Nothing is Greater

Intro

I want to begin with a question.

What would it take for you to finally be satisfied?

Really think about it.

What would have to happen in your life before you could finally stop striving, stop proving yourself, stop feeling like you have to earn approval, and simply rest?

Whether we realize it or not, every one of us has an answer. We all have something we think we need to add before we can be satisfied.

Paul is going to confront that lie today. He's going to show us that the greatest mistake we can make is putting a plus sign after Jesus. And by the time we're finished, my prayer is that every one of us leaves here ready to do one thing:

Stop striving...and be satisfied.

Philippians 3:1–3 CSB

In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 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—

The difference between verses one and verses two and three seem jarring at first. After all this is the joy book. The underlying theme of Joy has been running through this whole letter. and he starts chapter three how you would expect rejoice in the Lord. That tracks with what we would expect. But then he says watch out for dogs, evil workers, and those who mutilate the flesh.

Paul is clearly fired up. Paul is angry but he’s just talked about how his audience should rejoice and how joyful he is. Can anger and joy coexist in one heart simultamiously? Yes when the joy and the anger are based in the same thing.

We have already been talking for weeks how Paul’s joy was in Jesus. and now here again he says rejoice in the Lord. Now we see here he has an anger that is also based on Jesus. Because what is making him angry are those who are trying take the requirements of salvation which begin and end with one word Jesus. and put a plus sign after it. So instead of Just Jesus they were pushing Jesus+ which sounds like a streaming service that only plays old cringy Christian movies.

Here is the truth that Paul wants us to grab from these verses

1. Never Put a Plus Sign after Jesus.

and you all know that we are saved through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. You can’t use the word alone and then add anything because then its not alone. One of my favorite hymns is In Christ Alone. it starts “In Christ alone my hope is found” It cant go in Christ alone and my works my hope is found or in Christ alone and my parents faith, or In Christ alone and some experience. In Christ alone plus nothing.

Never put a plus sign after Jesus, but more than that what Paul is making clear here is this, it is ok to be angry and cut off people that do Put a plus sign after Jesus. That sounds kinda non Christian at first doesn’t it.

but This wasn't a one-time issue for Paul. Everywhere he planted churches, the 'Jesus plus' teachers showed up. Read Galatians, Romans, Colossians, Philippians, Titus, Timothy, or Corinthians, and you'll hear the same thing he would tell those churches: watch out, avoid them, reject them, don't let them gain influence. Why? Because once you add something to Jesus for salvation, you've changed the gospel itself."

We are called to love but if we allow those who would change the Gospel into our churches, onto our stages, into our Sunday School classrooms, onto our social media feed. we allow them to change the Gospel and lead us and others astray.

If that doesn’t make you angry. If that isnt worth standing up for than how can we say we are rejoicing in Christ while we let people detract from what he did on the Cross by adding stuff they can do to it.

Here’s the reality Jesus plus teachers are still all around us today. Mormons say nice things about Jesus but they do not believe in faith alone, by grace alone in Christ alone. They have all these rites and ceremonies that arent in the Bible that they say you need to gain salvation thats a Jesus plus teaching, there are denomiations that say you have to have an additional experience with the Holy Spirit as a neccessity for salvation that is a Jesus plus teaching. There are those who have grown up in church whose confidence is in their own merit of being good to impress God for salvation that is Jesus plus teaching.

We must be vigiliant to guard ourselves, our church, our families from any Jesus plus teaching. To Paul these things mattered and they should matter to us too. what he preach is the truth. Its not an insight or one facet of truth. It is the truth. Jesus is the all sufficent savior of sinners. No Jesus plus subsription required. We can never put a plus sign on Jesus. And it is ok to get angry when those who claim to be Christians try and let that anger move you to protect the truth.

Look at how valuable the truth was to Paul once he had discovered it.

Philippians 3:4–8 CSB

although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 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

What does he mean when he’s talking about the flesh that Christians should’t put any confidence in. When he says flesh here it isn’t a sexual term like it is in other places in the Bible. the way he is using it here from what I have studied is a way to define all that we do between when we are born and when we are born again. Everything we do both good and bad is all in the flesh.

One commentary put it like this.

“it is Not only man at his worst but also man at his best who is flesh and therefore not acceptable before God.”

He looked at all his good achievements on his own and came to the same conclusion we all must come to. it’s not enough.

2. Without Jesus, the Total Is Zero.

I want to make something very clear about the righteous accomplishments that Paul had. They were impressive.

He could prove that he was a member of God’s chosen people and could trace his heritage all the way back to Abraham, He had gone through the strictest training in the Old Testament. He was trained by the most respected Rabi of the time, Was considered a Pharisee, which meant he obeyed the law down to the absolute letter of the law, and he didnt just have knowledge he put it to action by persecuting those who he thought were attacking what he believed.

Those qualifications were something all the Jesus plus people he was writting about could only dream of. If you could gain righteousness before God Paul would have.

Paul is saying look at all I accomplished and I have no confidence in my flesh what I have done to save me and if I have no confidence in my flesh how can you have confidence in yours to save you. Without Jesus you know what its all worthy when I add it up? zero

And that is the question that I feel like we need to be hit in the face with this morning.

