An Advancing Gospel Community: Enjoys Authentic Christianity (Philippians 3:1-11)

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. To learn more about our church, please visit calvary.com. And for additional resources from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge, please visit nateholdridge.com. Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:24] Nate Holdridge All right. Good morning, church. Let's take out our Bibles like Manny said, and turn to Philippians chapter three. If you're new today, we're going verse by verse through the book of Philippians. And that's kind of our manner of

[00:00:37] ministry here. We just choose books of the Bible and go verse by verse through them. So we're in Philippians. Today we'll be in chapter three, verse one to 11. And I know we've been thinking about Philippians from, I think, the angle that Paul had when writing this letter of thinking about the church in Philippi as an advancing gospel community. That's what he wanted them to be and to continue to be. And so today we're going to think about how an advancing gospel community enjoys our

[00:01:08] authentic Christianity. But as you guys are getting yourselves settled there in Philippians chapter three, I did want to just give a little update. Last week, I mentioned to you that we had a great month of prayer in October, praying for the future of our church, particularly the next 10 years. Great prayer meetings, great times seeking the Lord. Great things are coming together. And I mentioned last week that we will likely continue on in some format of official church prayer together.

[00:01:33] Although, of course, we're all invited to privately and personally be interceding and going to God for the future of our church. And we will be doing that. We're still buttoning up the details on when and where that specific church prayer meeting will happen on a regular basis. But wanted to mention that to you. We're going to keep on praying together, see this through till we get to that planning phase. And then all the way to the time where we're finished and able to say praise God for this next season of the church.

[00:02:01] But as you know, one of the things we're doing right now is we're doing a refurbishment project of the current facility. We've been doing that for the last year and a half. We kind of started down at the west end of the campus and are moving this direction towards the main sanctuary. You see some of the construction signs as you're coming in and all of that.

[00:02:20] We'll have hopefully a great and beautiful community space to show you in the next six weeks or a couple of months.

[00:02:27] But the reason I wanted to mention it this morning is because we are getting closer to actually doing some significant painting in the church.

[00:02:36] We're going to paint in here in the main sanctuary and we're also going to be painting the main building on the outside of the building.

[00:02:43] We're going to go much lighter in here and we're going to go much darker outside.

[00:02:49] And what we did is we went to our interior and exterior designers and we said,

[00:02:55] we don't want you to come back to us until you find us paint colors that 100% of our congregation will absolutely love.

[00:03:04] And we prayed and God worked a miracle. It happened.

[00:03:09] And so when you see these paint colors, you are going to be blown away.

[00:03:13] You're going to be absolutely love them and you're going to tell me all about it.

[00:03:16] And if you don't feel that way, Pastor Manny is going to be out there and you're going to be able to share with him.

[00:03:23] No, we kind of realized like kind of the only thing you can really do to not be jarring is to do the same exact thing that you've done previously.

[00:03:32] So it's just going to stand out and be different to us.

[00:03:34] But I think it's going to be beautiful to lighten things up in here and then on the outside of the building and modernize a little bit,

[00:03:40] be a little bit darker on the outside of the building.

[00:03:43] And so it's going to be a lot of fun.

[00:03:44] I think it'll look really good, but wanted to mention that to you today.

[00:03:49] And then also I just, it's in my heart this morning to just praise and thank all of you who are serving in the church.

[00:03:55] It takes hundreds of people to be able to put on weekend services and we really appreciate your service.

[00:04:01] I don't think you're thanked enough for what you do.

[00:04:04] And so thank you for those of you serving in the worship ministry or in Calumary Kids or as a greeter or in hospitality or on our safety team.

[00:04:15] There's so many different things that people are doing and the tech ministry and all of that to put on services each weekend.

[00:04:22] And we really appreciate it.

[00:04:23] It's fun to serve together for sure.

[00:04:25] And I hope that you're getting something good out of it.

[00:04:27] But thank you for what you're doing to help us pull off these services.

[00:04:32] I told our intro to Calvary last week, I was kind of talking to these new folks in the church.

[00:04:36] And I said, you know, we're like a mid-sized church.

[00:04:38] And what that basically means is we have a lot of bells and whistles of a big church, but we're like barely pulling it off.

[00:04:45] And so thank you for those of you who are helping out with the church.

[00:04:49] Okay, let's read our passage today.

[00:04:50] Philippians 3, verse 1 to 11.

[00:04:54] I want to read the whole section at the top of this teaching.

[00:04:59] Paul writing, says,

[00:05:02] Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

[00:05:08] To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

[00:05:13] Look, verse 2, out for the dogs.

[00:05:15] Look out for the evildoers.

[00:05:17] Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

[00:05:21] For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

[00:05:28] Though I myself have reason, verse 4, for confidence in the flesh also.

[00:05:32] If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

[00:05:37] Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

[00:05:42] As to the law, a Pharisee.

[00:05:45] As to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

[00:05:48] As to righteousness under the law, blameless.

[00:05:52] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

[00:05:58] Indeed, verse 8, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

[00:06:07] For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

[00:06:16] Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

[00:06:24] The righteousness from God that depends on faith.

[00:06:27] That I, verse 10, may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

[00:06:37] That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

[00:06:44] Let's pray together.

[00:06:45] Lord, thank you for your word today.

[00:06:48] And we pray your blessing upon us as we consider it.

[00:06:52] Thank you for breathing it out into and through Paul the Apostle.

[00:07:08] Lord, as we see the authentic Christianity that Paul lived,

[00:07:29] we ask that you'd bless us in like manner and help us, Lord, in living that authentic Christian life.

