Philippians 2:14-18 | Shining Stars in a Dark World

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

As you take your Bibles and open them to the book of Philippians, I want to talk for a moment about Colossians.

So open to Philippians while I talk about Colossians.

One of the elements of hearing God speak to us that I think is extremely important is asking questions.

When you open your Bible and you read it, it is incredibly important to ask questions of what God says.

What is he saying?

Why is he saying it?

Who's involved?

What are they doing?

All of those kinds of questions.

Colossians chapter 3, verse 15 is a wonderful place to ask questions.

Colossians 3:15

It's a familiar text to most church-going people.

It says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And he continues on to talk about how the word of Christ dwells in you richly.

As I look at this section of Colossians chapter 3, I have a question.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Why is and be thankful in the middle?

Why is there a sandwich in Colossians 3, 15 and 16?

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

That's your top piece of bread.

Your bottom piece of bread is let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Why is sandwiched in between the words and be thankful?

Let the peace of Christ rule.

And let the word of Christ dwell.

And in the middle, be thankful.

I sometimes wonder why is be thankful in the middle of these three commands?

I can't say that I figured out why the Apostle Paul put be thankful in the middle.

But I'll give you my best hunch.

My best guess is that being ruled by the peace of Christ, that's the top part, and having the word of Christ dwell in us richly is primarily determined by how thankful we are.

If we are less thankful, we will experience less of Christ's peace in our hearts.

If we are less thankful, we will experience less of the richness of God's word in our lives.

The more thankless we are, the more self-centered we tend to become.

And the less we focus on Christ, the more we focus on ourselves and less on others.

The less we focus on Christ and the less we focus on others, the less we resemble Jesus.

And the less we resemble Jesus, the less thankful we are.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

This is what you were called to in one body.

And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Those words were written to a church in Asia Minor.

But the subtle way that they turn and reorient our hearts through thankfulness is a message that the ancient church in Philippi needed to hear.

They could have used these same words.

Maybe they had a copy of it.

Maybe they had heard what Paul wrote to the church in Colossae.

We don't know.

But they needed to hear that same message.

It seems that the imprisoned apostle Paul had heard that some of his spiritual children in Philippi weren't acting like sons and daughters of God.

They weren't acting like Christ.

They conflicted with one another.

Instead of walking side by side and hand in hand for the sake of the gospel, they were grumbling and complaining.

Instead of being the lights on the hill that Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount that shine forth the grace of Jesus, they bickered, they disputed, and they looked like the world around them.

They were not being thankful.

And without thankfulness, they lacked the rule of the peace of Christ in their hearts.

And they could not experience the richness of the word of Christ.

Look at the passage with me in Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 12.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Our focus is going to be verses 14 through 18.

But verses 14 through 18 build off of verses 12 and 13.

Follow along as I read that section.

It says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it's God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

How do we work that out?

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you might 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 I rejoice with you all.

Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

So the Apostle Paul wonders if his life is about to end.

And as his life is about to end, he's thinking about his spiritual children who are probably grumbling and disputing.

And he says, Listen, I want to be a sacrifice poured out for God.

And that will be a joyful thing to me if you are walking as children of God.

And I will be glad and rejoice, and you can be glad and rejoice.

But they seem to be more like a different generation of people than God's sons and daughters.

Think back with me.

1,500 years before the book of Philippians.

I know that's hard.

Now you have to think back 3,500 years from today.

You can do it.

There was a massive group of people that were slaves in Egypt.

And God redeemed them from Egypt and He took them across the Red Sea.

And he provided for them every single step of the way.

Not only did he provide for them, he provided for their future.

In essence, by leaving Egypt, they ransacked Egypt.

And they took with them all of the things that God would use and bring together to create the tabernacle by which they worshiped God.

They brought with them belongings, they brought with them clothes, they brought with them food.

God provided everything.

Kind of like Christmas.

You get all of these fun new things.

How long does it take us to complain about the fun new things after Christmas?

I wish I'd have gotten this instead of this.

If only I would have received this one.

Or I've already failed on my New Year's resolutions.

Right?

It doesn't take us long to complain, does it?

