Sermon: "Working it Out"

Fourth in the "Philippians" series.
Delivered July 9, 2006 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Theme: At times it can be quite difficult to persevere in the face of conflict with other Christians, but this passage reveals three reasons for staying motivated in working toward healthy relationships.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

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Sermon Notes are at the end.

I can't imagine that anyone did not feel greeted after all of that, so that's good that we are having a good time. Hopefully some sermon notes are coming your way - a little note sheet if you haven't gotten it thus far. So look for that. The Beatles song that you just heard and the sermon notes try to get us to think about the theme of "Working It Out". Some of you weren't here last week. As the sermon note sheet says that last week's scripture was from Philippians 2:1-11 and it called us to share Christ's attitude and last week we handed out these little green cards and challenged people to memorize Philippians 2:5-11. You can find that in your red pew Bible on page 831 if you would care to follow along. And so Paul is talking about how Jesus humbled himself and now we are looking at the verses that come after this great hymn about Jesus' humility and he is driving home the point about working things out in relationship, especially in the church. And as the sermon note sheet does say, at times it can be quite difficult to persevere in the face of conflict with others; with other Christians and so the sermon today is basically three reasons for staying motivated in working toward healthy relationships. So there is three simple points on the sermon note page and we are going to look at the text and talk about it, but first let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your presence with us. We thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit that you are always with us; you never leave us or forsake us. And we pray that you would open our hearts to understand your word, that the Holy Spirit would help us to not just see words on paper, but again to hear words of transformation for our lives and our relationships. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Also before I go any further, I just want to point out again that the evangelism candle is lit. That means that someone in our community has helped someone us to come in to a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and has accepted Christ their savior. I would be curious how many of you here have been helping out as counselors or in some other way down at the Franklin Graham festival; just kind of zip your hand up real quick. There are a number of people helping out there. How many of you have had the privilege and chance to lead somebody else to Christ, to know the Lord? Okay, there you go. So the evangelism candle is lit through that event and that is extremely exciting.

We are following on the heels again of what it took Jesus to come down in his incarnate state to work things out with us. Now listen to how Paul on the heels of that drives home his point in Philippians 2:12-18. You can look at it in the Bible or just follow it on the screen.

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life-in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me."

So I wonder, is anyone here in any kind of conflict? Can you bring to mind the name and face of someone who you wish you had a smoother relationship with, whether that's great or small? Is there anybody in your world, in your context, whether it's at work or whether it's in the family or whether it's in the church that things need to have a better bridge built towards you? If you do and as Jesus said you have some ears to hear, then there is some help here on how to maybe build that bridge a little bit more clearly and strongly.

The first point is that striving for harmony is a core expression of obedience to God; that when we move toward each other in harmonious ways, forgiving ways, humble ways, to try to work things out, that is a sign or an expression of deep obedience to God. Paul had just been talking about how it was obedience that brought Jesus to this earth. He obeyed it said even to death on a cross and, therefore, God highly exalted him. So he starts this passage with a "therefore." "Therefore my dear friends" in light of how Jesus obeyed and he says, "as you have always obeyed", he said I wouldn't even be writing you this letter if there hadn't been some obedience thus far and then he goes on to say, "not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence" and there is a little hint here that he may never see them again, that he is in prison and he may be executed. You know if we obey only because we are externally motivated to obey, then there is a lot of room to grow. It's intrinsic motivation for obedience that God is looking for.

Many of us grew up with the television show, Leave it to Beaver and if you hadn't grown up with it you have seen reruns. My favorite character in that whole show, I mean the older I get I think it is the funniest thing, it's Eddie Haskell. Eddie Haskell was the classic image of a person who obeyed or seemed to present an appearance of obedience when Beaver's parents were there and who was totally different when they weren't. "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver", "Theodore is looking particularly spiffy tonight" you know? And then when he was behind closed doors he said, "Hello squirt, you trying to be maitre d'? " and he would just cut on the kid. That's external motivation for obedience and Paul is saying to the Philippians, "If it's only because I am with you, then that won't last very long."

