We’ll pick up the text at Philippians 2.12-18

12 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, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 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, 16 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. 17 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. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. 

Like last week, this passage continues the thought of our lives being shaped and molded by the Lord as He changes how we think and subsequently act…understanding this short passage is critical to our understanding of how God develops in us what we would call “sanctification” -- once we come to faith in Christ, at that point the Holy Spirit begins to change us, remake us -- the truth we’re looking at today is foundational to rightly understanding how that happens in our lives

And as our last passage did, this one also breaks down into two parts: verses 12 and 13, and verses 14 through 18

WORK IN AND WORK OUT: PHILIPPIANS 2.12-13 

Paul connects this thought with the idea preceding it, humility, with the word “therefore”…based on Paul’s apostolic command to take on the humility of Christ and to live that out in the world, doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but considering others more significant than themselves, he now turns to the Philippians with this instruction, calling them “my beloved” and commending them for their prior obedience

But before we go any further, we need to clarify something: the nouns and pronouns in these two verses which refer to the Philippians -- “beloved” “your” “you” -- are all plural…we might assume at first that this is a command to individuals, but it first is a command to the church as a whole…Paul addresses the entire fellowship here…not to the exclusion of individuals…it still applies, but it first applies to the body of Christ as a whole…you could rightly consider this a “both/and” text…both the group and the individual 

He introduces this two part relationship: God is at work in you -- so work out your salvation

In English, the words are the same -- “work” -- but they’re different in Greek and that difference is significant

The word that applies to God -- that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” is the Greek word ‘energeo’ where we get our word “energy” -- it means to function, to operate, to be active, to work...we can think of it this way: God has set His energy to operate within us, He is “at work” in us

The word that applies to us -- that we are to “work out” our salvation -- is the word ‘katergazomai’ which means to accomplish or to achieve something

As we see these two words together in this verse, here’s how we can understand it more deeply with these two definitions in mind…God is operating with His energy in us, working within our bodies, minds, and spirits so that we can then accomplish and achieve all the work that He has set before us to do

In no sense is this a cooperative, works-based salvation or relationship…if it were not for the work God does in us, the ability, the energy, that He places within us, we could accomplish nothing for Him

There’s also a clear lesson for us if we turn this truth on its head for a moment -- what happens if we try to serve God from our flesh, without His Spirit, His energy, within us empowering and enabling us? The short answer is…nothing…our work in the flesh is futile…Paul describes our efforts toward a works-based righteousness as a pile of filthy rags…in ourselves and apart from Him, we will not accomplish anything for God

Let’s look at them in reverse order from the way we find them in the text, starting with God first…seems appropriate to begin with Him and His work

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

How is it that as a believer in Christ, and as a member of a believing fellowship, God is now “at work” in me? What is He doing?

How would you answer that question if a new believer asked you…”so now that I’m saved, what happens next? You say that God is at work in me, but what does He do? What does that look like?”

We know that God is always at His work…John 5.17 says 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 

And we know from Philippians 1.6 that 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 

So our God is working with and in us and will continue that work until it is complete

But to answer the question about what He is doing, we have to understand first how God interacts with His people after the resurrection and ascension of Christ and now that the Holy Spirit has come to His people

As Jesus prepared His apostles for His coming death, He gave them great hope in John 14

John 14.16-17   16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

In essence, Jesus says, I’m going away, but I’m sending the Holy Spirit, and He will dwell with you and be in you

If you look through the NT for the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, there is a hidden treasure of truth about how God is at work in us… 

Since the Lord wants us to know the truth, He gave us a guide -- the Holy Spirit

John 16.13 tells us this: 

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 

John 14.26 tells us that the Spirit teaches us   

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.   

