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INTRODUCTION
Jesus often used parables to teach on the nature of his kingdom.
The parables - or stories that teach - revealed truth to those who followed Jesus, and they hid truth from those who refused to follow Jesus.
As we focus today on leading us into , two of Jesus’s parables from depict the exchange that Paul is talking about.
In Jesus said...
Then Jesus continued in ...
The treasure hidden in the field; the one pearl of great value for which Paul gave up everything else was the righteousness from God that depends on faith in Christ (cf. ).
[CONTEXT] False teachers called the Judaizers had attacked the Philippian church by trying to convince them that confidence before God or righteousness before God depended on keeping the laws of the OT and especially on being circumcised like God required of his people in the OT.
In other words, the Judaizers taught that the Philippians had to become Jewish in order to be right with God.
They said it like this in ...
Our focus this morning will be on verses 5-6 as they lead us into verses 7-8.
The early church addressed this in where Peter argued that Gentile followers of Christ should not be burdened with the yoke of the law which neither their ancestors nor themselves had been able to bear (cf.
).
The early church - including Paul - addressed this in Acts 15
Paul knew that the yoke of the law would break the neck of even the most genuine sinner who strove to obey it.
He wrote in ...
Paul knew that there was no point in Christ dying if one could be made right with God through keeping the law.
He wrote in ...
And Paul knew that all this was true not only for Gentiles but for Jews and Gentiles alike.
In he wrote...
All of this is why Paul was willing to give up all the works of the flesh he had in Judaism for the work of God in Jesus Christ.
It’s why he was willing to give up the fine pearl of the law as a way to be made right with God for that one pearl of great value in Christ Jesus.
For Paul (and for all of us) the reality that should make our hearts sing is that we have been found in Christ, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law (for that wouldn’t amount to anything), but a righteousness from God the depends on faith in Christ (cf. ).
[PROP] The only confidence before God that will not prove to be false confidence is the righteousness of Jesus counted as our righteousness as we trust him.
[TS] This is what we will see as we look at these verses this morning.
We’ll notice Paul’s past rubbish and his present rubbish and see how both really are rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.
This is why
MAJOR IDEAS
#1: Paul’s Past Rubbish (vv.
5-7).
[Exp] I call the things mentioned in vv.
5-6 ‘rubbish’ because that’s what Paul called them in v. 8b when he wrote...
That word ‘rubbish’ in the ESV is translated even more strongly in the HCSB as ‘filth’ and even more strongly in KJV as ‘dung.’
We have to remember, however, that these things are only rubbish, filth, or dung as a means of righteousness before God.
They are rubbish, filth, or dung compared to surpassing worth of the only way of everlasting righteousness before God - knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.
knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.
Nevertheless, what Paul counted as rubbish in these verses was very impressive to the Judaizers, so let’s examine Paul’s past rubbish.
Notice the phrase “circumcised on the eighth day” in v. 5.
In regard to circumcision, Paul made the proudest claim any Jew could make.
In obedience to and , Paul was an eighth-dayer.
He had been circumcised on exactly the right day.
Paul was no Ishmael in who was circumcised when he was 13-years-old as were his descendants.
Nor was Paul circumcised as a convert to Judaism later in life.
He was a Jew by birth whose meticulous parents saw that this aspect of God’s law was obeyed to the letter.
Notice the phrase “of the people of Israel” in v. 5.
Again, this means that Paul was a Jew by birth, not a convert to Judaism.
Whatever rights and privileges the people of Israel had as God’s chosen people, Paul had as one belonging to that chosen people.
Notice the phrase “of the tribe of Benjamin” in v. 5.
The tribe of Benjamin was a small tribe, but it was highly esteemed.
The forefather of the tribe was, of course, Benjamin.
He was the only son of Jacob, who would later be called Israel, to be born in the Promised Land (cf.
Deut.
35:9-19).
Of all the tribes, the tribe of Benjamin was singled out by God as “the beloved of the Lord” (cf. ).
