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“Beware” • 3.30.14 • Calvary
Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- We closed chapter two with a look into the
lives Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Those three men had grown in the light of
the example of Christ and served His Name with distinction.
- Virtually anywhere one would go from that
chapter would seem a digression and that is the case here. The Lord's life
inspires some men to great heights and others to great depths of depravity!
- Strangely, because of Jesus, there are as
many men worth carefully avoiding, as there are men worth esteeming! Our
awareness of the former is the focus of this chapter.
- Paul provides us with a tremendous comparison
between the goals of the Christian life and the goals of the False teaching
life, which we will compile together at the end of the chapter.
Text
• Philippians 3:1 : "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." : "Finallly" would better be served by the phrase "Now for the rest." Paul is far from finished.
- He commands them to rejoice in the Lord, a reminder that this is a volitional act.
- You may have noted it's appearance before this, as "rejoice" or "joy" are found five times before this and make 74 other appearances in the New Testament.
- To rejoice is to remember who we are in Him and where we will eventually be because of Him, regardless of the circumstances we presently face.
- Paul is telling them to delight themselves in the unchanging Lord of their lives. Their relationship to Him should always be a source of repeated blessedness.
- That's why he seeks to write them with the same information again. It's not a source of grief for him to repeat what he is about to say.
- Repetition grants them and us certainty or safety in the things of the faith. Our feet are firmly planted on the ground of God's revelation when we hear His Word repeated.
- What would Paul warn them about again? Take a look at verse 2.
• Philippians 3:2,3 : "Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are
the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh," :
Be careful and watchful!
- Keep your eyes open always for the dogs, the evil workers and the
mutilation. This provides us with imagery that is very telling regarding Paul's
divinely inspired thoughts about false teachers.
- Paul is making reference to the Judaizers or a sect that was very
similar. They were dangerous, like the wild and rabid dogs that roamed in packs
in the ancient world.
- They were not neutral, misinformed people. They were evil workers
putting their energy towards evil things! Then he calls them, the mutilation.
- It refers to "cutting up," a bit of a sarcastic turn
against the Judaizers who were insisting upon circumcision in addition to faith
in Christ in order for salvation to be complete.
- Used in that way, circumcision was not effective at all. It was
simply a mutilation performed by unskilled people.
- Their actions offered no spiritual power. They could only cut the
flesh of their victims!
- Watch out for these people. C'mon Paul, of course we'll be
careful! Sadly, it's when we adopt a careless attitude that people are lulled
into a trap and are spiritually dismembered!
- This is why the church of God needs desperately to hold onto the
truth and authority of scripture and reject fervently those who seek to alter
it!
- They aren't the circumcision. We who are Christians are the real
circumcision! We worship God in the Spirit! This is another way of saying that
God's Holy Spirit rules our meetings together.
- We are directed by the Spirit and we delight in Christ Jesus, not
some work that we feel obliges God to us! Those with a legalistic bent delight
in their show of legalism, not in Christ!
- They can count the Sabbaths they have attended or point to the
cleansing rituals they have participated in. Christ Jesus is secondary to those
experiences in their mind.
- Unlike false teachers, Christians have no trust in the work of our
flesh. Christians have an accurate view of what their flesh can produce.
• Philippians 3:4-6 : "though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone
else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the
righteousness which is in the law, blameless." : Others may decry the credentials without having them out of
envy. That was not the case for Paul!
- If anyone had cause for confidence in their flesh, it would be the
Apostle Paul!
- He was circumcised according to the law, letting us know that his
parents were faithful adherants to Judaism. He was a national Jew, in fact, a
Benjamite.
- It's likely that he was named after the most famous Benjamite and
first King of Israel, Saul. He was a Hebrew through and through, meaning that
both his Father and Mother were Jewish!
- When it came to Moses' law, he was a member of the Pharisees,
representing years of training and that at the hands of the master Rabbi of his
generation, Gamaliel.
- There were none more zealous for Judaism than Paul had been. Who
else took up the charge to hunt for Christians and by any means necessary,
force them to recant their faith?
- When it came to his understanding of the law, nobody would have
questioned him!
• Philippians 3:7-9 : "But
what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I
also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith; "
: Everyone who wanted to boast about their credentials would have given an arm
and leg to have half of Paul's resume!
