Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Philippians.
[00:00:00] Okay, let's read our passage today, Philippians 3, verse 1-11. I want to read the whole section at the top of this teaching.
[00:00:10] Paul writing, says,
[00:00:13] Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
[00:00:24] Look, verse 2, out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
[00:00:32] For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
[00:00:39] Though I myself have reason, verse 4, for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.
[00:00:48] Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
[00:00:53] As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless.
[00:01:02] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
[00:01:09] Indeed, verse 8, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
[00:01:18] 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.
[00:01:28] Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
[00:01:35] The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
[00:01:38] That I, verse 10, may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
[00:01:49] That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
[00:01:55] Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word today.
[00:01:59] And we pray your blessing upon us as we consider it.
[00:02:03] Thank you for breathing it out into and through Paul the Apostle.
[00:02:10] Using his mind and intellect and personality to put these truths to paper.
[00:02:15] And then for these couple of thousands of years, preserving for us so many thousands of copies and manuscripts of this original letter.
[00:02:25] So that we could read it today, study it today, meditate upon it today, think about it today, and have it applied into our lives today.
[00:02:35] And Lord, as we see the authentic Christianity that Paul lived, we ask that you'd bless us in like manner and help us, Lord, in living that authentic Christian life.
[00:02:49] We're so tempted, Lord, to settle for less than that quite often.
[00:02:53] But we're telling you today, we don't want to settle for that.
[00:02:56] We want the real thing. We want the full thing.
[00:02:59] And so, Lord, we pray that you'd help us.
[00:03:01] In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
[00:03:05] In Luke's gospel, Jesus told a parable.
[00:03:18] In this parable, there were two men.
[00:03:21] One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
[00:03:24] Both of them came to the temple of God for prayer.
[00:03:29] The temple being in existence during the time and life of Jesus.
[00:03:34] 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,
[00:03:44] came to God in prayer and Jesus indicated that his prayer was actually not even a prayer.
[00:03:49] It was a conversation with himself.
[00:03:51] He said to God, God, I'm thankful to you that I'm not like the sinners of this world, including this tax collector.
[00:04:00] In other words, the Pharisee came to God full of self-assurance and full of pride.
[00:04:07] The tax collector, Jesus said, came to God and beat on his chest.
[00:04:11] Wouldn't even look up to heaven.
[00:04:14] That's how broken and humble he felt before God.
[00:04:18] And he said, God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
[00:04:22] And Jesus announced that only one of them went to his home justified before God.
[00:04:27] It was the tax collector.
[00:04:29] It was the man who humbled himself before the Lord.
[00:04:32] And the reason that I start this teaching by recounting that parable is because I think it perfectly encapsulates
[00:04:41] Philippians 3, verse 1 through 11.
[00:04:44] In this passage, what we have detailed for us is the two-faced life of Paul the Apostle.
[00:04:53] He'll talk about his life and experience like that tax collector.
[00:04:57] He knows what it was like in his past when he felt smug and self-confident and self-sufficient before God.
[00:05:05] Not thinking that he needed forgiveness or grace or mercy and found no reason to humble himself before the living God.
[00:05:12] He thought, I am a good person.
[00:05:16] The tax collector, on the other hand, is the experience that Paul had in his Christianity.
[00:05:21] A perpetual feeling of beating the chest and saying, God, I need your mercy.
[00:05:28] God, I need you to change and transform my life.
[00:05:31] God, I need you to be working within me.
[00:05:35] That's what Paul saw in his life.
[00:05:37] And that's how he continued on in the Christian life as well.
[00:05:42] Perpetually crying out to God, hungering to God that he might, as he wrote there in the close of our passage,
[00:05:49] that he might taste of the resurrection power of Christ, but also that he might taste of the suffering of Jesus.
[00:05:57] So what I want to talk to you about today is the authentic version of Christianity
[00:06:03] that Paul, in this biographical section, telling his story, that he detailed for us.
[00:06:10] And I'm going to do something a little risky this morning.
[00:06:13] I'm going to break like a rule of preaching, and I'm going to give you seven points
[00:06:20] that detail what authentic Christianity looks like, I think, according to Paul, from this passage.
[00:06:27] They say three, maybe four, but they say seven is suicide.
[00:06:33] 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.
[00:06:40] And really what we're trying to do as we pursue this passage is we're trying to ask the question,
[00:06:47] what does authentic Christianity look like?
[00:06:50] What does authentic Christianity look like?
[00:06:53] And the first thing I want you to see is that authentic Christianity, in verse one, it rejoices in Jesus.
[00:07:00] It rejoices in Jesus.
[00:07:02] This is really where it all starts.
[00:07:03] Look at what Paul said in verse one.
[00:07:06] He, first of all, did a preaching move when he said, finally.
[00:07:10] He's halfway through the letter at this point, but he's like, finally.
[00:07:14] He's like getting everyone's attention, like, oh, we're about to wrap up.
[00:07:17] I'm going to close my Bible and close my notebook, but he's not even close to being done at this point.
[00:07:23] So he says, finally, brothers, rejoice in the Lord.
[00:07:28] This letter is a letter that's filled with joy.
[00:07:30] You guys know that at least 12 times Paul talks about joy or rejoicing.
[00:07:36] And we are astounded by that when we think of the book of Philippians,
[00:07:39] because all throughout this letter, Paul is wrestling with the reality of his own potential impending death at the hands of his Roman captors.
[00:07:50] He's in prison.
[00:07:51] He's wondering if they're going to sentence him to death.
[00:07:54] Yet amid all of that, in prison, in chains, needing a neighboring church from Philippi to come and provide for his very needs in prison,
[00:08:07] this man is steeped with and has incredible joy.
