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

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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, 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. 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. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

- Philippians 2:12-18

PRAY

We are entering to a new section of the letter to the Philippians. My goal is that when we are done with this letter, you will feel as if you have some mastery of it in terms of reading it, interpreting it and being able to pray through it and apply it to your own life and to this church.

But as we dive into the latter portion of this book, the application portion, things will not be as organized as they were previously. Different sections will feel a little scattered to us, and I want to help you understand why. I want to quickly at the beginning of this sermon equip you with some basic tools that will help you on your own learn to interpret the New Testament letters, the fancy word is “epistles,” the Greek word for letters. So I’m putting on my teacher hat for a minute, and take some notes if you’d like.

Even though these application portions in the letters can feel scattered to us, we can assume that if you were the original audience, a member of the church in Philippi, it would not have felt scattered. Paul knew this church intimately, and more than likely he was addressing specific things that they were facing. But to us, we’re like “Paul, you are jumping around from this to that – why are you doing so?”

To give an analogy that helps you to read and interpret your Bible when it comes to reading the letters in the New Testament, and what we are facing today – have you ever been in the room with someone when they are on the phone? You can’t hear what the person is saying on the other end, but you can hear the person in the room and their responses. If you easedrop and try to follow the conversation, you would only be able to follow 50% of it.

It would be like this – we had Ed and Maureen over last night, and if I said “Guys, thank you so much for the generous gift. The tacos were also great the other night, our kids devoured it all. Alex says the pasta wasn’t actually homemade. Ed, the missing one on that list that I could not remember was that we need to be worshippers, I finally remembered it this morning. Apparently Abel beat all your kids in street fighter 2, and he was bragging all morning. Thanks for coming over, we may actually go to the zoo tomorrow, and we all are looking forward to it. We had a blast and we’re looking forward to having you over again.”

That’s what it is like to read these New Testament letters. The Gibsons understand exactly why I said all the things I did, but you guys don’t. You might be able to piece together a few things if you “studied” my words. But you only are receiving half of the conversation.

This is the challenge that is presented to us with New Testament letters. Paul is writing to address specific things that, if you were a member of the Philippian Church, you would have known exactly why he is saying what he is. For us, we have to do our homework to try and understand why he address the things he does.

So I’m going to do my homework in trying to understand why he said all that he said, and do our best to draw out of it from God’s word the timeless principles that apply to all churches and all Christians for all time. If it feels a little scattered this morning, just make sure you are listening and praying through what you hear, and we can ask the Holy Spirit to open up our hearts to receive whatever he may have for us from this text today.

So here is a little road map as we dive in. It begins with the word “therefore” – so as we said last week, therefore is there for a reason. All of what follows is in light of the Master Story of Jesus giving up his status and honor in heaven, and climbing down the social ladder to become a servant, a slave, and dying for us. If we are called to participate in this, what does it look like? How would it affect the Church? Our day to day life? So here’s our map:

1) We are going to look closely at Paul’s encouragement for the Church’s growth and discipleship to continue even when Paul is absent. We will stop and look at healthy church leadership in light of the Master Story, and why Paul would say what he said.

2) Then we will get a little theological, as we see just who is at work in our lives as we attempt to work out the already accomplished salvation we received

3) Finally, we will once again revisit the lack of unity in the Philippian church, and Paul’s plea to strive together in joy to be unified. Let’s dive in:

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

Paul reminds them, as he said early on, that they have since the beginning been walking with Christ in obedience. He reminds them of this through the affectionate term “beloved” – a term of almost family endearment, reminding them that they are just individual Christians to live out their faith individually, but rather have become a new family in Christ.

Their obedience, however, should not be predicated on Paul’s presence, lest they become a cult of personality. Their growth shouldn’t be dependent on Paul being there, especially since his future was so uncertain in light of him being in jail. Here, almost in passing as Paul mentions this, for our day in age, we find something so important to pause and consider for current structures of Church Leadership, and how church leadership should look through a life conformed to the cross.

THE RISE OF THE NARCISSISTIC PASTOR

We can assume that Paul was a big personality to some degree or another. His letters were powerful, and they had a major and huge impact on the early development of the church. He was “famous” around the early church, and similar to if a large Christian pastor celebrity person would visit Immanuel this morning, if Paul visited a church, everyone would know it, and everyone would want to listen to Paul and surround him.

Almost in passing, the danger that Paul is addressing is this: just because I am not there right now, don’t allow your progress as a church to be predicated on my being there. I’m not there right now, and just when you obeyed in my presence, even moreso, learn to live this Christian life without me. Learn to grow in Christ in my absence. It’s not dependent on me. Your Church is not dependent on Paul.