If Paul, Peter, James, John, Matthew, Abraham, David, If these men who lived these incredible faithful lives could look at their lives and realize. there is no way they could be confident in what they could do to gain favor with God what makes us think we can. What makes you think you could do enough?

Paul sat and added up all his advantages and achievements all the things he used to have confidence one by one and he had to reach a point where when he added them all up he had to admit the total was zero. and he said “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ”.

I can do the same I was raised in a Christian household, I was called into ministry when I was a teenager, I have never been drunk, smoked, or done any sort of drug, Stayed pure until my wedding night and married someone who did the same, was ordained into Gospel ministry. But guess what I can add all that up and you know what it is worth. zero less than zero theres a loss. if my story didn’t also include giving my life to Jesus.

When you look at your life don’t look at it by counting the good in one column and the bad in one column hoping it that under the line at the bottom after you add it up it will be positive. its all in one column under flesh. and the total at the bottom is loss. anything we think we can gain equals nothing. but through Jesus we can have everything.

Philippians 3:8–11 CSB

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 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. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Paul makes it clear that everything that he added up that he used to think was valuable he looks at it like a loss now. In other words he doesn’t miss it. he now sees the righteousness that he tried to gain on his own the same way that God sees it. as dung or trash. and what he is showing us is since he has made that decision he looks back on those things now that used be the very core his identity that he has let go of. He looks back now and says I don’t miss any of it?

In the same way that we don’t lay awake at night and think about missing last weeks trash. Paul does not look back now and miss what he thought made him righteous before he met Jesus. Because he knows what I pray each and every person here has discovered and that is Jesus is better.

Instead of all the stuff he used to have he would rather have Jesus.

He uses the term in verse 8 that he wants nothing but to be found in Jesus.

Jesus for Paul is a home so attractive that he cannot bear to be away from it. Jesus is his permanent address. Paul may be in Rome, Philippi, Jerusalem, he may be sick and healthy, worried, care free. but he will aways be in him.

If we believe that Jesus is a enough and we don’t need Jesus plus anything, and anything that we can gain equals nothing. than the end result should be

3. Be Satisfied in Jesus.

most of us have moved and lived in many different houses. the first five years we were married we moved four times.yeah we had to buy a lot of people pizza. We were renting so each place had its pros and cons and price and we felt like we had to keep moving. Then we bought our home. You would consider it a starter home and we are thankful to have it. but it’probably not the home we will live in forever we aren’t fully satisfied in it.

We all dream of the home that checks every box location , number of rooms, the right neighbors, price. the place we could be totally satisfied in.

Paul in these verses is saying I have found it, my permanant address my dream home, it doesnt have a white picket fence. it’s Jesus. and in Jesus I am satisfied to be found in him. Jesus is the dream home you can be satisfied forever in.

When you are satisfied to be found in him. You aren’t looking for your next move it frees you to be satisfied in other ways that he points out in these verses.

First is satisfied to be blessed by him.

Philippians 3:9 CSB

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.

Paul is satisfied to be blessed by God giving him his righteousness he’s done striving to earn it himself.

Moyter puts it like this.

The Message of Philippians a. The Righteousness Which He Abandons

A certificate of good behaviour which we have awarded to ourselves is not enough to give us confidence as we face the judgment of God.

Going before the judgement of God with just our own works in our hands would have the same result as if I asked my kids to make me an ID with their crafts and then try to go through TSA. Paul was done trying forge his certificate of good behavior to try to sneak through heaven’s gates. He was satisfied for God to simply bless him his righteousness. because he was satisified with Jesus as his permanent home.

Because of that we should also be satisfied to be made like Jesus.

Paul goes from verse nine which highlights that our righteousness comes through faith and we cant earn it. straight to verse 10 which highlights the need for us to become more like Jesus. Which is natural because think about it. if you are satisfied with Christ for salvation you should not rest until you are like the one who satisfied you.

For each and every one of us who are believers there is one goal. be satisfied with Jesus, and grow to be like Him.

My prayer for you this morning is that you would be realize for the first time or be reminded that Jesus is enough for you to be satisfied. He satisfied the requirements of your salvation, he satisfies your need for a purpose for your life, He satisfies your need for love, he satisfies. You don’t need to look for your next place to live he’s it. He isn’t a starter home. He is the dream home that you will be forever satisfied in.

You don’t need a Jesus plus anything, don’t have to add up your achievments to see if you deserve, you add them up to say God here is all I have. and its never satisfied me, its never been enough it, it will never be enough. I need you. Let me be satisfied with you and grow into your likeness.

So here's the question: What are you adding to Jesus?

Maybe you're trusting your church attendance.

Maybe it's your morality.

Maybe it's your family history.

Maybe it's your ministry.

Maybe it's simply that you've convinced yourself you're a "good person."

Paul would say, "Add it all up." Without Jesus, the total is zero.

Today, stop putting a plus sign after Jesus. Stop trying to earn what He has already accomplished. Lay down every reason you have for confidence in yourself, and put all your confidence in Christ.

Be satisfied.

Be satisfied that His sacrifice is enough.

Be satisfied that His righteousness is enough.

Be satisfied that His love is enough.

Be satisfied that His grace is enough.

Because when Jesus is enough to save you, He is enough to satisfy you.

Church, never put a plus sign after Jesus. Without Jesus, the total is zero. But with Jesus, you have everything. So stop striving...and be satisfied