He tells us about Jesus, affirming for us the truth of what Jesus has said, as a witness

John 15.26  26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” 

And He empowers us to be witnesses, too 

Acts 1.8   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

The Holy Spirit assures us of our salvation, our eternal relationship with the Father

Romans 8.16    16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

The Spirit helps us when we are weak, particularly in our prayer life, and intercedes on our behalf to the Father, fulfilling His role as our advocate

Romans 8.26-27    26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

Because the Spirit knows the heart and thoughts of the Father, as we have received Him in faith and He indwells us, He communicates to us, as Paul says, “the things freely given to us by God”

I Corinthians 2.10b-12     For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 

And in His role as comforter and helper, the Spirit is at work in and through His church as He gives and empowers spiritual gifts in each believer for the good of the body and the glory of God

I Corinthians 12.7-11      7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

God makes us sufficient to serve Him not according to the letter of the Law, but in grace ministered to us through His Spirit…which transforms us from death to life

II Corinthians 3.5-6       5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

And that truth leads us into freedom in Christ…

II Corinthians 3.17-18      17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

How are we enabled and empowered to not continue to walk according to the flesh, according to the ways of the world in which we have always previously walked? The ministry of the Spirit of God…

Galatians 5.16      16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 

Lastly, it is by the work of God through the Spirit of God that we produce the fruit of His Spirit

Galatians 5.22-23      22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

So how is God at work in us? He lives within and beside us, He guides us into all truth, bringing the words and works of Jesus back to our minds; He assures us that we belong to the Father, He bears witness to the reality and love of Jesus, and empowers us to be witnesses of those same truths to others; He helps us pray when we are weak, even interceding for us to the Father; He gives us spiritual gifts with which we are to serve the body of Christ; in Him we have freedom to walk in the Spirit not in the flesh; and ultimately He brings forth in us the fruit of the Spirit, which are marks of the character of Jesus Christ and which serve to shape us to be like Jesus 

It staggers our understanding of God and His work when we stop to consider all that He is constantly doing in us to accomplish His purpose: to conform us to the image of His Son

I Corinthians 15.49       49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Who we are today is not ultimately who we will be…God’s promise is that He will take us from bearing the image of Adam, and all the sin and degradation and death that comes with it, to bearing the image of Christ…

So now we turn to how we are to “work out” -- accomplish or achieve -- what God gives us to do

First, we might think that God only gives tasks to some people in the body of Christ…only people with jobs or titles or “callings” -- but that’s not the case…Ephesians 2.10 says

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The bottom line is that we all have good works prepared for us to do…so get going!

How are we to “work out” -- accomplish -- the works of God?

There are many answers to that question, but at the same time I think there are some fundamental, foundational truths we need to know

First of all, make sure you actually know Jesus…I’ve seen people in churches, and maybe you have, too, who are there for reasons other than loving and serving Jesus…and they can play the part without actually personally knowing Jesus…because doing good works doesn’t make you a Christian…don’t focus so much on the “doing” that you forget the “being” -- the service arises out of your relationship with Jesus -- you don’t have a relationship with Jesus because you serve Him

Matthew 7. 21-23   21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

So if you are an actual believer in Jesus, how can you start to work out your salvation as God is at work in you? 

We can start with the characteristic that is our defining characteristic to the world…they’ll know we are Christians by our love…if we follow the words of Jesus, we will ground our walk in the Lord not only in humility, which we noted last week, but also love, both for God and our neighbors

Mark 12.30-31      30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

We are sure of our relationship with Christ, and we are growing in love…now what? 

We begin to abide in Christ…we dwell in Him, live in Him always…this attitude of settled dependence will eventually result in a life of much fruitfulness…John 15.4-5 is clear:

John 15.4-5       4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

In this fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus presents a clear teaching analogy, one of the seven “I am” statements in the book: “I am the vine” … I’ve had the opportunity to work in a vineyard from time to time during harvest, and that experience taught me in a very concrete way what Jesus meant…of course, vineyards were an important part of first century life in Palestine along with olive groves, fishing, shepherding, and a variety of other agricultural and craft occupations…growing grapes, while there have been improvements, is also essentially unchanged in many respects…in the first century, every vine grower would immediately understand what Jesus was referring to…the vine, rooted in the soil, grows up and is often trained along trellises today…branches, sometimes called canes, grow upward from the vine and are where the buds originate, then the flowers, followed by the grapes, which are then harvested as they ripen in late August through October, depending on the climate and weather

What’s the point Jesus is making here and why does it relate to us “working out” our salvation? The branches on the vine do produce the fruit, that’s true…but only if they remain attached to the vine...many are trimmed during the pruning process, and if, during the harvest, a worker mistakenly cuts the branch instead of cutting just above the cluster of grapes, then the branch joins the pile of other cut branches, which are destined for the fire to be burned

