Phillippians 2:12-18 "What's the fear and trembling about?"

Our text for today is taken from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter two, reading in verses twelve through eighteen.  This, by the way was the text I was to preach on the evening the tornado hit years ago; I never did get to preach that sermon…(Thanks for waiting :)   The Apostle Paul writes: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,  13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing,  15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe  16 as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.  17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.  18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”

Someone once said. “You'll never know that God is all you need, until God is all you've got.”  I will never ever forget the feeling I had—some of you were there with me so you know the feeling—there we were huddled in the basement.  The lights went out and the pressure dropped.  We grabbed onto whoever and whatever we could as we heard and felt the tornado rip up the roof, the bricks, and the pews and walls from above our heads.  “Fear and trembling.”  That’s was a pretty good description of us all at that moment.  Fearing and trembling wondering if at that very moment, we, too, might be taken up with everything else!  And so we did the only thing we could at that moment—we grabbed onto each other and to God in prayer. 

“You'll never know that God is all you need, until God is all you've got.”  On the basis of God’s Word today, the Apostle Paul would have us take that utter sense dependence that we as a group felt in that basement and transfer and apply it to our every day spiritual lives.  Paul will show you how there’s a Christian fear and trembling that’s actually good for you. In fact, without it, you and I would be in some serious spiritual straits, and eventually we would fall away from the faith. So, “What’s this fear and trembling is all about?”  First, let’s hear and answer for the believer, and then, secondly, a message for the world. 

So what’s the fear and trembling about, anyway?  Let’s talk about what it is and isn’t.  When Paul says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” he isn’t coming up with a different way to salvation.  In fact, earlier in this same chapter Paul used six verses to talk about how Christ won our salvation for us; these verses lay the foundation for understanding these verses which talk about our response of faith.  Look at this description what Jesus did for us before we talk about what we are to do for him:  It was Jesus who “being in very nature God…made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, and being found in appearance of a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”  (Phil 2:6-8)  “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling?”  Again, we know what Paul is not saying.  The good news about Jesus Christ is a message that drives out all fear and trembling from our hearts.  We need not worry or wonder about how God feels about us. 

That’s the key to understanding the words before us today.  It means first understanding the gospel better and better.  It means knowing that by faith in Jesus we stand in grace.  Now, we sometimes talk like we understand it, but I’m not sure that we really believe it.  We talk about the fact that God has reconciled to world to himself in Christ (that’s another way of saying that all people are forgiven), but do we really believe that?  Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” (2 Cor.5:19)  Christ died for sins once for all.  It was a one-time sacrifice for sins.  God doesn’t, nor will he ever need to reconcile the world to himself twice.  Already in eternity God looked ahead and knew what Christ would do, and he forgave all the sins of Adam and every single sinner after him.  And so, yes, I’m here to say, that your sins are forgiven.  “Fear and trembling.”  Not when it comes to knowing where we stand with God.  We’ll see what Paul means by that soon enough, but first, remember: By faith in Jesus, you stand in grace. 

That’s why this building is such a beautiful place.  The gospel is proclaimed here.  Like you I remember the building before this; I remember coming years ago as student and getting ready to preach and laying down my manuscript on the pulpit and feeling the awe and wonder of proclaiming the message of God’s love to his people.  He really does love you.  Sometimes we get all wound up with our feelings about what we think God feels about us because of our sins.  But once he has led us to repentance he wants the fear and trembling to stop.  He wants us to remember Jesus and then know how he feels about us: we are forgiven.  We stand in grace.  No fear and trembling. 

I really want to spend some time on this today because understanding the gospel better and better is the key to understanding this text.  To understand what it really means to stand in grace, think about the last time you had Holy Communion.  How did you feel after that?  My guess it that it wasn’t fear and trembling.  You felt like you had a clean slate, right?  How long do you think your slate stayed clean?  I remember even thinking myself at one time that my slate was clean for a little while, but then, not long after I left church it soon was chalked full of sin again.  I pictured myself as having a full slate again until the next time I asked God for forgiveness! 

But that a misunderstanding of the gospel.  I’ve actually had people ask me sometimes, “Pastor, what if I should die instantly after having committed a sin, like a drunken driving accident, or something, before I have gotten the chance to ask God for His forgiveness—what’s going to happen to me?!” Can you see how a question like that is based on a misunderstanding of the gospel?  Because of Jesus’ one-time sacrifice for sins, our slate is clean.  That means that yesterday’s sins…are forgiven…today’s sins…are forgiven…and that sin of weakness, that despite the best of intentions you will commit tomorrow—that, too, has already been provided for in the finished work of Christ, over 2000 years ago.

