Learning to Be the Light

As a congregation, it has been awesome to rejoice at the new life in our church! From new members to guests to babies, it’s always a blessing to rejoice at what God has done and what God is doing! Think for a moment about the thoughts rushing through the mind of a child. As a child we have our mind set on lots of different things. We are asked what we want to be whenever we grow up and our minds get awfully creative at the very thought. From doctors to athletes to astronauts to inventors to stay at home parents to builders, kids want to be lots of different things. One kid was asked what he wanted to be whenever he grew up and he thought long and hard about the question because it was quite serious… After a few minutes of careful contemplation he answered that one day he wanted to be like his dad. When asked why the boy replied that his dad was the hardest worker and smartest person that he knew and that if he could just be like his dad that everything would be good. In our world today kids want to be all sorts of things and they have so many things influencing them both good and bad… But did you know that by and large, whenever children are asked about who their hero is they don’t reply by saying that it’s an athlete or influencer or teacher… They say that their hero is their mom or dad.

As baby humans, we look up to older humans - namely our mom and our dad. Our moms and dads provide so much for us and for many of us, they are our heroes in some capacity. As we get older we continue to look up to other people. Think for a moment about our Christian lives - just as we look up to other humans we’ll naturally look to someone to help us in our spiritual walk. Who is that person, or who should that person be? So many people repent of their sins and profess Christ as Lord and Savior and they get to a point in their life where they wonder what’s next… Where do I go from here? The Christian life doesn’t end whenever we are born again… That’s when our Christian life begins! As a new Christian, we must look to someone to help us in this new life. Where should we look? The Bible is clear that we are to look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith as the preacher of Hebrews states.

In Philippians, Paul has been rejoicing about who Jesus is and how Jesus has provided for Him and for this church. Last week we studied one of the most intricate passages in the New Testament as we looked at how Jesus, as the eternal Son of God, humbled Himself and came to the earth as the God-man and died on the cross. We see that Jesus humbled Himself and how we are to adopt that same attitude. How can we do that? Where do we turn? Maybe you’re here and you’re saved and you’re like an 18 year old high school graduate wandering what’s next in life. After justification comes sanctification. We are saved to serve and part of serving Jesus includes us listening to and obeying Jesus. Today Paul will remind his friends about their status and their responsibility to let their light shine. This is our purpose today too, friends! To let our light shine and to follow the true hero of history… Jesus Christ!

Philippians 2:12–18 CSB

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

The Person Who Gives Us Light: God (12-13)

Progressively, people are losing their patience in our world. Attention spans are getting shorter. The need for creativity and movement seems to be at an all-time high. Who here admits to being a little impatient at times? We’re all guilty from time to time. There are times where we want to do something immediately and we are forced to wait and it genuinely upsets us. There are times where even the microwave is too slow for us! Due to our lack of patience, we often look for shortcuts in life. Sometimes shortcuts are helpful and positive. If you have a long drive to make and you’re thinking about going one route only to look on your phone to discover that another route saves you an hour of time you’d probably say that it was a helpful shortcut so that you had more time at your destination. Some shortcuts are good in life but other times shortcuts create problems. Think back to your school days whenever the teacher would begin to give your class some instructions on a project or assignment and you initially listen to the instructions but halfway through you tune the teacher out and start working because you think that you know how to do the task at hand. You start out ahead of schedule because you started before everyone else… But about halfway through the project you reach a question and have no clue what to do! You think to ask a classmate and they try to explain it to you but it doesn’t quite make sense. Eventually you have to go to the teacher and ask for clarification and explain that you weren’t paying attention to the instructions. This shortcut didn’t pay off because you lacked the understanding necessary for the assignment.

We are a society that wants immediate results… But the fact of the matter is that it takes time to bring about change. It takes time to change the way that we act. It takes time to change the way that we think. It takes time to understand a new concept. It takes time to train for something. We read in the Bible that our life is like a race… Not a 100m sprint, but a lifelong marathon. Some of you aren’t thrilled about that, but this is the picture painted by Paul in the New Testament. A long race takes time to run… You’re not going to be done in 11 seconds, 11 minutes, or even 11 hours. This will take the rest of your life to run. There aren’t any shortcuts for us in this lifelong race either. As a Christian, we are simply called to run after Jesus and follow Him each day of our lives.

