Humbly Serving God and Each Other | Philippians 2:12-18

Shall we pray together?

Our great Father in heaven,

we just gathered before you this morning around your word

and we need to hear from you.

We are nothing apart from your work in our lives

and so we ask that by your spirit,

you would do that work through your word,

by your spirit amongst us this morning.

And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

I should probably clarify this upfront

that there's a significant and exciting meeting

that we're having at our church at about 11.30-ish.

So I'm gonna race out the door at the end.

It's not because I don't like you or you smell bad

or I don't know, something like that.

It's just so you know ahead of time

that that's what's gonna happen.

Let's get into it.

I wonder what comes to mind for you guys

when you think about obedience.

Particularly a word that gets thrown around

in Christian circles, obedience to the Lord.

Maybe the word obedience brings back memories of high school.

Tuck your shirt in, pull your socks up.

Stop talking, speak up would you?

I'm sure those are really great memories for all of you.

I was chatting with someone a while ago

and they told me how WorkSafe had rocked up

at the work site and they were telling them

that they were doing something the wrong way,

something that they've been doing for decades

in a particular way.

But they had to change and they had to obey.

These types of obedience frustrate us, I reckon.

And I reckon there's a couple of reasons for it.

We don't understand why we have to obey

or perhaps we don't trust the person

that we're being called to obey.

Yeah, I reckon the thought of obedience,

the thought of having to submit yourself

to someone else out there

can sometimes be quite a negative thought.

I wonder if it's been the case for you

when you think about obedience.

But I wanna tell you upfront,

when we get into this passage

and start thinking about obedience,

particularly in the Christian sense,

that's not the case when it comes to obedience to Jesus.

And I reckon as we see what God has to say to us this morning,

we're gonna see why.

And we're gonna have a look at three things in this passage

about obedience.

We're gonna see gospel obedience in the heart

and in our lives,

gospel obedience in the church

and gospel obedience in the end.

So let's get into it.

Gospel obedience in the heart and in our lives.

Paul raises the subject of obedience

in the very first verse.

And Mikey will be excited by this.

I heard his sermon from last week.

The passage starts with a therefore.

So what's it there for?

The humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus

have just come before, hasn't it?

Jesus, who though he was in the form of God,

emptied himself.

He sought out not his own interests,

but the interests of others

and for the glory of his Father in heaven.

He poured himself out completely,

giving himself over to humiliation

for the interests of others

and for the glory of his Father in heaven.

And so verse nine, God exalts him.

He elevates and promotes him to the highest place

in the universe.

To one day be recognized by all as the King,

the true King.

Every knee, every tongue, every person submitted to him.

Therefore, given this glorious King and his gospel,

Paul commends the Philippians.

He says, well done for their obedience.

Just as you have always obeyed, he says.

At this point, the Philippian church

are about 10 years old, roughly.

They receive the gospel.

When they first received it, they accepted it.

And since then, they have been living in obedience to it.

They've been faithful to Jesus.

Which, by the way, is exactly

the way we ought to respond, isn't it?

This is the exalted Lord of the universe.

It's fitting, isn't it, to submit to his rule?

To live in his ways rather than our own.

And for this very reason, obedience is not

an optional extra to the Christian life.

It's not something you can decide to do one day

and then the next day think, no, that's off the shelf.

No, at the very heart of being a Christian

is to submit to Jesus as your King.

It's at the very heart of our faith.

He rules, we submit.

He leads, we follow.

He commands, we obey.

And he puts a little bit more flesh on the bone

when he's trying to describe this obedience.

In verse 12, he describes it like this.

He's describing it as working out of yourself

working out of your salvation with fear and trembling.

It's a bit of a funny phrase there, isn't it?

Work out your salvation.

We gotta ask the question, what does that actually mean?

It's helpful to know what it doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean work it out like a maths equation.

You know, if you look at a problem long enough,

you'll eventually work it out.

Now, that's not what Paul is saying.

It's not figuring it out.

And on the other hand, nor is it working for your salvation.

No, we share in our salvation that is a free gift

from a loving God.

Now, I think it means taking the salvation

that we have received from God,

we're taking it and outworking it.

Living out the implications of our salvation.

It's to push it down into our lives

and to push it out into every single facet of our life.

