and form. It is as if Paul was trying to super-emphasize that Jesus was TRULY Man, and not only that He somehow managed to just LOOK like us superficially; 
(KJV) "...He humbled Himself..." from the same word that we covered concerning "lowliness"; It further defines just what Jesus did when He "emptied" Himself; [SEE ISAIAH 53:8]; 
HERE NOW IS THE COMPARISON PAUL IS CALLING OUT TO THE PHILIPIANS FOR IN 2:3; 
(KJV) "...became obedient unto death..." HOW?? Did Jesus actually render obedience to death?? NO!! The Gr trans "unto" means "up to the point of"; see NAS: "...obedient to the point of death" or the AMP: "...carried His obedience to the extreme of death"; 
Rom5:12ff describes the cardinal doctrine of the obedience of Jesus Christ as the ground of His redemptive work; One commentator realized this: Only a divine Being can accept death as OBEDIENCE; for ordinary men it is a NECESSITY. He alone as the obedient Son of His Father could CHOOSE death as His destiny; AND HE DID SO BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE FOR BOTH HIS FATHER AND THE WORLD HE CAME TO SAVE;
(KJV) "...even the death of the cross" The issue of the WAY in which He died, by the Cross, MUST be understood from two VERY KEY points of view: that of a Gentile, and that of a Jew.
For Gentiles, this death posed several problems: To a Roman citizen, death by crucifixion was reserved for malefactors and slaves, for only the worst and lowest of criminals. A Greeks was accustomed to clothing his dieties with every outward attribute of grace and beauty. So to both Greek and Roman the summons to worship a crucified criminal appeared foolish, even distasteful; 
To a Jew, the Mosaic law pronounced a curse against it in Deuteronomy 21:23, which meant that the victim was outside the pale of Israel and under a ban of excommunication from God's covenant. WHAT A STUMBLING BLOCK INDEED TO ISRAEL!! 
But to Paul, this became the very HEART of his doctrine of salvation; Paul saw that the curse of separation from God was endured by the sinless Saviour and thereby removed as the obstacle between God and man. To the Gentile it was a testiment to the REAL LOVE of a God who was willing to so utterly lower Himself in order to save ALL men, not just the "high and mighty", something their often hateful selfish and capricious gods would NEVER do; 

2:9  (KJV) "Wherefore...", based on or because of WHAT? Because he died?? NO!! Martyrdom is NOT the issue, BUT OBEDIENCE born out of His HUMILITY! Here is the OTHER side of this Divine Cause and Effect relationship; vs5-8 tell of what Jesus did, AND NOW, vss9-11 will tell what God the Father did as a result of Jesus Humility; 
(KJV) "...hath highly exalted Him..."; The obedience of Jesus, born out of His humility, is crowned by EXALTATION; WHAT WAS JESUS' EXALTATION?? It was when the Father raised Him from the dead and elevated Him to the place of honor; The resurrection and glorification of Jesus are the Father's response to Jesus humble obedience unto death, the Father's "AMEN" to the Son's "IT IS FINISHED"; 
The Gr word trans "exalted" is the same one used in the Gr trans of the OT (the LXX) in Isaiah 52:13 [HAVE SOME ONE READ THIS PASSAGE]

(KJV) "...AND given Him..."; the Gr word trans "given" comes from the root word that gives us the word "grace"; it bears the sense of "granted by the exercise of a favor"; The honor which Jesus refused to "clutch" to Himself is now conferred upon Him by the Father's good pleasure; 

AND WHAT IS IT THAT HE GIVES HIM?? "THE NAME"; not just ANY name, but THE NAME "WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME"; 

2:10  Jesus: This is a Gr form of a Hebrew name borne by two prior Bible men; Joshua, successor to Moses and Jeshua, the high priest who worked with Zerubbabel to re-establish the civil and religious life of Israel on return from the Babylonian captivity; The original and full form of the name is Jehoshua contracted down to Joshua or Jeshua; 
Joshua: originally named Hoshea (saving) was changed by Moses to Jehoshua (Jehovah (our) Salvation) in Num 13:16; Under Joshua Israel's enemies were conquered and Israel was established in the Promised land; EVEN SO JESUS OUR SAVIOR leads us in conquering our enemies of sin and temptation; and He leads us into our rest;
Jeshua: This man forshadows the Priestly office of Jesus; mentioned first in Ezra 2:2, he appeared in the vision of Zechariah (Ch 3); here Jeshua stands before God as a representative of sinful Israel; Jeshua's cleansing and redemption signifies all Israel; In this priest we see a type of our "Great High-priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and in all points tempted and tried like as we are;"; He assumed the stained garments of our humanity; He was at once priest and victim; 

Now, this name is NOT the mere designation of a title; In those days and to those people, the name is the expression of the sum total of the being of the one named: NOT his designation as Lord, but the formula in which all His attributes and characteristics are sumed up; It is the equivalent to His PERSON; 
NOTE: Giving Him the name does NOT mean that the Father suddenly "gave" Jesus the Son character traits or qualities that He DID NOT have before; what He did was to GIVE THE SON THE RECOGNITION, THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, THE HONOR that was His DUE because of His humble obedience; The Father declared to the universe what and who the Son was to Him and that the Son was INDEED WORTHY of ALL THE HONOR THAT GOD WAS DUE based upon His character and nature as expressed by His NAME; 

(KJV) "...at the name..."; better trans "IN the name"; so it's NOT merely a description of WHAT happens when Jesus name is uttered; but rather a description of WHERE or IN WHAT REALM all this is to transpire; One described it as "the spiritual sphere, the Holy element as it were, IN which every prayer is to be offered and every knee to bow; It declares the context IN WHICH all this CAN and MUST take place: IN the name, BASED UPON ALL OF WHO HE IS as described above; 

(KJV) "every knee should bow..."; "should" here does NOT imply merely a suggestion, BUT RATHER is the past tense of "shall" implying authority and compulsion; better trans "MUST bow"; 
"...things..." this phrase can apply either to all intelligent beings or to ALL things; it is three adjectives connected by "and"; 

2:11  (KJV) "...every tongue should confess..."; again "should" better trans as "MUST"; 
"confess" the sense of the Gr here is that of frank and open confession, an open and joyful acknowledgement; 
"...that Jesus Christ is LORD..."; The root word for Lord (kurios) is also used in the Gr trans of the OT (LXX) for the word trans the divine name "Yahweh"; It denotes rulership based upon "competent and authoritative power, the ability to dispose of what one possesses; 
In view of this words use in the OT and in view of it's use in this vs's current context, calling Him KURIOS is declaring that Jesus is installed in the place which properly belongs to God Himself; 

BOTH 10 and 11 reflect Isaiah 45:23 [HAVE SOMEONE READ THIS PASSAGE]; This vs proclaims the unique greatness of God. No greater proof could be offered concerning the Lords PRE-eminent position at the right hand than the use of this vs refering to Him; 

AND WHY DOES HE RECEIVE THIS?? 

(KJV) "...to the glory of God the Father."; Jesus exaltation is NOT to rival the Fathers, but rather His Lordship is based upon GOD'S sovereignty and His expressed intention that He might gather in one ALL things in Christ (Eph 1:10) so ultimately God might be all in all (ICor15:28);