©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

12-05-05

A Good Work In You

12/5/05 A Good Work In You

Phil 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

We are going to stay with the first six verses of Philippians

for one more week

just so that we can complete the message

that Paul is giving us in this passage.

If you’ve been with us the past two weeks

you know that Philippians is a letter

written by the Apostle Paul

from a Roman prison

as he waited for his trial before Caesar.

He had been in prison for two years,

not knowing when his trial would be held,

or whether it would result in his release

or his execution.

The tone of the letter is so remarkably positive

and the theme of rejoicing so evident

throughout the letter

that, unless Paul had told us specifically

about the circumstances in his life,

we would never have guessed it

from much of what he says.

The letter provides us

with a powerful guide

to the principles that equip the Christian to survive those times in life

when our circumstances

are not what we would want them to be.

Paul did not want to be in prison.

He certainly did not want to be in prison for years at a time.

I’m sure he didn’t like the idea

of having his fate decided

by a pagan ruler who had no understanding of the Christian message

and no relationship with the Person of Christ.

He didn’t like where he was,

and he had no control over when

or if his circumstances would ever change.

Ever been there?

Ever felt as if you were in a place

you never ever wanted to be

and knew with certainty

that you had no power

to control your future

or alter your circumstances?

Welcome to prison!

During the past two weeks

we have seen Paul begin his survival manual for such times in our lives

from the very first verse of the letter.

In the first 6 verses,

rather than talking about his prison,

he begins by reminding us

of four important truths.

He talks about WHO we are,

he talks about WHERE we are,

he talks about WHAT to expect,

and then he talks about WHO is in control.

We are SAINTS, God’s Holy Ones,

IN CHRIST

who can expect GRACE and PEACE from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on in verse six to say, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And it is this statement that I want us

to look at a little more closely

before we return to our study of the last chapter of Ephesians.

But first I want to emphasise something

that I touched on last week.

What Paul offers us here in Philippians

is very much a closed-circuit communication,

designed especially and exclusively for Christians.

I want to be sure we don’t ever confuse

what is being said here

with some form of a generic power of positive thinking.

Paul is not simply instructing us

through the example of his life

to think nice, positive things about ourselves-

telling ourselves we are really great people

living in the loving presence of a God

who will make certain that something good is going to happen to us

if we just hang on a little longer

because things always work out in the end if we just whistle a happy tune,

and keep a stiff upper lip,

and choose a Positive Mental Attitude.

Paul is in a very real prison,

facing the very real possibility of execution,

with even some of his fellow Christians fighting against him,

as he makes evident in the verses that follow later in this first chapter.

And what he offers us

as anchors for our souls in such times

are very real facts

that are true only of that handful of people

who make up the Body of Christ.

And every anchor he gives us,

and every basis for both hope and joy he offers us

exist for just one reason -

because we have entered into a very real relationship

with a very real God

who is, moment-by-moment,

actively involving Himself in our lives.

And right here is one of the most remarkable discoveries of my life.

And it is simply this,

that the one thing we think we most want in life

is the same thing we most fear -

the intimate, personal involvement of God in our lives on a moment-by-moment basis.

I don’t know if I can put this into words without it sounding really stupid,

but I’ll give it a try.

As Christians we boldly proclaim the presence of God in our lives.

We rejoice in His forgiveness,

and have made some progress in our own personal discovery of His love,

and, at least in our doctrine,

we affirm that we now live every day, every minute in His presence.

And yet,

with myself, at least, I know

there are many times when I am far more comfortable

keeping my God at a mental arm’s length away from me.

Even some of the common phrases we use in the Christian world

are, I think, carefully designed to keep this comfort distance between us and our Lord.

We say things like “Let’s go to the Lord in prayer”,

or even worse, “Let’s storm the gates of heaven with our prayers...”,

as if our God is somehow hiding from us behind huge castle walls.

We don’t have to “go” to the Lord.

And we certainly don’t have to storm His gates.

But such concepts are,

in the most remarkable way almost comforting to us

because the reality of a God who is right here with us constantly,

and who is not just here

but focused on us, living with us, feeling with us, holding us in His arms

is so foreign to our thinking,

and has such profound implications for our lives

that we simply don’t know what to do with it.

Do you want to know how infantile I am in all of this?

For a number of years now

prayer has become a bigger and bigger part of my life.

This isn’t something I’ve chosen,

or something I try to do as some sort of devotional exercise.

