"Is Jesus Enough?"

I have been reading a book about joy in sorrow and suffering. In this book there is a story told about a young lady who loses her husband to an overdose of pills. Not even a year later her 4 year old son comes down with cancer. This young woman experienced tremendous sorrow. However, during this time she leaned totally on Jesus. She wrote this, “My husband was not my Savior. And life is not found in my family. It is found in Jesus alone. I am continuing to learn to go to the word of God for truth and strength when my flesh wants to cling to earthly things.” Over the last few years I have seen in my counseling that so many people when a crisis happens think that without __________________ fill in the blank my life cannot go on. Without my job I can’t go on. My marriage is failing so I can’t continue in this life. If I just had more money, or some money, or better whatever than my life would be worth living. Let me ask you this morning, is Jesus enough? For some of you today it is Jesus plus whatever.

I think that it can be so easy for us to get caught up in the things of this world. Not only can we become wrapped up in the tangible things that we can see, but we can also become consumed with the intangibles like our reputation, our fame, or achievements. Paul took some time to address this huge issue and he writes about the things we need to leave behind and the things that were a gain to him. Today we can stand safely, securely, and confidently before God because of the work that Jesus has done for us.

1. Confidence in self-righteousness is not enough!

Philippians 3:4 (ESV)

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:

Where is you confidence today? In what are you trusting? So many of us if not careful can trust in some false saviors. Over and over again in the New Testament we see that the Judaizers went about bragging about their credentials. Here in the beginning of chapter 3 Paul now chimes in as if to say, “hey guys if you want to brag, I can brag even more.” However, the point in Paul saying these things was to point out the self-righteousness is not enough. All of Paul’s former achievements were filth.

The first 4 things that Paul talks about here are things Paul was born into. The last 3 things that he addresses have to do with his personal accomplishments. Let’s take a look.

Philippians 3:5 ESV

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;

A. Don’t put your confidence in any type of spiritual ritual! Paul was circumcised on the 8th day after he was born. What this tells us is that Paul was not a convert, a Gentile converting over to a Jew. He had a pure lineage. This was a very big deal for Jewish people. There are many people today who put all their confidence into a special event that happened. I go to church so therefore I must be a Christian. Or i grew up in church. I have been baptized or I went to a revival one time. These are all things that we do. Salvation is becoming a new creation in Christ it is not about going through a special or certain ritual. We can’t add anything to the work of Jesus. It is through faith alone in Christ alone.

B. Our confidence is not in our ethnicity? Paul was born into a Jewish family of the people of Israel. He was a physical descendent of Abraham, but again this is not what saves us. Just like being born in American or being a Texan or my dad is a pastor or Christian so that must make me a Christian as well.

C. Confidence is not about our rank. Paul tells us here that he was from the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe was more elite than some of the other tribes. For one, when the land was being divided the tribe of Benjamin was given the portion where Jerusalem was. This was a big deal. Also, when the Kingdoms split up and there was a northern tribe and a southern tribe, Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to David and became part of the southern kingdom, while the other 8 tribes left. Again this was a big deal to Jewish people. And the point that Paul could still trace his ancestry back to Benjamin was important. After the dispersion many Jewish people were unable to know exactly what tribe they came from. Paul understood that no matter what he was born into or what his background was this did not save him.

D. Don’t put your confidence in a tradition. Paul calls himself a Hebrew of Hebrews here. Paul’s parents were both Hebrews and even thought he did not grow up in Israel (he was from Tarsus of Cilicia, Acts 22:3) we know that he knew another culture and language but he still spoke Aramaic which was his native tongue. He never wondered away from his Jewish roots. So, a tradition could be a family tradition or even a spiritual tradition. Like being a Baptist or Methodist, or coming from a really good moral family. None of these things make any of us a Christian. Do you personally have faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ? If God today stripped everything away from your life. Like your family, your job, your home, your vehicle would God be enough? Or are you trusting in all of these things to get you through life? Let’s take a look at these last 3 things that Paul talks about. These are things that Paul had accomplished.

Philippians 3:5–6 ESV

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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

E. Don’t put your confidence in a works type of righteousness. When it comes to perfectly obeying all the laws and rules we all fall short. What I mean by this statement is that rule keeping doesn’t alone merit our salvation. Being a really good moral person doesn’t mean we are saved. We must have faith in what Christ has done for us. Only through Christ’s sinless life, his death and resurrection could we be saved. Christ desires for us to be obedient but that is not what saves us alone.

F. Our confidence does not come through our passion! People are passionate and sincere about a lot of things. Today people are passionate about social justice issues. They are passionate about politics or their favorite sports team. I see people fired up about many things. But passionate people can be wrong. Salvation has nothing to do with our passion, but everything to do with God’s passion for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection we can have salvation through faith in Him alone. We so desperately need Jesus and our confidence must be in Him alone. Nothing else can save us!