Does all this sound like an invitation to sin?  Unfortunately, for many people it does.  But right now I’m not talking to them.  Here’s the answer today for the believer: Yes, we stand in grace.  And, as Paul says, “Let us live up to what we’ve already attained.” Yes, heaven is a free gift by faith in Jesus.  But we’re not in heaven yet. When Paul says “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” he would remind us that this side of heaven the battle against sin and temptation isn’t over.  It’s no time to drop down our spiritual guard and get lax in our attitude toward sin.  Paul wants us to remain spiritually alert and to guard against the idea that someone we’re good enough, and strong enough on our own to be the kind of people who will always belong to Jesus, no matter what we do.  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  (Jer.17:9)  Your sinful nature not only couldn’t chose to come to faith in God, but it will always choose the path that leads away from God.  And so, “fear and tremble,” Paul would say, “Fear and tremble at your own weakness, but take confidence in God’s power to save and to preserve you in faith until the end.”  

Really, what we have in our text for today is yet another beautiful side of the gospel.  Not only has God provided for our complete and free salvation from sin and death, but he promises to preserve us in faith as we rely on his power.  This is the message for the believer.  What’s the message for the world?  Paul writes that “In a crooked and depraved generation…you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” ( 2:17 )

It’s been a little over ten years now, but the tornado that hit here was big enough to stop a whole town and county in their tracks.  Nature has since moved on, but the town remembers what it was like to see a glimpse (although only a glimpse, mind you) of the "frustration" that creation is subjected to by its Creator.  And just Imagine if you had to pick up the pieces and clear the streets all on your own, without any of the help of others, without bulldozers, without federal aid, and so on.  It would have been an impossible task!  But so many pitched in to help from within and without the community.  By the way, I happened to save the bulletin cover from that Thursday/Sunday service years ago.  Ironic isn’t that the cover promoted the WELS COR !  Our synod helped this congregation an others in the community.  My point is that if picking up the pieces yourself after a tornado seems like an impossible task, then just consider impossibility of freeing ourselves from the curse and condemnation of sin.

What’s the message for the world?  It’s a message that you know.  The world needs law and gospel.  Thinking back again, I remember the witness Pastor Bitter gave to reporters the day after the tornado.  The media had been allowed to come into town along with everyone else who came to sift through the debris for personal effects, and to clean up (Point out what I’m doing…never found my hymnal; found my gown).   Anyway, when reporters asked Pastor Bitter for his reaction to all that had happened, he basically said, “Yes, this is pretty bad alright, but that it doesn’t even come close to what we really deserve from God.”  And then I believe he gave a simple witness to his Savior.

The point is that we have a message of life, Paul says, a message of hope for a world filled with unbelief, real fears, struggles, stress, worries and guilt.  Watch for openings in people’s lives.  Watch for the neighbor who’s marriage is failing.  Take time to offer a kind word or counsel to the family with a troubled teen, or that has felt a loss in the family, or simply that person who’s just plain curious about Christianity because he still doesn’t have the peace that comes through Jesus.  Unlike you and me, he hasn’t found that rest that Jesus gives for our soul, the rest we were created by him to enjoy.  In other words, do what Paul and Silas did for the jailor at Philippi —they cared more about him than saving their own skins and escaping from jail.  In fear and trembling the jailor asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?!”  And Paul took that man’s fear and trembling away with just one sentence: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31 ) 

No more fear and trembling?  To be sure, Paul would say, “Fear and tremble at your own weakness, but take confidence in God’s power to save and to preserve you in faith until the end.”     Amen.

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John 11:17-27, 38-45 “What Makes People Believers?”

In the name of Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, dear Christian friends.

             After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, his disciple John tells us that people reacted in one of two ways: “Many Jews…put their faith in [Jesus]” (Jn.11:45), “But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” (Jn.11:46)  This miracle of Jesus, the raising of Lazarus, was the last straw for Jesus’ enemies. “If we let him go on like this,” they claimed, “everyone will believe in him!” (Jn.11:48) “From that day on,” John tells us, Jesus’ enemies, “plotted to take his life.”  (Jn.11:53)

As amazing as Jesus’ miracle was, it’s even more amazing to me is that only some believed in Jesus. It leads me to ask the question today: what makes people believers?  Why do we believe?  Is it because we are more intelligent than the rest of the people?  In fact, a lot of unbelievers are more intelligent than we are.  Sometimes Christians have a tendency to say, "How can they be so stupid as not to believe all that?"  But the world turns right around and says, "How can they be so stupid as to believe in that?"

