Philippians 3

Good morning church, I’m Dave, and if you’ve been attending here for a while, you are likely used to seeing my out in the lobby serving with the security team. What you may or may not be aware of is that that is just one of a few hats I wear around here, I also have the honor of serving as one of the elders for Fearless church. So, with Pastor Chris still on sabbatical I get the opportunity and privilege of speaking to you all today.

We are currently in the middle of a series on the Book of Philippians and with this series we’ve put together this reading plan for the month of July with the specific purpose of getting all of us reading God’s Word. So hopefully you have been reading along with us as we work through this plan, if not, grab one of the bookmarks as you leave today and jump in. We truly do believe that God works and speaks through his word to all believers, and we also believe that his word will not return void in your life.

The way this works, is that Scripture, the Bible we have today, is in fact, the inspired word of God, which is to say that the Spirit of God guided and directed the original authors of the many individual books that comprise the Bible. That Holy Spirit that was with them, is the same Spirit who is alive in you as a believer. You can and should approach reading the Bible with the bold expectation that in reading God’s Word the living God who inspired these words in time past will work today to change you towards His will.

Slide 2 – Philippians 3

Introduction

This week we are specifically in chapter 3 and we will be dealing with a passage that surrounds some false teaching that was being imposed on this church that Paul had played a part in planting in the Greek town of Philippi.

As I was preparing for today’s message, I was telling Brian Tate how I don’t have an anecdote to start the message off with, him and a few others have insisted that I need to have an anecdote to start with, so I figured I would look up what an anecdote is, and the definition I found said: “a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person”. Well, hopefully you found that little tidbit interesting, because that’s the anecdote right there. It has nothing to do with my message, and I have no point in sharing that other than Brian said I needed to.

Today in Philippians 3, we’re going to be focusing on, verses 2 through 11. I’m going to read this whole passage through, pray, and then we’ll get started:

Slide 3-7 – Philippians 3:2-11

2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh — 4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Heavenly father, as we open up your word, I ask that you free our minds of the distractions that so easily grab at us. We humbly come to you and ask that you show us what we need to see, teach us what we need to learn, and provoke in us the change you want to see made. Crush our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh that is sensitive to your word and to your will. In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

Slide 8 – Some Background

The book of Philippians is written by a man named Paul, he wrote many of the letters found in the New Testament, 13 of them actually, but Paul doesn’t first show up in scripture as a good guy. We’re first introduced to Paul when he is going by the name Saul and Saul is a bad guy, he is an active enemy of the early followers of Jesus. When I say enemy, what I mean to say is that he is involved in physically attacking the early converts to Christianity. In Acts chapter 7 we are introduced to a man named Stephen, more specifically, Stephen the martyr, he is the first of many early followers of Jesus who is killed for his faith. Acts chapter 7 ends with Stephen’s stoning death and chapter 8 opens with: “and Saul approved of his killing” and it then goes on to detail how Saul would go from church to church dragging men and women off to prison. This is how we are first introduced to Saul. In chapter 9, something incredible happens as Saul encounters the risen Jesus while traveling on a road on his way to persecute more Christians. God does with Paul what he does so often in scripture he chooses the least likely to carry out his will and change the world. In this way, God is rightfully the one who gets all of the glory. We then fast forward to where we find Paul now as he is writing the book of Philippians. Paul is writing to a church he helped start during his second missionary journey (which you can read all about in Acts 16), and this church like many of the early churches was being targeted with false teachings from a group of pseudo-Christian religious leaders known as the Judaizers. They were called this as they wanted to force a type of Judaism on to the new Christians. Their main focus was on following the law given to Moses and recorded in what we call the Old Testament. That’s probably enough background for now, let’s dive into our text:

Works of the Flesh

Slide 9 – Philippians 3:2-3

Alright, so, right off the bat, it’s pretty obvious that Paul is coming in hot. He is making his counter argument to the Judaizers rules-based or works-based salvation, and he is not sugar coating here, he’s not pulling punches. This group has made it their mission to follow around the early non-Jewish converts to Christianity and attempt to convince them that they needed to become more Jewish in order to receive salvation. And Paul is having none of it. This is antithetical to what Paul has been preaching, the sufficiency of Christ, the reality of salvation given by grace through faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

This isn’t the only recorded time we see this group show up in the early church. In Galatians 2 we see that one of the Jesus’ apostles, Peter, had fallen into this legalistic thinking and Paul confronts him directly. In Acts 15 we read about former Pharisee’s insisting salvation depended on following Moses’ law. And in Titus 1:10 as the early church is establishing offices for the church, one of the duties given to elders is confronting false teaching like what we see from these Judaizers. Suffice it to say, this was a hot topic for the early church. Which explains why Paul is using very strong language here.