You know I did interim ministry before coming here to Central and I have seen them, besides Central in two other churches that I can think of. It's an interesting dynamic when a pastor has been in a place a long time; one pastor that I followed had been there 34 years and one pastor had probably been 31 years and it's a very interesting time at the end of a long pastor and how obedience works at that point or how the dynamic of the congregation works and I am always blessed when it doesn't matter who the pastor is. It matters that Jesus is at the center of the community. And so, Paul is saying that obedience is a core expression, so the question then becomes, well, what is he saying in this context that we are to obey? Well he gives it pretty much right on there. He says, "As you have always obeyed, not only my presence, but much more in my absence, continue now to work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

Now on the surface this is a little confusing. Many people in their lives say these words: "I'm not going to take anything from anybody. I am not going to receive anything from anyone. Anything I have I am going to earn, I am going to deserve." Some people say this sort of thing and if people don't say it, they believe it and they live it. Well that is not the Christian view. The Christian view as you learned last week is much more humiliating. There is not one of us that deserves the gift of life itself. There is not one of us that draws a breath every single second that we deserve. God's grace has been poured out for us and his salvation has come to us just as we saw and try to live out in this baptism. That grace comes from above down upon us; not something that we earn or that we deserve. But when we read this 'work out your salvation,' it almost sounds like that we should try to do something to earn it, but he is not talking about personal salvation. He is talking to a group of people who are in need of relational restoration and he is trying to say work out your salvation's edge. It's almost like a coach speaking to a team and he's got the whole group together and he says, "Listen, this team needs to go another notch. We need to work on this edge and if we work on this, it will be to our salvation as a team. We will get better. We will get stronger." And so when Paul says obey, he is talking about obedience to relational harmony; to continue to work out relationships in fear and trembling. It's like a runner. Later on in this text he uses the metaphor of a runner. He says, like a runner trying to shave off some time, work hard, strive until all the discord is gone, until the relationship is open once again.

I am not saying you can be friends with 700 people in a church, but I am saying that your heart can be open to every person in the church. Your heart can be receptive as Paul talked about in his life together with the Corinthians. And there is a hint here when he says, "Do this with fear and trembling. Obey, work at these relationships with fear and trembling." That simply and literally means respectfully, but there is also a hint that one day, one day we might stand before the Lord, we are to stand before the Lord and I mean think about it; Jesus prayed before he died for the unity of the church. And so, when we stand before the Lord, what are we going to say to him if we haven't worked for the unity of the church? What excuse are we going to give when he prayed for it? So there is a hint in fear and trembling that this is the thing that God has wanted for all time, in fear and trembling work out your salvation amongst one another.

You know some words are like plums and some words are like pills. Words like love and joy and peace, those are easy to swallow. But other words like discipline, responsibility and obedience, those are like pills right? Sometimes? Obedience marked all of Jesus' life. He says, "I have come. I delight to do thy will O Lord." And so when we obey the Lord, that is what is most pleasing to him. There is no story in the whole Bible that is more riveting on this count than the story in 1st Samuel 15 of Saul and Samuel. Samuel is the prophet, Saul is the king and the enemy is Amalek. And the prophet Samuel comes to the King Saul and he says, "Listen, here is the mission. You are to go to Amalek. You are to wipe everything out, everybody, there is not to be one person, no matter how old, no matter how young, you are not to leave one animal." It's hard for us to understand why that command was given, but in the mystery of God's plan, he knew that that is what was needed for the good of the society of the future. And so he says to the people, "Wipe them out." So Saul goes ahead and he does it and he sort of partially obeys. He keeps some of the animals, even though he had a total annihilation mission and so it says that he is returning from Gilgal where he built a monument to himself and you know even if you don't know a whole lot about the Bible you can pretty much figure that if somebody built a monument to themselves, something that comes after that is not going to be good, okay? Because it just sort of smacks right at pride; somebody building a monument to themselves. So Saul he comes and he sees Samuel walking towards him and he says, "I obeyed. I did what the Lord told me to do." It's interesting that he initiates that conversation. I mean he is so thinking that he obeyed, right?

And then Samuel says to him, "Well if you obeyed, what's this bleating of sheep that I hear in my ears?" He says, "Oh". So first he lied and then he says, "Oh we kept some of the best ones to sacrifice to the Lord." And so he adds to a lie a rationalization and he makes it a religious rationalization and then when he is pressed a little bit further, he says, "Well the people took the sheep." So now he is blame shifting. So now you start to see the chaos of relational difficulty: lying, blame shifting, rationalizing and so finally Samuel says, "Stop" and he reads him the riot act and then after he confronts him, Saul still says, "I did obey." It's amazing how much a person can fool themselves. But then Samuel comes home with this verse. 1st Samuel 15:22 and 23: But Samuel replied, listen carefully: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the voice of the Lord?" See he is coming to the core here.

"To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king."

And so we see that when we disobey, at least according to this text, to obey is more valuable than all the religious activity that we can do. To disobey is equivalent to worshipping idols. Those are strong words.

And so now in Philippians Paul says, "As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now my absence, continue to work out your salvation." What is he asking you to obey? That they would work at it, that they would relationally connect, they would overcome obstacles that get in the way of the things that cause relational problems and it's interesting that at the end of the text Paul refers to their community and to their life as a sacrifice and service of their faith. Isn't it interesting that he says, "You guys, even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith" and what he doesn't say but maybe he hints at is this, "I hope when I get to heaven" and he does say, "I hope I haven't run in vain. I hope I haven't labored in vain; that you won't work at this and that I hope when I get to heaven and I see Samuel and we compare notes, that I won't be able to say I know how you feel." Yeah the Philippians they did a lot of sacrificial stuff, but they really did not strive for the unity that Jesus prayed for. That is what he is telling him, telling them to obey.