So if we are to bring this to modern day application, I want to do so via story. There is an extremely common story that is happening all over churches in America right now, and its heartbreaking that it is happening to the degree that it is. I’ve seen it first hand multiple times, and every time there is a train of wreckage that follows that almost destroys a Church.

So I am going to stop and tell you a story about a guy named Charlie. He’s a made up person, but Charlie is just like many people that I have personally encountered in my life, and also in the ministry.

Charlie grew up in a broken home. Like the majority of adults today, Charlie had family issues that brought about lots of insecurities, as well as emotional instabilities that were carried into their adult life.

Charlie became a Christian and since he has a big, charismatic leadership personality, and since Charlie can draw a crowd, and since he is dynamic, energetic and humorous – many people see that Charlie could really draw in a crowd for Jesus and grow a Church, and recommends him to pursue the vocation of Pastor.

Charlie goes to seminary, and gets a respectable degree. Afterwards, he starts a brand new church. Charlie becomes Pastor Charlie. He was trained in all the same ways that new business owners are in terms of church planting – you need to be entrepreneurial in spirit, have strong leadership, do all that it takes to grow the church, and continually work on drawing a crowd, and you need to raise lots of money.

Pastor Charlie, just five years into this new church, has hundreds of people in attendance. Numbers are always rising, and the church is taking in lots of money through tithes and offerings. Pastor Charlie is successful – according to the measurements of success concerning gathering a crowd and financial solvency.

But problems start to arise. Most of the successful things at the church are centered around gifts and talents that only Charlie has. People attend to hear his sermons and to see his dynamic personality in action while sitting in such a large crowd.

Charlie has a hard time taking criticism, and being corrected. People begin realizing that Charlie doesn’t really have many close friends who can hold him accountable, but rather has surrounded himself with “yes people” who go along with his vision with little to no resistance or questioning. Associate pastors rise and fall and are let go because they aren’t a good fit or don’t agree with Charlie’s vision or have some hidden moral failures that no one knows about expect Charlie.

Charlie’s inner circle is always changing, and the ones that are kicked out disappear from the church all together. After time, Charlie becomes very defensive about himself, he has created many enemies and has pushed many people away, and has a knack for manipulating many to see things “from his point of vie.” concerning his relational difficulties. Above all, he is concerned with his position of power and influence with a major focus on church finances and having some control over them, and maintaining this at all costs.

Immanuel, I hate to say it, but I describe such a personality because I’ve seen this first hand. The modern Church has given room for these kinds of personalities because, if your measurement of a successful church is growth, high Sunday morning attendance numbers, and financial solvency, then people and personalities with giftings like Charlie are desirable because they can bring about rather quickly the desired outcomes of “success” – numbers and money.

Here is the problem: all of this is dependent on Charlie’s presence. All of it. He must be there for the success to happen. This is a modern day plague for the church – perhaps one of the biggest plagues in the evangelical church. Opposite of Paul’s words – you guys don’t need my presence – pastors like Charlie say directly or indirectly “you need me for this church to flourish.”

Healthy Churches need not only healthy pastors, but pastors that know that it is not dependent on them, that the institution of the church is not resting on their own shoulders. But rather, like we will see Paul do next week, pastors must carry the burden with others, all with the goal that if they were to vanish overnight, that the church would still have the tools and equipping necessary to flourish without them, and not face collapse. Pastors like Charlie, when they disappear overnight, often times the Church disappears with them, because people could not think of being a part of that church without that big personalit, because the Church became so closely identified with that personality.

We are the bride of Christ. Jesus is our Chief Shepherd. Not me, not the elders, not any other leader. If I vanish overnight, the Church must go on. That’s what Paul in passing is saying. Oh if the American church can take heed to this! This is so important for the health of a church, for the long term health and growth and maturity of a local church. It’s all about Jesus.

What does this healthy church look like? What are the aspects of Church that need to be had if the show can go on in Philippi without Paul? What are some of those characteristics of the cross-shaped life? It looks multi faucited for sure. However, here are some specific things that the Church in Philippi needed to focus on. Let’s look at them:

1) WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING

Strange language Paul. Didn’t Jesus work out our salvation for us? That, however, is the wrong question. I’m sure some of you have said this before: “I got a new job” or “I tried to fix my car” and someone says “great! How did that work out for you?”

The idea is the ongoing result and effect of the event that you attained. How is it working out for you? Are you saved in Christ by faith alone? Great! How are you working it out? Paul is an evangelist, and beneath his leadership they became Christians. He led them to salvation in Christ. Your initial salvation changes your life forever. It’s not hell insurance. It’s a NEW LIFE that you continually must work out. What’s the result been on your life?

