Work Out Your Salvation

Introduction

Jesus Paradigm Recap

We talked about last week where the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Philippi from a prison cell in most likely Rome.

While he himself is in dire straits within a roman prison cell, the church in Philippi is going through a difficult time and we can gather from the letter that understandably the church is fighting each other. When there is difficulty outside of the church, it can adversely affect what is happening within the church.

Paul writes that our joy doesn’t have its root in circumstance, but that joy is rooted in our mind being conformed to Christ. This means being united with Jesus, comforted by God’s great love for us, and being of one mind united in the Spirit.

Paul says here is the Jesus paradigm, the lenses we should look through…

Philippians 2:2–4 “then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

This like-mindedness leads us to deep community. Deep community goes against our choice of individualism, consumerism, and isolationism. Because we are not only required to show up, but we are required to lean in when things are uncomfortable or not ideal. When we want to withdrawal, the call is to lean-in.

This is important because internal vitality of the church secures the church’s public witness.

Those who are wondering if the church does hold the answer… those who are listening to the message of the gospel and are wondering if the church can live it out.

Those who have experienced favor and the life-giving interaction with the fruit of the spirit and are weighing, do I want to be a part of this.

This type of vitality produces a love “generates a proactive self-giving and a consistent, humbling self-denial.”

Mindset of Jesus

Paul exhorts the church… in your relationships with one another, take on this same mindset as Christ. He then unpacks very concrete actions of Christ to help us understand what he means in our interactions with one another.

Philippians 2:6–11 “Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; (**not a doormat**)

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! (**shame**)

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 should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.”

Sometimes it takes a interruption to a pattern to see what something could be.

On February 18, 1942, the US Navy destroyer Truxtun was escorting the USS Pollux, which carried supplies for the Allies in Europe. A terrible winter storm blew up, rendering the navigational equipment useless. Both the Truxtun and the Pollux ran aground off the coast of Newfoundland and were torn apart by the high waves and savage wind. Few reached land alive. One fortunate soldier was an African-American mess attendant, Lanier Philipps, from Georgia. He was covered in oil, soaking wet and freezing, as he began to walk toward a village. He fainted on his journey but was found, put on a sled, and brought to town, where a group of women were cleaning and bandaging the soldiers.

As Mr. Phillips tells the story, he awoke to find the women cleaning his now naked body—​he a black man, naked in the presence of white women. Back in Georgia, simply talking to a white woman could lead to a beating or even hanging. Yet these women kept up their massaging of his limbs, trying to restore circulation and prevent permanent damage from the cold. They were rubbing his arms and legs not only to keep them warm, but also to remove the oil that had spilled from the sinking vessel and covered his wet body. Soon Mr. Phillips realized that they had never seen a black man, because they kept trying to get the dark color off his skin. Later, one of the women, Violet Pike, took Mr. Philips to her house to continue his convalescence until the Navy could collect him the following day. She fed him, clothed him, and treated him as if he was her own son. Such generosity overwhelmed Mr. Phillips, whose boyhood school had been burned by the KKK. Her kindness offered to him a new vision of racial relations and a new conviction to work for civil rights. Mr. Phillips became the first African American in the Navy’s history to hold the post of sonar technician (1957). He endured the difficult journey for equal rights and reconciliation in large part because of the vision cast by Violet Pike, a vision created not by eloquent words but by the simple acts of cleaning and feeding a dirty, half-frozen sailor.

What might be God be putting before you to look at another way, to take on the role of servant that others might not find very popular? What might you be fighting God on that he’s calling you to serve… possibly someone or some group that can add nothing to you, but that you can make it better by leaning in?

Working this out

Philippians 2:14–18 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”

Paul affirms the church (vs.12) … I like this… as you have always obeyed. We need to be affirmed. Maybe you need to be affirmed. Following Jesus and wanting to be pleasing to God is not for the faint of heart. Well done… keep the faith, continue to pursue him… but it’s not over yet… let’s go, let’s keep going.

The example of Christ is not only one of humility; it is also one of obedience (8). To such obedience, whether or not Paul is with them (cf. 1:27), the Philippians are called. Work out here has the sense of bringing to completion. It is not a matter of working for salvation. We could never do that. The very word salvation (which means ‘rescue’) signifies that we cannot save ourselves (cf. Jn. 15:4–5; 1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 2:5, 8), but we can and must live lives that show God’s saving power that we have made our own.

