Philippians 2:12–18 — Joyfully Poured Out

Last week, we spent the morning considering the humility of Jesus, and we were both encouraged

and challenged by that.

We were encouraged by the love and humility that is on display in our Savior.

by looking at how he will one day come in glory.

We were challenged, I think, by both of those things as well.

And so my encouragement for us last week was before beginning to consider the practicalities

of how you need to change, to consider first Jesus in his humility and his glory.

And if your experience was like mine, you had moments in which you were grateful that

you turned to Christ over the last week, and you probably also had moments where you realized

you had completely neglected to consider him at all. Why is that? Why are we, like the famous hymn

says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it? Why do we oscillate or waver in our love and obedience when

God has never once wavered or failed in his? And the short answer, of course, is that we are a work

in process. We who have come to Jesus are in the process of what Scripture calls transformation

into the image of Christ. So in today's passage, we will feel the pull of that ongoing work as

God's Word pulls us toward obedience and into the work we are called to participate in.

If we have believed in and submitted our lives to Jesus, we are called into this relationship.

in which God began the work, he is empowering the work, and he will finish the work of making us

like Jesus. And we are called to continue submitting to and participating in that work.

So let's begin by reading Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 through 18.

Philippians 2:12–18

Paul writes,

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.

Paul knows that the people of the church, their desire for him is to come to them or

to send Timothy to them.

They have asked him to send help, and they've shared about how they're struggling.

And he knows the weight that the leaders are experiencing, and he knows the pressure of

the outside culture on the body of believers, but he also knows that God has provided for them

and their leadership in Christ. And so he says, therefore, meaning because of the mindset that

is already yours in Christ, in light of the example of Christ's humility and his coming glory,

whether I come or not, you are provided for. And I fully expect you to remain obedient to Jesus.

Paul is being sincere, but I think to understand his tone, we really have to keep in mind the

previous passage focusing on Jesus.

Because I think it would be a mistake to think that Paul is giving the equivalent tone of

a parent looking at you in the eye before they leave and saying, I expect you to be on

your best behavior.

What he said in verses 5 through 11 shows us that a better paraphrase here would be, in

In light of all that Christ has provided for you, you're going to do great.

Because I believe in Christ and so do you, I have great hope for you.

But I also want to encourage you to commit to the work that is in progress here.

So let's look at the next statement that at first glance seems in conflict with everything that Paul has said about God being the one who saves.

He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

If we were to stop there, we would have a problem.

If we were to take this little portion of the verse out of context with everything before

and after, we would have works-based salvation that is in line with so many departures from

the gospel.

But thank God we have verse 13 that says, for it is God who works in you.

both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So because God is working in me and through me,

I have a reason to participate in the work. A pastor named John Murray said this back in the

1960s. He said, God's working in us is not suspended because we work, nor is our working

suspended because God works. The relation is that because God works, we work.

So let's do a little more definition work here to clarify this a little more. And let's start by

looking at the word salvation. This is what Paul says we're supposed to be working out. Salvation,

particularly here, is a word that is describing not just a single event, but a complete process.

The work of God that begins with the forgiveness of our sin. It continues with the lifelong

transformation of the sinner. It is finished when we are taken to be with the Lord, either by death

or by his glorious return. And all of these things together, the totality of God's work in saving us

is salvation. Some of those parts of salvation we participate in, and some of them we simply

respond to with gratitude. So our forgiveness, for example, which involves our being declared

righteous before God, is a free gift of God that is not in any way earned by us through works,

so that none of us should boast about it. That's from Ephesians chapter 2. In Romans 4,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Paul says that it is God who justifies the ungodly, and no amount of righteous conduct can do

what God has already done through Christ. So when it comes to the initiation of our salvation,

it is God who calls us and God who has made the way for us to come. But then there's this

middle part of salvation, this process, right, that we call sanctification. And God is really

the one working here too. We've been saved and accepted by the invitation to follow Christ,

and there is ongoing work of the Spirit in us that is transforming us into the likeness of Jesus

until one day we are with Jesus and the work is complete. And this middle ongoing portion

is what we are called to participate in.

When I was a pretty young kid, my dad introduced me to model rocketry.

And I still remember he bought this kit at a place called Bud's Hobby Shop,

which was the coolest place in Council Bluffs in the early 90s.

