"A Light that Shines!" Philippians 2:12-16a

“A Life that Shines!"

Captivated by Christ: An expository sermon series on Paul's Letter to the Church in Philippi (message #16)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

August 8, 2010

The Word of God from Philippians 2:12-16a (NIV), "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. ¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life"

To review, this entire section (Philippians 1:27-2:18) is based on Paul's exhortation to the Christ-followers of Philippi to live a life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This worthy life is a life of Christ-centered unity! And ultimately that unity is only possible when we have attitudes like Jesus Christ. We must have the humility of Jesus Christ who being fully God and fully human demonstrated the love of God for His children by willingly giving His life as a ransom for you and me on the Cross of Calvary. The first half of the Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:6-8) proclaims this reality and then verse 9 begins with "therefore".

Let me read you the entire Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:6-11) so you can get the context of our passage of study today. Starting in verse 5, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a [slave], being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee [will] 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."

Verses 9-11 capture God's 'therefore.' God the Father has watched His Son's life of obedience and He responds to it! He exalts His Son to the highest place and gives Him the only name by which anyone or anything that can be saved. The obedience of the Son of God had cosmic implications that have forever changed the world order; the entire created realm was shaken by the obedience of Jesus Christ and we learned about that last week in a very personal way listening to Pastor Chris' teaching!

As we turn our gaze now from the 'therefore' of verses 9-11, we see there are not only great implications of the Cross of Calvary at the cosmic level, but at the heart level of our individual lives. Verses 12-18 capture the Christ-follower's 'therefore'. In fact, I see this 'therefore' (v 12) as a double therefore: to what Christ did (vv 6-8) and to God's exaltation of Christ because of His obedience (vv 9-11)!

Our lives should be deeply impacted by the reality and truth of not only Christ's obedience, but also God's response to the Cross! We are visible pointers to God's response! We are shining stars in a darkening world! We are visible pointers to the Son of God because God gave Him the name by which all are saved. We are to live in a manner that points people to the Name above all names; the Name of Jesus Christ! And when we point to Jesus Christ, we are living a life that shines!

Let's dive in to our Scripture lesson and the two teaching points from it. First, A LIFE THAT SHINES IS A LIFE OF OBEDIENCE!

Paul starts with his implications to the Christ-followers in Philippians 2:12-13, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out [katergazesthe] your salvation [soteria] with fear and trembling, for it is God who works [energon] in you to will and to act [energon] according to his good purpose [eudokia]." Paul, a master teacher, encourages, exhorts, and teaches in these 2 verses. He starts with a term of endearment, reminding the Philippians of his love for them (a good thing to do when you are about to exhort someone), and then he moves into the meat: obedience!

The Greek word katergazesthe translated "continue to work out" is a continuing action of being brought to completion; to a full, complete, perfect accomplishment and conclusion. Paul is saying, "Don't stop halfway!"

Obedience cannot be half-hearted, nor is it obedience if at the end of the race you don't finish!

Obedience is measured at the end; not in the process! Stay the course! But, here is the good news: Salvation (soteria), throughout this letter and all that the Apostle Paul wrote, is only from God! Some twist this passage to teach works-based religion, rather than a grace-based relationship! But that is a misrepresentation of the Scripture’s teachings and Paul’s emphasis.

Let's look at Paul's letter from its context. We learned from Philippians 1:6, “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.” Our faith rests in the great reality that it is God who works in us; He began and will complete the good work of salvation! He is the perfecting force of your salvation! Not you!

Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

So, if Paul is not telling us that we are responsible for our salvation then why is he telling us to "continue to work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling"?

I believe it is because we get sidetracked by the score at halftime! We lose sight of obedience because it is uncomfortable, unpopular, demanding and costly! We lose sight of obedience because obedience hurts and it's hard!

What if Jesus Christ did not give it all by going to the Cross of Calvary? What if He started looking at his own situation with the wrong mind frame? …the whippings, the abuse and pain at every level of His humanity, the abandonment, the betrayal...all too much too bear for any one person!

With the Christ Hymn as our context, Paul is telling us not to lose sight of the Cross, not to lose sight of God's exaltation of the One who humbled Himself for love's sake. Why? Because we often lose sight of the truth of our Victory in Christ in the midst of the defeats of our day to day lives. We become blinded and busy! Whether by depression or happiness, success or failure, pleasure or pain…we lose focus!

That brings us to verse 13, "for it is God who works [energon] in you to will and to act [energon] according to his good purpose [eudokia]." We just saw a parallel thought from Ephesians 2:10, ”For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

What is Paul communicating to us? Paul is teaching us that we have a part to play in His epic story! Through salvation, we have been ushered into the greatest story...the story of God's epic journey to save His creation from evil! God’s story is one of reconciliation at the Cross! The story continues as long as there are people who need to hear about Jesus Christ because out of God's great love, he wants all to know Him! And to play our role in this epic story, we must live lives of obedience! And that requires the work of God!

The Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:3-4 taught, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

It is by God's power that we can be obedient! The Holy Spirit is the active indweller; the One who is working within us so that we may obediently fulfill the mandate of our existence and experience the full merits of our salvation! The Greek verb energon is used twice in verse 13 and in both cases it describes the work of God, but the second usage is in the active voice and it is the only time in the New Testament that this word is used to describe a human activity. This usage of energon points to a divine work through our human action that achieves God’s purpose! We become participants in the divine work of God’s triumphant purpose!