Slide 10 – Dogs, Evil Workers, Mutilate the Flesh

He starts off calling them “dogs”, this is a description used a few times in scripture, meant for those outside the faith, to a Jew, this is what you would call non-Jews or Gentiles. This was not a term of endearment, dogs back then are these were free roaming, mangy, trash eating pests, not your “man’s best friend” sitting in your house waiting for you to get home.

Secondly, he calls them “evil workers”, another very intentional insult, these Judaizers prided themselves on their ability, their work, to perform the commands of the law for the sake of their own righteousness, and in many ways, their salvation, their standing in relation to God, was wholly dependent on this conscious ability of theirs to follow, keep, and obey religious rules and regulations. Dealing with this false sense of righteousness that some find in the law, Paul says in Romans 3:20 that “…the knowledge of sin comes through the law.” In other words, the law shows them their guilt, it does not give them any righteousness.

Finally, he defines them as mutilators of the flesh, your version might say “the concision”, or say something about circumcision. To give a little more background here, for a Jew, physical circumcision was given to them by God to mark themselves physically as a part of God’s chosen people. When Jesus came and offered forgiveness of sins to the whole world with no requirement of outward physical signs, this truly shook the religious leaders of his time who had built themselves up due to their ability to follow the law so closely. To call them mutilators is to say their circumcision is worthless and is actually just a grotesque act of self-harm.

Paul then moves on to say,

Slide 11 – “we are the circumcision”

“we are the circumcision” meaning he and these new Christians are the ones set apart for God. What does he say defines them as the real circumcision? They “worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and DO NOT put confidence in the flesh”.

Works of the Spirit

So, he identifies himself and these Philippian believers as the circumcision, but not because of some outward physical sign or law they have followed, but because of what? “That by the Spirit of God they can boast in Christ Jesus.” In Romans 2 this idea is expanded upon

Slide 12 – Romans 2:28-29

28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.

Circumcision here is defined as being on the heart, not a work of the individual on the outside of their body, but the spiritual work, a spiritual mark on the heart of every believer that defines them as a part of God’s people.

Paul’s Previous Pride

Most of Paul’s argument is done at this point. Paul sees confidence in the works that people can do, the works of the flesh, as worthless, as not saving, and if it doesn’t save than it is in fact deadly.

Slide 13 – Deadly vs Saving Confidence

The comparison that is being made is that there is a confidence that saves, but that is not what is being pushed, this self-confidence or self-righteousness is what they are pushing, and Paul is warning against it.

The work that Jesus has done and his Spirit at work in the believer, this is a saving confidence and the thing that matters most.

While the argument is essentially complete, Paul does not stop here, instead he attacks their argument from their perspective, joining with them in this self-righteous measuring contest, he joins in looking closely at the items they bring to the table. Paul has already given us the why, and now pivots to “you want to compare? We can do that!”

Slide 14 – Philippians 3:4

4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

In full transparency, I used to really struggle with Paul because of verses like this and others where Paul talks about his credentials. I heard an arrogance here that was likely my own sin issues creeping into the text and not the reality of what is being said here. So, what is? Well, as with all scripture, we must keep the context in mind, fortunately for us, the context for what he is about to do is the previous verse:

Slide 15 – “boast in Christ”

Remember, Paul is arguing against those who put their confidence in the things they can do, not the things Christ has done. Whereas Paul wants to “boast in Christ Jesus and not put confidence in the flesh”, but if that’s the metric one wants to use, he is about to show why he can argue against all of our human efforts in comparison to what the Spirit can do in the heart of a believer.

Slide 16 – Philippians 3:5-6

5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

Again, Paul addressed his confidence is not in these things, but for argumentation’s sake, he gets into what he defines in 2 Corinthians 11 as foolish boasting, because it is foolish boasting. Here we specifically see Paul use 7 metrics of self-righteousness, these are areas that Jews of the time would identify or agree are reasons or evidences of righteousness.

Slide 17-23 – Paul’s Self Confidences

“circumcised the eighth day” – this is his religious qualification, he’s throwing this out first to directly confront the Judaizers and their religious works of the flesh, namely circumcision. By listing the day of the event here, Paul is showing that even his parents kept him in strict compliance with the letter of the law and as I said before, many of the Judaizers likely cannot boast similarly.

“of the nation of Israel” – an ethnic qualification, he is an Israelite, he has a natural right to all of the blessings and privileges afforded a member of God’s chosen nation.

