Walking Worthy with Christlike Joy

Introduction

It’s an honor to be here and worship with you all this morning. God’s Kingdom is vast - it’s always refreshing to spend time with other local churches and be reminded of how we’re all on the same team of glorifying Jesus, proclaiming the Gospel, and making disciples! Today as we worship and study God’s Word, it is my prayer that we would be encouraged and challenged to walk worthy of our heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

As we do this, this might require some participation on your part! How many of you enjoy playing board games? If you’ve ever played the game monopoly, what’s the goal of the game? 95% of monopoly games seem to never end, but the goal in the end is to buy as many properties as you can and force other people to go bankrupt.

Any baseball fans? Opening day is coming up this Thursday! What is the goal of baseball? To score more runs than the opposing team and win the game.

Anyone like to read books? What is the goal of reading a book? It’s not just to “finish” the book but it’s to learn something new along the way.

Many of the things that we do in this life have an end goal in mind. Goals are good things as they keep us focused on the task at hand but what if we zoom out just a bit this morning and get deep…

What is the goal of life?

Not what is the goal of monopoly, baseball, or reading… What is the goal and purpose of our life as humans? Psychologists say that our goal is to be happy and to do whatever makes us happy. Philosophers say that our goal is to acquire more knowledge and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Politicians say that our goal is to look our for the good of our country. Happiness isn’t necessarily a bad thing, knowledge isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and looking out for the good of our country isn’t always a bad thing either… But none of these things can be the chief goal of our lives as human beings because they don’t satisfy what our souls need. The early church father Augustine once shared this, “Restless is our heart until it finds its rest in thee.” The goals of this world might provide temporary happiness but they fail to deliver on what we truly need.

Our purpose in this life as humans, as the Westminster shorter catechism states, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I share with my congregation in Salem often that we are here to glorify God, proclaim His Gospel, and make Disciples of all nations. How can we do these things? If this is the goal, how do we get there? Paul gives us a great starting point and subsequent exhortations throughout the book of Philippians and our main text this morning will be Philippians 3:1-11 as we will see that before we can live a life that brings glory to Christ, we must first know Christ. Before we can reach our goal, we must find our joy in the only One who satisfies our souls. Let’s read this morning from God’s Word

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.

As we’ve gone through the book of Philippians this weekend for Disciple Now, it’s been incredible to see Paul’s joy dripping from every page, chapter, and verse from this book. This morning we’re going to dive into Philippians 3 but in order to understand correctly what it looks like to Know Christ and live accordingly, we have to look at the main ideas he gives throughout this letter.

How do we Walk Worthy with Christlike Joy?

Love Your Enemies (1:12-20)

As you think about the idea of joy, joy is significantly different than happiness. People in our world are often happy only whenever their circumstances are favorable but the moment that their circumstances change, so does their level of happiness. Joy, on the other hand, is not predicated on our feelings or circumstances, genuine Christian joy is based on a fact that cannot change. It is not a subjective feeling, it is an objective attitude of Christ’s people. As one commentator put it, “Having joy is part of being a Christian.”

What does joy have to do with Paul, and specifically, with the book of Philippians? Of the 104 verses in Philippians, Paul uses the Greek words for joy/rejoice 16 times. In our world someone who talks that often about joy would be seen as an anomaly of sorts - people would come up to you and ask if you have a problem because you’re overjoyed about everything! Yet, this is an overflow from Paul’s heart in this letter. Paul loves this church and Paul rejoices because of what God is doing.

In Philippians 1, though, we quickly learn that Paul isn’t in the best of situations. He is imprisoned and there are people who are preaching the Gospel out of a position of jealousy and selfishness. Now, I’m not sure about you but I’ve never been in prison but I don’t think my initial response to my friends whenever I’m in jail would be to rejoice and give thanks to God… It would probably be to complain about why I was in prison or to complain about the quality of food they served, it wouldn’t be to rejoice! Yet that’s how Paul viewed the situation. Paul is preaching the Gospel to the imperial guard and he is fervently praying for his beloved friends in Philippi. Paul doesn’t have time to complain because he is convinced that he is exactly where God wants him to be and that his purpose to glorify God and proclaim the Gospel still stands regardless of his circumstances.