From the tribe of Benjamin came Israel’s first anointed king (cf.
).
Jerusalem and the temple were within the territory assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (cf. ).
The tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to David when the Kingdom of Israel split into Judah in the south and Israel in the north (cf.
).
After the exile, the tribe of Benjamin along with the tribe of Judah formed the core of those returning to the Promised Land (cf. ).
The tribe of Benjamin always held the place of honor in the army, which was the place right up front, which gave rise to the battle cry of the other tribes, “we follow you, O Benjamin!” (; ).
Mordecai from the book of Esther was from the tribe of Benjamin ().
We could go on to say other things about the tribe of Benjamin, but its easy to see why Paul was proud to be of the tribe of Benjamin.
Look at the phrase “a Hebrew of Hebrews” in v. 5.
With this phrase Paul may have meant that the he was a full-blooded Hebrew as the son of a full-blooded Hebrew mother and father.
Or with this phrase Paul may have meant that he was brought up speaking the Hebrew language and carefully observing all the feasts, festivals, rules, and regulations commanded by God in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Look at the phrase “as to the law, a Pharisee” also in v. 5.
Now this marks a turn in Paul’s thinking here in v. 5.
So far in listing his ‘past rubbish’ he has been talking about things that were his by birth.
Now, however, he turns to things that were his by choice and hard work.
The Pharisees were a small but influential group of Jews in Paul’s day because of their strict adherence to the law and the traditions they attached to it.
Paul was the son of Pharisees (cf. ) and a disciple of the great Pharisee, Gamaliel (cf. ; ), but he chose to be a Pharisee himself and aimed to become one of the most earnest.
He writes in about that time in his life...
Paul saw the label ‘Pharisee’ not as a term of reproach but as a badge of honor.
That’s how the Judaizers would have saw it as well.
Acts 15:
Look at the phrase “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church” in v. 6.
Paul had a zeal for God, a zeal for the people of God, a zeal for the law of God.
If someone asked, “Paul, how zealous were you as a Jew?”
He would’ve answered, “I persecuted the church.”
Paul was no professorial Pharisee who taught and talked about zeal but didn’t really live it out.
No!
He pursued Christians because, as he saw it then, they offended God by claiming that Jesus was the Messiah.
He hunted them in the streets and from town to town, bringing them to prison and putting them to death; innocent men and women who were followers of Jesus Christ just as we are (cf.
; ; ; )!
Paul wrote about this time in his life in ...
No one, not even the Judaizers, could question Paul’s Jewish zeal.
He was so committed that he had committed murder.
No one, not even the Judaizers, could question Paul’s Jewish zeal.
He was so committed that he had committed murder.
Finally, notice the phrase “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” in v. 6.
Before Christ Paul would have proudly said with the rich young ruler in that he had kept all the commands of God from his youth (cf.
).
He had not taken any shortcuts in his religious obedience to God’s commands or the traditions of the Pharisees.
As one commentator said, “In every way he considered himself to be a model Jew, quite satisfied with himself until he met the living Christ,” (G.
F. Hawthorne).
But all this pride in all this past rubbish is what makes Paul’s words in v. 7 so shocking...
Now, to be clear, Paul did see his Jewish past as an advantage.
He says as much in ...
But after Paul came to believe and know that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, he didn’t count those Jewish advantages as gains before God.
No, in fact, compared to Christ, those Jewish advantages were losses.
Paul was saying that although he had a lot of Jewish advantages that he was at one time proud of, none of those things could give him confidence before God! None of those things could make him righteous in the sight of God!
The only thing that could make him righteous in the sight of God was Christ - the righteousness from God that depends on faith in Christ.
So, once Paul, by God’s grace, gained Christ, all that other stuff was rubbish, filth, or dung.
The only thing that mattered was to be made right with God and Paul knew that only happened through faith in Christ.
[TS] Let’s move now to “Paul’s Present Rubbish,” which we find referenced in v. 8...
#2: Paul’s Present Rubbish (v.
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