2018-03-18 Philippians 1:6 Fellowship In The Gospel (2): What God Starts, God Finishes

FELLOWSHIP IN THE GOSPEL (2): WHAT GOD STARTS, GOD FINISHES (Philippians 1:6) March 18, 2018 Read Phil 1:6 – Philippians is a book about joy. It has more familiar verses per page than probably any other book, but none ranks higher than 1:6 -- one of the great verses of the Bible. It is the key to deep-seated, abiding Xn joy that overwhelms any circumstance. It’s what allowed Paul to sit chained to a Roman guard 24/7, and still radiate joy in this letter. How is that possible? The secret is easily stated. Trust honestly, completely and absolutely in the sovereignty of an all-loving, Almighty God. That’s it! But while it’s easy to say, it’s hard to live. It’s a truth that needs to penetrate every fiber of our being, like it did Paul’s. But the old person we were before Christ puts up an invisible shield keeping that great truth at bay – filling us with doubt when certainty ought to reign. So let’s see how Paul helps us tear that shield down! A few years ago Patty and I drove from Germany to Paris whose streets make no sense whatsoever. They are narrow, crowded, often one way, going in every conceivable angle with no rhyme or reason. A map was little help. BUT – we had an early GPS in our rental car. Once we got the lady to speak English, all our problems were over. The woman in that GPS knew every nook and cranny of Paris. When we learned to trust her, we had freedom! That same simple trust in God changed Paul’s life, and it can change your life. We lack certainty -- not because it’s not available, but because we choose to believe circumstances rather than God. If you want to be like Paul, this message must permeate your being. What God starts, God finishes in God’s time. [repeat]. Get that message firmly established in your heart, and you’ll have joy that overwhelms any circumstance – any circumstance! Paul took joy in the Philippians not because they were wonderful, but God is wonderful. They’d been invaded by an irresistible Being – so however dire the human outlook, here’s what Paul knew – What God starts, God finishes, in God’s time. That simple truth changed everything for Paul, and it can for you too. So let’s examine it. I. What God Starts 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you.” He who? He God! What good work? Salvation. Paul doesn’t spell it all out here. But he does in Rom 8:28 And we know [Note: certainty] that for those who love God 1 all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” So what’s the good work? To make us like Jesus. That’s where all believers are headed. That’s the good work going on inside. And you need to know – God started it. He’s the ultimate reason we’re saved. There’s certainty in knowing that! Think you’re a believer because you were smart enough to put your faith in Christ? Guess again. If our salvation depended on us, we’d be on the outside looking in. The Bible is crystal clear on this. Jn 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Your own personal salvation didn’t start with you. It started with God. Even the faith to believe was His gift. Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing [this what? this faith!]; it is the gift of God.” Jonah 2:9: “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” A prime example lived in Philippi. When Paul went to the riverside to preach that first Sabbath in Philippi he found some women. Luke records Acts 16: 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” God opened Lydia’s heart, not Lydia. The Father drew her as He draws every person who has comes to faith in Christ. God began the good work! Must we cooperate? Yes. Paul would’ve told Lydia the same thing he told the jailer when he asked how to be saved. Acts 16:31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Humanly speaking, we believed. But if God didn’t begin it there would be no good work. In Phil 1:29 Paul says: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Faith and suffering. Two sides of the same good work God gifts to every believer, one that began long before we ever arrived on the scene. Eph 1:4: “ even as he chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world.” Your salvation didn’t start with you and it won’t end with you. God is going to perfect you and there’s nothing you can do about it! There’s personal assurance in knowing that – and joy. But here, Paul is rejoicing that all the believers in Philippi are going to make it all the way home. God’s at work in them. Think of the implications of that for believers. When I was young, I sometimes preferred my school friends to the few kids in our youth group at church. They weren’t the cool kids, and I wanted cool in those days. What a trap young people – or adults as well. 2 There were 2 things I didn’t realize. First I didn’t realize I wasn’t cool either. Second, I didn’t realize that Xns are the coolest people in the universe! Why? Because God is at work in them. From the most attractive to the most obnoxious, if they are believers, God is at work, and that makes them very special. Remember the old “Men at Work” signs you used to see at road construction sites? Every believer should have a sign on their forehead “God at work” – because He is. He’s started something and He’s going to finish it. A few years ago I was watching a nephew play baseball. He was 3rd grade – a gangly, uncoordinated kid. I felt for him. He would go to bat, strike out and come back throwing his glove and helmet – frustrated. I took him and his cousin golfing one time when he was 12. That wasn’t his sport either. Much as I loved him, I’d never have predicted he’d become a great athlete. But his mom and dad never gave up. He eventually grew into himself and 4 years ago –he was the #1 college volleyball recruit in the whole country. You can’t really judge a person until the work is complete. That believer who’s a pain today is headed for amazing! They are! God’s at work, so love them! II. God Finishes 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” So – God is a finisher. What He starts, He finishes. Paul uses an intensive word (επιτελεω) -- to complete or perfect. He’s certain God will perfect the salvation He’s started in every believer. He’ll finish the job. We don’t always finish what we start. There’s a museum in Italy where you can see 30 large pieces of marble that look almost grotesque. Each has some body part sticking out – a leg here, an arm there, part of a head. These are the 30 sculptures that Michelangelo never finished! Out of 44 he started, he only completed 14. These masterpieces in the making never got completed. Sometimes people stop short. Not God. He always finishes the job. And He will eventually perfect you and you and you