This is a theme that we see throughout Scripture, don’t we? In the book of Genesis we read of Joseph being sold into slavery and be falsely accused in Egypt only to end up in jail. Times are hard, yet he continues to trust in God. Eventually we see this incredible statement at the end of the book

Genesis 50:20 ESV

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Joseph declares that his brothers meant for evil, but God meant it for good… Not that God simply used it for good, but God in His providence meant the evil action for good. This is the God of the Bible! Not a God who reacts but a God who acts. Paul is convinced that he is in prison for a reason and although there are complications going on, he isn’t taking his eye off of that truth. The Gospel is being proclaimed and people are growing in their Christlikeness.

It would have been easy for Paul to be upset. He could have been upset at the authorities for putting him in jail. He could have been upset at the guards for their constant supervision of him while under house arrest. He could have been upset at these other preachers who are not preaching out of good will but for selfish purposes… But he stays focused. This isn’t a natural human thing to do whenever things don’t go our way. Whenever someone crosses us, common human sense tells us that we need to cancel them and kick them out to the curb. Yet Jesus offers a different sentiment to our enemies and those who oppose us

Matthew 5:43–44 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

In prison, Paul isn’t living out conventional human wisdom which says to hate your enemy, he is loving his enemy and sharing the Gospel with him. He is rejoicing that Christ is preaching proclaimed even if those proclaiming Christ have an axe to grind against Paul. His joy remains undeterred.

Philippians 1:12 ESV

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,

Philippians 1:18 ESV

18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

The first way that we can walk worthy of our calling as Christians is to evaluate our goal in life. Is our goal to get even and fight fire with fire? Is our goal to live an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? If so, the whole world would be blind and toothless and that sounds like a terrible way for everyone to live! What’s the alternative? To follow the example of Jesus and later that of Paul and love our enemies and rejoice that the Gospel is being proclaimed. The next time that suffering comes knocking on your door, remember that you can choose in that moment to rejoice. That even if the worst thing happens and even if someone betrays you the first chance they get, you’re not in bad company - Jesus and Paul and countless other Christians had the same experiences. Walk worthy with Christlike Joy.

Live for Christ (1:21-30, 2:12-18)

As chapter 1 continues, Paul makes a statement that stands out to many of us concerning his focus on Christ

Philippians 1:21 CSB

21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Imagine this hypothetical conversation Paul and the prison guards might have had

Paul stop talking about your supposed Messiah, we’ll kill you if you keep it up

That’s awesome - dying is gain

Wait? You want to die? Ok, we’ll keep you here and let you live

That’s even better - I can encourage Christians to grow in their faith!

Hmm… Now we’re going to make you suffer

The sufferings of this present world can’t compare with the glory going to be revealed. It would be a joy to suffer for Christ

Do you see his back and forth with this simple statement? If he lives, great, if he dies, great. If he suffers for Christ, even better because he’ll experience joy and follow the way of Jesus who suffered the most gruesome injustice of all.

Paul held firmly to the sovereignty of God in a precarious situation. Sure, he was in Roman prison, but he was truly a slave of Christ, not Caesar. Sure, there were those who wanted him taken out, but God wasn’t done with Paul. As a mentor of mine has put it before, “You are invincible until God calls you home.” How can we know this? Because of the sovereignty of our God who rules and reigns for His glory and for our good. As long as there is breath in our lungs, He expects us to fulfill our responsibility of glorifying Him, proclaiming His Gospel, and making disciples until our dying breath.

How many of you have heard of Jonathan Edwards before? Edwards was one of the leaders behind the Great Awakening in the early/mid 1700s and the preacher of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. What many people don’t know about Edwards is that he had a list of resolutions that he began forming in his teenage years that he added to on occasion as he got older. These resolutions reminded him who he was and what he stood for. Edwards would read over these resolutions at least once per week to focus his mind on his mission and purpose. There are 70 resolutions that Edwards penned over his years and they are profitable for Christians today to look over but I want to hone in simply on the first one. Edwards, again, as a teenager, wrote this, “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration… Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.”

