Joy in Christ

Well, as I said at the beginning of the service, welcome to all of you.

Those of you coming back, good to see you again.

We have some visitors here with us who used to be a part of our church and have moved

away but are now back visiting, so nice to see you all.

And then some of you are maybe here for the first time.

There's a lot happening in our society right now, a lot of things that we can spend time

on.

There's continuing to grieve and mourn and try to make sense of Orlando, the lives lost

there.

There's the vote in the UK, this historic Brexit vote, trying to make sense of that.

There's Donald Trump as just a whole conversation unto itself.

There's all kinds of things that we could talk about, and I think it's easy when we have

so much going on, it's easy to get taken away.

And one of the things that's really important for us to do from time to time, and actually

one of the things that our study of Philippians is going to lead us to do with this time,

is to actually come back to the very foundation of our faith.

You know, times like this, when there's so much happening, it's good to remember the basics,

to spend a little time reflecting on what is the very core for those of us who are Christians,

for those of us who follow Jesus.

What's the foundation of that relationship, and what's it based on?

We've been studying this letter to the Philippians that Paul wrote from house arrest in Rome,

and he wrote it 10 years after he planted the church, and some stuff is going on in the

church, and it's generally an upbeat letter, and he talks a lot about joy and the joy that's

possible when you have faith in Jesus Christ.

He talks in the opening verse of our passage, chapter 3, verse 1, he says,

finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord.

But then he gets angry, and he uses some pretty strong language.

And the reason is because his anger is motivated by love.

He sees something happening where the very foundation, the very core of their faith is being threatened.

And so he wants to root it out, because he recognizes it for the threat that it is.

And his words, even though they were written a long time ago, they will be just as relevant

to us, because the very same issues exist in our church today, exist not in just the church,

but in our church, in my own life, as I've experienced the potential to fall into this trap.

And so this is what we're going to talk about, what's happening in the Philippian church,

and how it's relevant to us.

And this passage shows us two things that we need to understand in order to be clear on the

foundation of our faith, in order to have the kind of faith that produces joy.

Two things.

First, we need to understand this, that our faith is futile, any faith is futile if it exists

apart from Christ.

So the futility of faith apart from Christ.

And then the second half, or the other side of the coin, is this, the worth of faith in Christ.

As Paul says, the surpassing worth of faith in Christ.

So those are the two things we'll look at.

Let's pray for the Lord to lead us.

Heavenly Father, we do recognize that we're here, and there are so many things that are

cause for anxiety and thought and speculation, and so many things that have affected our lives

and the lives of people we know and love.

But we pray that right now our attention would be turned to the very core, the very foundation

of our relationship with you, because that is the wellspring of life, of joy, of freedom,

of hope, things that we desperately need.

And we pray that this would happen not by human wisdom, Lord, but rather by the power of your

Holy Spirit through your word.

And it's in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen.

So the first thing we see as we begin to get into Philippians chapter 3, and the first few verses is this.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Paul begins to make it very clear that any faith, any faith that exists apart from Jesus is futile,

meaning it is empty.

He says this in verse 2.

I told you strong language.

Look out for the dogs.

Look out for the evildruers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

So what's he talking about?

Well, the Philippian church was made up entirely of Gentiles.

In other words, people who didn't grow up Jewish.

And all of these people had heard the gospel preached.

The gospel essentially is the announcement of God's free grace, God's free salvation that is available through Jesus.

That means that all we have to do is accept it, put our faith in Christ, and we can have a relationship with God.

And they had heard this and thought it was tremendous.

It was the best news they had ever heard.

Many of them had come to faith.

A church had been born.

And this, from reading this letter, we know it was a joy-filled church.

They were a generous church.

They were a church filled with gratitude.

It was the kind of church that any one of us would love to have been a part of.

And yet, false teachers had come into the church,

and they were attempting to convince the Philippians that faith in Jesus wasn't enough.

In other words, that's a good first step.

But real spirituality, a real relationship with God, real faith requires more than that.

Namely, it requires that you continue to adhere to the law of Moses.

