Philippians 2:12-18
We’re going to read three verses from Philippians chapter two. These are great instructions, not only for our kids, but for all of us.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, amen, having raised three kids, so that you might 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.
We are continuing our journey in the book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in all the Bible, called the Joy Epistle, because the word joy and rejoicing is found 14 times in the book. And just a little bit of a review.
Paul’s in Rome, and he’s on trial, and he’s appealed to Caesar, and so he’s taking him to Rome, and he’s soon going to stand trial. He’s under house arrest. Able to have visitors.
He’s sharing the gospel. Some of the Roman guard has come to faith in Christ. He’s also being productive.
He writes four letters while he’s in prison there. They’re called the prison epistles. You have them in your Bible.
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And so, Paul is writing a thank you note, really, to the church at Philippi, who sent a financial gift to him through one of their members by the name of Epaphroditus, and we’ll look at that more in detail next week.
But this morning, we want to look at chapter 2. We’re going to look at verses 12 through 18. And this is entitled, Don’t Whine, but Shine for Jesus. So, we’re going to talk about how we can do that this morning.
Here’s the main point, and it’s taken right from our text here. God wants our lives to shine like stars in the midst of a dark world. God wants your life, my life, to be different, to shine like a star in the midst of a dark world.
Or as the NIV translation says in verse 15, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault. Here’s how Paul describes first century, a warped and crooked generation. Some translations say a perverse generation.
And so sometimes we think that, you know, our world has drastically changed and it’s never been this bad. Paul’s describing the world in the first century, and he says it’s warped and perverse. It’s crooked.
One of the reasons our world today can be described in those terms is because in our culture today, there’s no, for the most part, belief in absolute truth. We kind of live in a day like is described in the end of the book of Judges, where the last verse in the book of Judges said that every man did that which was right in their own eyes. And so, when you have no absolute standard of truth, then everything becomes relative and you have your truth and I have my truth.
And that’s how we get to a warped and crooked generation. Well, Paul writing to the church at Philippi that he was the founding pastor of, he uses this imagery and he says, God wants you to shine like stars in a dark world. Now that’s an imagery that’s all through scripture.
Jesus talked about it in Matthew 5:16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see what your good works, your good deeds, and glorify your father in heaven. Now we’re not saved by good works.
The Bible’s very clear about that. But Ephesians 2:10, we are saved to do good works. And that’s part of the Christian life.
And in Hebrews, it says one of the reasons we’re to come together is to, the King James uses the word provoke one another, but it’s not to get each other mad, it’s to provoke one another. What? To love and good deeds. It’s to encourage our kids on Wednesday night to bring some coins together in a little box.
So what? So, we can make a difference all the way across the other side of the world. That’s what God saved us for. So, he wants our lives to shine like stars in the universe.
Daniel writes about that imagery in Daniel chapter 12, verse 3. Here’s what Daniel writes, last chapter of the book of Daniel, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens. And those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. So, God wants your life to shine.
Someone has said the darker the night, the brighter the light. And so, as our culture moves darker and darker and further away from God’s standard, it gives us an opportunity to shine, shine brightly for him. Now one of the things I like about living out in the country, and I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, so I grew up in the city, but if you walk out on a clear cloudless night and you look up in the night sky, man you can see those stars just shining.
And I’ve done that a few times just to, you know, just to look up in the heavens and you see God’s incredible creation and the brightness of the stars. And you feel really, really small when you begin to think about how big the universe is. And so, let’s look at Philippians chapter 2. We’re going to start in verse 12.
Paul makes an initial appeal here to the Philippian believers. He’s 800 miles away from them. He’s under house arrest.
So, he writes, therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence. So, Paul’s saying like, hey I’m your founding pastor. You’re living for Jesus, but don’t just do it while I’m here.
Don’t just live for God when your spiritual leader is watching you. Live for Jesus all the time. And so, the book of Colossians talks about that and the employer-employee relationship.
