1. "Your rock bottom motivation for obedience has to be the fear of God, not the fear of man. Otherwise, temptation will find a way through the weak points in your defenses."

2. "In our progress toward greater obedience and holiness, God's work empowers and enables our work. It does not replace it."

3. "The Christian life is not a hot tub you can just ease into, lay back, and hit the jets. Instead, it's much more like surfing, where you have to paddle out, you have to catch the wave, you have to work hard, struggle up, commit, get to your feet."

4. "If you know God and know yourself, you'll be overwhelmed by his holiness and your sinfulness. You'll be stunned by God's steadfastness and your waywardness. You'll tremble at God's purity because of your impurity."

5. "Grumbling is a byproduct of a too high view of yourself and a too low view of God. Grumbling is only possible when you think you deserve better than you do and you think you know better than God."

6. "Processing seeks counsel, grumbling spreads gossip. Grumbling is about feeling better by making others look worse."

7. "He's saying that if you do all things without grumbling or disputing, you will demonstrate that Christ has completely renovated your thoughts, your attitudes, your desires, your words."

8. "Contentment happens when your desires are perfectly united to God's providence. And the byproduct of that reaction is the same as what happens in the heart of a star. If you are content, you'll shine."

9. "If you want to make a difference, be different. If you want to have an evangelistic impact, make sure the gospel is impacting your heart and mind and life and mouth in the way that it should be."

10. "The true test of a sacrifice is whether you offer it with joy. A grudging spirit spoils a gift. The joy you take in offering a sacrifice or a gift is a measure of the love you have of the one for whom you're making the sacrifice."

Observation Questions

1. In Philippians 2:12, what does Paul command the Philippians to do, and with what attitude does he say they should do it?

2. According to Philippians 2:13, what two things does God work in believers, and for what purpose does He do this?

3. In Philippians 2:14, what two behaviors does Paul command believers to avoid when doing "all things"?

4. How does Philippians 2:15 describe the generation in which believers live, and what does Paul say believers should be like in the midst of it?

5. What does Paul say believers are "holding fast to" (or "holding forth") in Philippians 2:16, and what is his concern regarding the "day of Christ"?

6. In Philippians 2:17-18, what metaphor does Paul use to describe his potential sacrifice, and what emotional response does he command both himself and the Philippians to have?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does the relationship between verses 12 and 13 help us understand the connection between human effort and divine power in the Christian life? Why does God's work in us mean we must work, rather than meaning we don't have to?

2. Why would Paul single out grumbling and disputing as the specific behaviors to avoid in verse 14? What do these sins reveal about a person's view of God and of themselves?

3. What is the significance of Paul describing believers as "lights in the world" and "children of God without blemish" in verse 15? How does this connect to the Old Testament background from Daniel 12:2-3 and Deuteronomy 32:5?

4. How does the phrase "holding fast to the word of life" (or "holding forth the word of life") in verse 16 relate to Paul's broader concern that his labor would not be "in vain"? What does this suggest about the purpose of the local church?

5. Why does Paul express joy rather than dread at the prospect of being "poured out as a drink offering" in verse 17? What does his response teach us about the relationship between sacrifice and joy in the Christian life?

Application Questions

1. Paul warns against obeying God only when others are watching (v. 12). What specific areas of your life are you tempted to let slide when no one else can see? What would it look like to live this week with a conscious awareness that God always sees and cares?

2. Consider your communication habits—conversations, text messages, and social media posts. What percentage of your words could be characterized as grumbling or disputing? What is one practical step you could take this week to replace complaining with expressions of contentment and gratitude?

3. The sermon distinguished between sinful grumbling and sinless processing of difficult situations. Think of a current frustration or conflict in your life. How can you seek counsel or process this situation in a way that protects others' reputations and genuinely seeks growth rather than just venting?

4. Paul says believers should "shine as lights" in a crooked and twisted generation. In what specific relationship or setting (workplace, neighborhood, family) might your contentment and peacemaking stand out as noticeably different from the world around you? What would that difference look like in practice?