I wonder if you've got ice cream

from a cold rock ice creamery before.

Have you seen what they do?

They'll grab something like some Oreos

and they'll put it right in the middle

of the lump of ice cream and then

they start to crush it up and push it into the ice cream

and then work it out and push it all the way through.

They knead it in so that the ice cream

is now saturated with Oreos.

That's what outworking looks like.

It's taking our salvation, pushing it in

and kneading it into every part of our lives,

thinking through what does the gospel

and what does my salvation mean in this part of life

and this part of life and this part of life?

That's what outworking is.

This shows us what it means to grow up

as a Christian, doesn't it?

We become more and more shaped by the salvation

that we have received.

And as we do that, I just wanna highlight

one particular fruit that we would see in our lives

as we do this.

That one particular fruit would be humility.

The humility of Jesus in the gospel

is so striking, isn't it?

He was in very nature God,

creator of heaven and earth

and he took on a human nature and embraced death.

Why did he do that?

He did that for the glory of God

and to serve the interests of others above his own.

And as we work out that salvation in our lives,

what would one of the results be?

We'd start to see humility working itself out

in our lives, wouldn't we?

It's worth clarifying here that humility

is not the opposite of confidence.

It's not a lack of boldness or conviction or zeal.

No, humility is something else entirely.

I'm gonna try and define it for you, here we go.

Humility is the growing awareness

that your preferences, your interests

are not what your life is about.

What you have to say in a conversation

is not the most important part of a conversation.

What you think and feel in a particular situation

are not the most important.

Humility is the growing awareness

that the glory of God and serving the interests of others

are of greater interest to you than your own.

In any and every situation,

the glory of God and the interests of others.

And this actually means that a humble person

won't actually know that they're humble.

They'd be so caught up with glorifying their God in heaven,

so caught up in serving the interests of others

that they've not given a thought to themselves.

And genuine humility shows itself under pressure.

Concern for the glory of God and the interests of others

is easy to fake when things are nice and easy.

It's a little more difficult to remain humble

when there's conflict or perhaps things aren't as good

or perhaps things aren't going your way.

To sustainably and continuously show concern

for the glory of God and the interests of others

in those circumstances, that's difficult.

And it's in those very moments

that we need the gospel of our salvation, don't we?

It assures us that we are still loved

in spite of our shortcomings, our forgiveness remains sure

and our place in the family is unchanged.

But more than that, the gospel also supplies

the power we need to be humble.

Here's how.

The gospel tells us that Christ, at great cost to himself,

enduring shame and suffering,

carrying the judgment of God upon his shoulders

on the cross, Christ died serving our interests.

He gave up all of that, he endured his suffering

for our sake.

The creator of heaven and earth,

he endured humiliation and disgrace to serve your interests,

to serve the interests of the person next to you.

That is stunning grace.

And so we don't need to live this life

looking out for our own interests any longer.

We have been lavished with grace upon grace.

We don't need to be a slave to our self-interests.

And so we work out our salvation.

We work out our salvation deep into our hearts

and deep into our lives and we push it down

and we push it out.

And as we do that, we'll grow more and more like our savior.

For a little while this year, I was riding my bike to work

and I was riding my bike to work and I was riding my bike

to work and I was riding my bike to work.

I was riding my bike to work and home again each day.

I live in Seville Grove and I work at the church in Gosnells.

I would ride along Lake Road, then Champion Drive,

then shoot down the cycle paths along Tonkin Highway

and then I'd loop around on Albany

to get onto Albany Highway.

I wonder if you guys know that path.

Then I'd obviously do the reverse in the afternoon.

And if you have your bearings right,

you will know what that means that I'm riding east

in the morning and west in the afternoon.

Does anyone wanna have a go what that might mean for me

as I'm riding my bike sometimes?

Oh, yes, sun in my eyes.

There's also another reason.

Yeah, that's right.

It means both in the morning and in the afternoon,

not every day of the year, I might add,

but most days of the year, I'm hitting into the wind

and it's highly demoralizing.

Here I am doing the right thing for my health,

doing the right thing for the environment,

not using the petrol.

And then headwind, headwind straight into it.

I reckon that can feel like,

I reckon that is what it can feel like

trying to pursue our own obedience to the Lord.

