B.C. – A.C. Philippians 3:1-11
Well, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read just a few verses from Philippians 3. This is Paul writing from prison to the church at Philippi, and this is his testimony about coming to Christ as his Savior, at least a part of it. Let me read these four or five verses. Paul writes, but whatever were gains to me I now consider lost for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. To be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Well, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, who pastored Moody Church for many, many years, used to say when it came to sermon time, he says, well, my job is to speak, and your job is to listen, and let’s hope that that ends at the same time, and that would be good. I’m sure you have all heard about the pastor that was looking out, and halfway through his sermon, he noticed someone that was sleeping halfway down the right side of the auditorium, and so he stopped the sermon, and he asked the person next to him, he says, would you happen to nudge him and wake him up? He fell asleep during the sermon, and the man responded, you wake him up, you put him to sleep. So, but really, I don’t mind, I really don’t mind if people sleep during the sermon.
I say, you’re either going to wake up spiritually refreshed or physically refreshed, and I’ll take either one, so. I won’t tell the story of years ago when our kids were young, and you’re not getting much sleep at night, and my wife was snoring during the sermon, so that was a little distracting, but didn’t happen often, but anyways, we’re looking at the book of Philippians, and just a little context, it’s the joy epistle, Paul’s writing from prison, he’s appealed to Caesar for a trial, and so he’s in Rome, he’s under house arrest, he ended up being there for two years, eventually was released, but during that time period, he wrote four letters, they’re called the prison epistles, and he shared the gospel, and people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Christ, and at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, all God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. So, Paul used his circumstances that weren’t the greatest as an opportunity, what, to share the gospel, and so we’ve been working our way through these four chapters in Philippians, and this morning we’re in Philippians chapter three, verses one through 11.
This is really Paul’s testimony about how he came to faith in Christ, and not necessarily the details, we get that in Acts chapter nine, but just the change in his life, and as I say that, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, all of us have a story, all of us have a testimony to share of, this was my before-Christ life, this is my after-Christ life. Some of those stories are more dramatic than others. I grew up in a pastor’s home, I’ve been going to church since I was two weeks old, and I remember I’d hear these stories of people who were all sorts of trouble, and made all sorts of bad choices in their life, and they came to faith in Christ, and I’m kind of like, my story’s a little boring.
Well, you realize that if you were saved young, you could take confidence in the fact that God’s maybe saved you from going astray, and there but for the grace of God go I. So, we all have a story to tell, that’s Ephesians 2:10, we’re God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus, the word workmanship there, some translations say masterpiece, the literal Greek word is poiema. God’s writing a story in our life, and this is part of Paul’s story, and so he had a dramatic change in his life, if you know the life of Saul, who was persecuting the church, and then he met Jesus in Acts 9, and became the great apostle. So, we’re going to start with the outline, and then we’ll have some application questions at the end, and then we’ll look at a video to close.
I. Paul’s commands
So, this is Paul’s commands, Philippians 3:1. Now my translation starts with the word further, my brothers and sisters. Some of your translations might say finally, the word can be translated either way, but Paul’s just in chapter three, beginning of chapter three of four chapters, so it’s probably better translated further. We’ve all heard sermons, and the pastor says, and in conclusion, and 25 minutes later, is that message still going? Paul has this finally in closing the end of the book in Philippians 4:8, so probably further is a better translation, but notice what he says, further my brothers and sisters.
I’ll just stop there for a moment. He uses that phrase six times to refer to the Philippian believers. He says, you’re my brothers and sisters in Christ.
So, we sing that song, I’m so glad I’m part of the family of God. And it’s true that if you’re a believer in Jesus, then another believer is your brother or sister in Christ. We’re part of God’s forever family.
Now if you go to church down south anywhere, if you’ve been there, you know how they’re going to refer to you, don’t you? They don’t call you by your first name, they refer to you as Brother Alan and Sister Michelle. That’s how they do it down south. We don’t tend to do that up north, although I have friends that refer to me as Brother Ron.
So, it’s the concept that we’re part of a family. I’ve talked many times about my pen pal, Steve, that’s in Jackson Prison. He will never get outside of Jackson Prison.
I’ve been a pen pal of his for probably almost 30 years now. And so, I get four or five letters a year from him. He quarterly sends a financial gift to our church from his job.
He considers, although he’s never been to Community Bible Church, he considers this church his church family. So just got a letter about 10 days ago from my friend Steve. Let me read just a little portion to you because it fits right in here with Philippians 3:1. Dear Pastor Ron, greetings to you and my brothers and sisters at Community Bible Church.