[00:07:38] We're so tempted, Lord, to settle for less than that quite often.

[00:07:42] But we're telling you today, we don't want to settle for that.

[00:07:45] We want the real thing.

[00:07:46] We want the full thing.

[00:07:48] And so, Lord, we pray that you'd help us.

[00:07:50] In Jesus' name.

[00:07:52] Amen.

[00:07:53] Amen.

[00:07:54] In Luke's gospel, Jesus told a parable.

[00:07:56] And the parable was designed to address those who felt that they were righteous before God because of their own works.

[00:08:08] In this parable, there were two men.

[00:08:10] One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

[00:08:13] Both of them came to the temple of God for prayer.

[00:08:18] The temple being in existence during the time and life of Jesus.

[00:08:23] And the Pharisee, who by definition loved the Bible, but also by definition loved his interpretations of the Bible more than he loved the Bible,

[00:08:33] came to God in prayer.

[00:08:35] And Jesus indicated that his prayer was actually not even a prayer.

[00:08:38] It was a conversation with himself.

[00:08:40] He said to God, God, I'm thankful to you that I'm not like the sinners of this world, including this tax collector.

[00:08:49] In other words, the Pharisee came to God full of self-assurance and full of pride.

[00:08:55] The tax collector, Jesus said, came to God and beat on his chest.

[00:09:00] Wouldn't even look up to heaven.

[00:09:03] That's how broken and humble he felt before God.

[00:09:07] And he said, God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

[00:09:11] And Jesus announced that only one of them went to his home justified before God.

[00:09:16] It was the tax collector.

[00:09:18] It was the man who humbled himself before the Lord.

[00:09:21] And the reason that I start this teaching by recounting that parable is because I think it perfectly encapsulates Philippians 3, verse 1 through 11.

[00:09:33] In this passage, what we have detailed for us is the two-faced life of Paul the apostle.

[00:09:42] He'll talk about his life and experience like that tax collector.

[00:09:46] He knows what it was like in his past when he felt smug and self-confident and self-sufficient before God.

[00:09:54] Not thinking that he needed forgiveness or grace or mercy and found no reason to humble himself before the living God.

[00:10:01] He thought, I am a good person.

[00:10:05] The tax collector, on the other hand, is the experience that Paul had in his Christianity.

[00:10:10] A perpetual feeling of beating the chest and saying, God, I need your mercy.

[00:10:17] God, I need you to change and transform my life.

[00:10:20] God, I need you to be working within me.

[00:10:24] That's what Paul saw in his life.

[00:10:26] And that's how he continued on in the Christian life as well.

[00:10:30] Now, perpetually crying out to God, hungering to God that he might, as he saw, as he wrote there in the close of our passage,

[00:10:38] that he might taste of the resurrection power of Christ, but also that he might taste of the suffering of Jesus.

[00:10:46] All right, so what I want to talk to you about today is the authentic version of Christianity

[00:10:52] that Paul, in this biographical section, telling his story that he detailed for us.

[00:10:59] And I'm going to do something a little risky this morning.

[00:11:02] I'm going to break like a rule of preaching, and I'm going to give you seven points

[00:11:10] that detail what authentic Christianity looks like, I think, according to Paul, from this passage.

[00:11:17] They say three, maybe four, but they say seven is suicide.

[00:11:22] So if you guys could just hang out with me today, we're going to try to get all seven of these in here today.

[00:11:29] And really what we're trying to do as we pursue this passage is we're trying to ask the question,

[00:11:35] what does authentic Christianity look like?

[00:11:39] What does authentic Christianity look like?

[00:11:42] And the first thing I want you to see is that authentic Christianity, in verse one, it rejoices in Jesus.

[00:11:49] It rejoices in Jesus.

[00:11:51] This is really where it all starts.

[00:11:52] Look at what Paul said in verse one.

[00:11:55] He, first of all, did a preaching move when he said, finally.

[00:11:59] He's halfway through the letter at this point, but he's like, finally.

[00:12:03] He's like getting everyone's attention, like, oh, we're about to wrap up.

[00:12:06] I'm going to close my Bible and close my notebook,

[00:12:08] but he's not even close to being done at this point.

[00:12:12] So he says, finally, brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

[00:12:17] This letter is a letter that's filled with joy.

[00:12:19] You guys know that at least 12 times Paul talks about joy or rejoicing,

[00:12:25] and we are astounded by that when we think of the book of Philippians,

[00:12:28] because all throughout this letter, Paul is wrestling with the reality of his own potential impending death

[00:12:36] at the hands of his Roman captors.

[00:12:39] He's in prison.

[00:12:40] He's wondering if they're going to sentence him to death.

[00:12:43] Yet amid all of that, in prison, in chains,

[00:12:48] needing a neighboring church from Philippi to come and provide for his very needs in prison,

[00:12:56] and this man is steeped with and has incredible joy.

[00:12:59] And we might be shocked by that.

[00:13:01] We might be moved by that.

[00:13:03] But here's what Paul was moved by.

[00:13:05] Not that he had joy despite his chains,

[00:13:10] but what he was moved by was the source of his joy.

[00:13:13] The reason he had that joy, he says,

[00:13:15] is that he's thinking about the Lord.

[00:13:18] He has confidence because of Jesus.

[00:13:21] Jesus.

[00:13:21] And what I wanted to say today is that authentic Christianity

[00:13:25] is not distracted from Christ, but instead rejoices in Jesus.