“of the tribe of Benjamin” – a tribal or maybe social credential, Israel is a nation of tribes, 12 of them, and the tribe of Benjamin is a favored one, Saul, Israel’s first king, and likely Paul’s namesake is from this tribe. They were one of two tribes that remained faithful to David’s kingdom, and Jerusalem along with the temple is actually physically located within their allocated land. These were social elites. They lived in the right zip code

“a Hebrew born of Hebrews” – this is a cultural qualification, while Hebrew, Jew, and Israeli all refer to roughly the same people group, Paul is saying he and his father and his father’s father, etc. are all Jews born of Jews. He’s not a Jew by marriage, but by background.

“regarding the law, a pharisee” – this is an educational qualification, This isn’t law school, lawyer stuff, these were the Masters of Divinity, the Doctorates, there wasn’t a higher educational standard for a theocratic people. His father was a pharisee and he studied under a very well-known and respected rabbi. We look at the Pharisee in our modern context with a negative connotation. This would not have been the case then. These guys loved the scripture, they meditated on it day and night, they strived to follow the word of God as closely as possible. They memorized entire passages of scripture, and lived their lives based off of what they read.

“regarding zeal, persecuting the church” – this is a personality qualification, this one is a bit of a weird flex, but alright. We need to remember who he is talking to/about, however. He is saying, listen these Judaizers feel strongly about circumcision, so they are telling you to do it. I believed so strongly in the law that I was brutal in persecuting the church. Paul is the guy, he is out in front, doing the work, he’s not shy or timid, when he has a conviction, he’ll follow it to the end. He was zealous.

“regarding righteousness that is in the law, blameless” – this is a moral qualification. He is not claiming to be without sin here, he is stating that he followed that religious law to the letter. In fact he had devoted his entire life to the pursuit of righteousness as found in the law.

Impressive list for any Jew of the time. He lists these self-confidences knowing that the Judaizers would respect them, that this list gives him a certain authority in their minds.

Remember, that it was only that encounter with the risen Jesus I mentioned at the beginning that would sway Paul from these confidences to something new.

We don’t live in the same cultural context as Paul, the same Jewish religious and social culture isn’t so prevalent here in this post-Christian melting pot we call America. But, I think we can see some similarities in this list to the self-confidences or self-righteousness’ we can fall prey to today. That I can fall prey to.

Slide 24 – 28 – Self Confidences

Family – I’ve got a wife, a few kids, we enjoy spending time together, we’re all relatively well behaved. I’m proud of the family I come from and the family that Sarah and I have built.

Social Status – I work, I’m self-employed, I provide for my family, we own our home, we own a big old bus that can been seen from miles away, says SudBus on the plate, you can’t miss it.

Bible Knowledge – I read, I study, I enjoy that study, I memorize scripture, I did AWANA like Chris mentioned last week, as well as Bible quiz. I’m an elder, I’ve been given many opportunities to lead and teach, and today even to preach.

Religious Activity – For the most part if there is something happening here at the church, me or my family are there. So much so, they gave me keys, so we can be here even if the building isn’t open.

Moral Behavior – I try to live a moral life, I’ve been able to overcome most of the vices of my youth, I’m not vulgar, I avoid gossip, I seek to encourage others, to be held accountable, and to hold others accountable. I pray, I read scripture, I try to live it out. I’m raising my family similarly.

There we have it, we’ve looked at Paul’s self-confidence or self-righteousness, we’ve looked at mine. Each of us, can likely fill out that list similarly. But remember, that encounter with Jesus is what led Paul to write what comes next:

Slide 29 – Philippians 3:7-8

Weighing the Cost

What does Paul think of his list?

Slide 30 – “everything…”

“everything…I have considered to be a loss” all of these a loss compared to what? The “value of knowing Christ” what does he say about his moral behavior? His religious activity? He: “considers them as dung”. The language here is actually softer than what the Paul wrote in the Greek, its bodily waste, he isn’t being profane here, but it is such a gross word that the translators have historically shied away from it. It’s an embarrassing word, in some ways not considered fit for scripture. What does Paul think of his and our lists? Compared to “the surpassing value of knowing Christ”? Equivalent to excrement. If we’re placing the items on our list into a bar chart, the value of knowing Christ is so high that it levels the rest of the list to the point that those items don’t even register, there aren’t even bars. If we’re plotting the values, this list has no curve to it. If we’re grading on a curve, your perfect score, your hundred percent, may as well be a zero compared to the infinite value of Christ.

There is another type of language in use here, accounting language, this word “loss”, what Paul is saying here is that on the balance sheet of his life, these go against his balance, these place him in the negative, this list adds nothing to his life. A life with only these confidences is a life with a debt at the end of it, it’s a waste, not an investment worth making.