What makes believers?  In short—God makes believers out of us one person at a time.  How?  Let’s see and learn about this by studying this account through the eyes of Martha, the sister of Lazarus.  Her side of the story brings home two important truths in life: 1.) sometimes there are things we just can’t fix.  2.)  What we can’t do, Jesus can!

Our text for today places us right in the middle of a story that started at the beginning of chapter eleven: (v.1,3) “Lazarus was sick…So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”  Jesus had these friends (Yes, during his life on this earth, Jesus had friends, just like you and me).  Jesus’ friends are Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus.  They often helped Jesus before by giving him a place to stay.  During his ministry Jesus was so occupied with teaching and preaching from place to place, that he never established a permanent home.  So whenever he was in Jerusalem , he’d stay with his friends, who lived in nearby Bethany , which was about two miles away from Jerusalem . 

Jesus loved his friends.  They had been so helpful to him in the past; now they needed him.  And so the sisters send word to Jesus, “Your friend Lazarus is sick.”  Because Jesus was across the River Jordan in Perea, it takes the messenger about a day to get word to Jesus.  But instead of hurrying right over to help, Jesus waits.  One day turns into two, two turns to three, and finally, when he arrives, John reports that (v.17) Lazarus had already died and had been in the tomb four days. 

I said we were going to look at this story from Martha’s eyes.  Do you remember what it was like the last time Jesus came to see Mary and Martha?  The last time Martha was the busy-body cutting up vegetables, getting ready for the meal, setting out the dishes and about ready to throw some at her sister!  Martha was a doer—and as far as Martha was concerned, Mary wasn’t doing a whole lot!  We praised Mary then for choosing the better thing—she sat at the feet of Jesus listening to his Word.  We’re usually a little hard on Martha in that story, but I like what she does here. 

(v.20) “When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.”  When this crisis hit their home, Martha could’ve stayed put; she could have stayed to pray, meditate and contemplate—but instead Martha hits the road!  “Jesus is coming, I’ll get on the road and meet him.”  Martha knows there are some things that only Jesus can fix.  Only Jesus can grant healing to our bodies—if there’s ever a turn-around in our health, he’s really the one responsible—thank him!  When we don’t get better, sometimes that’s his will, too—thank him for that!  Job once said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” ( 2:10 ) Only Jesus can change selfish, hard-hearted people, into warm, loving, serving and giving people.  And only Jesus can reverse the curse of death.  Again, Martha knows there are some things that only Jesus can fix, and she’s running to get him. 

In some ways, Martha’s a lot like us.  At first she wants Jesus to do some explaining.  (v.21)  “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Today it might go something like this: “Lord, I instant-messaged you the moment Lazarus was sick—I don’t’ understand—why the wait?  You could have prevented this, but…” (v.22) “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  Martha, as torn up as she is about all this, wants answers, but notice what she doesn’t do: she doesn’t tell Jesus what to do.  If you’ve tried that, you know it doesn’t work.  Instead, Martha does the only thing she can do: she hands it all over to Jesus, and leans on his everlasting arms. 

What makes believers out of people?  Jesus does, one person at a time.  How?  (v.23) “Jesus said to her,”—that’s how Jesus creates faith in us—he does this through his spoken Word. Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” 

(v.24) “Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Notice, that, already, even before Jesus’ miracle, Martha shows great faith.  Faced with something as final as death, Martha knows this is anything but a dead end for her brother.  She knows he will rise—she isn’t aware yet of just how soon—but she’s a believer in Jesus as LORD over death and life.  She knew what her Bible said and she believed it!  Right now in the Sunday Bible class we’re studying the same Bible Martha read.  OT passages like Isaiah 52 & 53 proclaimed clearly that the Jesus, the Messiah would die and rise again.  Martha knew there would be a resurrection from other places, too, like   Daniel 12:2, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will rise, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt.”  So Martha knows.  Jesus and people will rise.  Martha is thinking: “Lazarus will rise on the last day, just like everyone else.”  But here’s where Martha was about to get a big surprise—when Jesus raised the dead and when Jesus would rise would happen sooner than later.