5. The passage calls believers to hold forth the word of life and to rejoice in sacrifices that advance the gospel. What is one sacrifice of time, comfort, or resources you could make this week to share the gospel with someone or support the work of evangelism?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 16:1-12 — This passage shows Israel grumbling in the wilderness, providing the Old Testament background for Paul's warning against grumbling and disputing.

2. Daniel 12:1-4 — This prophecy about the resurrection and the wise shining like stars is the source of Paul's imagery of believers shining as lights in the world.

3. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 — Here Paul describes his labor by God's grace and the gospel as the word of life, reinforcing the relationship between divine empowerment and human effort.

4. 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 — This passage expands on the theme of believers carrying gospel treasure and experiencing affliction with joy, paralleling Paul's drink offering metaphor.

5. Colossians 1:24-29 — Paul describes his sacrificial labor for the church and the mystery of "Christ in you," further illustrating how God's power works through believers' efforts for the gospel's advance.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of Christian Difference: What Makes Believers Distinct?

II. Obey God with God's Own Power (Philippians 2:12-13)

III. Display the Radiant Difference the Gospel Makes (Philippians 2:14-16)

IV. Rejoice in Making Sacrifices That Advance the Gospel (Philippians 2:17-18)

V. The Gospel Produces a Comprehensive Difference in the Believer's Life

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Detailed Sermon Outline

You're no different.

That phrase aims to cut someone down to size. It aims to puncture a puffed up sense of righteous superiority. Let's say you criticize those other neighbors or those other parents of kids at school. Or those members of the other political party. If you utter that criticism in the hearing of an especially critical friend, they might shoot back, you,'re no different.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, we're glad you're here. You're very welcome at all of our services. I'd be delighted to talk to you at this door in the back afterward. I wonder what you would say is different about the Christians you know, if anything. Apart from the habit of attending long meetings on Sundays and other obviously religious things, do Christians seem any different from most people you know?

Are we Christians different in any ways you find off-putting or offensive?

Do you know any Christians who seem different in a way that's actually appealing or maybe even compelling?

You're no different.

That phrase might be spoken by an inner voice. If you're a believer in Jesus, that voice might accuse you of failing yet again to live up to what you believe.

That voice might make the charge that you've made no progress toward becoming more like Christ.

Are you any different than you were a year ago or two years ago or five years ago? Maybe the voice suggests you should give up on Jesus because it looks like he's given up on you.

What makes Christians different from the world? How can we become different in the ways Jesus means us to be? And if we are different in the right ways, what difference will that make to those around us?

This morning we return to the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians and we'll consider chapter 2, verses 12 to 18. You can find our passage on page 981 of the Bible A few weeks ago we studied chapter 2 verses 5 to 11 which are Paul's celebration of Christ's humiliation and exaltation. The practical thrust of those verses comes in verse 5. Because Christ humbled himself to save us, we should humble ourselves to serve others. But humiliation wasn't the end of the story for Christ.

Because he obeyed God the Father to the point of death, God exalted him and installed him at his right hand. And power and glory. Look again at verses 10 and 11 that we considered last time. The outcome of all of this is that one day every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If Jesus Christ is God's equal, who humbled himself to save us and then was exalted to God's right hand.

How should that affect your life here and now? That is the question. Verses 12 to 18 answer. Please follow along with me as I read those verses.

Therefore, my beloved, As you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

What difference should the gospel make in our lives? In other words, here's the question that our sermon's going to answer: what does God's work in the gospel both enable and require us to do. Three simple commands sum up the passage. Obey, display, rejoice. If you want the one-word version of the outline, there it is.

Obey, display, rejoice. First, point one, obey God with God's own power. Point one, obey God. With God's own power. This is Paul's exhortation in verses 12 and 13.

Look again at those verses. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. The word therefore at the very beginning tells us that this whole passage is a consequence of what Paul has just said in verses 6 to 11.

This is who Christ is, what he's done for us and what he's doing now. Therefore, what should you do? Because Christ obeyed God, so must you. And since Christ now reigns as Lord, every decision you make should recognize and reflect his lordship. The command in this passage comes in verse 13: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

And verse 12 gives us the agenda for this workout: As you have always obeyed. In other words, the way we work out our salvation is by continually obeying God. When Paul says, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, he's pointing out a possible temptation the Philippians will face. Will they care just as much about pleasing God when Paul is far away as when he was with them. It's kind of like when a pandemic shuts down office buildings.