And more specifically, you need to get circumcised.

Now, that doesn't have much cultural relevance for us today.

But when Paul hears it, we'll understand why in a second.

It infuriates him.

And so he calls these teachers dogs.

And you've got to understand, when he says dogs, do not think of your golden retriever that you grew up with.

That's not what he's talking about here.

Think of a rabid, diseased, dangerous kind of scavenger.

That's what he's talking about.

And he's obviously very angry.

And it begs the question, why is Paul so angry?

This just seems like a little theological issue.

And why has he so been out of shape?

Well, let me tell you a story.

See if this helps clarify it.

It's actually a true story.

A couple of years back, the story broke about a guy named Dr. Fareed Fada.

Does anybody remember this story?

He, a doctor in the Detroit area, all the reviews said he was a world-renowned cancer doctor.

And that he was one of the go-to experts in the world.

And so what Dr. Fada did is he started coming to people who were physically healthy.

And he would tell people who were perfectly fine that they had cancer.

That they had terminal cancer.

And that their only hope was to start these expensive treatments.

A lot of times it was chemo right away.

And so these people would start taking these treatments.

And they would get desperately sick from the treatments.

As many of you may know, the treatment for cancer will make you sick in and of itself.

So people's teeth would rot and fall out.

And they would become weak and emaciated.

And he did this in order to make kickbacks.

And so you say, well, okay, well, what did he do this?

Just a handful of times.

Well, actually, in the, this case just went to trial.

He did this to some 553 people.

And he made $17.6 million off doing this.

So when I tell you that story, just take a moment.

How does that make you feel?

And if you wrote a letter to Dr. Fata, what would you call him?

Dog, evildoer, probably something a bit worse.

See, this is exactly how Paul feels.

And in his mind, the false teachers are doing something very similar to what Dr. Fata did.

Fata came to people who were physically healthy, who were perfectly fine.

And he convinced them to take unnecessary treatments.

And actually, those treatments made those people sick.

And in the same way, these false teachers were coming to people who had a relationship with Jesus.

Through Jesus, they were spiritually alive and well.

They were thriving.

And these false teachers convinced them that they needed other additional practices.

And Paul recognized that these practices would actually do spiritual harm to these people.

And so he's furious about it.

But this begs the question, what is the harm of adding something like the law?

What is the harm of adding something like circumcision into their faith?

And the harm comes from this fact.

That the greatest threat to our joy, the greatest threat to our spiritual well-being,

the greatest threat to our salvation, does not come from atheism.

It does not come from radical Islam.

You know, it does not come from secular humanism.

It doesn't come from limits to religious freedom.

No, the absolute, the greatest threat that all of us face right now is the threat of self-reliance.

Self-reliance.

The idea that I can do it on my own.

The idea that it all depends on me.

What you might call terminal self-reliance.

See, this is what Paul's talking about when he talks about confidence in the flesh.

So the false teachers in Philippi came from a long tradition that had come to view circumcision

and keeping the standards of the law as kind of boxes to be checked.

And the thinking went, well, if we do our part, if I check the boxes,

and I do my part for God, then God will do his part for me.

And it had become very transactional.

I do what is required of me, and then God will do what is required of him.

And kind of a quid pro quo relationship with the Lord.

And the reason this is relevant to us is we don't talk a lot about supervision, but think about it.

And some of you may have been here for a while, and some of you maybe you just moved here.

D.C. is full of really good people.

You know, it's one of the reasons I say this a lot.

It's one of the reasons I actually love being in D.C.

is because you're around amazing people who are not necessarily here because they want to make a lot of money.

It costs a lot of money to live here.

But they're the kind of people who, they're willing to live in a group home

and make 22 grand a year with six roommates because they want to have an impact.

They want to make a difference.

They want to do something in the world.

Right?

People here are very concerned about global issues.

They want to make the world a better place.

Really good people.

And so D.C. is full of people like this.

And so you end up, I have a lot of conversations with people in this city, and you ask them about their faith,

and do you believe in God, and what do you think, you know, where do you think you stand with God?