I just find myself with this desperate need

to talk through my life with my Lord.

A few weeks ago I was talking with my Lord

about an issue that mattered a great deal to me

and while I was praying

the Lord answered my prayer

and it scared me!

It scared me because I was suddenly,

inescapably confronted with the realization

that my God really was right there with me,

listening to me,

actively relating to and responding to what I was saying.

And, though I would never have dared admit it,

I realized that, for most of my life,

I’ve had an e-mail mentality toward my prayer contact with my God.

You know how it is.

You write an e-mail to someone,

with the hope that they will check their e-mail regularly,

and then when they check it,

they will hopefully not think it’s junk mail and hit the delete button before reading it.

And then, if they do read it,

they will, again hopefully, take the time to respond.

Though it’s hard for me to admit it,

I think I’ve related to too much of my prayer in much the same way,

sending my messages to my Lord

with the hope that He may notice I’ve contacted Him

` and then choose to click on my message, read it, and then respond.

But when I received that answer while I was praying

I suddenly gained a tiny new glimpse

into the way things really are.

There is no e-mail with our Lord.

Nothing even remotely like it.

He is always right here with me,

never distracted,

never preoccupied,

never thinking about something or someone else.

He’s heard every prayer I’ve ever prayed,

heard it before it left my lips.

And what I entered into

when I entered into Christ

was the beginning of an endless eternity

in which I now live constantly in the presence of my God who loves me,

and who hears my every word,

and knows my every thought.

But my point here is simply that,

when we hear Paul’s words in these opening verses of Philippians,

we need to hear them for what they really are -

not an open communication to the entire world,

but rather a closed communication

to a select group of people - God’s people,

those who have come to Him through simple faith in Christ,

and those who now live every day of life

in the presence of God

with His active involvement in our lives.

When Paul tells us that we are God’s Holy Ones,

he is not simply saying to the world, “I’m OK, you’re OK”,

he is reminding us of a very real change

that has taken place in our innermost being

as the result of the transforming work of Christ in our lives.

Our submission to Christ

has made us truly and eternally HOLY in spirit,

and created within us

a love for our Lord

and a longing to please Him.

That doesn’t mean we suddenly cease

to wrestle with evil in our lives,

but it does mean

that God has accomplished a very real and profound change

deep within us.

It’s a fact, a reality,

not just some kind of mind game.

In the same way,

the Christian truly does exist

IN CHRIST in a very special way,

living every second

in His presence

and in the reality of His love.

And the promise of Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ...

is a promise made exclusively to Christians,

to those who have bowed in spirit

before God their Savior

and have found peace with God

through faith in Christ.

Membership has it’s privileges, my friends,

especially when that membership

is in the Body of Christ.

I should probably mention that

it also has its liabilities,

in this world at any rate,

which for Paul involved things like

being thrown into prison,

beaten,

chased,

attacked repeatedly,

and eventually martyred.

But listen to how Paul compares

the privileges and the liabilities of this membership in II Cor. 4:17.

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison...

And this promise of God’s grace and peace

is not an open promise to all of humanity,

but rather a very specific promise

made exclusively to the people of God.

And the same is true of this statement

we’re going to dig into today -

He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I do love that statement.

It is another one of those

incredibly powerful single sentences

that has the ability

to put the basics of the Christian life

into perfect focus.

It provides us with God’s alternative

to the whole world of man-made religious systems.

You know the stench of religion, don’t you?

You know what it smells like,

you know what it feels like,

you know the way the bottom line always rests on you -

your ability to perform,

your ability to produce,

your ability to change yourself for God.

You know how religion offers us

such clear and reasonable expectations-

the type of things we really should do,

the type of people we really should be.

You know, too, the warm glow of satisfaction

that comes when we’ve been able to pull it off -

to keep all of our little duties,

or at least keep them better

than those around us,

and you know that sinking feeling of guilt

and failure

when we see ourselves falling short,

failing.

That is the world of religion -

the world that calls us to be good,

and to do good for God,

the world that feeds itself on

pride, ego, competition,

fear, and guilt.

Thankfully that is not Christianity.

And it certainly is not what God has offered us through Christ.

Whereas religion calls out, “Work hard for God!...”

Christianity says, “He who began a good work in you...”

Religion talks to us about

what we must do for God.

Christianity talks to us about

what God is able to do in us.