Paul insists that God empowers the believers both in their will to do and in their actual doing of those acts that fulfill his good purpose. Ephesians 2:10 similarly promises that God has prepared good works for his people to do. Paul learned for himself that his strength comes from the Lord, who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Elsewhere he admits that he is the least of the apostles because he persecuted the church, but he goes on to say that God’s grace to him has not been in vain, for he worked harder than all of the other apostles—​and then he pauses and states, “yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor 15:10).

Perhaps a mundane example will serve to illustrate my point. God is not doing the good works for the Philippian believers, as a parent might do a child’s homework. Instead, God is making it possible for them to work by giving them access to the power to accomplish what he has asked. Parents give their child a good supper, a quiet place free of distractions, and encouraging comments about their previous good work. Thus well fortified and encouraged, and with the proper tools and environment, the student can do his or her homework. Cohick, L. H. (2013). Philippians (T. Longman III & S. McKnight, Eds.; pp. 136–137). Zondervan.

God’s work has a good purpose to fulfill. The word “purpose” (eudoxia) can also be translated “pleasure” (see ESV). Why does God find pleasure in our works, which he strengthens us to do? Yesterday as I was working on this message, our daughter texted us with news that she was had the possibility of being of employee of the month at her new job (after only a month and a half on the job). Did she do the work to get it? Certainly. Did I find immense pleasure in seeing her achieve this cool accolade? You bet. Was she excited to have earned a spot? Undoubtedly. Now what if I had paid off her manager, would she have the same sense of victory, and would I have the same feelings of deep joy? Not a bit. So too God could, with a snap of his fingers, so to speak, create all goodness and complete obedience in his people. But even as parents take great joy in their children’s hard work and successes, so too in a mysterious way, God also delights in our obedience. As Fee notes, “it delights God to delight his people.” Adapted from Cohick, L. H. (2013). Philippians (T. Longman III & S. McKnight, Eds.; pp. 137–138). Zondervan.

(v14) Moreover, it is not just what is done that matters, but the spirit in which we do it, ‘free of murmuring and complaining’ (NJB). This has a constant application to the Christian’s life and work. Foulkes, F. (1994). Philippians. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 1254). Inter-Varsity Press.

Dr. Lynn Cohick rightly draws us into the wilderness with this text. It would be highly likely that Paul is giving a nod to the Jewish scriptures. Putting in our minds the children of Israel wandering the dessert complaining to Moses and Aaron. God has done a great deliverance, showing them where they are going (fire by night, pillar of smoke by day), giving them food, water, and manna in the dessert, their clothes not wearing out, revealing himself intimately to them (unlike any other god of that day in age), only to have them complain and grumble. Numbers 14:2-3 telling us coming upon the promise land they were like, “Ugh… it would have been better to die in Egypt.”

This I think is appropriate today for us in realizing that we are on a journey. Paul will make a nod to this later in our text. The danger today is for affluent churches and believers to settle for our (short term) comforts, even as Israel longed to return to the security of Egypt. It is tempting to park permanently at a rest stop on God’s highway. We are not interested in a journey, for we are comfortable with life as it is. We then turn our eyes to protecting our comforts and criticize those who threaten them.

If we were writing this letter today, many of us would put at the top of our list describing blameless living: “stop committing fornication,” “stop cheating/stealing,” or even “stop watching porn.” Few would put gossip and grumbling at the top of the list of sins to be avoided in church. Is it because the Philippians scored a perfect mark in avoiding sexual and financial temptations that Paul had to move farther down the list of bad sins, to pinpoint one that fit their context? More likely, Paul was deeply troubled at the serious problems that dissension caused.

(v15) Paul declares that believers “shine … like stars/lights,” a phrase found in Daniel 12:3.

Daniel 12:3- Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

In the latter passage, Daniel promises the righteous that they will shine, a promise awaiting its fulfillment. Paul uses the present tense, indicating that the Philippian believer enjoys that reality now, at least in part. The term translated “stars” (phōstēr) can include any heavenly luminary, such as the moon (see Gen 1:14, 16; Sir 43:7). Paul’s specific use of the word found in Daniel reinforces the interpretation that he is thinking of this Scripture.

How is it they shine brightly, it is holding onto the word of life, the word that God has given us.

(vv.17-18) It is this joy that arises over circumstance… Paul says that as he is being poured out (emptied)… he rejoices because of what their faith is producing. He rejoices with them. The exhortation to them as well is not to not fight, worry, be embittered, be angry with each other but rejoice in the work of God that He is doing in and through them.