[00:08:10] And we might be shocked by that.
[00:08:12] We might be moved by that.
[00:08:14] But here's what Paul was moved by.
[00:08:16] Not that he had joy despite his chains, but what he was moved by was the source of his joy.
[00:08:24] The reason he had that joy, he says, was that he's thinking about the Lord.
[00:08:29] He has confidence because of Jesus.
[00:08:32] And what I wanted to say today is that authentic Christianity is not distracted from Christ, but instead rejoices in Jesus.
[00:08:42] Listen, the Bible is a really big book.
[00:08:44] I've been studying it for 28 years at this point.
[00:08:49] And I've been privileged to be able to study it, like, professionally, you know,
[00:08:53] to be able to devote vast hours of my private life and also my working life to thinking about Scripture.
[00:09:01] And I love it.
[00:09:03] It's a real privilege to do so.
[00:09:05] But one of the things I've discovered is that the deeper I get into this book,
[00:09:10] the more I realize how much there is to learn about this book.
[00:09:14] We were actually talking in our life group this last week about what we think eternity might be like.
[00:09:19] Like, what does the Bible say about eternity?
[00:09:21] And we were wondering about the question of when we are glorified, when we go to be with him,
[00:09:28] and we see him as he sees us, and we're transformed and glorified,
[00:09:32] does that mean that we'll know everything?
[00:09:35] And I don't think that that's the case.
[00:09:38] I don't personally think that we are going to, once we enter into eternity, gain God's omniscience.
[00:09:45] I think we'll be glorified, we'll be purified, we'll be unable to sin.
[00:09:49] But my hope, at least, is that we will be for eternity learning.
[00:09:54] And part of the reason I'm hoping for that is because I just can't wait to go to a Jesus Bible study.
[00:10:02] I can't wait to have him opening up the books, and I can't wait for billions of years to be learning more about what he has revealed to us in his word.
[00:10:13] The Bible says a lot about a lot of things.
[00:10:16] But here's the thing.
[00:10:17] Sometimes, because of that, we think that in order for us to be believers,
[00:10:23] we've got to have answers to every single question we could possibly have.
[00:10:29] And some of you guys, you're the kind of people, like, you roll in, you're like, I got no questions.
[00:10:32] I'm good.
[00:10:33] And some of you are like, I got hundreds of questions.
[00:10:36] I got thousands of questions.
[00:10:38] But what I want to say to you is that the first question is, who is Jesus?
[00:10:42] Did he rise from the dead?
[00:10:44] Is he truly the Son of God and God the Son?
[00:10:47] And once you sort that out, then you can ask the question,
[00:10:50] and what does he think about all the things that I have questions about?
[00:10:55] Authentic Christianity begins with, starts with Jesus.
[00:11:00] It rejoices in Jesus.
[00:11:02] It places him as the center, as the paramount.
[00:11:05] I mean, the Bible says a lot of things about a lot of things, but it's clear.
[00:11:10] The paramount part of its revelation or its story is the message of Jesus, the cross of Christ.
[00:11:18] So authentic Christianity, it rejoices in Jesus.
[00:11:22] In John chapter 12, there's a story, I think, that typifies this in a beautiful way.
[00:11:29] Jesus raised, you remember, Lazarus from the dead.
[00:11:32] And the week before Jesus went to the cross, there was a meal on Tuesday night, the week before the cross,
[00:11:37] at the house of a man named Simon.
[00:11:39] It was in honor, it seems, of Jesus, but also of Lazarus.
[00:11:44] Lazarus had a couple of sisters.
[00:11:46] You might know them, Mary and Martha.
[00:11:48] And even though Jesus had been announcing to his disciples that he was about to die,
[00:11:53] no one figured out that he was about to die, except for Mary, the sister of Lazarus.
[00:12:01] She was in tune with what was about to occur.
[00:12:05] And she took a costly vat of oil, jar of oil, broke it and poured it on Jesus' feet and on his head,
[00:12:12] Jesus said, as a way to anoint him, to prepare him for his inevitable burial after his death on the cross.
[00:12:22] And he extolled her, he praised her for that singular devotion that she placed to him.
[00:12:28] To me, she's a great picture of what it looks like to rejoice in Jesus.
[00:12:33] To just be worshiping him, loving him, making him the center of your existence and being.
[00:12:39] The second thing I want you to see, though, is that authentic Christianity, it knows the source of true transformation.
[00:12:48] You know, people are looking for, it's interesting, as much as people feel that they are very good and acceptable before God,
[00:12:57] if there is a God, at the same time, we're also looking for ways to be changed or transformed.
[00:13:03] And authentic Christianity knows that the source of true transformation, it comes from the Spirit of God.
[00:13:11] In the second verse, you notice there in your Bibles, Paul gave this triplicate warning.
[00:13:17] This is probably not the way that you spoke this last week.
[00:13:20] He said, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
[00:13:28] What is Paul talking about when he says those things?
[00:13:32] More than likely, Paul is dealing with the same opponents that he had dealt with since the beginning of his ministry.
[00:13:39] Paul would go to various towns, he would preach the gospel, Jews would believe in Jesus, he'd preach to them for a little while.
[00:13:47] Once that was finished and it seemed like the Jewish population had an opportunity to hear about their Messiah,
[00:13:53] he would then move on to the Gentiles.
[00:13:55] He said to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[00:13:57] 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.
[00:14:06] After Paul departed, inevitably another group would follow in after him with a message saying,
[00:14:14] hey, Paul's gospel is great, but you need to add to it.
[00:14:18] If you're a Gentile and you've believed in Jesus, you need to now add a layer of Judaism to your faith.
[00:14:27] And I think that's who Paul is alluding to here.