And this model rocket kit was made of lightweight balsa wood fins and plastic pieces

and a cardboard tube and a parachute.

And you had to assemble it using things like super glue and X-Acto knives

and finally an explosive rocket engine.

And it's basically everything in a bag that a seven-year-old should never touch or play with.

But my dad would invite me to sit with him and learn and hand him things

and hold things in place for him and fit the plastic parts together.

And my dad led and guided every part of that process.

And in no world did he need my help to do it.

But the truth is, we weren't just building rockets.

That's not just what it was about.

We were building relationship.

We were building character and skills and maturity one piece of balsa wood and super glue at a time.

And it's not a perfect analogy, but I think it helps me to understand the way that we

are called into this relationship with the Lord and our role in it, in which He is 100%

in charge and responsible for the outcome, but also that He chooses to do this work by

inviting us to come and to participate in the process of our transformation into the

image of Christ.

And we are called to not only take part in this work, but to take it seriously.

Paul says we should go about this work with fear and trembling.

And by that, he means that we should consider our part in the salvation process with great sincerity.

The fact that the God of the universe is at work within us should cause us to daily approach this participation with great sincerity and also great joy.

Because Paul says God is doing this for his good pleasure.

The all-powerful God is at work in us, and he is a good God.

So what joy there is in this work?

And the attitude of the believer is actually where Paul goes next.

What kind of attitude should we have that reflects who is working in us and what work he is doing?

Well, verses 14 and 15, let's read these again.

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.

So finally, we're getting to the specific thing that Paul wants to address in the church,

and it is this attitude that leads them to trouble.

They're grumbling or disputing.

It's also translated as complaining and arguing.

Not only is the behavior of the believer to be different from the world, the attitude

that they go about doing this work is also to be different.

We are certainly blameless and innocent before God because of Christ, right?

That's not because of our attitude.

That's not because of our works.

That's because of what Christ has done for us.

But before men, before the watching world, we are to have an attitude that reflects the

reality of who we belong to.

You say that Christ has saved you from eternal death and is transforming you day by day?

Well, let your attitude reflect that.

Paul makes a direct connection here, actually, to a group of people who, while they were called

the children of God, spent about 40 years wandering in the desert, complaining every step of the way.

In Exodus, back in the Old Testament, Exodus 15, 24 says,

And the people grumbled against Moses, saying,

What shall we drink? Later they would complain about food, and then they would complain about the

kind of food. And in Deuteronomy 32.5, God describes these people who have rejected him as

blemished. They are a crooked and twisted generation. That's Deuteronomy 32.5. You can hear

where Paul is referring back to there. So the instruction is clear that we cannot be a people

who claim to bear the name of Christ and then live in a way that is unbearable to be around.

There is no such thing as a Christian in name only. That would be really the fullest meaning

of taking the name of the Lord in vain. Bearing the name of Christ means reflecting the character

of Jesus and the values of his kingdom to the world around you. And honestly,

not everyone is going to respond positively to that.

And I don't want to build out this analogy further than Paul does here,

talking about lights in the world.

But if we're going to talk about being like the light in the world,

some people are going to respond to the light of the gospel by running toward it,

and others are going to be offended by it, and they're going to run back to the dark.

And in either case, your role is to live a life that is so thoroughly committed

to the work of the king that it is unmistakable to the watching world that we are from another

kingdom entirely. We are going to stand out because of that. And in the midst of a life

filled with demands for our affection and time and attention, how in the world do you consistently

do that? It's a good question. And the answer is that we hold fast to Jesus, the king.

So let's finish these last few verses, verses 16 through 18.

It says,

Holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I might 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.

Lest we forget and start to be either discouraged that we can't do this or prideful that we can do

this on our own, Paul is going to pull us back in line by saying that the only way we live a life

of this nature is by clinging to the word of life. What is the word of life? Primarily, it is a person

who is the way, the truth, and the life. We hold fast to Jesus, knowing that he is the way,

knowing that our past failures do not hold us back any longer, that our good works don't somehow

make a way and earn us favor. It is Jesus who makes the way, and he walks with us every step.

And that's what Paul desires for the church. When he talks about being proud and not running in vain,

he's not talking about pride in himself or that their performance somehow reflects only on him.