So let me ask you some questions and they are very pointed questions and I want you to think about these questions openly and honestly.

1. Is there anyone in this fellowship; is there anyone that you know is a Christian that you are avoiding?
2. Is there anyone with whom you cannot exchange a smile?
3. Is anyone trying to connect with you, but you are shut down almost like there is a closed sign around your neck, like stay away?
4. Is there anyone the Lord is saying to you to move toward, but the rationalization of Saul creeps in?

If you answered yes to any of those then there is work to do in the area of obedience. And there is no greater evidence of Christ at work in our lives when we take that step of humble obedience and move toward another with whom things are not good and there is a wonderful promise that happens and a wonderful thing that happens if we will do that.

That is the next point; that striving for harmony has a promise attached to it; that God will provide the power we need to fulfill God's eternal purpose. So there are three "P" words. There is a promise attached, that he will provide the power in order to fulfill his purpose. If you look at the highlighted verse underneath Point 2: "For it is God who works in you," and that's again plural, "to will and to act according to his good purpose." And these verses reemphasize that Paul was not speaking about personal salvation, because God was already at work, and we get the word energy from that Greek word, God was already working to help the Philippians work it out among themselves. So he says that as you strive for harmony, as you seek to understand others point of view, as you pursue peace, as you refuse to cut others off, as you take a risk and move toward conflict with another; as you do all of those things, God will energize the experience. It really literally means that God will effectively energize you as you take a step to make sure that your heart is open with others. Now I hear some of you, "You don't know the people that I am dealing with"; "You don't know what they are like". I know I don't know what they are like, but the Lord says that he will empower us if we will take a step of obedience. That's a promise and it's to fulfill his eternal purpose.

Now, I do know a little bit, because I am a little embarrassed to say this, but in our family, not in our family, but immediate family, but a little bit outside, you take a few ripples out, a couple of generations, a couple of cousins and all that sort of thing, there are some relational outs. Now one of the reasons that I don't hesitate to say this too much is because I know that you probably have a little bit of this in your mix, right? That there are sometimes people in family that you just don't get along with and in our particular context it goes back to another generation, but it had to do with challenging inheritances. I mean as soon as you hear that you know, right? I mean taking people to court. Can you imagine the residue of that kind of thing, when siblings take other siblings to court, okay? And there has been in some of our larger family functions, there have been a few skirmishes, a little bit of a scene here and there and it's very complex and its more complex than I could ever explain to you, but here is my point. I've got two points. One, after studying this for two weeks, I really want to try harder. I really want to try harder to understand those who basically have said to me, "Because you won't side with this part of the family, we are cutting you off too", "Because you won't side with us against this part of the family" and I really want to understand where they are coming from and I have prayed "Lord help me to do that."

But here is the second point: they are not in this church. If they were in this church, then that would be like I cannot do anything else until I make sure that there is as much harmony as humanly possible in the situation, because the achievement of amicable relationships where the fellowship of love is strong. That's God's eternal purpose. That is what Jesus prayed for. That is what Jesus died for, so that we might come in to a relationship with him, so that we might be in a relationship as a community. You don't think there is going to be squabbling in heaven, do you? I don't think so. That is where God's eternal purpose is going to be fulfilled. But on earth we say things like, "Well I want things to be better with so and so, but it won't happen, because I know the way they are." And when we say that we forget the way God is and his power and we forget the way we are. You know the Bible says, "As far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all people." And I think in our honest moments we would say, "You know what, it probably does depend upon me more than I usually think if I would take a step of faith in God." Okay, so that is the second thing, strive for harmony as a core expression of obedience. As we do that he gives us power to fulfill his purpose and then when we do that the third thing is striving for harmony serves as a critical witness and encouragement for those outside a family of faith.

Look at the verses. Look at the verses on the insert in the Bible. Do everything, in case somebody didn't get it yet, do everything without complaining and arguing. These words are used in the Old Testament about the way people murmured and criticized Moses and they were all at odds with each other; he said do all of those things without complaining and arguing. Some of them had gone to secular courts for litigation, just like in Corinth and Paul said, "Cut that out. Quit acting like those who don't know Jesus." He is basically saying, "Don't behave like Congress", okay? Don't be like two sides of the aisle and put the people on this side of aisle in a bad light, so you can be in a good light. These are the kind of things he is saying. "Don't do it." And if you obey, you will indeed show yourselves to be blameless. Like Jesus who when they hurled accusations against them, they wouldn't stick. He was blameless. And he says you will be pure. Do you know what that word means? It was used to speak about undiluted wine. So in other words, it's for real. It's not diluted. It's not partial. It is for real and so people would say, "Man those people at Central Church they are for real. They are not just putting on a front." That is what he is saying; that you will be pure and blameless children of God.