The Greek word eudokia illustrates that the referenced God’s purpose is nothing less than His ultimate purpose—the consummation of all things! The purpose that God is working in and through you and me is God's redemptive plan; God's epic journey to save His creation from the grips of evil, the decay of disease, the destruction of sin. God’s desire is to use you to restore the lost! And it starts right here in your own heart! It starts right here with us fulfilling the vision of God to be a house of reconciliation! First, here in my heart and then out to the world one relationship at a time!

If you don’t get this, then it will always be hard to understand why things happen the way they do. It is so common, especially amongst western Christians, to think of God's good purpose not from a biblical worldview, but from a worldly mindset. We see ‘good’ as a nice house, a nice job, comfort and health... Not necessarily! God's good purpose is to take who and what we are in the midst of the evil in our own hearts, the decay of disease in our own lives, the destruction of sin in our own relationships and use us through the transformation of who we are to shine brightly for all to see! To bear light in a dark world!

As the Apostle John in 1 John 2:4-6 so directly instructs, “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

We are in the process of being made complete, first having grasped our salvation as a gift by the grace of God, and then be living a life of obedience to God having an attitude like Christ Jesus. God sanctifies us, meaning God transforms us through the Holy Spirit to be like His Son Jesus Christ. It is through the Holy Spirit in your life that you will be able to walk in obedience to accomplish God's great purpose for your life: To shine brightly in a darkened world to point to the One who has the Name by which all can be saved; the Son of God whose name is Jesus Christ.

And that moves us into our last teaching point, A LIFE THAT SHINES BEARS WITNESS TO THE SON!

A life that shines reflects the glory of the Father as witnesses (ambassadors) to the Son! We are transformed day by day when we stay the course and work out our salvation with fear and trembling, then we start looking more and more like Jesus Christ. How will we know that we are shining brightly? Let’s listen to these very challenging words from the last part of our Scripture lesson (Philippians 2:14-16a), "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word [logos] of life."

I want to focus your attention on the first half of verse 16, “as you hold out the word of life.” The word (logos) is the gospel of Jesus Christ which brings life to all who hear and receive its truth into their heart. The living word is Jesus Christ, the Name by which all can be saved!

Living a life that shines is dependent on the word. You are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ by the word. Jesus Christ stated this same reality in John 17:17-18 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

God receives the glory for the transformation in your life and mine! It is the truth of God, the word, which sanctifies us. What is evidence of the transformation of our lives as we shine in the midst of darkness?

The evidence is that in the midst of “a crooked and depraved generation” of which we are a part, we stand out as “children of God without fault”. What does it mean that we are to become the “blameless and pure” ones who “shine like starts in the universe”?

It means that in the midst of our corrupted state in this temporary body with evil in our own hearts, the decay of disease, and the destruction of sin in our own relationships that we will not complain or argue, but rather we will be transformed in our very hearts and souls by the grace of God whose good purpose is to use our witness in those difficult circumstances to point to the true light of the Son. The purpose of us having light is to point to the God who is the Light of the Universe!

This whole issue of complaining and arguing is huge! These sins are listed with sins such as murder and debauchery in the lists of vices. When it comes to being mission-focused for God’s Kingdom, all sin separates and disunites. All sin casts us into the depths of shadows and lies. All sin leads to death! Praise God for His Son Jesus Christ who has given us life in the reality of our sin!

The Greek word translated complaining can also be translated grumbling and it is used quite a bit in the Old Testament’s Exodus story. An example is from Exodus 16:2, “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” The Holy Spirit is exhorting us not to have the same actions as the rebellious and faithless generation of Israelites (interestingly also called “a crooked and depraved generation”).

God removed this generation in the desert wanderings before He would allow His chosen children to enter the Promised Land. This was a generation that distrusted their leaders and was constantly on the verge of rebellion when anything would not go the way they wanted it to go or felt it should be like. A timeless issue of rebellion!

Does God need to kill off another grumbling and arguing generation before He will allow a generation to experience His glory and enter the promise land of His Kingdom? Let us repent as the Holy Spirit convicts!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God does not deliver you from the circumstances that you grumble about, rather God delivers you from the broken heart that leads you to grumble. God transforms us from the inside out and the evidence of this transformation is our attitudes in the midst of uncertainty, pain, struggle, fear and failure, success and glory.

In every situation, do we (do you and I) reflect the light and love of God by having the same attitude of Jesus Christ who faced the Cross without complaining or arguing? Do we live in the reality that God exalts those who obediently pick up their cross daily?

And carrying our cross daily is the required obedience to being found as the children of God without fault. Obedience requires selflessness and personal sacrifice! It is the reality of our personhood as Christ-followers that we are children of God, but it is another issue to be found without fault, to be the blameless and pure ones!

Paul explains the partnership between God and us in becoming a pure and blameless people in 2 Corinthians 6:18—7:1, “‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’ Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

We have a part to play in the sanctification process, but we must realize that this process starts and finishes with God. From beginning to end, this process is empowered by the Holy Spirit! Ours is to hold on to the living word, the message of life, and to positively live out the light and love of God in our words, deeds, and actions.

Are you ready to shine the light and love of God as the world order darkens around us? This earthly empire may be coming to an end, but the good news is that God’s Kingdom is being ushered in! Don’t be distracted by the birth pains that are necessary for all things to be made new! Stay focused on what God is birthing! Remember that God is calling you to build His Kingdom! Stay the course! Shine!

As Jesus Christ proclaimed in the Gospel of Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

As we enter our response time this morning, I invite you to bring to God anything that is diminishing the light of God in your life; anything that is preventing you from bearing witness to the Son; anything that is causing you to want to hide under the table rather than boldly shine on the stand.

God is inviting you this morning to respond to His great love! What will your response look like as you leave God’s house today and enter the mission field of your home, your schools and workplaces, your neighborhoods of Henry County and beyond?