Knowing Jesus as our Lord | Philippians 3:1-11

to 11 I'll be reading from the New International Version.

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

It is no trouble for me to write the same things

to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers,

those mutilators of the flesh,

for it is we who are the circumcision,

we who serve God by his Spirit,

who boast in Christ Jesus,

and who put no confidence in the flesh,

though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons

to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel,

the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews,

in regard to the law, a Pharisee,

as for zeal, persecuting the church,

as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

But whatever were gains to me,

I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,

for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ,

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own

that comes from the law,

but that which is through faith in Christ,

the righteousness that comes from God

on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ, yes,

to know the power of his resurrection,

and participation in his sufferings,

becoming like him in his death,

and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Thanks, Joel.

Good morning, church.

Before we come to these most holy scriptures

and hear from God, let us pray together.

Father, it is indeed our prayer this morning

that we know you.

We ask this morning that as we peer into the words

of eternal life, that Christ would be held high

in our midst, and that we would really know him.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, amen.

Church, as you may have noticed this morning,

we have a few really exciting things

that are happening in our midst.

First, we have welcomed new members into our church,

which is always such a wonderful

and encouraging thing to do,

as we are watching Christ build his church

right in front of our very eyes,

just like he said he would.

Second, and a little later on,

we will be partaking in the most public expression

of Christ with his church,

by coming to his table through the means

in which he has given us to do so,

namely by participating in the Lord's Supper.

But now, third, we're going to hear from God

through his word to us, which is really exciting,

because not only are we seeing and partaking

in Christ's work this morning,

but we are also going to hear about his work,

that he has done, that he is doing,

and that he will continue to do for us, his people,

through one of the most encouraging passages

that we just so happen to be looking at this morning.

And for these purposes, we'll be mainly concentrating

our efforts on verses eight through to 11.

However, before we really hone in on verses eight

through to 11, I just want to briefly make

a few comments here on the rest of the passage

to help us understand what's going on.

First of all, Paul says in verse one

that he is happy to be repeating

and speaking to his friends again

about a theme that has been playing out

all throughout the letter to the Philippians,

and that is the theme of rejoicing.

I mean, if we just think about our time in this series

so far and how the theme of joy has come up

time and time again, well, it makes perfect sense

for Paul to be saying to his friends

that I'm happy to be talking to you about this again,

because notice it, he says it is a safeguard.

For example, in chapter one, verse four,

Paul explained to his friends that he had prayed with joy

because of their partnership in the gospel.

Now remember where Paul was writing this from

when he said that, he was writing from prison.

And so in a very real way, Paul was saying

that though he is in chains, though he was stuck in Rome,

and though he couldn't get to his friends in Philippi,

well, he still had great joy for them

because he knew that they had Christ.

Or better yet, he knew that Christ had them.

So you might say that looking to Christ in that situation

was a safeguard for Paul.

Again, in chapter one, verse 18,

he repeats this very theme of rejoicing under persecution

because even though he was experiencing preachers

out there who were against him,

Paul took great joy in the fact that Christ

was still being preached about.

Again, the gospel, seeing that in the situation,

that was a safeguard for him.

In chapter two, verses 17 through to 18,

Paul said that even though the work of the gospel

was difficult, even though it was self-sacrificial,

because it was for the cause of Christ

and his church on this earth,

though it was hard, though it was sacrificial,

he knew God's kingdom was being advanced,

that the gospel was being proclaimed.

Once again, Paul looked to the gospel.

He rejoiced in the Lord because it was a safeguard for him.

Time and time again, Paul says, rejoice.

Rejoice, not just for the sake of it,

but rejoice because our joy doesn't come

from our circumstances,

but in the good news of Jesus Christ.

That's why he says, rejoice in what?

Rejoice in the Lord.

And that's what Paul is saying here.

He's saying it's as we look to Christ

and rejoice in him, no matter our circumstance,

well, that's a safeguard for us

from being discouraged or falling away.

To put it simply, brothers and sisters,

we rejoice not because of the what ifs in life,

but the what is in Christ.

So that's the first thing we need to understand here.

Paul is again telling the church

that we are to rejoice in the Lord,

to take joy in the gospel,

because our joy doesn't come from our circumstances,

but from the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it's as we look to him that we will be kept safe.

However, there is one thing

that kills our rejoicing in the gospel,

and that's taking our focus,

our confidence from Jesus alone

and adding in our own fleshly works.

Jesus plus something else kind of thing.

That's the second thing we need to understand here,

which was actually a problem for the Philippian church.

It was something that they faced.

False teachers had come out to them,

and they had said,

you need to do more to be accepted by God

than faith alone in Christ.

It's what we see in verse two.

Paul warns them, watch out for those dogs,

those evildoers, the mutilators of the flesh.