How do you become a good employee? Colossians chapter 3, the context of slaves and masters. Slaves obey your earthly masters and everything and do it not only when their eye is on you, not only when the boss is watching, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord.
So, Paul says, hey, don’t just live for God when I’m around. He’s the master and he’s watching you all the time. And so, obey even when I’m not around.
Reminds me of elementary school. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and I went to this very small private Christian school. There were 43 students in the original founding of the school, K through third grade.
First through third grade, we’re all in one room. I tell people I grew up in a one-room schoolhouse, kind of true. But I always remember, you know, like second, third grade, the teacher would say, now I’m going to leave the room for just, I have to leave the room for like five minutes.
And so, you have your assignment and I want you to work on your assignment and I’ll be back shortly. That would hold for about a minute and a half. And then after about three or four minutes, kind of all chaos would break loose.
So, Paul’s saying, don’t just obey when I’m here, when I’m with you, but do it at all times. So now we’re going to look at how can we shine like stars in a dark night? What does God want us to do to make our lives different and shine brightly for him? So, we’re going to think of four things that are talked about in the text here. So, let’s look at the first one.
I. Work out my salvation
Four commands or imperatives in order for me to shine like Jesus. Number one, I have to work out my salvation. I have to work out my salvation.
Notice we didn’t say work for your salvation. That’s already been purchased for us. Remember what Jesus, his victory cry on the cross, it was Aramaic word, to telestai, it is finished.
Jesus paid it all. And we just need to receive that free gift, don’t we, of eternal life when we put our faith in him. So, it’s not working for your salvation, but Paul here uses the imagery of working out your salvation because God wants us to have, what, fruitful productive lives.
And that takes effort on our part. I saw a post on Facebook, I think it was earlier this week, Fusilier’s, which owns a piece of land at the corner here and has some farming land in the area. And I noticed it was a post and they were out before the sun was up and they were starting to rototill the fields, drag the fields because they’re going to soon plant some onions in those fields.
And so, they’re out before the sunrise, this is what, beginning to prepare the soil because they want some productivity. And the farmers understand that. That’s kind of the imagery here.
We need to work out our salvation. It’s called sanctification, three tenses of salvation. Justification, I have been saved.
Sanctification, I am being saved. A t-shirt that was popular years ago, be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet. We’re hopefully becoming more and more like Jesus.
And then the third tense is our final part of salvation, glorification when we’re in heaven and we’re like Jesus because we’ve arrived and our salvation is complete. But notice in the text here, it says, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Well, why would Paul write that? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Well, I looked up, go to one of my favorite websites, it’s called Got Questions. It’s a great biblical site for questions. And so, here’s what they said about that phrase, fear and trembling.
What does it mean to work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Paul can hardly be encouraging believers to live in a continuous condition of anxiety. That would contradict his many other exhortations of peace of mind and courage and confidence in God. The Greek word fear in this context can equally mean reverence or respect.
It’s an awe of who God is. They say trembling is the attitude Christians are to have in pursuing this goal. A healthy fear of offending God through disobedience and an awe and respect for his majesty and holiness.
Sometimes we forget about the main attribute of God and one of the main ones is God is holy. Remember in Exodus chapter three, when God was calling Moses to be the deliverer, leader of the nation of Israel and to deliver them out of Egyptian slavery, Moses was 80 years old and he sees that burning bush and God begins to talk to him out of the burning bush. And one of the things that God says to him is, take off your sandals because you’re standing on holy ground.
And so, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 1st Timothy 4:7, train yourself to be godly. The word train is the word gymnas in the original Greek.
We get the word gymnasium from there. And so, we all or a lot of us try to have some sort of physical workout program. I finally begun to think maybe I should be doing some exercise that becomes more important as you get older.
I try to spend 15, 20 minutes on a treadmill five or six days a week. It’s not a lot, but keeps you moving. Some of you hopefully have a physical workout program or a gym membership.
And so, the question is, what is your spiritual workout program? What’s your plan for spiritual growth, spiritual development? It really consists of two things. In the spiritual workout program, it’s diet and exercise. Very similar to physical workout.