And a lot of times people will say this.

Well, relatively speaking, I'm a pretty good person.

I mean, relatively, if you think of all the people out there, I'm a pretty good person.

Surely if there is a God, then God would have someone like me.

Compared to most people, I'm one of the better people I know.

So that would be having confidence in the flesh.

And see, this doesn't just exist outside the church.

I think it exists inside the church.

This is a tendency that exists in my own heart.

I mean, I regularly talk to people.

I regularly talk to people who, you know, they say they're a Christian.

I asked, yeah, I grew up in a Christian home.

You know, went to church growing up and all that.

Kind of faded away in college, but then came back strong.

And now I'm kind of wanting to plug back into my faith.

And, you know, checking the church out.

And I say, okay, well, tell me.

So tell me about your faith.

What makes you a Christian?

And many times I hear some version of this.

Well, you know, I think Christianity is really just about being a good person.

God wants us to love people.

And so it's about loving people well.

It's about helping people.

It's about leaving the world better than how you found it.

It's about the golden rule.

You know, treat others the way you want to be treated.

And I mostly try to do that in my life.

And so those are the things that kind of make me a Christian.

It would be interesting if we could hear what the Apostle Paul would say in response to that.

How he would engage that.

Because he would probably say something like this.

Your soul is never in greater danger.

You are never further from God than the moment you utter those words.

You cannot be further from God than the moment you utter those words.

See, murderers, drug dealers, adulterers, people who lie or cheat or steal,

those people are standing on the very threshold of the kingdom.

They may not know it.

But they're right there.

Because all they need is one moment of clarity.

They need a fraction of a second to see the truth about themselves

and to realize that they are morally bankrupt.

And all they need is that moment of clarity.

And as soon as that comes, the gospel will make sense to them

in a way that it never otherwise could.

That's all they need.

So why do you think that Jesus spent so much time with sinners and tax collectors

and adulterers and prostitutes?

It's because of what he says in Luke chapter 5, verses 31 and 32.

Luke 5:31

And just to paraphrase it, he says this.

He says, listen, people who think that they're well don't need a doctor.

They don't go to the doctor.

They don't value a doctor.

It's the people who know they're sick.

Those are the kind of people who go to the doctor.

So I, Jesus, I didn't come for the people who think that they're spiritually well.

I came for people who know that they're spiritually sick.

Who know that they're spiritually dead.

Those are the people I came to call.

And he says to call them to repentance.

And see, repentance doesn't mean what we often think it means.

We think that repentance is I'm sorry for the bad stuff

and I'm going to, and now I'm going to try

and I'm going to try harder than I've ever tried before

and I'm going to commit to doing better.

That's just another form of self-reliance.

That's just another form of confidence in the flesh.

Repentance actually means abandoning our efforts

to live apart from God

and abandoning our efforts to save ourselves.

It means abandoning that entire project

and instead throwing ourselves on God's mercy,

which means knowing God doesn't owe me anything.

He doesn't owe you anything.

And it's appealing to God on the basis of His mercy,

His desire to do for us what we don't deserve

and can never repay.

And it's realizing that in Jesus,

God has given us everything

and there's nothing more that we can have.

As Ephesians 1 says,

that in Jesus we have every spiritual blessing.

It's ours.

So we need to understand the implications

of this first point

before we move to the other side of the coin

of the futility of faith apart from Jesus.

So for most of us,

what keeps us from understanding the gospel,

what keeps us out of the kingdom,

what keeps us far from God

is not actually our wickedness.

It's our perception of our own goodness.

That's the most dangerous thing.

Just to kind of drive this point home,

and the whole conversation of hell

is its own conversation,

but typically in our country,

there's been this kind of quasi-Christian idea

that there's a heaven and there's a hell

and the good people go to heaven

and the bad people go to hell.

And so hell is filled with murderers

and drug dealers and all those kind of people.

I think that if Paul were here

and if you were to ask him about hell,

he would probably say

that it's going to be filled with people

who were just doing their best

to live by the golden rule.