In Philippians 2:12 Paul encourages his friends to continue to listen/obey as they have been doing faithfully. This isn’t about obeying or listening so much to Paul but it’s about listening/obeying Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul puts it like this to the church in Corinthi

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

Ultimately, our Christian lives are supposed to be about imitating Jesus Christ. This passage of Scripture is directed toward Christians who have already trusted in Jesus as Lord. Paul has already reminded them of what Jesus has done in verses 5-11 of chapter 2 and the application found in verse 12 is to simply obey. To follow after Jesus. Specifically, to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. What are we to make of that verse? How exactly do we work out our salvation?

Whenever we read something in the Bible, we have to understand its original context. The context of this letter is to the church in Philippi - to Christians. Paul is not saying to work FOR your own salvation - that would be a works based salvation that would be due to our goodness. The Bible tells us that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We don’t work for our salvation - we work it out. Here’s a way to think of your Christian life: I work out because God works within. You and I are saved because of God’s grace and work in our lives - we are now responsible to work that out in our daily lives. We work this out with fear and trembling… This seems kind of odd for some of us because we don’t think of salvation as being something that brings us fear. Consider who our God is, though. He isn’t a kitten, He’s a lion. He loves us, absolutely, but we can’t make God like us and lessen His holiness or make Him more tolerable to our standards… God is completely holy. In Hebrews 12 we see that we are to worship God with a certain reverence because of who He is

Hebrews 12:28 CSB

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

Our God is holy and we are not… He is all powerful. We have to maintain that truth with the truth that tells us that through Jesus we have access to Him. We work out our salvation daily with fear and trembling and with the knowledge that Jesus paid our debt. We’ll get to the working out part in verses 14-18, but first Paul tells us what God does in verse 13. God is the one who first works in us.

Philippians 1:6 reminds us of this truth

Philippians 1:6 CSB

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

If you’re a Christian, God has saved you and He continues to work in you. He finishes the work that He starts! This doesn’t mean that you and I have no responsibilities in our Christian life - we’ll touch on those… But first we have to acknowledge that God is working in us. God has justified us. His Spirit begins this work of sanctification. Sanctification means to grow to be more like Jesus. This is what God is most interested in for His followers. God doesn’t save us to stay stagnant. He saves us to grow to be more like Him. To reflect His love and truth to those around us! Philippians 1:27 began this idea by instructing Christians to walk worthy of the Gospel - how do we do this? By reflecting Jesus and imitating Him. How does God work this process out in our lives? How do we, as sinners, fulfill God’s purpose?

Think of a house that is purchased as a fixer-upper. Any HGTV fans? A house has some issues or is outdated and it’s purchased by a person or group with the intention of fixing it up in order to sell it for more money than they purchased it for. They go in and make some changes and take some things out. They make some modifications and some updates. This process takes months if not years if it is big enough. But eventually the house is sold and they make a profit. Think of your life as a house. Ephesians 2 tells us that before Jesus we were walking in darkness as children under wrath and that we were dead in our sins and trespasses. We were a house without a roof, with holes in the drywall, with appliances that aren’t working, broken windows, and wallpaper that doesn’t match. As a house, you can’t do anything on your own… But whenever you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes inside your house and begins to fix some things up. He removes things that don’t need to be there, He restores your appliances, He repairs your leaking roof, and He refurbishes your walls. He changes us not according to our standard - but according to God’s. This is God’s work in our lives. This is sanctification - progressively being changed to look more like Jesus. This process will take the rest of our lives and it isn’t always easy… But the Bible promises us that God is always at work and that He will complete His work in His perfect time. This is the promise of Romans 8:28 that all things are working for our ultimate good even if they don’t feel good. God is making us more like Christ. First, we trust in the person who has given us our light and who has saved us. As Christians we trust in our God!

The Purpose of Our Light: Shine (14-16)

As Christians who are saved and given the Holy Spirit, we look different than the world around us. Paul shows some of the ways that Christians stand out in the remainder of this passage. Think about what makes a Christian different from a non-Christian. Sure, there are some noticeable differences on the outside: Christians belong to the local church and act differently and talk differently. The biggest difference between a Christian and non-Christian though is underneath. A Christian has the Holy Spirit and is adopted into God’s family. This internal change impacts everything else in the life of the Christian, including our actions. See, as a Christian you don’t do nice things in order to save yourself or to make yourself look good, you work because you are saved. In other words, good works are not the root that saves you, good works are the fruit of being saved by Jesus Christ! If you are saved, you will naturally do things differently than others around you who don’t follow Jesus.