What did Edwards resolve to do? To do whatever would be most for God’s glory and his good regardless of the time or difficulties it would take. Jonathan Edwards resolved to use his life to live for an audience of 1: Jesus Christ. Paul, in the midst of opposition and persecution, resolved to live his life for an audience of 1. Have you settled it in your heart, like Daniel in Daniel 1:8, and determined what you will and what you won’t do? Have you determined to follow and live for Christ? If not, whenever suffering and opposition arrises, your undetermined heart will make the decision for you… But if you have settled it in your heart today, you can stand firm with God’s strength in you.

Young people, settle it in your heart this morning to live for Christ regardless of the consequences because Jesus is worth it! As Jesus Himself shared in Matthew 5:11

Matthew 5:11 ESV

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Suffering will come, but take heart because Christ overcame this world. This is yet another way that we walk worthy of our heavenly calling with joy. 3rd…

Look out for Others (2:4-11)

Being a relatively new father, one of the things that I’ve learned in recent months is that little boys like to get into trouble! People who say that we’re not born with a sinful nature must have never had kids because you see it every single day as they know the difference between right and wrong and for whatever reason (fallen nature) they choose to disobey and the laugh while they disobey! Whenever you have a young child, that child is completely dependent upon you as his or her parents. The child needs you to literally do everything! As the child gets older there is a little bit of independence, but in the growing the child still needs mom and dad’s help along the way. Whenever Gabriel first started walking he would usually last a few steps before falling down and he would always refuse to take our hand to help keep him upright… Fast forward several months and now Gabriel lets my wife, Lindsey, and I hold his hand as we walk across the parking lot or go down a flight of stairs. We know that there’s danger in those places - parking lots are dangerous places for 19 month olds and stairs can present their own problems. As a result, as parents, you naturally look out for your kids in those moments.

There are other people, though, that we might not so naturally look out for. Paul shares of Christ’s humility and exaltation in Philippians 2:5-11 and those verses contain some of the most beautiful theological truths in the entire book, but before that he shares this in Philippians 2:4

Philippians 2:4 ESV

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Within the church, Paul desperately wants there to be unity and he speaks of this truth throughout his letters in places like Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 in addition to Philippians 2. Why would Paul talk about this? Why does he have to say that we need to look out for the interests of others? Because that’s not a natural human tendency across the board. Your own children? Sure. Your best friend? Sure. The couple that you don’t always get along with? Our natural human tendency isn’t to be humble and consider them higher than ourselves as verse 3 shares. Humility is hard! It’s hard to lay aside our “rights” in order to come together with people that we may not always agree with. It’s hard to humble ourselves to the point where we look first to others… Yet, that’s exactly what Jesus did.

The implication of this possible Christological hymn is that Jesus was willing to humble Himself to the point of death for God’s glory and our salvation, so why can we not humble ourselves and submit to God’s purposes? Why can’t we be like-minded in the church and look out for others? Paul wants us to adopt the same humble attitude that Jesus lived out constantly. But, again, humility is hard. How can we do this? Tim Keller once shard that, “Humility is not thinking more or less of myself, it is thinking of myself, less.” It’s not about having no confidence, it’s about having total confidence in Christ’s work in you rather than in your own abilities and works and righteousness. It’s about thinking of ourselves less frequently and more frequently about Christ, His Kingdom, and His ministry work in our church!

Though humility might be hard, John Stott shares this, “At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.”

Are you someone who is looking out for others, or are you more interested in yourself, your preferences, your desires, and your traditions? Steve Lawson put it like this, “Everything in our Christian lives is deigned to produce a greater humility in us. The Word sanctifies us. The cross tells us that all we bring to our salvation is our sin. Worship causes us to look up to God. Trials humble us. Yet… Our heart still struggles with pride.” The only solution to our defective heart problem is to daily remind ourselves of our desperate need of the Gospel and to pray that the Lord would help us look out for others and treat them above ourselves.

Long to Know Christ More (3:1-21)

Now, our text from this morning!

