03-03-13 WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING

The Apostle Paul is writing a letter

to his friends

from his prison cell in Rome.

He is waiting for his trial

on charges of treason

before Caesar himself,

a trial that could end with Paul’s execution.

He writes knowing that this could be

the last communication

his fellow Christians at Philippi

will ever receive from him.

The letter is flooded with an attitude of joy,

rooted in Paul’s unshakable confidence

in God’s leadership

and control in his life,

but it is a confidence

that is also rooted in reality.

Paul understood that, as a Christian,

he was immortal until his job was done,

that God Himself held him

in the palm of His hand,

and nothing touched him

without the permission of God.

But he also knew that his own role

in the establishment of the Church

might well be drawing to a close,

and this awareness

brought an urgency

and a practical reality

to the thoughts he shared with his Philippian brothers and sisters.

Our study of this letter has brought us

to a section that began in chapter 1:27,

a section in which

Paul offers his readers

a number of practical instructions

about effective Christian living.

The passage begins with Paul saying,

Phil. 1:27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; ...

And most recently in our study

we heard Paul encouraging us

by telling us that God is actively

seeking to duplicate in each of us

the same life pattern

we see in Christ Himself.

Just as Christ began in His high

and exalted position as Creator God,

and then chose to temporarily set aside

the rights and privileges

that came with His position

and take on the role of a servant

in order to communicate

the depth of God’s love for us,

and to accomplish a means of salvation for us,

and then was elevated once again

to a place of total supremacy

over all the created world,

so God seeks to accomplish

a similar work in each of us.

He begins by calling us to Himself,

declaring us to be His children forever

in response to our faith in Christ,

raising us up with Him

and seating us with Christ

in heavenly places.

Then, as we grow in our understanding

of who we have become in Christ

recognizing that our true identity

is not determined by what we do

or how others perceive us,

but rather by who our Creator God

has declared us to be,

then our Lord asks us, too,

to take on the role of servant

so that we, like our Lord,

can more effectively communicate

the reality of God’s love

to those who make up our world.

He then assures us that this servant role

is a temporary necessity

and that the time will come when we too

will be elevated to positions of great honor.

I like the way Peter puts it in I Peter 5:6: Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,...

And that brings us up to verses 12 and 13

of Philippians 2,

two verses that form just one sentence,

two remarkable verses

that cannot be separated

if we are to understand correctly

what Paul is saying to us.

Immediately after offering us

this life pattern as illustrated by Christ Himself,

Paul says this:

Phil. 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

Phil. 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

There are some powerful words

in these two verses

and some clear contrasts

and distinctions made between them,

and I want us to walk through Paul’s comments

carefully and in order.

The tremendous power of Paul’s words here

come from the way in which

he has taken what at first glance

seem to be two directly opposite statements

and linked them together

in one single concept.

He begins with a statement

we in the church world love to rip out of context

and toss back and forth

because we think we understand it.

Out of context,

separated from the second half of the sentence

it seems to fit well with our

naturally religious bent.

Paul says to his Philippian friends:

...work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

Now that is the kind of phrase

our flesh can really get its teeth into.

It has all the right words in it -

WORK OUT

FEAR

TREMBLING,

and they are all wrapped around

the concept of salvation.

Sitting there by itself,

striped of the rest of the sentence

it sounds so much like Paul is calling us

to get out there and work harder

and do more for God,

driven by fear and trembling

knowing that our ultimate shot at salvation

depends upon our ability

to successfully generate a level of productivity

that will get us where we need to be.

“Come on now, brother - just keep at it -

come on now,

work out your own salvation -

keep cranking it out.

You can do it!

I know you can!”

You see, we like to stop reading

half way through the sentence -

not because it really works for us,

but because it sounds right to our

human way of doing things.

It fits well with the way life operated

prior to our union with Christ.

We understand a world in which

we are our own bottom line,

a world in which

ultimately everything depends upon

our ability to deliver the goods.

We understand a world

and a life without God.

It’s not a good world,

it’s not a fulfilling world,

but it is a familiar world.

And our life before Christ sets us up to mentally separate the first half of Paul’s sentence

from the second half.

Only when we place this 12^th verse

back into context

can we discover

what Paul is actually saying to us.

And when we do

we discover Paul revealing to us

the answer to questions

that have plagued every believer

who has seriously wrestled

with what it really means

to live daily under the leadership

of the indwelling Spirit of God.

We’ve wrestled with these questions

as a congregation at times.

Where are the dividing lines

between fleshing it out

and allowing God’s Spirit to live through me?

If I have truly given some problem

or issue over to the Lord,

does that mean I just sit back and do nothing?

If I cannot achieve true Godliness

and productivity through human effort

and determination,

then does human effort and determination

have no valid place in Christian living?

If it is truly no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me,

then what is my role in this whole thing?

Do I just hang out,

waiting for the King to return,

hoping He catapults me into the battle at some strategic moment?

How can I know when I should charge ahead,

and when I should wait on the Lord?

The foundation for answers to questions like these

is found in what Paul offers us

in a single sentence here in Phil. 2: 12-13.

And he does it by fusing two concepts

in a way that is designed

to create two crucial attitudes within us,

one toward ourselves,

and the other toward our God.

Now I’ll give you an illustration in few minutes that may help,

but I want you to stay with me here

as we look first at the statement itself.

Paul says,

... work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Now for us to correctly understand the first phrase of that sentence

we have to begin by looking at the second phrase because of that little word FOR.

