Gospel Pedigree
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Intro
Intro
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
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though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Have you ever thought how you would explain what it means to be an American?
Have you ever thought how you would explain what it means to be an American?
Or have you ever met someone who has done everything you have done but he has done it better, faster and in a more interesting way than you have.
You know the person the one who has a story to top every story you have?
Paul is going to present both in our passage tonight.
First he is going to explain to the Philippians how to identify the Judaizers
Philippi was not a city with a large Jewish population
In when Paul arrives he doesn’t go to a Jewish synagogue to begin his teaching - which leads us to believe there wasn’t one in Philippi
It only requires 10 men to start a synagogue
So the Philippians may have needed an idea of what it meant to be “Jewish” and how that would impact the teaching of the Judaizers
Paul is going to demonstrate that for them in this passage tonight.
He’s also going to provide a little bit of rhetorical “one up-manship”
He’s going to say that the Judaizers are going to tout their pedigree but if anyone should have confidence in the flesh it is me.
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Paul is going to provide us seven qualities from his life - both his upbringing and his choices as an adult - that would lead you to believe he could have confidence in his flesh
Read
Pray - remember the Madigan family
Advantages of Birth
Advantages of Birth
; ; ; ; ; ; ; Romans 9:8
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
Paul is going to give four ways that he was the best of the best
Paul is going to give four ways that he was the best of the best
Circumcised on the Eighth Day
Circumcision was the core issue that threatened the early church
After Paul’s first missionary journey there came some converted Pharisee’s that harassed the Gentile converts saying that they needed to submit to circumcision in order to be saved
The Council of Jerusalem issued a decree saying that the Gentiles didn’t have to submit to circumcision
Circumcision is an essential part of the Old Covenant established by God with Abraham in Genesis
The Jews were frequently referred to in the Old Testament as the circumcision - Gentiles as the uncircumcision
Established by God as a sign of the covenant in
Paul distinguishes himself further by saying that he was circumcised on the eighth day - literally says “an eighth-dayer”
Unlike the proselytes who would be circumcised as adults (including some of the Judaizers) Paul was circumcised at birth
The Jewish nation had forgotten that circumcision was to demonstrate our sinfulness and need for cleansing and instead had made it to stand for a badge of their own inherent righteousness
Because of the medical benefits most infant males are circumcised so the covenantal meaning of this practice has lost its meaning
Our modern equivalent to circumcision would be baptism - baptism is the physical representation of what has already taken place inside of the believer
It is not regenerative - meaning that baptism isn’t necessary for regeneration to take place
It is not salvific - meaning that baptism isn’t a requirement for salvation
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Of the people of Israel
Paul is not a proselyte - he is a natural born Israelite
Paul is not a proselyte - he is a natural born Israelite
He possesses all the rights and privileges of God’s chosen people because he belongs to them by birth
- he has access to all parts of the Temple, to all the rights of a natural born member of the nation of Israel
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
Israel was God’s chosen nation, His possession, to demonstrate His goodness to the nations of the earth
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules to Israel.
He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 147:1
It was from this nation that the Christ would be delivered unto the world
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
Genesis
Paul was a physical descendant of Abraham - another point that the nation of Israel relied upon for salvation
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Romans 9:
Of the tribe of Benjamin
Despite being the smallest of the tribes - Benjamin was a very prominent tribe in Israel
Benjamin was the younger son born to Rachel - Jacob’s favorite wife
He was the only child born in the promised land
Out of Benjamin came the first king of Israel - Saul
The holy city of Jerusalem was found within the borders of Benjamin
Benjamin resisted the inroads of foreign cultures and remained pure
By the time Paul is born the intermarrying of tribes made it very difficult to trace the lineage of an individual
By claiming membership in the tribe of Benjamin, Paul is pointing to his familial purity in the nation of Israel.
A Hebrew of Hebrews
Even though he was born outside of Israel, Paul and his family did not conform to Hellenistic culture that had infiltrated and watered down Jewish life
He submitted to his Jewish heritage - he learned and spoke Hebrew, he accepted the customs of Jewish life,
Paul points to his lineage as giving him a spiritual advantage within the old covenant
in effect he is demonstrating that he is the spiritual equivalent of a Kennedy
Advantages of Choice
Advantages of Choice
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circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Paul now demonstrates that it is not just by birth but also by the choices he made that demonstrate his righteousness
A Pharisee
The Pharisees were a sect of about 6000 men in Paul’s day
Emerged following the following the Maccabean revolt in 165-160 BC
Pharisees were held in high esteem by the local populace in Israel
Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ Chapter 13: Among the People, and with the Pharisees
His self-satisfied, or else mock-modest or ostentatiously meek bearing would betray him, even irrespective of his superciliousness towards others, his avoidance of every touch of persons or things which he held unclean, and his extravagant religious displays.
They formed the religious triad in Israel along with the Priests and the Saducees
The Pharisees were the most zealous of the three - requiring strict adherence to the Law
Philippians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary salvation is not by religion
To be a Pharisee was to be a member of an elite, influential, and highly respected group of men who fastidiously lived to know, interpret, guard, and obey the Law.
To be a Pharisee was to be a member of an elite, influential, and highly respected group of men who fastidiously lived to know, interpret, guard, and obey the Law.
Not content just to follow the Law given by Moses, the Pharisees held themselves to every law in the oral law, the interpretive traditions and those given by the scribes
Jesus most ardent adversaries they dogged his ministry in the towns and villages throughout Judea and Galilee
Interestingly Paul doesn’t relinquish his claim to being a Pharisee
Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
Acts
Paul would not have referred to himself as a converted Pharisee but as a completed one.
With zeal - persecuting the church
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
zeal for God and the purity of the Old Covenantal system drove Paul
There is a certain amount of irony to Paul’s statement
The Greek word for church is ekklesia
This word was used for the nation of Israel at the gathering at the foot of Mount Sinai when the Law was delivered
In the New Testament it is applied to the believers of the New Covenant
In essence what Paul is saying is that in an effort to protect the Old Covenant people and purity of God he is persecuting the church, the New Israel, the new heirs under the New Covenant.
Righteousness under the law - blameless
What Paul is writing here is not that he was sinless - but that he was so effective at keeping all of the laws requirements (even those of atonement) that the testimony of his efforts would demonstrate him to be blameless
Much like the rich young ruler in - Paul could claim that he had kept all the commandments from his youth
Advantages are not really advantageous
Advantages are not really advantageous
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Paul uses the language of a business ledger
Paul uses the language of a business ledger
gains vs. losses
He is not comparing the good versus the not as good.
He’s saying that everything he once thought was working in his favor for righteousness and salvation was actually working against him
When it comes to salvation there is only one item in the “gain” column - Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The fact that our parents, grandparents or forebears were great Christians does not mean that we are Christians. That was the whole tragedy of the Jews, as we have seen. Put next to birth, family, nation—none of these things matter at all.
Tony Sargent, Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from “the Doctor” (Milton Keynes, England; Colorado Springs, CO; Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster., 2007), 206.
Conclusion
Conclusion