[00:14:30] These people who were preaching a false gospel of adding Judaism to Christianity.
[00:14:36] He calls them evildoers in the English Standard Version, but some of your Bibles probably say evil workers.
[00:14:43] That's because the Greek word is just that.
[00:14:45] It's evil missionaries, so to speak.
[00:14:48] And they came as proponents of for the males who were Gentiles in the church to be circumcised.
[00:14:59] There's a way to say we are adopting Judaism now on top of the layer of Christ.
[00:15:05] But what Paul said in verse 3, he said, no, we are the circumcision.
[00:15:10] What is he saying there? Something grotesque? No, what he's saying is circumcision, it's not about something external.
[00:15:16] It's about something internal.
[00:15:17] In the book of Romans, he said circumcision is of the heart.
[00:15:20] There's something wrong with the human heart.
[00:15:23] And Paul is saying, I know where to go to find the problems of my heart resolved.
[00:15:31] He said in verse 3 that only the Spirit of God can change us.
[00:15:36] And so I will put no confidence in the flesh.
[00:15:41] This is important.
[00:15:42] Authentic Christianity, it's not impressed with showiness.
[00:15:49] It's not impressed with an external presentation.
[00:15:55] Authentic Christianity says, I know where real, true transformation comes from.
[00:16:00] It comes from the Spirit of God.
[00:16:02] The Old Testament prophets, they looked forward to this.
[00:16:05] Jeremiah talked of a day when a new covenant would come where God would write the law,
[00:16:10] not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, on human hearts.
[00:16:14] Ezekiel, the prophet, talked about a day when stony, hard hearts would be replaced with soft hearts before God longing for him.
[00:16:23] And Joel, the prophet, talked about a day 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.
[00:16:35] And what Paul knew is that that day had arrived.
[00:16:38] Jesus had come.
[00:16:40] He'd risen from the dead.
[00:16:41] He's ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Spirit upon all flesh.
[00:16:47] He knows real transformation is possible now because of what Christ has done.
[00:16:54] We don't have to fake it.
[00:16:56] We don't have to just look like it.
[00:16:59] But we can actually internally be transformed.
[00:17:04] In Luke chapter 19, there's a man named Zacchaeus who I think typifies this point I'm trying to make.
[00:17:11] Zacchaeus did two things that were very embarrassing in his story in Luke chapter 19.
[00:17:16] He was a wealthy man.
[00:17:18] He was a man people looked up to in his society and culture.
[00:17:21] And the first embarrassing thing that he did is he ran.
[00:17:24] That was embarrassing for older guys in that culture.
[00:17:27] You did not run.
[00:17:28] We live in a culture where we're like, that's what you do.
[00:17:30] Californians, we put on our short shorts and we go for long runs.
[00:17:34] We should be embarrassed by that, but we're not.
[00:17:39] Zacchaeus ran.
[00:17:39] That was embarrassing thing, number one.
[00:17:41] Unembarrassing thing, number two, is that he climbed a tree.
[00:17:44] The Bible says he was a shorter man.
[00:17:45] Jesus was passing by.
[00:17:47] A great crowd of people was there.
[00:17:48] He knew I'm not going to be able to see Jesus unless I climb a tree.
[00:17:53] Jesus saw his humility because that's what that was.
[00:17:58] And he invited himself to Zacchaeus' house.
[00:18:03] And in the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus was radically changed.
[00:18:09] He was a tax collector.
[00:18:10] That doesn't mean that his job was merely to go collect taxes.
[00:18:14] It means that his job was to collect taxes and rip off the populace in order to pay for his own salary.
[00:18:23] This man had been greedy and he becomes generous.
[00:18:27] I'm going to make it right, he said.
[00:18:29] I'm going to give back multiples of what I've taken.
[00:18:33] This man who was unjust before he becomes just and righteous, repenting of his sin.
[00:18:40] This man who was a sinner, he becomes right in the sight of the Lord.
[00:18:45] Jesus leaves, this man, his house, there's justification that has occurred in this place.
[00:18:52] So the second thing that I want you to see is just that.
[00:18:55] We know the source of true transformation.
[00:18:57] Jesus is a transforming God.
[00:19:00] The third thing I want you to see is that authentic Christianity is confident in Christ alone.
[00:19:08] It's confident in Christ alone.
[00:19:10] You know, some people talk about whatever their belief system is or whatever as if they are, you know, I'm a very good person.
[00:19:18] I'm a very moral person or whatever.
[00:19:21] But the authentic believer doesn't talk like that.
[00:19:25] The authentic believer says like, man, but by the grace of God, you know, he reached into my life.
[00:19:32] I was so far short of the glory of God.
[00:19:37] He came into my life.
[00:19:39] And what Paul does to illustrate this point is he basically like theorizes for a second in verse 4 to 7.
[00:19:49] Because there were people like those Judaizers who were saying we can be made right in God's sight by what we do.
[00:19:58] And Paul basically says, let's just theorize for a second.
[00:20:01] If that was the way, I would be the chief boaster of that way and in that way.
[00:20:09] And he kind of gives this long biographical list of what he could have boasted in.
[00:20:15] And to you and to me, it might not stand out as that big of a list or a deal.
[00:20:20] But from a Jewish backdrop, which the Old Testament was written in, the Messiah, Jesus is a Jewish Messiah.
[00:20:28] From a Jewish backdrop, it's like Paul had all the right credentials.
[00:20:33] 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.
[00:20:40] And the credentials that many people today try to trust in.
[00:20:45] Like, for instance, the first thing that he mentioned about these people who said,
[00:20:50] Oh, if you really want to be approved by God, you've got to do this external thing of circumcision.
[00:20:55] He says, well, for me, I was circumcised on the eighth day.