The Philippians are now working from home and their boss, the Apostle Paul, is far away. He is stuck with his own much harder version of working from home because he's in prison, which was probably a form of house arrest. When you're working from home, Having fewer sets of eyes on you can make it harder to motivate. Paul's point is that you must obey God, no matter how many or how few sets of eyes are on you. No matter what friend or small group leader sees or won't see, no matter what church leader is or isn't there, The only obedience that counts before God is obedience offered for his sake, because he sees, because he cares.

No matter who else sees or cares, God always sees and God always cares. And as we'll see in a moment, the good news is that God is always there to help.

What sins are you tempted to give in to when no human eyes are on you to restrain you? What sins do you only avoid because other people might see you or catch you? In other words, in what ways are you more concerned to appear holy than to be holy? Your rock bottom motivation for obedience has to be the fear of God, not the fear of man. Otherwise, temptation will find a way through the weak points.

In your defenses.

In the second half of verse 12 and on into verse 13, Paul gives his main exhortation and gives us a reason why we should carry it out. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. How is our salvation Something we can work out.

Did Paul miss a week in systematic theology class? What's going on here? In order to understand this, we need to understand that salvation is first God's work for us. And then secondly, it is God's work in us. First, salvation is God's work for us.

In saving us, God does for us what we could never do for ourselves. God is our Creator. He's our creator and Lord. He's our master and ruler, but we've all scorned him. We've all turned away from him.

We've all disobeyed him. We've all knowingly rejected his authority. And because of that, we deserve punishment. We deserve to be condemned. We deserve to eternally, everlastingly receive what is due to our sins, which is torment.

It's the eternal punishment our sins deserve. And that's what God promises to pay out starting on the last day. And yet, because he's merciful, he sent his son and sent his son into the world to save us because he's loving. He gave everything so that we could have him. That's what Jesus was doing in his death on a cross.

As Paul said in verse eight, he was giving his life in the place of ours. He was paying the penalty we deserved. And so then he rose from the dead in order to triumph over death and to hold his arms wide open for all those who would ever turn from sin and trust in him. Today he commands everyone everywhere to turn from sin and be reconciled to him. That is our salvation.

That's the only salvation you can have. And it is more than enough salvation. If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, believe in him today. That is how you get right with God. But as we see throughout scripture, and especially in the New Testament, our salvation has a past, a present, and a future.

And in the present, our salvation is not just something God does for us, it's also a work he does in us. So God gives us a new heart, a new nature. He gives us a whole new orientation to love him and serve him. In fact, Scripture calls it a new self. But that new self coexists in conflict with the remnants of the old self within us.

In order to make progress as Christians, therefore, we need to work out what God works in. Now, it's crucial to see the logical link between verses 12 and 13. Verse 12, Paul commands us to work out our salvation. Then verse 13, he says, For it is God who works in you. You might be tempted to conclude just the opposite.

If God is the one who does the work, doesn't that mean I don't have to? It's all taken care of. But that is not how God's work and our work fit together. It's not that God's work means we don't have to work or that we can't work. Instead, that God is at work within us means we both can and must work out what he works in.

In our progress toward greater obedience and holiness, God's work empowers and enables our work. It does not replace it. So our passage is one example of a pattern that runs throughout Scripture and it's a pattern that's rooted in God's act of creating all things. Because God is the creator of all things, he is also the upholder, the sustainer of all things. Things.

We only exist in the first place because of his work of creation and preservation. As Paul preaches in Acts 17:28, In him we live and move and have our being.

And as 1 Corinthians 4:7 asks, what do you have that you do not receive? So throughout Scripture, God's action and human action don't compete with each other. They don't jostle for space like kids in the backseat of a car. This is not a zero-sum game. Instead, God's work is the enabling ground of our work.

It's not that God's work squashes ours. Instead, God's work is the power source for ours. Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me.

If you consider my extremely bookish and generally unathletic vibe, you might be tempted to conclude that I have zero athletic interests or abilities. That would be close to the truth, but not quite. The one exception, my one athletic passion, and dare I say even talent, is surfing. I grew up surfing in Northern California. I've traveled long and far in search of perfect waves.

