Celebrating Passover

The text for Rev Mar’s Dec 20, 2020 sermon may be downloaded here:

Pagdiriwang Ng Kapaskuhan

(Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

1. Pambungad

1. Nababago ang paguugali. Pagdating ng ganitong kapanahunan, ang mga tao ay nababago ang paguugali. Sila ay nagdiriwang subalit wala sa karamihan ang tunay na diwa ng kapaskuhan o hindi nalalaman ng marami bakit nagdiriwang ang mga tao sa panahon ng tinatawag na kapaskuhan. Ang kaalaman ng marami ay ito ay panahon para sa mga bata at pagsasaya ngunit kung tanungin kung bakit ay hindi nalalaman, basta masaya ang maga tao. Kahit mga driver ng mga sasakyan ay nagiging mapagbigay at magagalang iyong mga dati ay naguunahan at naggigitgitan.
2. Nababago rin ang kahulugan ng mga awit. Iyong dating kinakanta na Silent Night ay naging ingay ng jingle bells at jingle ng cash register sa mga namimili. Iyong kinakanta na O Holy Night ay naging maingay na lasingan at magulong pagsasaya dahil iyong dating Holy Day ay naging holiday. Iyong babala ng Banal na Kasulatan na “Watch…be ye also ready” (Matthew 24:42, 44) patungkol sa malapit at sa panahon na hindi inaasahan ay darating ang Panginoong Jesucristo upang tanggapin Niya sa Kaniyang sarili ang mga mananampalataya ay ito ay napalitan ng kinakanta ng sanlibutan You better watch out, you better not pout, Santa Klaus is coming to town.” Kaya ang inaantay ng ga tao ay mga regalo na hindi magtatagal ngunit iyong regalo ni Jesus na hindi napapanis na buhay na walang hanggan ay hindi nakakamtan dahil ang pinagsisikapan na makamtan ay ang mga maibibigay ng sanlibutan na ito na pansamantala lamang.
3. Kaya ang pakay ko ngayon ay tanawin natin ang kapaskuhan sa ibang pananaw at mabigyan ng tunay na kahalagahan ng pasko. Hindi ko tatalakayin iyong pinagtataluhan na kung kalian ipinanganak ang Dios Anak sa Kaniyang pagkakatawang tao, samakatuwid, ng Panginoong Jesucristo.
4. This Sermon, I have divided it into a 4-part presentation of the Son of God’s coming into this world. Let us start looking at it from Philippians 2:5-11. Here the focus is not on the infant Jesus on the manger in a stable but the Jesus who has grown in the full stature of man.
5. Jesus’ humility to leave a sovereign position to voluntarily fulfill His part which was purposed upon Him in the eternal covenant of the Godhead, meaning, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

1. v.5 introduces the Lord Jesus whose humility should also be in us. One of the prominent teachings of the Lord Jesus is “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
2. v. 6  Who, being (existing referring to Jesus’ self-existence in His essence) in the form (morphe) of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The word “being” refers to the continuing existence of Jesus Christ, the I AM, which means the ever-living, never-changing, faithful One. Jesus has always been existing in the form of God. Form is morphe in Greek which does not refer to the outside shape and form but rather to the qualities, attributes, characteristics that belong to someone. Here Jesus is existing in the essence and form of God. He possesses all the qualities, attributes, characteristics and qualities of God in its fullest sense.

1. John 1:1 says that the Word (full expression of God communicated to the createdkind) Who was in the beginning, Who was with God and the Word was (not past tense but imperfect tense, which means has always been; Tagalog, dati na) God (kai Theos en o Logos).
2. Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.
3. Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God.
4. John 5:18  the Jews wanted to kill him because Jesus said God was His Father making Himself equal with God.

3. Romans 12:2 “…be ye transformed (metamorphoo, change in characteristics and qualities and attributes) by the renewing of your mind.” You are not transformed in your physical and external shape but by inward renewing your thoughts, character, thoughts and way of life. 
4. v. 6. “Jesus existed in the essence and qualities (morphe) of God. His essence and qualities of being God were not given to Him not did He seize or plundered from someone else because that is His own self, His self-existence. He considered not robbery (harpagmos, to seize, to snatch and own what is not legitimately yours). This is in contrast to Lucifer, who was once an anointed guardian cherub (Ezekiel 28:14) but because of pride, he being in the form of a created angel, tried to seize the essence and qualities or attributes of God when he said, I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14). To Lucifer, equality with God is something to be snatched or seized. So Lucifer was cast to the earth (Ezekiel 28:17-18) and he became satan, the devil.
5. v.7 Equality with God was not something Jesus need to cling to. Though bearing the essence and attributes of being God, He made himself of no reputation (kenoo heautou, emptied [figurative] Himself, to pour out), and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. “Kenosis” or “self-emptying” of Christ Jesus, according to Philippians 2:7, only means His self-restraint or self-limitation or self-inhibition of His Godhood so that His manhood could accommodate His Godhood. 
6. What did Jesus restrained or inhibited or limited in His incarnation? Definitely not His Godhood because the fulness of His Godhood dwells in His perfect manhood.

