Carried to Completion (Philippians 1:3-8)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you have a Bible grab it go to Philippians chapter 1 we are working our way through the book of Philippians if you don't have a Bible there should be a blue one tucked under the seat in front of you uh if you're sitting on the front row I guess you should have brought a Bible because it's hidden but um if you grab that blue Bible it'll be on page 570.
If you don't own a Bible we'd love for you to take that Bible home with you that'd be our gift to you we'd love for you to own a Bible we are working our way through the book of Philippians together and Paul is writing from prison to a Church that has been supporting him and we're going to work through this I um I get to coach flag football I've coached flag football for the past couple years now and uh there's a spring league and a fall league and I've been coaching flag.
Because that's the age my sons are and that's kind of the without having to track travel that's the age of football they're in and uh it's a lot of fun coaching flag football is is a lot of fun I I like football I like coaching one of the things I've noticed and I've been surprised by is that the first practice goes really well I always expect the first practice to be difficult because we've never done any of this with these with these children they're learning it all.
But it's like they show up zoned in ready to go and the first practice usually goes well and in the first couple of weeks their knowledge football because with a lot of flag football I've had practices where at the end of it I say who's played football before like flag football before and they all just and I'll say who who hasn't sorry and they all rais their hand and I'll be like okay my whole team it's like all right this is a football like we've got to start at the very Basics.
But they learn a ton of stuff in the first couple of weeks like their amount of knowledge is just it's an explosion of football knowledge in the first couple of weeks because when they show up they don't know anything and I realize this you're you're you're trying to instruct them but you're speaking a different language you're looking at the kids going you got to get up you got to get on the line you got to get on the line and they will.
Look for a line well there is no line it's an imaginary line attached to the football we had a kid one time we put him in the back we said this is your spot you're you're running back you're about four yards off the thing he said okay he lined up we ran the play we gained like five yards we lined the ball back up everybody get your spot get your spot he runs he's like 12 yards off the ball and I was like hey man your spot's right here and he goes no it's not I marked it and we're like oh no that's going to move it's going to move you have to mark it.
In relation to the ball he had he had dug a little hole in the ground it was pretty smart but it was like it's not going to work um so it's a thing where they they grow and then all of a sudden after a while they kind of know what we're doing they they show up to practice they know kind of the drills we're going to run they know the words we're going to use and now it's work it's practice we're going to do the same stuff we've been doing we're just going to try to get better at it the amount of effort that it took to learn and to grow on the.
First practice was very little the amount of effort it takes on the 12th practice the 15th practice you're actually now working on a specific thing that you're not good at that's why we keep talking to you about it you're having to grow in this area and one of the things that I've noticed about that is that that's similar in some ways to what it looks like to follow Jesus at times we have these explosions of growth when you first become a Christian it's like everything is new everything.
If you're taking it all in if you're new to Christianity Today even as we sang read parts of the Bible you might have only understood like every third word you were like what what's that word mean what's that word mean what what are we talking about here why we all think about blood a lot what's that about like we're just there's a whole lot of things where it's like you're new to it and you're learning you're growing and then at some point you kind of know the stuff.
But now it's time to practice it and so we have seasons where we feel like we're growing then we have seasons where it's like this just feels like a lot and then there are times where we thought we were doing pretty well and then we fall into sin or we have relational difficulty and it's just like I just don't even know there are times as you're following Jesus you really oh God just I don't know if I'm going to make it I don't know.
If I'm going to get to the end of this I don't know if I'll still be standing when all this is over I just don't know and so I want you to take a moment if you're a Christian you've placed your faith in Jesus to just consider where are you right now just in your own heart and before the Lord just are you are you zealous for the Lord is this a season of growth for you you wake up excited to read your Bible and to study and to love your community group.
When when you're hosting and getting your house ready for your group to come or you're on your way over there are you whistling and happy and just praying for the Lord to minister through you to these people and to be a blessing or did you have to give yourself a pep talk to get in the car you're like I'm not sick but I feel kind of sick and someone near me coughed today and I might have CAU that and I'd hate to give it to my group how can I word this text.
