"Lights in the Darkness"--Philippians 2:14-18

Contemplating an individual’s last words has always been very fascinating for some people. Obviously, not everyone has the opportunity to say some last words before they pass away. Many people die suddenly and unexpectedly, so they don’t have an opportunity to gather friends and family around them and offer any last words. But some people do get that opportunity, and many people have found it fascinating to study their last words. Last words seem to offer a glimpse into the heart of another person, because we tend to think that they represent the thoughts and emotions that were most important to that individual.

This fascination with last words was captured well in the movie Citizen Kane. This movie follows the life of a fictional character named Charles Foster Kane, who made a fortune in the newspaper industry in the early 1900’s. The movie actually begins with Kane’s death inside the gaudy mansion he had built for himself called “Xanadu.” In the opening scenes, we witness Kane passing away, and on his death bed he is holding a snow globe and he utters a single word—the word “rosebud.” The rest of the movie follows a reporter as he tries to uncover the meaning behind the word “rosebud,” and we see a series of flashbacks that tell us about Kane’s life as the reporter interviews some of Kane’s closest associates. Ultimately, the meaning behind this word does in fact give us a window into the heart of this wealthy and powerful man.

Think about this idea of last words with me, if you will, in the life of Jesus Christ. I don’t think we should elevate any of Jesus’ words as being more important than anything else that he said, but on the night before Jesus’ died, we do find that he had a particular burden on his heart for those who would become his followers through the witness of the disciples—in other words, for you and for me. He had a repeated request that he mentioned in his prayer to the Father in John 17—namely, that we would live with each other in unity. Notice what the Lord asks for in John 17:20–23 [READ John 17:20–23]. There in the span of just a few verses, Jesus repeatedly prays that we would live in unity.

If this desire was in the forefront of Jesus’ mind on the night before he was crucified, then we shouldn’t be surprised to find the disciples emphasizing it in their writings. As we continue on in our study of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we will find again today that the apostle instructs them about living together in peace and harmony. This call for unity might start to sound like a broken record since we have already heard it before, but the reasons that Paul gives in Phil. 2:14–18 make these verses a helpful addition to Paul’s instructions. In these verses, we will see that…

We should avoid petty arguments for the sake of our witness to the world and for the sake of our mutual joy.

Let’s read these verses, and then we’ll take a look at the two parts of this lesson [READ 2:14–18]. We find the first part of this lesson in verse 14 down through the first part of verse 16.

I. We should avoid petty arguments for the sake of our witness to the world

Let’s read these words here one more time before we start to break this down [READ v. 14–16a]. As we look at what Paul says here, it seems clear—especially in the Greek words that he selects—that he is drawing from the Old Testament records of Israel’s wanderings under Moses. You may remember from the Old Testament that after God delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, He led them up to the land that He had promised to give them, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River. But the people at that time refused to trust that God would help them conquer the peoples that already lived there, and so as an act of discipline, God caused the people of Israel to wander around in the desert for 40 years until the generation that refused had died off. And you might remember that during that entire ordeal—from the time they left Egypt until they eventually settled in the Promised Land—the Bible says that the people were grumbling and complaining about various things. At one point, it says that they complained because they had no meat, even though God was miraculously providing bread for them every day (Num. 11). At another time, some of them complained about the fact that Aaron and his family had been chosen by God to do all of the priestly work around the tabernacle (Num. 16). These individuals wanted to do part of that work, too. Time and time again they complained about various things and said that they wished they were back in Egypt.

It seems that Paul in these verses is subtly drawing on that history to instruct us not to act the same way. The word “grumbling” here calls up thoughts of petty complaints and divisions, and the Greek word translated “disputing” focuses on the way of thinking that lies behind those arguments. So we are not to get caught up in petty disputes, and we’re not even to allow our minds to remain in that frame of mind.

And the purpose of this command is stated in v. 15, “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent.” You might remember when we talked about the idea of being blameless back in chapter 1—its not the idea of being without sin, it’s the idea that no one can raise an objection against the way that you live. And the idea of being “innocent” here speaks of our inner motives and attitudes, that they would be pure and godly.

But then Paul goes on to mention that living in unity without grumbling and disputing is very important for our witness to the people around us. Continuing in v. 15, Paul says that such a way of living will show us to be “children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (or we might say, “by holding fast the word of life”). Paul really brings this issue to a head here by telling us that unity matters not just for our life inside the church, but for our witness outside of the church as well. He paints our mission here in stark terms, saying that we are “children of God…in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.”

Now Paul isn’t trying to insult non-Christians here; he is simply offering an assessment from God’s point of view. By God’s standards, those who are not his children are crooked and perverse—they are crooked because they are not “level” with his standards; like a picture that isn’t hanging straight. And they are perverse because they have taken his true standard of right and wrong and exchanged it for a false standard.

But according to this passage we have the opportunity to point out the way back to God. Paul says that among the unbelieving world we “appear as lights in the world by holding fast the word of life.” Some translations read “stars” here, and that gives us a good picture of Paul’s meaning.

Back when Paul was writing, the “lights” in the sky were used for navigation. During the day, people could watch the course of the sun and get their bearings from it, and at night the stars allowed people to chart a course and follow it to their intended destination.

So what Paul is saying is that in the spiritual realm, we can function in that way for the people around us—we can point out the path to God by holding fast (or holding forth) the word of life. But our effectiveness in this depends so greatly upon how well we carry out the command in v. 14—do all things without grumbling or disputing! If you remember what we heard from Jesus in John 17, He stated that our unity would add credence to our witness. In John 17:21 he prayed for us and asked “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Then in v. 23 He says, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

The reason that such unity adds legitimacy to our witness is that it is supernatural—it is not the norm in our world. Because of the selfishness that is in all of us, the norm in relationships is disunity—fighting and bickering and complaining against each other. So if we show the people around us that it is possible to live in harmony with each other, our witness to the world will be clothed in a spirit that is attractive and desirable, a spirit that will convince people that our message is true.

But if we fight and bicker with each other, we will do great damage to our witness in this community. As one author put it, “How will the world ever discover church again if what they see… is, in reality, people no different than themselves, living in what appears to be a fantasy?”* And that’s exactly what Christianity will look like if we can’t live in unity—a fantasy! We can talk all day about being brothers and sisters in Christ, but if we don’t live it out then we’ll simply be one more dysfunctional family, and many people already have that at home! They won’t want to join another dysfunctional family by coming to church!

So our success at living together in unity will gave a tremendous impact on our witness to the world. And obviously it will have a great impact on the joy that we share with each other. That’s the second part of this lesson that we need to consider.

II. We should avoid petty arguments for the sake of our mutual joy

In v. 16, Paul goes on to add a personal perspective to this discussion. As if the Philippians didn’t already have reason enough to follow this command, Paul asks them to do it “so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” Paul is looking ahead here to the day that he will stand before Christ to receive his rewards, and in that moment he doesn’t want his ministry among the Philippians to turn out to be fruitless. He wants to be able to rejoice in that day as he sees the fruit that came from his ministry.

Perhaps this sounds like an unusual thing for Paul to ask—that the Philippians would obey so that he could rejoice—but other verses also talk about this idea as a good motive for obedience. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

You can think of obedience to the Lord like a gift that you can give to your spiritual leaders. Perhaps over the years you have heard about different gifts that churches have given to their pastors. I heard about one church that gave their pastor something like an “extreme makeover” on his house. They sent his family away on vacation and did some remodeling for him while they were away. I’ve always gotten a little chuckle out of the reserved parking spots that churches sometimes give to their pastors. In my sense of humor, I wonder if the church is trying to gently tell the pastor that he’s handicapped or something!

If you would really like to give me a gift that will be special and priceless, then do this for me—just get along with each other! That will keep the hair on my head a little longer, and probably keep me from getting ulcers! Just love each other, and work together to serve the Lord. I would enjoy nothing more than to see that my ministry here is bearing fruit and making a difference.

Paul goes on here in v. 17 to make an interesting statement about the relationship between his ministry and their service for God. He says [READ v. 17]. Paul is painting a picture here that’s based on the sacrificial system from the Old Testament. The drink offering consisted of a cup of wine that was poured out with certain burnt offerings. With these sacrifices it was kind of the icing on the cake, the final act of devotion, and it could be that with this picture Paul was thinking about the possibility that he was going to lose his life as a martyr in his imprisonment. And it seems that Paul is saying, “Even if my life and ministry among you is just the icing on the cake of what your service for God will accomplish, I will rejoice in that and I’ll share my joy with you.” Paul longs to see continued fruitfulness from the Philippians, and even he plays just a small part in that, that’s enough for him to rejoice, and to encourage the Philippians to rejoice, as he does in v. 18.