It didn't take ancient Israel long to complain after leaving Egypt, after seeing the glories of God's power and majesty in redeeming them.

Soon they complained that there was no food.

So God gave them food from heaven.

And then they complained about the food from heaven.

So God gave them meat.

Then they complained that there was no water in the desert.

So God miraculously provides water from a rock.

And in the end, they complained so much that God would not allow that generation of people to enter and enter the promised land and experience God's blessings.

We have to wonder if some of that picture isn't behind these few verses here in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

The apostle Paul wants his spiritual children to live out who they are.

They've become children of God.

They were made alive together with Christ.

They were raised with him, they were seated with him in the heavenly places, Ephesians 2 says.

But we see hints in this letter that things at the church in Philippi weren't going exactly perfectly.

It seems they needed a lot of encouragement to stay united and to serve Christ together.

I mean, there's no other book that I can think of in the New Testament that calls out two individuals in a church like this one does.

It calls out Yodia and Syntichi by name.

It says they need to agree together.

So in that light, chapter 2, verse 14 is much more pointed than it might at first appear.

The Christians in Philippi were grumbling and disputing.

And the grumbling and disputing affected the church and its witness in the community around it.

So out of love for his spiritual children, potentially near the end of his life, the apostle gently encourages them to live fruitfully for Christ in a dark and sinful world.

Two issues arise out of this text.

One is how do brothers and sisters in Christ live out their faith in unity with other believers?

How do we do that?

And how can we be fruitful for Christ in a dark and sinful world?

Those are valid questions for us.

How can we live worthy of Christ's calling with other Christians we're not agreeing with?

That's Yodi and Sintiki, chapter 4.

How can we live worthy of Christ's calling with other Christians we don't like?

We can't stand to be around, we disagree with, who we think are wrong on their doctrine, on their theology, on their outlook, on life, on whatever the case may be.

And on top of that, how can we be fruitful for Christ in a world overflowing with sin and hate and rebellion against God?

And on top of all of that, how can we do all of that while being in the same church together?

Difficult questions.

This is the main thrust of this passage.

God's children are defined as shining stars in a dark world.

However, sometimes our actions can block that light.

So with a father's heart, the Apostle Paul encourages his spiritual children to work diligently, to shine brightly to the joy of Christ's glory.

So my goal this morning is to encourage all of us to be fruitful children in God's family because I think that's what Paul's doing.

He loves these people.

And as we saw in chapter 1, he knows that what God has begun in them, it's going to be completed, and he wants to see that in his life.

The problem is not all are perfect, and not all Christians are walking in the way they should in Philippi.

Or perhaps we should even say it, faith evangelical free church.

We know that God has begun a good work in us.

And we know he will bring it to completion.

We know that.

We know that he continues his work as we saw last time in chapter 2, verse 13.

But we also know that we are called to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling before a holy God.

And the way we do that is without grumbling or disputing.

We're to live out our faith joyfully and sacrificially as we bear fruit for Christ's work.

Now, in verses 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, we have some specific instructions for how we bear fruit joyfully and sacrificially together.

The instructions are very simple concepts, but they're often quite difficult to put into practice.

We first observe the instruction in verse 14 to cultivate a pervasive contentment.

To bear eternal fruit for Christ, we must cultivate a pervasive contentment.

Pervasive means everywhere, right?

It's like mold that starts to infiltrate everything and grows, or yeast that's coming through a loaf of bread and it's infiltrating everything.

Contentment means we're okay with what is.

We can be joyful with where we are and what we have and what God has for us because we know that's good.

To bear eternal fruit and to shine as lights in a dark world for Christ, we need to cultivate that pervasive contentment.

Apparently, some Christians in Philippi were grumbling and disputing.

I'm so thankful we never do that.

We never set aside thanksgiving and complain, do we?

We never argue about truth and reality with other believers, do we?

We never gripe or complain or want our own way like undisciplined children, do we?

Now you laughed earlier, but just in case you missed my facetious tone, the answers to all of those are, of course we're like that.

That's why this is in your Bible.

Many scholars believe, and I think they're correct, that this phrase echoes Israel in the wilderness during the Exodus.