Paul gives us several such differences in these verses:

No grumbling or arguing

Shine like stars

Hold firm to the Word of God

Let’s look at how we work out our salvation in these specific areas!

Paul first says that we shouldn’t grumble or argue as Christians. Why would he begin with this? What’s the big deal with grumbling and arguing? Doesn’t everyone do it? That’s the point. This church is facing both external and internal pressure and problems. Whenever we have problems going on, it’s easy to complain. It’s easy to grumble whenever things don’t go our way. Sure, we don’t make a big scene but we make our displeasure known to a small group and we create some grumbling. Yet, as Christians, Paul says to do everything without grumbling or arguing. Does that mean at church? Yes. What about at home or in school or at work or at the baseball park or at the fast food drive thru lane? Does it mean that we shouldn’t grumble or argue? The Bible is straightforward… We shouldn’t do it. But we’re all tempted to do it! Whenever I was in high school, my dad was my youth pastor. Whenever we’d go on mission trips or events and something didn’t go according to plan (which always happens), I’d hear the grumbling from a select few and I’d be tempted to join in. But because they were grumbling about my dad, more times than not this rubbed me the wrong way. It’s easy to grumble about someone else or someone who upsets you, but someone that you love? You’re hopefully not going to grumble and complain to others about them. Complaining or muttering demonstrates a problem with our heart. We’re tempted to complain and we’re tempted to argue because we’re humans. Even in church life this exists. We’re tempted to argue whenever things don’t go our way or we’re tempted to grumble whenever something happens that confuses us or is different. This doesn’t mean that we can’t ask questions or anything of the sort… A leader who isn’t willing to answer a question isn’t a true leader. Paul’s point is stemming from our heart and our tone of voice. Don’t be like the gentiles and pagans who grumble and argue out of a sense of proving their “rightness.” Don’t be that person because that behavior is sinful.

The connection Paul makes is that if you don’t do this then you will be blameless and shine like stars. This doesn’t mean that you’re perfect, but it does mean that you stand out! Our purpose in life isn’t to prove to everyone else that we are right - our purpose is to glorify our God (1 Cor 10:31) and one of the ways that we glorify Him is by not acting like the world around us. Back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about how we are to be salt and light and how we must not lose our saltiness in Matthew 5:13-16. Whenever we forget our purpose or whenever we act just like the world around us, we are like a lamp that covers its light. We are like salt that is no longer salty. We’re useless and ineffective! That’s not what Jesus wants for His Church - He calls to stand out in the middle of a crooked generation. This letter is nearly 2000 years old and those outside the church were called a crooked and perverted generation… Do you think things have changed much over 2000 years? Not really! We are living in the middle of a crooked generation and we are saved by God and given a light with the purpose of letting it shine!

What was the purpose of us receiving light in the first place? Jesus tells us this in Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 CSB

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Whenever you and I act differently, other people see a distinction and God gets all of the glory! How can we do this? By having conversations that are pure, blameless, and faultless as God’s children. This doesn’t mean that we’re sinless, but it means that we’re striving to glorify our God rather than ourselves. Where can we find help as we try to be this type of person? God’s Word. Paul says that we shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the Word of life. Stars stand out in the evening because the world is dark… Stars provide light. As a Christian, you will stand out by holding firm to what the Bible says. Whenever you have a crowd of people telling you you that murder is acceptable and you tell them that the Bible says that God is the giver and taker of life and that God alone forms us and that murdering babies is abhorrent to a holy God you are going to stand out, friend. Whenever you have a crowd of people who believe that the Bible is a book of fairy tales and you say that the Bible is the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God, you’ll stand out. Whenever you have people living out an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” approach to their lives and you say that the Bible tells us to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us, you’re going to stand out! Friend, the only way that you and I can shine like stars is to stand unashamedly upon the Word of God. The only hope we have to grow to be more like Jesus is to know Jesus more and more. This all starts with holding form to His Word.