So we get such a great glimpse of Paul’s heart in these verses, both for the world and for the Philippians. So much joy, and so much potential for ministry awaited the Philippians if they could just serve together without complaining, without grumbling, without falling into petty disputes with each other. And the same things await us if we will conduct our ministry in this way. We can have a mutual joy that will become infectious and give legitimacy to the message that we preach to a watching world. How can we really claim to represent the Prince of Peace if we can’t live at peace with each other? But if we do, we can show the people around us the way to peace.

So I want to ask you today to think about the people who are sitting in the pews around you right now. As you think about your brothers and sisters in Christ, are you struggling through a strained relationship with any of them right now? Is there something between you that is keeping you from being at peace with each other? Do you need to ask their forgiveness for something? Have you pulled away from them because they’ve offended you in some way? I ask you today, not to let these things go, but to resolve them. Ask for forgiveness where its necessary; offer forgiveness where its necessary. Don’t settle for a cold relationship with a brother or sister in Christ when you could share joy with each other, and when restoration in your relationship could be just the thing that God will use to bring someone else to himself.


* Bob Lewis and Rob Wilkins, The Church of Irresistible Influence (Grand Rapids; Zondervan, 2001), pg. 25.

Revelation--Bringing Good Things to Light

When I was a kid, I never really enjoyed staying home from school sick, because that was a guarantee that my mom wouldn’t let me play outside later that evening no matter how good I felt by then. But one thing that I loved about staying home from school was getting to watch “The Price is Right.” That show is the best! I can still remember lying on the couch in the living room thinking, “Wow! All those poor souls at school are probably doing some boring worksheet right now, and I’m at home watching ‘The Price is Right.’”

The best part of that show was right after someone would win the initial pricing game. They call those four contestants up to the stage for that initial game, and then someone wins and gets to go up on the stage with Bob Barker. And that’s when Bob really starts to build the suspense. He directs their attention to a set of doors off to one side that are closed, and he says, “Wouldn’t you like to see what’s behind those doors?” And sometimes he would drag it out while the contestant is standing there in agony, just dying to see what’s behind those doors. And then Rod Roddy’s voice would come over the speakers and say, “It’s a new car!” and the doors would fly open and the crowd would go crazy, and there would be a brand new car, just waiting to be won.

Now I want you to keep in mind this picture of the doors opening up to allow the contestant to see the prize, because that picture will help us understand the idea behind the word that we’re going to look at tonight—the word “revelation.” As we continue in our series “Breaking Down Bible Words” we’re going to approach this word the same way that we have approached the others—first, we’ll define the word revelation and then we’ll talk about what the idea of revelation means for us.

I. What does the word “revelation” mean?

We can see what the word “revelation” means by looking at its root word—reveal. When you reveal something, you are uncovering something, you are bringing something that was hidden out into the open. So the idea behind the word “revelation” is the idea of unveiling or displaying something that was previously hidden. Think again of when those doors opened on “The Price is Right”—the prize was hidden from the contestant; the contestant didn’t know what it was until those doors opened to reveal what was behind them.

We can see this idea of revelation in a couple of familiar stories in the Old Testament. Turn with me if you would please to 1 Samuel 3. Here we find the story of Samuel as a little boy when he first heard the voice of God [READ 3:1–7]. Here we see the first part of this idea of revelation. Samuel was confused here because the Lord had never spoken to him before. Prior to this, he had not had any communication with the Lord. But now God was speaking to Him for the first time, and you probably all know that God went on to have a conversation with Samuel about Eli the priest and Eli’s family, so that by the end of the story it says down in v. 21, “And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” So here we have the other part of this idea of revelation—God had been unknown to Samuel but now He was known, he had revealed Himself to Samuel because He had spoken to Him.

We see this same idea again over in the book of Daniel. Turn with me to Daniel 2. You probably know this story—in this chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream but he doesn’t understand what the dream is supposed to mean, so he calls upon his magicians and his sorcerers and commands that they tell him what the dream was and then interpret it for him. Well, the magicians and sorcerers try to tell the king that his request is impossible and that they couldn’t possibly know what the king had dreamed. And that point, the king became furious with the magicians and sorcerers and issued a decree to have them all killed. That’s when Daniel and his friends enter the story [READ Dan. 2:17–19]. So here we see the idea of revelation again—the dream and its interpretation had been hidden from Daniel. He didn’t know what it was any more than the magicians and the sorcerers did. But God revealed this information to him so that it was no longer hidden from him. And after this, Daniel went before the king and gave him the information of this revelation that he had received.

So these stories illustrate the meaning of the word “revelation”—something that was once hidden has now been unveiled or revealed. Now its important for us to recognize at this point that the concept of revelation tells us that there are limits to human knowledge. Not only are there things that we simply do not know—there are things that we cannot know unless God reveals them to us. And we have to admit that there are some things that God has simply chosen not to reveal to us. Let’s think about a couple of these things for a moment. First, we know that God has not chosen to tell us the precise reasons for all of the suffering that we face in life. Many times throughout our lives, we will grapple with difficult, painful events and we won’t know exactly why these things are happening. Now God has told us a lot about suffering in a general sense. We know that pain and suffering were introduced into this world by sin, and we know that suffering and adversity can help us grow spiritual in astounding ways, but we simply don’t know why God allows an earthquake to strike Haiti. We don’t know why God allows us to contract cancer, or why he allows two members of a family to die in an accident while the other two are spared. We cannot know these things unless God chooses to tell us.

Second, we know that God has not chosen to tell us some of the precise details about our future. God doesn’t tell us exactly where we’re going to go to college; he doesn’t tell us how long we’ll be working at one job, or how long we might have to wait before another one comes along.
Transition—So what are we to make of all of this? If this is true, then what does the idea of revelation mean for us?

II. What does the idea of revelation mean for us?

A. It drives us toward humility before God—Matthew 11:25–27

When we realize that there are things that we simply cannot know unless God reveals them to us, it reminds us that we are and must be dependent upon God. This idea is a powerful antidote to pride. If we understand truth about God, it is only because He has allowed us to understand it. Turn with me to Matt. 11:25–27. Here Jesus is talking about a divide between those who do believe in Him and those who don’t [READ Matt. 11:25–27]. Notice that Jesus points out here that the truth about who He is has been hidden from those whom the world considers to be wise and intelligent. In contrast, it is those who are as infant, lowly and dependent, who receive the truth about Jesus.

Do you ever find yourself getting frustrated with people who just can’t seem to see the world from a biblical perspective? Perhaps there’s a social or political debate that you can think of where the biblical perspective seems so clear to you, but other people just can’t seem to understand it? In such moments, we need to guard ourselves against becoming proud because its so easy for us to think that other people are just stupid, and an arrogance can start to creep in to our lives that makes the truth look very unattractive.

Friends, we must remember that if we can understand biblical truth, it is only because God has allowed us to understand it. It is not because of any great thing in us, or any degree of wisdom that we possess—it is only because God has broken through the blinding power of sin and given us eyes to see and ears to hear, as Jesus so often called for in the gospels.

So what does the idea of revelation mean for us? First, it drives us toward humility before God. And second,

B. It gives us confidence in the source of our faith—Galatians 1:11–12

Think about this for a moment—if we can only understand spiritual truth by God’s revelation, then spiritual truth must come from God Himself. There are many people today who try to say that Christianity is just a man-made religion, that it is not really divine truth. But the idea of revelation contradicts such a belief. Let me direct your attention in particular to what the apostle Paul says about the source of His teaching. Turn with me to Gal. 1:11–12 [READ Gal. 1:11–12].

This is a very important point to note, especially in light of the things that people teach about Christianity and the apostle Paul today. If you watch television specials about Christianity or Christian doctrine, you’re liable to hear something like this: “While Jesus was alive, he taught a simple, ethical message about loving each other and turning the other cheek. But after he died, Saul of Tarsus saw the dedication of the early Christians and recognized an opportunity to become their leader. So Saul became the apostle Paul and he hijacked the simple message of Jesus and turned it into a full-blown religion with all sorts of doctrines and dogmas that took Christianity in a whole new direction.”