1. He restrained His glory. In John 17:4-5, Jesus said, “Father I have glorified Thee on earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, Father glorify Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” He veiled His glory when He came down to earth. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John saw the glory of Jesus in a vision when His face shone like the sun and His raiment was white as the light while talking to Moses and Elijah. The veiled or  restrained/inhibited His glory of God can still be seen in the face of Jesus Christ as 2Corinthinas 4:6 says, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2. Jesus also inhibited His honor. Isaiah 53:2-3 when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
3. He restrained His kingdom authority. Peter tried to defend Jesus from being arrested and in so doing Peter cut the ear of Malchus. Jesus healed the ear of the priest’s servant and said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) but when Jesus was resurrected before His ascension, Jesus said, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
4. He left the heavenly treasures and He who is rich became poor that we who are poor might become rich. (2Corinthians 8:9)
5. Self-restrain, self-inhibition, self-limitation, are qualities that are hard to find or do nowadays. This is exactly what the Bible says that in the last days perilous times will come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2Timothy 3:1-5)
6. It was on these that the Lord Jesus was tempted by satan:

1. Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
2. Mat 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Mat 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 
3. Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 
4. He was made in the likeness (homoioma – resemblance) of men. Jesus united His Perfect Manhood to His Godhood but His Godhood was not reduced to Manhood neither has His Perfect Manhood ever been dissolved and mixed into His Godhood for the Bible says, For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) and the Lord Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh (1Tim 3:16) because He is the Almighty Lord God the Son Incarnate and Perfect Man.

1. Jesus was not half man and half God but the fulness of the Godhood dwells in Him bodily. It was the fulness of God putting on the nature of a Perfect Man. He was fully God and fully man. It was a case of God made in the likeness of man. Jesus had all the qualities of man:
2. Jesus had to be born; He grew in stature to a full man; He hungered after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights; He became thirsty He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink; he got tired, He slept while the boat he was riding was about to capsize, He grieved and wept at the tomb of Lazarus, he felt compassion for the two blind men; He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15); He plied His trade as a carpenter. No one recognized Him as the Son of God. He was introduced by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world but even though He did miracles that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, dead raised, the poor had the gospel preached to them many did not believe in Him and John the Baptist doubted (Luke 7:22-23).
3. Jesus as a voluntary and obedient suffering servant. Jesus did not only leave His sovereign position, but He accepted the place of a servant (v.7) (doulos) of the Father for the eternal purpose of God was purposed on Him. When Jesus took upon Himself His Manhood, He not only took the nature, form, and functions of Man but also the form and works of a voluntarily humble, obedient, and suffering SERVANT unto death, even death upon the cross.  

1. Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Heb 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: Heb 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.  … Heb 10:10  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
2. Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.  Joh 6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
3. On that cross He will bear the weight of the sins of the world and die the excruciating death upon the cross. It has been said that anybody who dies on the cross, he died a thousand deaths. He endured the cross and despised the shame. (Hebrews 12:2) He endured the cross for He was looking beyond the pain – the joy of giving His life for the ransom of many. (Matthew 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.)
4. He temporarily left His sovereign place; He inhibited His Godhood and took upon Him the form of a servant, He was made in the likeness of men, He became obedient unto death even death upon the cross. Wherefore, after having paid the only acceptable sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, finally, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1. For the reason of His fulfilling His part of the eternal covenant as the Savior of the world and Redeemer of men by the greatness of His self-sacrificing work, Jesus ascended to a position far above all heavens (Ephesians 4:10) for He who cometh from above is above all (John 3:31). According to the commitments of the Father to Jesus Christ, the Almighty Lord God the Son Incarnate and Perfect Man and All in All, in the Inter-Trinitarian Eternal Covenant,
2. He was given a name that is above all names;
3. He now shares the eternal throne with the Father (2Peter 1:11; Revelation 3:21);
4. He is the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2; John 3:35; Matthew 11:27);
5. He was given all the due testimony (John 8:18; 1John 5:9-13);
6. He was given all judgment (John 8:15-16; 5:22-23)
7. He was given all authority in heaven and in earth (John 17:1-2; Matthew 28:18);
8. He was given all glory (John 17:5, 24)
9. So that every knee, in heaven, in earth and under the earth, shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11)
10. Conclusion:

1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 

1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

The Lord’s Message – 20/12/2020