(A) Introduction

Paul has reminded the Philippians of their great example and inspiration, the Lord Jesus Christ, for a purpose. He writes: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue...v12. Jesus was blessed because of his obedience and the Philippians have been obedient in the past during Paul's presence and in his absence. However, they must continue to practice the Christian discipline. Paul urges them to do so with a series of colourful, powerful and moving phrases that still speak to the heart of men.

(B) Something to work out

Paul tells the Philippians: work out your salvation. v12. This does not mean that they had to work it out in the same way that we solve a crossword puzzle. I will use three illustrations to get at Paul's meaning.

A man who inherits a gold mine will not become rich, nor make others rich, until he works it out. The mine might contain all the gold in the world but until he develops it no one can share in its wealth. Salvation is something to be shared - it should enrich the lives of others.

In the nineteenth century the slaves in America were set free. That freedom was something for the slaves to use. Liberty was like a rich vein of gold that needed to be worked out. Many freed slaves remained in slavery. They had been set free but they remained with their old master. They had been slaves too long and had a slave mentality. Salvation sets men and women free. Unless that salvation is worked out it is possible to remain in bondage to fear, to self and to Satan. Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." These are comforting words but I am afraid we tend to ignore the instructions that follow. Jesus shows us how to work out our salvation: Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will you heart be also. Mt12v32to34. There are many other Scriptures that should enable us to overcome chronic, debilitating, self-consciousness and the festering doubts induced by Satan. Let us use the shield of faith and the mighty two-edged sword of God's word against the fiery darts of Satan: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things. Rms8v32.

I have sometimes written a pupil a fairly damning report and on meeting his parents have been told, rather plaintively, "Charlie likes Geography - it is one of his favourite subjects." I usually think, but do not say, what must he be like at the rest! Now it is perfectly true that a teacher can take on a child who has no real interest in his or her subject and kindle an interest in that subject. It is a kind of conversion experience and very gratifying for the teacher. There are some obvious signs that this has occurred. The pupil listens more attentively and responds well to questions in class. Sadly there are some, like Charlie, who don't develop their interest. They are not prepared to work hard at the subject to acquire its discipline.

God creates in the Christian a desire to know and do his will. Paul writes to the Philippians: for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. v13. God creates the inclination but this has to be backed by determined application on our part. It is one thing to agree that heaven is a good place to lay up treasure and quite another thing to actually invest there. Work out your salvation urges Paul.

Something to work with.

Paul tells the Christians at Philippi: work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He is not thinking of the fear and trembling of the dentist's chair. He is speaking rather of the emotion a man or woman experiences when taking on a great work. A man may be awed by the privilege of doing the work and burdened by the responsibility involved in the work.

A skilled craftsman will approach the restoration of a great work of art with fear and trembling. It is a great and awesome privilege to work on a splendid masterpiece and there is a fearsome responsibility to do the work in a way that does not ruin the fruit of another's genius.

The same could be said of a musician participating in the performance of a great symphony. Perhaps the musician has only a few notes to play. However if they are not played correctly and at the right time the work of a famous composer will be spoiled. Many a musician has played their part in fear and trembling.

The diamond cutter who has been presented with an uncut gem of unique potential will approach his task with respect for the stone, awe at what it might become and fear lest he fail to do it justice.

The Christian has something wonderful to work on: the new life God has given him or her. Paul writes to the Ephesians: For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph2v10. There we have it! We are God's workmanship. We have been saved by grace. However, we have the responsibility to work out our salvation - to do those good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. We should approach this task in the same spirit as the skilled restorer, the musician and diamond cutter. It is a privilege and a responsibility. We need to be careful and prayerful. I fear that we take our Christian profession far too lightly. Paul advises his dear friend Timothy: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2Tim2v15. My father gave me these words at my baptism nearly forty years ago. Of those words I can honestly claim to have been true to the first three: Do your best..

(D) Something to work towards

(a) Paul wants the Philippians to work out their salvation and so grow in grace that they become blameless and pure; children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation. v15.

