Tony Evans - The Celebrity-Ship of Jesus Christ (05/14/2017)
In a world obsessed with fading celebrity, the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2 presents Jesus Christ as the eternal, peerless celebrity. His unique person as God made man, His passionate death as a perfect substitute for sin, and His ultimate exaltation as the Lord before whom every knee will bow, establish His unending, unrivaled fame.
The Fading Fame of Earthly Celebrities
We live in a world today of celebrity worship. Madison Avenue has done a magnificent job in creating celebrities. A celebrity is a person who has achieved high status and recognition among men because of their talents as an actor or as an athlete, because of their treasures, their wealth, or their philanthropic kindness, or simply because of some notable act that thrust them into the limelight.
We create and recognize celebrities, people who have achieved greatness among men. There is a problem, however, with the celebrities that we recognize, and that is their celebrity status wanes. Whether it's because of time making an athlete slower or an actress older, or perhaps because of mistakes or even because of death, celebrity ship wanes.
And yes, we hold parades in the name of some of our celebrities, and we put up plaques and we have memorial events for them. But the reality is that there's no celebrity, you know, who has been able to impeccably maintain their celebrity status. That is, except one.
The Unrivaled Celebrity of Jesus Christ
He never wrote a song, yet there are more songs written about him than any other person set to music. He never wrote a book, but the book about him has sold more copies than any other book ever written. He never traveled more than 300 miles from the place where he was born, and yet there's no place on earth where people do not know his name.
Every Sunday, millions and millions and millions and millions of people for thousands of years gather in his name to remember him. It's because of him that the greatest holiday in the year is named. Salesmen depend on his birthday for their profit margins. Some of the best meals are cooked because of his entrance into human history. In fact, your calendar is tied to his arrival.
That, brothers and sisters, is a celebrity. Somebody whose status does not wane with time, with age, whose notoriety seems to only grow day by day, week by week, and year by year. Of course, we're talking about the celebrity ship of Jesus Christ. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you got the narrative of his birth. When John comes along, he cites the salvific reason, the saving purpose of his arrival.
But what Paul does is give us a theological summary of the celebrity ship of Jesus Christ. Briefly, let me summarize the three points he wants you to know from Philippians chapter 2 about the celebrityship of Jesus Christ: His person, his passion, and his praise.
His Person: The Pre-Incarnate God
His person. "Have this mind," verse 5 of Philippians 2 says, "in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men."
He introduces in those two verses the pre-incarnate and incarnate uniqueness of Jesus Christ, making him a celebrity. The reason why he's a celebrity is because you'll find nobody else like him. A great actor can find another great actor. A great actress can find another great actress. A great athlete can find another great athlete, and given enough time you can find somebody better. Not so in this case, because there is nobody like him.
If I would put it in a syllogism, I would say that Jesus could say of himself: "I am what I was. I was not what I am now. Yeah. And today I'm called both. I am what I was. I was not what I am now. But today they call me both." You see, I was not what I am because, uh, that as I am what I was. What I was is I existed in the form of God. Here you have a statement of Jesus's deity.
You see, you can't exist in the form of God without being God. The Greek word *morphe* has to do with essence. Before I was born, I existed in the form of God. That's why God could say when He created man, "let us make man." Because He was not doing it alone. Or as John 1:1 puts it, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Well, if that's not enough for you, John 8:58 says, "Before Abraham was, I am." If that's not enough for you, Colossians 1 says, "He is the image of the invisible God." Colossians 2:9 says, "And all the fullness of God dwells in him." The Bible declares in John 5:18-23 and John 10:33, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." And it says, "And the Jews sought to kill him because he made himself equal with God."
You see, Jesus did not hesitate to make it known who he was. He existed in the form of God. Before he was born, he was. That's why the Bible can say in Isaiah, "Unto us a child is born, but unto us a son is given." The child was born, but the son was given, for the son existed before the child was born. He existed in the form of God. In fact, the Scripture says, "By him all things that have been made were made."
I mean, think about it. The baby in the manger created his mother. The baby in the manger created his stepfather. The baby in the manger created the animals that were in the barn. The baby in the manger created the wood that the barn was made out of. The baby in the manger created the earth upon which the event took place. The child was born, but the son was given, for the son existed before the birth of the child. You see, we're talking about a different kind of celebrity.
His Passion: The Purpose of the Incarnation
In the most unique event in human history, God became a man, Emmanuel, God with us. Now, he could have been born in a palace given his kingly nature. He was born the lowest of the low. If he was born only in the upper echelon, some of us would feel like he couldn't relate to us. But he went as low as you could go so he could cover everybody. He was born a servant. He is the celebrity of the universe.
