Sermon Tone Analysis
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Shine as Lights
[INTERROGATIVE]
What does Jesus’s ascension - his exaltation to the Father’s right hand - mean for the way we live today?
For the way we treat one another?
How should it affect the example we set before the world?
[CONTEXT]
As we come to our passage this morning, we must not forget that it is connected to what Paul has written about the exaltation of Jesus in .
The ascension of Jesus to the Father’s right hand was the culmination of Jesus’s earthly ministry.
It was the beginning of the Kingdom of God as Jesus sent the Holy Spirit rushing into the hearts of those who gladly bowed the knee to him and gladly confessed him as Christ and Lord.
His exaltation is the guarantee of his return and his kingdom made fully manifest on the earth.
So, we know that the ascension of Jesus changes our eternal future, but what does it mean for the way we live today?
[CENTRAL IDEA OF THE TEXT]
In our passage this morning, Paul wanted the Philippians to grasp the practical implications of Jesus’s exaltation for how they lived everyday.
Jesus’s exaltation had implications for how they sought God, how they treated one another, and how they felt about sacrificing for one another.
[CONTEXT]
Now, this is what Paul began addressing in when he wrote...
After holding up Jesus as the perfect example of that kind of sacrificial living, Paul now circles back around to the Philippians and how they should live in the world and interact with one another as followers of Jesus.
Essentially, Paul says they were to shine as lights as the light of the exalted Christ shone through them.
[
[TRANSITION]
In Scripture, Jesus and the way of salvation through faith in him is often described as light, while the way of disbelief is described as darkness.
For example, consider where Jesus said...
When Jesus called Paul as an apostle, he said that he was sending Paul to the Gentiles...
Acts
And in , Paul encourages us...
Jesus is the light and he shines his light through us so that those trapped in darkness can see the way of salvation through faith in him.
However, in order to shine as lights, we have to be Christlike.
[PROPOSITION] If we trust Jesus and obey the commands in , we will be increasingly Christlike.
We will increasingly shine as lights.
[TRANSITION STATEMENT]
There are three commands in this passage and this morning we’ll examine the first one - WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION -
in verses 12-13.
We’ll notice three characteristics about that command...
Three CHARACTERISTICS about this first command to “Work out your own salvation...”
Characteristic #1: It is a me-focused command.
Philippians 2:12
[EXPOSITION/APPLICATION]
You’ll notice in v. 12 that I am not commanded to work out your salvation but my own salvation.
Now, taken too far this can lead to some sort of individualized or privatized faith that doesn’t allow anyone to confront my sinfulness or point out the errors in my thinking about God.
That’s not what Paul had in mind here.
[EXPOSITION]
The Philippians were in conflict with one another to some degree and he meant for them, as Jesus said in , to take the log out of their own eyes before they go nitpicking specks in one another’s eyes.
In other words, make sure you’ve dealt with God before you go making sure everyone else has dealt with God.
Make sure you’ve confessed your sin before you go pointing out the sins of another.
Make sure your thinking about God lines up with the Bible before you point out the crookedness of another person’s thinking about God.
[ILLUSTRATION] Fair-skinned Tommy at the beach telling everyone to cover up and put on sunscreen while red as a lobster
The
When my friends and I graduated high school, the church we attended took us all on a senior trip to Panama City Beach.
We hung out on the beach for a couple of days, just enough time for me to realize that I don’t really like the sun, sand, the beach, or people who don’t realize that extra-smalls don’t go on extra-large people.
(I still have nightmares.)
I don’t remember if it was the second or third day at the beach, but was some degree of sunburned, but our friend Tommy was by far the worst.
He was fair-skinned to begin with but soon became red as a lobster as the sun cooked his skin.
Hilariously, however, Tommy didn’t know.
He walked around to each us telling us that we need to cover up and put on more sunscreen because we were getting too red.
We asked him, “Tommy have you looked at yourself?
Don’t you realize that you are now well-done?”
He said that he was fine and could take it.
He said different things when he couldn’t move the next day.
[APPLICATION]
Sometimes we act like that when it comes to Christlikeness.
We are eager to see and point out the flaws in others while not taking the time to notice our own flaws.
We ought to ask God to show us those logs we need to remove.
I ought to focus on working out my salvation before I even think about helping you working out your salvation.
[TRANSITION STATEMENT]
That’s first, it’s a me-focused command.
Characteristic #2: It’s a effort-driven command.
[EXPOSITION]
[EXPOSITION/APPLICATION]
Paul calls it work in v. 12 for a reason.
As Christians we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ.
We are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
But our growth in Christlikeness won’t come unless we take the steps to grow.
God will make sure that our growth in Christlikeness is brought to completion () but until then a mark of the Holy Spirit in us is the daily, sometimes grueling work of sanctification.
[ILLUSTRATION] Lydia not wanting to work when she’s tired; not wanting to pull limbs from the backyard.
We want our children to understand the connection between work and money, so before Dalton was even born he heard these now famous words from me, “Get a job.”
I’ve tried to instill that into our two girls as well, but at the ages three and one they don’t totally get it... yet.
In fact, when we tell Lydia to do something she doesn’t want to do - something that sounds like work to her, she says, “But I’m just tired!”
We were outside earlier this spring trimming limbs and bushes.
We had a pile of limbs and other clippings that needed to be moved by the house until the trash man came.
With work gloves on, Dalton and Lydia started to move some limbs and clippings, but just a minute or two after getting started Lydia was not longer working.
She had decided that her time would be better spent picking blackberries.
When I said, “Lydia, you need to get over and help.
She said, ‘But I’m tired.’’
Obviously, she had just enough strength to pick and eat blackberries, but not enough to move limbs.
[APPLICATION]
Sometimes we try to treat Christlikeness like that.
We’ll do what’s easy.
We’ll do what we want to do.
We’ll do what might make us feel good in the moment.
But becoming more and more like Christ - shining brighter and brighter as lights in this dark world isn’t easy.
We won’t feel like doing it most of the time.
It will usually be painful as we starve some desire of the flesh; as we take up our cross and follow Jesus.
It’s effort-driven work.
The Spirit enables, but we have to act on that enabling even when we’re tired … even when there’s blackberries to eat.
[TRANSITION STATEMENT]
That’s two, working out our salvation is effort-driven.
Characteristic #3: It’s a fear and trembling command.
[EXPOSITION/APPLICATION]
[EXPOSITION]
Paul commanded the Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.
We might immediately assume that Paul means that the Philippians must work out their salvation with an eye on the eternal judgment that awaits them if they don’t, but remember Paul is writing to Christians.
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