So it's not a lie but they don't ask a lot of questions like is that what you had to do you had to talk yourself out of that you had to go get in the car you had to go like where where are you right now in your Zeal for the Lord where are you right now in your desire to grow and to minister and to serve because what we're going to see that Paul says in chapter 1 to the Church in Philippi is wildly encouraging as we try to follow.
Jesus day in and day out for the rest of our lives which if you're a Christian that's what you're going to do you're going to follow Jesus every day for the rest of your life and this is very encouraging so look at chapter uh chapter 1 verse three is where we start we read this last week just trying to get our head in the right space I thank my God in all my remembrance of you so this is Paul writing to the Church in Philippi whove blessed him with a gift as he's been in prison they're helping take care of him always in every prayer of mine.
For you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now verse 6 and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ that's the verse we're going to spend our time this morning considering that I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
But we're going to read verses seven and eight and follow the logic in them because it ties back to verse six and then we'll spend our time on verse six it is right for me to feel this way about you okay what he says in verse S and 8 is weird and has always been very confusing to me and I think I actually now have an understanding of it so I'm very excited to share this with you but it's going to take a.
Second to just start to articulate what he's talking about here what he says is it is right for me to feel this way about you well what way does he feel about him he feels that he's sure that he who began a good work in them is going to carry it to completion okay I want him to say it is right for me to feel this way about you because of what Jesus is like and we're going to see that that actually is baked into how that works is it's based off of who.
Jesus is but that's not what he says he says it's right for me to feel the way about you because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of Grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel so at first this sounds weird because you need to be in Christ not in Paul and when they go face Jesus at the end of time they don't get to go I'm in Paul's heart.
Let me in that's not how it works so it's weird for him to base is certainty off of that but there's a word in here that makes a very big difference what he says is it's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart verse six is true for all Christians and we'll see that in a second what he's saying is I'm confident you actually belong to Christ I'm confident that you Church in Philippi are really Christians I'm saying this to you specifically and I'm confident.
For you specifically so what we're going to see is it's true for all Christians because of Jesus but Paul's certain it's true for them because of how he feels about them so he's taking an objective reality and adding this subjective layer that makes him more certain and here's why he says this because you're all partakers with me of Grace both in my imprisonment and the defense of the confirmation of the Gospel meaning you've joined me in what I'm having to face right.
Now imprisonment in my imprisonment and my defending of the Gospel and declaring the Gospel to those who I've been prisoned who've imprisoned me for God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus not the affection of Paul he says Jesus is at work in me to love you in such a supernatural way that I'm confident that you belong to him and so I don't mind saying about you specifically not about Christians in general but you specifically this is what's true and maybe some of us have experienced that in the Church where we love one another in a way that's like no this is.
Jesus at working me to love you like this this is a Jesus at work in us for us to have this kind of relationship and I'm confident that he's at work in you because of how he's empowering this love in me and if you haven't prayer would be that we would grow in our love for one another but that's what he's ba he's basing it off of so we're going to go back to verse six so he says his confidence in them specifically is based off of how he loves them.
But we're going to look at verse six which is true for all Christians and we're going to spend our time just breaking this sentence down because it is a wonderful sentence and it says something that the Bible says all over the place this is not like this is one place where it says this it says this idea all over the place we're going to walk through it so he says this I am sure of this it's so first thing he's certain this is a reality this is true it's a certainty there are some things where Paul says I hope even in this letter he says I hope to do this or he says I'm not.
Quite sure what's going to happen but he says I'm sure of this I'm certain this is solid this is true this is real what's he sure of that he who began a good work in you okay so we need to know who he is what's the he who began a good work so who's that that's God or more specifically Christ so if you're a Christian that's true for you that he began a good work in you he began it you know you ever try to get in a situation where you're trying to uh figure out what's going on between kids and they'll yell he started it.
Well we get to gloriously declare he started it he he began this he's the one who did the work if your relationship to Jesus is you know one day I decided I was going to get it together the reason I'm a Christian and the reason I'm a part of a Church is because I decided you know what I got to get my act together I'm going to start doing this right I'm going to become one of the good ones you don't belong to.
Jesus because it's not about you starting it it's about him starting it he he does this work he rescues and redeems let me show you this is uh John this is Jesus speaking in John chapter 6 he says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the land last day now you might in that moment feel like I'm I'm following Jesus I'm choosing to do this and that you that's part of it.