Paul talks about his track record, his resume, his laundry list of accomplishments. Paul had all the reasons to be confident in himself. He had the right last name. He was circumcised. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was zealous for the law. He was the smartest there was and he was blameless before the law. Let’s put this in 2022 church lingo. Paul was a charter member of First Baptist Church Jerusalem. His parents dedicated him to the Lord before the church. Every time the church doors were open, he was there - in fact, some days he beat the pastor to the building. He came to VBS. He went on mission trips. He gave. He taught. He shared the Gospel with his neighbors. He never did something questionable on social media or in person. He was a standup guy who other people would naturally say was a Christian but he shares in Philippians 3:7 that

Philippians 3:7 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

If you are one to struggle with looking at your list of accomplishments and thinking that you deserve x or y, Paul has a message for you and every single Christian this morning: I had more reasons for confidence and it doesn’t matter! What does matter, then? If it’s not our IQ or Sunday school attendance, what truly matters? Simply knowing Christ.

Donald Whitney has a book entitled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and he shares this, “We are qualified by the Lord by the Lord and not by good things that we do. We cannot produce enough righteousness to impress God and gain admittance into heaven. Instead we can stand before God only in the righteousness that’s been earned by another, Jesus Christ.”

The more we gaze at what Christ has done, the more and more we should long to know Him and be found in Him.

Consider the standard set by our Father. Contrary to what our world says, there aren’t a dozen ways to get to God. I’ve heard it said that God is at the top of a mountain and there are many different paths to get to Him and whichever path you use is great so long as you reach the summit. That’s a terrible picture that has led many people to hell! John 14:6 tells us that there aren’t 12 ways, there aren’t even 2 ways, there’s only 1 way and it’s through Jesus alone! It’s not our mission giving + Jesus’ work on the cross and it’s not the number of Bible lessons I’ve taught + Jesus perfect righteousness. It’s Jesus + nothing = everything!

Paul shares that he considers all of those things in his past as dung compared to Christ. Jesus raised Paul to walk in newness of life. He changed everything about this man and if you are a Christian this morning, this is both your testimony and it is your call to action. He has justified you and given to you His perfect righteousness. He is conforming you day by day to His perfect plan, sanctification. And one day you have the hope that you will be glorified and spend eternity with Him. Between now and then what is there for us to do? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To get to know Him more. We walk worthy of our calling as we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ.

Lead Others to Rejoice (4:1-9)

As Paul concludes this letter in chapter 4, he does so with a heartfelt exhortation to rejoice in the Lord and spend time united in prayer.

If you have been born again by God’s power, He expects you to get to work. Not to save yourself but to reflect His image and light in the world around you.

In our world today people are searching for something - maybe this is you this morning. I’ve talked with more people in recent weeks who are searching for answers to the problems people are facing all around the world today. Hatred, lying, suffering, gas prices, and everything in between. When and where will these things find their end? While we might not know the specific details, we know the end of the story. We know that sin has an expiration death. That death one day will die. That Christ will return and that He has already won for His people their ultimate victory. What should those truths do in the life of a believer? They should give us the peace that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:6-7

Philippians 4:6–7 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Because of Jesus, you and I don’t have to be anxious about the latest world crisis. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care about it - we should, but we view it all through a Christian worldview in which the end isn’t fuzzy… We know how the story ends. In fact, it’s already been written. Therefore, you and I can choose to rejoice in any and all things that come our way.

This is Paul’s testimony and his application from Philippians to the modern church is to rejoice in Christ Jesus. To know Him more. To have Him increase and ourselves decrease. To love others and live for Him. To use however many days, breathes, and heartbeats we have left to glorify Him supremely.

Are you content where you are at in your walk this morning or do you long to grow? He doesn’t promise us a worry free, suffering-less, and prosperity full life… But He does promise us that He’ll never leave nor forsake us. He does promise us His peace. He does promise us eternal joy that no power of hell and no scheme of man can take away. He stands with His arms open wide and He says, “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.” If you have not done so, friend, trust in Jesus and walk step by step with Him with Christlike joy. Stand out in a world full of darkness, confusion, and hatred.

Pray