Or in other words, to sum all of that up, what these critics are saying is that Christianity did not come from God, it was essentially the brainchild of the apostle Paul. But notice that Paul claims that precisely the opposite is true—he didn’t twist the teaching of Jesus, he received his message by a revelation from Jesus!

The idea that Christianity is a man-made religion doesn’t make any sense. Christianity does not bear the marks of a man-made system of belief, particularly when we think about what Christianity teaches about God. If you want to see what man-made gods look like, look no further than the gods of Greek and Roman mythology. Those so-called gods are just human beings on an exaggerated scale! They have all of the same problems that we do!

But how could anyone dream up a God like the God of Christianity? How could we, who celebrate our birthdays every year, conceive of a God who has no beginning? How could we dream up a God who is a Trinity? How could we who are filled with hate invent a God of such love that He would die for the very creatures who spurned Him? Why would we make up a God who commands us to control some of our natural desires, like desires for revenge or fame and glory? Why would anyone make up such a God, and who would believe the person who did? The only answer that makes any sense is that the God of the Bible is real and we know about Him because He has told us what He is like.

So the concept of revelation gives us confidence in the source of our faith. The message of the Bible is a message that truly is from God. It is not a myth, it is not a legend, it is truth that has been revealed to us by God. So when we choose to believe in doctrines like the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus, or the doctrines of heaven and hell, we can know, as Peter said, that we are not following cleverly devised fables, but the very truth of God.

In light of all that we have discussed, we can be so thankful that God has decided to reveal His truth to us. We would know nothing about God unless He had revealed Himself to us, and we can be so thankful that He did, particularly after the human race fell into sin. Even then He did not leave us in the dark, but he continued to reveal Himself to us, eventually even sending us His own Son to show us what he is like. All of this speaks to the tremendous grace of our God and His persistent love for us.

"Workin' For the Man"--Philippians 2:12-13

Have you ever received a gift that made you want to be a better person, or that made you want to strive to do your very best? That’s a very common response when we receive a gift that overwhelms us because of the generosity behind it. Oftentimes a gift like this has nothing to do with money—it could be the handing down of a family heirloom, or an act of service or sacrifice.

Perhaps you’ve heard war stories that have captured this phenomenon. Sometimes we hear of acts of heroism where one soldier sacrifices his life to save another soldier, and the surviving soldier is so moved by this act that it affects the rest of his life. The surviving soldier lives the rest of his days remembering the gift of life that he received, and he is moved to live a good life because of it.

This phenomenon is also captured beautifully in the story Les Miserables. Perhaps you have seen the movie or the musical versions of that story. The story follows the life of a convict named Jean Valjean, who is given his parole after 19 years in prison and is told to report to a particular town. As he travels to this town he spends the night one evening with an elderly bishop, and when Valjean sees the valuable silverware that the bishop has, he steals it and runs away. The next day, Valjean is caught by the police and returned to the bishop for identification. But rather than press charges against Valjean and send him back to prison, the bishop tells police that he gave the silverware to Valjean as a gift and that they are to release him at once. Valjean is so moved by this gift of grace that he spends the rest of his life trying to do good for other people.

I’m sure you can see how the idea of responding like this to a gift is right at home in the Christian life. According to the Bible, we have been given an extraordinary gift by God—the gift of salvation—and in light of this gift we are to live in a different manner than before, in a manner that will honor God, who gave us the gift. In our study of Philippians thus far, Paul has expressed this idea clearly 1:27 when we wrote, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” The gospel is the good news about the gift of salvation, and we are to live in a way that is worthy of this glorious gift.

As we continue on today in chapter 2, we are still unfolding what it means to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. We have seen so far that it means to willingly endure persecution for Jesus’ sake; it means to live in unity with fellow Christians; and it means to embrace the humble mindset of Jesus. But lest we think that we’re doing this on our own, we receive an important reminder today in 2:12–13, where we will see that…

The Christian life calls us to live out the work that God is performing in us.

Would you turn with me please to Phil. 2:12–13? Let’s read these verses, and then we’ll take a look at the command in these verses, the attitude that we’re supposed to have with this command, and the reason that we’re supposed to follow this command with this attitude. [READ vv. 12–13].

Let’s take a look first of all at the command in these verses…

I. We must work toward spiritual growth in the Christian life

Paul starts in v. 12 by commending the Philippians for their continued obedience to God even though he wasn’t there watching over them at the moment. They weren’t behaving the way we did at times when we were children—mom turned her back for five minutes, and we were trying to eat the cookies that we weren’t supposed to touch. No, the Philippians were obeying even though Paul wasn’t there, and he commanded them to keep it going by telling them to “work out your salvation.”

Now this command has caused a lot of confusion because it seems to contradict what the Bible says about receiving forgiveness from God. What does he mean “work out your salvation?” Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we can’t earn salvation by our works? Wasn’t it Paul himself who wrote in Romans 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness?” What are we to make of this command?

I think this confusion can be cleared up by comparing the way that we use the word “salvation” to the way that the Bible uses the word “salvation.” What we will find is that we tend to use the word in a more restricted way than the Bible does.

In the Bible, the word “salvation” is used at various times to refer to three different aspects of one unified process. The first aspect is the one that we normally mean when we use the word “salvation”—it is the moment that we receive forgiveness from God by placing our faith in Jesus. The fancy theological term for this aspect is justification. This refers to the moment that we receive forgiveness, are reborn spiritually, and adopted into God’s family, and I cannot stress enough that good works have nothing to do with us receiving this aspect of salvation. This is the aspect of salvation that is described in verses like Eph. 2:8–9—“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The second aspect of this process is what we usually call spiritual growth or “living the Christian life.” The theological term for it is sanctification, and rather than being a one-time, momentary thing like the first aspect, this aspect is an ongoing process in our lives. This aspect does involve good works as we live out our calling to be ambassadors for Christ. But what you may not realize is that the Bible uses the word “salvation” to describe this aspect of the process as well. We see this in verses like Phil. 2:12 here and in verses like 1 Peter 2:2 which says, “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”

The third aspect of this process occurs when we receive our resurrected, heavenly bodies. The theological term for this is glorification. We see this aspect in verses that talk about salvation as something that is still to come in the future. A perfect example of this is the last part of Romans 13:11, which says, “for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” Now perhaps you’re thinking, “Wait, don’t we have salvation when we believe?” The answer of course is “yes”—we have the first aspect of salvation and we set out on the second aspect of salvation, but while we’re alive we’re still waiting for this third aspect of salvation, which is what Paul has in mind here. We see this aspect also in 1 Peter 1:5, which says, “[we] are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Now, to help us clear up any confusion about this command in Phil. 2:12, we need to note how we generally use the word “salvation,” because normally when we use it, we are referring only to the first aspect of this process. Thus, as we read Scripture and encounter the word “salvation,” our thoughts generally turn toward this first aspect of the process, but as you can see that will create some confusion for us in verses like this, because here it seems that Paul is talking about the second aspect of this process. So if that’s the case, then he’s not telling us to work to earn forgiveness from God; rather, he’s telling us to work to grow spiritually, or as Eph. 2:10 puts it, he’s telling us to live out the “good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

So that is what we are commanded to do here, to put our salvation to work, you might say. And as we do, Paul says that we are to do so with a certain attitude…

II. We should work toward spiritual growth with an attitude of fear toward God

In giving his command, Paul also instructs the Philippians to have a certain attitude. He tells them to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” and we see from v. 13 that he is talking about a fear of God. If you have read much in other portions of Scripture, you’ve probably run into this idea of fearing God quite often. In fact, the Bible repeatedly praises an attitude of fear toward God as a healthy spiritual mindset. The book of Proverbs in particular talks frequently about the benefits of this mindset. Why don’t you turn with me to Proverbs and we’ll read a few of the verses that praise this attitude:

[READ 9:10; 10:27; 14:26–27; 15:33; 16:6; 19:23; 22:4]

So it’s not hard to see that the fear of the Lord is a very beneficial thing, but what kind of attitude is this exactly? It sounds kind of strange to say that we should fear God because one of the glorious truths of the gospel is that when we place our faith in Jesus, we are established in a relationship of peace with God.