He's saying, on the day of judgment, if my work produced fruit, I will see you kneeling joyfully

before Christ with me. That's the joy. That's what he's looking forward to, seeing those believers

finish the race with him. And Paul speaks about his own life as something he is willing to

joyfully pour out as an offering before the Lord Jesus for the sake of the health and faith of the

body of Christ. For them, he is going to pour out his life. And in the next few verses, we'll get to

next week, he actually goes into more depth on what the relationship between the church and Christian

leaders like Paul should look like. But this pouring out of life as a drink offering is for

every believer. And this is not a mournful submission to a hard and heavy requirement.

This is a joyful trade of the lesser things for the joy of Jesus and his kingdom.

Even sacrificial service, even if it costs us our comfort, even if it costs our lives,

there is nothing we can give up that is better than what we are being given.

There is no version of yourself apart from Jesus that is better than the one he is working to

transform you into. It feels like we've kind of been pulled in two directions,

in this letter so far, caught between God's sovereign working and our call to participate

in it.

And it's because we are.

Because the truth is in the center, and that is where Scripture will always pull us, to

the center of the truth.

Because it is living and active and able to correct us and train us in righteousness.

So before we close up this passage, I want to address two ways that we might be tempted to pull away from the center truth here that Paul is making clear.

One is a form of addition and one a form of subtraction.

Let's start with this side trail away from the truth of subtraction.

And it is to believe that we can somehow accomplish this personal transformation absent of the work of the Spirit.

That we can somehow subtract Jesus from the formula and turn to good old-fashioned humanism

in which we, of course, save ourselves into being better people.

And it often sounds something like this.

You know, I'm just trying to be a better version of myself.

Or I'm trying to become my highest or my truest self.

Maybe that through hard work and discipline, maybe with some transcendental meditation

and good vibes on the side. I can somehow become all that I can be. But here's the truth of God's

word about who and what we were like and are like without the work of Jesus. Ezekiel 36, 26 says that

God needs to give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove

remove who you were, the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

No amount of self-improvement or personal discipline can transform a heart of stone

into a heart of flesh. Only the Spirit of God can bring life to what is dead.

Or what about Ephesians 2, verse 1? And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.

Ephesians 2:1

Verse 4 says,

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ.

By the grace you have been saved.

So, apart from Christ, we are spiritually dead.

Unable to respond to God or transform ourselves,

only God's grace and intervention can bring life to what was dead.

You can polish that stone heart until it gleams, but at the end of the day, it is still dead inside.

And you can put makeup on a corpse, but absent of the resurrecting power of Jesus,

there will never be life there. No amount of good and sincere work on yourself will earn you

eternal life because it's a gift that is given exclusively through Jesus. The other side

trail here that's the one of addition, and this I'm going to say is probably the one

that is in some way misleading the most people in the American church right now.

It is a belief that you can add a little Jesus to your existing life or kingdom or priorities

instead of surrendering all that you have to Jesus, instead of doing what Jesus called us to do,

to die to ourselves, to take up our cross, to be crucified with Christ. The language is all there,

And it does not support the idea of adding just a little bit of Jesus to what you already have.

And what it results in is this very casual form of faith that fails to adopt a brand new mindset

that is ours in Christ, Paul says, and instead tries to fit Jesus in to the places where he

fits comfortably, but gladly leave him out where it is inconvenient or challenging. And you don't

have to do the work of conforming to the image of Christ when you're busy trying to make Jesus

conform to the image that you prefer. The symptoms of this are varied, but a lot of them look like

this, a shallow faith that really doesn't require anything of you outside of maybe one or two

gatherings with the church a week, or a faith that is comfortable prioritizing your own desires

over the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Ultimately, it's one that is more likely

to lead you toward idolatry than it is to lead you closer to Jesus. And the solution, of course,

is to come back to the word of life over and over exclusively to the word of life,

choosing to come to Jesus for the source of your salvation and lay everything there at his feet,

choosing to joyfully submit your life to Jesus, pouring out every ounce of your life

at his feet and being filled instead with the living water that Jesus alone offers.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa and in homes

throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture

and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact

a pastor by visiting ekklesiachurches.org.