Diet is our intake of God’s word and exposure to the word of God. The navigators came up with this for years. There’s five ways to take in God’s word.
You can meditate on it. Bible tells us to do that. You can memorize scripture.
You can study it. You can read it. You can hear it.
We’re doing a couple of those this morning. And so, it’s the intake of God’s word, but it’s also exercise. What is exercise? It’s using our spiritual giftedness to advance God’s kingdom.
That’s our spiritual workout program. And God has given us very clear in scripture, 1st Corinthians, I think it’s chapter 12, 1st Peter 4. God’s given each of us at least one spiritual gift, one ability to be used to advance God’s kingdom. Last verse in Ephesians 4, talking about those spiritual gifts, it says, we want to grow together in the faith as each one does its part.
And so, the spiritual workout program is reading God’s word and studying God’s word and hearing God’s word, but it’s also asking God to use the gift that he gave you to advance the kingdom. Probably 20 years ago, I was in a morning session over at Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference. There’s about 150 people in that morning session, and the speaker that was preaching was talking about this very topic, how God has gifted each one of us with a gift.
Now, I want to say this to people that might be newer in attending a church. I think it’s okay to kind of spend a year or two attending and then kind of find that source of place of giftedness. That’s okay.
But at some point, in time, God wants us to serve. And so, near the end of his message, he tells people, okay, now I want you to get in groups of three or four, and I want you to share with each other what is your ministry in your local church. And some people were very eager to share that.
For others, it was kind of an awkward silence. So, in order to shine for Jesus, I must, what, work out my salvation. You need to grow in Christ is another way of saying it.
Well, there’s a second way that we can shine for Jesus in the midst of a dark world. I love this verse. Quoted it to my kids all the time when they were growing up.
Philippians 2:13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in accordance in order to fulfill his good purpose.
So, you’re not alone in this spiritual growth thing. God’s your partner in this. He’s going to help you.
II. Stop whining and complaining
But then here’s point number two. In order to shine for Jesus, I must stop whining and complaining. Do everything, what, without grumbling or arguing.
The New King James Version, complaining and disputing. Now, if anybody had the right to complain, it would have been the Apostle Paul. You read about his life, and he writes an autobiographical section, and he says, man, I was in prison frequently.
I was beaten frequently. I was stoned in Lystra, left for dead. He goes on and on and on.
And here’s Paul in prison. He could have said, this is what I get for serving Jesus. Two years of house arrest.
But he didn’t complain. And so, he’s writing to the believers, and he says, do everything without whining and complaining. Don’t you love to be around people that complain all the time? You know, just love that.
No, it kind of drives you away, doesn’t it? Everybody just, person just complains about everything. And so, Paul says, stop whining and complaining.
In fact, in Chapter 4, he talks about learning to be what? Content. Paul says, I know how to have a lot. I know how to have little.
I’ve learned the secret of contentment. And of course, that was his relationship with Jesus. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1st Corinthians Chapter 10, because it’s kind of an interesting passage that kind of sheds some interesting light on this whole matter of whining, grumbling, and complaining.
Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth, and he’s reviewing Israel’s history. And he’s talking about all the spiritual blessings that God gave to the nation of Israel. And in spite of those blessings, it says in verse 5, God was not pleased with most of them.
Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. So, a whole generation died off. And so now Paul begins to list these incidences in Israel’s life, and he says, I’m sharing this as an example.
Verse 6, now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things, as they did. Don’t be like the Israelites. And then he lists four sins.
I’m just summarizing the text. Don’t be idolatrous like the Israelites. Remember when Moses was up on the Mount, getting the Ten Commandments, and they were getting impatient? What did they end up doing? Golden calf.
They ended up worshiping it. Don’t be idolatrous like the Israelites. Don’t get involved in sexual immorality.
We’ll say, yep, that’s idolatry’s bad, sexual immorality is bad. Verse 9, don’t be involved in unbelief’s, lack of faith in God. Nope, that’s not good.