It can feel like such hard work,

like the winds are full against us.

We have our own flesh that wants to be concerned

for our own interests rather than those of others.

But there is an absolute gold nugget worth holding onto

in the verse that comes straight after, isn't there?

Verse 13, after having called us to obey,

he says, for it is God who works in you.

It is God who works in you to will and to act

in order to fill his good purpose.

Let's just take a moment to think about that.

Which God is it?

It is the God who exalted the Lord Jesus

to the highest place.

It's the same God who elevates him

to the most highest place in the universe,

who raised him up from the dead.

It's that God who is working in us.

And that is wind in our sails

to continue in our obedience.

As we obey, God is right there working in us.

And I reckon that does two things to our obedience.

There's two really important things.

The first one is that we do our obedience

in dependence on him.

Not with self-reliance, not as though we can muster up

this energy and effort within ourselves,

not with the right amount of focus or grit or tenacity.

No, we do it in dependence upon the Lord Jesus.

In dependence upon the God who is working in us.

And the second thing is,

we can obey with confidence.

We don't need to feel defeated.

It's God working in us as we obey.

So yes, we will come against challenges and road bumps

and walls that we need to get through

in our own obedience to the Lord,

but we can do it with confidence

because God is working in us.

And he's working in us to fulfill his good purpose for us.

And so we obey.

Not defeated, not self-reliant, but dependent,

and with confidence.

So that's obedience in our hearts.

We then move on in the following verses

to obedience in the church.

Paul now moves on to apply what he's been saying

in these first couple of verses

in an awfully specific way.

He says to them, verse 14,

do everything without grumbling or arguing.

Paul has the Philippian church community in his heart,

as he says these things, he's speaking to their

church community as a whole.

And as he's thinking about how they might work out

their salvation with fear and trembling,

there's this particular thing that he thinks

he needs to name boldly,

arguing and grumbling.

Arguing and grumbling.

So what happens when a person is arguing

and grumbling, so what happens when our own self-interests

become what is most important, isn't it?

See, when my interests are more important

than your interests and we're coming up head to head,

I'm gonna argue with you on that.

I'm gonna make sure that my interests are looked after

in that circumstance.

And so arguing and grumbling, you could say,

is the opposite of humility.

It's serving my own interests above your interests.

And make no mistake, these things will drive

a wedge between people.

It'll drive a wedge and split communities.

Think of an ax, an ax is just a sharp wedge.

An ax comes through and hits a tree

and it will split it in two.

Arguing and grumbling will be like a wedge between people.

And Paul here is making a very pointed

and confronting application for the Philippian church.

We know from the rest of the book of Philippians,

the rest of the letter that Paul has written

to the Philippian church that their sense of togetherness

is really important.

He imagines them functioning together

and he imagines them functioning as a group

and a community that strive side by side

for the cause and the advance of the gospel.

In chapter one verse 27, he calls them to stand firm

in one spirit.

Chapter two verse two and three,

he tells them to be like-minded,

to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceits.

In chapter four verse two,

he even calls out two people by name.

Could you imagine that if I rocked up

and called out two people by name and said,

hey, get your head in line.

Paul calls out Iodia and Syntyche.

He calls on them to agree in the Lord,

to be reconciled to each other,

to acknowledge their own sin to each other

and to offer forgiveness.

Here in verse 14, Paul is calling them out for their sin

and he's calling it how he sees it.

He's saying church, stop with the grumbling and arguing.

Be finished with the gossiping and snarky comments.

Do not cut down your leaders behind their backs.

Do not let anything drive a wedge in the gospel community.

It's precious.

Don't let selfish ambition drive you.

Let self-interest drive a wedge.

Of course, it's no surprise that when we throw

a hundred people into a building together

and tell them to meet together every week

and to be united in the cause of the gospel,

all who are sinners, it's no surprise that arguing

and grumbling would slowly surface, wouldn't it?

It's actually the true test of your humility.

You can't call yourself humble

and close yourself behind a door.

It's never tested.

But here's a test.

Commit yourself to a gospel community.

Not just attend and not just for a few weeks or months either,

but commit yourself to a community of believers.

Be part of a Bible study.

Get alongside and serve in some way.

Be involved in the lives of those around you.

Get to know them, allow them to get to know you.

