Jesus Plus Nothing: A Sermon on Philippians 3:1-11, Grace Alone, and True Joy

Well, I want to start off by sharing the fact that I actually grew up in two worlds at the same time.

My parents were Indian, are Indian, Hindu, and from that culture, it comes with something that most American households don't recognize.

It's called honor shame.

And the way it works is pretty simple.

Your value and worth is not yours alone, it belongs to the family, to your tribe.

What you achieve reflects on everyone.

What you fail at shames everyone.

And from the time that you're very young, you learn the system, you perform, you succeed, you make the family proud, or you don't.

And everyone knows.

I was also born and raised in America, which runs on a completely different system.

Here, you're an individual.

You succeed for yourself, you fail for yourself.

So I grew up with two scorecards running at the same time, and I could never quite figure out which one I'm supposed to be winning at.

And now, let me just clarify: my parents, they loved me.

In fact, they were doing exactly what their parents taught them.

They were doing exactly what their culture, what their religion, what their country taught them.

The religion and the culture was older than any of us.

But by the time I was in middle school, I had already absorbed this system completely.

In fact, I remember the first time I got a B on my report card.

Now, I wasn't just worried about getting in trouble by my mom.

Now, mind you, I was worried about that too, for sure.

But I was doing something else.

Something else was going on.

I was doing this calculation.

If I get a B here, what does this mean for my life?

Will I still get into a good college?

Will I still get a good job?

Will I still get a good wife?

Get a good, get a good family, right?

You're taught all these things because that's what you're taught from the beginning.

At least that's what I was taught from the beginning.

Good grades equals good college degree.

Good college degree equals good job.

Good job equals good house, good car, good wife, good kids, good life.

All of these things in middle school, I'm doing all of this calculation.

I'm doing life planning as if I'm applying for a mortgage from one B from one report card.

Now, I was pretty exhausted just saying that.

And I didn't know it then.

But that's what a false religion feels like from the inside.

And here's the thing everyone has a religion.

Everyone is trusting something to make them okay.

So the question isn't whether you have a religion, the question is whether your religion can save you.

And what Paul's going to show us this morning is if you want true joy, like true joy, you have to understand the root.

Because the first root of true joy is true religion, which is found in Christ Jesus.

Now, if you're joining us for the first time this morning, we're in the book of Philippians.

This is a letter written by Paul, written from a prison.

And all series long, we've been asking the question and diving deep into what makes relentless joy possible.

In fact, last week we discovered how joy comes about in real friendship.

Weeks prior to that, we determined that circumstance do not determine your joy.

What determines your joy ultimately is knowing whose you are, that you belong to Jesus Christ.

Today we're gonna go deep, and Paul's gonna help us see the root, the first root of joy.

Because you see, most of us are running a counterfeit.

And a counterfeit breaks, but if you have the real thing, nothing can take it from you.

Nothing can take it from you.

So this morning, we're gonna be reading from Philippians chapter three.

If you have Bibles, you can open them up or you can follow along on the screen.

I'm gonna open mine up.

Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

We're gonna start off at verse 1 through 3.

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.

So up until this point, Paul is pouring his heart out to these people, to the Philippians, the people he loves dearly.

And at first glance, it almost seems like he's he's bringing the letter to a close.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, and then right in the middle of it, bam.

It's like this thought just hits him in the in the middle of writing this letter, as if he was going to close the letter, but boom, I just forgot, I've got to tell you something.

Watch out! Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evildoers, watch out for the people who are going to come in here and mess with what you have.

So Paul is alarmed.

Not because he thinks the Philippians are gonna go out and do something obviously terrible.

He's alarmed because his concern is that they might trade the real thing for a counterfeit and never even realize they did it.

Because let me tell you something, counterfeits, they look good.

It sounds right, uses all the right words.

It just doesn't save.

Now, the specific threat in Paul's day was a group of teachers saying faith in Jesus was not enough.

It was Jesus plus.

And let me say something.

Anytime someone tells you that God accepts you through Jesus plus something else, that is a false gospel.

When it comes to your standing before God, it is Jesus plus nothing, always.

Now, these false teachers were saying Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus keeping the Jewish law, Jesus plus your religious performance.

Now, look, I want you to understand something.

Circumcision was the mark of God's people in the Old Testament.

It meant I belong to God, I'm in.

But Paul says something in verse 3 that changes everything.

He says that the true people of God are not defined by what's done to their body, they're defined by who they trust.

They worship by the Spirit, they boast in Christ, and they put no confidence in the flesh.

