"Finish Well Together!"
Captivated by Christ: An expositional sermon series on Paul's Letter to the Church in Philippi (week #3)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
April 25, 2010
We are continuing our sermon series "Captivated by Christ" walking through the Apostle Paul's letter to the faithful Christ-followers in Philippi while he was in captivity for Christ. Please open your Bibles and pull out your sermon notes as we continue with Philippians 1:6 (NIV).
The Word of God: "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." [prayer]
Do you know what is the most useless piece of sports trivia? ___The score at halftime!________
In sports, it is obvious that the score at halftime is not the reality that will mark who we are and what will be remembered about us. In sports, it is obvious that there is hope for the next half regardless of the score board.
But in life, these same perceptions are lost in the midst of the halftime score. It is easy to get distracted by the current events of our lives--by the media; the distractions; the circumstances. It is easy to become apathetic or without hope because the score board of our lives seems to offer no hope for a second half rebound. Friends, today I am declaring there is a hope beyond the scoreboard; beyond your circumstances!
We cannot get distracted by the score at halftime; we must keep our eyes on the promises of God!
From John's Revelation 21:3, the promise of what is to come on the Day of the Lord, the completion of all things on heaven and earth, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.'"
Our hope is in the reality that on the day of Christ Jesus the world as we experience it will come under subjection to the great victory of God. God wins; we win!
Friends, as in sports, we must not get distracted by the score at halftime; we must remain focused on the truths of God—the promise that at the end of the game we are victorious! We are more than conquerors! We stand righteous before God because in that day He who dwells in us now dwells amongst us! Can we get excited about this family of God?!? PRAISE HIM!
Let's dive into Philippians 1:6 and learn how we can finish well together by the grace of God. WE FINISH WELL TOGETHER...THROUGH TEAMWORK!
Paul started his letter with this prayer of thanksgiving for his beloved children in the church of Philippi and our Scripture lesson this morning is actually the last verse of this wonderful prayer we learned about last week.
(This is the context for our passage and we must always seek to know the context of Scripture as we study.)
Paul prays, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership [koinonia] in the gospel from the first day until now" (Philippians 1:3-5).
If we are to finish well together on this missionary journey then we must understand the commitment of partnership birthed in God's love.
To illustrate this Christian partnership, I want to show you a DVD clip about one of my favorite father-son teams. Be prepared, this story will shake your world and it has the ability to make a grown man cry!
**Show DVD Clip of the Team Hoyt Story**
The Bible proclaims in 1 John 5:3-4a, "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world."
My brothers and sisters in Christ, may we learn how to work together, carry one another's burdens in love, and love one another as selflessly and sacrificially as this father-son have learned.
Are you starting to get what koinonia is?
One of the key lessons I learned in my many hours and days of land navigation training and infantry work in the US Army is that no matter how efficient you are at the tools of land navigation (compass, map, pace count), if you do not start well you will not finish well.
Our second point is: WE FINISH WELL TOGETHER...BY STARTING WELL WITH GOD!
This point comes directly from the first part of Philippians 1:6, "being confident [pepoithos] of this, that he who began [enarchamenos] a good [agathon] work in you..." (Philippians 1:6a).
Paul is teaching us that he is confident (the Greek word is pepoithos which means to be convinced of or persuaded of) that God began a good work in those who have become children of God through Jesus Christ!
The Greek word agathon translated 'good' has a rich connotation. Unlike our usage of the word good which can mean anything at anytime, this word used by Paul is used primarily for God and for those things God has made good. It is not good because we say it is good. This work that God began is good because it is the work of God!
What is this good work that God has begun in us? It is our salvation! It is the gift of eternal life lavished upon us by faith in the Son of God. Paul can pray with joy regarding his partnership with the church in Philippi not only because of their partnership (their koinonia!), but because of the origin of that team work; their salvation which God began.
Let's look at the Scriptures to better understand this teaching of God's good work that He began in us. From Hebrews 10:10, "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
It is the will of God that we, the ones predestined by God to be His children, to be set apart as the hagios (the holy ones!) in Christ Jesus through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is the victory of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross; the final atoning sacrifice! This is the peace and grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul greeted the Philippians with in his address of the letter.
Paul states this truth of salvation in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
If we are to finish the race well, then we must be born again; a birth that is not of water only, but of the Spirit and water. This is what baptism symbolizes and why we celebrate the baptism of these 14 people today.
If we are to grasp the infinite and eternal promises of God, we must pass from death to life through faith in Jesus Christ! To not get this point is to miss the entire point of this verse and the gospel!