Who were these evildoers?

Well, they're called Judaizers,

and they were a sort of denomination

within the early church

that went around teaching the churches

that you had to be circumcised

and come under the law of Israel

before you could be accepted by Israel's Messiah.

Nonsense, says Paul.

To trust in your own works

rather than Christ alone for salvation

as he's been offered to us in the gospel,

that is to totally go wrong,

as he alludes to here in verse three.

In other words, all the law and its ceremonies

were pointing one way,

and that was to the perfect one

sent on our behalf, Jesus Christ.

So to look back at the old way of doing things

with all the types and shadows and ceremonies,

to put the confidence in the flesh,

well, that's to totally miss the good news,

the point of the good news of Jesus Christ,

which in turn will steal your joy in the Lord.

Then third, Paul kind of gives his resume

to say if anyone could be confident in the flesh,

if anyone could take joy in their works,

well, it's me in verses four through to six.

But notice verse seven.

He says, but whatever were gains to me,

I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

In other words, though Paul had every right

to be confident in the flesh,

to have joy in his works,

well, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt

that none of it was going to justify him

before the living God.

So that's a bit of a context

as to what we really wanna hone in on today.

Paul commands the church to rejoice in the Lord

because it's our safeguard.

He warns the church that taking our eyes off Jesus

and putting our confidence in the flesh

will kill our joy.

Then he edifies the church by telling us

that he had every right to see himself

as fully right in the eyes of God,

but that he has left it all behind

because he has found the truth of the gospel

worth giving everything up for,

which he then starts to detail for us

in verses eight through to 11.

I briefly pointed this out before.

Paul has said, it's as we take our eyes off our circumstances

and put them on Jesus,

that we'll have great joy in the good news of Jesus.

And all of that is good and true.

But what does that mean?

What does it actually mean to know the Lord

in such a way that we will rejoice in him?

Well, that's what Paul directs our attention to this morning.

He wants to show us why we as God's blood purchased people

have so much to rejoice about

in the good news of Jesus Christ

by modeling the Christian life for us.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning,

Paul says we rejoice because we know Jesus Christ

as our Lord.

He says, what's more, I consider everything a loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

That's worth pointing out here.

What Paul is saying is actually

an incredibly unique phrase.

What I mean by that is you'll be pretty hard pressed

to find Paul using the phrase knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord,

in such a way that he is using it here.

And I point that out because what he's really saying

is I think my entire past is rubbish

because I now have a personal relationship with Jesus.

That's essentially what Paul's saying here.

He's saying that there is now a personableness

to his relationship with Jesus

because, and notice the language here,

Paul says he knows Jesus as my Lord, as my Lord.

As my Lord.

In other words, Paul had discovered the difference

between the abstract and the personal.

He knows that Jesus is his and that he belongs to Jesus.

How did that happen?

Well, we only need to look to the 10th chapter

of the Gospel According to John.

And we see an incredibly personal scene

between Jesus and his disciples.

And Jesus is explaining to them

the difference between himself

and the robbers and the highlings.

And there we see Jesus speak in such a personal way

where he says, my sheep hear my voice.

They know my voice and they follow me.

Hear that?

Jesus says when they hear my voice,

they follow me.

And just so there's no confusion as to what that looks like,

we're told by Luke in the Book of Acts

that when Paul, who once went by the name of Rabbi Saul,

that when he was on the way to kill Christians,

that the Lord Jesus himself appeared to him.

And Saul being knocked off his donkey,

he hears the Lord Jesus speaking to him.

Does anyone remember Rabbi Saul's first words to Jesus?

Who are you, Lord?

Who are you, Lord?

That's right, the first words out of Saul's mouth

was an expression that Jesus is Lord.

And the first thing that we see him do

is he seeks to obey him.

That's why we read about people who were baptized

in the Book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians,

how the adults at least would confess Jesus is Lord.

And that's something that the church has always practiced.

It's something that we practice here today

because Christians know Jesus is Lord.

And we know that we want the Lord

to direct us in a personal way.

We want him involved in our lives.

So church, we might ask,

how do we express the Lordship of Christ in our lives?

Well, we express the Lordship of Christ

as we not only listen to his voice,

and this is important, but we do what he says.

That's how we really know

that we have come to know Jesus as Lord,

because we hear what he says and we obey.

Where do we hear the voice of Jesus?

Well, it's not in our own imaginations and fantasies.

We hear the voice of the Lord in the Bible.

That's right, Jesus speaks to us by his word,

which has been breathed out by the living God.

And we're told in the Book of Hebrews

that the word is alive and active.

And as his followers, as those who really trust in the Lord,

we hear his voice speaking to us in the Scriptures.

And therefore, we don't dare cut or paste,

ignore, twist what the Lord has to say.

