More Than Knowing About Him Philippians 3:1-11 Part 1 Where is your confidence?

SUBJECT: Christ

THEME: Knowing Christ

THESIS: Knowing Christ changes what we value and where we place our confidence.

PRINCIPLE: The more we know Christ and recognize His surpassing worth, the more our lives will reflect Him.

Introduction — What Are You Counting On?

I want to begin this morning with a question. And I want you to actually answer it in your own heart before the Lord.

What gives you confidence that you are right with God?

There are many answers people might give.

Some would point to their upbringing, others to their involvement in church, and still others to the kind of life they have tried to live.

Many of those things are good.

But are they what gives us confidence before God?

That's what we're going to wrestle with this morning as we turn to Philippians chapter 3.

Last week, in Philippians 2:19–30, we saw two men introduced, Timothy and Epaphroditus, and we watched them demonstrate genuine concern for Christ and for His people.

They were men whose commitment to Christ shaped how they lived and how they served.

Now Paul turns to something related, but even more foundational.

He turns to the place Christ occupies in the believer's confidence.

And he does it by telling his own story.

Paul was not someone who lacked religious commitment.

He had an extraordinary religious resume.

But through Jesus intervention, he discovered that even the best religious credentials could never provide what he needed most.

I want to introduce the idea this morning that we get from this passage that

Knowing Christ changes what we value and where we place our confidence.

We will begin this morning and build on it next week.

Paul begins with a warning, because there is a very real danger of putting our confidence in the wrong things.

Philippians 3:1–11 ESV

1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. 2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 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: 5 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; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Our Confidence Must Be in Christ, Not Ourselves

Philippians 3:1–6

Paul picks up in chapter 3 with a command we have already seen multiple times in the book.

He tells the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord.

Joy has been a repeated theme throughout this letter.

Paul has been writing from prison, uncertain about what will happen to him,

yet he continues to rejoice because his joy is not dependent upon his circumstances.

His joy is found in Christ.

Following his repeated call to rejoice though, Paul issues a strong warning.

Look at verse 2.

He tells them to look out for the dogs, the evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh.

Those are some pretty intense words.

He is warning them about a group of people and the NLT helps us to better understand who this group is.

Philippians 3:2 NLT

2 Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.

To understand why Paul is so concerned, we need a little historical background.

The Danger of Misplaced Confidence (vv. 1–2)

When God established His covenant with Abraham, He gave circumcision as a sign of that covenant.

For the Jewish people, circumcision was an important part of their identity as God's covenant people.

For a male to be a part of God’s family, they had to be circumcised.

But when Jesus came, died, and rose again, everything changed concerning how people were brought into God's family.

Salvation was not something that could be earned by keeping the Jewish law or receiving circumcision.

Salvation now came through came through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

The problem comes in that there were some teachers in the early church who insisted that Gentile believers needed to be circumcised and follow the Jewish law in order to be fully accepted by God.

(This warning actually translates directly into the church today which we will see.)

The debate comes up in Acts 15.

Acts 15:1 ESV

1 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

This group of people were called the Judaizers.

The Judaizers were early church figures who blended God’s grace with human effort, insisting that faith in Christ alone was insufficient for salvation.

And that is this kind of teaching that Paul is warning the Philippians about.

Remember the geographical location.

These teachers were taking something that God had originally commanded and making it into something it was never intended to be.

They were treating an outward religious practice as though it could establish a person's righteousness before God.

The core issue was theological: their doctrine mixed grace through Christ with works through Law-keeping.

Paul saw their teaching rightly as negating the gospel itself.

And Paul says, Watch out!

Bringing this closer to home for us today, we do not face pressure today to be circumcised in order to be saved.

But the danger Paul is warning about has not disappeared.

We are still very good at finding things other than Jesus to put our confidence in.

We have our own religious credentials that we can begin to depend upon.

You might know the old Baptist mantra - I don’t smoke, drink, chew, or go with girls that do.

Think about some of the ways this happens in Christian churches today.