So what does it mean to fear God? It doesn’t mean that we fear that he’s going to harm us. He certainly will discipline us when we need it, but remember, that is not for our harm. We can compare the fear of the Lord to that melting feeling that we experience when we meet someone important and powerful, like the governor or the president. If you’ve ever had an experience like that, its very common to feel weak and uneasy, and psychologically to feel very small in comparison to that person.

A few years ago I had the experience of seeing President Bush’s motorcade drive past my former church in Kansas City. I was able to walk right up to the road as he went by. I didn’t meet, and in fact I didn’t even see him, but I experienced that feeling because I felt very small and insignificant compared to the tremendously powerful and influential man who passed by me.

That’s the idea behind the fear of the Lord—it’s the proper recognition of who we are in relation to God. One author put it this way: “To fear god means to acknowledge His superiority over man, to recognize His deity and thus respond in awe, humility, worship, love, trust, and obedience.”* This attitude is well illustrated by the disciples in the gospels, when the authors tell us that when Jesus performed some of his miracles the disciples became afraid or amazed. They weren’t afraid that Jesus was going to hurt them, but they realized that they were dealing with someone who was much greater than themselves.

So we are called to have this attitude toward God, and as we see in v. 13, it’s not simply because we are dealing with God, but because God is dealing with us. In v. 13 we discover why we should have this attitude and why we should obey this command.

III. We should have an attitude of fear toward God because of who He is and what He is doing in us

Let’s read v. 13 again, and let me begin reading from the command in v. 12 [READ v. 12b-13]. Here is the reason that we should work out our salvation; here is the reason that we should fear and tremble—because God himself is dealing with us! God is giving us godly desires and the strength to act upon them. What we have here is both an encouragement and a very sobering reality. It’s an encouragement because as we strive for spiritual growth, we’re not doing it alone—in fact we’re simply cooperating with the work that God is doing in us. But its also a very sobering reality because we see that God wants to accomplish his good pleasure in this world through us, which means that we have a very important role to play, and we don’t want to be found neglecting God’s work within us.

This lesson means that when we have godly desires, it is not merely our upbringing coming out, or some vague notion of seeking the welfare of our community—it means that God is at work in us and we therefore need to act!

If I may say so, friends, I believe this lesson reveals that the Christian life is a dreadfully serious matter! If we don’t think that living out our faith is a serious matter, we’re not just “missing out”—we are resisting the work of God! That is a very sobering thought, and as Paul says it should lead us to have an attitude of astonishment and wonder, an attitude of fear as we understand who we are in relationship to God.

Now when I say that our faith should be a serious matter, I don’t mean that the Christian life should be grim or gloomy. Philippians reminds us that there should be joy in the Christian life, and joy oftentimes produces happiness and light-heartedness. But Christian joy is not the same as ignorant bliss. If you’ve seen the movie Finding Nemo, do you remember the character of Dora, who joined up with Nemo’s dad? That is ignorant bliss! Or you can think of the character Goofy from some of the Disney cartoons. Christian joy is uplifting to the soul, but our souls should always be anchored by the sobering reality that God himself is working in us to accomplish his good pleasure in this world.

So although we might take ourselves lightly, we must not take our calling as Christians lightly. God is leading us to join in his mission in this world against sin and Satan, with all of the sacrifices that such a mission requires of us. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ in a world that does not want to hear our message, a place with a ruler in the Devil who will oppose us at every turn.

But we should remember the encouragement of this passage as well, that as we seek to work out our salvation, we are merely cooperating with God’s work in us. God is on the job, and when the struggles of this life overwhelm us, we will find in God both the desire and the strength to live for what pleases him, so that we might continue on the way.


* Roy B. Zuck, “A Theology of the Wisdom Books and the Song of Songs,” in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, ed. Roy B. Zuck (Moody Bible Institute, Chicago Illinois. 1991) pg 215.

What Did Jesus Do?--Philippians 2:5-11

In most areas of life, we learn best when we can learn from the example of someone else. As infants, this is how we learn all of the basic skills of life. At that age, we obviously couldn’t pick up a book and read about how to do something—we had to watch other people in action and then imitate them. So one day as we were crawling around on all fours, we noticed the people around us walking, so we decided to give it a try. We heard the people around us talking, so we started to imitate their noises.

Later, when we’re a bit older and we’re ready to start playing sports, our parents and our coaches take us out on the field and show us how to play the game. They don’t sit us down with a book and say, “Here—read this. You’ll figure things out!” No! They model the motions for us and patiently work with us when we kick the ball a dozen different directions before we finally get it right!

Even after we’ve grown up, following someone else’s example is still the most effective way to learn many things. That’s why when a person wants to learn a trade, he has to serve as an apprentice for a while. The apprentice watches the master tradesman and learns how to hold the tools and how to handle the materials. Even in the professional world, a person is often asked to serve an internship before he or she is hired on as a full employee.

So it should be no surprise that the Bible calls us to learn in our spiritual lives by imitating others. And more than anyone else, the Bible calls us to imitate Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, we have a most profound example. Before Jesus, God could only ask us to “Do as I say.” God had not stepped into humanity with its frailties and temptations. But after Jesus, God can now ask us to “Do as I say AND as I have done.” Jesus has shown us a perfect human life, and has left us an example to follow as seek to live for God’s glory.

In our study of the book of Philippians today, Paul is going to call us to look to the example of Jesus to see what it means to have humility of mind. As we look at what Paul has to say, I want to focus your thoughts on this question:

What does Jesus’ example teach us about having humility of mind?

Would you turn with me please to Philippians 2:5–11? In verses 1–4, Paul called the Philippians to live with the same mindset toward one another. He pointed out the basis for their unity in their common experience with Christ, and he noted that the path to this kind of unity comes through cultivating humility of mind. Now he is going to point us to Jesus to see what it looks like to have humility of mind [READ 2:5–11].

Now over the years, theologians have probably used up an entire rainforest’s worth of paper in writing about just these verses. And there is a lot for theologians to write about when you look at what these verses say about Jesus, His relationship to God, and what took place when He stepped into humanity. Paul does use some very precise and careful language that offers a lot of food for thought, but its clear that his intent in these verses is not to give a theological lecture, but to use the example of Jesus to show us what it looks like to have humility of mind. So that will be our focus today as we answer the question—what does Jesus’ example teach us about having humility of mind?

I. We are not to cling to our own rights and privileges at the expense of the interests of others (2:5–8)

First, let’s break down what Paul says in verses 5–7 [READ vv. 5–7]. This is where theologians have spilled most of their ink over the years, in analyzing the language of these verses. And it is important for us as well to wade a little ways out into these deep waters, so let’s give these verses a little attention.

Now at the most basic level, Paul is making a simple contrast here, and his contrast is this—even though Jesus is equal to God, that fact didn’t keep Him from being willing to become a human and to serve humanity. Now Paul’s language is a bit more technical than that, so let’s take a closer look at it. If we can set aside the last part of v. 6 for just a moment, then Paul’s language reads like this: “although Jesus existed in the form of God, He emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.” Those last two phrases explain how Jesus “emptied” himself, so we can read it as “he emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.”

Now the technical term that sets up the contrast in these verses is the word “form.” What does it mean that Jesus existed in the form of God but then took on the form of a bond-servant? The Greek word that lies behind the word “form” refers to the external appearance of something which reveals its inner nature. So the contrast deals with how Jesus chose to externally express his inner nature. Apparently, before the Son of God came into this world his external appearance was that of a bright and dazzling light. We actually see a glimpse of that appearance in the event known as the Transfiguration in the Gospels, where Jesus allowed his disciples to see a bit of his glory. But when the Son of God came to earth, he externally expressed his inner nature by being human and becoming the servant of humanity. Thus, when people looked at Jesus during his earthly life, they saw simply an ordinary man. They didn’t see a man with a halo around his head or anything like that—they just saw an ordinary man. In fact, the prediction about Jesus in Isaiah 53:2 says, “he had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

What an indescribable step down that Jesus was willing to take! Paul describes this here as “emptying himself.” I think the King James Version says it best when it says, “he made himself of no reputation”—that’s exactly what he did! It is staggering to think about how God himself chose to enter this world. Theoretically, he could have been born as a prince and lived in a palace. But he chose to be born to peasants who lived in a backwater town, in a country that wasn’t even free. His parents were too poor to offer the normal sacrifice that Jewish parents offered for their newborn children, so they had to offer the sacrifice prescribed for the poor. He wasn’t from a well-known family; he wasn’t from the priestly tribe. For the vast majority of his life he worked hard with his hands in a blue-collar job. He never owned a home and probably never had more than a few pieces of clothing.