The word for grumbling here is the same word used in the Greek translation of Exodus 16, verse 8, and number 17, verse 25, where Israel grumbled that they had meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning, yet they still complained.

Exodus 16:8

Paul pulls in those same terms to bring in some reminiscence to Christians.

You really want to be like those grumblers?

The word for disputing here or questioning, your translation might have, conveys a verbal exchange of differing thoughts, of differing views and opinions that leads to arguments that separate people.

So, for example, in Luke chapter 9, verse 46, the disciples were disputing or arguing with one another about which one of them was the greatest.

Luke 9:46

Smart thing to do in front of Jesus, right?

The very next verse says, he knew their thoughts, he knew their arguing.

So argument in Luke, quarreling in 1 Timothy 2, those are the same words as disputing here in verse 14.

Grumbling and disputing are sinful heart attitudes.

Out of the mouth, out of the heart, the mouth speaks, right?

So if we're grumbling, if we're disputing, that comes from somewhere inside of us.

In fact, Jude connects these actions with ungodly sinners who follow sinful desires.

So when we grumble and dispute, we are acting like our old selves.

Grumbling and disputing, then, are heart issues that point to discontent.

We're not okay with the way things are.

And that may point to an even deeper issue.

We're not okay with the way things are.

We don't trust that God has given us what we need.

We grumble when we don't like something.

We argue with others about whether something's good or bad, right or wrong, because we are not content.

Disputing is a tendency to insist that you're right and others are wrong over issues where disagreement isn't sinful.

It places you above others instead of valuing them above yourself.

Now there's time for spirited disagreements, right?

Paul and Barnabas show us that.

The real issue is the heart behind it.

But all along, the Apostle Paul may be thinking forward to chapter 4 and those two women, Yodia and Syntachi.

If he's thinking that way, it shows us both the personal and the collective aspects of these commands.

What that means is this has two sides to it.

The first side is grow up, Christian.

That is you and me as individuals.

If we're grumbling and disputing, we need to grow up.

But it also has a collective nature.

Grow up, Christians.

We are called to be children of God with pure hearts that do not grumble or dispute.

God's children are meant to show blameless and innocent hearts.

Hearts that are the opposite of grumbling and disputing.

And in moments of honesty, I think we can genuinely say that sometimes we've grumbled and disputed.

Right?

At least in our hearts.

We've complained.

We've argued with God.

We've argued with one another.

We've been discontent about things we don't like.

We have grumbling hearts that complain to ourselves, our spouses, our friends, or anyone who will listen.

Here in Philippi, there's there's grumbling and disputing at church.

I think it's pretty safe to say that each of us has disputed in church.

We've disputed in the sense that we insist that our way is right and another way is wrong.

When God didn't say, Thus saith the Lord.

Because we struggle to accept convictions and opinions that are different from ours.

And so we insist.

Insist on our own way, which leads to us pitting ourselves against one another.

We complain that God doesn't meet our needs in the way that we think He should.

God provides you bread from heaven.

What's this?

That's what manna means, by the way.

What is it?

Mana means what is it?

And we can we can say manna, what is it, in in a curious, accepting, trustful way or in a grumbly way, right?

What is it?

What is it?

You get the point?

Hopefully I can make that clear.

We question God's plans for us.

We doubt others' intentions and we complain about it.

Some of this is happening in Philippi, and some of it, sometimes a lot of it, happens in local churches today.

This shows that there are proper and improper ways to act as God's children, especially when it comes to disagreements and temptations for disunity that all come from a lack of contentment.

I like the way that one commentator put it.

This is a long quote, so hopefully you bear with me.

He says, Christians are to retain unity by working through their issues and disagreements with grace and patience.

Sometimes err.

But the challenge is to reconcile differences and leave them at the foot of the cross.

There are times, he says, when the essential truths of the gospel are at stake, and believers will engage in vigorous debate, and perhaps division becomes the best option available.

Notice there, he's saying the division that is the best option comes because the essential truths of the gospel are at stake.

Essential truths.

However, this warns us that even in such instances, believers are to seek to speak the truth in love.