In some churches, there are very specific expectations about how Christians should dress.

Women may be expected to wear dresses rather than pants, avoid makeup or jewelry, or keep their hair a certain way.

In others, there might be strict rules about what kinds of music people listen to, what entertainment they enjoy, or what activities they participate in.

And in still others, a particular spiritual experience might become the thing people look to as evidence that someone is genuinely spiritual.

I want to be careful here.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to honor God in how we dress, what we watch, what we listen to, or how we live.

In fact, Scripture calls us to holiness. It calls us to be different from the world around us.

And there are Christians who hold sincere convictions about these things because they genuinely want to honor the Lord.

But there is a significant difference between obeying God because we belong to Him and believing that our obedience is what makes us acceptable to Him.

And sometimes, without even realizing it, those outward practices can become the standard by which we measure our standing before God.

We begin thinking, "I do not do those things that worldly people do. I dress appropriately. I follow the rules. Surely that means I am right with God."

Or perhaps we begin looking at someone who does things differently and questioning whether they could really be a Christian.

And that is where we need to be careful.

Because it is entirely possible to follow all the outward expectations of a religious community and still have a heart that is far from God.

Jesus confronted that very problem with the Pharisees.

They were careful about outward religious observance, but Jesus repeatedly exposed the condition of their hearts.

And before we begin pointing fingers at other churches, we need to recognize that we can do the very same thing.

We may not have all the same expectations about clothing or appearance.

But we have our own standards.

We might think, "I attend church every Sunday. I know my Bible. I give faithfully. I serve when something needs to be done. I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember."

And all of those things can be good!

But if we begin looking at those things as the reason God should accept us, we have made the very same mistake.

We have simply substituted one set of religious credentials for another.

The problem is not that we are trying to live obediently.

The problem is when we begin trusting in our obedience instead of trusting in Christ.

And that is exactly what Paul is warning the Philippians about.

These teachers were telling people that something needed to be added to faith in Jesus Christ for them to be fully accepted by God.

But Paul says our confidence must be in Christ alone.

And that is what he explains in verse 3.

Where Our Confidence Belongs (v. 3)

Paul says that we are the circumcision, and then he describes those who genuinely belong to Christ.

They worship by the Spirit of God, they glory in Christ Jesus, and they put no confidence in the flesh.

Where is their attention directed.

Their worship is made possible by the Spirit of God.

Their boasting is in Jesus Christ.

And their confidence is not in what they have accomplished.

Paul is not saying that religious practices, obedience, or faithful service are unimportant.

He is saying that none of those things can take the place of Christ.

There is a difference between doing good things because we belong to Jesus and trusting those good things to make us belong to Jesus.

And that is a distinction we need to understand.

Think about it this way.

Imagine someone putting together a resume for a job.

They list their education, their experience, their accomplishments, and all the things that make them qualified for the position.

The whole purpose of that resume is to convince someone that they deserve to be hired.

And that makes sense when we are applying for a job.

But sometimes we begin approaching our relationship with God in much the same way.

We start putting together our spiritual resume.

I have attended church all my life.

I was baptized.

I know the Bible.

I have taught Sunday school.

I have served on committees.

I have helped people.

I try to be a good person.

And somewhere along the way, we begin thinking that all those things ought to count for something when it comes to being right with God.

But Paul says our confidence must be in Christ, not ourselves.

And to drive that point home, he gives the Philippians his own resume.

Paul's Religious Resume (vv. 4–6)

Look at what Paul says beginning in verse 4.

He says that if anyone thinks they have reason for confidence in the flesh, he has more.

In other words, if this is going to be a contest to see who has the best religious credentials, Paul is saying he would be pretty hard to beat.

He begins with his heritage.

He was circumcised on the eighth day, just as the law required.

He was born an Israelite, not someone who converted to Judaism later in life.

He belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and he describes himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Paul had a strong Jewish heritage.

He had been raised in the traditions of his people.

But he did not stop there.

When it came to the law, he was a Pharisee.