And it will come as a great shock

when you look around the kingdom of heaven

to see what kind of people ended up there.

So this leads to our second point

because the more we come to see

the futility of faith apart from Christ,

the more we begin to recognize,

as Paul says in verse 8,

the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus,

which is the cornerstone of a joyful faith.

And Paul begins this second point

in an interesting way.

He kind of gives us his spiritual resume.

If you read verses 4 and 5,

he sort of lays out his qualifications.

And it's an amazing resume.

He gives us his pedigree,

his credentials,

his experience.

And again, culturally,

we need to understand

that what he's saying here,

he is a paragon of religious virtue.

So he's the first century Jewish equivalent

of the kind of person you might meet here

who graduated top of their class

from Harvard Law,

they're clerking for the Supreme Court,

and they're ending world hunger

and working on a cure for cancer

in their spare time.

It's the kind of person that you meet

and you think,

this is a ridiculous,

you're not even real.

And you meet people like that here.

Well, Paul, religiously speaking,

would have surpassed all of those people.

And then look at what he says in verse 7.

He says,

but whatever gain I had,

in other words,

whatever positives,

whatever good stuff

was on my resume,

I counted as loss

for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, he says,

I count everything as loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake I've suffered

the loss of all things

and count them as rubbish

in order that I may gain Christ.

Rubbish is,

as the Bible tends to do,

for whatever reason,

a very sanitary word.

What he's actually talking about,

the word literally translates

human excrement.

It's essentially a four-letter word,

a bomb that he's dropping

in the middle of this passage.

And it's the kind of word

that if your average first-century Jew

were to read it,

they would be offended.

They would be shocked.

They would say,

Paul,

there was a line that's back here

and you crossed it.

We know that you're worked up,

but you do not have to go that far.

And Paul would say,

no, I do,

because you need to understand,

you need to understand

that there's no other word

to describe

everything else

compared with

the worth of knowing Jesus.

I need to use

the most extreme word I can.

And the reason,

why is it so valuable

to know Christ?

Well, the reason is simple.

It's because God

doesn't read resumes

the way we do.

To use that metaphor

of a resume

as representing

your entire life,

God doesn't read resumes

the way we do.

What do I mean by that?

Well, God doesn't have

two columns,

you know,

where this is the kind of

pro column

and this is the con column,

you know,

and he doesn't list

all of your positive traits

and accomplishments here

and all your negative stuff here

and then sort of step back

and sort of tally it up

and make a decision on you

based on how it comes out.

That's Islam.

That's how Islam works.

When God looks at the resume

of our lives,

there's only one thing

that matters.

Whose name is on it?

Is it just your name

all by itself?

That's confidence in the flesh.

Or is Jesus' name on there?

And that's the only thing

that matters

because

as you see in Paul's life,

Paul had a massive realization

when he came face to face

with Jesus

on the road to Emmaus.

When he realized

who Jesus was,

when he looked at the life

that Jesus had lived

and then he looked

at his own resume

and then he looked at Jesus

and then he looked

at his own resume.

He had a massive realization

that all of the good

that he thought

he had done for God,

all the things

that he thought

had impressed God,

all the ways

that he thought

he had lived up

at least to God's

minimum standards,

that all of that

was actually crap.

Because there's only

one resume good enough

to gain access

to God and his kingdom,

there's one life

that passes muster

and that's Jesus.

And that's when Paul

finally began

to understand the gospel

and came to faith.

Because the gospel

is not about me

beefing up my resume.

It's not about you

beefing up your resume,

doing less bad stuff

and doing more good stuff.

It's not about that.

People say,

hey, I want to get serious

about my faith.

I'm going to kind of shape up.

I'm going to drink less.

I'm going to exercise more.

I'm going to go to church.

I'm going to get involved.

No, no, no, no, no.

You're beefing up your resume.

That's not what it's about.

The gospel is this,

that Jesus lived

a perfect life.

If you think that you're good,

compare yourself to him.

People say,

well, I follow Jesus.

He's the example.

He sets the example for me.

Jesus is a horrendous example.