Now that phrase, no confidence in the flesh.

When Paul says flesh here in this context, he doesn't mean your physical body.

He means anything you're trusting in yourself instead of Jesus Christ.

Your record, your performance, your religion, your resume.

That's what he means by flesh.

And look, I want to stop here for a moment because there are some of you, there are some of you in this room who are very confident in yourselves.

And because of that, you figure you and God, you're good, no issues.

Let me tell you something.

If you are confident in yourself, you have missed the gospel.

Because the gospel is not about you, it is about Jesus.

So if your answer for why God should accept you ever starts with because I, you have missed the gospel.

Because I believed enough, because I was sincere enough, because I tried hard enough, because I was better than most.

No.

The only answer is because he, because Jesus, because he lived from me, because he died for me, because he rose from me, because he full stop.

But now Paul, he's not just talking to the Judaizers or the ancient Judaizers, he is talking to every person in this room right now.

Because every single one of us has a religion.

Everyone is trusting in something to tell you whether you're okay or not.

And I know there might be some of you who are thinking, ah, I'm not all that religious.

You know, that's not me.

Look, stay with me for just a moment.

Because I want you to understand something.

Religion is not just what happens in a church or a temple or mosque.

Religion is anything you trust to make you feel worthy.

Any standard that you are measuring yourself against, any verdict that you are waiting on.

And listen, everybody has one.

You just may not have known what to call it.

So here's how you know.

When the trusting, the thing you're trusting in, when it goes well, do you feel okay with God?

But when it falls apart, does something deeper go on, deeper than disappointment?

Does the ground under you begin to shake a bit?

See, that's your religion showing itself.

Because every false religion runs the same way.

You basically are keeping a tally.

Good deeds on one side, bad deeds on the other.

Am I in or am I out?

Am I okay or am I not?

Right?

And the tally never actually tells you if you've done enough, if you're good enough.

It just keeps saying, keep going.

And here's the thing Paul is not writing this passage to beat us up.

He's writing it because he knows that there's something so much better on the other side.

He has seen it and he can't stop talking about it.

Look in your bulletins.

There's a handout.

Something that looks like this.

Why don't you open up your bulletins?

I want you to pull out the handout for a moment.

There's a list, a bunch of modern false gospel lists.

I want you to take, skim through that.

Take a look at that for a moment.

These are the religions most of us are actually running.

Each one has a law, a punishment, and the same confession.

I'm trusting myself, not Jesus.

It's a false religion.

I'll highlight a few of these.

The achievement religion.

Achievement religion says produce, perform, build something impressive.

In Palm Beach County, we are home to the most billionaires in the world.

This one has more followers per square mile than almost anywhere on earth.

We just don't call it religion.

We call it networking, branding, scaling, investing.

Now, are all those things inherently bad?

No, that's not what I'm saying.

But for a lot of us, we're not just building a life.

We're building a case for why we matter.

I mean, gosh, five minutes into a conversation, and somehow you already know what someone does, where they live, what they drive, and whether they know a guy.

That's confidence in the flesh.

If that's what you're building your life upon, is your main foundation, that is confidence in the flesh.

Identity religion.

That says become someone worth admiring.

And look, some of you trust the identity you've built.

The good father, the faithful spouse, the smart one, the one who's got it all together.

So when your identity gets questioned, you don't just feel criticized, you feel threatened.

And look, some of you are on the other side of that.

You hate the identity you have.

So your religion sounds a little bit different.

Your religion sounds like I have to fix myself, I have to get better, then I'll be accepted, then God will accept me.

See, both are the same religion.

One is one person is trusting what they built, the other trusts what they will fix.

Both are still trusting themselves instead of Jesus.

And then there's another one that I think has infiltrated over the over a number of years in our culture.

It's a therapeutic Jesus.

That's when Jesus becomes useful because he helps me become a better version of me.

You know, be be the the me that I can be, the full me, the power of me.

And look, I'm not saying your story doesn't matter.

Your story matters, your wounds matter.

But Jesus did not come here merely to make you healthier.

He didn't come here to be your life coach.

He came here to save you, to forgive you, to restore your relationship with God and make you new.

He didn't come here to be your therapist.

And then there's some of you who have been in church your whole life.

Your religion looks like showing up every week, keeping the traditions, doing it the way it's always been done.

And look, I'm not saying any of those things are wrong.

None of that is wrong.

But if you're if if what you're trusting in, if that's what you're trusting into to make you right with God, well, then that's confidence in the flesh.

In fact, I'm gonna take it a step further.

