Count it all a lost
Notes
Transcript
Genuinely care about those you are doing ministry to.
Genuinely care about those you are doing ministry to.
19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.
20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.
22 But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.
23 Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me;
24 and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.
Be willing to risk your life for the sake of the Gospel.
Be willing to risk your life for the sake of the Gospel.
25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need;
26 because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.
27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you.
29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard;
30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.
The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ.
The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ.
Read Philippians 3:1-2
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;
First Paul issues a warning (v.1-2)
Jewish Christians who were promoting circumcision among the Gentile believers.
He starts by saying rejoice in the Lord. Which is in contrast to those who are boasting in the flesh, Paul tells them to rejoice/boast in the Lord and not in their flesh.
We see him expand this in the following verses.
Read Philippians 3:3-9
3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,
4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation 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 the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
We are the true circumcision - Romans 2:28-29
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
12 “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?
14 “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
15 “Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.
16 “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.
4 “If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.
5 “The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
4 “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord
And remove the foreskins of your heart,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My wrath will go forth like fire
And burn with none to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”
The true mark of True Israel is that of the Spirit indwelling and making someone a new creation. Not some outward physical sign.
He flat out rejects putting any confidence in the flesh.
Paul then continues on to say if anyone claims to have their confidence in the flesh he has more. And goes on to list his pedigree and accomplishments.
4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation 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 the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
1) Circumcised on the eight day: “Jewish boy born into a Jewish home.”
2) Of the Nation of Israel: What the gentiles were being “grafted” into Paul was born into.
24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
3) Of the tribe of Benjamin: In contrast to the Gentiles they could only Identify themselves with Israel, but Paul was able to trace his lineage to the tribe of Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin was a favored tribe from whom Israel’s first king, Saul, came from, Who Saul is also named after. The tribe was also blessed by Moses and is where Jerusalem is located.
4) a Hebrew of Hebrews: Basically summing up everything he just said about himself. Hebrew born from pure Hebrew Stock. “Man’s Man” or “Man among Men”
5) as to the Law, a Pharisee: (1) It defines his relationship to the law in a very specific way, as belonging to the Jewish sect devoted to its study and codification. Galatians 1:14 (2) Any Jewish Christians who came to Philippi to promote circumcision on the part of Gentiles would most likely also belong to this sect (cf. Matthew 23:15 and Acts 15:5 ). (3) It gives the framework for understanding the next two items.
Codification: the action or process of arranging laws or rules according to a system or plan.
14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
6) as to zeal, a persecutor of the church: Paul probably felt God cursed Jesus and thus felt justified in trying to stamp out the movement that he, Jesus, started. However he confused his zeal for his cause with zeal for God. Which is easy to do, even for us today.
23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
7) as to righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless: When it comes to adhering to the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law, the Torah, he was faultless/blameless. Paul’s point, of course, is not his sinlessness but his being without fault in the kind of righteousness the Judaizers are into by insisting on circumcision.
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Everything Paul just listed as gains, he now considers them a loss because of Christ.
Not only that but he counted all things to be a loss compared to the value of knowing Christ.
All things that were considered gains are now considered trash and knowing Christ now becomes his gain.
Compares and his once inadequate righteousness derived from the Law, to the perfect righteousness of Christ which comes from God through faith.
Illustration: Kids getting new toys and immediately forgetting their old toys.
Paul’s goal, and ours as well, is to know Christ:
The power of his resurrection
The fellowship of his sufferings
Being conformed to his death
in order that i may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
The Resurrection is the power by which Paul is able to persevere through his sufferings.
Application:
PRINCIPLES
• Perfection, not goodness, is the entrance requirement to heaven.
• Being a member of a church does not make you a Christian anymore than being a Pharisee made Paul a child of God, or anymore than walking into a garage will make you a car.
• Jesus paid a debt he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
• Believing in Christ cancels the debt we owe God for our sins and gives us a right relationship with him and eternal life in heaven.
• When we lean on his power (v. 10), learn from his pain (v. 10), and rest in his plan (vv. 12–14), we grow closer to Christ.
APPLICATIONS
• Quit trying to earn God’s favor by good works.
• Thank Christ that he loved you enough to die for you.
• Put your faith in him now.
• View suffering as the opportunity to know Christ better.
• Loosen your grip on this world by giving away something to meet a need that you see.