It is a bit of an obsession, though it's kind of dormant. These days I surf farmer waves in my mind. Than I do in my flesh. But I am pleased to inform you that surfing is an absolutely perfect analogy for what Paul's telling us right now about the Christian life. Hear me out.

To catch a wave, you have to paddle hard, scramble to your feet, stay completely focused in the moment, make all sorts of snap judgments and instinctive reflexive moves. To stay balanced over your board, it takes a ton of work. It takes effort, perseverance, patience, guts. It is a lot of work. You use tons of muscle groups and strange ways and expose yourself to all sorts of strange injuries.

But in the act of riding the wave, where does the power come from? It is 100% from the ocean and 0% from you. That's the magic of it. In surfing, you're making all kinds of effort, but the power is all from elsewhere. The Christian life is one of effort and striving and struggle.

It calls for getting back up when you fall, confessing when you sin, humbling yourself under rebuke, immersing your mind and heart the truth continually turning away from false gods. But all the power comes from elsewhere. So in this passage, Paul simultaneously explodes two false views of Christian growth. One is let go and let God. Popular saying, deeply wrong.

Yes, God is the one who works in us. But precisely because he works in you, you have to get to work. The Christian life is not a hot tub. You can just ease into, lay back, and hit the jets. Instead, it's much more like surfing, where you have to paddle out, you have to catch the wave, you have to work hard, struggle up, commit, get to your feet.

As a Christian, Without effort, you will not grow. And as far as the Christian faith is concerned, growth is a necessary sign of life.

An opposite error we might call sanctification by works alone. This would be a completely rules-based view of the Christian life where all the willing and doing comes down to your own effort, your grit, your strength, your willpower, your bootstraps. Yes, our obedience matters, but we can only obey God because God enables us. So our obedience always has to be humble, dependent, trusting, obeying by faith, and relying on the power that God alone can supply. John Owen summarized this so well.

He said, the duties that God, in an ordinary way, requires at our hands are not proportioned to what strength we have in ourselves, but to what help and relief is laid up for us in Christ. And we are to address ourselves to the greatest performances with a settled persuasion that we have not ability for the least. A few more details in these verses fill out Paul's portrait of empowered Christian obedience. Look again at verse 12.

Paul tells us to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Fear of whom? God. But then why trembling? Because you know your own weakness.

You know how treacherous your heart is. You know how easily you fall when you quit relying on God's power. Fear of God leads to trembling at the thought of displeasing Him through your sin.

If you know God and know yourself, you'll be overwhelmed by His holiness and your sinfulness. You'll be stunned by God's steadfastness and your waywardness. You'll tremble at God's purity because of your impurity. If you know God and know yourself, you'll obey with humility and rely on Him completely. If you know God and know yourself, you'll despair of self and depend on God.

We also need to consider the end of verse 13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God is the one who brings about in you both the desire and its fulfillment. God enables both the desire that is the source of obedience and the action that is the fruition of obedience. God brings his power to bear at the power center of your life, your heart, your mind, your inmost desires and inclinations. That's where he gets to work.

And what does he accomplish there? His good pleasure. By his grace and the power of his Spirit in your life, God makes his good pleasure your good pleasure. So ask God for godly desires. Ask God to change your heart so that what delights him delights you.

In the exchange you're praying for there, you lose nothing of value. You lose nothing but sin, nothing but misery, nothing but loss. There's even no real loss of pleasure here. Since you're exchanging worse pleasures for better, deceitful for true, fleeting for lasting. As the hymn says, solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion's children know.

God's work in the gospel both enables and requires you to obey God with God's own power. Then the question is, what happens when you do? Point two, display the radiant difference the gospel makes. Display the radiant difference the gospel makes. This is Paul's charge to us in verses 14 to 16.

Let's look again at those verses.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain, or labor in vain. Here's an x-ray of these three verses before we jump into the details. In verse 14, Paul gives us a command.

Verse 15 tells us the evangelistic purpose of that command.