[00:20:58] The Bible said that a young Jewish boy on the eighth day of life was meant to be circumcised.
[00:21:04] And Paul says, I have that right or I have that ceremony.
[00:21:07] I did that thing.
[00:21:09] To me, it's similar to people today who lean upon an external religious ceremony as a path to salvation.
[00:21:19] And after service today, we're going to baptize a bunch of people in the baptismal at the end of the patio.
[00:21:24] And none of them are going into that water saying, I am trusting this to save me.
[00:21:30] They're going into that water saying, I'm trusting Jesus to save me.
[00:21:34] But because he saved me, I want to have an emblem of what he's produced in my life.
[00:21:39] And since he's the Lord of my life, and this is job one of obeying him, I'm going to go into this water and declare my allegiance to him.
[00:21:49] But many people lean on external religious ceremonies as a path to salvation.
[00:21:54] Paul said, secondly, that he was of the people of Israel.
[00:21:58] What does that mean?
[00:21:59] It's like he's saying, I'm connected to some of the heroes of the faith.
[00:22:03] People like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the original Israel.
[00:22:06] I'm connected to people like that.
[00:22:10] And I've found quite often people will trust their connections to others who are in the body of Christ.
[00:22:19] Oh yeah, my dad was a pastor.
[00:22:22] Oh yeah, I've got some friends who are missionaries and I support them and read their newsletter.
[00:22:27] Oh yeah, I go to church and I'm in a life group.
[00:22:30] I have Christian friends.
[00:22:31] None of those things matter when it comes to being made right in the sight of God.
[00:22:38] Paul then said he was of the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:22:41] He was able to declare the very tribe that he came from.
[00:22:47] Not a lot of people could do that in that era, but Paul was able to do that.
[00:22:50] The tribe of Benjamin historically was a heroic tribe, a remnant tribe.
[00:22:55] I think in a sense, some people trust that they are part of the righteous remnant.
[00:23:01] You know, we say the right things.
[00:23:03] We believe the right things.
[00:23:05] We're here to save the planet with our views and perspectives.
[00:23:10] And Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews.
[00:23:13] That was his way of saying, I'm not just Jewish by race.
[00:23:18] I was raised as a Hebrew and I speak the language that the Hebrew people are able to speak.
[00:23:27] And I think many people today pride themselves on having the right vocabulary,
[00:23:32] saying the right words, saying the right things as if that could save them.
[00:23:37] And then Paul said that he had been a Pharisee when it came to the Old Testament law.
[00:23:42] That means he was extremely devoted to the laws that the Pharisees had extracted from their understanding of Scripture.
[00:23:52] And many people consider themselves good and decent people today based on some moral code that they have adopted.
[00:24:00] And because I've adopted it, I am good, I am righteous.
[00:24:06] Before Christ, Paul, he said, had been zealous as a persecutor of the church.
[00:24:11] He hated Christ's church.
[00:24:13] And many today put themselves in the good column and put the church in the evil column
[00:24:20] and justify mistreatment of or silencing the church.
[00:24:25] Paul had been blameless, he said.
[00:24:28] Lastly, when it came to righteousness under the law, he thought he was doing everything he could to please God.
[00:24:36] Many today consider themselves that way.
[00:24:39] Really good people who do not need a Savior of any kind.
[00:24:42] Maybe other people need a Savior, but not me.
[00:24:45] But Paul is saying that he came to a place where he recognized
[00:24:49] that authentic Christianity rejects all of those things to try to be approved in God's sight.
[00:24:57] And instead, he said, becomes confident in Christ alone.
[00:25:01] He said in verse 7 that he counted all that as loss for the sake of Christ.
[00:25:07] He had come to discover that nothing in his performance could make him right and good before God,
[00:25:14] but that he needed the righteousness of Jesus to be deposited into his account.
[00:25:20] You know, when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that there were two criminals flanking him,
[00:25:29] also being crucified.
[00:25:31] Everybody, as Jesus was dying, was mocking him.
[00:25:34] The people passing by, the Roman soldiers, the Jewish religious leaders,
[00:25:41] and even those two robbers.
[00:25:44] They were ridiculing Jesus, mocking Jesus.
[00:25:48] But as you know, the crucifixion event lasted a number of hours.
[00:25:53] And the Bible says that something happened.
[00:25:56] We don't know what it was, but apparently over time,
[00:25:59] one of the robbers began to recognize how wrong he was for ridiculing Jesus.
[00:26:04] And he began to rebuke the other thief on the cross,
[00:26:09] saying, can't you tell that this man, though we are being crucified for our crimes,
[00:26:15] he has committed no crimes.
[00:26:18] And then he looked at Jesus, this naked, crucified, beaten man on a cross,
[00:26:27] and said some of the most astounding words in all of the New Testament to him.
[00:26:31] He said, remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom.
[00:26:37] Like I'm looking at you, and I believe you have a kingdom.
[00:26:41] I'm looking at you, and I think there's something behind this cross,
[00:26:45] something behind this event.
[00:26:47] And what did Jesus say to him?
[00:26:49] Famously he said, today you will be with me in paradise.
[00:26:55] That thief on that cross had none of these things to offer Jesus.
[00:27:02] He had no track record to offer Jesus.
[00:27:06] But he was justified and approved nonetheless
[00:27:09] because he was throwing himself upon the mercy of Christ.
[00:27:14] Okay, number four, moving forward.
[00:27:16] Authentic Christianity discards and devalues everything
[00:27:21] that gets in the way of knowing Jesus more.
[00:27:24] I almost want to like make you guys all stand up and stretch
[00:27:26] at this point of the sermon.
