ES/PHIL/16 Philippians 2:16b–18
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12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now 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 do for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
17 Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
The point of these verses are: ‘Don’t just start well but continue and finish well.’
And it is to this end that Paul concludes what he is saying here. He wants to see the results of his work; that it has not been worthless; that there is a heavenly legacy. This is incredibly important for ministers. After all I and others like me will be judged by God for the efforts put into ministry and making sure there is no lack of results from the work done and the quality of it. I want to see you do well. I want to see that you are people of the Word who practice their faith accordingly. That you are growing in Christ and in His knowledge and participating in the life of the fellowship making Christ known to others. And also sharing with me in what you learn so that I may learn too.
This is what Paul wants of the Philippians, after all, these are they who came to faith in Christ through him and he wants them to stand and persevere and to be light in the generation that they live. Paul wants his people to get it right and, as we mentioned last week, he wants them to fulfil what Daniel says in:
3 Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever.
And that Paul wants to rejoice in the day of Christ for those who follow Christ. Throughout this letter he continually refers to what we call eschatological things or as we would normally say: Last things or Last Days.
Paul’s all is for Christ but he is set upon the goal of presenting himself and others on the day of Christ to Christ worthy of His name. Truly Paul is reserving his boasting and glorying and rejoicing for the Day of Christ when all those who have come to faith through him and been established in the faith will be the evidence of a man who has done the work of Christ. In another place he says in
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
Paul wants there to be a lasting legacy which will be evident in Heaven. Paul is so spiritually and emotionally involved with the Christians in Philippi that he sees, in their lives and his, that both their loyalty and his loyalty to Christ is what gives his life meaning; that it has counted for something. When he says that I have not run or laboured in vain he is not giving in to doubt but knows that they will actually finish the race. He is confident – very confident that Christ who began a good work in them will complete it. But there is cause for concern because there were the niggles going on between some in the fellowship which could become something larger if they do not hear him and obey but since he is addressing these things then he knows it’ll turn out right. He’s done his job.
Let’s be clear; Paul is not rejoicing because he has succeeded but because Christ has succeeded through him. He clearly states this in
17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—
In other words he will not boast about anything other than what Christ has accomplished.
And in
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
If Paul says he cannot boast about what he has done, only about what Christ has done through him, then, equally, we ought to be on the look out to make sure we are not full of pride and thinking we are something more than we are; thinking we have done something worthwhile when it is Christ in us who wills and does for His good pleasure. There is no room for boasting for it is all of grace and without it we would be nothing.
About boasting Paul is clear; he says in:
17 But “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Indeed Jesus says in:
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
This is the second time today I have said this but not intentionally. Let us be clear; there is no room for boasting for it is God at work in us for without Him we can do nothing and we can achieve nothing. Paul’s evidence for what he has done in Christ will be evident on the day of Christ when he is surrounded by all those who came to faith through him and were built up in Christ in Him. And that he and they will be rejoicing together in Christ in that day.
As for ‘run in vain or laboured in vain’ he has combined his two main images for ministry. Running is something taken from the games which we will return to in the next chapter of Philippians and labour is equated with manual labour something like his tent making. He says that this was something that was hard work:
12 And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
Paul had worked hard all his Christian life seeking that others will receive the prize in running and seeing the fruit of their work – for Paul, the prize for him is seeing others there with him in glory also receiving rewards.
Indeed our work needs to carry with it the idea of the prize when we are before Christ. What will be our legacy?
Every year, at Christmas time, one of my favourite movies is shown on TV: "It’s A Wonderful Life", staring Jimmy Stewart. In the movie Jimmy plays a man named George Bailey. George has big dreams of going to college and being a world traveller. Instead, he winds up having to take over his father’s building and loan, which is more like a charity than a business. George becomes so disappointed in what he has become that one day he decides to take his own life. He says, "I wish I’d never been born". At that moment his guardian angel Clarence intervenes and shows him what life would have been like had he never been born. His home town "Bedford Falls" would have become "Pottersville" named after the greedy old banker. His old boss ,the chemist, would have turned into the town drunk because George wouldn’t have been there to stop him from making a fatal error in a prescription. The angel shows him how many lives he touched with his life.
All of us want to be like George Bailey. We all want to know that our lives have counted, that we have made a difference in the lives of others.
Many people consider their legacy when they are in their twilight years. Some get consumed in finding ways to be remembered when they are dead. The vast majority will be forgotten in death and come another 100 years perhaps no one will remember that you or I even existed except as a name in a register or unless we did something spectacular – but who we are will have been forgotten. I once watched a program called ‘Forever’. The script said this:
When Gloria Carlyle died, 91 years’ worth of memories disappeared in an instant.