What kind of attitude did the Son of God have that made him willing to do all of this? What mindset did he have, which we are called to imitate? It is described here at the end of v. 6—“he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,” or we might say “a thing to be held on to no matter what” or “a thing to be kept for personal gain.” You can almost picture a selfish child grabbing something and saying, “MINE!” That wasn’t Jesus’ mindset—when he considered his rights and privileges as God, he placed them below the best interests of his creatures. He didn’t consider his equality with God something to be exploited for his own benefit; rather, he considered his position to be a unique platform for service.

What a lesson for us about how we should view our positions and our rights and privileges. If I can think of this in the context of the church for a moment, it strikes me how easy it is to feel a sense of entitlement based on our positions within the church. Pastors can succumb to this temptation. We can start to feel entitled to many different things—maybe a nice salary, maybe unquestioning respect, it could be a lot of different things. You could succumb to this temptation if you’ve donated a lot of money to a church. You could start to think that your opinion should carry more weight than someone else’s because you’ve given more money. You could succumb to this temptation if you’ve taught Sunday School or lead some kind of program for a long time. There could be many different positions where we would feel this mindset of entitlement creeping in.

A feeling of entitlement is a sickness in the soul, and it is precisely the opposite of the mindset of Jesus. He was willing to lay aside his own rights and privileges to pursue what was in our best interest, and v. 8 describes the extent to which he was willing to go to serve us [READ v. 8]. Jesus paid for our sins by submitting to the most horrific and shameful method of execution that humanity has ever devised. The people of that time thought that there was nothing more humiliating than being crucified. The Roman orator Cicero once described what the Romans thought of crucifixion. He stated, “To bind a Roman citizen is a crime; to flog him is an abomination; to slay him is almost an act of murder; to crucify him is—what? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.”*

The first thing that the example of Jesus teaches us about humility of mind is that it calls us to see to it that we don’t think of our own rights and privileges as being so important that we’re not willing to lay them aside to pursue the best interests of other people. And the second lesson is equally important and serves as a strong motivator for us to have humility of mind.

II. We can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves (2:9–11)

In verses 9–11, we see how God the Father responded to the mindset and actions of Jesus—he responded by honoring his Son and giving him the name or the title of “Lord.” [READ vv. 9–11] These verses seem to tell us of a time in the future when all beings will have no choice but to admit that Jesus Christ is Lord—whether they like it or not! The book of Revelation tells us that human history is going to play out in such a way that Jesus will be vindicated, and his lordship will be evident to all beings.

So we can see here how God the Father honored Jesus for embracing a humble mindset and then acting upon it. But perhaps you’re thinking, “Okay, Tim—you just said that we can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves. Where are you getting that from?” Well, it’s actually a consistent theme of Scripture that God will honor those who choose to humble themselves. Let me take you on a little tour of the Bible here so we can see how often this theme comes up. We won’t go around the world in 80 days, but we’ll go around the Bible in 10 or so minutes here to see how often God states that he will exalt those who humble themselves. Turn with me first to Prov. 18:12 [READ Prov. 18:12]

Then over to Prov. 22:4 [READ Prov. 22:4]

Then one more verse from Proverbs, Prov. 29:23 [READ Prov. 29:23]

Now turn over to the book of Isaiah and find Is. 66:1–2. These verses describe how God, as our Creator, cannot be contained by anything in his creation, but they also give a beautiful statement about which of his creatures he will take notice of [READ Is. 66:1–2]. What a great contrast in these verses! Here is God, so high and exalted, yet he takes notice of those who are humble and lowly.

Next, turn to the gospels and find Matthew 23:8–12. Just prior to this, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees and is describing how they love to be recognized and honored by other people, and then he says in v. 8 [READ Matt. 23:8–12]

Then over in Luke 18:10–14, Jesus tells a parable to teach this same lesson [READ Luke 18:10–14]

Then finally, just one passage from the epistles—1 Peter 5:5–6. In the context, Peter is giving instructions to different groups of people within the church. He says in v. 5 [READ 1 Peter 5:5-6]

So as you can see, over and over again we see this idea popping up in Scripture—that God will respond to the humble by giving them honor. What irony there is in this gift of grace! If we choose not to exalt ourselves, God will choose to exalt us at the proper time. Now of course, the proper time will be in his time—it may not even be until we receive our rewards after this life. But God will always be true to his promises.

So from the example of Jesus, we learn that we are not to cling to our own rights and privileges at the expense of the interests of others, and we can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves. This is the mindset that we must embrace if we desire to have the unity that Paul has been calling for us to have so far in Philippians 2. If we choose instead to press for the rights and honors that we think we deserve from others, we will find ourselves to be a divisive factor within the church, unable to let go of the insults we think we’ve received from others who won’t show us the honor we think we deserve. Jesus shows us another way—the way of service, the way of self-sacrifice for the benefit of other people. Let’s choose to embrace his mindset.


*Quoted by Gordon Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1995), 217.

Minding Each Other's Business--Philippians 2:1-4

Frank Sinatra is probably one of the most well-known singers of the last century. He had numerous hit songs during his career, and even though many of us didn’t live through his peak years, we can probably sing a few lines of his songs. One of his best-loved songs is a song called “My Way.” Let me read some of the lyrics of that song, and as I do I want you to think about the attitude that this song expresses. The song starts like this: “And now, the end is near/ and so I’ll face the final curtain/ My friends, I’ll say it clear/ I’ll state my case of which I’m certain/ I’ve lived a life that’s full/ I’ve travelled each and every highway/ And more, much more than this/ I did it my way.” Then after a couple more stanzas, the song ends with these words: “For what is a man? What has he got?/ If not himself, then he has naught/ To say the things he truly feels/ And not the words of one who kneels/ The record shows I took the blows/ And did it my way.”

Now I don’t intend to psychoanalyze Frank Sinatra here, but this song seems to capture a spirit of individualism and self-determination that we really prize in our culture. We celebrate people who seem to live life by their own rules, people who seem to be able to handle anything that comes their way simply through self-reliance. We cheer on TV and movie heroes like The Lone Ranger, Rambo, Wonder Woman, James Bond, and Jack Bauer.

But did you ever stop to think that even The Lone Ranger had a sidekick? Even Batman had Robin; James Bond always had Q inventing new gadgets that allowed him to do his work. So even when we’re creating characters who are the epitome of the solitary hero, we still can’t get away from the reality that these heroes need other people in order to carry out their work.

So the old cliché is proven true once again: “No man is an island.” We can never get away from the fact that we need each other, and we need to work together with other people in order to accomplish anything in this world. This fact is not simply true in a church, but in fact the church was designed this way by God. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul likens the church to a human body, with the idea being that we all have different abilities and functions, but nevertheless we form one cohesive group that only works when it works together.

In our study of Philippians today, we are going to hear another call to unity from the apostle Paul. In last week’s passage, Paul urged the Philippian believers to stand together like teammates in light of the opposition that they were facing. Today, we are going to see Paul describing the basis for their unity and telling them how they can achieve it. I hope you’ll see clearly today that:

Humility based on our common experience with Christ is the blueprint for unity.

Would you turn with me please to Philippians 2:1–4? In these verses, Paul is going to make a personal appeal to the Philippians based on their mutual relationship with him and with the Lord Jesus Christ. The result is a passionate appeal for unity. Let’s see what he has to say [READ 2:1–4]

In these verses, Paul outlines for the Philippians the basis for their unity and the path that will get them there. Let’s take a look at those two things. First, the basis…

I. Our common experience as Christians is the basis for our unity (2:1–2)
In verses 1 and 2, we find a loaded “if-then” statement from the apostle Paul. The force of this statement is to show us that the logical conclusion from our common experience in Christ is to live in unity with each other. Unity has to be based on some kind of common ground, and Paul is going to remind us that we have all the common ground we need.

Paul begins by connecting this “if-then” statement back to what he had just written about their suffering. He states, “therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ.” The Philippians, you may remember, were facing some opposition from people outside the church, so they were in a situation where they could probably use some encouragement. Paul reminds them here that they can all find encouragement in Christ. Christ gave them all forgiveness and love and a reason to believe that one day things were going to be better, and they all had that encouragement in common.