Here is a quiz. Matthew 5:9, complete the phrase. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God." You notice how he puts that verse in there? About peacemaking, about connecting, about relational harmony and restoration? He says when you do these things you will be children of God without faults, without blemish. There is another reference to sacrifice. He is saying by being so unified, by working so hard when things get disunified, you will be so different from the darkness that is around you. You will stand out like stars in the universe and the darker it is around you, the more bright the star will shine; the more bright the light will shine. You know, I don't think I need to illustrate that we lived in a crooked and depraved generation, but is there just one little thing you could allow me. I mean you can just look at the newspaper and figure that out for yourself. But one little thing that I just read recently. When 9/11 happened some guy said and this is not true, he said his wife was killed in the towers when they fell, just so he could rip off Red Cross and he like rented kids to take with him and he ripped off the Red Cross of $100,000; money designated for relief for those who really did suffer, he ripped it off. Fortunately he was caught. But I want to ask you, can you be much lower than that? Can you be much more perverse or crooked than that? And so what Paul is saying that in the midst of a generation, in the midst of a society that is so dark, when we are honest and real and work it out, we are like shy and people say, "Well what's up with them?" And they are drawn and attracted and not just drawn to us. They are drawn to Jesus. So if we think of unbelievers as stargazers, whenever we don't do what Paul is saying we are like putting a lens cap on a telescope. What do they have to show? What's to see?

Franklin Graham festival is going on. It's a powerful event. If you haven't been there, get down there at 4:00 o'clock today. It's really exciting. There is a lot of great music and the health of Billy Graham being there. He will preach. It could be the last time anybody ever hears him preach, but the point is this. That event will be over today. Thankfully there will be many ripples of that event, but the most important way of evangelizing from this point forward, for everyday, for every week, for every month, is when we live in loving harmony and work stuff out with one another and when we do that, that's holding forth the Lord Jesus. That's holding forth the word of God and the gospel. I will close with this thanksgiving for someone's generosity.

Andrew and Carolyn Brooks are members here in the church. They returned from a trip and they gave me some books as a gift. And one in particular that I really like is a thin, leather-bound version and it's got gold printing on the black cover and it says, "The Valley of Vision" and that is taken from Isaiah 22, that phrase. Well that was on my night table for a long time and it's a book of prayers that the Puritans wrote. They weren't intended to be published. These were just honest heartfelt prayers of people who were deeply committed to the Lord. And they are very moving prayers: very much like 'God, if you are not in this, I am never going to be able to do this' and it took me a long time that book sitting on my night stand to figure out the title. You would think I would have figured it out a lot earlier, but isn't that title a really paradoxical title? The Valley of Vision? I mean shouldn't it be called the mountain of vision? That if you want vision, if you want to see that you would go up? But that's the whole point, because the scripture says that God is high and lifted up and dwells in the heaven exalted, but he also dwells in the heart of those who are low and humble. That's where we see what God wants us to see in the Valley of Vision. When we are there in humble love towards each other then we will be exalted like Jesus as a community and we will be a light on the hill for all to see and invite Jesus to come in to their lives as well.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your grace and love. Forgive us for the times that we don't really shine out too much like stars, but we thank you indeed that your life is among us and so as we continue in our worship, we pray that you would seal this word to our hearts, that you would help us to understand what it means for each of us. Lord I pray not just for what people hear me saying, I pray that your spirit would be driving home these points in whatever way is important for each life here and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon Notes:

Last week's scripture text from Philippians 2:1-11 called us to Share Christ's Attitude in humbly laying aside our rights in relation to others, especially in the faith community. This week we explore vv 12-18 which further amplify the reason Paul was encouraging his friends toward "working it out". At times it can be quite difficult to persevere in the face of conflict with other Christians, but this passage reveals three reasons for staying motivated in working toward healthy relationships.

1. Striving for harmony is a core expression of obedience to God.
   
   "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out/at your salvation with fear and trembling..." (Phil. 2:12)
2. Striving for harmony has a promise attached; God will provide the power we need to fulfill God's eternal purpose.
   
   "...for it is God who works in you (plural) to will and act according to his good purpose." (Phil. 2:13)
3. Striving for harmony serves as a critical witness and encouragement to those outside the family of faith.
   
   "Do everything without complaining and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine, like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life..." (Phil 2:14-16a)

© 2006, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org