[00:27:28] Because this is the part of the first service
[00:27:30] where I started losing everybody.
[00:27:32] So stay with me right now, okay?
[00:27:36] It discards and devalues everything
[00:27:38] that gets in the way of knowing Jesus.
[00:27:40] In verse eight, this is where I'm drawing this from,
[00:27:43] Paul came to a place where he had to count
[00:27:46] all his past credentials as loss
[00:27:51] because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.
[00:27:55] He calls all those past credentials something interesting.
[00:27:58] He calls them rubbish.
[00:27:59] Some of your Bibles might say refuse or trash or garbage.
[00:28:04] That'd be a good interpretation of the Greek word
[00:28:06] that Paul is using.
[00:28:09] It's like he's saying these things
[00:28:11] are not significant to make me right in God's sight.
[00:28:14] This is not, by the way, Paul's way
[00:28:16] of throwing out the Old Testament
[00:28:18] or throwing out the beauty of biblical Judaism.
[00:28:22] It's his way of throwing out the Pharisaical version
[00:28:25] that he had adopted over time
[00:28:28] and from his upbringing at the hands of his teachers.
[00:28:32] And the reason why Paul considered them all rubbish
[00:28:36] was so that he might, look at verse eight,
[00:28:40] know Christ Jesus.
[00:28:42] Jesus, that's what he wanted more than anything.
[00:28:50] What do I want more than anything?
[00:28:52] I wanna know Christ Jesus.
[00:28:58] This is an important one.
[00:29:01] You know, I think about this sometimes in my own life.
[00:29:04] I love watching and seeing God work and move.
[00:29:08] When I was 18 years old
[00:29:09] and felt called into the teaching of the word and ministry,
[00:29:14] like a big part of that
[00:29:15] was because I wanted to see God change lives.
[00:29:18] You know, I get excited when God reaches someone.
[00:29:22] I get excited when that person becomes a disciple.
[00:29:25] I get excited when people are baptized.
[00:29:28] I get excited when someone who's been in Christ for decades
[00:29:31] has new revelations of how good and great he is.
[00:29:34] I get excited when people are doing the right thing for Jesus.
[00:29:38] I get excited about all of that.
[00:29:41] But for me, I have to always go back to
[00:29:43] what is my main goal and ambition?
[00:29:47] What do I want more than anything?
[00:29:49] That fruit.
[00:29:50] Love that fruit.
[00:29:51] But what I wanna see more than anything,
[00:29:53] what I wanna have more than anything is to know Christ.
[00:29:56] That's what Paul said.
[00:29:57] I wanna know Christ.
[00:29:58] I'll get rid of all of it so that I can know Jesus.
[00:30:03] You know, it's important to see here
[00:30:05] that what Paul is doing is he's not discarding even bad things.
[00:30:10] These were good things that had become bad
[00:30:13] because of the position that he had placed them in.
[00:30:17] He'd become smug because he thought his credentials
[00:30:19] made him approve before he met Jesus.
[00:30:22] And authentic Christianity realizes
[00:30:23] that sometimes even good things sneak in
[00:30:27] to replace our relationship with Jesus.
[00:30:31] And sometimes we just have to pause and relinquish,
[00:30:36] count as rubbish or trash or garbage,
[00:30:38] those things that we once held close
[00:30:41] that are getting in the way of knowing him more deeply.
[00:30:46] This could look like a young man
[00:30:49] who realizes that his girlfriend is keeping him
[00:30:53] from the holiness that he wants to pursue in Jesus.
[00:30:58] But it could also look like a seasoned saint
[00:31:01] who's been in Christ for decades,
[00:31:03] who's realizing that they've become too distracted
[00:31:06] by the daily news.
[00:31:08] And it's keeping them from the holiness
[00:31:10] they want to pursue in Jesus.
[00:31:14] It could look like someone
[00:31:16] who's embraced the new popular versions of morality
[00:31:21] only to discover what Christ endorses
[00:31:25] and to let go of those new definitions.
[00:31:27] But it could also look like someone
[00:31:29] who begins to recognize that church attendance
[00:31:33] and church service has slowly become
[00:31:36] the basis of their walk with God.
[00:31:41] And they turn back to the Lord.
[00:31:43] This could look like a young woman
[00:31:45] who realizes that she can no longer lean
[00:31:48] upon the faith of her parents
[00:31:50] and has not yet pursued Christ for herself.
[00:31:52] But it could also look like a middle-aged person
[00:31:55] who walks away from the belief system
[00:31:57] that they've constructed for decades now
[00:32:00] because they've discovered
[00:32:01] that they need to surrender to Jesus.
[00:32:05] Paul here looks at his life and he says,
[00:32:08] I am going to count and will and have counted
[00:32:11] all these things as loss or as rubbish
[00:32:14] for the sake of knowing Christ.
[00:32:16] And I believe that this is an ongoing process
[00:32:19] in the Christian life
[00:32:22] where we just have moments of introspection
[00:32:25] where we take a look in the mirror
[00:32:26] and we ask the question,
[00:32:27] what's getting in the way of me knowing Jesus more?
[00:32:31] And I realize that when we ask those questions,
[00:32:33] sometimes we get a little afraid.
[00:32:35] Like, I don't know.
[00:32:36] I don't know if it's worth it.
[00:32:37] I don't know what it will be like
[00:32:38] if I do count these things as rubbish
[00:32:41] for the sake of knowing Christ.
[00:32:43] And for that, I want to prescribe to you
[00:32:45] the Old Testament story of Ruth.
[00:32:48] Ruth was a young woman
[00:32:50] who had a very pivotal moment in her life,
[00:32:52] had a hard decision to make.