Not only did they have that encouragement—they also had the consolation of love. Paul probably has in mind here the fullness of the Christian idea of love, that love is something we receive from God which enables us to share it with others. And he describes the product of that love as “consolation,” something that encourages us in the midst of an otherwise discouraging situation. It is something that lifts our spirits.

Then he continues on to write, “if there is any fellowship of the Spirit.” Again, he probably has the full idea of fellowship in mind here—that we all have fellowship with the Holy Spirit that serves as the basis for our fellowship with each other.

And then it seems that he appeals to their feelings for him. I think with this last phrase he is saying, “if you have any affection and compassion for me, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” So now his request comes in—he asks them to fill up his joy over them by being united with each other, and he describes that unity with several different phrases. First, he tells them to be of the same mind. Now I don’t think Paul is saying that they have to have exactly the same opinions about everything, because in Romans 14 he writes that Christians may legitimately have different convictions about certain things. Rather, he is calling them to have the same mindset or the same frame of mind toward each other, and he clarifies what that mindset is with the phrases that follow: it is a mindset that points us to love one another, to be like one in our spiritual lives, and to pursue the same purposes and goals in the body of Christ. This kind of mindset will serve to draw us together and keep us unified.

I believe we can think about this mindset in much the same way that a magnet works. I have a basic refrigerator magnet here; now you may remember how a magnet works from science class. It works basically like this: each atom that makes up the magnetic surface has a magnetic field around it. When you hold the magnet up in the air like this, the magnetic fields around the atoms all point their forces in different directions, but when you put the magnet close to a metal surface, all of those magnetic fields start to point in the same direction, which creates a force strong enough to make the magnet stick to the metal.

Now my point is this: if we can all cultivate a mindset toward each other that is pointed in a godly direction, then we’ll have a force that will pull us together—just like the magnet and the metal surface. But if you have a godly mindset toward me, and I have an ungodly mindset toward you, we won’t have that bond because we’ll be pulled in different directions.

And so to go back to Paul’s words here, if we can get our love for each other pointed in the same direction, and our spiritual lives pointed in the same direction, and our goals in the church headed in the same direction, then we will stand together with the same mindset. We will have that unity that he calls us to have.

And then, in the next couple of verses, Paul gives us what really appears to be the roadmap to finding this kind of mindset…


II. Thinking correctly about ourselves and others is the path to unity (2:3–4)
In the next two verses, Paul is going to tell us how to correct our mindset. First he tells us what to avoid—“Do nothing from selfishness (and we know that means to think only about yourself) or empty conceit.” The King James Version uses the word “vainglory” there, which is really a great description—this is an attitude where you’re trying to bring glory to yourself, but in reality you’re just being downright vain. You’re trying to heap praise on yourself that you really don’t deserve.

I imagine its pretty clear why those attitudes would be disruptive to our unity in the church—they would lead us to focus on ourselves. But Paul gives us the antidote in the next statement: “but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Notice how Paul focuses on the mind in this passage—in v. 2 he calls us to “be of the same mind,” and now he calls us to “humility of mind.” I think he’s really emphasizing our thoughts here because the way that we think about each other makes a huge difference in the way that we act toward each other.

I don’t think we often do a great job of policing the way that we think about other people. It’s so easy to let our minds run wild with derogatory thoughts about others because we excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I’d never actually say those things to so-and-so. I’d never tell them how I really think about them.” Well, maybe not, but we have to realize that even though we may not act out in hurtful ways against someone, our thoughts about them may keep us from acting in helpful ways toward them. We may not actually tear them down, but we probably won’t find ourselves building them up either.

The way that we act toward other people is a battle that is won or lost in the mind. It is a battle that is waged long before our mouths start to speak, or before our hands and feet start to move. To change our actions we must change our thoughts, and that’s why Paul calls us to have “humility of mind.”

Now we need to make sure that we have the right idea about what humility means, because its easy to have wrong ideas about it. We often associate humility with tearing ourselves down or belittling ourselves. Think of it like this: suppose that I entered a contest and I won the opportunity to play a game of one-on-one against Michael Jordan. Then imagine that we got together to play our game and he beat 40–0. He stole the ball every time I had it, and he dunked on me every time he had it. Then imagine that afterward we sat down to have a Gatorade together and I said, “Well, Michael, its pretty obvious why they call you the greatest.” And then he says, “Oh, I don’t think I’m really very good at basketball. You probably just had a bad day; I’m sure you’re really a lot better than I am.”

Now some people would say, “Oh, what humility!” That’s not humility—that’s insanity! Humility does not mean that we have to pretend that we’re not talented at something. The best biblical description of humility that I know comes from Rom. 12:3, which says this: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Humility means that you think about yourself accurately, with sound judgment—not building yourself up too much, and not tearing yourself down.

So the humble person is one who thinks about himself accurately. And that means that humility requires us to think about our relationship to others accurately as well. So Paul warns us against our usual mindset in v. 4 [READ v. 4]. Our usual temptation is to think that our interests, our needs, our opinions are the only ones that matter, and that causes us to focus on ourselves to the exclusion of others. And when that happens, our mindsets start to point in opposite directions again—I’m focused on what seems best for me, and you’re focused on what seems best for you, and all of a sudden we’ve lost that Godward focus that pulls us together.

So to live in humility of mind means that we need to think accurately about ourselves and others. We can remember that we’re valuable in God’s eyes—there’s nothing prideful about that. Yet at the same time we must remember that we are not more valuable than the people around us. We are called to love them as we love ourselves, so a humble mindset calls us to focus on being servants of others for their benefit and well-being.

If we are going to live in unity as a congregation, we must remember that our common experience as Christians gives us a solid basis for unity, and a humble mindset toward each other is the path that will get us there. We must think correctly about ourselves and each other, and a vital factor in the way that we think about ourselves is what we think about our relationship with God. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need to realize something very important about your relationship with God. The Bible says that humanity was created in the image of God, with a deep and intimate relationship with Him. But rather than live to serve God, we decided to serve ourselves; we have rebelled against Him and turned our backs on Him, and the Bible calls that sin. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our relationship with God has been broken because of our actions, and because of that we are estranged from God in this life, and we run the risk of being separated from Him for all of eternity if we pass away in this condition.

But because of God’s love for us, He didn’t want things to remain this way. So He decided to do something for us that we could not do for ourselves—He decided to provide a payment for our sins, to send His Son Jesus into this world, God taking on humanity and dying in our place on the cross, then rising from the dead on the third day so that we might have the hope of eternal life. God now offers that hope to us as a free gift—if we will place our faith in Jesus as our Savior, he will forgive us of our sins and restore our relationship with Him, so we can enjoy the relationship with Him that we were meant to have, both in this life and the next.

If you have realized today that you have never accepted God’s gracious gift of forgiveness by faith, you can do that right now by placing your faith in Jesus Christ, believing that he has done everything that was necessary to pay for your sins.

Redemption--Paying Freedom's Price

I would like to ask you to use your imagination with me for a moment. Imagine that you are at home in your bed, and you’re lying awake trying to get to sleep—except you’re not in the home that you live in now. Your home is a thatch-roof hut, with a dirt floor and small gaps in the roof that allow moonlight to shine in on your bed. You’re trying to go off to sleep, but the heat from the eighth-straight day over 100 degrees won’t allow you to get comfortable just yet. So you just listen to the sounds of the night—you can hear some kind of activity down at the river (probably some animals), and you hear the sound of something that almost sounds like footsteps approaching your hut.

Then suddenly your home is glowing from the light of torches, and as you turn to look toward the door you see men coming at you quickly and grabbing hold of you. You try to fight but then you feel a sharp pain in your head, and then nothing.

When you come-to some time later, you still don’t know exactly what’s happened, but you know its bad. You’re lying on your back, and its too dark to see anything, but you can tell there’s a board about six inches in front of your face. You can’t see anyone else, but you can hear their sobs and smell the odors that arise when people are kept in tight quarters. You can feel a slight rocking motion that tells you that you must be on a boat.

Well, after what feels like an eternity in this condition, the brightness of daylight suddenly floods the room, and men come down a ladder into the room and start forcing all of you to climb up one by one. You emerge onto the deck of a ship where you’re chained together with the person in front of you and behind you, and then you’re forced to march off of the ship into a crowd of people who look like they’ve gathered to see some kind of spectacle. And all of sudden it dawns on you—you’ve been kidnapped, and you’re about to be sold as a slave.