The first half of verse 16 tells us a means by which we will carry out this evangelistic command. Purpose. And then the second part of verse 16 tells us what the result for Paul will be if the Philippians fulfill this evangelistic purpose. Command, purpose means result. Let's start with the command in verse 14.

Do all things without complaining. Without grumbling or disputing.

That word all means there are no loopholes here. There are no escape clauses. You cannot lawyer your way out of this one.

What is grumbling? It is dissatisfied complaining against other people. Grumbling is bad-mouthing God or others because what you are getting is worse than what you think you deserve. Grumbling is venting displeasure due to disappointment. Grumbling might seem like a small sin, a respectable sin, a sin that can be easily hidden or easily excused.

But its roots are sunk deep in poisonous soil. Grumbling is a byproduct of a too high view of yourself and a too low view of God. Grumbling is only possible when you think you deserve better than you do and you think you know better than God. What if God has good purposes for your inconvenience or suffering? That you're not even dreaming of?

What if God is at work to change you in ways you don't even know you need to be changed?

If you use social media, what percent of your posts is grumbling? The apostle Paul says it should be zero. If you have text chains with friends, how many links in that chain are made of grumbling.

In your workplace, how much do you complain? Who do you complain to? What do you complain about? If you complain about all the same things that your non-Christian family and friends and colleagues do, why should they think the gospel makes any difference in your life?

Now, I imagine that in some of your minds, an objection, one might even say a complaint, is forming as I speak. Isn't there a role for processing or even venting? Don't we need to relieve pressure by sharing hard stuff with others?

I'll rephrase that and answer: Is there such a thing as sinlessly processing difficult circumstances with others. Yes. So what's the difference between sinless processing and sinful grumbling? Here are some guidelines.

Sinless processing is genuinely seeking help in dealing with a hard situation. Sinless processing involves seeking counsel and submitting to correction. Sinless processing looks for help from someone who is mature and trusted, someone who is wise enough to bear your burdens and discreet enough not to dish about others.

Sinless processing is careful with others' reputations even as you deal with disagreements disappointments and ways you've been sinned against. Sinless processing requires humility, extends charity and seeks unity.

Processing seeks counsel, grumbling spreads gossip. Grumbling is about feeling better by making others look worse. Grumbling aims not at growth or endurance but simply short-term relief. Grumbling often becomes a gripe fest. Grumbling often feeds a cycle of hardening yourself and others in mutual disgust at the authorities God has placed in your life.

Consider ways you might be tempted to grumble against civil authorities. It's one thing to disagree, to petition, even to file suit. It's another to grumble. So where's the line between grumbling and processing when it comes to relating to civil authorities? The Westminster Larger Catechism, question 127, covers that and more when it talks about what all inferiors owe to their superiors.

That is, what anyone under authority owes to those in authority, it says. The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is all do reverence in heart, word, and behavior, bearing with their infirmities and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government.

What's the opposite of grumbling? It's contentment. Contentment sometimes expresses itself in silence. David confesses in Psalm 39:9, In the midst of trials, I am mute. I do not Open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.

Contentment can also express itself in confessing God's goodness to others. So when Job lost everything he had, even his own children, what did he say? Job 121, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the be the name of the Lord.

Now, what about Paul's second term, disputing? Disputing is instigating petty debates and disagreements. It's starting fruitless arguments. So, the next time you're about to spark up a conflict, ask yourself, is this issue important enough to justify the rhetorical firepower I plan to bring to it.

Does the tone in which I'm speaking to a brother or sister accurately reflect the fact that we are both blood-bought children of God? Or when you communicate a disagreement, is your default tone scornful condescension?

It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Not every disagreement needs to be a dispute. Once when the 16th century reformer John Calvin was informed that Luther had spoken ill of him, Calvin replied, Let Luther call me a devil if he please. I will never say of him but that he is a most dear and valiant servant of the Lord. Let that be your response if you hear that some believer has spoken ill of you.

One way to disagree without disputing is to bend over backward to be fair and respectful to the person you're disagreeing with. So the theologian Fred Sanders has recently issued a challenge that you can take up to practice this, he said, Describe two views in such a way that I can't tell which one is yours.