[00:13:31] Listen, the Bible is a really big book.

[00:13:33] I've been studying it for 28 years at this point,

[00:13:38] and I've been privileged to be able to study it like professionally,

[00:13:42] you know, to be able to devote vast hours of my private life

[00:13:46] and also my working life to thinking about Scripture.

[00:13:50] And I love it.

[00:13:52] It's a real privilege to do so.

[00:13:54] But one of the things I've discovered is that

[00:13:57] the deeper I get into this book,

[00:13:59] the more I realize how much there is to learn about this book.

[00:14:03] We were actually talking in our life group this last week

[00:14:05] about what we think eternity might be like.

[00:14:08] Like, what does the Bible say about eternity?

[00:14:10] And we were wondering about the question of when we are glorified,

[00:14:15] when we go to be with him and we see him as he sees us

[00:14:19] and we're transformed and glorified,

[00:14:21] does that mean that we'll know everything?

[00:14:24] And I don't think that that's the case.

[00:14:27] I don't personally think that we are going to,

[00:14:30] once we enter into eternity, gain God's omniscience.

[00:14:34] I think we'll be glorified, we'll be purified,

[00:14:37] we'll be unable to sin.

[00:14:38] But my hope, at least, is that we will be for eternity learning.

[00:14:43] And part of the reason I'm hoping for that

[00:14:45] is because I just can't wait to go to a Jesus Bible study.

[00:14:51] I can't wait to have him opening up the books

[00:14:53] and I can't wait for billions of years

[00:14:55] to be learning more about what he has revealed to us in his word.

[00:15:02] The Bible says a lot about a lot of things.

[00:15:05] But here's the thing.

[00:15:06] Sometimes, because of that,

[00:15:08] we think that in order for us to be believers,

[00:15:12] we've got to have answers to every single question we could possibly have.

[00:15:18] And some of you guys, you're the kind of people,

[00:15:19] like you roll in, you're like, I got no questions.

[00:15:21] I'm good.

[00:15:22] And some of you are like, I got hundreds of questions.

[00:15:25] I got thousands of questions.

[00:15:27] But what I want to say to you is that the first question is,

[00:15:29] who is Jesus?

[00:15:31] Did he rise from the dead?

[00:15:33] Is he truly the son of God and God the son?

[00:15:36] And once you sort that out, then you can ask the question,

[00:15:39] and what does he think about all the things that I have questions about?

[00:15:45] Authentic Christianity begins with, starts with Jesus.

[00:15:49] It rejoices in Jesus.

[00:15:51] It places him as the center, as the paramount.

[00:15:54] I mean, the Bible says a lot of things about a lot of things, but it's clear.

[00:15:59] The paramount part of its revelation or its story is the message of Jesus, the cross of Christ.

[00:16:07] So authentic Christianity, it rejoices in Jesus.

[00:16:11] In John chapter 12, there's a story, I think, that typifies this in a beautiful way.

[00:16:18] Jesus raised, you remember, Lazarus from the dead.

[00:16:21] And the week before Jesus went to the cross, there was a meal on Tuesday night, the week before the cross,

[00:16:26] at the house of a man named Simon.

[00:16:28] It was in honor, it seems, of Jesus, but also of Lazarus.

[00:16:33] Lazarus had a couple of sisters.

[00:16:35] You might know them, Mary and Martha.

[00:16:37] And even though Jesus had been announcing to his disciples that he was about to die,

[00:16:42] no one figured out that he was about to die, except for Mary, the sister of Lazarus.

[00:16:50] She was in tune with what was about to occur.

[00:16:54] And she took a costly vat of oil, jar of oil, broke it and poured it on Jesus' feet and on his head,

[00:17:01] Jesus said, as a way to anoint him, to prepare him for his inevitable burial after his death on the cross.

[00:17:11] And he extolled her, he praised her for that singular devotion that she placed to him.

[00:17:17] To me, she's a great picture of what it looks like to rejoice in Jesus,

[00:17:22] to just be worshiping him, loving him, making him the center of your existence and being.

[00:17:28] The second thing I want you to see, though, is that authentic Christianity,

[00:17:33] it knows the source of true transformation.

[00:17:37] You know, people are looking for, it's interesting,

[00:17:40] as much as people feel that they are very good and acceptable before God, if there is a God,

[00:17:47] at the same time, we're also looking for ways to be changed or transformed.

[00:17:52] And authentic Christianity knows that the source of true transformation,

[00:17:56] transformation, it comes from the Spirit of God.

[00:18:00] In the second verse, you notice there in your Bibles, Paul gave this triplicate warning.

[00:18:06] This is probably not the way that you spoke this last week.

[00:18:09] He said, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers,

[00:18:14] look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

[00:18:17] What is Paul talking about when he says those things?

[00:18:21] More than likely, Paul is dealing with the same opponents that he had dealt with since the beginning of his ministry.

[00:18:28] Paul would go to various towns, he would preach the gospel, Jews would believe in Jesus,

[00:18:33] he'd preach to them for a little while.

[00:18:36] Once that was finished, and it seemed like the Jewish population had an opportunity to hear about their Messiah,

[00:18:42] he would then move on to the Gentiles.

[00:18:44] He said to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

[00:18:46] And as he preached to the nations, many of them would receive Jesus and a new church would be established in that city or in that region.

[00:18:55] After Paul departed, inevitably another group would follow in after him with a message saying,

[00:19:03] hey, Paul's gospel is great, but you need to add to it.