There is something else we must notice here about these lists, something that makes obvious why he was making a comparison between saving confidence and deadly confidence Let’s look at it once more… What do you notice about this list?

Slide 31 – Self Confidences

What can be said about these things? These aren’t bad things. That’s what is so dangerous here. That is what Paul is protecting this young church from, the danger of the good.

Slide 32 – The Danger of the Good

These “good things” when placed in front of Christ are so deadly. If your confidence is found in your goodness, in your work, in your family, your social status, your church attendance, your confidence will not save you. Where is Paul’s confidence? What does he see as valuable? In the balance sheet of his life, what’s in the positive column? What does he see as worthwhile?

Slide 33 – “Value of knowing Christ”

Christ. There is value in Christ. The gain is Christ. This is why Paul rejects that self-confidence and instead rests his confidence firmly and finally in…

Slide 34 – Paul’s Confidence

Christ. End of list. No additional bullets. Paul’s confidence is in Christ and Christ alone.

Slide 35 – Worthless / Loss

All of these other things that we can bring to the table are worthless, work against us, are debts in the grand scheme of things. What is of value, what is actually gain for us? What is worth pursuit? What is worth forsaking everything else?

Slide 36 – Our value / Our Gain

Christ alone is worthy of all praise, Christ alone is worthy of pursuit, Christ alone is deserving of our adoration. Paul continues:

Slide 37 – Philippians 3:9-11

so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Here we get to see why Paul is not interested in his own works, as a “righteousness of his own making, based on the law”, is a trap that can keep one from Christ. Instead, what does Paul look to? A righteousness that is “through faith in Christ” which is “the righteousness from God”. I can’t know everyone’s personal opinions and thoughts on who God is. That being said, I can tell you the reason Paul is looking for and confident in a righteousness that is from God, the thing that scripture makes clear: God is love, God is perfect, God is holy, God is truth, God is just, God is good. When Paul looks at the works of his life, he realizes an important truth, compared to God, we are lacking, we are imperfect, we are sinful, prideful, boastful, vain, greedy, and in the end, evil. Paul is communicating an important truth:

Slide 38 – Your Righteousness is Worthless

A righteousness based on what we can bring is incomplete, it falls to the same pitfalls we fall to. Paul’s righteousness, my righteousness, your righteousness, is worthless.

Slide 39 – “goal is to know him”

This is why when Paul looks upon the reality of his situation, he runs to Christ, his “goal is to know Christ”, to see the “power of his resurrection”, that power that conquers the death that we’ve all earned through the sin in our lives, and results in our ability to join Christ in the resurrection. For the believer, that is what lies ahead.

Final Thoughts

The amazing story of what Christ did, the reason Paul can so confidently say that he counts his own righteousness as loss, the good news for you and me, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he came to save sinners. He didn’t come to save people self justifying their own way into heaven, he didn’t come for the self-righteous. He didn’t come for Saul, the perfect Jew, he came for Saul who brutally persecuted Christians, he came for people like the thief on the cross who while sentenced to death for his sins was forgiven to life everlasting by Jesus himself, he came for people like me who would lose their temper with their children, who has a sin nature that holds grudges, who could be prideful and stubborn, who would lie for the sake of telling a good tale. He came for people like you, and not just “people like you”, he came for you specifically. Jesus, who is eternal, suffered an eternity for your sins, for my sins. Jesus who repeated time and time again, while hanging on that tree cried out, father forgive them they don’t know what they’re doing.

The wonderful cost of knowing Jesus is knowing that the eternal God of the universe decided to enter into our condition, to humble himself into the form of his own creation, to save me, redeem me, not because of how good I am, or how good I can pretend to be, but because of how good God is.

Slide 40 – “Salvation is available…”

Salvation is available not because of how good we are, but because of how good God is! Our hope is in Christ and not in our accomplishments, our abilities, or anything that we provide, our hope is simply and finally in Christ.

We don’t serve a God looking for our missteps and mistakes, we serve a God who stepped into our ugliness and said father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing. We crucified Christ while he hung there forgiving us. If this forgiveness is something you aren’t sure you have received, please find someone at the connection center, talk to me after service here at the front, do whatever you need to do to get yourself out of the way and place Christ properly on the throne of your life.

Closing

Let’s pray: Lord, thank you for the riches you give us at your own expense. Thank you for loving us in spite of who we are. Thank you for providing yourself as a perfect sacrifice and payment for our sins. Thank you for the air that fills our lungs, allow us to use it to give any glory directly back to you. Amen.

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