Some of you, if someone is not doing those things the way you do them, well, they're less committed, they're less serious, maybe less saved.

That judgment that you carry toward them, it's not spiritual maturity.

That's the elder brother talking from the prodigal God, from the prodigal son.

It's the elder brother standing outside the party convinced he deserves to be in more than the other brother does.

See, every religion, every religion on this handout produces the same two things.

Pride when it works, despair when it fails.

Right?

When you're winning, you feel good about yourself, and in fact, you probably look down on other people.

But when you're losing, you collapse under shame.

And some of us, there's some of us in this room that have been on that mouse exercise wheel for a very long time.

And Paul says, watch out.

Because we were made for something better than that wheel.

We were made for a joy that doesn't depend on winning, peace that doesn't collapse when we fail.

That is what he is protecting when he says, rejoice in the Lord.

And look, I look at this list for myself.

I you know, if I measure myself against this, achievement religion, well, for me, check.

Built my whole identity around what I was building.

Identity religion, check.

I spent years trying to figure out who I was even supposed to be.

Therapeutic Jesus, check.

I mean, if we weren't, if we weren't crying our eyes out every single week, reflecting on childhood wounds every single week, we thought the gospel, well, must not be working.

I mean, gosh, I have run almost all of these in my life at some point.

No wonder I was so exhausted.

No wonder I cried so much during my therapeutic Jesus phase.

See, the tally never balances, it never says enough.

You've done good enough.

It only says, keep going, keep striving.

And look, Paul isn't just saying these religions are exhausting, he is saying they can't save you.

Yeah, I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again.

The gospel asks for two things repentance and faith.

Repentance is putting down the tally and looking to Jesus.

Faith is trusting completely with what he has already done.

Repentance and faith.

You see, every religion says do, the gospel says done.

And this is why Paul is able to say, rejoice in the Lord.

And he says it, he says it right before the warning.

He's not being naive.

He knows that the joy is real, but it has a root, and he knows that a counterfeit will kill it.

Let's keep going.

Verse 4 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, of 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've lost, who for whose sake have lost all things.

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.

He puts his life on the table.

He puts his resume on the table, circumcised on the eighth day, born into the right family, tribe of Benjamin, old money, right bloodline.

He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, third generation.

He wasn't a convert, he was born in.

As for the law, a Pharisee.

He had the highest religious training you could possibly get.

As for zeal, before he came to know Jesus, before he came to faith in Christ, he was hunting down Christians, he was doing what he thought was right.

He was hunting down Christians and throwing them in prison.

I mean, you want to talk about a guy who's got commitment?

This guy is committed as for righteousness under the law, faultless.

What he's basically getting at, if religious obedience could fix your relationship with God, Paul would have had a guaranteed front row seat.

But nobody, nobody in this room has a resume that comes even close to that.

And then verse 7.

He says, but.

Now that word changes everything.

But whatever gains I had, real gains, impressive gains, gains nobody here can match, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

You see, he took everything on the asset side of his ledger, everything he earned, everything that was given to him, everything that he had built, and he had moved it to the liability column.

Not a mere downgrade.

He did a complete reevaluation.

And then verse 8, he goes on even further.

He says, I consider them garbage.

Now that word in the Greek is scuba on.

It means dung.

It's filth.

It's refuse thrown to the dogs.

Right?

Paul isn't being polite.

Look, look, let me put it this way.

Imagine walking into one of the finest restaurants on Worth Avenue.

You got white tablecloths, you made a reservation three weeks in advance.

It's the kind of place that will look at you funny if you order a side of ranch.

Talking to you, Sarah.

When the bill comes, you reach into your pocket, you slide a rotting bag of garbage across the table.

How do you think that waiter's gonna react?

He's gonna be horrified.

Friends, that is what we are doing when we hand God our moral record, our good deeds, our church attendance, our religious performance to say, here, this is my payment to make me right with God.

It is scuba on.

Now here's the thing.

When it comes to sin, the tab, the bill, it's bigger than anything you can pay.

Every lie, every act of pride, every false religion you have running through you that you think could fix things.

Look, you can't work off the balance.

You can't be good enough long enough to cover it.

And here's what makes it so dangerous the tab doesn't just show up in obvious sin.

It shows up in the reasons you do the good things you do.

I mean, let me give you an example.

I for me, I spent years reading every gospel-centered marriage book and every gospel-centered parenting book that I could find.

And look, they were excellent books, fantastic books, every one of them.

And these are good things.

I was reading good books, pursuing good things.

And one day I realized something.

I realized the reason why I was reading them.

