Philippian s 2: Therefore Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Does that not send shivers up your spine? What is Paul meaning here?

Transcription

1 Introducing God: A God to be Feared Philippians 2: We come to the final week in which we will be examining Ex 34. Today we will largely be focusing on the whole of Ex 34, and yet moving beyond. In light of this God who has revealed Himself to us, this God whom we have discovered and examined, what should we do? Now that we know what we know about God, that He is: 1. Gracious and Compassionate 2. Slow to anger 3. Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness 4. Forgiving 5. And yet who does not clear the guilty What are we to do? If we take all of this and say, well that s nice, and leave it at that, what good would that be? If we say, those are some really neat things to know about God and then proceed to place them on an old dusty shelf in the back of our mind, what good is that? At Bible study this week we talked about how Scripture is one of God s greatest gifts to us! Who He is, and that He first choose to even reveal Himself to us is an even greater gift. What good news. BUT- what are we to do with such knowledge? Our Scripture lesson from Paul s letter to the church in Philippi, (in the NE corner of modern Greece) sheds some light on this question. As an aside, the congregation in Phillipi was the first congregation to be planted in Europe! Paul wrote to this church in 60 A.D while he was in prison. It is a thank you letter, a letter where Paul shares what it means to rejoice in suffering and to be a servant, and a letter encouraging the church to continue in the Christian course he had set it upon. Philippian s 2:21-18 Therefore Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Does that not send shivers up your spine? What is Paul meaning here? In all the times I had read through Philippians, until a couple years ago, I had completely glossed over this verse time and time again. How I managed to do that- I have no clue! When I found it, I had this indescribable sensation. Not only did my spine shiver, my entire being quaked under the magnitude of such a statement! What does it mean to work out your salvation with fear and trembling? What does it mean to fear God? I remember one of my earliest encounters with fear. I was, maybe 6 or seven when I received a scar that I have on my left wrist. I remember how old I must have been because I got my cat Tiger who blessed me with it when I was 6. My family often used to go over to my uncle and aunts quite often. My parents would stay late, and I often conked out on the floor and they would carry me home to bed late in the night. I remember this one night I was laying on the living room in front of the TV with my pillow. My Dad and uncle thought I was sound asleep, like I usually was. The could not have been more wrong and proceeded to watch a horror movie called The Cellar.

2 I still get shivers thinking about it. What a creepy name for a horror movie. To this day, and rightly so, I stay far away from horror genres. But this movie was all about a family who had purchase an old farm on what turned out to be an Indian grave yard. Strange things started happening in the movie, which needless to say scared me stiff. Starting that night (and for many years) I would not sleep, or feel safe to fall asleep in our old creaky farm house, until I had a head lock on my cat Tiger, which I was sure she could not get out of. And whenever the cat would come downstairs my parents would know I had fallen asleep. I was terrified from this film. (I got the scar when one day the blind beside my bed fell down while holding my cat in a head lock!). When we think about fear these are some of the things that come to mind Horror movie, the boogy man. Maybe we think of some weird phobias: Acrophobia- Fear of heights. Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens. Bufonophobia- Fear of toads. Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns. Dentophobia- Fear of dentists Homilophobia- Fear of sermons. Syngenesophobia- Fear of relatives Apiphobia- Fear of bees (certainly not myself) There are also those legitimate reasons for fear stemming from some experience or encounter that was horrific or traumatic. Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse. Athazagoraphobia- Fear of being forgotton or ignored Dystychiphobia- Fear of accidents. Katagelophobia- Fear of ridicule These fears are certainly not trivial. But these, all of these examples of fear, are not to be confused with what it means to fear the Lord. What does fear mean in a Biblical context? Deuteronomy 10:12 13 says, So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Notice that of the five commands in this verse that spell out what God requires: to fear, walk, love, serve, and keep the commandments of. But it is Godly fear that comes first! In a similar vein if you have ever read Proverbs, this book of practical wisdom for living, fear pops up at every turn. King Solomon was trying to say something important, something central in his book... He opens his book on wisdom by saying: Prov 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. In Prov 9:10 he says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