Pure air, salt or gold is unadulterateded - the genuine article. (See my exposition on The pure in heart.) Paul does not want the Philippians to masquerade as Christians but to be genuine children of God. The Bible is the genuine word of God because it rings true. Christians need to ring true. Falseness is often revealed when we are put to the test. I always experience great disappointment when I eat what purports to be a cream bun and the cream is synthetic. There are synthetic Christians and they often prove to be one of the greatest of all life's disappointments for the true followers of Jesus Christ.

The word, 'blameless', means something similar to, 'pure'. A blameless Christian is one whose allegiance and devotion to Christ is beyond question; there are absolutely no doubts at all that they are wholehearted followers of Jesus. I have known Edward and Henry who attend the church at Brockley for 55 years. I know them well and they are not without their failings. I think they would say the same of me! However they are blameless in the sense that there is not a shred of doubt that they are totally committed to their Lord. That is their glory.

Paul does not expect the Christians at Philippi to be without any faults. Rather he doesn't want them to be so spoiled that the blemishes are there for all to see. He doesn't want the Philippians to be like a basket of badly bruised or maggot riddled apples. We will not be a good witness to a crooked and depraved generation if we are just as crooked and depraved as it is. I am afraid that in the West there is a danger of the world ruinously infecting the church. We are becoming too individualistic, materialistic, legalistic, intolerant at perceived incompetence and liberal about some aspects of sexual behaviour. I just wish I had been a better witness to Jesus during my 37 years as a teacher; able to rise above circumstances and to control my temper. Certainly moodiness and volatility spoil a teacher but that is not quite the same thing as being infected by the spirit of the age. We should be able to gaurd against unchristian attitudes peddled by the world.

(b) Secondly, Paul encourages the Philippians to do everything without complaining and arguing. Paul does say, 'everything'. There are some tasks in the church that it is easier to do without complaining than others. We quite enjoy the creative tasks that are usually appreciated by others. It is not so easy doing the chores that no one else wants to do. A huge beech tree overshadows our little chapel. In the autumn the paths around the chapel are carpeted by beech nuts and leaves. One man sweeps them all up. No one asked him to; few know that he does it; I do not expect he gets much thanks but he is always cheerful. A church is blessed if it has a lot of willing volunteers. Recently I got some wood panelling replaced in one of our vestries as it was riddled with woodworm. Almost before the builders had completed the task Ron was in the vestry varnishing the wood. Anne who opens our church up and switches on the heating for all our meetings never forgets and never makes a burden of it. As her mother-in-law would put it: "That there gal Anne never makes anything of it." Nothing spoils our Christian service more than ill-natured grumbling. We should remember whose we are and whom we serve.

A church is unlikely to make much progress, or prove very attractive, if it contains more than its fair share of argumentative, negative, suspicious and ultra-cautious members. I was in a chapel recently that had a smart, new, welcoming, entrance hall. It was a vast improvement on the dingy, cramped, unlovely, lobby they had before. I told one of the members of the church how much I liked it whereupon he said, "We nearly didn't do it. There was a lot of opposition to it. Several said we didn't need it." I have found amongst Suffolk village people, of the cussed variety, that those who most oppose a project initially take most credit for it when it is finished! I myself am of a conservative disposition and I don't think it would be good if a church was full of people just like me! We mustn't stifle initiative and enterprise because of our own inertia and suspicion of change.

(c) Paul hopes his friends at Philippi will shine like stars in the universe

What do stars do for you? People living in our urban areas seldom notice the stars. When I was a boy living in a Suffolk village we were often aware of the stars. Our village was dark at night. There was no street lighting and oil lamps shone dully in people's homes. Whenever we went out on a clear night and looked up the sky was awash with stars.

The stars remind me of God's power and wisdom. God who created life that depends on numerous, complex, processes at the microscopic level also created the immensity of space and its far flung galaxies. The stars fill me with awe because of their sublime beauty. They give me hope. It is never going to be dark so long as there are stars in the sky. Darkness, however oppressive, can never put the stars out. One night long ago, I looked up at the stars and realised my own insignificance but then I thought, as I look up God looks down and gives me significance.

