Sermon Tone Analysis

Philippians 2:12-18

Title: Playing till the Whistle

Date: January 9, 2022

Introduction:

Illustration:

As a boy I played football.

There are a lot of things that I picked up from those times.

Not all of them are probably good but there are several things that have some pretty good life lessons in them.

One of the main things I remember is that you play till the whistle.

When the center hikes the ball and you get on your block or you are chasing down the tailback, you go until the whistle and you don’t stop.

If you watch football on tv you will see guys who seem like they are tackled and down and guys stop playing before the whistle and the guy with the ball ends up gaining even more yardage or scoring.

Many of those plays could be avoided if guys would do a couple of really basic things.

1. Play good basic skill football, tackling and whatnot.

and 2. play till the whistle sounds.

A lot of guys give up before the game is over.

I watched Kenan and Asher’s soccer team this year and one of the opposing teams had a kid out there who would get beat off the ball and would end up just sitting down on the field before the game was over.

Play till the whistle.

Those of us who have trusted in Jesus for salvation are being made more and more into the image of Jesus through a process called sanctification.

It is a lifelong journey from the point of salvation until God calls us home in death or Jesus returns for His church.

There may be a temptation for us to say, “okay, I know Jesus, I’m going to heaven.

I’m good.”

But that is not how this is supposed to work.

Yes, salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus’ completed work on the cross and His resurrection.

After we are converted to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us and grow us in the faith.

So how is this connected to today’s passage?

This morning we are going to dive from the diving board of last week's passage on the humiliation of Christ, right into the waters of verses 12-18 where Paul makes a dramatic change from theological contemplation to practical implication.

He’s moving us from understanding and believing the truths of this previous passage into the working out of these things in our lives as we are sanctified.

It’s a cool process so let’s take a look at Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 through 18.

Follow along in your Bible or on your device as I read:

PRAY

I got to preparing this sermon and there’s just too much that I want to say and that I feel like I need to say to do it justice so we’re actually going to split the passage into two sermons.

I’m going to preach the first part today and then the second part next week.

I want you to notice a couple of things right away about this passage.

Notice how Paul refers to them as my beloved.

I knew a pastor who referred to his congregation in this way and it seemed a little odd to me because we don't use that language today but this shows Paul's deep affection for the members of the Philippian church.

His tone is very pastoral.

He loves them deeply and out of that deep love he is able to speak earnestly and even plainly say hard things for them to hear.

When you love someone you will tell them things that they need to hear even if they will be difficult for them to hear and for you to say.

But I want to point out that Paul had a relationship with these people.

He had labored among them as partners in the gospel.

These were not some strangers on the street that he was exhorting.

It is vital that we understand that.

At the beginning of this passage, we find a connecting word, "therefore."

This is where Paul pivots from the deep and important theological contemplation of verses 5-11 into the implications of those verses in the lives of the Philippian believers.

He's basically saying to them: "because of what I just said about the humiliation and person and work of Jesus Christ, do this... Then he gives them instruction.

To do this, Paul makes three main connections that I want us to focus on as we pull this passage apart and examine what it means and what we are to do in response to it.

Those three connections are:

1.

The connection between our work and God's work.

(V.

12-13)

2. The connection between avoiding grumbling and shining as light sin the world.

(V.

14-15)

3. The connection between sacrifice and rejoicing.

(V.

16-18)

So let's begin by looking at the first connection, between our work and God's work.

I.

The connection between our work and God's work.

(v.

12-13)

If we aren’t careful we can get all twisted up with this passage.

Paul is not saying to work for your salvation.

He is NOT preaching a salvation by works.

What he actually writes is “work out your salvation...” That is a giant difference.

God worked salvation for us by His grace.

Jesus completed the work of salvation on the cross.

He even said, “It is finished.”

That is what we call justification.

We are justified by the work of Christ on the cross.

Sanctification, according to Merida, is “about living in light of this gracious gift of salvation, living in light of our new position and our new identity.

“

As he gets into this connection, the first thing Paul does is notes their obedience to Jesus.

He observed their obedience.

1. Paul observed their obedience.

(12)

Paul noticed that they had been obedient to God.

This is obedience to the will and plan of God and not obedience to Paul.

He commends them on their faithfulness to the things of God.

Their obedience was evidence of their faith in God.

The same is true of us today.

If you say you have faith in God but your entire life is devoid of obedience to Him and you especially lack the desire to obey Him then that is evidence that you don’t have faith in God.

The rest of this message is not going to matter much to you if your heart has not been captured by Jesus.

So Paul is commending them.

They had been consistent in their obedience of Jesus.

He then moves from commending the obedience that he had observed in them to instructing them in continued obedience.

We see this pattern with Paul.

He tells them what good he noticed and then moves to instruction or commanding a certain obedience.

This is the pattern for good disciple making.

We should be mingling our encouragement and our exhortation.

It’s that pastoral tone that Paul has with those who are under him or who he is discipling or leading.

2. Paul instructs their obedience.

(12)

Paul is appealing to the entire community of believers, the whole church, to keep on in this obedience.... and that would mean adopting the humble attitude of Christ in their relationships with one another.

You see the connection back to the previous passage and that wonderful Christological hymn on Jesus’ humiliation and exaltation?

What does Paul mean by working out one’s salvation?

I said earlier that he’s not talking about earning salvation but is writing of sanctification.

We play board games at our house.

When the boys were little guys, one of their favorites was the game “Sorry.”

I can remember when one of our babysitters wanted to get them calmed down for bed one night she decided they would play a game and they chose “Sorry.”

What poor Emma didn’t realize is that in our house “Sorry” is basically a full contact, blood sport.

If you’ve played, there are these cards that allow you to take the place of one of your opponent's’ pieces who is farther along than you and send them back to start.

It’s a free pass for you to get ahead in the game.

Sanctification doesn’t work like that.

There are no skip cards or pass cards.

You can’t sit idly by and advance on the board.

So Paul says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.