[00:19:07] If you're a Gentile and you've believed in Jesus,

[00:19:11] you need to now add a layer of Judaism to your faith.

[00:19:16] And I think that's who Paul is alluding to here.

[00:19:19] These people who were preaching a false gospel of adding Judaism to Christianity.

[00:19:25] He calls them evil doers in the English Standard Version,

[00:19:29] but some of your Bibles probably say evil workers.

[00:19:32] That's because the Greek word is just that.

[00:19:34] It's evil missionaries, so to speak.

[00:19:36] And they came as proponents of for the males who were Gentiles in the church to be circumcised as a way to say we are adopting Judaism now on top of the layer of Christ.

[00:19:54] But what Paul said in verse 3, he said, no, we are the circumcision.

[00:19:59] What is he saying there?

[00:20:00] Something grotesque?

[00:20:00] No, what he's saying is circumcision, it's not about something external.

[00:20:05] It's about something internal.

[00:20:06] In the book of Romans, he said circumcision is of the heart.

[00:20:09] There's something wrong with the human heart.

[00:20:12] And Paul is saying, I know where to go to find the problems of my heart resolved.

[00:20:20] He said in verse 3 that only the Spirit of God can change us, and so I will put no confidence in the flesh.

[00:20:30] This is important.

[00:20:31] Authentic Christianity, it's not impressed with showiness.

[00:20:38] It's not impressed with an external presentation.

[00:20:44] Authentic Christianity says, I know where real, true transformation comes from.

[00:20:49] It comes from the Spirit of God.

[00:20:51] The Old Testament prophets, they looked forward to this.

[00:20:55] Jeremiah talked of a day when a new covenant would come where God would write the law, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, on human hearts.

[00:21:03] Ezekiel, the prophet, talked about a day when stony, hard hearts would be replaced with soft hearts before God longing for him.

[00:21:12] And Joel, the prophet, talked about a day that was coming when young and old and male and female would receive the Spirit of God and be empowered to be used by God for his kingdom and purposes.

[00:21:24] And what Paul knew is that that day had arrived.

[00:21:27] Jesus had come.

[00:21:29] He'd risen from the dead.

[00:21:30] He's ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit upon all flesh.

[00:21:36] He knows real transformation is possible now because of what Christ has done.

[00:21:43] We don't have to fake it.

[00:21:45] We don't have to just look like it.

[00:21:48] But we can actually internally be transformed.

[00:21:53] In Luke chapter 19, there's a man named Zacchaeus who I think typifies this point I'm trying to make.

[00:22:00] Zacchaeus did two things that were very embarrassing.

[00:22:03] In his story, in Luke chapter 19, he was a wealthy man.

[00:22:07] He was a man people looked up to in his society and culture.

[00:22:10] And the first embarrassing thing that he did is he ran.

[00:22:13] That was embarrassing for older guys in that culture.

[00:22:16] You did not run.

[00:22:17] We live in a culture where we're like, that's what you do.

[00:22:19] Californians, we put on our short shorts and we go for long runs.

[00:22:23] We should be embarrassed by that, but we're not.

[00:22:28] Zacchaeus ran.

[00:22:29] That was embarrassing thing, number one.

[00:22:30] Embarrassing thing, number two, is that he climbed a tree.

[00:22:32] The Bible says he was a shorter man.

[00:22:34] Jesus was passing by.

[00:22:36] A great crowd of people was there.

[00:22:37] He knew, I'm not going to be able to see Jesus unless I climb a tree.

[00:22:42] Jesus saw his humility, because that's what that was.

[00:22:47] And he invited himself to Zacchaeus' house.

[00:22:52] And in the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus was radically changed.

[00:22:58] He was a tax collector.

[00:23:00] That doesn't mean that his job was merely to go collect taxes.

[00:23:03] It means that his job was to collect taxes and rip off the populace in order to pay for his own salary.

[00:23:12] This man had been greedy and he becomes generous.

[00:23:16] I'm going to make it right, he said.

[00:23:18] I'm going to give back multiples of what I've taken.

[00:23:22] This man who was unjust before he becomes just and righteous, repenting of his sin.

[00:23:29] This man who was a sinner, he becomes right in the sight of the Lord.

[00:23:34] Jesus leaves, this man, his house, there's justification that has occurred in this place.

[00:23:41] So, the second thing that I want you to see is just that.

[00:23:44] We know the source of true transformation.

[00:23:46] Jesus is a transforming God.

[00:23:49] The third thing I want you to see is that authentic Christianity is confident in Christ alone.

[00:23:57] It's confident in Christ alone.

[00:23:59] You know, some people talk about whatever their belief system is or whatever as if they are, you know,

[00:24:05] I'm a very good person.

[00:24:07] I'm a very moral person or whatever.

[00:24:10] But the authentic believer doesn't talk like that.

[00:24:14] The authentic believer says like, man, but by the grace of God, you know, he reached into my life.

[00:24:21] I was so far short of the glory of God.

[00:24:26] He came into my life.

[00:24:28] And what Paul does to illustrate this point is he basically like theorizes for a second in verse 4 to 7.

[00:24:38] Because there were people like those Judaizers who were saying we can be made right in God's sight by what we do.

[00:24:46] And Paul basically says, let's just theorize for a second.

[00:24:50] If that was the way, I would be the chief boaster of that way and in that way.

[00:24:58] And he kind of gives this long biographical list of what he could have boasted in.

[00:25:05] To you and to me, it might not stand out as that big of a list or a deal.