(v.25,26)  “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” When your pain and loss are great, when your troubles fly up right in front of your face so you can hardly even see around them, Jesus helps us just like he helped Martha.  Jesus gets real close and looks Martha right in the eye, refocuses her attention not on her loss, not on her grief and pain, but on him and his promises in his Word, and says, “I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this?” 

I love Martha’s answer, (v.27) “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”  Martha’s here to say: “You are God, come down into the world to be with us. I don’t know everything—I don’t know how this will turn out, but I do know this: you’re God.” 

What makes people believers?  God does with his Word.  Here are just a few of his promises for you: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Ps.50:15) “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Ps.91:11) “In this world you will have trouble,” Jesus says, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (Jn.16:33)  Here’s the Bible’s definition of faith: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for a certain of what we do now see.” (Heb 11:1)  Martha was sure about Jesus even before the miracle.  Martha was a believer. 

Have you ever been not so sure about what God’s up to in your life or how things will turn out? Martha didn’t know either.  But like Martha, we know that “If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us? He did not spare his own Son, but graciously gave him up (to die on the cross and to take away all our sins), he promises to graciously help us in all other things, too!” (Rom 8:31 ,32)  Being a believer means praising God for what he’s already done to take care of our biggest problem of sin and death.  His miracle today shows that Jesus truly is Lord, that he loves us and can help in every need.  Believe it.  Find him in his Word.  Commit your way unto the Lord, trust not in your own understanding, and he will do this.”  What miracle are you waiting for, believer?

I’ll close today with this: “Imagine yourself waiting in a slow-moving line of sick and dying ones…every sound of ‘I can see!  I can walk!  I am alive!’ drifting back from the front of the line would lites a fire in you. This is how I take  my joy from the miracles of Christ…like one standing in a long line that leads to Him.  My time will come.” ( “Prepared to Answer,” p.20.)  

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            John 18:28-38  “Accused, Yet Truthful”

In the name of Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, dear Christian friends.

Imagine the scene for moment: Instead of Jesus, it’s Pilate on

trial. The bailiff announces that the court will come to order and the prosecution calls for the defendant to rise and take the stand.

            “What is your name?”

            “Pontius Pilate.”

            “And your profession?”

“I am the Roman Governor of Judea .”

“You were the presiding judge at the original trial of Jesus, were you not?”

“I was.”

“You had Jesus crucified?”

“Yes.”

Pilate, what was your personal judgment of Jesus?”

“I found no fault in him at all.”  (John 18:38)

That was defining moment.  That was a moment of truth for Pilate, wasn’t it?  In that moment, more truth came from Pilate’s lips than he could ever know. “I found no fault in him at all.”  The only question was: what would Pilate do with Jesus? It makes you think about who really was on trial that day, doesn’t it?  Was it Jesus?  (Can you even really put God on trial?!)  Or was it Pilate on trial.  And maybe there’s a moment of truth for you and for me, too, and on a daily basis.  What will we do with the truth about Jesus? 

Tonight, as we consider the account of Jesus on trial before Pilate, we’ll see him there, standing accused, and yet, as we see Him standing there we see him again tonight standing in, and trading places with us as our Substitute and saving us.  Tonight, we see him “Accused, but Truthful.” 

(vv.28-30 summary) By this time Jesus has been accused both before Annas and Caiaphas.  He had been before Pilate once already, then passed off to Herod, mistreated and abused, and brought back now again before Pilate for more of the same.  It is Good Friday morning. 

(vv.33-34) “Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?’  The Jews accused Jesus of treason against the Roman state.  “He’s subverting the nation with his insurrection, undermining the very rule of Caesar by calling himself a king, but we have no king but Caesar!”  If all this were true it was a capital offense worthy of death by crucifixion.  So Pilate gives the Jews a hearing.  It’s more of a nuisance for Pilate than a chance to learn any real truth about Jesus and his claims.  Mostly to placate the Jews, then, and to see if there’s any truth to their serious charges, Jesus is ushered into Pilate’s inner chambers.  “Are you the king of the Jews?”  To help Pilate think more about what he was asking and to further consider who’s standing before him, Jesus replies with a question of his own: “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

(v.35) “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me.  What is it you have done?” Accused, yet truthful, Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (v.37) “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  Sadly, not one of those putting Jesus on trial—not Annas, not Caiaphas, not Herod, not Pilate—none of them were on the side of the truth.  That meant, of course, that all of them stood opposite of Jesus, and therefore, they stood in opposition to God.