People, places, loved ones and enemies alike, all gone, lost forever.
Even one distant memory of her.
We can only imagine what her final thoughts were.
Fear, anger, we’ll never know.
Everything is forgotten in death.
Now this fictional character Gloria Carlyle, if she was real, would be all too aware of her own memories after death but the point is that no one else would know them. They are lost. All the experience of life will no longer be of any use.
No wonder Solomon wants to add his two-pennies worth here:
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“All is vanity.”
Now you are hearing another preacher saying all is vanity, emptiness, a waste of time.
Do we want to run or work in vain chasing our own dreams making memories that will be lost? So, what kind of life do we want to create for ourselves whilst we are here? If we want a real legacy it surely is to be found doing what God wants us to do and doing it with all our might.
success comes by allowing God to accomplish His purposes through our lives
The two metaphors used by Paul ‘running’ and ‘labour’ are insightful. Running needs exertion. It is not a walk in the park – though for some this may mean exertion if we are that unfit! But running always takes effort. Labouring also is hard work. Both running and working are active words not passive. Passive means we sit where we are like we do in front of our TVs and consume everything we watch, having no effect placed upon us to do anything – except perhaps if we are watching ‘X Factor’ – we might exert ourselves to reach for our phones and vote – which is about as much an effort as we can muster whilst sitting on the sofa. Passive really means we do nothing. Active means we do something. Running means we do things full-on. There’s a goal to run towards.
Jesus, in His prayer prayed for us:
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
We have a purpose in being here on the earth. Otherwise we would be with Him right now where He is. His purposes are different to ours. God has left us here to be lights – and to shine brightly – to run and labour for His purposes.
I finish today with looking at verses 17 and 18 which speaks of sacrifice and service and the joy that can result. Let me read it to you again:
Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
Paul is saying that if I were to die that would be a great offering to God on their behalf but, even though he thinks he will be released, he is being poured out for them anyway. He has put every effort into serving the people at Philippi.
There is a story I want to tell you about a man by the name of Abraham Bininger. Born in Switzerland in the 1700s he and his parents left their homeland and boarded a ship for America. During the journey both his father and mother died and were buried at sea. While just a boy he found himself in a strange land where he knew absolutely no one. However he never let his misfortunes hold him back. As a young man he professed Christ as his saviour. After hearing of the great misery and poverty among the black people on St. Thomas he sought to travel there to preach the gospel.
Upon his arrival he discovered that was against the law for any person but a slave to preach to the slaves. It was the policy of the plantation owners to keep the black people in ignorance and superstition. Shortly after this the governor received a letter from Bininger. In the letter Bininger pleaded with the governor to allow himself to be made a slave for the rest for his life. Bininger promised that he would serve as a slave faithfully, providing he could give his leisure time to preaching to his fellow slaves.
The governor in turn sent the letter to the King of Denmark who was so touched by the willingness of Bininger to sacrifice his freedom for the gospel that he sent an order that allowed Abraham Bininger to preach the gospel whenever and wherever he chose, to black or white, to slave or free.
Here was man willing to give up his very freedom for the true freedom of preaching the gospel. Yet we live in society where we have great freedom in preaching the gospel of Christ, yet we rarely exercise that freedom.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
A perfect example of a living sacrifice is Jesus Himself who was sacrificed for our sins, a perfect and acceptable sacrifice. It will take sacrifice and service for our faith to make the Gospel known to Manselton. It will probably cost us something. I don’t mean money though it will but it will cost us time, cost us the things we would like to do, cost us embarrassment, cost us family and friends, cost of all kinds that, maybe, cannot be imagined now. If it costs nothing it is no sacrifice.
Paul looked forward to the day when he went to be with Christ but his joy was doubled for he knew that the Philippians would be there with him. The Philippians had joy as a result of their faith and work for they became fruitful for God’s Kingdom and Paul says ‘rejoice with me!’ I rejoice and co-rejoice with you. Yes, your situation and mine are not great, certainly nothing to be happy about, but God is at work in us for His purposes, He is in control, and in the end we will go to be with Him. So, let’s rejoice! Paul says.
In two verses joy is mentioned four times. And thrice more it will be commanded in this letter. Our situation does not dictate joy for it is in Christ we put our trust. It is now for us to run and labour until the Day we go to be with Him. Now, in this, we can rejoice!
Benediction
Benediction
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Bibliography
Bibliography
Hughes, R. K. (2007). Philippians: the fellowship of the gospel. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
Osborne, G. R. (2017). Philippians: Verse by Verse. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Runge, S. E. (2011). High Definition Commentary: Philippians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 08:26 14 May 2018.