[00:25:09] But from a Jewish backdrop, which the Old Testament was written in, the Messiah, Jesus, is a Jewish Messiah.

[00:25:16] From a Jewish backdrop, it's like Paul had all the right credentials.

[00:25:22] But I think you can do a little bit of work and see the connection between some of the credentials he could have trusted in but didn't.

[00:25:29] And the credentials that many people today try to trust in.

[00:25:34] Like for instance, the first thing that he mentioned about these people who said,

[00:25:39] oh, if you really want to be approved by God, you got to do this external thing of circumcision.

[00:25:44] He says, well, for me, I was circumcised on the eighth day.

[00:25:47] The Bible said that a young Jewish boy on the eighth day of life was meant to be circumcised.

[00:25:53] And Paul says, I have that right or I have that ceremony.

[00:25:56] I did that thing.

[00:25:58] To me, it's similar to people today who lean upon an external religious ceremony as a path to salvation.

[00:26:08] And after service today, we're going to baptize a bunch of people in the baptismal at the end of the patio.

[00:26:13] And none of them are going into that water saying, I am trusting this to save me.

[00:26:19] They're going into that water saying, I'm trusting Jesus to save me.

[00:26:23] But because he saved me, I want to have an emblem of what he's produced in my life.

[00:26:28] And since he's the Lord of my life, and this is job one of obeying him,

[00:26:33] I'm going to go into this water and declare my allegiance to him.

[00:26:38] But many people lean on external religious ceremonies as a path to salvation.

[00:26:43] Paul said, secondly, that he was of the people of Israel.

[00:26:47] What does that mean?

[00:26:48] It's like he's saying, I'm connected to some of the heroes of the faith.

[00:26:52] People like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the original Israel.

[00:26:56] I'm connected to people like that.

[00:26:59] And I've found quite often people will trust their connections to others who are in the body of Christ.

[00:27:08] Oh, yeah, my dad was a pastor.

[00:27:11] Oh, yeah, I've got some friends who are missionaries and I support them and read their newsletter.

[00:27:16] Oh, yeah, I go to church and I'm in a life group.

[00:27:19] I have Christian friends.

[00:27:20] None of those things matter when it comes to being made right in the sight of God.

[00:27:27] Paul then said he was of the tribe of Benjamin.

[00:27:30] He was able to declare the very tribe that he came from.

[00:27:36] Not a lot of people could do that in that era, but Paul was able to do that.

[00:27:40] The tribe of Benjamin historically was a heroic tribe, a remnant tribe.

[00:27:45] I think in a sense, some people trust that they are part of the righteous remnant.

[00:27:51] You know, we say the right things.

[00:27:52] We believe the right things.

[00:27:53] We're here to save the planet with our views and perspectives.

[00:28:00] And Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

[00:28:03] That was his way of saying, I'm not just Jewish by race.

[00:28:07] I was raised as a Hebrew and I speak the language that the Hebrew people are able to speak.

[00:28:16] And I think many people today pride themselves on having the right vocabulary, saying the right words, saying the right things as if that could save them.

[00:28:26] And then Paul said that he had been a Pharisee when it came to the Old Testament law.

[00:28:31] That means he was extremely devoted to the laws that the Pharisees had extracted from their understanding of Scripture.

[00:28:41] And many people consider themselves good and decent people today based on some moral code that they have adopted.

[00:28:49] And because I've adopted it, I am good.

[00:28:52] I am righteous.

[00:28:55] Before Christ, Paul, he said, had been zealous as a persecutor of the church.

[00:29:00] He hated Christ's church.

[00:29:02] And many today put themselves in the good column and put the church in the evil column and justify mistreatment of or silencing the church.

[00:29:14] And Paul had been blameless, he said.

[00:29:17] Lastly, when it came to righteousness under the law, he thought he was doing everything he could to please God.

[00:29:25] Many today consider themselves that way.

[00:29:28] Really good people who do not need a Savior of any kind.

[00:29:31] Maybe other people need a Savior, but not me.

[00:29:34] But Paul is saying that he came to a place where he recognized that authentic Christianity rejects all of those things to try to be approved in God's sight.

[00:29:46] And instead, he said, becomes confident in Christ alone.

[00:29:50] He said in verse 7 that he counted all that as loss for the sake of Christ.

[00:29:56] He had come to discover that nothing in his performance could make him right and good before God, but that he needed the righteousness of Jesus to be deposited into his account.

[00:30:10] You know, when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that there were two criminals flanking him, also being crucified.

[00:30:19] Everybody, as Jesus was dying, was mocking him.

[00:30:24] The people passing by, the Roman soldiers, the Jewish religious leaders, and even those two robbers.

[00:30:33] They were ridiculing Jesus, mocking Jesus.

[00:30:37] But as you know, the crucifixion event lasted a number of hours.

[00:30:42] And the Bible says that something happened.

[00:30:45] We don't know what it was, but apparently over time, one of the robbers began to recognize how wrong he was for ridiculing Jesus.

[00:30:53] And he began to rebuke the other thief on the cross, saying, can't you tell that this man, though we are being crucified for our crimes, he has committed no crimes.

[00:31:07] And then he looked at Jesus, this naked, crucified, beaten man on a cross, and said some of the most astounding words in all of the New Testament to him.

[00:31:20] He said, remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom.

[00:31:26] Like, I'm looking at you, and I believe you have a kingdom.

[00:31:30] I'm looking at you, and I think there's something behind this cross, something behind this event.

[00:31:36] And what did Jesus say to him?