The Pharisees were known for their careful attention to the law and the traditions surrounding it.

They took religious obedience very seriously.

And when it came to zeal, Paul says that he persecuted the church.

Now, we know that persecuting the church was terribly wrong.

But before Paul came to know Christ, he believed he was defending God's truth.

He was so committed to what he believed that he actively pursued those whom he considered a threat.

And finally, when it came to righteousness under the law, Paul says he was blameless.

That does not mean Paul had never sinned.

He is describing his outward observance of the law according to the standards he had been pursuing.

Paul was not a man who had failed at religion.

By the standards he had lived under, he had excelled.

He had the right family, the right heritage, the right religious training,

the right knowledge, and an extraordinary commitment to his beliefs.

If anyone could have presented an impressive religious resume, it was Paul.

But here is what we need to understand.

The issue was not what Paul had done.

The issue was what Paul was depending on.

All of those credentials still could not give Paul the righteousness he needed before God.

And that brings this warning much closer to home.

Examining Our Own Confidence

I want you to think about your own life for a moment.

Some of you have been part of a church for as long as you can remember.

Maybe your parents brought you to church when you were a child.

Maybe you were raised in a Christian home, attended Sunday school, and learned the Bible from a young age.

Others of you have spent years faithfully serving the Lord.

You have taught classes, helped with ministries, supported missionaries, given faithfully, and served the people around you.

Those are good things!

I am thankful for the people who have faithfully served Christ for decades.

That kind of faithfulness matters, and we should be grateful for it.

But here is the question.

Are those things the result of your relationship with Christ, or have you begun depending upon them as the foundation of that relationship?

There is a significant difference.

Let me give you another example.

Imagine someone who has lived in a small community for fifty years.

They know practically everybody in town.

They know the families, the businesses, the history, and just about everything that has happened over the years.

They might know more about that community than almost anyone else.

But knowing everything about a place is not the same as having a personal relationship with every person who lives there.

And something similar can happen in the church.

You can know the Bible stories.

You can know the songs.

You can know when to stand up and sit down.

You can know how church works.

You can spend your whole life surrounded by Christianity and still not genuinely know Christ.

That is a sobering thought.

And it is one that I think Paul wants us to take seriously.

But this warning is not just for people who have spent their lives in church.

Maybe your confidence comes from something else.

Maybe you think you are a pretty good person.

You work hard.

You treat people fairly.

You try to help those around you.

You have made some mistakes, but overall, you figure you have lived a decent life.

And surely that ought to count for something before God.

But Paul is telling us that even the most impressive moral and religious accomplishments cannot establish our righteousness before Him.

The problem is not that doing good things is wrong.

The problem is that none of us can make ourselves righteous through our own efforts.

That is why we need Jesus Christ.

We need more than a good religious record.

We need the righteousness that only God can provide.

And as Paul will explain in verse 9, that righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not through our own accomplishments.

So I want to ask you a question this morning, and I hope you will really think about it.

If you stood before God today, what would you be depending upon for your acceptance before Him?

Would you point to your church attendance?

Would you point to your baptism, your service, or the good life you have tried to live?

Would you point to the fact that you have believed in God for as long as you can remember?

Or would you point to Jesus Christ?

Because when everything else is stripped away, He is the only one who can make us righteous before God.

And for those of us who genuinely know Christ, this is not a reason to question every good thing we have ever done.

It is a reminder that our confidence today rests in the same place it did when we first believed.

Not in our faithfulness, but in His.

Not in our accomplishments, but in what Christ has accomplished for us.

And that brings us to something remarkable about Paul's testimony.

He had just listed all the things he once considered valuable.

His heritage, his religious accomplishments, his zeal, his obedience.

By the standards he had once lived by, he had everything.

But when he came to know Jesus Christ, his entire understanding of what mattered changed.

What he once considered gain, he began to count as loss.

I want to land here rather than keep going in the passage this morning because I think it is important for us to truly consider.