Do we shine like stars in the universe! Do we remind men of God's wisdom and power? Are we beautiful? Do we give others hope? Do we bring significance to the lives of others by showing love? I have been reading Elias Canetti's autobiography, 'The Tongue Set Free.' Canetti was a Sephardim Jew. Sometimes he and his widowed mother used to talk about his father. His mother would say:
"You'll never find a man as good as he anywhere in the world, never, not ever!" ...... And then came the many stories about his good heart, stories I had heard a hundred times and kept wanting to hear over and over; how many people he had helped, even behind her back so that no one knew about it, how she found out and sternly asked him: "Jacques, did you really do this? Don't you think you were overdoing it?"
"I don't know," was his answer, "I can't remember."
"And you know," her tally would always end, "he really had forgotten. He was such a good person that he forgot the good things he'd done. You mustn't think that he had a poor memory otherwise. If he did a part in a play, he wouldn't forget it even months later. ..... He never forgot what I liked and he could surprise me with something that I had once wished for vaguely - even years afterwards. But if he did a good deed, he would keep it a secret, and he was so skilled at keeping it a secret that he forgot it himself."

I thought when I read that: how beautiful. Jacque Canetti's left hand did not know what his right hand was doing. His self-forgetful generosity shines like a star in the universe.

(d) Paul expects his brothers and sisters at Philippi to hold out the word of life. v16.

We, as Christians, should never forget that we have the word of life. I heard the Rev Alan Stroulger repeat a story from the Bible Society magazine on Sunday. A Brazilian woman, abandoned by her husband, took to her bed leaving her seven year old daughter to scavenge for scraps in the dustbins of the well-to-do. The scraps were boiled up with bones to make a soup that was used to feed the women and her family. Life was too much for the poor mother who sank into a semi-paralysed condition. One day her daughter came home with a discarded book that she had discovered amongst the trash. She gave it to her mother who, with little better to do, read it. She read it through and got out of bed; she was no longer paralysed; she was no longer the same women. The wife who had been abandoned by her drunkard husband discovered that God had not abandoned her. She had read the New Testament and it was the word of life. It gave her new life in Christ. Later she put her hand upon her son's head and prayed that he would proclaim the word of life one day. It was a moment the Brazillian preacher Daniel Fernandez never forgot.

Christians should always be prepared to offer the seeking soul the promise of Jesus: "Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him." John3v36. We can either hold Jesus out and share this wonderful truth or we can hug him, and it, to ourselves.

(E) Something to work for

Paul worked with the Philippians in order that he might see sacrifice and service coming from their faith. Paul was intent on encouraging their faith, sustaining their faith and nurturing a true faith that both serves and sacrifices. Paul is realistic because he acknowledges that it is possible to run or labour for nothing. v16.

It is a terrible thing to cultivate the land, to sow the seed and never to reap a harvest. This happened over and over again on the sandy lands of the East Anglian Breckland. There was nothing wrong with the cultivation techniques or the seed - the problem lay in a soil that was deficient in trace elements. It is heart-rending to read accounts of crop failure in the Great Plains of America in the 1890's. Year after year the farmers sowed in hope. Year after year drought blighted their hopes. All their efforts come to nothing. In the end bankrupt and defeated the farmers had to abandon their land.

I have known what it is to teach unresponsive pupils who make no effort to learn. It is a soul destroying experience. Educationalist question your expertise, you question it yourself, but the problem does not lie with the sower; it resides in the soil. What is far worse is lack of response to the Gospel. In Britain church after church has closed, or is in danger of closing, because of the lack of conversions. I was talking to my friend, Pastor Skull, of a church known to us both that has pursued a vigorous youth policy for twenty years without seeing a single conversion. It is an appalling situation. We feel so wretched because the Bible says: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal6v9. We think that it must be our fault that more people are not saved. I am inclined to believe that people in Britain today are no more ready for the gospel than the wayside was for the good seed.

Paul, however, concludes this section by writing, I am glad and rejoice..." He rejoices because he is confident that the Philippians do live a life of service and sacrifice. He is pleased with their progress as Christians and their devotion to Jesus. He considers that a healthy, growing, church is an offering pleasing to God and he sees the suffering he endures for the Gospel's sake as providing the finishing touches to their offering in the same way as outpoured wine completed a sacrifice made under the old dispensation. There is no gladness like the gladness of a dedicated servant of Jesus Christ who sees the fruit of his labours.