- These things would have been an advantage, a gain for them, as
they had been to Paul at a time. He had worked for years to be included in the
exclusive band of the Pharisees.
- His study of the scripture would have been razor sharp and the
energy necessary to carry out his anti-Christian campaign would have staggered
most other men.
- To any other man, these things would have been a gain to their
reputations and their legacies. But then Paul met Jesus and all of it failed to
compare!
- All that gain prior to Christ was loss in the light of Him. And it
wasn't just that. Indeed, he looked at everything in that same category just
for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ!
- The knowledge of the Lord rises high above every other gain. He
stands above it all!
- There is an interesting time element available to us here. When
Paul first encountered Jesus, he added things up and decided that they were
loss. That was 30 years prior to this writing.
- Then, notice he says, yet indeed I also count. This was the
present moment. He was accounting this again three decades after the fact.
- He has lost his reputation, his liberty, no doubt his family and
many friends. He's not sure if his life was next on the chopping block.
- Taking that all into account, he still says, "I count all
things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord!"
- It was not simply a surrender of these things that identified
Paul. It's that he found something far superior to live for! In the light of
Christ, all of what he held dear now appeared as rubbish.
- "Rubbish" or "trash" is a nice, cleaned up
version of what Paul actually wrote here. The word speaks of offscouring, that
which is fit only for the dogs!
- Paul is not alone, as many have found the same thing. How many
countless others found themselves moving in a certain direction until they
encountered the Lord?
- Many of us can join Paul, as he looks at the achievements of a
world and says, "I'd rather gain Christ and be found in Him!" After
almost 30 years in the faith myself, I can echo Paul's heart!
- How is this so? What motivated him to leave behind what was do
dear? Because it related to what pleased God! Even before Christ, this had been
his sole desire.
- Paul believed his heritage, studies and zeal would gain
righteousness toward God, but Christ showed that notion to be foolishness! This
is why he wanted to be found in Him.
- The word speaks of a search that has been made and a discovery
that has been hit upon! It's as if Paul is saying, "When the books are
opened, they are going to come upon my name!"
- How is he going to found there? How am I going to be found there?
How about you? Any who will be found will not be found having a righteousness
of his own through the law.
- He won't stand there touting his heritage and how much good he has
done to offset what terrible things he has done. He will stand there in the
righteousness given to him through faith!
- God issues this righteousness to His people when they exercise
their faith in Christ! This is the only righteousness that matters in the eyes
of the Lord. What is the end or the goal of that gift?
• Philippians 3:10,11 : "that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead." : Heaven is
not a million days at the country club, playing endless rounds of free golf!
- Heaven, the Kingdom of God, is the place where God's righteous
ones will see Him and know Him perfectly for eternity! In this life, salvation
is to know Christ.
- To know speaks of an intimate knowledge of someone, in this case
Christ. That is what salvation is all about! That is what growing in faith is
all about: Knowing, understanding Him!
- Paul continues that saying that he would understand the power of
His resurrection. What a joy to ponder at the sight of an executioner's blade!
- What can death do to us who are saved? Can that separate us from
God?
- The power of His resurrection defeated the power of death and the
power of the cross! That's what Paul wanted to have intimate knowledge of.
- He wanted therefore, to know the fellowship of His sufferings. He
wants to participate, to share in his sufferings. Is Paul being masochistic? Is
he seeking to suffer just to suffer?
- Paul's life clearly proclaimed Christ's Lordship which made him an
enemy of the Jews and the Gentiles!
- The fellowship of Christ's sufferings were the natural course of
events for a man like Paul or any Christian that would be so bold!
- He wanted to be partnered with the Lord no matter the cost and
suffering for Him was the cost that had to be paid! He continues with the
inevitable consequence.
- He would take on the very same sort of death. It was a death that
was motivated by love for the gospel, for the Lord and for His Christ. That is
the death that arrives at the resurrection!
• Philippians 3:12-14 :
"Not that I have already attained, or am
already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do
not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
: Paul wants to be clear. The resurrection of the dead is not grabbed ahold of
in this life. It's not a theory or a nice idea to comfort ourselves with! Paul
was not already perfected.
- God's goal had not been yet reached in Paul's life. This is never
the case in the life of a believer. We will never "arrive!"
- Paul doesn't give that sense about his life. He says that he
instead will press on, to follow to pursue and seize upon, take possession of
what the Lord has seized for him!