Try to follow his example

and see how it goes for you.

Jesus lived a perfect life

and then he died on the cross

to pay for all of the sin,

all of the ways

that we fall short of that

and then he rose to life again

and then he extends

this invitation.

Here's the invitation

of the gospel.

Take your resume,

take all the bad stuff,

but also all of the good stuff.

Take your greatest accomplishments,

all the orphanage

that you started in Africa,

all the things that you've done,

take all of that,

crumple it up,

throw it in the trash

and then what he does is

he puts your name

on his resume.

Your name goes on there.

This is what Paul means

when he talks about

in verses eight and nine,

he says that he wants

to gain Christ

and be found in him.

What that means is

that when the father

looks at you,

he doesn't see just you.

He sees you in Christ.

In other words,

you have one resume

between the two of you.

Your lives have merged.

All of your good,

bad, and ugly is gone.

It's eradicated.

And what replaces that

is Jesus' life.

And Paul says,

I want to be found in him,

not having a righteousness

of my own

that comes from the law.

In other words,

not having my own resume,

but that which comes

through faith in Christ,

the righteousness from God,

that depends on faith.

And once Paul realizes that,

he comes to see

that there's only one thing

that really matters in life,

and that is knowing Jesus Christ.

Knowing him,

even as we are in him,

knowing more of him,

experiencing more of him.

So this is why he says

in verse 10 and 11,

he says,

that I may know him

and the power of his resurrection

and may share in his sufferings,

becoming like him in his death,

that by any means possible

I may attain the resurrection

from the dead.

What's he saying here?

I want to become

what my resume says

I already am.

How amazing is that?

That if you're in Christ

and you read,

you look at this incredible life

that Jesus lived

and continues to live,

this incredible ministry

that he had,

the incredible way

that he interacted with people.

When you look at all of that,

the kind of patience

and kindness

and yet single-minded devotion

to the truth

and love and generosity,

the kind of humility,

the kind of sacrifice,

and you look at those things

and you say,

I want those things

to be true of me

because this says

that they are.

This is how God sees me.

I want to experience myself

the way God sees me.

That's what Paul's saying.

So this is why Christians

make our lives about

loving and serving other people.

It's why we try to cultivate virtues

like humility

and kindness

and gentleness

and other-oriented love.

This is why we gather together

for worship.

This is why we read the Bible

and try to conform our lives to it.

We don't do these things

to impress God.

God's not impressible.

We do these things

because these are things

that allow us to become

and to experience

what our resumes

already say we are.

We're trying to experience

what is already true.

These are things

that draw us closer

and closer to Jesus

and help us become

more and more like Him.

So we do what we do

out of gratitude to God

and it's the joy

that comes from knowing

that no matter what we do,

you could go out

of these doors

and absolutely screw up.

Use your imagination.

Or you could go out

and sell all that you have

just like the Bible says

and quit your job

and move

and spend the rest of your days

loving and serving

the least of these

and God's not going to love you

one degree more

or one degree less

than He loves you

at this very moment.

Do those things.

They're great

but you're not doing them

to gain God's love.

You're doing them

because you have God's love

and you're wanting

to experience

the full meaning of that

in your life.

So this has implications

for all of us.

I think it has implications

certainly for Christians

but also for non-Christians alike

because for those of us

who are Christians,

I think that it is so easy

especially when we are

part of a church

where we have a lot of

we use a liturgy,

there's lots of

back and forth,

there's lots of

outward symbols

and signs

and sacraments

that we use

to form ourselves

and this is a part

of our spirituality

but with all the external

aspects of our worship

it's so easy to think

that that's what it's about.

That God's somehow

keeping track

of how often

you come to church

and that His approval

is based on that.

It's so easy

to fall into this mentality

to begin thinking

well I do my part

I do the minimum standard

and then I hope

that God does His part.

And listen,

that kind of religion

is very popular.

There are a lot of people

in our country

who I think

think that they're Christians

and that's how they would

define their faith.

And it's very attractive

because it fits

into your life

pretty well.