You didn’t know you had a brother in Jackson Prison, but you do, yeah. So, I’ll just jump to the last paragraph here. Soon to reach 71 years old, I’ve done 31 of them confined within these fences.
But the Lord has been by my side all along the way. I sure wish I had known him before causing people so much grief. In a way it reminds me of Saul persecuting the early church before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and changing Saul’s life forever.
He sure has changed mine. Send my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Community Bible Church. There’s a little parallel there, isn’t there? We’re reading a letter from Paul from prison and here’s my friend Steve that considers all of us his brothers and sisters in Christ.
1. Rejoice in the Lord
Well, the outline, Paul’s commands, he gives us two. Here’s the first one. Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.
Now the word joy and rejoicing are found 14 times in the book. I think this is the first time where Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. He’s given other commands to rejoice.
We’ll get to chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. He repeats it often. But he really gives us the key to our source of joy.
Where is true joy found? And it’s not found in our circumstances, but it’s found in Christ and the blessings that we have in Christ. I had an article in the mail this week from the Christian Legal Association and they had an article called Joy. And let me just read some of it.
It says, this Easter season let’s remember that true lasting joy is not based on circumstances but is deeply rooted in a personal relationship with Christ and the assurance of his sovereignty. Then he lists all these things. Where does our joy come from as Christians? Joy comes from Christ, not circumstances.
There’s joy in trials. Not that we rejoice in the trial, but what God is doing in our life through the trial. He reminds us that joy is a choice.
Joy comes from obedience to God. Joy is rooted in the hope of salvation. Joy is found in serving others.
Joy is linked to gratitude and on and on. And this is what Paul’s saying, I want you to rejoice. Maybe your circumstances are really good.
Maybe you’re going through a real hard time, but our joy is found in Christ and who he is and all of his promises and all the blessings that we get from knowing him. But there’s a second command. And if you read Philippians chapter 3 verse 2 by itself, it’s probably one of the strangest verses in all the Bible.
2. Beware/ A warning
But we got to try to put some context to it. So here’s what Paul writes. Watch out for those dogs.
What in the world are you talking about, Paul? Watch out for those dogs. Then he goes on to say those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh. So what you have to realize that back in the first century, dogs were not household pets.
Not like we have today. Dogs were outside. They were scavengers.
And so he’s not being complimentary here. Watch out for the dogs, evil doers. Watch out for the mutilators of flesh.
What’s Paul referring to or who is Paul referring to? And Paul’s referring to a group of people known as the Judaizers. So this is very important to understand. They were false teachers.
The whole book of Galatians deals with this. And apparently after Paul started the church at Philippi, there came some false teachers into the church. And they were trying to preach something different from what Paul preached.
So here’s what Judaizers believed and tried to impose on others. In the early church, those who taught salvation by a combination of God’s grace and human effort were called Judaizers. The word Judaizer comes from the Greek verb meaning to live according to Jewish customs.
A Judaizer taught that in order to be saved, a person must conform to the Mosaic law. Circumcision especially was promoted as necessary for salvation. And so he would say in order to be a follower of Christ, you have to first of all convert to Judaism basically.
You have to follow the law and all those regulations. So it’s God’s grace plus human effort. Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes first and then they could come to Christ.
The doctrine of the Judaizers was a mixture of grace and works. The false doctrine was dealt with in Acts chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council. And as I mentioned, strongly condemned in the book of Galatians.
In fact, let me to read you some of Paul’s strongest words that he ever wrote. And he’s writing to the believers in Galatia who had started to follow Christ. They came out of Judaism, and they were tempted then to go back to follow the old ways, the old customs and to keep the law.
And so, this is Galatians 1:6 through 9. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one, we preach to you, let them be under God’s curse.
As we have already said, so now I say it again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you have accepted, let them be under God’s curse. Those are some pretty strong words from Paul. Why would he be so harsh? He’s being so harsh because someone that preaches a different way of salvation other than through faith in Christ, by grace alone, in Christ alone, you are leading people to condemnation.
You’re leading people astray. And so, Paul is very strongly condemning those that preach other than the true gospel. So back to Philippians chapter 1 and the two commands.
He says, rejoice in the Lord. And hey, I want you to be aware of those Judaizers. They’re really evildoers.