- Notice that it requires our desire, but it's His gift to us! It's
ever out in front of us and is ours to pursue. "Lay hold of" carries
the force of a dogged, relentless pursuit.
- Paul had not reached the goal! He didn't hold that attitude up for
a moment. He turned toward the Lord and His will for him and completely
neglected what was behind him.
- He held no concern over the things of his past, either positive or
negative. He didn't try to bring along the worthy things from his resume or the
guilt that plagued him for the bad.
- The past is always there and Paul says that there is nothing for
it! They are to be left behind, discarded and forgotten. Why? Are we supposed
to live in denial?
- Not at all! We know our past, but Paul's point is that if we are
going to grab onto what the Lord has called us to, we cannot be shackled with
our past!
- Our hands need to be clear to reach forward, literally stretching
ourselves out to grab toward the things that are ahead! He was doing this right
now!
- He's pressing, pursuing with all his might the mark that has been
set for him and for the reward that the umpire held in his hand!
- It's what God was calling him to! Can you see what Paul is seeing?
He's an athlete running toward a finish line and God is standing there waiting
to reward Him!
• Philippians 3:15,16 :
"Therefore let us, as many as are mature,
have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even
this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that
we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same
mind." : "This attitude is for
the super spiritual, the Pauls of this world." Not at all! Because this is
a reality for all believers this is for you and I as well.
- As many as are full grown, take this attitude. Disagree if you'd
like, but understand that God will show this same thing to you eventually!
- Until that time, let's all use the same measuring tool and have
the same attitude together! What a wonderful way to express this!
- We may not agree entirely on every detail, but until we do, let's
keep walking together!
• Philippians 3:17-19 :
"Brethren, join in following my example,
and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and
whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things." : There are many helpful translations that
open the meaning of this section of scripture.
- There is an example to follow of Paul stretching himself toward
the goal of the Christian life.
- Follow that example. The NLT says, "Pattern your lives after
me." The ESV says "Join in imitating me." The Greek word in fact
employs the word "mime" in it.
- Paul is commanding them to walk this way! This is the way the
church needs to consider it's life! Take note, mark those that do the same, as
they are part of the pattern.
- The word here refers to that which makes an impression. Follow
them because others walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
- They were predicted by Paul, but not without great sadness. For
whatever damage they were doing, Paul still loved them. He loved the Judaizers,
people who thought as he once did.
- Their end was destruction, their god was their own satisfaction
and what they gloried in was actually a source of shame! Why? Because their
minds were focused on things of the Earth!
- They lived for approval by bowing to the culturally relevant. They
pleased themselves by setting up religious goals that they believed they were
meeting.
- Ultimately, when one glories in their own self achievement, their
shame is manifest, as they must necessarily degrade the work of Christ!
- Every religious work that props a sinner up in their minds before
God, is a blasphemy against the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of
Calvary!
• Philippians 3:20,21 :
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from
which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed
to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to
subdue all things to Himself." : There
are those who walk after the things of this earth, but our citizenship is in
heaven!
- The laws, the policies and the directives that govern the lives of
true Christians come from the place of God's rule! That's where our champion,
our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ rules!
- We're looking anxiously for His return and for His finishing
touches that will make us fully ready for heave, for He will transform our
bodies.
- These bodies are too weak to serve His purposes fully, so He'll
make them like His own body according to the same power that allows Him to
bring all things under His rule!
Conclusion
- I said that
we'd compile a few notes regarding the comparison between Christianity and Sub-Christianity.
There are five statements I'd share with you from our text.
- First,
Sub-Christianity delights or rejoices in achievement. Christians rejoice in
Christ. (v.1-7)
- Second, Sub-Christianity
seeks for God to know and acknowledge them. Christians seek to intimately know
Christ. (v.8-11)
- Third,
Sub-Christianity seeks to attain it's goal in this life. Christians live for
the day when God will reward. (v.12-14)
- Fourth, Sub-Christianity
demands that you follow your leader. Christians persuade and patiently wait for
God to change minds, noting all the godly examples around us. (v.15-17)
- Fifth, Sub-Christianity
seeks it's satisfaction on this earth and follow all their impulses. Christians
await a new body that's like His! That will be their satisfaction! (v.18-21)