And that will test your humility.

You see, it puts you in a fairly vulnerable position,

doesn't it?

People will probably start to see the gaps

in your godliness.

Maybe they start to see your anger problem

or your workaholism or your passivity or your gossiping

or your prayerlessness.

And what will you do then?

Because in those moments, you might be tempted

to just cover up, retreat, put on a face, put on a mask.

Or will you trust the Lord of the universe

that there is not one sin that His death on the cross

has not covered?

And so be joyful and confident in Him

that it doesn't matter if people see that I struggle

or fall short.

I've trusted in Jesus.

I don't need to defend myself.

I don't need to make excuses.

I can be open, I can be honest.

I can ask for people's forgiveness.

And to flip it, what about when you see the gaps

in someone else's godliness?

When you see someone else falling short.

I wanna be clear here that sin is not something

to cover up or to ignore in someone else.

As a brother or sister in the Lord,

we wanna get alongside them and help them

in the battle for obedience to the Lord.

But there is a way that we could respond

to seeing the gaps in someone else's godliness

that would drive us to the Lord.

That would drive a wedge into a community.

You see, you could see it as an opportunity

to pounce on them, to gossip behind their backs

about how they're falling short in this particular way.

Or just even in the quietness of your own heart and mind

to condemn them.

We have to hear this question.

Does that reflect the way that Jesus treated us

when he saw the gaps in our godliness?

He humbled himself to the point of death

to save people, not just with gaps in their godliness,

but with no godliness at all.

That definitely includes me.

And it certainly includes you.

When we see the gaps in someone else's godliness,

it's not surprise or shock.

In fact, we expect it, don't we?

When we see them, we embrace them as a brother

or sister in the Lord.

We embrace them as someone covered by the blood of Jesus.

And we get alongside them, we get behind them

in striving to live a righteous and godly life.

That's what humility would look like

in the life of a church.

To quote a famous pastor, his name's Tim Keller,

he passed away not long ago, he said this,

the church is a hospital for sinners,

not a museum for saints.

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.

In other words, it's not a place you come to

to display something to your brothers and sisters,

to somehow conjure up their,

impress your brothers and sisters.

No, it's a hospital for sinners.

So let me ask you a couple of questions.

What's going on in your heart and mind

when you gather here each Sunday?

What are the thoughts that are going through your mind

or the comments that are made on the drive home

about your brothers and sisters in the Lord?

What are the thoughts that are going through your mind

or the comments that are made on the drive home

about your brothers and sisters in the Lord?

And this is as good a time as any to ask the question,

is your behavior towards the church

more characterized by arguing and grumbling

or grace and unity in the Lord?

See, being part of a church is not for the faint-hearted.

But here's the beautiful thing.

If we're willing to be humble,

humble ourselves before the Lord,

to allow that humility to work itself out in our lives,

as brothers and sisters encouraging one another,

if we would allow that to happen,

what would be the result?

Verse 15, we will shine as a light.

We will shine in a light, like a light in this region.

You see, the local netball club,

the local cafe and the local church

all have the same problem.

They're full of sinners.

They're full of sinners.

But only one of them has the power of God to transform.

Only one will shine as a light in this world.

But only if we would submit ourselves

in the power of the Spirit to the Lord Jesus

and the gospel of our salvation.

Finally, Paul then turns to consider obedience

in the end, obedience in the end.

Paul calls on the Philippians to commit to gospel community,

to being part of a gathering of people

who strive side by side for the cause of the gospel.

To be a community that works out their salvation

with fear and trembling, to hold fast to the word of life.

Of life. And he gives us one of the reasons why he does that.

And we see it there from verse 16 to the end.

And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ

that I did not run or labor in vain.

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering

on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith,

I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Paul has in mind here the day of Christ,

the day of the Lord Jesus' return.

The day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess

that the Lord Jesus, he is the King of the universe.

And it's on that day that everything will be revealed.

Those who held fast to the word of life will be bowing their knee,

confessing with their lips, with rejoicing and celebration.

Confessing that this Lord Jesus is the King of the universe.

While those who held fast to the things of this world

will be bowing and confessing with anger and despair

as they face the judgment of the exalted Lord of the universe.