Living in the tension between the two great principles of truth and unity is a continual challenge for the followers of Christ in a broken and fallen world and in a less than perfect church.

But as the next verse tells us, the way we go about such challenges is critical for our witness in the midst of a fallen world that is also broken with conflict.

We are supposed to show the world another way of dealing with our differences.

So where do we start?

I would suggest we start with some self-examination.

Maybe the best place to start is by identifying our own grumble zones.

Where do we find ourselves starting to grumble in life?

With God, at church, with other believers.

What inhibits our thankfulness and gratitude?

Then commit those grumble zones to Christ and ask him to eradicate them from your life.

Learn contentment, as we'll find in chapter four.

Paul had to learn contentment.

It's not something that comes automatically.

We learn it by processing life and committing to trust Christ through whatever he gives us.

Fight for it.

Fight for trust and contentment and thankfulness.

Because that leads to cultivating contentment pervasively in life.

Notice, secondly, in verse 15, that we must conduct ourselves like Christ.

We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is making us into the image of his only begotten Son.

We are sons and daughters of Christ.

But he is the only begotten Son of Christ.

And God the Father is making us more and more like his only begotten Son.

As fellow sons and daughters of God, then, we are to be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

The focus here is not on, not on eternity, not on what we like to call getting saved.

That is, we we recognize that Christ is the Savior of the world and we put our faith and trust in Him for the forgiveness of our sins.

That's not what it's talking about primarily.

This is talking about the life of walking with Christ.

And the goal here of this blamelessness and innocence and without blemish is restorative and evangelistic.

So we must stop our grumbling and our disputing because when we do that, we fail to resemble Christ.

Tragically, we cover the light of the gospel of Christ with a blanket when we fail to be blameless and innocent.

I think it's possible that the Apostle Paul still has the Old Testament Israelites in mind.

He bought them.

He bought them out of Egypt.

He redeemed them.

They were his children, his chosen possession.

He brought them out to display his glory and his grace to the watching nations.

And yet, as they wandered in the desert from place to place, they were continually grumbling and complaining, disputing over everything, even Moses' own leadership, whether or not he was around, whether or not he kept on living while he was on the mountaintop for 40 days and 40 nights.

They questioned God's care for them.

And at one point, God was going to destroy them and start over with Moses.

But do you remember Moses' appeal?

He said, God, if you do that, what will the watching nations think?

So watch the progression here.

God is at work in us.

Philippians 1, 6.

He began a good work and he will complete it.

He's still working, verse 13.

That's continuing, and he'll bring it to completion.

Therefore, because of this, we are to work out our salvation.

That means that the world around us will see that God has delivered us, not from Egypt, but from sin and death.

And he has now made us his chosen possession, a kingdom of priests, Peter says, to proclaim the virtues and the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So as his children, we don't cover our faith with a basket and hide it and protect it.

We work it out.

We live out who we are in Christ while others are watching.

So we must ask ourselves: do others see me as grumbling, as a disputing person?

Or do they see me as a child of God, blameless and innocent?

Listen, we shine as stars in the dark world because we are children of God.

This is a being issue.

You are God's child.

That's your identity.

You are a citizen of heaven if you belong to Him.

But complaining and disputing make us look and sound more like the crooked world we live in than children of God.

The word crooked there in verse 15 is the word from which we get scoliosis.

It literally means curved or bent as opposed to straight.

Proverbs uses it all the time.

It refers in Proverbs to crooked paths, to crooked speech, to crooked thoughts, to crooked, twisted minds.

And it distinguishes the wise person in Proverbs who is straight, not crooked.

But when we complain and we dispute, we look more like the crooked people of the world than God's straight children.

We look less like Christ and more and more bent.

Now notice what that does.

Grumbling or complaining masks the brilliance of God's redeeming power to rescue his people from slavery to sin and making them his children.

It says, I don't want you to see what God does, I want you to see my crookedness.

Now, very few of us actually think that, right?

But the Apostle Paul is showing these Christians this is what it looks like.

Grumbling and complaining and disputing covers the light of God's glorious work.

