Sermons

The infant Jesus laid aside the throne of heaven and was born in the lowliest of places, a stable and a manger. To rescue humanity, held in darkness by the sin of the first man, Adam, he had to come in a body without sin and overcome the power of death through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

Because he descended to the very lowest place, Jesus was able to embrace all humankind. Those who follow Jesus, who came as the light, have now become children of light, and each must set the light of life they have received upon a lampstand. Yet the light a person carries can shine only on what lies around them, so brothers and sisters in the faith need to gather together and keep one another’s lamps from going out. The strong crushing the weak by the logic of power was no different in the Rome of Jesus’ day than it is in the world today; but as in the dream of the great statue that Daniel made known, all those kingdoms will fall, and only the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the living stone, will stand forever.

Christmas marks that forgiveness of sins and that life, but it must not end there. Having received that grace, God’s people are called to love their families and their fellow believers, and to grow into mature Christians who hold the light of life high in a world growing ever darker.

Moses shrinks from God’s call in fear. He would have to contend with Pharaoh and prevail, and trials he might have borne on his own grew far heavier now that he had to answer for the faith of the people as well. Yet the people, having come through the ten plagues and the miracle of the Red Sea, treat that grace as something of their own, and then complain against Moses over a mouthful of water.

The most dangerous moment comes just after great grace has been received. Those who are not thankful will keep pressing for something more. Moses could not release that people from his heart, and so he grew angry; tripped by his hurt, he did not in the end enter the Promised Land. The apostle Paul, by contrast, confesses even in prison that he has learned to be content in whatever circumstances. He kept his own suffering apart from his calling to preach the gospel, and released that suffering from his heart.

It is love for God’s people that makes one stumble before them, not a lack of it. Yet one who cannot compose those feelings will fail in everything. Those who bear their calling in humility receive strength and peace from God, and come to the confession that they can do all things in him who gives them strength.

John said he loved Jesus, yet at the cross fear drove him to betray him. Only later, when he saw with his own eyes Christ seated on the throne and the book of life, did he come to recognize his sin and the faith he had failed to show that day.

Sin is not forgotten as time passes; the more faith grows, the more clearly it comes into view. The quarrel between Euodia and Syntyche arose for the same reason. Each put her own judgment and pride first, saying, “This is for the work of God,” while underneath lay an unwillingness to bend her own will.

The church is not a place where matters are settled by worldly knowledge and self-assertion. Where salvation is not at stake, those who give way, leave the matter to the Holy Spirit and quietly bear with it will find that God resolves it in his own time. A life lived with such forbearance is recorded just as it was in the book before the throne, and God is watching that life.

Someone staying in a country illegally has not a single identity document and lives in constant unease. If caught, they are deported at once, and at work they cannot answer back even when treated with contempt.

Christians are no different. While they sojourn for a little while in this world, they cannot simply follow its laws; the moment they came to know that they are the people of God’s Kingdom, they gave up their citizenship in the world of their own accord. Because Paul had already possessed the things the world boasts of, he was not ashamed to cast them aside, and he did not waver when he was mocked.

The only way to keep the citizenship of the Kingdom of Heaven is to walk by faith according to the Word, whatever the circumstances. Those who compromise with the world and go their own way are stripped of that citizenship. Only those who are assured of their heavenly citizenship, and that their names are written in the book of life, can overcome death and fear and press on with boldness.

The apostle Paul says of himself that he was a Jew circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, and, as touching the law, a Pharisee without fault. Yet after he met Christ on the road to Damascus, he laid aside of his own accord the family, the learning and the Roman citizenship he had once boasted of.

What is given up does not simply vanish; to give it up is to stop leaning on it for strength. To be saved by grace means that Christ has given the grace to paint the picture of faith, and just as Rahab tied the scarlet cord in her window, those who have received that grace cannot help but show it in the way they live. That Paul pressed on, though beaten and thrown into prison, shows that his faith was genuine.

To press toward the goal is to forget all that lies behind and to run with eyes fixed only on what is ahead. The world will not change of its own accord unless God’s people let their light shine. If they run toward the goal without fear, the Holy Spirit will give them wisdom and understanding, and will commend them with the words, “Well done.”

Paul writes to the believers of the church at Philippi. While he was with them they had stood firm in the faith, but once they were left on their own they began competing to rise above one another, and in their pride they expected to be served by their brothers. Paul urges them to turn back without delay and to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

To work out one’s salvation is not to be saved all over again; it is to hold fast to the grace already received. When the fear of God fades, worship turns into a burden and the Word that pierces the heart grows uncomfortable, until at last people walk out of salvation of their own accord. Like the disciples who fled even though Jesus had told them beforehand of the betrayal, a heart that has heard the warning and still grown dull stands in the most dangerous place of all.