Sometimes, disputes escalate into full-blown conflicts. So how do you handle conflicts with friends or roommates? Here's a piece of advice: Any time a disagreement is threatening to ignite, into a broader conflict. Push pause. Step back from the flames.

Go read the whole chapter of Matthew 18 and pray through it. And I mean the whole chapter, not just the verses on if your brother sins against you, go read the whole chapter. See what perspective that gives you. Then read 1 Corinthians 6. Whole thing, pray through it.

Then come back to your friend or roommate and ask them, what am I not understanding about your side of the story?

In verse 15, Paul tells us the purpose for which we should do all things without grumbling or disputing. Here's the purpose: that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. When Paul holds up being blameless and innocent and even without blemish before us as a goal, he's not talking about Christ's imputed righteousness. And here he's not talking about the last day. He's talking about the work God is doing in us here and now.

He's talking about the progress in holiness. God is working in us. He's talking about how you can have complete integrity and thorough Christlikeness. He's telling you how you can make your life gotcha proof. He's saying that if you do all things without grumbling or disputing, you will demonstrate that Christ has completely renovated your thoughts, your attitudes, your desires, your words.

He's not saying you can become sinlessly perfect in this life. He says in the next chapter, Not that I have obtained it already or I'm already perfect. So if Paul's not perfect, we sure aren't. But what he's saying is this: you: can develop an integrity so bulletproof that the only accusations on big-ticket items that someone can shoot at you will be false accusations. That is the goal he holds out for all of us.

When Paul calls us children of God, he's reminding us that by his grace, God has adopted us into his family. And being God's adopted children, we're both enabled and required to imitate his holy character. There is no blemish on God's character, and if you're his child, there should be no blemish on yours. So, what is the most obvious blemish on your character?

That is not a comfortable question. Take a moment and think it over. If you dare, take a moment later this afternoon and ask your husband or wife, a friend or roommate, or your mom or dad, to help you answer that question.

If you live a blameless life, what will that show to those around you? Paul continues in verse 15, Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. These three verses in this section are full of Old Testament allusions. Where Paul doesn't quote or say, thus it is written, but he just embeds language from the Old Testament into what he's saying. So grumbling and disputing is what the Israelites did in the wilderness, as we learn in Exodus and Numbers.

And similarly, Deuteronomy 32:5, which Mark read earlier, calls that wilderness generation crooked and twisted.

Here, Paul applies that phrase, crooked and twisted, not to Israel, but to all the unbelievers that these Philippian Christians live among. If you're not a Christian, what do you make of the Apostle Paul's general description of humanity as crooked and twisted? Does that seem harsh or overstated? If you think that's harsh, consider for a moment what evidence of crooked and twisted do you see around you in the realms of politics, or sports, or business. What about in romantic relationships?

What about in your own heart and mind? Do you see anything that matches Paul's description? There's another Old Testament allusion in verse 15. When Paul says that believers shine like lights in the world, he's borrowing language from Daniel chapter 12 verses 2 and 3 which say, And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Daniel's prophesying of the day when people will be physically raised from their graves. So why does he apply that language to the Christian life here and now? That would seem to be getting ahead of things a little bit. The reason he does that is because the Christian life is resurrection life. We have been raised with Christ spiritually and we will be raised with him physically.

And so what does the present spiritual resurrection with Christ that we experience here and now make us? It makes us stars in the night sky. That's Paul's image in verse 15, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Remember, this all follows from doing all things without grumbling or disputing, in other words, doing all things with contentment and concord. Contentment shines, contentment radiates.

You can read it in someone's face. You can't fake it and you can't hide it.

In the contest between grumbling and contentment, what is within will inevitably express itself without.

A star necessarily shoots out light. It pierces the pre-dawn dark across all those light years. Why? Because of the nuclear fusion reaction taking place in its core. The light is generated by that reaction constantly.

It never stops. What Paul is saying in this verse is that contentment is a kind of spiritual nuclear fusion. It takes place in the core of a Christian. And it is the act of melding your desires with God's will. It's the act of fitting your heart so tightly to his that whatever he wants is what you want.

Contentment. Happens when your desires are perfectly united to God's providence. And the byproduct of that reaction is the same as what happens in the heart of a star. If you are content, you'll shine. If you're satisfied in God, you'll shine on others.