[00:32:54] She had been widowed as a young bride
[00:32:57] and she had to decide whether she would remain
[00:33:00] in her home country where it was comfortable
[00:33:03] or leave it to go to God's country
[00:33:07] and be with God's people.
[00:33:08] She made that hard decision
[00:33:11] and it immediately was painful
[00:33:13] because it thrust her into poverty in Israel.
[00:33:17] But God saw her faithfulness.
[00:33:20] He saw her sacrifice.
[00:33:23] And pretty soon, he reaches into her life
[00:33:26] and blesses her life so much so
[00:33:28] that she is slotted into the family tree
[00:33:33] of the Jewish Messiah,
[00:33:35] the family tree of Jesus.
[00:33:37] And I think in a similar way,
[00:33:41] the same happens to us
[00:33:43] when we discard and devalue anything
[00:33:46] that gets in the way of knowing Jesus more.
[00:33:50] Okay, number five,
[00:33:52] authentic Christianity gets its rightness
[00:33:54] from God through faith in Christ,
[00:33:57] not personal goodness.
[00:33:59] For this, I'm looking at verse nine,
[00:34:02] which is a little bit of a callback
[00:34:04] to what he said in verse two and three.
[00:34:06] Paul said that his desire was to be found in Christ,
[00:34:09] not having a righteousness of his own
[00:34:11] that comes from the law.
[00:34:13] In other words, Paul thought his righteousness
[00:34:15] or to put today's terms on it,
[00:34:18] his rightness or his goodness or his acceptance,
[00:34:24] it came through faith in Christ
[00:34:26] and depended on the faithful work of Christ.
[00:34:33] Paul's perspective
[00:34:34] and the perspective of the New Testament
[00:34:37] is that our personal righteousness
[00:34:38] is as filthy rags,
[00:34:42] but that what we require
[00:34:43] is the perfect righteousness of Jesus
[00:34:46] to be deposited into our account,
[00:34:49] to be clothed,
[00:34:51] to use New Testament terminology,
[00:34:52] to be clothed with Christ
[00:34:55] and then to continue putting on Christ
[00:34:57] each day in this sanctification process.
[00:35:02] There's a story in the Old Testament
[00:35:03] that I think typifies this beautifully
[00:35:05] from the prophet of Zechariah.
[00:35:07] If you've ever read the book of Zechariah,
[00:35:09] you get bonus points and a gold star
[00:35:11] because it's a wild book.
[00:35:13] It's like the book of Revelation
[00:35:15] in the Old Testament.
[00:35:16] It's very apocalyptic,
[00:35:17] a lot of like,
[00:35:18] what is that?
[00:35:19] How did he,
[00:35:19] how does he,
[00:35:20] what was he seeing and all of that?
[00:35:21] But the setting that he was in
[00:35:24] was that there was a high priest
[00:35:25] named Joshua
[00:35:26] who was responsible
[00:35:27] for helping to rebuild Jerusalem
[00:35:29] at that time
[00:35:30] and it was a tough job.
[00:35:32] And there was a lot of spiritual warfare
[00:35:34] in the job
[00:35:35] that he was conducting.
[00:35:38] And Zechariah saw into the invisible
[00:35:41] spiritual dimension
[00:35:43] for a second, it seems.
[00:35:44] And what he saw was the prophet,
[00:35:47] or excuse me,
[00:35:48] the priest Joshua
[00:35:50] clothed with these filthy garments
[00:35:53] which might not sound like a huge deal to you
[00:35:56] or like a minor inconvenience to you,
[00:35:58] but for a priest,
[00:35:59] it was a disqualifier.
[00:36:01] Like you can't go in
[00:36:02] to the temple looking like that.
[00:36:04] You need to have your pure priestly vestments on
[00:36:08] to go into the presence of God.
[00:36:10] And on top of that,
[00:36:12] Zechariah also heard the voice of
[00:36:15] and saw Satan rebuking,
[00:36:18] ridiculing Joshua
[00:36:21] for his dirty garments.
[00:36:25] Then Zechariah heard the voice of God.
[00:36:28] God defended his man Joshua.
[00:36:32] God rebuked Satan.
[00:36:34] And God took away Joshua's dirty vestments
[00:36:38] and gave him clean priestly garments to wear.
[00:36:42] And for us,
[00:36:43] this has become a beautiful picture
[00:36:45] of what we get in Christ Jesus.
[00:36:47] There's an enemy who is ridiculing us.
[00:36:51] There's an enemy who is attacking us.
[00:36:53] But if we've trusted in Christ,
[00:36:55] there has been a beautiful trade that has occurred.
[00:37:00] Our old garments cast away
[00:37:02] and the new garments of Christ being worn
[00:37:06] so that we can enter into the presence of the Lord.
[00:37:11] All right, now number six.
[00:37:12] I told you there's seven,
[00:37:13] so these are the championship rounds right now.
[00:37:15] You guys got this?
[00:37:16] These last two are actually really beautiful.
[00:37:19] They might be the most important.
[00:37:20] Number six,
[00:37:21] authentic Christianity wants to experience
[00:37:24] Christ's resurrection power.
[00:37:27] Paul said this in a couple of ways in verse 10 and 11.
[00:37:30] He said that he wanted to know Jesus
[00:37:32] and the power of his resurrection.
[00:37:36] And then in verse 11,
[00:37:38] he said that his driving desire
[00:37:40] was that by any means possible,
[00:37:42] he might attain the resurrection from the dead.
[00:37:46] Some people get tripped out
[00:37:47] by that last phrase from Paul,
[00:37:49] like he's hoping to one day
[00:37:51] attain to the resurrection of the dead.
[00:37:53] And they wonder,
[00:37:54] is Paul a little uncertain about his future destiny?