But it's also because he's allowing you and he's calling you and he's pulling you forward that's what Ephesians 2 says Ephesians 2 this is a longer section I've chopped it up a little bit it's still the same idea I haven't cut out anything that changes the meaning but it says this and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked but God being rich in Mercy because of the love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved.
So if you belong to Jesus you were dead rebellious in your sin and because he loved you and because he's wonderful by Grace he brought you to life we sang a song about that this morning I once was dead in sin alone and hopeless then we sing we've been made alive that's Jesus's work in us to begin this work that he starts it it says you've been saved by grace by Grace you have been saved Grace is unearned favor undeserved Merit somebody taught me a a little um we use the.
First letters poem a crostic is that what it's called a crostic is that what it's called did somebody say that to me thank you yes I'm very smart I knew it was a acrostic I was just seeing if y'all did um God's riches at Christ's expense that's what Grace is you get God's riches because Christ paid for it you didn't earn it it's been given to you it's granted to you so you've been saved by grace and you're like is that really what that means.
Well he verse eight for by Grace you have been saved through faith this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast if you brag about a gift you brag about the person who gave it not about you like if if I'm wearing a new shirt and you say that's a nice shirt I say thanks I I don't mean to brag but I did do Christmas this year You' be like what do you mean i' be like you know I guess it's kind of like a trophy cuz I went you know was at Christmas and my mom gave it to me it's.
Like I think they just your mom's nice I don't even know what you're talking about it'd be weird that's what he's saying nobody boasts nobody stands before the Lord and says look at how wonderful I am in any sort of way that points on us it's that he began this work okay that's great news that he who began the work in you that he's the one who started it and then he says this so I'm sure of this let's go back to verse six that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of.
Jesus Christ will bring it to completion what is it what's he bringing to completion the good work that he started Jesus finishes what he starts oh y That's So Good your Christian walk goes from Jesus to Jesus you're there but he's the one at work to accomplish it he starts it he finishes it so much better than what this could say it'd be theologically inter inaccurate but what if Paul had written I know you're going to make it to the end.
Because y'all are great I know you're going to make it to the end because you don't mess stuff up we're in uh just finished the college football playoff and the national championship and this Pros playoffs I was watching a basketball game yesterday we just been enjoying a lot of sports at my house I have a a six-year-old who wakes up in the morning other kids want to watch cartoons he says there a football game on it's like dude it's 6: a.m.
But we recorded one so you can watch that watch a lot of sports but there's these moments at the end of games when it's close the ball's got to go into somebody's hands some somebody's got to run the ball somebody's got to throw the ball somebody's got to catch it somebody's got to take that final shot we got 5 seconds left we're going to try to get in this guy's hands he's going to take the shot now it's encouraging when someone says you're taking the shot we believe in you it's like yeah.
Okay but also that's a lot of pressure you ever had someone look at you and go I know you won't mess this up I know you won't mess this up because you don't mess stuff up and you're like do what someone say I know you'll handle this right cuz I just I know how you handle things it's like do you cuz I'm I mess up stuff like all the time I hurt people all the time I I do things poorly all the like that one of the main things I do actually it's not that.
Jesus gave you a clean slate handed it to you said all your past sins are forgiven then leaned in real close and said don't mess up see at the end no he he began the good work he's going to complete it Jesus finishes what he starts that's wonderful if you belong to Jesus if he began a good work in you he's going to finish what he started when he says he'll never leave you or forsake you he means it he's going to bring it to completion and here's another thing that we need to.
See in this this sentence he began a good work in you in you I think so often we just think about it being for us it is something he did for us that he died for us and he did he did die for us but his work that he's doing is in you we're going to talk more about this next week but that means you're going to be there the whole time it's not just something that's in impersonal and that's happening out there it's something that he's doing at work in you that he he's changing you that he's redeeming you that he's working in you that you're going to grow and you're going to develop.
So it's going to feel like repentance it's going to feel like effort it's going to feel like uh confession it's going to feel like service it's going to feel like ministering and caring for others and he's going to be doing this at work in you the whole time I love what John Piper said about this he said it's not an inoculation he gave you when you were 6 years old an inoculation is where they give you a little bit of something.