II. Paul’s conclusion
They’re mutilators of the flesh and that refers to the right of circumcision. So now Paul comes to a conclusion in Philippians 3:3. Here’s what he says, for it is we who are the circumcision. Those of us that have put our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone now in the New Testament under grace, we are the circumcision.
Not those who have gone through a physical rite, but genuine Christians have had their hearts circumcised and opened to the gospel. And then he gives three descriptive phrases of those who are true believers. We serve God by his Spirit.
III. No confidence in the flesh.
We boast in Christ Jesus. We put no confidence in the flesh. So our confidence is not in a system of works.
It’s not in doing good works. It’s not in circumcision. It’s not in all these religious acts, but our faith and trust is in Christ alone.
And so, we are the true circumcision. In fact, back in Deuteronomy chapter 30, the book of the second law, here’s verse 6. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart, with all your soul and live. If we go to Acts chapter 2, Peter’s Pentecost sermon and the day the church was born, here’s part of Peter’s sermon.
He says, therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.
They said, what should we do? Now, we’re not talking about a physical cutting of circumcision, but a conviction of the heart. And so, Paul says, those that have put their faith in Jesus have been convicted of their sins, are the true circumcision, the true believers. And the Judaizers are evildoers.
They’re simply mutilators of the flesh. Well, Paul goes on to verse 4, and he talks about confidence in the flesh. And he basically says this.
If anybody had a spiritual resume, a pedigree that would earn them into heaven, it would be me. So, Paul goes on to now talk about, let me tell you my spiritual background, my spiritual pedigree, because if anybody could work their way or earn their way into heaven, it would be me. So, Paul gives seven or eight descriptions here of his background.
And let me read it in verse 4. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, if someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I the more. So now he goes on to list his resume, his religious resume. And it’s very impressive from a religious standpoint.
Here’s what Paul says. Circumcised on the eighth day. We’re going to camp on that just for a little bit because I find this fascinating.
That was the Jewish law, wasn’t it? That was God’s command that male children are to be circumcised on the eighth day. That’s Leviticus 12:3. 3,500 years ago, God said on the eighth day, a boy is to be circumcised. Now did you ever wonder why God said the eighth day? Why not the third day? Why not the 14th day? God never explains it in the scripture why he says male children should be circumcised the eighth day.
The number of years ago I came across this and I reviewed it again this week, an article called from a website, Bible Apologetics. It says, why the eighth day? Well, here it is. Not until fairly recently did we have any idea if there was any medical reasons for the eighth day.
Here’s a hint. It all has to do with the way blood clots. If vitamin K is not present when a baby boy is circumcised, the baby will bleed to death.
The reason God established day eight for circumcision is that vitamin K peaks in a newborn at eight days of age. The eighth day is the optimum day of circumcision because of the highest presence of the clotting factor, vitamin K. Today when baby boys are circumcised within a couple days, day two or day three of birth, they are administered vitamin K to help their body. I found that amazing.
That God knew, the creator of the universe knew that you need to do this on day number eight because that’s when vitamin K peaks and that’s when the optimal day to do that. And so we go back to the point of, we’ll just say father knows best. And as I thought about that, I thought about, you know, sometimes there’s some things in scripture that God tells us to do and they don’t make sense to us.
I would say, you know what? Do it anyway because God knows what’s best and we don’t have to figure it out. Sometimes we like to figure out reasons. God just wants us to obey.
So this is Paul’s pedigree, circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel. So he was part of God’s chosen people of the Jewish nation of the tribe of Benjamin. That’s the right family of all the 12 tribes.
The first king of Israel, Saul, came from the tribe of Benjamin. So that was a favored tribe out of the 12. He was from the right religion, the Hebrews.
He had the right education concerning the law. He was a Pharisee. He was trained under Gamaliel, the leading Pharisee of the day, the teacher of the day.
He had the right zeal as for zeal persecuting the church. Paul thought he was doing the right thing until he met Jesus. But he was zealous for his religion just like many people today that unfortunately don’t believe the right truth and the right doctrine.
But guess what? They’re out knocking on your door. They’re out on a two-year missionary trip. They’re zealous but not according to truth and that described Paul.
And so he had the right zeal and then he had the right morality as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. The Pharisees came up with 612 do’s and don’ts that they added to the law. Paul says, I’m trying to keep them all.
IV. Paul’s new calculation
And so Paul basically says, if anybody could earn their way to heaven, it would be me. But that moves us on to Paul’s new calculation, verses 7 through 10. And here’s where it all turns with that three-letter word B-U-T.
