TBS - 14 Aug 2025

Philippians 1:6

Welcome to The Bible Study, a midweek gathering for preaching and teaching verse by verse through books of the Bible. We are currently working through the book of Philippians and today we are focusing on verse six, but we’ll begin today with verse 1 just to get a running start. 

 1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 

Let’s open with a word of prayer: Father God, we count it all joy to be able to come together this morning to hear from you and to be in your presence. We are amazed that you, the one and only infinite and almighty God of creation, would choose to use weak and fragile vessels like us to build and expand your kingdom. We praise you Lord God for all that you are and all you have done for us. Help us to focus on you daily, and anoint us to accomplish every good work you prepared for us to do since before you laid the foundations of the world. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray and dedicate ourselves to you today, amen.

If you are taking notes and would like a title for today’s message, please consider this: WHEN JESUS STARTS IT, HE FINISHES IT

In reading Paul’s greeting which begins with, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi”, it occurs to me that it’s possible that a very concrete and literal thinker may read these opening verses as an observer to Paul’s message rather than a participant in receiving the message. It’s highly unlikely that you would read it that way, but what I do want to do is encourage all of us to let the truth of the word be planted deeply and securely in our hearts and, like a seed planted in rich soil, allow it to grow and produce an abundant harvest of good fruit. 

Paul was certainly writing to a specific group of believers in this letter, that is the church in Philippi. But Paul also underscores the value of the Word’s application in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 to you and me here this morning, some 2000 years later  in which he writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 

We’ll recall that Paul wrote this letter while under house arrest in Rome to encourage the Philippians to live as citizens of heaven, and therefore to us also, to keep in mind that our time here is temporary as we travel on to our final destination which is eternity with Jesus. In the meantime, Paul recognizes that we ARE on a journey and that Christ is continually at work in us here so that we will become more Christ-like and therefore more effective in helping to populate the streets of heaven with fellow believers along our journey. That is, you and I as Christ-followers are still “under construction” and will be until he takes us home. We shouldn’t be surprised about that. After all, we live in a fallen, dying, broken, and decaying world that requires our constant attention at repairing and fixing stuff, much like the road construction season that occurs every year around here. The difference is that one day God’s construction job in us will be complete, but I don’t believe the Minnesota or North Dakota Departments of Transportation will ever be done! With that, let’s take a closer look now at today’s verse.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Prior to writing his letter to the Phillipians, Paul had a strong desire to go to Rome and preach the gospel. In Acts 23:11 Jesus tells him in a vision, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” That revelation from Jesus himself would have been an incredible faith and confidence builder for Paul. With this assurance, he knew that nothing could stop him from going to Rome because it wasn’t his plan; it was God’s, and Paul knew that God’s promises are “yea and amen”; that when Jesus starts it, he finishes it, whatever it happens to be.

But as we come to find out in Acts chapters 25 and 26, after he faced Governor Felix, a former slave who had risen to the rank of governor of Judea and was known to be especially brutal and corrupt, and then testifying before King Agrippa and his wife, Bernice, and Festus, the Roman governor who replaced Felix, to say the least for his poor leadership, that Paul wasn’t destined to go to Rome in tourist-mode. Instead, he was sent to Rome as a prisoner to stand before Caesar to plead his case, and that’s where we find him writing to the Philippian church. That would be like you or me appealing a verdict against us and then being sent to pitch our case to the President of the United States! While that may have been a commonly accepted practice in Paul’s day, to me it highlights the fact that the Lord will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure everyone has the opportunity to hear the gospel because he desires each one of his creation to know him as Lord and Savior, from the one who has the greatest influence and notoriety in the world, to the one is so obscure that they would be unnoticed in a group of two. 

With these events in the rearview mirror, three questions came to my mind as I read this one verse, along with three conclusions. They are:

> First, where does Paul’s confidence come from? 

My conclusion is: We can have the same confidence as Paul

> Second, what is the good work that he is referring to? 

My conclusion is: God is working his good plans in us right now

> Third, what does Paul mean by “the Day of Jesus Christ”?

My conclusion is: At some point in time, God’s construction project in us will be completed

Beginning with the first question, where does Paul’s confidence come from? 

After all, here he is imprisoned in Rome knowing that God sent him there and that the chances are very high that he would face death there. But even before this, Paul knew that Rome would be the end of his long and prosperous apostolic ministry. How could he be so confident that God would complete “a good work” in him, much less the Philippians even while he, Paul, would likely die a horrible and unjustified death at the hands of a tyrannical Roman government? 

Nonetheless, Paul was indeed at peace because he knew the faithfulness of God. He had been through so many trials and tragedies, beatings and shipwrecks while serving God, and all the while he had been the beneficiary of God’s provision, protection, and deliverance. For Paul, the notion that God would not finish what he had begun didn’t even cross his mind. It simply wasn’t an option. It was a mission he had signed up for and one that the Lord entrusted to him, so he could confidently face his own future while at the same time encouraging true believers in the faithfulness of God. 