So how can we know Christ? We have talked about what our confidence should not be in, but now Paul moves to show us what we should trust in and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Confidence in Christ’s perfect righteousness through faith in Him is enough!

But, what exactly does this mean or look like? Paul uses the word gain here in verse 7. This is a Greek word and is used as an accounting term for profit or to benefit from. Paul is saying there is no gain from the above things mentioned. In fact, all of this is a loss for the sake of knowing Jesus. The Greek word for loss here is also an accounting term, used to describe a business loss. So, Paul is doing this to help us see that there is a transaction that happens here but it’s not about business, but spiritually because Christ redeems us as His children when we place our faith in Him.

Now there is one more thing we need to see here in Paul’s language that he is using. Look at verse 8 with me. Paul says that he counts these things as rubbish or filth. The term Paul is using here refers to animal or human excrement. This is a very crude word and carries the meaning of “dog crap.” In verse 2 remember last week Wes talked about this phrase, “Watch out for the dogs.” So, there may be some correlation here on why Paul chooses this word specifically but nonetheless he wants us to see that all of this stuff in worthless or crappy compared to knowing Jesus. We can have the Bread of Life who is the Lord, or we can have the big pile of poop. Which one are you going for??? Hopefully we get the point church. So many times in this world we chase after the poop when we know that there is something so much better. Here is how Matthew sums it all up.

Matthew 16:26 ESV

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Paul mentions the name of Christ 9 times in just 5 verses. The point he is trying to make here is that Jesus Christ is the most important thing to Paul. No matter what Paul has, and has accomplished it is all crap compared to knowing Jesus and living for Him. So, let take a look at what Paul says about knowing the Lord.

Verse 9 now tells us how we can become Christians.

Philippians 3:9 ESV

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—

I want you to write down this word. Justify or Justification. This is a legal act in which God thinks of our sin as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us and because of that He declares us righteous in His sight.

D.A. Carson says, “Paul recognizes that in God’s universe, the most important thing is to know God. Knowing Christ as our Lord and Savior is more important than politics, sports, movies, social media, and even our family.”

We come to know Jesus by placing our faith in Him. We look away from our accomplishments and onto what the Lord has done for us. In other religions or religious systems, you have to do the work. In Christianity Christ has done the work. How awesome is that church? We should praise God everyday for that.

Now we come to verses 10-11. These verses tell us what we as Christians should pursue or follow. We need to be growing in our relationship with Christ, so we see the Lord’s sanctification and glorification. Look at verse 10.

Philippians 3:10 ESV

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

Our sanctification. Sanctification is a big theological word for a believer growing in their relationship with Christ. It actually means the progressive work that God is doing in us that is more and more freeing us from sin and helping us become more like the Lord.

When you take a look at your life right now can you see areas where the Lord is freeing you from sin and where you have a passion for Him and His Word? This is evidence of a Believer. As God is helping us each and everyday this means that there will come times where we go through trials and suffering. These are meant for us to grow close to God and to lean unto Him.

At Stanford University in Palo Alto, California there is a church called Memorial Church. It has all the same architecture as the old European cathedral’s. There is a large block of stone that served as a foundation for the pulpit, and there are some very interesting words etched on this stone. Here is what it says.

“It is by suffering that God has most nearly approached to man; it is by suffering that man draws most nearly to God.”

God drew close to man through the suffering and death of His Son, and when suffering generally happens in our lives as believers it should reveal God in ways nothing else can. It should draw us closer to God and our walk with Him, and where we realize that Jesus is enough, He is all I need.

So, when we suffer, we have a choice to turn our focus inward and be consumed with self-pity and even bitterness, or we can lift up our eyes to look to Jesus who makes all things new and gives us the strength to persevere through those times. Yes, we will grieve, Yes, it is ok to not be ok, but we can’t stay there. Scripture tells us even Christ himself wept.

Philippians 3:11 ESV

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

J.I. Packer once said, “Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.”

In other words, we realize that because we know Jesus he is the one who helps us go through those times and He alone is all we need. Do you know the Lord today? Has He truly changed your life? And if so how dependent are you on Him?

Glorification. Glorification is the final step of our redemption. This will happen when Christ returns and raises the bodies of all the believers who have died, and reunites them with their souls. We will have a perfect resurrected body like Christ’s.

As believers we await our new resurrected bodies, our new home in heaven. 1 John 3:1-3 tells us this.

1 John 3:1–3 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We need hope church, and our hope is not in the things that we have or in people our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is enough, He is the one we need in our suffering and trials. He is the one who will see us through the most difficult moments of this life. I want to encourage you today in the here and the now to pursue a deep relationship with Jesus. Be prepared and excited for the day when He will return. Jesus has defeated sin and death for you and I. Nothing on earth compares to knowing Jesus Christ our Lord.