[00:37:58] And I don't think that's what's happening here.
[00:38:01] Elsewhere, Paul appears very confident
[00:38:03] of where he's going when he dies.
[00:38:06] He's very confident of his future with Christ.
[00:38:09] I think what he's saying here is,
[00:38:11] since that's what's going to occur in my life
[00:38:15] and my confidence is there,
[00:38:17] my hope is there,
[00:38:18] my mind is there,
[00:38:20] I'm wanting to tap into
[00:38:22] the eventual resurrection power of Jesus
[00:38:26] where I get a new body
[00:38:28] and I become like him.
[00:38:29] I'm wanting to tap into
[00:38:30] that future resurrection of Jesus today.
[00:38:34] I want his resurrection power
[00:38:36] to be experienced in my life today
[00:38:38] or as to quote what he said
[00:38:39] in Romans chapter six, verse four,
[00:38:42] I want to walk in newness of life.
[00:38:46] It seems to be what Paul is alluding to,
[00:38:48] the idea that authentic Christianity
[00:38:52] craves for Christ's resurrection power
[00:38:56] to affect life today.
[00:38:59] You guys, this one's really important
[00:39:00] because what we're saying
[00:39:02] is that authentic Christianity,
[00:39:05] it is not content to coast along in life.
[00:39:11] It is not content to be unchanged
[00:39:14] and unimpacted
[00:39:15] by the tremendous grave-conquering,
[00:39:18] demon-shattering resurrection power of Christ.
[00:39:23] Authentic Christianity says,
[00:39:26] I want the good stuff.
[00:39:28] Don't hold back on me.
[00:39:30] I want all that there is
[00:39:32] to experience of Jesus today.
[00:39:35] I want to experience his power,
[00:39:37] his transformation,
[00:39:38] his love,
[00:39:39] his compassion,
[00:39:40] his justice,
[00:39:41] his truth.
[00:39:41] I want to absorb the new life of Jesus
[00:39:45] as much as I possibly can
[00:39:47] and I want to bring it to bear
[00:39:49] in every fabric of my everyday life.
[00:39:54] But I think if we're honest,
[00:39:57] we're constantly tempted
[00:40:00] to settle for a counterfeit version,
[00:40:04] a less,
[00:40:06] less than version
[00:40:08] of Christianity
[00:40:09] that never presses
[00:40:14] into the resurrection life of Christ.
[00:40:17] But that's a false one.
[00:40:18] It's a misrepresentation
[00:40:19] of what Christ can do
[00:40:21] and I think that you would all agree with me,
[00:40:23] our world needs more believers
[00:40:25] who want this version
[00:40:27] of authentic Christianity.
[00:40:30] Amen.
[00:40:30] Tapping into the resurrection power of Jesus.
[00:40:33] In the book of Ezekiel,
[00:40:35] the prophet had this incredible vision
[00:40:36] at one point near the end
[00:40:38] of his prophetic writings
[00:40:40] where he saw this valley
[00:40:42] filled with bones,
[00:40:44] human bones.
[00:40:45] And God tells him,
[00:40:47] he's like,
[00:40:48] I want you to speak to these bones.
[00:40:51] He's basically telling the prophet,
[00:40:53] give a sermon
[00:40:54] to this congregation of bones.
[00:40:58] And so he starts like opening his mouth
[00:41:00] and prophesying to these bones
[00:41:02] and as he's speaking,
[00:41:03] the bones start rattling,
[00:41:06] clacking together,
[00:41:07] being brought together
[00:41:09] until they're skeletons
[00:41:10] and then the skeletons
[00:41:11] begin to grow organs
[00:41:12] and sinews
[00:41:13] and muscles
[00:41:14] and then eventually skin
[00:41:16] until they're full grown,
[00:41:18] standing there,
[00:41:19] yet without breath.
[00:41:23] And God says to Ezekiel,
[00:41:25] I want you to prophesy to the breath.
[00:41:28] And he starts speaking,
[00:41:31] asking God's breath
[00:41:33] to come into God's people.
[00:41:36] And this congregation in his vision
[00:41:39] comes to life.
[00:41:41] And it's always stood to me
[00:41:43] as a great illustration
[00:41:45] of this resurrection power of Jesus.
[00:41:48] We're looking for these dead bones
[00:41:50] to rattle together,
[00:41:52] to come together,
[00:41:53] and for there to be a semblance
[00:41:54] of the life of Jesus
[00:41:56] manifested in our mortal flesh today.
[00:42:00] And only God can do these things.
[00:42:02] Only God can grant us
[00:42:03] this resurrection power,
[00:42:05] which leads me to my seventh,
[00:42:07] last, final,
[00:42:08] good job,
[00:42:09] everybody,
[00:42:10] point today.
[00:42:11] Why?
[00:42:12] Authentic Christianity
[00:42:13] wants to experience
[00:42:15] Christ's sufferings.
[00:42:18] He said in verse 10
[00:42:20] that though he did want to know
[00:42:24] Jesus' resurrection power,
[00:42:26] he knew the cross came
[00:42:29] before the empty tomb.
[00:42:32] So he said,
[00:42:33] I want to share
[00:42:33] Jesus' sufferings
[00:42:36] and I want to become like him
[00:42:38] in his death.
[00:42:42] A seed has to go into the ground
[00:42:44] and die
[00:42:45] before it can bring forth life.
[00:42:49] And Paul recognized
[00:42:50] the importance
[00:42:51] of following
[00:42:53] Christ's pattern
[00:42:54] of suffering
[00:42:54] and sacrifice
[00:42:56] for others.
[00:42:58] He wanted to take up his cross,
[00:42:59] he wanted to die to himself,
[00:43:01] he wanted to follow Jesus
[00:43:02] every day of his life.