And then you get to verse 10, and do not grumble as some of them did. Interesting. Idolatry, sexual immorality, unbelief, complaining.
Don’t do that. Don’t do that. When you go through the book of Exodus, there’s at least 15 or more instances of the Israelites grumbling and complaining.
And here they were rescued from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and they get out of the wilderness, and they start to complain about the manna. Oh, we had better food back in Egypt. And yeah, you’re also slaves in Egypt.
And they complained and complained and complained. God wasn’t happy with them. Paul, in writing to the Philippian believers, says, if you’re going to shine like Jesus, don’t whine and complain.
I’ve been in the ministry long enough to, hear some complaints. Now, not from anybody here, but these are a list of actual complaints I’ve heard over the years. I’ve just jotted a few of them down.
One family stopped coming to church because the lights in the auditorium were too bright. They’re too bright. Well, put on some sunglasses maybe.
I don’t know, or we’ll adjust the wattage. Messages are too long. Messages are too short.
Too many hymns. Not enough hymns. Too many newer songs.
Here’s one. There’s a weird smell in the church. Well, maybe it’s following you.
I don’t know. You moved the family Bible off the altar, and we donated that, Bible. We kept it there for like a year and a half and finally moved it.
I thought that was a mortal sin. So, Paul says, stop it. Stop whining.
Stop complaining. In order to shine for Jesus, I need to work out my salvation. I need to grow in my faith.
I need to stop whining and complaining. Here’s the third thought, command. Let me just pick it up in verse 14.
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. Here it is.
III. Hold fast and hold forth the word of life
Here’s our verse 16. As you hold firmly to the Word of Life. As you hold firmly to the Word of Life.
And so, in order to shine for Jesus, I have to hold fast and hold forth the Word of Life. Hold fast and hold forth the Word of Life. Now, I don’t know what your version of the Bible uses as a translation but the NIV says, hold firmly to the Word of Life.
But the Greek verb translating holding fast or holding firmly has two thoughts. The first one is holding fast to the Christian doctrine, to the fundamentals of the faith. The fact that we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
And we need to stand firmly on that. We need to contend for the faith, the truth of the gospel. But the second aspect is holding forth the Word of Life.
What’s the Word of Life? It’s the scripture. It’s what? The gospel is the Word of Life. And so, we need to hold onto that firmly, that doctrine.
But we also need to hold forth the Word of Life to share the good news of the gospel. I love 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21. Paul, again, writing to the believers, and he says that Christ, or God, has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors. So, we’re an official ambassador for Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And now, let me start that over.
We’re therefore Christ’s ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. And then here’s the gospel in a nutshell.
God made him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him, we put our faith in him, we might become the righteousness of God. That’s perfection. God’s holy.
You have to be perfect to go to heaven. Nobody’s perfect. That’s why we need the righteousness of Christ.
That’s the gospel. So, the apostle Paul says, if we’re going to shine like a star in the dark world, we need to, what? Share the good news of the gospel of Jesus. I’m looking for a tract here that I had.
Here it is, under my Bible. I don’t know if you noticed, these are on that little white table as you come into the entryway of the church to your left, if you come in the double doors there. And this is a tract that I’ve used for years.
That’s Billy Graham Association. If you have a tract that you’re familiar with and like, use it. This is one I’ve used for many, many years.
And it just explains the gospel in simple steps and then explains at the end how to receive the gospel. I’m kind of encouraged because I put like six or eight out there on the that white table and then I come in on Monday sometimes I’m like oh you know some of those are gone and I’m resupplying it so I don’t know who’s taking them. Somebody is.
What’s been interesting over the last few years is that you know MEC has been putting the internet all around this area and so there’s the guys that are out in the field working. Guess what they need an occasional place to use the restroom. So, we’ve kind of been known in the area now like the guys from MEC stop all the time and they’re like hey can we use your bathroom? Certainly.
And I’ve had a chance to interact with some of them and maybe they’re picking some of these up. Some of the delivery drivers do it as well. You know they come into the church.