In fact, in verses 12 - 14 Paul puts to rest any question we might have about God’s perfect plans for him that led to his imprisonment in Rome.  We read: 

“I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

Did you notice the ripple effect? Paul’s complete trust, reliance, confidence, and faith in Jesus washed over most of the brothers in Christ like a tsunami to increase their trust, reliance, confidence, and faith in Jesus, so much so that they found boldness in Christ to spread the good news of Jesus.

What about us? Do we have the same confidence that the infinite and almighty God of the universe would care about us so much that he would do for us what he did for Paul, for the church at Philippi, or for anyone else? Can we trust him to come through for us when the world comes crashing down around us? When a close friend or loved one dies, or worse yet, rejects us or abandons us? Can we trust him to have our backs when we’ve done all we can do to do what’s right in the eyes of God, yet everything is turning out so wrong? 

Here’s what I believe to be true: Intellectually, it’s often much easier to say “yes” to those questions because that’s what we’ve been taught and that’s what we’ve read for ourselves in the Bible. It’s easy to say yes when there’s no pressure and the heat isn’t on. 

The hiccup for many people whose faith is young, or weak, or is being tested by the unexpected twists and turns of life – the hiccup is in our emotions. All too often our emotions can hijack us and try to convince us that the reality we are currently experiencing is somehow outside of the greater reality of the promises and nature of God. And sometimes we actually believe the lies that our emotions are feeding us. In truth, we know our own sins and may often find ourselves struggling with the same sinful behaviors time and time again, feeling that it’s a battle we will never win. And in a sense we are right. We can’t win. That’s why Jesus died on the cross. He defeated sin and death, and only he can win the battle for our souls, and we praise God that he did. 

Paul was human, and facing imminent death, it would be natural for him to wrestle with the darkest of emotions, yet he was convinced that we can - and should - like him, find our peace in God because God is faithful, he is just, he is good, he is merciful, he is love with a capital “L”. Paul knew that his circumstances had nothing to do with whether or not God would do what he said he would do, and that he will complete what he started. Paul knew that he, like us, was a man still under construction and that the Master Builder himself was overseeing the construction project and would see it through to completion. In this, he was fully confident. 

Because God is forever faithful, we too can have the same confidence as Paul!

This brings us to my second question: what is the “good work” that Paul is referring to here in verse six? 

Could it have been the good work that the church of Philippi was involved in by supporting Paul’s missionary work financially, and their faithfulness in helping to spread the gospel? Or could it be that Paul was referring to the work of sanctification that the Holy Spirit does in every true believer and the fruit of the good work that comes as a result of sanctification? 

He certainly could have been thinking of both, and I tend to believe he was looking at the bigger picture to see the finished work that God was doing and would do in the whole body of believers. 

Charles Spurgeon made this observation about the good work begun by God in the Philippians, and indeed, all believers:

“The work of grace has its roots in the divine goodness of the Father, it is planted by the self-denying goodness of the Son, and it is daily watered by the goodness of the Holy Spirit; it springs from good and leads to good, and so it is altogether good.” 

The Greek word Paul used here for work is ergon - “that which one undertakes to do”.

What good work has God begun in you? The fact is, the only good work that has any lasting value is the work that the Lord himself does in us. And if a good work is to have lasting impact and value, it takes time to develop. Let me share an interesting fact from the world of horticulture that I learned way back in the late 1900s.

There is a Chinese bamboo tree called the Moso Bamboo plant, that has some interesting growth properties. Once the seed is planted, it has to be watered, fertilized, and nurtured every day for five years. To you and me it would appear that the gardener is simply watering, fertilizing, and nurturing a patch of barren ground because there is no evidence that anything is taking place at ground level. There is no fiddlehead sticking up, no blade of grass, no life at all. Just dirt. Nice looking dirt for sure, but just dirt. But then after five years, there appears a flash of green as life bursts through the soil, and in a matter of only five weeks, the moso bamboo plant grows to be 90 feet tall. That’s over three quarters of an inch per hour. If you disciplined yourself to just stare at it for a reasonably short amount of time, you could actually watch it grow in real time.

The question is, how long does it take that particular breed of bamboo to grow to 90 feet tall? Is it five weeks or five years?

If Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior today, look back at your own life before you met Christ. What do you see? In what ways are you different today because you met Jesus? Can you see his hand at work in you? Is that work complete yet, or has it entered into another phase of construction? Do you feel as though at times you learned a lesson only to have to return to the classroom for remedial training? Are your roots growing deeper and deeper in Christ today to support the God-work that others see - or will see - in you tomorrow, or have you developed a root-rot that is stealing your joy and robbing you of the blessings of God? 