It is my most passionate prayer that you will humbly ask God to gift you with the starting point of faith so that you will, in this very moment, receive eternal life with God; this is the good work of salvation!
This is what God begins in us and what He continues to completion!
This beginning or commencement is emphasized by Paul again in Galatians 3:3, "Are you so foolish? After beginning [same Greek word as in Ph 1:6] with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"
This verse transitions us to our last teaching point: WE FINISH WELL TOGETHER...WITH OUR EYES ON THE PRIZE!
Paul concludes Philippians 1:6 stating, "[he]... will carry it on to completion [epitelesei] until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6b).
Upon receiving salvation, we then we must continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling through the process we called sanctification.
Sanctification, very simply stated, is the ongoing good work of the Holy Spirit, that we participate in, to transform and conform us into the character of Jesus Christ. It is our progress towards holiness as the holy ones!
In my humble opinion, it is in our misunderstanding of sanctification where we go off course in our conceptual design of discipleship and establish well-intentioned church programs, but where we start getting in the way rather than participating in the good work that God "will carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
As sinful humans, even as sinners saved by grace, it is so easy to try to attain the goal by human effort, as Paul rebuked the Christ-followers in Galatia in Galatians 3:3.
The key to finishing well together is to keep our eyes on the prize! What does that mean? We must keep our eyes on God who has begun the work (justification), who is continuing the work (sanctification), and who has promised to complete the work (glorification)!
Paul said is this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I want to now call your attention to a powerful teaching in our Scripture lesson (Philippians 1:6) that is impossible to see in our English translation or without understanding the cultural implications of language. Using 2 technical terms for the beginning and ending of a sacrifice in the Greek language, Paul establishes a word image that lives, moves, and has its being in an atmosphere of a sacrifice.
The first is the Greek word Enarchamenos translated 'who began' which means in its technical usage to commence or initiate the beginning ritual of sacrifice.
And the Greek word Epitelesei is translated 'will bring it to completion' is the verb used for completing the whole ritual of sacrifice and for carrying out the sacrifice perfectly in every smallest detail.
God is the one who begins the sacrifice and then brings to completion the sacrifice perfectly in EVERY smallest detail!
This is the story of your life and mine when the Holy Spirit begins the good work of salvation in our souls. This is the true essence of Paul's exhortation in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."
The gift that the King desires of you and me is not that we take charge of the process, but that we daily die to ourselves trusting and knowing that it is God who is doing the work in us—that we be living sacrifices!
It doesn't matter what the scoreboard says today! Keep your eyes on the prize; God is faithful! TRUST THE PROMISE!
How do we do this today? It takes intentionality to walk in the Spirit! Paul wrote with passion, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).
It takes intentionality to finish the marathon that God has called us to! We must remember who called us and sent us to finish the race! Watch this amazing video that captures the story of the Tanzanian Olympian John Stephen Ahkwari from the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and his tenacity to finish well. **Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3rOMnLGBk
Are you going to finish the race?
Jesus Christ traveled a distance that quantum physics cannot calculate because it is beyond our comprehension of space and time. Jesus Christ came to us, began the good work of our salvation by reconciling us to God on the Cross once and for all (IF only you will ask him by faith into your life and accept that He took all of your sin and closed the chasm between your imperfection and God's perfection!).
God went to this great extent not so that you can start the race, but so that you can finish the race!
He wants all of you for all of eternity, but it has to begin in this life through faith! There are no second chances when the Day of Christ Jesus occurs! God has made Himself known to you and you will be held accountable on that day for how you respond to His grace!
You can neither start nor finish this race with human effort! The distance is beyond our comprehension of space and time; no amount of good deeds, charitable contribution, will power, or work ethic will allow you to finish well.
Paul wrote with intimate honesty to his beloved Timothy near the end of his life, shortly before his own martyrdom, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
What will your testimony be as God lovingly encounters you in the difficult circumstances of this life? When evil appears to have the upper hand and last word?
When hate and broken relationships seem to be inevitable?
As we respond, I am going to ask Ken and his team to come up and lead us in some response songs.
What is the most useless statistic in sports and in life?
It's the score at halftime! God has moved toward you and promised the Victory! Now it is your time to respond and move toward the God who loves you!
Do you need a touch from God today for the strength to surrender control and to keep your eyes on the victory that God has promised for the coming day of Christ Jesus?
You are invited this morning to come forward and get this touch from God! Put yourself in God's hands and trust Him with your circumstances.
Response prayer.
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