Paul keeps his eyes fixed on Christ’s return… Whenever the end is secured, you can go through difficult situations today. Whenever I know that the Cardinals win game 7 of the 2011 world series, I can watch game 7 of the 2011 world series with hope even though it looks like they’re about to lose the game multiple times. I know the end… So I have hope in the beginning and middle parts. You and I can have hope today because we know the end. We know that we have a purpose today: Our purpose in life isn’t to get popular… Our purpose is to proclaim the Gospel. My prayer for FBC Salem isn’t that we would be a megachurch but that we would faithful to Jesus. My prayer for for us in 2022 is that we would keep our eyes supremely on Jesus and that He would shine through us. That we would be a trail of star dust that points people to the superstar.

The Power of Our Light: Joy (17-18)

The result in our lives of being filled with Christ is that we can choose to have joy at all times. This is the reoccurring theme in Philippians as the Greek word for joy, Cairo, show up 23 times. Sometimes Cairo is translated as joy, other times grace, other times thanksgiving - but the point remains that this letter is all about how Jesus changes everything for us as Christians! Jesus turns broken graves into beautiful gardens. Jesus turns weeping into rejoicing. Jesus turns grumbling into giving thanks. Jesus turns condemnation into celebration. Jesus changes the way that we think and the things that we do. For Paul, though he is in jail and in prison, he rejoices because God has saved him. He rejoices because God isn’t yet done with him. He rejoices because this church is growing in their walk with the Lord. He rejoices because God is on His throne. Paul is more concerned with the growth of this church and their faithfulness to Jesus than He is about His personal comforts. Paul says that he is being poured out as a drink offering for this church but he isn’t complaining… He rejoices.

The idea of Paul being a drink offering carries with it Old Testament significance and is also found in 2 Timothy 4:6 as Paul says this

2 Timothy 4:6 CSB

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.

Paul is talking about his death here. Being poured out as an offering for these believers and for sharing the Gospel with others. Paul is saying this: Even if I die for proclaiming the Gospel and encouraging you all, I am glad and I will rejoice! The power of Jesus Christ in your life is that you know the end. You know that Jesus wins. You know your God who promises to provide for you each step of the way. You know that you can always rejoice because Christ is always with you! Paul’s exhortation and imperative command in verse 18 is that these Christians would be glad and rejoice as well.

Christian, are you glad and rejoicing today? It can be weird to rejoice in bad times or in times of disaster… Christian joy isn’t a feeling that comes and goes. Joy in suffering doesn’t mean that you simply delight at all times and wear a mask. There are times to weep, after all, Jesus did! But what suffering cannot rob you of is your joy. Suffering can rob you of your health. Suffering can rob you of your time. It can rob you of your possessions. But suffering cannot take your joy away as a born again follower of Christ. Even if you can’t rejoice in your circumstances, you can always rejoice in your Lord. We can always rejoice in who our God is and what He has done for us. If Paul could rejoice and give thanks while in prison, what’s our excuse? As a Christian, you have been bought with a price and you are filled with the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean that things are easy - far from it. Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. There will be difficult seasons and times of great opposition. Maybe that’s where you’re at today, you’re in a difficult season and you’re wondering where you can go from here. If you’re not a follower of Christ, the first thing that you must do is repent of your sins and profess your faith in Christ as Lord and follow after Him. If you are a follower of Christ and you’re struggling about how to take that next step in your walk, here are a couple of things to do.

If your joy meter is on the low side this morning as a Christian, here are a couple of things to do:

Meditate on the Word of God (Psalm 1:2)

Spend more time in Prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Worship regularly with God’s people (Hebrews 10:25)

Trust in the Lord Alone (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Glorify Christ in All you Do (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Our destination is secured in Christ alone. Our hope is founded in Christ alone. He has given us a light and our world needs to see the light of Christ. Notice, Paul doesn’t give us instructions on how to “be” stars in our world… He says that Christians “are” stars in the world. We need to learn to be the light. We all need to learn how to rejoice in difficult times and how to not be people who grumble and argue like our world… Instead, we are saved to reflect God’s grace, love, and nature to those around us. The ultimate power and presence of His light in us is that we can choose joy at any and every time in our lives.

Related Media

Related Sermons