Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

According to multiple estimates, the average American produces around 4 pounds of trash per day.

This amounts to a little over 1400 lbs of trash per year!

Before you start worrying that this is going to be a political message, let me let you know why I mention this.

We produce a lot of physical waste in our lives.

I’m not saying that we don’t need to take care of this beautiful creation that God has given us.

We absolutely should.

However, today, we are going to talk about an even greater waste that we produce.

Personal pride, self-righteousness, worldly-focused and worldly-driven accomplishments and accolades - they are all trash and rubbish as Paul states in relation to Jesus Christ.

Do we feel the same way as Paul about our lives apart from Christ?

Do we see the value of Christ far outshining the rubbish we have in this life?

Or are we trying to attain righteousness and significance on our own only to look around and find that we are sitting in a pile of our own life’s garbage?

Join me as we read Philippians 3:1-11:

Prayer

Today we are going to discuss where true righteousness comes from (spoiler alert - it isn’t from within us!):

I. Christ Ascribes Righteousness…Not According to the Flesh (1-6)

Paul’s Heeding (1-2)

This word, finally, can be a little confusing because it seems like it referring to what was just said.

However, it is clear that he is about to remind the Philippian believers about things he has taught them in person during a previous encounter with them.

It is used here more as a transition word and could likely be better stated, furthermore.

Paul again encourages the Philippian believers to rejoice.

Many pastors who entitle their sermon series (I don’t, personally) choose to use the word ‘joy’ somewhere in their series title.

That is because the word rejoice (Greek chairo - pronounced she-air-o) occurs some 9 times in these four chapters and the word joy (Greek - chara - pronounced sha-ra) five times.

Joy in the midst of suffering and trials is a common theme in these chapters.

In this first verse Paul wants the believers in Philippi to get back to the basics.

He is reminding them of what he had taught before when he was with them.

What was it that Paul taught them before?

He tells them to look out for the dogs, evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh - referring to Judaizers or other legalistic and falsely religious people.

This is quite a warning.

The word look out here means to be sure to see these people coming.

It is a word that we have discussed before when we studied John 20 on Easter.

This is where we get the word blip (Greek blepo), which is a short take on something.

He wants them to be hyper-vigilant because these evildoers are cunning and can work their way in to the ranks of the believers and sneak their ideas of legalism and works-based righteousness in slowly.

He warns them to take note of the blips of false teaching that can work their way in.

Paul is offering a strong heeding or warning to the people of Philippi.

We can take heed from this warning today as well.

We must be vigilant in guarding our churches from such false teachers - those who are quick to brag on their own accomplishments and their own reasons for righteousness.

Be careful and wary of those who come to a church with guns a blazing and ready to show this church how ministry is to be done.

Those who come in critiquing the band, the pastor, the members, and even the decorations.

Oftentimes these persons are dangerous my friends.

I love zeal and I am so excited to see those who are zealous for the Lord and more than ready and willing to serve in any way possible.

But we must be wary of those who have zeal but also are self-righteous.

This is why the Bible is so clear on our need to vet leaders in the church.

Our church has a safety net in place and that a new Elder/Pastor must be a member for at least three years before being placed in the position (unless we ever have a paid position) and a deacon must be a member for two years.

We want to be sure to vet people before allowing them to have authority in our church.

In a world full of false teachers, we must stand guard over the church and hold our religious leaders to a high standard of accountability.

Getting back to our Scripture - I find it interesting in Paul’s word choice in the phrase mutilate the flesh.

This is actually a word that means false circumcision.

Without going into too much graphic detail, the prefix for the Greek word meaning true circumcision (see verse 3 - true circumcision) is -peri (peritome - pare-ee-tow-may) meaning around – which makes sense in the understanding of the word.

The other word he uses here for false circumcision (katatome - cat-a-tow-may) meaning mutilate is not so organized to say the least.

Obviously, Paul is saying that these false teachers are mutilating and twisting the Gospel.

They are not the real deal.

Next we see...

Paul’s Holiness (3)

Paul teaches on what true circumcision is in regards to the New Covenant - it is those who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ and put no confidence in the flesh.

He is saying that true righteousness and holiness comes from faith and trust in Jesus Christ and being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Our confidence does not come through our works.

As we have discussed time and time again, our righteousness is as filthy rags or a polluted garment - Isaiah 64:6

Note that Paul makes quite the bold claim in this verse.

We may miss this claim fairly easily because we are Gentiles (meaning non-Jews).

But he states at the beginning of the verse, ‘we are the circumcision.’

Do you get how big of a deal that this statement is?

Who is Paul speaking to?

The Philippian believers.

Remember that these are Gentile believers in Philippi.

These are people that Israel considered unclean for centuries before.

And now he identifies himself as one of them!

And to beat that - he uses the Abrahamic Covenantal Seal as the foundation of his identification.

Circumcision was a big deal to the Israelites.

This was the mark, or seal, of the covenant God had with Abraham as seen in Genesis 17:10

This was an exclusive covenant.

Only the children of Abraham could share in this covenantal relationship.

Israel would come through the line of Abraham (Isaac - Jacob - who was renamed Israel by God).

But now Paul has identified all Gentile believers as covenantal sons and daughters of God under the New Covenant mediated by Jesus Christ.

Praise God for our adoption as sons and daughters of God through the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us holy.

This righteousness is not found in our own flesh or in our own holiness but instead in Christ.

We glory in Christ alone.

Interestingly, after discussing Paul’s holiness, we get to...

Paul’s Haughtiness (4-6)

After encouraging the Philippians to hold fast to the work of God for their holiness and not their own works, he goes into a monologue about his own works.

He wants to remind these legalistic dogs or evildoers that he could try to rely on his own works as well.

He lets them know that they can’t outwork him and that they haven’t outworked him.

He wants them to be humbled and realize that it is not by works that we are saved.

If it were, then he would have been considered righteous.

Yet he was called out by Jesus Christ personally for his sinful and self-righteous religiosity (Acts 9).

I would encourage each of you to read Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:1-18 today.

Time fails me to go into detail, but we see Jesus Christ physically, temporarily blind Paul and call him to repentance.

The man, Paul, who had tried to do everything right was called out personally by Jesus Christ!

This sounds eerily familiar to the rich young ruler we see in Matthew 19:16-22.

This man had also kept the law in an impressive way.

He could boast like Paul.

Yet Jesus knows this man has an idol - his financial wealth.

He asks the man to sell all he has and follow Him.

The man responds like this Matthew 19:22

This rich young ruler worshiped the idol of money while Paul seemed to worship the idol of self-righteousness and pride.

Listen to Paul expound upon his reasons for boasting:

Paul’s Reason He Could Boast in the Flesh (Verse 5):

His Heritage

Circumcised on the eight day

Israelite