Paul tells them that their growing well in the faith is his boast and his fruit, and confesses that for their sake he would gladly die. What believers must do is nothing grand. Before the salvation Jesus has already accomplished, they are to let their faith be seen wherever they are, like a lamp lit in each place, and to serve one another in humility. That is the life of working out salvation with fear and trembling.

When gratitude for salvation fades, the world begins to look larger, and joy can no longer be held on to. Grumbling and strife within the church arise for the same reason: its work is no longer treated as God’s work, and people want to put themselves forward.

To believe in Christ is to give one’s life wholly to the Holy Spirit and obey him. Anyone who tries to do God’s work in their own strength, without such faith, grows proud, and that pride leads to the sin of judging and condemning a brother. And if someone comes through hardship because a brother interceded for them, yet becomes arrogant again, the one who prayed is blessed while the other falls under rebuke.

When God’s people walk humbly by the Spirit, God is glorified in the name of Christ through their faith. Only those wholly changed by a circumcision not of the flesh but of the heart can show the glory of God. To look to Jesus Christ alone while the world is in turmoil, and to stand unshaken in the truth: that is the message preached today.

While Paul was with them, the Christians at Philippi held firmly to the faith, but once they had to stand on their own, they began to lose their footing. Pride had crept in among them: they quarreled over who should be greater and sought to be honored. Paul pulls them back with the charge to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

Salvation is a work Jesus has already accomplished in full, yet connecting that current to the switch and turning on the light is the labor that falls to his people. As time given over to worldly concerns piles up and worship comes to be treated lightly, a person is in the end pushed outside salvation, and that is the very moment Satan finds his way in, the most dangerous time of all. The disciples were told beforehand that they would betray him, yet they dismissed it as unthinkable and in the end deserted Jesus. In the same way, a heart grown dull after hearing the warning is like tearing down God’s hedge with one’s own hands.

Paul confesses that if the believers went astray, he would gladly die, if only they would turn back. When someone offers counsel that is hard to hear, it is in fact a sign of being blessed. Such words are to be treasured, and God’s people must obey the Word and guard their faith with their very lives.

In the church at Philippi there were some who exalted themselves and took it upon themselves to instruct others because they had wealth and held office. Paul had opened his letter with praise, but faced with this division he rebuked them, urging them to take on the mind of Christ and turn back.

Because the church is made up of the members of Christ’s body, there is no higher or lower place within it. When human righteousness, the conviction that one is in the right, becomes the standard, quarrels follow; only when the Word is the standard can there be humble exhortation and obedience. God the Son taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient to the point of death is the very pattern of that lowliness.

In the world, recognition goes to those who win and rise above others, but the church is an altogether different place. When people keep to their own place, count others better than themselves and humbly obey, God lifts them up. To lay aside human righteousness and have the mind of Christ Jesus is the way to a life without shame.

Paul tells the church in Philippi that he is not ashamed for them to know he is in prison for the sake of the gospel; far from it, he is glad. There are some who preach Christ in order to add to his distress, yet he confesses that if people come to hear the name of Jesus through them, he rejoices in that.

When a Christian who has grown through hardship turns those painful seasons into a means of helping others, God sees the wisdom in it and commends it. People judge by outcomes, but God sees the road that led there; and so true devotion is the humility that seeks not to display its own righteousness but to let Christ alone be seen.

Paul confesses that to go on living and bring the gospel to more souls is gain, and that to die and be with Christ is gain as well. Those who seek to live for themselves will die, and those who are willing to die for God will live: this faith is what gives the strength to live boldly, unafraid even in the face of the world’s scorn and persecution.

From his prison cell, Paul remembers the believers of the church at Philippi and prays for them with thanksgiving and joy. Ever since their church was founded through Lydia’s devotion, they had stood with him steadfastly, with their giving and their prayers, both when Paul himself was suffering and when the church in Jerusalem was in hardship.

Of this love Paul says that he longs for them with the heart of Jesus Christ. Just as Christ gave his life, they loved one another with a heart ready to give life, and this love sprang not from their circumstances but from hearts sincerely turned toward God.

When love abounds through the Word and the Holy Spirit, the wisdom to discern good from evil follows, and that wisdom establishes faith in its fullness until the day of Christ. Like Paul and the Philippian church, who served one another with unshaken faith, believers must bear the fruit of righteousness and live lives that bring glory to God.