If you delight in God, you will display the radiant difference the gospel makes.

In verse 16, Paul tells us something more of how believers shine in the world. What's the means by which we fulfill this evangelistic commitment? And again, he tells us what the result is going to look like for him.

Verse 16, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. This verse puts me in the exceedingly rare and delicate position of disagreeing with the translation you're reading. The basic and by far most common meaning of the Greek verb that's here translated holding fast is actually holding forth, as in holding something out to offer it to someone, like you lift up a glass of water and hand it to someone so they can drink. Most modern translations have holding fast for reasons we don't have time to get into, but the KJV, the Geneva Bible and the 1984 NIV have holding forth or holding out. In addition to being the most common meaning of the word, I think holding forth or holding out better fits the context.

Paul's point in the context is that the way we live should commend the gospel. And here he reminds us with this word that our actions are only pre-evangelism or post-evangelism. Evangelism itself requires us to verbally bring the gospel to others. And so here Paul is explicitly urging every member of the Philippian church to share the gospel with others. He's saying that evangelism is every Christian's responsibility.

The gospel is the word of life. It's the saving source of life. It's the only word that can give life. And so we should hold it out like you would hold out a glass of water to someone who has stumbled in from the desert and is in danger from dehydration. That should be our posture of bringing the gospel to everyone who needs it.

And in the rest of the verse, Paul tells the Philippians that if they continue to proclaim the gospel and commend the gospel by their lives, that will give him reason to be proud on the last day. This is not a sinful, selfish pride, but a selfless, fatherly pride. Every parent knows the feeling of being proud of their child's progress in something. And so do teachers and coaches and lots of others who pour into children. Paul's pride here is that his work in the Philippians will come to fruition.

But note Paul's standard. Note what the Philippians have to do in order for Paul to consider his mission a success. Here in verse 16, Paul stakes the success of his entire mission as an apostle on whether the Philippians evangelize. That's what it will take for him not to have run in vain or labored in vain. It was not enough for Paul to set up a local church.

Paul only considered his mission successful when that church itself was a mission station. Paul's teaching us here that every local church should be an evangelistic missionary outpost. Every church should be a transmitting center from which the gospel is broadcast far and wide.

So what's the big picture of these three verses?

The total absence of grumbling and disputing. In other words, the presence of contentment and peacemaking leads to a radiant, compelling, difference from the world, which commends our proclamation of the word. If you want to make a difference, be different. If you want to have an evangelistic impact, make sure the gospel is impacting your heart and mind and life and mouth in the way that it should be. Display the radiant difference the gospel makes.

Point three, last two verses, Rejoice in making sacrifices that advance the gospel. God's work in the gospel both requires and enables you to rejoice in making sacrifices that advance the gospel. We see this in verses 17 and 18.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Here Paul uses a metaphor drawn from Israel's sacrificial system to talk about what may yet happen to him. By that phrase poured out as a drink offering, Paul probably refers to the possibility that he will die a martyr's death. And actually, Paul himself tells us later in 2 Timothy 4:6, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, Being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.

But even now, being poured out as a drink offering aptly describes Paul's whole life and ministry. He's totally devoted to working for others' progress and joy in the faith. He has tipped the whole bottle out and held nothing back. That's his life. Poured out completely.

As he tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12:15, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. But in order to understand the full force of this metaphor in verse 17, and a number of you have asked me about this this week, we have to recall some details of Israel's sacrificial system. So a drink offering was wine or oil that was poured out on top of sacrificial material that was brought and put on the altar or it was poured out around or at the base of the altar. So the sacrifice of an animal or some type of baked grain was the main thing and the drink offering was kind of a punctuation mark at the end. So here in verse 17, the big ticket item is not Paul's drink offering but the Philippians' sacrificial service.

The sacrifice they offer by faith. So this helps us see that when Paul refers to the sacrificial offering of your faith, he It doesn't mean that he is offering the Philippians as a sacrifice to God. Instead, he's referring to the sacrificial service that they offer to God that flows from their faith. And what is that sacrifice? In a sense, it's their whole life of faith and obedience.