[00:31:38] Famously, he said, today, you will be with me in paradise.

[00:31:44] That thief on that cross had none of these things to offer Jesus.

[00:31:51] He had no track record to offer Jesus.

[00:31:55] But he was justified and approved, nonetheless, because he was throwing himself upon the mercy of Christ.

[00:32:03] Okay, number four, moving forward.

[00:32:05] Authentic Christianity discards and devalues everything that gets in the way of knowing Jesus more.

[00:32:13] I almost want to, like, make you guys all stand up and stretch at this point of the sermon.

[00:32:17] Because this is the part of the first service where I started losing everybody.

[00:32:21] So stay with me right now, okay?

[00:32:25] It discards and devalues everything that gets in the way of knowing Jesus.

[00:32:29] In verse 8, this is where I'm drawing this from,

[00:32:32] Paul came to a place where he had to count all his past credentials as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

[00:32:44] He calls all those past credentials something interesting.

[00:32:47] He calls them rubbish.

[00:32:48] Some of your Bibles might say refuse or trash or garbage.

[00:32:53] That would be a good interpretation of the Greek word that Paul is using.

[00:32:58] It's like he's saying these things are not significant to make me right in God's sight.

[00:33:03] This is not, by the way, Paul's way of throwing out the Old Testament or throwing out the beauty of biblical Judaism.

[00:33:11] It's his way of throwing out the Pharisaical version that he had adopted over time and from his upbringing at the hands of his teachers.

[00:33:21] And the reason why Paul considered them all rubbish was so that he might, look at verse 8,

[00:33:29] know Christ Jesus.

[00:33:36] That's what he wanted more than anything.

[00:33:39] What do I want more than anything?

[00:33:41] I want to know Christ Jesus.

[00:33:47] This is an important one.

[00:33:50] You know, I think about this sometimes in my own life.

[00:33:53] I love watching and seeing God work and move.

[00:33:57] When I was 18 years old and felt called into the teaching of the word and ministry,

[00:34:03] like a big part of that was because I wanted to see God change lives.

[00:34:07] You know, I get excited when God reaches someone.

[00:34:11] I get excited when that person becomes a disciple.

[00:34:15] I get excited when people are baptized.

[00:34:17] I get excited when someone who's been in Christ for decades has new revelations of how good and great he is.

[00:34:23] I get excited when people are doing the right thing for Jesus.

[00:34:27] I get excited about all of that.

[00:34:30] But for me, I have to always go back to what is my main goal and ambition?

[00:34:36] What do I want more than anything?

[00:34:38] That fruit.

[00:34:39] I love that fruit.

[00:34:40] But what I want to see more than anything, what I want to have more than anything is to know Christ.

[00:34:45] That's what Paul said.

[00:34:46] I want to know Christ.

[00:34:47] I'll get rid of all of it so that I can know Jesus.

[00:34:51] You know, it's important to see here that what Paul is doing is he's not discarding even bad things.

[00:34:59] These were good things that had become bad because of the position that he had placed them in.

[00:35:06] He'd become smug because he thought his credentials made him approve before he met Jesus.

[00:35:11] And authentic Christianity realizes that sometimes even good things sneak in to replace our relationship with Jesus.

[00:35:20] And sometimes we just have to pause and relinquish, count as rubbish or trash or garbage,

[00:35:27] those things that we once held close that are getting in the way of knowing him more deeply.

[00:35:35] This could look like a young man who realizes that his girlfriend is keeping him from the holiness that he wants to pursue in Jesus.

[00:35:46] But it could also look like a seasoned saint who's been in Christ for decades,

[00:35:52] who's realizing that they've become too distracted by the daily news.

[00:35:57] And it's keeping them from the holiness they want to pursue in Jesus.

[00:36:03] It could look like someone who's embraced the new popular versions of morality

[00:36:10] only to discover what Christ endorses and to let go of those new definitions.

[00:36:16] But it could also look like someone who begins to recognize that church attendance and church service

[00:36:23] has slowly become the basis of their walk with God.

[00:36:29] And they turn back to the Lord.

[00:36:33] This could look like a young woman who realizes that she can no longer lean upon the faith of her parents

[00:36:39] and has not yet pursued Christ for herself.

[00:36:41] But it could also look like a middle-aged person who walks away from the belief system

[00:36:46] that they've constructed for decades now because they've discovered that they need to surrender to Jesus.

[00:36:54] But Paul here looks at his life and he says,

[00:36:57] I am going to count and will and have counted all these things as loss or as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.

[00:37:05] And I believe that this is an ongoing process in the Christian life.

[00:37:11] Where we just have moments of introspection where we take a look in the mirror and we ask the question,

[00:37:16] what's getting in the way of me knowing Jesus more?

[00:37:20] And I realize that when we ask those questions, sometimes we get a little afraid.

[00:37:24] Like, I don't know.

[00:37:25] I don't know if it's worth it.

[00:37:26] I don't know what it will be like if I do count these things as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.

[00:37:32] And for that, I want to prescribe to you the Old Testament story of Ruth.

[00:37:37] Ruth was a young woman who at a very pivotal moment in her life had a hard decision to make.

[00:37:43] She had been widowed as a young bride.

[00:37:46] And she had to decide whether she would remain in her home country where it was comfortable

[00:37:52] or leave it to go to God's country and be with God's people.

[00:37:57] She made that hard decision and it immediately was painful because it thrust her into poverty in Israel.

[00:38:06] But God saw her faithfulness.

[00:38:10] He saw her sacrifice.