Maybe it’s a good time to think about where we stand.  Human courts need to ask questions in order to arrive at the truth about people.  But God, who knows all things, knows the ugly truth about us.  For every lie, for every sin, for every falsehood and every time that we misrepresented God in our lives before others, we are called to account.  The verdict: guilty. 

How relieved we are to hear the truth of the Gospel from God’s word once again tonight.  It’s the truth that Jesus’ kingdom is in fact from another world, and that, He, the Way and the Truth and the Life came down from heaven to save us from our sins.  And just look at what he was willing to do.  Here’s the eternal, sovereign Lord of all, allowing Himself to be dragged into a human court, and to have a mere mortal, sinful human being like Pilate and the others stand him up and pass judgment on Him and to have them accuse Him of wrong?!  It’s astounding isn’t it when you consider the great lengths our God was willing to go in order to become our Savior!  

So many words in the Gospels give us hope and promise of forgiveness and salvation.  Perhaps the best words in our text tonight, are actually from the unknowing lips of Pilate himself when he said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.”  Pilate’s words are filled with more truth than he would ever know.  Because He was the sinless Son of God, His perfect life and death on the cross were sufficient to redeem all the world from sin and death.  Only One who could stand in for us, and it is Jesus.  On the cross God’s own Truth set us free!

During this Lenten season let’s thank God that we understand the truth about Jesus.  Let’s thank God for the faith we’ve been given by the Holy Spirit himself.  Believing is a gift from God.  While thousands scoff or doubt the truth about Jesus, we believe.  We know that Jesus died for sinners, that he rose again from the dead, that he has established a heavenly, and eternal kingdom far greater than any earthly kingdom.  By God’s grace we are members of that kingdom.  The Bible says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt 20:16)  Praise the Lord we are among the chosen.  We did not chose him, but God chose us.  And now Jesus says, “If you hold onto my teaching, then you’re truly my disciples, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Pilate’s story tonight reveals the key issue every single human being needs to contend with before their short life is over: “What is the truth about Jesus, and what does it have to do with me?” 

As Roman governor, Pilate knew some things about Jesus.  Like Pilate, most people know some things about Jesus.  He’s in all the history books. It’s one thing, though, to know things about Jesus; it’s another thing to believe in him and to have what you know about Jesus make a difference in your life. 

While I was working on this sermon Monday at home, I took a short break to catch up on the morning news.  Turning on the television the game show, “Jeopardy” happened to be on.  Then the next thing I hear is, “I’ll take Jesus for $200.” No kidding.  When I heard it I’m like, “Man, I can’t believe this happening.”  By her expression you could almost sense the contestant realized what she was saying as the words are coming out of her mouth. Anyway, all three contestants went on to answer questions about Jesus.  There were questions about who announced his birth, what the Greek letters of his name were, and even this question was posed: “Jesus told Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ and then proved it by raising this dead person.” (Lazarus)  I was pleased to see all three contestants get every question about Jesus right.

Again, lots of people may know things about Jesus. But how do you get from a religious knowledge in the head to faith that lives in the heart and moves your life?  As with Pilate, so there’s a moment of truth for us, almost on a daily basis. When the conversation with others turns to religion, will you actually go there?  And what will you say about Jesus?  Are you able to say something meaningful about Jesus?  Maybe the moment of truth for you arrives when you find yourself right in the middle between the pleasure of the moment and doing what’s right according to God’s will. That moment of truth comes along each time we sit down to consider what our thank offerings will be, or how we will choose, in Christian freedom to consider how we will use some of our precious time to serve Him.  In all these situations, the central issue is: what does Jesus mean to me?  He means all kinds of different things to different people.  The one thing he won’t be is moderately important, or trivial.

There was a church in a small town with a tall steeple, with a clock.  It was a dependable clock.  Everyone set their watches to that clock.  One day two people met walking down the street.  One asked the other for the time.  Not having a watch himself, he instinctively, he pointed the man to the clock tower, but as it happened, that day, the clock had stopped.  Looking above the clock, to the top of the church spire, and thinking for a moment, the man said, “The clock might not be working today, but you can always set your life to that.”  And he pointed to the cross. 

We know the saving truth of the cross.  Let’s determine to set our lives by it.  Amen.

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