But I think what Paul especially has in mind is what he's just been talking about in the last three verses and what he's shared by his own experience of being poured out. In other words, it's their evangelistic effort. Their holding out the word of life to the unbelieving world is a costly sacrificial service that glorifies God. And Paul's main point is that he rejoices in his own sacrifice. He rejoices in their sacrifice and he commands the Philippians to rejoice with him in exactly the same way.

One commentator, based on this verse, summarized the whole book of Philippians like this: I rejoice. You too rejoice. So Paul will gladly go to the grave to seal his testimony to the gospel. He's so committed to spending himself for Christ's glory and others' joy in Christ that he doesn't balk at spending himself utterly. The prospect of martyrdom fills him not with dread but joy.

And he commands the Philippians to share that same joy by making sacrifices that advance the gospel.

The true test of a sacrifice is whether you offer it with joy. A grudging spirit spoils a gift.

Happy anniversary. It was a real pain to get you these earrings.

The joy you take in offering a sacrifice or a gift is a measure of the love you have of the one for whom you're making the sacrifice. Joy in sacrifice is an accurate reading of your love.

Brothers and sisters, one great privilege we have as members of this church is to so regularly hear from workers we support who are advancing the gospel in faraway places. When we interview them and pray for them on a Sunday night, we're not just helping to bear their burdens. We can also be rightly inspired by the joyful sacrifices they're making in order to make Christ known. Kristen recently shared with me about how getting to live on the block and get to know this stream of missionary families coming through and especially staying in our new housing, how that's inspired her, how that's encouraged her, to want to think about what sacrifices can we make together to advance the gospel? How can I be like them?

Brother, sister, when you make that sacrifice to make Jesus known, you have no idea how God might use your example. To ignite another believer.

Note how humbly Paul conceives his role compared to the Philippian's role. He views their sacrificial offering as the main item and he's just pouring out his little bit at the end. That's all he does. In this partnership, Paul is not there for the Philippians to puff him up. He's there to encourage them, to equip them, to help sustain them, and to cheer them on in their work.

Paul's goal is not to make his own name great, but to make the Philippians' ministry great.

The fruition of God's work in a believer's life is not grudging obedience under compulsion. Instead, it's an inner propulsion that compels you to joyfully give up so that others can gain Christ. In the Christian life, joy is a byproduct of a heart filled with Christ. In that sense, joy is like the end of a long math equation. So kids in the congregation, maybe those of you who are up to, I don't know, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, you might be starting to learn math equations that have multiple steps.

You got to do this thing, then this thing, then this thing, then this thing, and when you get to the end, if you find out you got the wrong answer, you got to go back and check all your work and look at each step to figure out exactly where you went wrong. In that sense, Joy in the Christian life is like the answer at the end of the equation. If you don't have it, you have to go back and check your work on your own heart and see where it went wrong. What sequence in the steps of gospel motivation is missing? You can't get joy just by striving for joy.

But you could use a lack of joy as then a prompt to examine yourself and see what's missing.

What difference does the gospel make in a person's life? It enables and requires you to rejoice in sacrifices that advance the gospel. Back to the phrase we began with: you're no different. If you're a believer in Jesus, that should be something that no one can truthfully say of you. Why not?

Because you have a different Lord and master, one to whom every knee will bow. You have a different destination, eternal joy instead of eternal condemnation. You have a different fear, God not man. You have a different power. God is the one who energizes your obedience.

You have a different pleasure. God's good pleasure sets you free from deceitful pleasures. You have a different satisfaction. You have a hidden source of happiness that enables you to suffer hardship without grumbling and to disagree with others without disputing. You have a different father and family.

You have a different character. The Spirit's work in the core of your heart enables you to shine with a radiant difference. You have a different message, a different judge, and a different joy. All this comes to you and all this works in you. Not by your own strength, but by God's power.

When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you because the power by which you are at work in us is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. So we pray that we would know more of that resurrection power in us this week. We pray that you'd convict us where we've fallen short. We pray that you would comfort and encourage us. With the promise of your help within.

And we pray that by your grace, we would delight to set you highest in our hearts so that sacrifice for Christ's sake would come easily, naturally, freely, so that our lives would be poured out as drink offerings for you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.