Jesus the Reservoir of Hope and Trust

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you... and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. (Philippians 2.19, 24)

At times when we think of our interaction with our Lord Jesus we place it fully in the ethereal, beyond the daily rote, above the mundane, outside the experiences of our everyday. But this is a disservice to us. Jesus the Lord is fully comfortable with His Lordship functioning within our everyday lives. We will miss the depth of relationship with Jesus if we do not meet with Him in our mundane.

Paul knew Jesus the reservoir of our hope and trust. Instead of relegating God the Son to the transcendent He placed Christ's Lordship squarely within His everyday hopes and dreams. Writing to the Philippians, Paul stated He longed to hear from them, to care for them, to see them face to face. He put all of these hopes and dreams within Jesus. He hoped to send Timothy to the church to provide pastoral care, but not just any hope, but a Christ-centered expectancy. He placed his trust and confidence that he would see the church again in Jesus.

Do we have Christ-centered expectancy when we see the needs of the church? Do we have Jesus-inspired confidence that our dreams will become reality? When we see the need we too easily place our hope in ourselves. Today, could we recognize Jesus' desire to be active in our lives and dreams? Jesus the reservoir of our hope and trust is ready to power our inspired dreams for His church and is faithful to complete the good work He has begun in us and within His creation.

Jesus, as I look at the hopes and dreams you've placed within my heart, remind me to invite you into them, to see your awesomeness within my dreams of the future.

Jesus the Exalted

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 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, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2.9-11)

In every culture around the world names are important. We begin life with the giving of names. We sustain legacies, through generations into the unsearchable future, through names. We dream of the future by making new names, unheard of before but built up with purpose and passion. A newborn baby takes the name of a grandparent. A child is named after a king, a hero, a vision of greatness.

We give names intuitively, not through compulsion to a cultural construct, but because we innately understand their importance. Our names help define us, isolate us for recognition and connect us to the rest of humanity. At times we disdain a person we don’t know because they share the same name with someone who has hurt us deeply. At other times we subconsciously elevate someone's potential because they share a moniker with someone we respect.

And in all of this, names given and remembered, there is a name that is above all names. Jesus. Jesus the exalted who stood before creation because all things were made by Him, through Him, for Him. Jesus the exalted who is enthroned in celestial glory because He humbled His royal head to die on the cross for our sin like a castigated slave. Jesus the exalted is seated at the right hand of God the Father and His name, and His name alone, is the access to salvation, the only means of atonement from sin. There is no greater name. There is no other name that we can cry out and find eternal, unending grace.

Jesus, I bow my knees and confess that You are Lord, rejoicing that in Your name I am forever restored to the Father.

Jesus the Obedient

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2.8)

Just as time has warped our vision of Jesus the Servant through glossy art and camp imagery, we have abused our image of Jesus’ obedience through death on the cross. By its pop cultural presence the cross has been bled of its horror. Can we truly carry the torture of our Savior gilded around our necks? Would we immortalize the horrors of Rwanda with crushed skulls on our jewelry? By diminishing the terror of the cross we loss the gravity of Christ's devotion to the Father. Jesus’ devotion led to His submission to the murderous hands of humanity. Jesus’ obedience led to His crucifixion on the cross.

In Jesus' obedience we find His servanthood. In Jesus' obedience we find His humility. It is impossible for us to truly identify with Jesus if do not seek to understand His obedience. And most painfully as followers of Jesus if we do not seek to serve Him with the same humble, servant-like obedience we will never be able to express Him rightly to the nations. And this is key because Jesus is seeking out the nations, He is reaching out through His people to the unreached men, women and children who have not seen the tragic glory of the cross.

Jesus the obedient calls us to embrace His mission and that mission can take us to the point of death, even death on a cross. He is calling us to reach out obediently with humble hearts and servant hands to the nations, the unreached peoples, the lost and dying.

Jesus, help me obey Your call with humility and passion to serve. Let me shout Your glory with an unflinching witness and back bent in service to the nations.

Jesus the Servant

[Jesus] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2.7)

Jesus the Servant. We become so comfortable with the kitsch art of Jesus holding a newborn sheep, soft wavy brown hair around his gentle smile, that we dilute our understanding of Jesus the Servant. We lose it in those brushstrokes that Jesus divested Himself of His rights. Jesus is the Creator of all. Jesus is the everlasting God enthroned in His own majesty. And yet, Jesus the King stepped down from His throne, walked through the royal generations of princes, ushered Himself from His own throne-room out into the streets of corrupted creation. Jesus then wrapped Himself in our frail humanity and made Himself a servant to all. The King is kneeling before His lowest peasants and is washing us clean.

Can we think of any earthly equivalent of a King maintaining His royalty but emptying Himself of His majesty and glory? Jesus did not sit on His throne and pass edicts but took the commandments Himself and served His people. Never has a King lived as a slave among His people to serve them. Never has a King abandoned His place of power to live at the mercy of His people.

How then do we follow the example of our Servant-King? How could we possibly step from our mediocre anthills of self-glory into the ravines of human destruction? Jesus lives and generously serves us, making intercession for us before the Father. Can we do less? Jesus lived and died for our redemption while we were lost and unreached by His grace. Can we do less? Jesus the servant kneels by us and offers us a towel.

Jesus, give me the strength to abandon my comfort and meager power to serve among the lost.

Jesus the Humble

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Philippians 2.5-6)

How could Jesus, God incarnate, choose to not count His equality within the Godhead? We find it infinitely difficult to recognize when we are not equal to governing legislators and legates. We look at the rulers of this world and we think, "I am equal with them. I could make a better decision than that." That may be true, but we don't naturally find ourselves saying, "I will submit my will to that leader even though I disagree with their decision." Even in the best circumstances our pride aims to cripple our obedience, and abuses make us jaded to future trust.

And yet, Jesus, who is the very radiance of the glory of the Father and the exact imprint of His nature, humbled Himself. There is no inequality within the Godhead but what God chooses to exercise. And so even though the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal, the Son chooses serve the Father, and the Spirit to the Father and Son. As humans made in the image of God we find this both incomprehensible and immensely appealing.

When we humble ourselves and stop attempting self-salvation and cry out to Jesus for our redemption, we meet with Jesus the Humble. Jesus who did not consider Himself equal with the Father and so stepped into our humanity so that we might be saved! And in Christ-like humility we meet with a joy unspeakable and full of glory because we have truly meet with Jesus.

Jesus, thank you for humbling yourself for my sake. Help me humble myself to see others lifted up before Your throne.