When Paul directs them to do it with fear and trembling, he is reminding them that the grace and love given to us is of the Holy and Almighty God that humbled himself to become a man and became obedient to death on our behalf. Don’t forget that this is the God you serve – be in the holy fear of God, and tremble in his presence as you worship.

Worship. Fear and trembling often occurs when you stand in awe. It’s the reason why you and I go to see snow capped mountains, why we visit the grand canyon, why we see epic structures that humans have built – we enjoy being in awe. We feel at home in being at awe. Don’t lose your awe of Christ. Your awe of Christ should drive your working out of your sealed salvation in Christ. Work at this. Work at remaining in a child-like awe and wonder of Jesus and his salvation – fear and tremble before him!

2) FOR GOD IS AT WORK IN YOU, TO WILL AND TO WORK FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE

And this is part of the Good News too – its not just your work. No – part of the mystery of God’s absolute sovereignty is this: your work is his work. He’s working through your work. And here we scratch the surface of a divine mystery, of how God works through your free will to bring about his good purposes. How does that work? How is it that when you labor in growing in Christ, trying to conform to his will, that God is working through your free will?

Christians, humble yourselves in trying to understand these things. I don’t get it either. And that is OK. I don’t know how God’s work and God’s will, his good purposes for his own good pleasure, things predestined before the foundations of the world, somehow is accomplished through my own free will. I gave up years go trying to understand it. Instead of getting anxiety from it, be comforted! God is at work in you right now, and you are not alone in your pursuit of Jesus Christ.

So as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, as we are comforted in knowing that God is at work in us through our own work, he gets specific – this life of the cross that they are to pursue – he focuses on their attitude, their heart and motivations towards one another:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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, holding fast to the work of life, .

Stop complaining, Paul says. Stop disputing with one another. He’s already addressed their lack of unity as a Church, and he gets specific here: don’t grumble. Do all things without it.

I can be a grumbler. Sometimes it feels awkwardly good to complain about things. It’s almost as if you feel vindicated for something not going your way through complaining and grumbling, looking for the person you’re complaining to to say “youre right!”
But even worse – more than likely they were grumbling and complaining to one another about each other, causing disputes in the church.

This is not the light of Christ. No. This is not the path of a life conformed to the cross. That is how things operate in the world, but not in Christ’s Church. In his Church, we should find forgiveness, we should find grace towards one another. A grumbling and disputing church is not a light to the community. Our corner of Wilmington here will not be drawn to Immanuel if we are known to be grumbling towards each other – “Hey! I heard that church has lots of inward disputes. I heard that they are always complaining about each other to one another, creating little factions who don’t like each other. That sounds awesome. I want to be a part of that church family.”

No! We are a bunch of people who are imperfect, and often times we will be able to find many excuses to complain about one another to each other. That always happens when you throw a bunch of people together from all walks of life. But the difference here is that we are all in Christ. We know that we all are imperfect, and have been forgiven. And we are to extend the grace of forgiveness and forbearance and patience towards one another – and there is our lampstand. There is a light of the Gospel, the “working out” of our already received salvation. I want to be a church known by these things. For that is how we hold fast to the world of life. Paul continues on, and gets a little personal:

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. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Paul ends this section speaking as their spiritual father, pleading with them. He wants to face his final meeting with Christ knowing that his pastoral work among them led to fruit, that it led to this idea of being a shining light of Christ in this world, knowing that he didn’t labor in vain. And then we catch a glimpse of Paul’s vision for pastoral ministry and how he wants to lead: “if I am to be poured out as a libation, or drink offering on the sacrificial offering of their faith, he will rejoice, no matter what it takes.

This is how it is worked out – service. Servanthood. The image can be found in the Old Testament, when David and his army was close to Bethlehem in the midst of his battle, and the Philistines were close to his hometown, guarding the famous well that he drank water from when he was a kid, and at one point he yelled in a bit of yearning and dreaming “oh if I could have a sip of water from that well that is behind enemy lines!” Secretly some of his men risked their life to sneak behind enemy lines, fight off the philistines just to grab a cup of water and bring it back to their beloved king.

David would not drink it. He knew the high cost that was given for him to drink it, and he stood there and poured out the water to God.

That is the idea here. Paul says that he is willing to be poured out like water on the ground as a sacrifice to God if it means that they may work out their own salvation, that they may learn to sustain their faith in Paul’s absence, in order that they may be a light shining in a dark world. This bookends our conversation concerning pastoral leadership – far from Paul being the leader on the tip of a leadership triangle, he once again points us to the Master Story of Jesus Christ that he called the Church to participate in – it sounds rather exhausting to be poured out for someone else, does it not? But isn’t that what Jesus did? Did he not pour himself out for us, making himself nothing? Not only is that the HIGH call of church leadership – to make a church dependent on Jesus by the pouring out of its pastoral leadership – but this is also something we should do for one another. And as Paul says, this hard work of the Christian, with Christ as our example, will bring JOY. It will COMPLETE your joy.