But now he’s referring to his experience where he came to know Christ as his Savior. This is Paul’s post-conversion story from Acts chapter 9. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation. The old things are passed away.
Everything becomes new. So now Paul has a totally new perspective. And when he writes these verses 7 through 10, he’s writing about a new value system and the context is salvation.
He’s talking about salvation. And so here’s what he has to say about his new value system. And it’s basically everything that I used to put on the left side of the ledger that I thought was a positive to try to earn salvation, I’ve now got it on the other side of the ledger, the big fat zero.
Here’s his new value system. But whatever were gains to me, that’s those verses we just read, I now consider them loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom’s sake I’ve lost all things.
When Paul uses the word loss, he uses the Greek words, zemia, it means it’s worthless. Not, that there’s not value in that, but there is value in education. There is value in other things, but not to gain salvation.
And so, he’s talking about as far as gaining salvation, all that effort is a big fat zero. In fact, he goes on to say in the last part of verse 8, I consider them garbage, rubbish. King James uses the word d-u-n-g, dung.
This Greek word is used only here in the New Testament. It’s the word skubala. This is worthless.
It’s garbage. Two weeks ago, Keith Bennett arranged for us to have, what is it, 1-800-CALL-JUNK. And just like in your house, every couple years, where’d all this stuff come from? And we need to get rid of it.
And so, we have to do that occasionally in the church because we tend to collect things. And we had two big trucks, and man, we got a lot of junk that had just been sitting around. No one’s used it for years and emptied out our hopefully soon-remodeled youth area out here.
And then that got hauled to the dumpster and got hauled to the dump. That’s what Paul’s talking about here. As far as gaining salvation, it’s worthless, it’s useless, it’s rubbish, that I might gain Christ.
And then here he is in verse 9. Here’s the key phrase, to be found in him. There’s two groups of people in the world, those that are in Christ and those that are outside of Christ. Those that are in Christ, what happens when we put our faith in Jesus? The righteousness of Christ gets credited to our account.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might what? Have the righteousness of God. God’s perfection gets credited to our account. And we have the assurance of heaven.
And Paul says that’s the true value in life, that I might be found in him. And so Paul’s talking about salvation, be found in Christ. But then in verse 10, he begins to talk about sanctification.
That’s our growing in Christ. That’s growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus and learning more about Jesus and becoming more like Jesus. And so, here’s what Paul writes as far as his desire now.
He says, I want to know Christ. That was what the first opening song was all about. And we’ll hear it again at the close of the service.
Paul says, I want to know Christ. And then he lists three things. To know the power of his resurrection.
And I want to know the resurrection power of Christ that rose again from the grave. And someday if you know Jesus is your savior, that’s going to happen to your body and my body. There will be a literal, physical resurrection of our bodies.
But Paul here is talking about the Christian walk and the power of his resurrection, and Romans 6 talks about this. He’s talking about what? Having victory over sin in our life. And Christ’s resurrection power, you can read Romans 6:11 through 14, we won’t take time to do it, but victory over sin in our life, the power of his resurrection.
Paul says, I want to know the power of his resurrection and the participation in his sufferings. I don’t know if I’ve ever honestly made a statement like that. I want to participate in the sufferings of Christ, but oftentimes God allows us to go through times of suffering, whether it’s physical suffering or emotional, relational suffering.
Paul says, I want to experience the suffering, participation of the sufferings of Christ. And Paul did suffer. 2nd Corinthians 11:23-26, I’ll just read a portion of it.
This is what Paul experiences as a missionary and a great apostle. He says, I’ve worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews, 40 lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked.
I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I’ve been constantly on the move. I’ve been in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my fellow Jews, in danger from the Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger in the sea, on and on it goes.
He says, I went through a lot. And he says, I want to experience the sufferings of Jesus. And then he goes on to say the third thing that he’s talking about as far as his sanctification and becoming like him in his death and so somehow attained to the resurrection from the dead.
So, Paul’s not uncertain about the resurrection because he writes about that in 1st Corinthians 15. I think here he’s saying he’s unsure of the way he was going to die. Is he going to be executed in prison or is he going to die of old age? But Paul says, someday I want to experience the resurrection of Jesus.
Well, this is Paul’s A.C., B.C. – A.C. story, before Christ, after Christ. And he says, as far as salvation is concerned, the only thing that matters is what Jesus has done for us on the cross. So, this morning I want to ask just a couple of two very important application questions that are from the text here.