and all of us. So if you don’t like how some of your Xn brothers and sisters act, be patient. God’s not finished with them yet. You either! But He will be. We may not look like much now, but we will. Every believer is a masterpiece in progress! So, we just sit back and wait? We have no part in this? Certainly not. We’re critical to the process of helping ourselves and others become like Christ. Think how Paul described the purpose and working of a local church in Eph 3 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The goal – the good work God has started? Become like Christ. Nothing less. But thru the ministry of the Word, thru the ministry of our gifts, and thru our love for each other we help each other get there. It’s a wonderful plan, isn’t it? You have an investment in me and I have an investment in you. Guaranteed by God. We need to live like that. And I also have a responsibility for my own spiritual growth. Phil 2:12: “12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Work out your own salvation. Give yourself to building Christlikeness. How? Obedience. Grow in obedience to His commands and His will, and you will certainly become more and more like Him. The better you obey in fear and trembling, the faster this happens. Just as an obedient child matures faster and with less pain than a rebel, so our growth is effected by our level of obedience and cooperation. “Work out your own salvation.” But look at the very next verse. Phil 2:13: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Who gifts you to want what God wants and to do what God wants? God does. Human responsibility and divine sovereignty side-by-side. We are responsible to cooperate with God’s plan to perfect us. Every idle thought, word and deed will be brought into judgment. But the ultimate responsibility is His. And He has no failures. That is good to know, isn’t it? You’ll not be the first – and neither will that rude, obnoxious, irritating brother or sister in Christ you find it so hard to love. God will perfect them. If you can’t love them for who they are, then love them for who they will be! God will not fail to perfect what he has started. What God starts, God finishes, and that ought to inform every minute of our existence. Do you realize what you are a part of in Christ? God’s redemptive goals are far greater than we can ever imagine. C. S. Lewis said of Milton’s Paradise Lost, “Reading it makes us feel what it is like to live in a universe where every square inch, every split-second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by God.” That’s exactly who we are in Christ. We have been claimed and counterclaimed -- by God. What He started in each of us He will perfect to the praise of His eternal glory. We’re into something big, Beloved. 4 III. In God’s Time But – and this is a big but – ultimate consummation of this promise awaits God’s timing. 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.” Now, is God already at work on this promise in your life and mine? Absolutely. We see evidence of that every day. But – the completion is in God’s time which is “at the day of Jesus Christ.” So, when exactly is that? Great question. It is the day when Jesus returns in glory. I Cor 1:8: “7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” On that day our perfection will be complete allowing us to stand guiltless before Him. Col 3:4: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” We’ll appear with Christ in glory bc we’ll be like Him in every moral, spiritual and physical dimension. You say, “Okay – so I will be perfect on the day Christ returns in glory. But what if I die tomorrow and Jesus hasn’t come yet? Then what? Won’t I already be perfect at that moment?” Great question and the answer is, Yes -and No. You’ll be perfect in this sense. You will be in the words of Paul in II Cor 5:8 “absent from the body and present with the Lord.” At that moment your body has gone one way – the grave; your soul has gone another – heaven. Your moral perfection will be complete. In His presence there is not more sin or corruption or decay or trouble. That’s your immediate future. But salvation has 3 stages – Justification (God declaring you righteous – which happens at the moment you submit to His Lordship). Sanctification – the process of growth and maturity that we are all going through right now. Glorification – the final state of existence when your resurrected, glorified body is reunited with your soul creating one restored perfect person – body and soul. That happens at the Lord’s appearing, and that is the moment when your perfection is complete. Phil 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Imagine what that will be like! can hardly wait. To be like Jesus – body and soul. John wrote of this as well: I Jn 3:2: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears 5 we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” What John is saying is, “What we have to look forward to is amazing – to be like Him. But even the hope of that now inspires us to purify ourselves as He is pure – to be continually more and more like Him even now – knowing that the promised perfection is coming.” What God begins, God finishes. And what God promises, God delivers. Believe it and live in the good of it. That’s Paul’s message and John’s as well. Be now like what you will be like then. Get a head start! Get a handle on God’s sovereignty in your life and others. Conc – The greatest threat to our joy in Christ is we lack certainty -- not because it’s not available, but because we choose to believe circumstances rather than God. Brian McLaren says in A New Kind of Xn, ”I drive my car and listen to Christian radio. I hear preacher after preacher be so absolutely sure of his bombproof answers and his foolproof biblical interpretations…. And the more sure he seems, the less I find myself wanting to be a Christian, because on this side of the microphone, antennas, and speaker, life isn’t that simple, answers aren’t that clear, and nothing is that sure.” Listen – I grant you that life isn’t simple. But to say nothing is that sure? That’s a problem. Paul said, “And I am sure of this.” He didn’t mean he had all the answers, but he knew the One who does. Certainty had invaded his soul. That’s why he could by filled with joy while rotting in a Roman prison, and Brian McLaren is filled with doubt and despair while freely driving his car around the beauty of Maryland. Who do you want to be? If you want to be like Paul, this must saturate your being. What God starts, God finishes in God’s time. [repeat]. You get that message established in your heart with certainty, and you’ll have joy to overwhelm any circumstance – any circumstance! 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 pray. 6