And by the way, only the good work that God does in you and I will have any good and lasting impact. Can people change? Absolutely. How do I know? Because, praise God, I am not the same person I was when I first met Jesus shortly after midnight on July 3rd, 1983, and I can assure you that the Holy Spirit is still working to make lasting changes in me today. I admit that I haven’t always made it easy for him, and therefore have made it harder on myself. I am still under construction, so please give me a little grace and mercy, and forgive me for my wrinkles, warts, and weaknesses. Some day, one day, God’s construction project in me will be complete. In the meantime, I have a choice: I can work with him, or I can work against him.

The prophet Jeremiah received a word from the Lord that he recorded in Jeremiah 18:1-6, which says, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Arise, and go to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’ ” 

Certainly the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah that day was for the nation of Israel, yet as Paul reminded us in 2 Timothy 3, this word is applicable to you and me today. And so while you are on the Potter’s wheel even as I am, can you also see how the changes God has wrought in you so far have produced something new, and good, and lasting in your own life and those in the people around you? 

We are the clay in the potter’s hands. We can’t take any credit for the increase or the ultimate results that we were made for, but we are responsible for submitting ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit so his transforming work in us can produce the good work as God intended.

God is doing something regenerative in the nature and character of each one of us. You are unique among all the 8+ billion people on the face of the earth today. And you are unique among all those billions who have lived and died before you were born. It’s widely recognized that no one else has your exact fingerprint; no one else has your exact DNA. No one else is you. Even if you have a twin sibling who is very much like you in untold numbers of ways, he or she is not you, and you are not them.

Please get a-hold of this: Going to church, coming to The Bible Study, or being a “nice” person doesn’t make you a Christian any more than swimming makes you a fish, but if you are a true Christ-follower, when you first came to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit came in and took up residence in you, sealing you for eternity, and he began the good work that Paul was writing to the church in Philippi about. 

And while that work may be very similar to the work he is doing in your friends, family members, neighbors and strangers around the world who have been saved by his grace, it is a unique work designed to produce unique fruit, all of which is designed to glorify God, which is our true purpose. 

Did you know that by being who you are in Christ, there are people out there whose lives will be touched in a way that only you can touch them? I am also convinced that there are some people you will come into contact with who will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ largely because of your unique touch on their lives. 

You might be that person’s last and only hope to hear the gospel, and you may be the one person uniquely positioned by God, just as Paul was as a prisoner of Rome, to share the love of Jesus with them.

So let me say this again: You and I must choose to submit ourselves to being shaped by the Lord who has great plans for each one of us, and when we do, we can know that he will finish what he started because God is working his good plans in us right now. He is the potter; we are the clay.

And that brings me to the third question I had when I read this verse. What does Paul mean by “the day of Jesus Christ”?

The Greek word Paul uses here for “day” is hay-mer’-ah. It’s the same word used to identify the period between sunrise and sunset; or a 24-hour interval; or in this case, it refers to “the last day of the present age, the day Christ will return from heaven, raise the dead, hold the final judgment, and perfect his kingdom”. 

What will that day be like; what will it look like; what will it feel like? We can look to scripture to answer those questions.

In First Thessalonians 5:1-3 Paul wrote: “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

Matthew records Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 saying: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Peter tells us in Second Peter 3:10-13: 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 

For those who harden their hearts and choose to rebel against the one who created them, it will be a day of unspeakable horror as they come to realize that the fury of hell is for eternity, even as they continue to blame God for the consequences of their rebellion. 

And for people who have repented of their sins and made Jesus their Lord and Savior, “the day of Jesus Christ” holds unspeakable joy for us as we look to spend eternity with Jesus.

With those truths lying here before us, I want to emphasize what Peter is asking us in verse 11b through 12a of 2 Peter 3: …what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…

Clearly, the day that Paul is referring to in Philippians 1:6 is a day that is still in our future and you and I need to be ready for it because…. 

It is a specific day, a real day. It is not a metaphorical day nor is it hypothetical. It is not imaginary. It is real; it is concrete; and it will come to pass just as it has been prophesied. Jesus said it and since he said it, you can take it to the bank. As true believers, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us will be complete. We'll have new bodies, we’ll be free from sin and death.

What sort of people ought we to be then? As broken and imperfect as we are, we ought to be the sort of people who lean into Jesus; who willingly submit ourselves to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit; who have such a high view of God that we would fear doing anything that would put any distance between us and him; who seek his face on our knees; and who humbly stand before him to give him praise and honor in all we do.

I can only imagine what it will be like when I stand before Jesus on that day. I’m reminded of the song “Imagine” by Mercy Me that says:

Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel?

Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of you be still?

Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?

I can only imagine. I can only imagine.

Without any doubt, WHEN JESUS STARTS IT (whatever it is ), HE FINISHES IT.

Therefore you and I can have the same confidence as Paul in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ because God is working his good plans in us right now, and at some point in time, God’s construction project will be complete in us so with Paul, we can boldly proclaim that we are sure of this; that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Let’s close in prayer:  Father God, we are so thankful for the sacrifice of your son on the cross and that you are continuing to work in us to make us more like Jesus. Have your way in us today and throughout the weeks to come, so that we would bring glory and honor to your name, in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.