Work It Out With Fear and Trembling

In one paragraph

On the last Sunday of 2017, the pastor walked First Baptist Jackson through Philippians 2:12-18, a passage he said fits well for standing at the edge of one year and facing another. The sermon centers on what it means for a community of believers to work out their salvation together, and what it looks like to shine as lights in the middle of a broken world. the pastor started by reading back...

Read together

1. Philippians 2:1-4 Read as introduction to the main text, setting the stage with questions about consolation, comfort, fellowship, and affection, leading to the call to be like-minded
2. Philippians 2:5-11 The Christ hymn describing His divinity, self-emptying, incarnation, obedience to death, and exaltation by God
3. Philippians 2:12-18 The main sermon text, covering working out salvation with fear and trembling, doing all things without grumbling, shining as lights, and Paul being poured out as a drink offering
4. Acts 4:5-12 Peter before the rulers declaring that salvation is found in no other name than Jesus Christ of Nazareth
5. Deuteronomy Source of the phrase 'crooked and perverse generation' used to describe those outside God's people
6. James Referenced in connection with the double-minded man being unstable in all his ways
7. 2 Corinthians 5:9 Closing verse: we make it our goal to please Him whether at home in the body or away from it

Talk about it

1. The pastor described Philippians 2:5-11 as his favorite passage in the New Testament and suggested it may have already been a hymn Christians knew before Paul wrote it down. What does it mean to you that the earliest believers were singing about the full humanity and full divinity of Christ just a generation after the cross?
2. The pastor said you cannot work out your salvation until God has worked it in, and that it is God who works in us both to will and to do. How do you personally experience that tension between your own responsibility and God's work in your life?
3. The pastor talked about grumbling as an internal thing and disputing as external, and he shared the story of a man with mental retardation who stopped complaining about the exercise bicycle after hearing Philippians 2:14. Where in your own life do you notice that internal grumbling starting before it ever shows on the outside?
4. The pastor said Israel was called to be a light to the surrounding nations but instead cloistered themselves and hoarded the blessings of God rather than sharing them with their neighbors. In what ways do you think the church today risks making the same mistake?
5. Paul said he was glad even if he was being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of the Philippians' faith, and the pastor connected that to the idea that we all have less time today than we did yesterday. What does it look like practically for you to see your time and energy as being poured out for the faith of others rather than wasted?