In order to bear fruit as they are meant to do, branches MUST remain attached to the vine…they can remain for many years, bearing fruit each year if tended by a skilled husbandman, but they must remain in the vine, for the vine is the source of all the life in the plant…all the nutrients, water, minerals, carbohydrates, etc, come from the vine

What is the lesson for us? We must stay connected to Jesus -- just as closely as a branch is to a vine…it’s hard to see where the one stops and the other starts… Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

How do we abide in Christ? Through His word and prayer as He fills us with the nutrients we need, training us, pruning us, so we remain as fruitful as we can be…but remaining in His word and in prayer, seeking Him, listening to Him, dwelling in Him, is never just for our benefit…it is always for the sake of the fruitfulness of the vine…we must keep our focus on the kingdom of God, not on ourselves

So we know Jesus, we’re walking in love, we’re abiding in Christ…is there more? Oh yes…now comes the sacrifice of our bodies…not to be burned as martyrs, necessarily, but more likely in the daily choices we face as believers…as we walk each day with Jesus, are we consistently rejecting the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil, and choosing to walk in faithful and diligent obedience? Listen to the words of Romans 12.1-2…

Romans 12.1-2         I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

All these things -- assurance of your salvation, growing in love, abiding in Christ as you mature in fruitfulness, and offering your bodies as a daily sacrifice -- lead to this

Ephesians 4.11-12       And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 

The saints are being prepared and equipped for the work of the ministry…there’s that word again, “work” and this time it’s a third different Greek word: ‘ergon’ -- you could translate it “deeds of ministry” or “activities of ministry” -- it’s a fairly common word that just indicates the action of work

“What does that look like, Mike?”

Glad you asked…

It’s welcoming guests and friends at the front door of the church, greeting them with a warm smile with your eyes and behind a mask, and a heartfelt fistbump

It’s visiting with new people, learning what they need to know, introducing them to some friends, and making sure they find a great seat in the worship center 

It’s serving in Journey Kids, being a greeter or a helper or a teacher, sharing Jesus with precious little ones while their parents get a short break and take the opportunity to attend a worship service

It’s leading a small group, living life with friends both new and old, building relationships that will last a lifetime

It’s helping in youth ministry, reaching teens with the gospel and being a positive example they will never forget

It’s being a missionary as you bring food for a food drive, or share Christ in our own community or on a short or long-term mission trip through our mission partners

It’s caring for our seniors through Project 10:27 or helping food insecure families through Daily Bread Ministries or praying with someone who needs some encouragement or coming alongside someone as a counselor in our Help for the Hurting ministry

It’s helping to make sure our facilities are clean and fresh and ready to go each time we open the doors

It’s serving through our women’s ministry or our men’s ministry, getting to know your fellow believers while blessing the body of Christ and our community

It’s playing an instrument or singing on our worship team alongside Charlie and Amy

It’s helping to operate our technology in the booth, reaching out through social media or a newsletter, so that people around the world can participate in VBVF

And it could even be learning to be a barista for Jesus, helping wake people up before the sermon, not after

“Working out your salvation” can come in a lot of different shapes and sizes…but the one common thread is this: you find a need and meet it, you find a place of service and fill it

But it isn’t just IN the church…it’s also OUTSIDE the church…being Jesus where you are, in your world, neighborhood, business, school…

And I say this without any overstatement at all: it’s what you were born to do.

AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD: PHILIPPIANS 2.14-18

As we close, we’ll apply this final passage, verses 14 through 18

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 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, 16 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. 17 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. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. 

As you serve in the body of Christ, in our local community, and around the world, Paul gives us some good advice -- may you take on the role of a servant as Jesus did, without grumbling (complaining in low and indistinct tones) or disputing (debating, root of our word “dialogue”)

Instead of growling at people, we are to be shining lights in this dark world, this “crooked and twisted generation” -- never letting go of Jesus or our faith in Him

And no matter what the cost Paul might have to pay -- even martyrdom -- he and the Philippian believers would rejoice, for they would see their salvation brought to completion, the Name of Jesus lifted up, knowing that the Almighty God was constantly at His work

May the Lord find us faithfully serving when we return to Him, or He comes to take us home.