As we close, I want to encourage you all in a few ways:

1) Why are you here? That may sound like an odd question, but here me out. Why are you here this morning? What draws you to want to be a part of this church?

I want you to be here because you are interested in Christ, because you are in fear and trembling of Christ, because you are in awe of him. We want our music of worship here to draw you to Jesus, and not to Derek. We want our sermons here to not draw you to one individual person, but rather to Jesus. It must be about Jesus here. We must be making disciples of Jesus, and not disciples of Daniel Nelms or Derek or any other leader here. I want that to be why you are here – to be a part of a family, a church family who want to do this together, and to be beneath leaders who guide you to this. It is so important.

I was speaking with Jim DiBiaso yesterday about this, but sometime in the early time of me being here, we as a church are going to pursue a larger church denomination or network to be a part of that will hold us accountable to these things. We don’t know which one yet, and it wont be a quick decision, it’ll be a slow one that we make together as a church. But if Immanuel is to make it into the next chapter, and face another 150 years of ministry if the Lord tarries – Immanuel must be known for our love for Jesus and one another, and not known for a personality or pastoral figure.

2) Are you a grumbler? A complainer? Do you know that grumbling and complaining only leads to disputing, to factions, to divisions? Christ did bring a divide between those who know him and those who do not, but he did not bring a divide inside of his own body. Even at home or at work, complaining about things only reveals an ungrateful heart, and often a selfish heart that is more concerned about self than others. Complaining only grabs a hold of others and brings them down as well.

What does it look like for you to give thanks in the moments when you want to grumble and complain? What does it look like to be a church family that doesn’t grumble towards one another?

3) And this leads us to our final point – we need to pour ourselves out for one another. We need to once again remind ourselves that others are more important than ourselves. You are more important than me. And like Paul, I am to see my life as an offering to the Lord, to be poured out for you, for one another in love and in joy. I can’t redeem you, I can’t save you. That work belongs to Jesus. But I want to work out my own salvation, my already accomplished salvation, by showing you a life shaped by Jesus in pouring myself out to serve and love you all.
______

And now we are going to transition, thankfully to communion! As we remind ourselves of Jesus, as we remember his death, his sacrifice for us, as we respond to all of these things.

Due to Covid, things are going to look differently than you have done it before. We have passed out little cups that come with a wafer and juice all inclusive. We’ve passed them out with gloves and masks and a very limited amount of hands to decrease human touch on them. If you did not feel comfortable grabbing one, I do understand.

If you need a cup for communion, please raise your hand, and with proper social distancing measures we will ensure that we can get you a cup for commuion.

This is what we are going to do today: I am going to read through 1 Corinthians 11. I am going to walk through Paul’s words concerning the Lord’s Supper, that final meal he ate with his disciples.

A few reminders:

Communion is a sacrament, and it is for Christians. If you are unsure if you are in Christ, don’t be embarrassed or ashamed, or feel the pressure to take it anyway just to feel included. Immanuel is a welcoming family, and this is not a time to make you feel excluded or anything, so please don’t be afraid of that. We would ask that right now, you would take the next few moments to consider the things you have heard, consider what it means to repent of sin and trust on Jesus for salvation, to be brought into his Redeemed Family, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and be brought into Newness of life even now.

For those who know Jesus, I am going to walk through this passage and guide us through the taking of the elements. I want to say something, though, before we do:

Communion is not a funeral. The cross was not Jesus’ funeral. Right? The cross event and his death was only a step in this process to receive eternal life through his conquering of death. We remember his body broken for us and his blood shed for us indeed in sorrow that our sin caused the very son of God, God in flesh, to die for us.

However, we don’t drink in sorrow but in celebration! Knowing that we are redeemed and forgiven in Christ! And so this should be a time of what I like to call solemn celebration. If you feel solemn, bow your head in reflection and prayer. If you want to take it in celebration, take it in joy and throw out some amens! And hallelujahs after we take the elements, for he is risen, he is risen indeed.

Let’s look at our passage in 1 Corinthians 11:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Please now take the bread.

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Please now take the cup.

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Can we say this together? FOR AS OFTEN AS YOU EAT THIS BREAD AND DRINK THE CUP, YOU PROCLAIM THE LORD’S DEATH UNTIL HE COMES.

We have one final song in closing. May this be our time of response to what we have heard this morning.

***Introducing the time of response, ask the worship team to come up****

***As people to come forward for prayer on the sides, Covid distancing***

***Closing with a song***

Jude 24–25

Doxology

[24] Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, [25] to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (ESV)