It wasn't just that I wanted to love my wife and my kids well.

I mean, understand, I want you to do that.

But there was something else going on underneath.

Underneath it, if I'm being really honest, there was something darker that was driving me.

I wanted people to see me.

I wanted to be known as an incredible father, as an incredible husband.

I wanted the acknowledgement, the admiration.

And here's the part I'm most ashamed to say out loud, but I'm going to do it this morning.

When I got that admiration, when someone told me what a great dad I was, what a great husband I was, something in me would say, okay, me and God, we're good.

I mean, he sees what I'm doing, he accepts me.

He surely is going to bless me and my family because, gosh, look what I've done.

You see, I was using other people's approval as a receipt for God's acceptance.

And that is not faith.

That is pride dressed up in gospel language.

That is the whole false religious system running inside a man who knew every gospel-centered book on parenting and marriage almost by heart.

And you know what Paul says that is in his language?

Scubalon.

It's dung.

Honor shame with a Christian reading list.

See, the false religious system didn't just magically go away when I came to faith.

It just changed its costume.

And that's the thing about every counterfeit religion.

It doesn't just exhaust you, it robs you.

It takes the joy that was always meant to be yours and gives you nothing but exhaustion and striving and shame in return.

Because every religion says do.

The gospel says done.

And this is why I had to preach this stuff to myself just as much as I'm preaching it to you.

Because sometimes those false religious systems can creep up on you.

He goes on, 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 the resurrection from the dead.

He lays out his resume.

He calls it scuba-on.

He calls it garbage.

And yet he doesn't collapse under it.

He doesn't fall apart.

And here he's telling us why he could do that without falling apart.

He found something better.

See, Christianity isn't God helping you to pay down your tab.

It is God tearing the tab up entirely and giving you Jesus.

It's not a better religion, it's a person.

And this person is worth more than everything that you've been chasing after.

In verse 9, Paul says he wants to be found in him, in Christ, in everything Christ is, and everything Christ has done.

He wants to be in him.

And then he says something that I think is one of the most liberating sentences in the Bible: that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God.

Now let me explain that in plain English.

Righteousness simply means to be right with God, to be accepted, clean, fully his.

See, because God's standard, it's perfect.

Perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect holiness, perfect love, perfect trust, it's perfect.

And none of us could meet that.

But Jesus met every single part of it on your behalf.

The life, the tally always demanded, and you could never produce, Jesus lived it.

And then he gives it to you as a gift.

See, Jesus went to the cross and took on himself everything your religion was trying to achieve.

Everything your religion was trying to cover.

Every failure, every transaction you tried to run with God, every resume you built and presented for his approval.

Every time you tried to prove that you were enough, every in fact, every time you you realize you weren't enough, Jesus took all of it.

That entire debt was real.

And look, Jesus didn't just pay for it, he extinguished it.

The tab is gone.

And then he rose from the dead to show that the father accepted the payment.

Now, what does that mean?

It means when the father looks at you, he doesn't see your religious resume.

He doesn't see your scuba on.

He sees his son.

That's what Paul means when he says he wants to be found in him, found like a location where you are standing, well, where you are standing when God looks at you.

See, every false religion says you are standing on your own record, on your own performance, your own tally.

The gospel says you are standing inside Christ.

You're hidden in him.

You're covered by him.

His record is what God sees.

He sees you through Jesus.

Let me put it this way: when God looks at you, He sees you as if you lived the life Jesus lived, the perfect life Jesus lived.

He sees you as if you died the death Jesus died and rose from the dead the way Jesus did.

He sees you as if you did all that Jesus did, even though you didn't.

So when you place your faith and trust in Jesus, you become covered, accepted, loved, righteous.

So you may think you bring something to the table, but you want to know what you really bring to the table?

Your sin.

Your failure, your shame.

And Jesus, he brings his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection, and he gives it to you.

It's the great exchange.

And he makes that trade willingly.

The thing you've been performing for your whole life, God's approval, if you are in Christ, you already have it.

You have it right now.

That is grace.

And I want you to think about what that means.

The one who spoke light into existence, he chose darkness for you.

The one who held the stars in place let soldiers put nails through his hands.

I mean, he didn't have to.

There was no obligation.

He didn't owe a debt.

But he chose it.

Every step of the way.

Not because you were impressive.

Not because you had something to offer.

Because he wanted you.

He wanted you.

And this is the one who looks at you, not at your resume, not at your record, and says, You are mine.

That's the God Paul wants to know.

Paul wants to know Christ, not just about him, know him deeply.