So your body will develop your own immunity to it like Polio I have never once worried about Polio I was inoculated to it I did get Chickenpox what they now have an inoculation for and I learned that there's a whole group of people right up underneath me who didn't get chicken box but I got chicken boox I'm a little salty about it but it's fine it's nice that we you know my dad got Ms I didn't have to get that so I mean it's nice that that we have inoculation.
But he says this that's not how this works it's not like Jesus brings you in one time says all right get out of here you don't have to worry about this anymore you don't have to think about this anymore he says no it's not an inoculation it's dialysis dialysis is when your kidneys fail and you have to go in four to six times a week for 3 to four hours and have them cycle your blood and filter it for you and he says it's in you and it's beautifully wonderfully Personal.
Jesus is doing this work in you do you know that you growing as you follow Jesus is not something you're doing on your own or that he's impersonally doing he's the one at work in all of it to grow you to develop you to change you he's there he set it up it's dialysis and he's the one doing it he set it up to where he's never not the one working on you so it's not just something that's going to happen in you over time.
And then he'll see you at the end and see how it turns out it's something that's going to happen in you overtime daily all the time and he's doing it do you see how close he is how much he cares when you struggling to grow to repent to confess to work do you see how near he is in all of that and because it's going to be in you and because it's going to be completed I want you to know to the glory of Christ he's going to do it.
So right now if you're in a Zone where you just think I just don't know if I'm going to make it the question isn't am I strong enough the question is do I really belong to Jesus because if you do you're going to make it but also if you're thinking maybe I'll just choose this sin maybe this will be one I just don't repent of if you belong to Jesus Jesus says the kingdom of God is like leaven that's put into a lump and it works its way through the whole lump I know that in my personal life there's been every once in a.
While where I'm like Jesus you can have all that stuff over there but this right here I know kind of what the Bible says about it but I that's why I don't want to talk to you about it this one's still mine and Jesus is like you know I'm going to finish what I start right and and to his glory and for our Grace and for our good he doesn't Lo he doesn't lose those he claims that territory my suggestion would be surrender knowing that he's good.
Because he's going to finish what he started there's a CS Lewis quote where he says in his book the problem of pain he says we are pauses not metaphorically but in very truth so we are and this is true a Divine work of art something that God is making and therefore something with which he will not be satisfied until it has a certain character that he's at work in you on you and he's not going to stop till he's made you perfect which is wonderful.
So he began the work he's going to complete the work it's going to be done in Us by him as he works uh in US by his love and his goodness to change us to grow us to develop us and then it says this bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ let's take a second what's the day of Jesus Christ well Isaiah 13 the Old Testament will refer to it as the day of the Lord quite often Isaiah 13:6 says whail.
For the day of the Lord is near as destruction from the almighty it will come so the day of the Lord is a day of Destruction from the almighty Ezekiel 33 says for the day is near the day of the Lord is near it will be a day of clouds a time of Doom for the Nations Jesus talking about Luke 17 says the day of the Lord is his it belongs to him he refers himself as the son of man but he says.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other so will the son of man be in his day the day of the Lord is Jesus's day of Judgment of Reckoning when the world is stripped bare brought down to its foundations in second Thessalonians says this verse uh chapter 1 verses 6 and 7 since indeed God God considers it just to repay with Affliction those who afflict you talking to the Church and Grant relief to you who are afflicted as.
Well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels so the day of the Lord is the day of judgment but it's very different experientially for those who belong to Jesus and those who don't when Jesus calls everyone to account and we're all going to pay for our sin what Paul says is on that day if you belong to Jesus you won't have any sin to pay for you'll be perfect so you might be picturing in your head that one day.
Jesus is going to judge everybody and in that moment you're going to feel shame and guilt and fear and doubt you're going to want to shrink back you're going to want to hide and press yourself up against the wall and just hope that you make it out not if you belong to Jesus that'll be the day that the Church is unveiled in its Perfection that'll be the day that we are displayed in all the Glorious Wonder as a completed Masterpiece accomplished by.