Imagine the feelings that would hit you in that moment—fear, despair, perhaps anger or rage. Your freedom has been stolen from you, and now you are in bondage, with seemingly no hope at that time.

Now imagine that as the bidding for you begins, one man steps out of the crowd, outbids all of the others, and buys you. After the man pays his money, he walks over to you. He doesn’t look like an ogre but you’re still not really sure. And then this man says to you, “I want you to know that I didn’t buy you to make you my slave. I bought you to set you free. I paid that price for you to buy your freedom, so don’t worry about what’s going to happen to you now. I bought you to rescue you from all of this, and not only to rescue you, but to help you as well. In fact, if you’re willing, I want to adopt you as my own child. I’ll provide for you, take care of you and watch out for you. I’ll teach you and train you and show you how to thrive in this new place. What do you think?”

What would you be feeling at that moment? What would you think of that man? I want you to keep this picture in your mind—this picture of freedom from slavery—because it’s the picture that lies behind the word that we’re going to talk about today. Today, we’re going to be looking at the word redemption. This is a beautiful word that conveys a beautiful idea about what Jesus has done for us. So we’ll take a quick look at what the word redemption means, and then we’ll talk about what it means that God has redeemed us.

I. What does the word “redemption” mean?
The word redemption conveys a picture like the scenario that I had you imagine in your mind a moment ago. Redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt. We can see this very clearly in the way that the word is used in the Old Testament. First of all, this word was used in everyday life when someone was buying back some land that they had to sell [READ Lev. 25:25–27].

Second, this word is also used frequently to describe what God did when he delivered Israel out of Egypt. God used this word in his first encounter with Moses to announce what he was going to do for the people. In Exodus 6:6 the Lord commanded Moses to, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” Notice the phrases that are parallel to the word “redemption:” bring you out from under the burdens, deliver you from bondage. That’s the idea that we’re talking about with the word redemption.

The people of Israel also used this word to describe what God had done for them in freeing them from Egypt. In a prayer to God in Psalm 74:2, Asaph writes, “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance.” So both God and the people of Israel understood that deliverance from Egypt in terms of redemption.

Third, the Old Testament also introduces the idea that we need to be redeemed from our sins. Psalm 130:7–8 says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” So the idea here is that our iniquities (or our sins) have placed us into some kind of bondage, some kind of slavery or debt that we need to be released from, and it is in fact the Lord himself who can redeem us.

Now please notice that this is different from the way that we often use the word “redemption.” If you follow sports you’ll often hear people talk about how a team has a chance for redemption when they play a team that beat them earlier in the season. Well, that’s really closer to the idea of revenge than the biblical idea of redemption.

So again, the biblical idea of redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt, and the New Testament tells us that this is exactly what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. God sent His Son into the world to redeem us, but what exactly does that mean for us?

II. What does it mean that God has redeemed us?

A. He has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him—Col. 1:13–14
Follow along with me if you would as I read these verses [READ Col. 1:13–14]. Take a closer look at the language of these verses. The first part of v. 13 speaks of spiritual slavery. First Paul writes that God rescued us, which tells us that we were in danger. Without Jesus, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we are safe and secure, because in reality we need to be rescued. And rescued from what? The domain or power of darkness. Darkness is a word picture for sin and the separation from God that it brings, and before we accepted Jesus we were under the domain or under the power of sin. We were in bondage to it, but by redeeming us God broke the chains of sin and cast them from us, making us free to come into the kingdom of His beloved Son, into a new domain with a new Lord—one who rules over us for our good and not for our destruction.

So God set us free from our slavery to sin and he also set us free from our debt to Him. We see this in the last part of v. 14 when Paul writes that through Christ’s redemption we have also received the forgiveness of sins. The idea of forgiveness brings up the concept of a spiritual debt that we owed to God, and Col. 2:13–14 tells us that our debt has been forgiven [READ 2:13–14]. Now friends I know that people get excited on The Dave Ramsey Show when they get out of financial debt, so I think we can get a little bit excited when we can look to Jesus and say, “We’re debt free!” “Jesus paid it all—all to Him I owe—sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as now!”

By redeeming us, God has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him. But what’s more…

B. He has purchased us to adopt us as His own sons—Gal. 4:4–5
Turn with me to Gal. 4:4–5 [READ Gal. 4:4–5] I imagine many of you are familiar with the old Westerns where one man would save a town from a group of bandits. The plot usually goes like this—one day in a small, out-of-the-way frontier town, a renegade gunslinger comes riding in. Now the gunslinger is really just passing through on his way to another town until he crosses paths with a beautiful, eligible female who tells him that the town is oppressed by a gang of outlaws. But the gunslinger still isn’t totally convinced to take on the outlaws until he discovers that it’s the same group of bandits who left him for dead 10 years ago. So a final showdown is set-up for high noon wherein the gunslinger kills all of the bad guys and liberates the town from their oppression. The townspeople then want to make him their mayor, but he refuses, and when the beautiful, eligible female begs him to stay, he tells her that his heart is far too restless to be tied down, so he kisses her and then rides off into the sunset.

Well, it makes for a great story that the gunslinger freed the townspeople, but have you ever realized that afterward, he leaves them to fend for themselves. Yes they’re free, but they’re still unprotected from future threats. Now friends my point is this—when God redeemed us, He not only set us free, He also stuck around to take care of us. In fact, Gal. 4 says here that God adopted us into His own family. Like the man in our opening story, God not only purchased us out of slavery, but He went on to make us part of His family, so that now He has promised to be a Father to us—to provide for our needs, to protect us, to teach us and train us to be like our spiritual brother, Jesus Christ. What an incredible act of grace that God has performed for us—to receive us into His own family.

So how are we to respond to all of this? What should our attitude be toward God?

C. He is worthy of our utmost honor and respect because of the price that He paid for us—1 Peter 1:17–19
Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:17–19 [READ 1 Pet. 1:17–19]. When I was in high school, we always had a fundraiser that was called “senior slave day.” This was a day where the seniors would sell themselves as slaves to underclassmen to raise money for their party on the night of graduation. This was always a great time and it was always fun to see how much the underclassmen were willing to pay to buy one of their friends in the senior class. Every senior wanted to go for a high price because it was a badge of honor.

Well spiritually speaking, we have a badge of honor in the price that God was willing to give to redeem our souls. Peter stresses that we were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold—this is the best that the world has to offer, and yet in the end it just tarnishes like everything else. Oh no—God didn’t give something as invaluable as silver and gold. He redeemed us with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. God was willing to send His own Son into the world and to have His Son shed His blood to redeem our souls. And Peter says that remembering Christ’s precious blood should lead us to conduct our lives in the fear of God, which is an attitude of the utmost honor and respect.

So where does all of this leave us today? First, we can rejoice in the freedom from sin that we have in Christ. Jesus has set us free so that we don’t have to give in to our sinful desires anymore. Sin is no longer our master and we no longer have to live under its command.

Second, we can remember that rather than a harsh master we now have a loving Father in God. Our heavenly Father loves us and has promised to take care of us, and He has shown us the right way to live and helps us walk in it. And because of the tremendous price that He paid to make all of this possible, we should show Him honor as our Father and redeemer.

Teammates for the Faith--Philippians 1:27-30

Unity is recognized as an absolutely essential quality whenever a group of people are working together toward a common goal. Sports teams know this all too well. A team that is unified can often find a way to beat a team that is more talented but lacks unity. That’s why we observe things like what just happened in the recent NFL draft—a highly-talented quarterback fell into the middle of the second round because of concerns about his attitude. Teams worried that he would disrupt their unity, so he was taken much later than his talented suggested he would be taken.

But people recognize the need for unity in every area of life. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin stressed to the Continental Congress that, “We must hang together or we will certainly hang separately.” He knew that there was no way that the colonies could defeat a force like the British unless they were unified amongst themselves.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced how important unity is for the groups that we’ve been involved in. Maybe you’ve been part of a board or a club that wasn’t unified. You probably remember how much you dreaded going to those meetings, because nothing was ever accomplished and people just bickered with each other. Maybe you’ve experienced some fighting in your family. There’s nothing that can ruin Thanksgiving or Christmas like a good fight, right?