Religion talks to us about

our ability to perform for Him,

Christianity talks to us about

His ability to perform through us.

And I want us to notice too

the very different perspective

this phrase, “He who began a good work in you...”

gives us on salvation.

Even the phrases and terms we often use

to describe our entrance into the family of God can be misleading.

“Give your life to God...”

“Turn the control over to Him...”

“Give your heart to the Lord...”

Phrases like that tend to suggest

that we are the ones

who get this whole thing started,

we are the ones who reach out to Him,

and God in turn is so pleased that we have noticed Him,

and remembered Him,

and decided to give Him a place in our life.

It’s not that way, folks.

You want to hear a fascinating statement

from the mouth of Christ Himself?

If you’d like the reference

this is found in John 15:16:

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.

...You did not choose Me, but I chose you,...

That’s great!

That’s the way it really is.

Do you want a little test

to help you distinguish between

the person caught up in Christian religion

and the person caught up in Christ?

The person caught up in religion

will look back on his decision

to follow Christianity

and he will say,

“Well, I chose this path because

it’s a good way to live,

it’s the right thing to do.”

The person caught up in Christ

will look back and say,

“You’ve been after me all along,

haven’t you, Lord.

You chose me, I didn’t choose you.

You planned it all out.

You called me to Yourself,

and You kept calling until I could finally hear your voice.

This whole thing was Your idea,

and all I did was say ‘Yes!’”

That’s what Paul is talking about

when He says, “He who began a good work in you...”

He’s just telling it like it is.

It is God who initiates,

God who calls,

God who draws us to Himself,

and all we do is accept His outstretched arms.

And let me tell you, folks,

that is incredibly good news

because it puts the bottom line

in this whole salvation thing

back where it desperately needs to be -

in the hands of our Creator.

That is where both our hope

and our security come from -

and that is exactly what Paul wants us to understand

when he goes on to say,

He who began a good work in you will perfect it...

That word “perfect” means “to complete”,

or “accomplish”,

or “perform”.

It means very simply that

what God starts

He is well able to complete.

He never picks up a life

and then two years down the line

throws up His hands in disgust

and bellows out,

“That’s it! I quit! This guy is impossible! I give up!”

When He accepted you into His family,

that acceptance brought with it

His commitment that He will never leave you,

and never forsake you.

He has all of the tools,

all of the time,

and, most of all, all of the love necessary

to reshape you into conformity to Christ.

Trust me,

I know exactly what it’s like

to look at myself

and see just a little of the massive work that needs to be done

and feel absolutely powerless

to make any changes at all.

But I also know

that incredible flood of gratitude

that comes at those points

where I can look back at who I once was,

or who I might have been,

and realize that my God, my Lord

is accomplishing in me

what I could never have accomplished for Him.

I don’t know what you’re struggling with right now.

I just know that if you’re struggling with it

it is probably something

that is beyond your ability to change.

You don’t like it,

you can’t fix it,

and it scares you to death.

If there was ever a time to find out

if that God of yours is really there,

this would be an excellent time.

If you’re just interested in getting Him

to change your circumstances

to get you out of a tight spot,

you may be disappointed.

But if you long for Him to change you,

no matter what that change involves,

He’s the one you’re looking for.

He’s been doing business with folks like us

since the first day Adam set foot on this planet.

When Paul says to the Philippians,

He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus,

he is wanting to remove that fear

that every growing Christian faces

at some point in his or her life,

that fear that maybe this problem,

or this battle,

or this failure,

or this pain is beyond God’s ability to heal.

Peter addresses that same fear

in I Peter 5:6-11.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in {your} faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Peter wants us to know that there have already been many other Christians

who have faced what we now face

and who have found God faithful,

and able to heal,

and more than willing to deliver.

And I love the way Paul ends that sixth verse of Philippians 1, too.

He says,

“He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

In that phrase, “until the day of Christ Jesus”

I see him giving us two powerful pillars for hope.

First, he wants it clearly understood

that God is in this thing with us for the long haul.

It is a clear commitment on His part

that He will never ever bail out on us

right up until that point

when we stand in the physical presence of Christ Himself.

And I think he has phrased this the way he has

to remind us of that other great hope of ours as well,

the hope of the personal return of Christ -

that point in human history

when finally this world will be but back

the way it was designed to be.

That time when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Hab. 2:14)

and ...justice will role down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

And the pain will stop forever,

both the pain within us,

and the pain around us.

REV 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.