The way you know someone who has walked through the fire with you, the way you know someone whose name you call out when life is falling apart.

And when you get Jesus, you get all of him.

His righteousness, his power, the same power that raised him from the dead is the same power that is holding you together right now.

This is why Paul can write a letter about joy from a prison cell.

Not because his circumstances are going well, but because his joy is rooted in Jesus Christ.

And nothing in prison can change that.

That's what the root does.

It holds everything together.

The root holds everything together.

When above ground, you're getting beaten up.

This is the first root of joy.

Remember that middle school kid I was describing earlier?

Doing some life planning math from one 1B on one report card?

God sent me a friend, a former Hindu, who understood honor, shame, culture from the inside.

And he showed me what is true of me in Christ.

And here's what's true.

Not what I feel, not what my tally says, what is actually true.

I am loved.

Not because I performed well this week, but because the Father gave his son for me.

I am accepted.

Not because my tally is clean, but because Christ's record is now mine.

I am forgiven.

Not partially, not conditionally, completely.

The tab is paid, and it will not be reopened.

I am no longer on trial.

The verdict is in.

No condemnation.

I belong.

Not to my family's reputation, not to my resume, not to what I built.

I belong to him.

Now look, every now and then the old tally still fires up, it still creeps in my mind.

But now I know what to do with it.

I preach these truths to myself.

Not as a technique, as facts.

I am found in Christ.

I am found in Him.

I mean, think about every talent show you have ever watched.

America's Got Talent, American Idol, The Voice.

You stand under the lights.

Your heart is pounding out of your chest.

You give everything you have and then you wait.

Will they hit the buzzer?

Will they turn the chair?

Will they say yes?

That is every religion on that handout.

You perform, you wait, and you hope it was enough.

But the gospel does the opposite.

God gives you the verdict first.

You are fully loved, fully accepted, fully righteous in his sight, not because of what you did, but because of everything Jesus did.

And because you already have the verdict, you can step off the stage, you can stop performing for your salvation, and you can start living from your salvation.

Listen, you cannot argue yourself out of a false religion.

You cannot willpower your way out of it.

The only thing that moves a lesser love out of your heart is a greater love moving in.

Paul didn't decide his resume was worthless.

He saw Jesus.

And the resume became scuba on.

Not a system, not a religion.

Talking about Jesus.

You know, one preacher said, We are more righteous in Christ than we are sinful in Adam.

We are more righteous in Christ than we were sinful in Adam.

Let that land for a moment.

More righteous in Christ than sinful in Adam.

You are not good enough, but Jesus was good for you.

That is the gospel.

That's the real thing.

Now look, some of you came in here this morning needing to hear this because you are exhausted.

And something in you is asking, what if I can't pay the tab?

What if I can't do enough?

What if I can't be good enough?

You're asking the wrong question.

Is there someone else that's good enough?

Is there someone else who paid the tab?

And it's exactly what Jesus did.

Every false religion says, become your own savior.

The gospel says you already have one, and his name is Jesus.

So today, if you have not placed your faith and trust in him, today is your day to do so.

You don't need to clean yourself up.

Stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in Jesus.

That is repentance, that is faith, that is the whole thing.

And maybe you grew up in a religious system where you were always wondering, have I done enough?

Am I okay with God?

I want you to hear the promise of Roman 8.

Romans 8.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation.

Not someday, not after you prove yourself, not after you add enough to what Jesus has done now for everyone who is in Christ.

Ephesians 2 says we are saved by grace through faith, not by works.

Salvation is not a paycheck, it's a gift.

Jesus plus nothing is the gospel.

His work is done.

The verdict is in.

Receive him.

And for those of you who belong to Jesus but have started running the tally again.

Stop.

Just stop it.

The tab is paid.

You don't owe anything anymore.

You are found in Christ.

Not in your performance, not in your failure, not in your past, not in your potential.

You are found in Him.

And that is the first root of joy.

And it does not break.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you for this passage that you have gifted us with to fully understand the power and the truth of the gospel, to understand that the first root of joy, true joy, comes from knowing you, from being found in you, from having a relationship with you, from having our ultimate identity anchored in you.

You are our God.

We are your children.

And nothing can ever change that.

As we hold on to that, as we preach that to our hearts every single moment of every single day, we can grow in our walk with you and walk away from these various legalistic religious systems that we are living by that's running in our minds and our hearts.

Those anchors get loosened, and the anchor of our heart to you gets strengthened.

We thank you, Jesus, for saving us and for restoring us in right relationship with God.

Amen.