As we continue in our study of the book of Philippians, we’re going to be entering a section today where Paul is going to begin stressing the need for unity within the church. He’s going to tell us why it is important, and then beyond that he’s going to tell us how we achieve unity in our midst. What we will start to see from Paul today is this:

Living as one is goal number one in the life of the church.

Would you turn with me please to Philippians 1:27–30? Last week we looked at Paul’s tagline for life, the one statement that summed up how he looked at everything: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He was pondering whether his imprisonment might end up in life or death, and he concluded that God would allow him to continue to live because that would be beneficial for the Philippians. But as we’ll see in today’s passage, Paul knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn’t see them again. Even if he was released, other things might come up that would keep him from going back to Philippi, so Paul now instructs them about the main thing that he wants them to focus on, whether he ever sees them again or not [READ 1:27–30].

From these verses let’s focus on two perspectives on standing together:

I. We must stand together as teammates in light of the Gospel (1:27–28)
Let’s take a look first of all at what Paul says in v. 27 [READ v. 27] Paul uses a couple of meaningful word pictures to get his point across here. The first lies behind his command at the beginning of the verse to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” His word picture is a little tricky to convey in English, but a very literal translation of his word picture would say, “act like citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Paul was apparently drawing on the idea of Roman citizenship and the concept of living up to the standards of a citizen.

For us in America today, we don’t really think about our citizenship very much. I think every person in this room was probably born as an American citizen. That wasn’t true in the Roman Empire—even if you were born in the Empire, you weren’t automatically a citizen. Citizenship was an honor that was usually awarded for some kind of heroic or notable act—though like anything else it could also be purchased if you had enough money! Now most of the people in the Philippian church were Roman citizens because the emperor Octavian had granted the inhabitants of the city citizenship after he won a major battle there against the men who assassinated Julius Caesar. Roman citizenship was very desirable because it gave you certain legal rights, but it also had certain responsibilities that you were supposed to live up to as a good citizen, and it seems that Paul was drawing on that idea in this word picture.

He’s going to remind us over in chapter 3 that we are now citizens of heaven, but along with that come certain obligations. We have new obligations toward God. For example, God has adopted us into his spiritual family, so we are to act as obedient children. We also have a new master, the Lord Jesus Christ, so now we are supposed to serve Him rather than our sinful impulses.

We also have obligations toward each other since we are all united by our faith in Christ. If you want to do a challenging Bible study some time, do a study of all of the “one another” commands in the New Testament and look at all of the things that we are called to do for each other. We are supposed to love one another, forgive one another, bear one another’s burdens, submit to one another in proper channels of authority, be kind to one another, etc.

So it seems that Paul is saying that we need to live up to the obligations that we now have since we’ve accepted the Gospel, and he goes on to stress that a key aspect of that is standing together in and for the Christian faith. In the last part of v. 27, he writes of his desire that “I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now in the Greek behind the words “striving together,” Paul uses a word picture from the world of athletics. He actually uses the verb athleō, from which we get the English words “athlete” and “athletic.” So when he calls us to “strive together,” with his word picture he is calling us to be like teammates for the faith.

What a great picture for us to imitate as we live and serve together as believers—we are teammates. Teammates rally together behind a common goal—in our case, our common goal is to honor God by living as His ambassadors in this world. Teammates are supposed to place their egos under this common goal, so that achieving the goal is more important than getting our own way. Teammates cheer each other on and celebrate when they have victories—just think about when a player scores a touchdown in football; the quarterback might go running down the field to chest bump with his wide receiver or the running back might hug the linemen. What a great way to think about each other—as teammates for the faith!

And unity like this is all the more important when opposition from outside comes our way, as the Philippians were apparently facing. Paul tells them in v. 28 to be “in no way alarmed by your opponents.” You might remember that when Paul first visited Philippi, he was thrown in jail because some residents of the city felt that the message of Christianity was a threat to the Roman way of life. Some of these same residents may have still been harassing the Christians there, so Paul tells them to stand together as teammates and to not be unsettled by their opponents. Paul says that such a show of confidence would be a sign or a demonstration of two things. First, it would be a sign of destruction to the opponents. By remaining fearless, the believers would show their belief that God was going to take care of these opponents. Whether its now or at the final judgment, God will bring wrath against those who oppose His people. What an omen for the opponents! But for the believers, a confident stand would be a sign of salvation. Their faith in God would shine through like a light in the midst of the darkness of persecution.

So a united front against this opposition would send a strong message to their opponents AND it would be a strong encouragement to the believers. And the mention of opponents brings us to our second perspective on standing together:

II. We must stand together in light of the persecution that God may graciously allow (1:29–30)
In verses 29 and 30, Paul puts persecution in a perspective that in some ways is mind-boggling, particularly for us in a country like the United States where persecution is so foreign to us [READ vv. 29–30]. In verse 30, Paul refers to his imprisonments—the Philippians had seen Paul in prison when he was in Philippi, and now they were hearing about his imprisonment in Rome. And Paul states that they were experiencing the same conflict, which could mean that some of them had spent time in prison because of their faith.

So they were suffering because of their faith, and Paul referred to that as a gift that they had been granted by God. And notice that he puts it on the same level as the gift of faith in Christ! So if we think that believing in Christ is an honor, suffering for His sake is an honor on the same level!

I have to admit that its hard for me to wrap my mind around discussions of suffering like this, and I would venture to say that this might be true for you as well. I mean, I get what Paul is saying here, but persecution is so foreign to our experience in the United States that I think its difficult for us to relate to passages like this. As a result, I’m not sure that we always respond to the idea of persecution in the best ways.

I think commentator Gordon Fee summarizes our reactions well. He writes, “the content of Paul’s explanation is something contemporary Christians hear reluctantly, either out of guilt that so many of us look so little like this, or out of fear that it might someday really be true for us.”* Let’s think about both of those reactions for a moment. First, I think there can be at times a temptation for us to feel guilty over the fact that we don’t really face much persecution to speak of in this country. We might be tempted to think that we’re mediocre Christians because we don’t face the persecution that is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. But I don’t think the Bible gives us any reason to feel guilty about the religious freedom that we enjoy. Jesus did say in Matthew 5 that we are blessed if we endure persecution for His sake, but the Bible never tells us to seek persecution or desire it. Persecution is under God’s control—He may choose to allow it and He may not; we just need to make sure that we stay faithful to Him no matter what.

But let’s think about this second reaction for a moment—the reaction of fear. I think this is probably a more common reaction for us. We hear about the persecution that’s going on right now in places like China and Sudan and we become fearful that those same things may one day start to happen to us here in the United States. And then we often feel that what we need to do is expend our energy ensuring that America remains a comfortable place for Christians to live. But I’m not sure that’s the proper reaction either, because I don’t think it seriously wrestles with the passages like this that talk about the blessings that can come from persecution.

So how should we respond to verses that talk about persecution when its not a daily reality for us? Let me suggest two ways. First, we can stand together with our brothers and sisters who are facing persecution right now. Because of the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin and Chairman Mao in China, the 20th century was the deadliest century in history in terms of Christian persecution, and much persecution continues today. Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body [of Christ].” Organizations like Voice of the Martyrs do a great job of keeping us informed about how we can help Christians who are suffering persecution right now. So we can stand together with them!

Second, since we don’t face much persecution, we should be even more diligent to make sure that we don’t get distracted from being dedicated to Christ. Let me explain what I mean. I will never forget what I was told by a friend of mine who pastors a church in Kansas City. A few years ago he attended a meeting where he met an elderly Christian woman from China who talked about the persecution that she had faced for her faith. She had been in and out of prison several times for witnessing to others, but she told my friend that Christians in China pray for us because they believe it must be extremely difficult to live for Jesus in the United States when we have so many things to distract us—things like leisure, wealth, comfort, entertainment, etc. So they pray for us that we would be able to keep our focus on Jesus and not be distracted by other things.

For those believers, persecution is an external factor that forces them to stay focused on Jesus. But since we don’t really have an external factor like that, we have to be more diligent for ourselves to make sure that we stay focused on Christ.

And you know friends, standing together can help us do that. Paul wanted the Philippian believers more than anything else to focus on standing together, and that lesson is just as important today as it was back then. We are teammates for the faith, so we need to seek for a unified team spirit. We should encourage each other when we see someone doing something well. We should pick each other up when we’re hurt. We should celebrate together and cry together and rally around the common goal of bringing glory to God. This will help us stay on track, and it will give us strength if persecution ever does come our way.