God set in motion a plan, a plan to bring salvation to men. But there was a problem. The wages of sin is death. So in order for sin to be addressed, somebody's got to die. But the problem is everyone would have to die for themselves unless an acceptable substitute were found. The substitute has got to be perfect because they cannot have any sins of their own. But they've also got to be human, or else it's not an equal substitute.
God is a spirit, so you can't kill God. But there is no perfect man who can satisfy the perfect demands of a perfect God. Yeah. So, we've got a problem. Sin must be judged. The sinner must die unless there is a substitute for sin that qualifies. But the substitute for sin cannot have sin of their own, or else they become disqualified.
So, I need a man who's perfect, who's also human, but I can't find a man who's perfect, who's also human. So, God decided to become a man so that there would be perfection that was also human, qualifying to be a substitute. And that's why his passion is so important.
He says in verse 8, "Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." God was so preoccupied with you and me in eternity past that he refused to lobby in heaven about why he shouldn't leave. He didn't think equality with God was something to be grasped or held on to.
He didn't lobby and say, "I can't go down there." He humbled himself and he became obedient to death. Even the worst kind of death, even death on a cross. The cross was the worst kind of death you could die. You saw the movie *The Passion of the Christ*. You saw the brutality, and even that didn't fully give realization of all that Jesus Christ went through on the cross.
But guess why he went through it? He didn't go through it 'cause he needed it. He had you in mind, me in mind. He was preoccupied with us from eternity past. And so God, to carry out his just wrath, had to either carry it out on his Son or carry it out on us. But the beauty of Calvary is we have a substitute. Everybody in this room today who's on their way to heaven—you're on your way to heaven because you have a substitute.
"He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him." We are on our way to heaven by substitute. Now you see the problem with Christmas is people don't want *that* baby. They want *a* baby; they don't want *that* baby. 'Cause see, that baby is a different kind of celebrity. That baby will affect your shopping habits, your spending habits, your plans. That baby will interrupt your life.
See, Herod understood: if I take that baby seriously, he's going to mess with my kingship. If I take that baby, I got to kill every baby under two 'cause that baby is going to mess stuff up for me. That is not a normal baby. That's why today people across many realms want to get rid of Jesus on Christmas and just make it a holiday, 'cause that baby will mess up your holiday plans. That's a God-man.
So that baby was born to die. His passion, his suffering—that's why he was born. He was born to die. He would spend 33 years perfectly satisfying the righteous standard of God, saying along the way, "My time has not yet come. My time has not yet come," until that day when he was brutally murdered, going through six trials, all of them kangaroo courts, designed to force an issue of guilt upon an innocent man, in order to fulfill the statement, "we will not have that man rule over us." But the story is not over.
His Praise: The Ultimate Exaltation
Verse nine: "For this reason also God hath highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name." I'm talking about celebrity ship. "So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven, on earth, and underneath the earth. And every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
God poured deity into man and called the man Jesus. God poured God—for He existed in the form of God. God poured God. Let me explain. God is a triune being. He exists in three persons. We call it the Trinity, the triunity. There is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There is only one God, but the one God exists in three co-equal persons.
Sort of like a pretzel. You got hole number one, hole number two, hole number three, all tied together by the same dough. It's one pretzel, but there are three distinct holes making up the one pretzel. There's one God composed of three co-equal members. The second member poured deity into a casing called humanity, and they called his name Jesus.
Please note what he says. He says, "at the name of Jesus"—the name of Jesus. The word "Jesus" means deliverer or savior. At the name of Jesus, savior, everyone must bow. He says every knee will bow above the earth—that's angels and folk who've already gone to heaven. Every knee will bow on the earth—that's the folk living now. Every knee will bow underneath the earth—those are the demons and the unbelievers who are in hell.
Let me explain something. There are no atheists in hell. There are no agnostics in hell. There are no people wondering, "Is God real? And is Jesus the Messiah?" in hell. Let me tell you right now what's happening in hell: worship. Every knee is going to bow to the man Jesus Christ because God took deity, poured it into humanity, born of a woman, in order to be savior of the world.
And God says, "I did not go through all of that for nothing. Every knee is going to bow: over the earth, on the earth, and under the earth. Every knee is going to bow." The only question is *when*. The question is not *whether*. The question is *when*: you get to bow now voluntarily, or you get to bow later mandatorily. But at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. And at the point of bowing, what will they say? He says at the point of bowing, they will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.