So, all that to say I’m encouraged that these keep disappearing. A great way to just share God’s truth with others. And one of the things that just excites me is when I have opportunities to share the gospel.
This last Wednesday every week I have a little 10-15 minute teaching lesson with the kids. We usually show a little video and then story of the Bible and then talk about it. But this last week I just took the time to share the gospel and kind of a wide age group of kids and sometimes you wonder you know are they even listening and they are.
It’s a wonderful opportunity to just share God’s truth and plant that seed in the lives of those kids that are here Wednesday. Friday morning, I had the opportunity to share the gospel. So, one of the things that I’ve always done over the years in the community that I live in is sometimes funeral directors will call me up and say hey we have a family, lost a loved one, they don’t have a pastor, need someone to do a funeral service.
And if my schedule allows it, I always say yes, I’ll do that. You know why? Because I get to share the gospel with people. And if there’s ever a time when people are kind of maybe tuned in a little bit to the gospel it’s that it’s at a funeral.
At a funeral Friday morning at the Manchester funeral home here. The family that I’d done a service for about four or five months ago, one of their relatives, and then the dad in the family died suddenly. 71 years old, heart-wrenching to see his kids get up there.
They gave a tribute to him and two young grandsons under a year that you know he’ll never be able to see those grandkids grow up. And so, when I was there, I noticed like why are there so many police officers in the parking lot? And found out that the youngest son is a police officer in Lansing. And so, there were 25 police officers from Lansing that were there seated as part of the group that was there to support their comrade.
And I had the gospel, a privilege to share the gospel with not only everybody who was there, with 25 police officers from the city of Lansing. God wants us to what? To hold forth, hold fast the word of life, to share Jesus with others. If I’m going to shine for Jesus, I need to do that.
IV. Live for others
Lastly here’s the last one. If I’m going to shine for Jesus like a star in the midst of a dark world I need to live for others. I need to live for others.
Second part of verse 16, talking about holding the word of life. Paul says, and then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. So, Paul’s saying as you live for God someday when I have to stand before God and give an account of my ministry, I’m going to be able to boast that I did not waste my life.
All my life was vested in the gospel and the spiritual growth of other people. Day of Christ is the day when our salvation is complete. Paul says I’m going to be able to boast that I didn’t run or labor in vain.
I don’t know about you but I hate to waste stuff. I mean I’m just like; I don’t like to throw like any food away. I hate to waste time.
I like to feel productive. I certainly hate to waste money. Paul says I didn’t waste my life because I invested my life in you and you’re living for God and I made a difference in the kingdom.
And so, here’s his analogy. He says, but even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming for your faith, I’m glad and rejoice with all of you so you too should be what glad and rejoice with me. What’s Paul talking about? He’s using the illustration of a drink offering.
This is in the Old Testament that after a sacrificial animal was offered on the altar oftentimes you would take a vial of wine and pour it out on that sacrifice and the hotness of the altar and it would offer up a drink offering sacrifice to God. Paul uses that imagery at the very end of his life in his last epistle. He’s back in prison and this time he’s not getting out.
He’s going to be executed. He writes for I’m already being poured out like a drink offering. The time for my departure is near.
Then he says, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I’ve kept the faith.
Now there’s in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only me but to all those who have longed for his appearing. I’ll use a sports illustration. This is what Paul’s saying.
If you follow sports or maybe played sports and the intensity of a lot of sports, sometimes someone that’s given it their all in an athletic event and at the end of the event they are just like, I left it all out on the field. In other words, like I gave everything I had to try to win this athletic event. That’s what Paul’s saying here.
I poured out my life for God and therefore there’s going to be a reward for me someday. Well, God wants our lives to shine like stars in the midst of a dark world. Paul says, I want your life to shine like a star in the night sky. In order to shine for Jesus like that, I need to keep growing in my faith, working out my salvation.
I need to not be a whiner or a complainer. I need to hold out the word of life and I need to live for other people. When you do that, your life will shine in the midst of a dark and corrupt and crooked world and will give honor and glory to Jesus.