Before we continue in the passage I wanted to use this as a catalyst to cause us to reflect and share in the Lord’s supper together.

Paul had every reason, humanly speaking, to be confident in his religious accomplishments.

But none of those things could make him righteous before God.

And the same is true for us.

We can spend our whole lives serving in the church, studying the Bible, doing good things, and trying to live faithfully. And those are all things that we ought to be doing.

But not one of them can save us.

That is why the Lord's Supper is such a meaningful thing for us to share together.

Because when we come to this table, we are not remembering what we have done for God.

We are remembering what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Think about that for a moment.

The reason we can have confidence before God is not because we have managed to live good enough lives.

It is because Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we could never live, and then willingly gave His life to pay the penalty for our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That is the wonderful truth of the gospel.

Jesus Christ, who had never sinned, took upon Himself the judgment that our sins deserved.

And through faith in Him, we receive a righteousness that we could never earn for ourselves.

Before we share in the bread and the cup, I want to give us some time to examine our own hearts.

In 1 Corinthians 11:28, Paul instructs believers to examine themselves as they prepare to partake of the Lord's Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:28 ESV

28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

I want you to consider a few questions.

When you think about your relationship with God, where is your confidence really resting?

Have you begun depending upon your own goodness, your religious involvement, or your years of service rather than upon Jesus Christ?

Is there sin in your life that you have been unwilling to acknowledge before the Lord?

Or perhaps you are a believer who has become discouraged because you know how often you fall short.

You see your failures, your struggles, and the ways that you have not been as faithful as you should be.

If that is you, remember what we have been talking about this morning.

Your hope has never rested upon your ability to be perfectly faithful.

Your hope rests upon the perfect faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

And that is not an excuse to continue in sin.

It is the very reason we can come before God, confess our sins, and trust in His mercy.

The Lord's Supper is for those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

If you are trusting in Him for your salvation, let us share in this remembrance together.

If you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, I would ask you to let the elements pass this morning.

But I would also encourage you to seriously consider the gospel we have been talking about today.

The forgiveness and righteousness that you need are found in Him.

Let us take a few moments in quiet prayer.

Ask the Lord to examine your heart.

Confess what needs to be confessed, and thank Him for what He has accomplished on your behalf.

The Bread — Remembering His Body

Jesus Himself gave us this meal as a way of remembering Him.

On the night before He was crucified, He gathered with His disciples and took bread.

Paul records this for us in 1 Corinthians 11.

Read 1 Corinthians 11:23–24 (ESV).

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

As we share in this bread, we remember that Jesus willingly gave His body for us.

He endured suffering and death, not because He had done anything wrong, but because we needed a Savior.

His body was given so that sinners like you and me could be reconciled to God.

And so as we take this bread, let us remember that our confidence is not in ourselves, but in the One who gave Himself for us.

Ask those serving to distribute the bread. Instruct the congregation to hold it until everyone has been served.

Once everyone has received the bread:

Jesus said,

"This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

Let us eat together.

Partake of the bread together.

The Cup — Remembering His Blood

When Jesus took the cup, He was pointing His disciples to the blood that He would shed for the forgiveness of sins.

And that brings us back to the very heart of what we have been considering this morning.

The righteousness we need before God cannot be purchased with our good works.

It cannot be earned through religious activity.

It comes through Jesus Christ, who shed His blood to make forgiveness possible.

And because of His sacrifice, those who place their faith in Him can know that their sins have been forgiven.

Our confidence is not that we have somehow managed to become good enough for God.

Our confidence is that Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to reconcile us to Him.

Read 1 Corinthians 11:25–26 (ESV).

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

As we share in this cup, let us remember the cost of our salvation, and give thanks that Christ has accomplished what we never could.

Ask those serving to distribute the cup. Instruct the congregation to hold it until everyone has been served.

Once everyone has received the cup:

Jesus said,

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood."

Let us drink together in remembrance of Him.

Partake of the cup together.

And that brings us to our second point.

Knowing Christ Is Worth More Than Anything Else.