No, when he speaks to us in his word, we listen and obey.

We trust and obey,

for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

We listen to when there are tender promises made to us,

and we obey when he commands us to do something,

because we know it is the voice of the Lord speaking to us,

to his people, his sheep.

And that's what Paul is expressing here as a Christian,

as a model for all of us.

Christians know Jesus as our Lord personally,

because we listen and obey.

So that's first, Christians rejoice,

because we've come to know Jesus as our Lord.

Second, we read in the rest of verse eight,

we rejoice because we have gained Christ.

Paul says, for whose sake I've lost all things,

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.

Every Christian that I've met,

every true born again person that I've ever come across

expresses a couple of things in common.

First, that everything they had before they were a Christian,

no matter what it was,

is nothing compared to what they now have in Christ.

And they wouldn't trade it for the world.

The second thing they express is that,

though they may have had nice and good things in the past,

even if they still have them,

well, the common factor is,

they don't look to those things to define them anymore.

No, since they've found Christ, or better yet,

since they know they have been found by Christ,

they have found that they have become more

and more satisfied in Jesus,

and that nothing could be more desired in this life

than coming to know him more and more and more.

What they're really saying is what Paul is expressing here.

Christians count all things as loss and Christ as gain,

because they know that having Christ

is better than anything that this world has to offer.

I mean, that's what Paul has already expressed

when talking to his friends at Philippi

in verses four through to six.

He was essentially saying, I had it all in this world

when it came to religious prestige and honor in society,

but I count it all as rubbish now that I've found Christ.

And that might seem pretty abstract to many of us,

because we don't live in a society

where religious leaders are held in high esteem.

In fact, just the opposite.

But one story that we find in the gospel according to Mark

does hit a little closer to home.

And that's the story of the rich young ruler

who, like many of us in Australian society,

looked to his property portfolio

and pennies in his pocket for self-worth.

And we read that he wanted to follow Jesus,

and Jesus flings the door open for him to do so,

but the rich young ruler found that he couldn't enter

because he clung to the anchor of his money

in such a way that he couldn't let go

even if it was gonna drown him.

All that to say, he was a man that didn't see Jesus

as all there was to gain in this life.

So he clung to the rubbish of this world,

which would come to nothing anyway.

Now what Paul is saying to us here

is he's come to realize all those things

that he thought to find him and was worth living for.

Well, it's crumbled in comparison to knowing Christ,

so much so that he actually now looks at all of that stuff

as utter rubbish compared to the gain that he has in Christ.

He's saying all that stuff that helped puff my chest out

and talked the loudest in the room.

Well, I've come to see it for what it is.

It's rubbish.

It reeked, and I want nothing to do with it.

So like anyone who has rubbish in the house,

you found it easy to just throw it in the bin

without a second thought because it didn't define him.

It didn't fill the empty gaping hole

that was created in his heart.

Is that you today?

Is that you?

Are you one of those people that has everything in the world,

all that it has to offer,

but still feel completely empty at the end of the day?

That was my story.

That was my journey to the cross.

I had everything that the world had to offer,

money, great relationships, wonderful opportunities,

but I felt completely empty,

which in hindsight was the Lord by his spirit

convicting me that I had nothing apart from Christ.

Nothing.

All Christians know that gaining Jesus is better

than anything this world has to offer.

Have you come to realize that yet?

Because if you haven't,

you're not here by mistake this morning.

The door has been flung open to you.

Will you let go of the anchor that will drown you anyway?

So first, Christians rejoice

because we know Jesus as our Lord personally.

Second, we rejoice because we have gained Christ.

Third, we rejoice because we are found in Christ.

Paul says in verse nine,

I wanna be found in Christ, not having a righteousness

of my own that comes from the law,

but that which is through faith in Christ.

The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

It's incredibly interesting what Paul is doing here, Church,

because he's gone from looking to his own works

to looking to Christ,

and that's what he's drawing out for us here this morning.

There is a righteousness that one must have

in order to be accepted by God.

But this is the amazing thing.

This righteousness doesn't come from us and our works,

but is given to us by God,

and it is grasped by faith alone.

And Church, that's always been the story of the Bible.

There is a righteousness from God

that is gifted to his people by faith.

You might remember just after our first parents,

Adam and Eve, had rebelled against God

in the Garden of Eden, that God came to them,

but what did they do?

They hid themselves and they covered themselves

by making a garment of leaves.

And we read that they hid themselves

because they knew they were naked

because they had done wrong,

that they had broken the one law

that God had given them to do.

However, as you read on, there's this little detail

in that narrative that if you blink, you'll miss it.

We read that essentially God didn't accept

what they had clothed themselves in,

what they had worked for themselves.

So he made a garment of skins

for their shame to be covered.