[00:38:12] And pretty soon, he reaches into her life and blesses her life so much so that she is slotted into the family tree of the Jewish Messiah,

[00:38:24] the family tree of Jesus.

[00:38:26] And I think, in a similar way, the same happens to us when we discard and devalue anything that gets in the way of knowing Jesus more.

[00:38:39] Okay, number five.

[00:38:40] Authentic Christianity gets its rightness from God through faith in Christ, not personal goodness.

[00:38:48] For this, I'm looking at verse 9, which is a little bit of a callback to what he said in verse 2 and 3.

[00:38:55] Paul said that his desire was to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law.

[00:39:02] In other words, Paul thought his righteousness, or to put today's terms on it,

[00:39:07] his rightness, or his goodness, or his acceptance.

[00:39:13] It came through faith in Christ and depended on the faithful work of Christ.

[00:39:22] Paul's perspective and the perspective of the New Testament is that our personal righteousness is as filthy rags,

[00:39:30] but that what we require is the perfect righteousness of Jesus to be deposited into our account,

[00:39:38] to be clothed, to use New Testament terminology, to be clothed with Christ,

[00:39:44] and then to continue putting on Christ each day in this sanctification process.

[00:39:51] There's a story in the Old Testament that I think typifies this beautifully from the prophet of Zechariah.

[00:39:56] If you've ever read the book of Zechariah, you get bonus points and a gold star because it's a wild book.

[00:40:02] It's like the book of Revelation in the Old Testament.

[00:40:05] It's very apocalyptic, a lot of like, what is that?

[00:40:08] How did he, how does he, what was he seeing and all of that?

[00:40:10] But the setting that he was in was that there was a high priest named Joshua

[00:40:15] who was responsible for helping to rebuild Jerusalem at that time, and it was a tough job.

[00:40:21] And there was a lot of spiritual warfare in the job that he was conducting.

[00:40:27] And Zechariah saw into the invisible spiritual dimension for a second, it seems.

[00:40:33] And what he saw was the prophet, or excuse me, the priest Joshua clothed with these filthy garments,

[00:40:42] which might not sound like a huge deal to you or like a minor inconvenience to you,

[00:40:47] but for a priest, it was a disqualifier.

[00:40:50] Like you can't go in to the temple looking like that.

[00:40:53] You need to have your pure priestly vestments on to go into the presence of God.

[00:40:59] And on top of that, Zechariah also heard the voice of and saw Satan rebuking, ridiculing Joshua for his dirty garments.

[00:41:14] Then Zechariah heard the voice of God.

[00:41:17] God defended his man Joshua.

[00:41:21] God rebuked Satan.

[00:41:23] And God took away Joshua's dirty vestments and gave him clean priestly garments to wear.

[00:41:31] And for us, this has become a beautiful picture of what we get in Christ Jesus.

[00:41:36] There's an enemy who is ridiculing us.

[00:41:40] There's an enemy who is attacking us.

[00:41:43] But if we've trusted in Christ, there's been a beautiful trade that has occurred.

[00:41:49] Our old garments cast away and the new garments of Christ being worn so that we can enter into the presence of the Lord.

[00:42:00] All right, now number six.

[00:42:01] I told you there's seven, so these are the championship rounds right now.

[00:42:04] You guys got this?

[00:42:05] These last two are actually really beautiful.

[00:42:08] They might be the most important.

[00:42:09] Number six, authentic Christianity wants to experience Christ's resurrection power.

[00:42:16] Paul said this in a couple of ways in verse 10 and 11.

[00:42:19] He said that he wanted to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection.

[00:42:25] And then in verse 11, he said that his driving desire was that by any means possible, he might attain the resurrection from the dead.

[00:42:35] Some people get tripped out by that last phrase from Paul.

[00:42:38] Like he's hoping to one day attain to the resurrection of the dead.

[00:42:43] And they wonder, is Paul a little uncertain about his future destiny?

[00:42:48] I don't think that's what's happening here.

[00:42:50] Elsewhere, Paul appears very confident of where he's going when he dies.

[00:42:55] He's very confident of his future with Christ.

[00:42:58] I think what he's saying here is, since that's what's going to occur in my life,

[00:43:04] and my confidence is there, my hope is there, my mind is there,

[00:43:09] I'm wanting to tap into the eventual resurrection power of Jesus,

[00:43:15] where I get a new body and I become like him.

[00:43:18] I'm wanting to tap into that future resurrection of Jesus today.

[00:43:23] I want his resurrection power to be experienced in my life today.

[00:43:27] Or as to quote what he said in Romans chapter 6, verse 4,

[00:43:31] I want to walk in newness of life.

[00:43:35] It seems to be what Paul is alluding to.

[00:43:38] The idea that authentic Christianity craves for Christ's resurrection power to affect life today.

[00:43:48] You guys, this one's really important.

[00:43:49] Because what we're saying is that authentic Christianity,

[00:43:54] it is not content to coast along in life.

[00:44:00] It is not content to be unchanged and unimpacted

[00:44:04] by the tremendous, grave-conquering, demon-shattering resurrection power of Christ.

[00:44:12] No, authentic Christianity says, I want the good stuff.

[00:44:17] Don't hold back on me.

[00:44:19] I want all that there is to experience of Jesus today.

[00:44:24] I want to experience his power, his transformation, his love, his compassion, his justice, his truth.

[00:44:31] I want to absorb the new life of Jesus as much as I possibly can.

[00:44:36] And I want to bring it to bear in every fabric of my everyday life.