Jesus do you understand that if on that day Jesus is like I'm here to judge the world and look at this ragtag bunch of scamp weirdo dirty punks all right you're in Father this is my Church kind of gross that would besmer his glory that's not what he's going to present he's going to unveil the Church in Beauty and glory and completed Perfection that on the day that he judges the world do you understand that the Church will walk forward not shrink back.
But be made perfectly whole perfectly perfect without a spot or blemish or wrinkle or any such thing holy and blameless and above reproach presented F and blameless above reproach before him that we've been washed by his work and there will be no spot wrinkle blemish or any such thing so if you have in your mind that you're going to make it in like Indiana Jones just as the door drops and barely get your hat and then push yourself up against the wall as the one little creature that snuck into the Church that's dirty and gross not.
If you belong to Jesus because he's going to make you glorious to the praise of his glory if you stare at a masterpiece it proclaims the work of the master he's not going to be done with you till he's perfected you and on that day you'll be perfect if Jesus has begun a good work in you he's going to complete it and there's going to be a day when we stand glorious whole restored new perfected to the praise of the glory of Christ who gets to display his glory in how he's redeemed Sinners and made us whole some of us understand rightly that we're sinners in need of Grace.
But we somehow fail to realize you've received Grace I'm a sinner in need of Grace yes and by Grace you have been saved you needed it you have it pick your head up yeah there are times to get before the Lord and say have mercy on me a sinner and then stand up and say thank you Jesus that you have mercy on a sinner I'm going to be whole in that day we're not limping in we're not a straggling mess we're being made complete in us he will have done his work and before him will be presented glorious and wonderful he's presenting us to himself to the.
Father and all of our Glory which represents his glory that's why in Thessalonians it says 2 Thessalonians if you go further in verse 10 it says to be glorified in his Saints I think we would always want a word that as by his Saints but he's going to be glorified in his Saints as he displays how good he is you know the best hospital around here is the one that takes the sickest people and lets them walk back out that's the best one.
Now if they were like we're able to pack the most sick people in here it's like okay okay do they leave nah it's like I'm going to go to a different hospital we'll take the sickest people you fix them Nah if there was a hospital that said only well people you need to be kind of already okay our emergency room is more like an inconvenience room that wouldn't be a glorious Hospital the most glorious Hospital in our area is the one that takes the sickest people and lets them walk back out to the glory of the hospital that's what.
Jesus does on an eternal scale in you if you belong to him he takes all that's twisted and sick and broken messed up deceased disgusting and he renews it restores it until it is glorious and it proclaims and shines to the glory of to the glory of Christ in his work and to the glory of the father so that when someone sees us in that day they will go oh isn't Jesus wonderful I think sometimes specifically people who don't know Jesus will.
See a passage like this and will say well if that's true if he starts the work and he finishes the work and he's going to perfect you then you know take a nap don't worry about it he's just going to do it wouldn't that just make you want to quit wouldn't that just make you want want to stop not if you really know Jesus this is the sort of thing that makes you go Jesus I trust that you actually are going to fix this in me I trust that you actually are going to work in this I trust that you are here right.
Now performing Dialysis in my soul on all the things that I want to fight you over and I want to read my Bible and I want to pray and I want to study and I want to go be around my group because I want you to be at work in me and I want to be presented complete and whole in that day to the glory of your name this grants us courage as we seek to follow him if Jesus has not begun the work in you ask him to ask him to save you ask him to redeem you.
But if he has oh on that day we will be made perfect because Jesus finishes with he starts let's pray Lord we come in here functionally and practically as those who follow you we come in functionally and practically in different places but Lord we come in theologically in the same place that you have us that you hold us that you keep us that you protect us that you lead us that you work in us that you will never leave us or forsake us that you will get us to the finished line that you will present us holy and blameless and above reproach before yourself to your own Glory that you will bring us made new.
And whole and righteous and perfect without spot or blemish or wrinkle or any such thing and so Lord while we may be more or less tired with more or less relational difficulty with more or less enjoyment and delight and Zeal at this moment we do not have more or less of you and more or less of your promises and more or less of a certainty of the end result of those who belong to you so we ask by your spirit that there would be courage to cling to your promises and to hold to the hope.
Lord we thank you that you finish what you start in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up we're going to take communion together as.