Awe and Wonder at God's Plan for Us

in
Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2018-03-11

Sermon Outline - Awe and Wonder at God’s Plan for Us

Outline

  1. Recap Parts 1 & 2 (chapter 1)
  2. 2:12 —The problem verse
  3. Recap 2:1–11
  4. Rest of the passage 2:12–30
  5. The message for us

Recap from Chapter 1

Philippians 1

  1. I thank my God every time I remember you.
  2. I always pray with joy in my every prayer for all of you
  3. For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart...
  4. For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

The problem verse

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

  1. 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,
  2. for it is God who works in you,
    both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
  • So your salvation is something you have to work on!
    • And be very afraid that you don’t mess up!
    • And you do this by obeying
    • But don’t worry too much because God will help you along the way.
  • What do you think ??

Questions

“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,”

  • What does “salvation” mean?
  • What does “fear and trembling” mean?

Individuals or Community?

  • “keep working on your individual health and wholeness”
  • “keep working at achieving spiritual health within your community”
  • All the verses before and after are about community
  • Now would be a good time to do our review of last week’s passage:

Philippians 2:1-11

  1. If then therefore there be any encouragement in Christ,
    if any comfort from his love
    if any fellowship in the Spirit
    if any deep affection or compassion
  2. Complete my joy by having the same mind & heart
          having the same love
          united in soul
          in one mind & heart
  3. not from rivalry or conceit
          but in humility counting others
                more important than yourselves.
  4.             Each of you should be concerned
                not only about your own interests,
          but also the interests of others.
     
  5. May this mind & heart be in you that was in Christ Jesus

Song of Jesus

  1. Who, being the form and reality of God
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be grasped
  2.       but poured himself out,
          taking the form and reality of a servant,
          being born in the likeness of men
                and seen with the appearance of a man
  3.             he humbled himself
                becoming obedient to the point of death
                      even death on a cross
  4.             Therefore God super-exalted him
                and gave him the name
                that is above every name,
  5.       that at the name belonging to Jesus
          every knee will bow
          in heaven and on earth and under the earth
  6. and every tongue confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord
    to the glory of God the Father.

AMF

Phil 2:12–13 updated

  1. …keep working at achieving spiritual health within your community
    with fear and trembling,
  2. for it is God who works in you,
    both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

“fear and trembling”

  • phobou & tromou
  • “awe and wonder”
  • Visitors to the empty tomb (Mark 16:8)
  • Slaves that realize that Jesus himself is their real master (Eph 6:5)
  • Here: Awe and wonder at what Jesus is creating in our community
  • “With awe and wonder, keep working at achieving spiritual health within your community”

Rest of the passage: 2:12–30

Philippians 2:12-30

  1. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed
          not only in my presence but now much more in my absence
          with awe and wonder,
          keep working at achieving spiritual health within your community
  2.       for God himself is the one working in you,
                both the desire and the effort, for his own delight.
  3. Do everything without grumbling or arguing
  4.       that you might be blameless and pure children of God
          unblemished in the middle of a crooked and perverse society,
          among whom you shine as stars in the sky
  5. 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 labour in vain
  6. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith,
          I am glad and rejoice together with all of you.
  7.       And in the same way you also
                —be glad and rejoice together with me.
  1. Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon,
          so that I too may be encouraged by hearing about you.
  2.       For I have no one who is like-minded who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
  3. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
  4. But you know his proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.
  5. So I hope to send him as soon as I know more about my situation
  6. though I am confident in the Lord that I too will be coming soon.
  1. But for now I have considered it necessary that Epaphroditus, my brother, coworker and fellow soldier,
    and your messenger and minister to me in my need, be the one I send to you,
  2. for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.
  3. In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. But God showed mercy to him,
    and not to him only, but also to me, so that I would not have sorrow on top of sorrow.
  4. All the more eagerly therefore I send him, so that seeing him again you’ll rejoice and I’ll be free from concern.
  5. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honour people like him,
  6. since it was because of the work of Christ that he almost died,
    risking his life to make up for the help you were unable to give me.

AMF

You will shine like stars in the sky

You will shine like stars in the sky

Image source: Creative Commons

Outline

  1. Recap Parts 1 & 2 (chapter 1)
  2. 2:12 —The problem verse
  3. Recap 2:1–11
  4. Rest of the passage 2:12–30
  5. The message for us

John 17:18–23

  1. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world…
  2. “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony,
  3. that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.
  4. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one —
  5. I in them and you in me — that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.
  6. …keep working at achieving spiritual health within your community, for God himself is the one working in you, both the desire and the effort, for his own delight.

Philippians 2

  1. Complete my joy by having the same mind & heart
          having the same love, united in soul
          in one mind & heart
  2. not from rivalry or conceit
          but in humility counting others
                more important than yourselves.
  3.       Each of you should be concerned
                not only about your own interests,
                      but also the interests of others.
  4. May this mind & heart be in you that was in Christ Jesus
  • Do you buy into this vision for our community?
    • Paul’s vision & Jesus’ vision?
  • How can we be better at doing this in practice?

Updated on 2018-03-13 by Andrew Fountain