Now again, it's such a small detail,

yet it contains such a monumental truth,

and that's that our own working

for right standing before God

will never be accepted by him.

And so we might try to cover ourselves

in all our good works and worldly accolades.

However, at the end of the day,

our creator sees right through it.

And so the apostle Paul in a roundabout way

is saying that there is a way to not be found,

especially on that last day

with a little fig leaf covering yourselves saying,

I tried my hardest to be a good person.

I tried to keep the 10 commandments.

I helped the poor.

I got baptized.

Won't you accept me?

Now every Christian knows that our own works

are like offering a king dirty rags to impress him.

And that's just unacceptable.

As we know that nothing we do

comes anywhere near the standard of God.

And so what Paul is saying is that

we don't need to be worried about being found naked

because we're in fact clothed in something that is perfect.

We are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

How's it come about?

How do we put on the garment of the righteousness

of the perfect one?

Well, it's not by our own doing,

but by simply reaching out in the faith

that we have been given.

We put our faith in Christ alone.

So first, Christians rejoice

because we know Jesus as our Lord.

Second, we rejoice because we have gained Christ.

Third, we rejoice because we are found in him.

Fourth, we rejoice because we have

the very spirit of God working in us.

We see this in verses 10 through to 11.

Paul says, I wanna know Christ, yes,

to know the power of his resurrection

and participation in his sufferings,

becoming like him in his death

and so somehow attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

In other words, Paul is saying that he wants to know

the power of Jesus, the work of the living God in him now.

He wants to see God changing him from the inside out

so that he will become more like Jesus

on this side of eternity.

To put it plainly, Paul is talking about wanting

to experience the sanctifying work

of the Holy Spirit in his very life.

And for every Christian, we rejoice

because we have the deep desire

for the Spirit's work in us

because before when we were dead in trespasses

and sin with a death sentence hanging over our heads,

well, we had no desire to know Christ intimately

and to feel the work of the Spirit in our lives.

But now because we are a new creation,

born again and being shaped and formed

into the image of Jesus by the work of God,

we rejoice, we rejoice that the work of God

is really meeting our deepest desires

to be more and more like Jesus.

Brother, sister, the fact that we don't just want

to be forgiven, but to see the power of sin

broken in our lives, well, we rejoice

because that work will be met by the Spirit in our lives.

And ultimately on that day of resurrection,

we rejoice in that.

And so as we prepare our hearts for the table this morning

to meet with Jesus through the Spirit,

let us rejoice in the good news of Jesus Christ.

We can do that because of what Paul has shown us

here this morning.

As Christians, as God's blood purchased people,

we have so much to celebrate and rejoice in the gospel

because we know Christ as our Lord,

because we have gained Christ,

because we are found in Christ

and because we have the work of the Spirit

in each and every one of us.

All these things we rejoice in church

and they are a safeguard to us

in every and every circumstance,

any and every circumstance.

I just want to ask a couple of questions

of you this morning before we come to the Lord's table.

Do you know Jesus?

Lovely.

Do you know him as your Lord?

Are you hearing his word and trusting what he says

and expressing that by obeying what he says?

Because if not, today is the day to let go of the anchor

and grasp onto Christ.

The door through the gospel is really being flung open.

The narrow way is before you.

All you have to do is enter it by the gate being Jesus.

I might also ask, are you still trusting

in the things of this world over and against everything

that has been offered to you in the gospel?

Like Paul, are you looking to your religious prestige,

maybe to your baptism or your good works

for your acceptability before God?

Have you come to see that Jesus is your everything?

Well, might I say to you this morning,

today is the day to see those things for what they are,

to turn to Christ and to trust in him.

And I just wanna say to everyone of you this morning,

to my brothers and sisters who have put your trust in Christ

and know something of the realities

that have been spoken about this morning,

we will not walk in these things perfectly.

We won't walk in these things perfectly

on this side of eternity.

But this is our encouragement.

The table that has been set before us this morning

is a place of strengthening and assurance

of the wonderful things that have been freely given to us

by God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So dear one, if you see your sin for what it is,

if you see Christ for who he is,

and yet you look at your life

and you see where you fall so far short,

then this is actually the place to be this morning.

The place to come and meet with the risen Lord

through the Holy Spirit by his invitation,

to be strengthened and satisfied in him.

I'm gonna ask the team to come and lead us in a song,

in reflection to the words that we've heard this morning.

But as they do that, let me just quickly pray

before we come to the table.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we are so thankful

that you are the one who does the work in us.

That by your spirit, you are transforming us more and more

to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, you know everybody's situation in here.

You know where we are, the weeks we've had.

You know past, present, and future.

I would ask Lord that we would be strengthened

as we meet with you this morning.

That we would be encouraged and transformed

for the sake of Christ and for your glory alone.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, team.