That phrase “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling...”

was never intended to stand by itself.

Rather it was designed to be the logical,

obvious response to the truth revealed to us in the second half of the sentence.

It’s a little bit like if I were to

suddenly shake my beloved wife awake

at 3:00 in the morning and scream,

“Love! I want you to get up and jump out the window...”

Unless I am allowed to finish my sentence

my words sound like a demented old man

who has finally, totally lost touch with reality.

Only when I add the second half of the sentence

does the first half make sense.

“I want you to get up and jump out the window

because our house is on fire

and there’s no way we can make it to the door.”

In the same way

Paul’s first statement, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”

can only be understood

when we add his second statement,

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

So let’s start with that second phrase

and then back up to the first one.

Paul, in his urgency to affirm the true nature

of the Christian life

turns his readers’ eyes once again upon one of the most crucial foundation principles

of true Christian living -

Christ has not called us to a life of trying to live for Him.

The central calling of the Christian life is not our living for Christ,

but rather Christ living through us.

Christ began to prepare His people for this

through repeated statements

during His earthly ministry.

Listen to this!

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"

John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; ...”

He wasn’t saying His people will have to somehow generate for Him

rivers of living water from their innermost being.

He was saying He would place within each of us

His Spirit

who would then generate that flow through us.

John 15:4-5

John 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Gal. 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

This truth of Christ Himself living within the Christian

and then living His life out through the Christian

is both consistent with and central to

everything God seeks to tell us

about the true nature of Christian living.

It truly, literally is God Himself

who is at work in us.

We are not just learning concepts

and becoming competent in material

and faithful in the performance of our duties.

We have entered into a union with God Himself,

a union in which He is personally

indwelling us

and expressing Himself through us.

This passage in Philippians is especially fascinating

because Paul goes on to elaborate on

the two specific responsibilities

in this arrangement He has made with us

that He assumes for Himself.

He says He will both WILL His good pleasure within us,

and He will also WORK FOR His good pleasure within us.

In other words,

He will give us the heart desire

for what He wants to accomplish in and through us,

and He will work in and through us

to bring those desires to His intended end.

Now I cannot allow myself to get side-tracked right here

because we haven’t got the time,

but I do have to just say -

child of God - listen closely

and fearlessly to the desires He places within your heart.

Don’t look around and see what others are doing.

Don’t gather your friends together

and put it to a vote.

JUST TRUST HIM!

Trust His wisdom in making you

the unique person you are,

and giving you your own unique ability

to express the life and reality of God

as no one else ever has done before.

But let me get this back on track...

The foundation for what Paul says in Phil. 2:12-13

is in the understanding that truly,

literally it is God Himself

who is working within your life...

YOUR LIFE,

not the preacher’s life,

or the life of the CHURCH,

YOUR LIFE,

giving you both the heart desire

and the gifts and abilities and opportunities necessary

to bring those desires into reality

in the way He knows is best.

And because of that remarkable truth

Paul calls us to dare to work out

our own personal unique expression

of the salvation of God

with an attitude of AWE and wonder,

fear and trembling.

Do you know what Paul is saying?

He is saying he wants us to approach

this incredible arrangement

God has made with us,

an arrangement in which He expresses Himself through us,

he wants us to approach this arrangement

with courage, confidence, and a reverent amazement at what God has done.

It might help you to know

that there are different words used in the Greek text

for that word “work” that appears 3 times in this one sentence.

The “work” where Paul says we are to “work out your salvation...”

means literally that we are to fully complete, to finish, to fashion.

With Paul’s selection of that word in that place

I hear him telling us

that there is a completed statement

that God wants to offer the world through each individual life.

We each have our own unique life message,

aspects of the God/human being relationship

that we alone can communicate to our world.

If you look at Paul’s wording here,

there is a very personal aspect to his comments.

He doesn’t say you are to work out salvation,

he says you are to work out your salvation... your own personal expression

of the redemptive work of God in your life.

It took me more years than I care to tell you

to apply this to my own life.

At the heart of it for me

was finding peace in two areas.

First, I had to look honestly at myself

to discover both what God had equipped me to do

and what He had not,

and then to consciously choose to limit myself

to those areas He’d qualified me for.

And then I had to celebrate my own personal voice

rather than trying to imitate someone else’s voice.

The notes that many of you hold in your hands right now

are just a tiny part of that process with me.

I spent many years of my life trying to hide the fact

that I do much of my teaching from manuscript.

It wasn’t the way “real” teachers taught.

But it’s the way my Lord expresses Himself through me,

and finding peace with that

was a little part of my working out my own salvation,

my own personal expression of God’s redemption within me.

Simply put, when Paul calls us to work out your salvation,

he’s calling us to fulfill our own unique expression of the life of Christ within us.

But then, when Paul tells us that it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure...

he chose a totally different word for work,

a word that means to be effectual, fervent, to be mighty in.

He’s talking about God Himself

providing within us

both the desire and the ability to perform

those things He’s given us to do.

Our time is gone,

but I want to close with one final word of caution:

DON’T SPIRITUALIZE THIS -

I did not say, “ask yourself what religious thing God has given you a desire to do.”

I just said,

“What desires has God placed within you.”

What has He given you a heart for?

There are no compartments

in true Christian living.

There is no secular and sacred.

There is only real life

with a real God.

We are out of time,

and I don’t think we’re done with this yet.

I promised you an illustration that will help with this will of God thing,

but it will fit better with where we go next week,

so we’ll take a look at it then.