1. Am I rejoicing in the Lord?
Here’s the first one. Am I rejoicing in the Lord? I mean, Paul mentions it like 14 times here, so it’s kind of hard to miss the message. But do I, am I choosing joy in my life? And can I be joyful even though life isn’t always good. I have an aunt in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Went through heart surgery nine weeks ago. She’s 78 years old. I’ve shared this with some of you.
As my youngest, my dad’s got one brother left, my youngest dad’s brother, and this is his wife. And had some little bit of complications post-surgery, and then in her recovery, could not get off a ventilator. And after like 10, 12 days, then they, you know, did a tracheostomy.
Now she’s hooked up to a ventilator, you know, through her throat, and it’s helping her breathe. She’s in the ICU for like five weeks, and they finally moved her to a recovery hospital. And after two days, they sent her back because she just got pneumonia, got some infections.
Nine weeks later, she’s still in ICU. And we’ve been in contact with her family and my cousins and my uncle. And my cousin texted me, I think it was Thursday, and said, hey, can you give me a call? And I’m like, oh man this, this isn’t good.
And she says, yeah, we’re at a crossroads here, and we’re going to do another breathing test. And can you just pray? And so, we have been. But I tell you, for my uncle, my two cousins, they’re twin, twin girls, beautiful, beautiful people that love the Lord.
It has been agonizing. You don’t know what the future, future is. Doctor asked my aunt, do you want to keep fighting? She can’t really talk.
She’s mouthing words. And she said, yes. How certain are you about that? And she says, on a scale of one to ten, she said eight.
Okay. We’re going to keep fighting. It’s going to be a lot of work.
We’re going to keep fighting. Well, in situations like that, it’s incredibly difficult to choose joy, but the joy is in knowing that where Nedra is going to be if God takes her home. So, am I rejoicing in the Lord, or am I just focusing on my circumstances? And if we just focus on our circumstances, we’re going to get discouraged.
We’re going to begin to compare our lives to others. But joy is found in knowing Jesus and his promises, and that he’s got a plan for our life, even when we don’t understand the pain sometimes. Here’s the second question, and it’s probably the most important one.
And this is the evangelism explosion question that they teach. Have you ever gone through a class about how to share your faith? I’ve asked this question dozens and dozens of times to people, maybe at this point hundreds of times to people. It’s the most important answer you will give in your whole life, because it’ll determine your future destiny.
2. If you were standing before heaven’s gates and God were to ask you ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’, how would you respond?
Here’s the question. If you’re standing before heaven’s gates and God were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven? What would your response be? As I mentioned, I’ve asked that question dozens or hundreds of times, and sometimes I have to give people a little chance to think about it and to answer that question. Other people know the answer right off the bat.
But here’s what many people have told me. Well, you know what? I think I’ve lived a pretty good life, and I’ve not really done anything really, really bad compared to some other people that I know, so I think I’m going to be good. I have to tell them, well, I have some news for you.
I’ve got some bad news, and I’ve got some good news. The bad news is that’s the wrong answer. That’s not going to get you into heaven.
That’s what Paul was relying on. Look at me. Look how good I am.
I went to Pharisee school. I’ve got all this alphabet soup after my name. As far as earning heaven, it’s a big zero.
The only answer that’s the right answer is the only reason I can get into heaven because I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be my savior, and he paid my sin debt, and my trust is in him and him alone for my eternal destiny. And so that’s a crucial question that I hope you can answer the right answer to that. If you have any question about that, any question at all, we’d love to talk to you right after the service and take care of that this morning to know for sure.
First John says we can know for sure that we have eternal life. You don’t have to like, I hope I make it. I wonder if I make it.
No, we can have that certainty. Am I rejoicing in the Lord? Do I know Jesus as my savior? Nothing to the cross I bring, simply to the cross I cling. For by grace are you saved through faith in that and out of yourselves.
It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And let me just add one other encouragement when we’re thinking about our B.C. – A.C. story. Because this is your story, you might think your story’s boring or not important and nothing could be further from the truth.
I love to hear people’s testimonies. I love to hear how they came to know Christ. And so, if you’ve never taken time to kind of concisely put your story in maybe a two-minute, at the most, three-minute verbalization to people, I encourage you to do that or just write it down.
God can use that to impact other people. And so, 1st Peter 3:15 says. Always be prepared to give an answer, an apologia for the hope that is in you. And so, I would encourage you, you need to be ready to tell your story and watch how God uses that in the lives of other people