So Paul wants his spiritual children to joyfully and sacrificially bear fruit for eternity, to shine as lights in a dark world.

But to do that, they must cultivate a pervasive contentment and conduct themselves like sons and daughters of God.

Look with me in verse 16 at a third instruction we can take from this passage.

To joyfully and sacrificially bear eternal fruit, we must cling to the word of life.

Hold fast, he says, to the word of life.

So don't let go.

Scholars have long disputed, though, exactly what hold fast means in verse 16.

Does it mean to hold on to something as though it might be lost?

Or does it mean to hold it forth?

As though you're holding a shining light for somebody to follow?

Does it relate to our salvation?

Or does it relate to shining as lights in a dark world?

Personally, I see both sides at work.

First, notice that this isn't specifically about the word of God, the Bible.

It says the word of life.

That is the word which brings life.

The word which is life, and so it imparts it to you, and it becomes part of you, and it is your life.

So this seems to refer to the work of God in us that we live out in daily life.

It's the life-giving word of Christ that first makes us sons and daughters of God, in which sense it's it's kind of equivalent with the gospel.

The gospel that needs to be a shining light in a dark world.

At the same time, it's it's an empowering life that moves us and motivates us to be children of God in a dark world.

So picture someone who is drowning in a flooding river, at risk of being swept downstream and underwater and gone forever.

You have that image in your mind?

The drowning person, though, is holding fast to a rescuer.

They're holding on dearly, and without that rescuer, they would perish.

Now, at the same time, there's someone who's taking a picture of that rescue.

And as others then begin to see the picture of that rescue, the glory and the honor go to the rescuer and the humility to the rescued.

Similarly, we cling to the word of life.

It's our only hope.

It is the hope that rescues us.

It is the hope that keeps us.

It is our only hope.

The good news of Christ rescues us, and we forever cling to it.

Yet at the same time, we now live as the rescued, and we show the photo of our rescue to all who will see, so that they too will know the rescuer.

And all of the glory and all of the honor goes to the rescuer and the humility to the rescued.

In doing that, we hold forth the word of life that rescues us.

Look to Christ, the rescuer.

The gospel is highlighted and we hold it forth while at the same time we cling to it day in and day out because it is the only way that we can be content and satisfied in a crooked world.

That is how we joyfully and sacrificially bear fruit for eternity.

That is how we shine as lights in a dark world and we avoid being crooked and bent.

We show ourselves to be sons and daughters of God by not complaining and disputing, but by conducting ourselves like Jesus.

We are humble and we consider others more significant than ourselves.

We forever live as humble, rescued people who hold forth the word of life as the true rescue of all who are perishing while we are desperately clinging to it ourselves.

And if the Philippians live like that, then Paul can be certain that his service for Christ was not in vain, even if he dies in prison.

He says it will be a fruitful sacrifice because of their faith, and that is worth rejoicing in.

So Paul can be content even if he dies for Christ in a Roman prison.

He has learned to be content in prison.

He's learned to not dispute with the Roman believers who want him to suffer more.

He has learned to be content not having the Philippians there to guide and to comfort.

He can shine as a star in a dark world, holding forth the light of life.

And if we follow suit, we can be glad and rejoice.

Because we will have our eyes on Christ, the great rescuer.

Having become like him in his death and resurrection, humbly shining as stars in a dark world.

Don't cover the light.

Be content that Christ knows what he's doing with your life.

And it's good.

Never forget that you're not out of the river yet.

Oh, he won't let you go.

He holds you fast.

He will never let you go.

He will hold you fast, but you're not fully out of the river yet.

So in the meantime, hold forth the photo of your rescuer and shine as lights in a dark world.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, as we consider who you are, we are so grateful that you, the God of eternity, would would come down to time and space to become a human being to die.

And yet it's in that that you rescued us.

And by faith in you, we have the right, the authority, the scriptures say, to be called children of God, sons and daughters of the living God.

We confess our sins to you and ask that you would make us more like yourself, drive away all bitterness and anger and discontent.

And create in us thankful hearts, satisfied with you and our rescue.

Make us, Lord Jesus, to shine brightly for you.

From this time forth and forevermore.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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