[00:44:43] But I think if we're honest, we're constantly tempted to settle for a counterfeit version.

[00:44:53] A less, less than version of Christianity that never presses into the resurrection life of Christ.

[00:45:06] But that's a false one.

[00:45:07] It's a misrepresentation of what Christ can do.

[00:45:10] And I think that you would all agree with me.

[00:45:12] Our world needs more believers who want this version of authentic Christianity.

[00:45:19] Amen.

[00:45:19] Tapping into the resurrection power of Jesus.

[00:45:22] In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet had this incredible vision at one point near the end of his prophetic writings,

[00:45:29] where he saw this valley filled with bones, human bones.

[00:45:34] And God tells him, he's like, I want you to speak to these bones.

[00:45:40] He's basically telling the prophet, give a sermon to this congregation of bones.

[00:45:46] And so he starts like opening his mouth and prophesying to these bones.

[00:45:51] And as he's speaking, the bones start rattling, clacking together, being brought together until they're skeletons.

[00:45:59] And then the skeletons begin to grow organs and sinews and muscles and then eventually skin until they're full grown, standing there, yet without breath.

[00:46:12] And God says to Ezekiel, I want you to prophesy to the breath.

[00:46:18] And he starts speaking, asking God's breath to come into God's people.

[00:46:25] And this congregation in his vision comes to life.

[00:46:30] And it's always stood to me as a great illustration of this resurrection power of Jesus.

[00:46:37] We're looking for these dead bones to rattle together, to come together, and for there to be a semblance of the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal flesh today.

[00:46:49] And only God can do these things.

[00:46:51] Only God can grant us this resurrection power, which leads me to my seventh, last, final, good job, everybody, point today.

[00:47:01] Authentic Christianity wants to experience Christ's sufferings.

[00:47:07] He said in verse 10 that though he did want to know Jesus's resurrection power, he knew the cross came before the empty tomb.

[00:47:21] So he said, I want to share Jesus's sufferings and I want to become like him in his death.

[00:47:31] A seed has to go into the ground and die before it can bring forth life.

[00:47:35] And Paul recognized the importance of following Christ's pattern of suffering and sacrifice for others.

[00:47:47] He wanted to take up his cross.

[00:47:48] He wanted to die to himself.

[00:47:50] He wanted to follow Jesus every day of his life.

[00:47:53] He said in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 10,

[00:47:55] I always carry about in my body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in my body.

[00:48:06] Authentic Christianity, the real deal,

[00:48:09] it's filled with self-denial.

[00:48:12] It's filled with others' centeredness.

[00:48:14] It's filled with personal sacrifice.

[00:48:16] It's filled with death.

[00:48:17] It's filled with dying to our wishes, dying to our wants for the sake of bringing others to life.

[00:48:26] That's the pinnacle of Christ's likeness.

[00:48:29] If Jesus, as we saw in Philippians chapter 2, set aside the privileges of glory, became one of us and died on the cross so that we might have life,

[00:48:37] what Paul realized is that he wanted his entire life to follow that template, to look like that.

[00:48:45] Of course, the Bible is filled with this kind of concept.

[00:48:50] Joseph suffering betrayal in Genesis,

[00:48:55] suffering imprisonment in Egypt before rising to bless the nations as the second in command of Pharaoh.

[00:49:03] Moses suffering banishment and wilderness exile before rising to deliver God's people from their slavery

[00:49:12] and carry them through that very same wilderness.

[00:49:15] Elijah suffering persecution and nationwide drought along with everyone else before rising to defeat Baal and restore rain to the land.

[00:49:26] Hannah suffering the sorrow of childlessness and humiliation before rising to have a child,

[00:49:35] having that child be little Samuel, the next great prophet in Israel whom Israel desperately needed.

[00:49:42] David suffering indignity and personal attack and rejection from his own family before rising to become the greatest king and psalmist of Israel.

[00:49:53] Jeremiah suffering rejection, imprisonment, and ridicule for proclaiming God's truth to God's people before rising

[00:50:00] to become one of the greatest and most cherished prophets the world has ever known.

[00:50:05] Over and over again, as God's people experience God's sufferings, Christ's sufferings,

[00:50:13] life and power and goodness flow from his holy throne.

[00:50:18] It's like God is just looking for people like that to manifest his resurrection power in.

[00:50:24] And I think that Christ's sufferings, personal sacrifice or rejection, betrayal or pain,

[00:50:33] I think they're in ample supply today.

[00:50:37] Many of you know what it's like to, to like Jesus to some degree, love without being loved in return.

[00:50:51] It hurts. It's painful.

[00:50:55] But in those moments, what I want to say is that I believe we are being set up for his resurrection power

[00:51:06] to work a bit of its way into our lives.

[00:51:08] We are becoming like Jesus.

[00:51:12] So the question that I would ask at the end of this teaching before we partake of the Lord's table and communion together

[00:51:18] is just simply this. Do you want to be the Pharisee or do you want to be the tax collector?

[00:51:25] The tax collector said, I am not self-sufficient.

[00:51:28] I am going to drive myself forward, beat on my chest and ask for the mercy of God.

[00:51:35] Do you want to be that person day after day after day?

[00:51:39] If you do, congratulations, because that is authentic Christianity.

[00:51:45] Always driving forward in our walk and relationship with the living God.

[00:51:53] Thank you for listening.

[00:51:55] If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterey, please visit calvary.com.

[00:52:00] You can also find books, teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at nepholdridge.com.

[00:52:08] Thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next week.