[00:43:04] He said in 2 Corinthians 4
[00:43:06] verse 10,
[00:43:07] I always carry about
[00:43:09] in my body
[00:43:09] the death of Jesus
[00:43:11] so that the life of Jesus
[00:43:13] may also be revealed
[00:43:15] in my body.
[00:43:17] Authentic Christianity,
[00:43:18] the real deal,
[00:43:20] it's filled with self-denial,
[00:43:23] it's filled with
[00:43:24] others' centeredness,
[00:43:25] it's filled with
[00:43:26] personal sacrifice,
[00:43:27] it's filled with death,
[00:43:28] it's filled with dying
[00:43:29] to our wishes,
[00:43:31] dying to our wants
[00:43:32] for the sake
[00:43:33] of bringing others
[00:43:35] to life.
[00:43:37] That's the pinnacle
[00:43:38] of Christlikeness.
[00:43:40] If Jesus,
[00:43:41] as we saw in Philippians chapter 2,
[00:43:43] set aside the privileges
[00:43:44] of glory,
[00:43:45] became one of us
[00:43:46] and died on the cross
[00:43:47] so that we might have life,
[00:43:48] what Paul realized
[00:43:49] is that he wanted
[00:43:51] his entire life
[00:43:53] to follow that template,
[00:43:55] to look like that.
[00:43:56] Of course,
[00:43:57] the Bible is filled
[00:43:59] with this kind of concept.
[00:44:01] Joseph,
[00:44:03] suffering betrayal
[00:44:04] in Genesis,
[00:44:05] suffering imprisonment
[00:44:08] in Egypt
[00:44:08] before rising
[00:44:09] to bless the nations
[00:44:12] as the second
[00:44:13] in command of Pharaoh.
[00:44:14] Moses,
[00:44:15] suffering banishment
[00:44:16] and wilderness exile
[00:44:19] before rising
[00:44:20] to deliver God's people
[00:44:22] from their slavery
[00:44:23] and carry them
[00:44:24] through that very same
[00:44:25] wilderness.
[00:44:26] Elijah,
[00:44:27] suffering persecution
[00:44:29] and nationwide drought
[00:44:31] along with everyone else
[00:44:32] before rising
[00:44:34] to defeat Baal
[00:44:35] and restore rain
[00:44:36] to the land.
[00:44:37] Hannah,
[00:44:38] suffering the sorrow
[00:44:40] of childlessness
[00:44:41] and humiliation
[00:44:42] before rising
[00:44:44] to have a child,
[00:44:46] having that child
[00:44:47] be little Samuel,
[00:44:48] the next great prophet
[00:44:50] in Israel
[00:44:51] whom Israel
[00:44:52] desperately needed.
[00:44:53] David,
[00:44:54] suffering indignity
[00:44:56] and personal attack
[00:44:58] and rejection
[00:44:59] from his own family
[00:45:00] before rising
[00:45:01] to become the greatest king
[00:45:02] and psalmist of Israel.
[00:45:04] Jeremiah,
[00:45:05] suffering rejection
[00:45:06] imprisonment
[00:45:07] and ridicule
[00:45:08] for proclaiming
[00:45:09] God's truth
[00:45:10] to God's people
[00:45:10] before rising
[00:45:11] to become one
[00:45:12] of the greatest
[00:45:13] and most cherished prophets
[00:45:15] the world has ever known.
[00:45:16] Over and over again
[00:45:17] as God's people
[00:45:19] experience God's sufferings,
[00:45:22] Christ's sufferings,
[00:45:23] life and power
[00:45:25] and goodness
[00:45:26] flow from his holy throne.
[00:45:29] It's like God
[00:45:30] God is just looking
[00:45:30] for people like that
[00:45:32] to manifest
[00:45:33] his resurrection power in.
[00:45:37] And I think
[00:45:38] that Christ's sufferings,
[00:45:40] personal sacrifice
[00:45:42] or rejection,
[00:45:43] betrayal or pain,
[00:45:44] I think they're
[00:45:46] in ample supply today.
[00:45:48] Many of you know
[00:45:50] what it's like to
[00:45:51] to like Jesus
[00:45:53] to some degree
[00:45:56] love
[00:45:57] without being loved
[00:46:01] in return.
[00:46:02] It hurts.
[00:46:04] It's painful.
[00:46:06] But in those moments
[00:46:08] what I want to say
[00:46:09] is that I believe
[00:46:11] we are being set up
[00:46:14] for his resurrection power
[00:46:17] to work a bit
[00:46:18] of its way
[00:46:19] into our lives.
[00:46:20] We are becoming
[00:46:21] like Jesus.
[00:46:23] So the question
[00:46:24] that I would ask
[00:46:24] at the end of this teaching
[00:46:26] before we partake
[00:46:27] of the Lord's table
[00:46:28] and communion together
[00:46:29] is just simply this.
[00:46:30] Do you want to be
[00:46:31] the Pharisee
[00:46:32] or do you want to be
[00:46:34] the tax collector?
[00:46:36] The tax collector said
[00:46:38] I am not self-sufficient.
[00:46:39] I am going to drive
[00:46:41] myself forward,
[00:46:43] beat on my chest
[00:46:44] and ask for the mercy
[00:46:45] of God.
[00:46:46] Do you want to be
[00:46:47] that person
[00:46:48] day after day
[00:46:49] after day?
[00:46:50] If you do,
[00:46:52] congratulations
[00:46:53] because that is
[00:46:54] authentic
[00:46:55] Christianity.
[00:46:56] always driving forward
[00:46:58] in our walk
[00:46:59] and relationship
[00:47:00] with the living God.