And for Paul, he desperately wants to see the Philippian Christians

bowing with him, rejoicing and celebrating at the Lord Jesus.

He wants them to be there in his arms.

That's what it would mean for him not to have labored in vain.

He longs that they would hold fast to the gospel.

Verse 17 can be a little bit difficult to understand.

He speaks of being poured out as a drink offering

upon the sacrificial offering of the Philippian Church's faith.

In the background is the twice daily sacrifice of the lamb

from the Old Testament.

And as a lamb was placed on the altar,

a cup of strong drink would be poured over that lamb

and together they would make a sacrifice for the Lord Jesus.

And what Paul is saying here is that the faith of the Philippians,

their trust in the Lord is like placing a lamb on the altar.

That's the sacrificial offering there in verse 17.

And Paul himself is the drink offering being poured out

over the sacrificial offering.

And so what Paul is saying here is that the faith of the Philippians

is like placing a lamb on the altar.

And so what Paul is saying here is that they are making a sacrifice together.

It reminds us of back in chapter one, verse 30,

how they're engaged in the same conflict.

And Paul is making an astonishing point here.

He's saying it would be rejoicing for me

if I were to be utterly poured out as a drink offering.

If it means that you believers are holding fast to the gospel

on the day that Jesus returns.

That he would be poured out as a drink offering.

Whether that means suffering, long hours of toil, persecution,

opposition, dealing with tricky people,

not to mention any names, a yodhiya and syntyche.

Nothing is off the table in terms of what Paul would do

to see people holding fast to the gospel on the day that Jesus returns.

And if they are, then rejoicing.

Not just for him, but verse 18, also for them.

I'm not sure how good your memory is of what high school was like,

but something people always used to say was this.

High school goes so quickly, enjoy it while it lasts.

Then of course it would be week after week of assignments

and then you'd be thinking when is school going to end?

I wonder, is there anyone in that kind of boat right now?

But then they say exactly the same thing when you hit your 20s.

The time goes past so quickly, enjoy it while it lasts.

And then it continues when you start to have children.

They say enjoy them while they're little, they grow up so fast.

You know, we will stand together on the last day when the Lord returns

and we will say exactly the same thing.

We will say that time went so fast.

And we'll look back and we'll see what it is that really mattered.

We'll also say the things that we consumed ourselves with that didn't matter at all.

And in light of that, let me ask you this question.

Will you join in with Paul's struggle?

Will you join him in his labour and toil in advancing the gospel?

Both in your own life but also in the life of the church,

in this region, in this city, in this world?

The thought struck me this morning that I'll be standing there

on the last day, the day that the Lord has returned.

And I'll say, hey Mikey, chatting with Mikey, I might chat with Andy and Trudy as well

and might be just chatting with all you and we'd be looking back.

And I wonder what we would say are the good things.

What are the things that we'd look back on and think that was worth doing?

And it's so upside down that Paul would do the same with us.

He'd look back on his life and he would see those times when he was completely given over,

enduring the worst suffering, being persecuted, abandoned.

And he would look at those things and he would say, that is the good life.

And he would say, that is the good life.

He'd say those moments when he was holding on by a thread for the sake of the gospel,

he'd say that was meaningful living, that was the good life.

There was a famous cricket player called C.T. Studd.

He's got a famous quote that I want to share with you.

He played in the original Ashes Test match, but then he became a missionary in India.

And he said this, only one life, yes only one.

Now let me say, thy will be done.

And when at last I'll hear the call, I know I'll say, it was worth it all.

Only one life, it will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, you gave up your life.

You who were in very nature God, creator of heaven and earth,

took on human flesh, embraced humiliation and death.

You gave up your life.

Took on human flesh, embraced humiliation and death,

for the glory of God and the interests of others.

Displaying to us perfect humility.

Humility beyond what we could conjure up within ourselves.

And yet Lord Jesus, we ask for your help.

Please help us to be humble.

Would you help us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling?

Give us confidence, knowing that you are the one working in us.

Might we be a community of people,

who strive side by side for the cause of the gospel,

who encourage one another,

who get alongside one another in the pursuit of holiness and righteousness,

in the pursuit of serving the interests of others

and the glory of God above our own interests.

Father, we ask for your help because we need it.

Father, we ask for your help because we need it.

We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.