We're DC people

we have really busy lives

there's not a lot of room

for religion

and so this kind of faith

will fit in

just right

next to the internship

and the classes

and the job

it fits in

it doesn't ask

too much of you

it's something

that you can kind of

leave and come back to

depending on how much

time and energy

you have to give it

but it'll never

change your life.

You'll never

even taste

the kind of joy

that Paul talks about

and you'll never

actually have a relationship

with any real God

you'll have a relationship

with a kind of

divine imaginary friend.

So if you're not sure

to what extent

you may have slipped

into this mindset

just consider some

diagnostic questions.

First of all

what motivates you

in your faith?

What motivates you?

Are you motivated

by a sense of obligation

of duty

of guilt

of fear

or are you motivated

by gratitude?

Does your faith

feel like it restricts you

or do you have

a sense of freedom?

Do you only pray

when you want something?

Do you only pray

to petition God

or are there ever times

when you pray

just to be in God's presence

just to know His presence?

When things go wrong

do you get angry?

Do you say

God you let me down

I did my part

now why aren't you

doing your part?

I did all these things

for you

I even prayed

in the right way

that I'm supposed to pray

and still nothing?

Or do you struggle

through that hardship

but do you struggle

knowing and trusting

that God is in control

and that's a good thing?

Right?

When people criticize you

how do you respond

to criticism?

Does it devastate you?

Do you work hard

to defend

and justify

that idea

that people have of you

the person that

they think that you are?

Do you prop that up

and make sure

that it's unassailable?

Or have you had

the kind of breakthrough

that Paul had

where he realized

that he's completely

morally

and spiritually bankrupt?

That his entire identity

is something

that's been given

to him by Jesus

and because of that

his true identity

is unassailable.

So these are things

that we as Christians

should be thinking about.

Lastly

just for those

who may not be sure

what you believe

what we're talking about

here this evening

this is actually

the thing

that makes

Christianity unique.

This is actually

the thing that

this is the reason

why Christians

not because we want

to be closed minded

or not because we want

to be intense

about these things

but just working out

the implications

this is why Christians

believe that salvation

is only possible

through Jesus.

And it's simply this

that if you compare

this to other

religious approaches

most other religions

say some form

of the same thing.

They say

I obey

therefore I'm accepted.

I do the things

and then I'm embraced

by God

or I attain nirvana

or enlightenment

or whatever.

I obey

therefore I'm accepted.

The gospel says

the opposite.

It says

I'm accepted

therefore I

I obey.

I'm accepted

I'm embraced

and in fact

we believe

that the only way

that I can even

begin to approach

obeying God

is if I'm doing it

in the context

of his embrace

in the context

of his love.

That that is the place

where the Christian life

is meant to be lived

in the embrace

of God.

God has made

this amazing way

for us to know him

and to know his love

right here and now

not by committing

to getting your life

back together

but by simply

coming to him

throwing away

your resume

and asking Jesus

to add your name

to the countless others

who have been taken

into his body

into his identity

being grounded in that

and then beginning

to figure out

what that means

about your life.

So this is what

Paul is saying here

and this is the foundation

of our faith.

The more we come

to see the futility

of faith

of any faith

apart from Jesus

the more we will then

come to see

the surpassing worth

of faith

in Christ Jesus

and the more

that happens

the more we will

actually begin

to experience

the joy that comes

from knowing

Christ Jesus.

Lord we ask you

as these are

words that have

to be empowered

by your spirit

and driven

into our hearts

we ask that you

would do that.

Paul recognized

that so much

hangs on us

understanding

the gospel

for what it really is.

I pray that you

would give this power

that whatever is

from you

you would take it

and you would drive

it into our hearts

as deep as it can go

and that it would

begin to produce

life there

that it would set us

free from guilt

or sin

or obligation

those of us

who struggle

with that

or that it would

shake those of us

who are complacent

that it would shake

us out of our

complacency

that we would

recognize the import

of this opportunity

and that Lord

we would respond

in full faith.

We pray this

in the name of

your son Jesus Christ.

Amen.