3 On such a view, all human ingenuity, learning, and accomplishment amounts to nothing unless set within the context of honouring and obeying the one true God. For by the fear of the Lord one may avoid evil (Prov 16:6) The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is a life that is rich, full of honour and life. (Prov 22:4) Thus the conclusion of Proverbs 23:17 King Solomon is clear: Always continue in the fear of the LORD (Prov 23:17). So if fear does not mean being afraid of the boogy man, or an intense pain felt from a horrible past experience, what does it mean? In Greek- fear is phobia- hence how we get our modern term. It means to be afraid, to fear but also alludes to respect and reverence. Now in Phil 2:12 Paul is certainly not suggestion any type of Godophobia in the sense of being terrified of God. In Hebrew, and the notions Paul was likely drawing upon in Phil 2:12, the meanings are more clear. It too can mean to be afraid, terrified, or frightful but it also means much more and in a much healthier sense. 1. Reverence/ Stand in Awe of 2. Honour/ Respect 3. Fear of Displeasing/ Judgement 1. Reverence/ Stand in Awe of I think probably the church has lost what it truly means to revere the LORD. He is the Creator, who spoke words of Creation and it was so. Have you ever had a God moment, whether it was an experience with the beauty of nature or maybe how God worked powerfully in your life. Did it not elicit a feeling of reverence or Godly fear? That is the same feeling that the great cathedrals of the world were built to do. To come in, to feel small, to marvel at the beauty, to stand amazed in the presence of a mighty God. 2. Honour/ Respect God is described a King in Scripture. Can you imagine living in a kingdom who was fortunate enough to have a wise and just King, one who did not just look out for his own interests but also those of his people. Can you imagine him walking by you and not bowing with respect. Not seeing him pass by and not paying your respects to him. It would be absurd. In the same way we ought to respect the Lord God our King. 3. Fear of Displeasing/ Judgement Lastly we should be fearful of displeasing God, if not simply out of fear of judgement, surely out of a knowledge of who He is. Last week we saw that the LORD is a God of Justice. The thought and immanence of His righteous judgement alone should simply be enough to cause us to fear displeasing Him. This last point of the fear of displeasing Him is very powerful for me. You may be sitting there thinking, Pastors preaching fire and brimstone against us again. According to James 3:1 I have even greater reason to fear the Lord. It says not many of you should become teachers, my brother, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. As a pastor/ leader/ teacher within the Church James says I will be judge with greater strictness than any of us here. I strive to live a life fearful of displeasing the Lord because of it! And so we come back to what it means to work out one s salvation with fear and trembling.

4 The meaning of this depends on what Paul meant by salvation. 1. Does he mean, in a broader sense, to work out the salvation which God has given us through faith in Christ, and to refine our lives in practice through that? 2. Or is he referring to the Philippians and the issue they needed to work on, to which Paul suggests a remedy in his letter? I would suggest that regardless if it is literally the second it is rooted in the first. For Paul a very interesting thing is being presented here. As we have seen in Bible study, what is the 1 st of the 2 commandments in the Great Commandment? It is towards God and then neighbour. What do the 10 commandments have to deal with? 1 st God and then others. Throughout the Bible we read all kinds of God stuff. Stories, lessons about God. Theology, doctrine- God stuff we often dismiss as mildly boring. Who cares if God is. But who God is- is mildly boring, is a grave understatement. This is the Creator of the Universe who chooses to reveal Himself to us in all His splendour and wonder. In the exact opposition stream Paul, along with the entire voice of Scripture radically displays a different view. Our salvation, our Christian living, our love of neighbour is first contingent on God, who He is, and what He has done. In Philippians, Paul begins by telling the Philippians all about God and about His son Jesus. In fact in most letters in the NT this is how they begin. Doctrine, theology, God stuff- the knowledge of God. Look at Ro 12:1, Paul builds who God is to culminate in saying, therefore. In Phillipians 2:12 Paul has just spelled out who Christ is then he says, therefore. Encountering who God is, knowing stuff about God is huge. The fact that God revealed Himself to us is an awesome reality. Encountering God should not produce apathy. The facts that God has shown Himself in Ex 34 to be, which we have been studying, who He says He is, should not cause us to be complacent with the route our lives are on. Rather who God is, what He has done and continues to do should invite us to be transformed by Him. And so in light of this great God, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign God, our loving Father. The Creator of the universe. This everlasting God whose understanding is unsearchable, and who sent His son Jesus to earth to show us what it meant to be fully human and then to die in our place because of our sins so we might be reconciled to God. Because of all this God stuff Paul says to the church in Philippi, Therefore.work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you. It is the LORD who chose to reveal Himself to us, and provide a way to Him through His son Jesus, that we could even have a knowledge of Him, and fullness of life. And it is He who through the power of the HS is working within us.

5 In face of this God, Paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Stand in awe, honour and respect, and learn to fear displeasing the Lord. And as a result of encountering this God you WILL come away transformed and in a crooked and twisted generation because of your testimony, your life and conduct, you will shine as lights in the world. Last night Rebekah and I were in Grand Bend at our Annual 1 st Hussars Regimental Ball. A fellow officer s wife, who is finding here was back to the church, asked me what I was preaching on today. I said, in the backdrop of loud music, to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. She only half caught it and I had to say it again. Her response was, Oh that s terrible! But I explained that the fear of the Lord is an amazing thing, sobering and refreshing, and that it is not terrible at all. So in light of who we have seen God to be in Exodus 34, who He has revealed Himself to be through His son Jesus Christ, let us humble ourselves, let us allow ourselves to be transformed through the power of the HS and let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Prayer: Father, we stand in awe and wonder of who You are, the entirety of the fact is barely conceivable, we stand in reverence and thank you for who You are, and even more so that you seek us out. Lord, in reverence, awe and respect, help us to work out our salvation with sincere fear and trembling. Help us to magnify and glorify your name in all we do, help us to be lights in a dark world. We pray these things in your Son s name. Amen.