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Philippians 2:12-18 April 27, 2008
Shine like Stars
You may remember from last week, Paul talked about how our attitude in our relationships with each other should be like Jesus’. He doesn’t grasp at the power that is rightfully his, he serves, and he is obedient to the Father – even to the point of death.
Paul continues on to tell us that we, like Jesus, must also be obedient and the idea is to be obedient to God.
Obedience is not a high value in our culture – we make heroes of the disobedient – those who disobey orders to get the job done and bring about justice. The overly obedient are seen as milquetoast bean counters and yes-men. But the hero of our faith was completely obedient to God – not always to human institutions, but always to God.
Paul writes that we too are to be obedient to God. This might sound like a very boring way to live life. (again our cultural bias) But do you think Jesus led a boring life? Did Paul?
In this way, work out your salvation.
With all this talk of obedience, and working out your salvation with fear and trembling, we may be tempted to think that Paul is saying that we need to work our way into God’s good graces. If we obey well enough and do the right thing, God will be happy with us and save us from ruin.
But this is not what Paul is saying – it cannot be. All through Paul’s writing he has one message – that we cannot not earn our way into God’s Kingdom, that the only way in is through God’s grace, that if we try to earn our way in, we are going to miss the mark, but if we accept the free gift, it is ours. Paul spends Chapter three explaining that all the things that would be in his favour for earning his way into God’s good graces are meaningless in God’s economy of grace. It would be strange if 15 minutes of dictating before he said that we need to earn our salvation!
So what is he saying?
He is saying, “You are saved by what Jesus did for you on the cross – now work it out, act like it!”
I spent a long time trying to come up with a story, a metaphor from daily life, that would illustrate this idea, but I couldn’t & this tells you how different God’s grace is from the way the rest of the world works.
God’s grace, forgives us, and treats us as if we have never done anything wrong, and then invites us to act the way we have been treated! This just does not happen outside of God’s grace.
We have not just been saved from the punishment of sin
We have also been saved from the power of sin in our lives – we need to live in that freedom.
He says it differently, but in a beautiful way to the Ephesians:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Ephesians 4:17-32
Saved from sin – why put on the old dirty shirt again?
God will help you
The amazing thing is that we do not have to do this on our own. God gives us his Spirit so that we actually want to do His will, and then He gives us the power to do it!
Jeremiah 31:33
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
Nicky’s backpack illustration
Begin by not grumbling & arguing
Grumbling
Nicky talking about complaining Talk 14 6:14-6:47
Giving up complaining for lent – realizing how much we complain
A complaint free world – purple string – give up complaining for 28 days
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
Maya Angelou
Not about living in denial – we still need to name injustice, talk about our hurts and struggles… but we need to stop whining!
Noel Bevan’s wife – 25 years of MS 13 in a wheelchair – P 90 in Celtic Daily Readings.
Arguing – this is not about discussion of opinions, but about being argumentative and taking the negative side.
Our culture mistakes finding the negative, the wrong with wisdom – it is not so.
There are some people who will argue about anything, and when we talk with them we fell like we’ve stepped into the Monty Python argument sketch.
Most things that we argue about will not matter in the end – we need to give this up.
Then you will shine like stars
We had to memorize Romeo’s speech to Juliet in High School (The one just before “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou…”
In the middle of the speech he talks about the brightness of her eyes and face:
“Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.”
Can you imagine the brightness of your life if, around the water cooler, or in the café, you would refuse to complain, or argue about nothing? Your star would shine so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night!
You will make Paul proud
This might sound strange at first, but Paul’s work has been to build these people up in the Gospel, he doesn’t want that all to go to waste. Their lives affect him.
“our letter of reference is your lives” – 2 Corinthians 3:1-2
Our behavior is not just between us and God – it affects all those around us.
We have this strange belief that independence is strength, so that if we decide to put on the old life and misbehave, we think it is just between us and God. There have been people in my life ho have left the faith – usually it is connected to behavior, not theological difficulty. I do think that it is terrible that they would throw away their relationship with God so easily, but I am also hurt that they would throw away their relationships in this community so easily. We are in this together
What about the person who prayed with you for salvation, what about the person who discipled you, what about your old Sunday School teacher…
In Hebrews 11, the writer lists many of the saints who went before us and are now with the Lord, and then he says…
Hebrews 12
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Even those who have gone to be with Jesus – Faith, Dollie, Bill & Bea, Dorothy…
How do we shine like stars in the dark sky? – By following Jesus in obedience, living out our salvation, not grumbling and arguing.
