The hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004 left thousands without electrical power. One man who
used a portable generator to supply power until the electrical lines could be repaired reported a
strange experience. Some daring thieves found the generator in full operation outside the man’s
house and stole it. The homeowner didn’t discover the theft until he went outside to put
gasoline in his generator.
How did the thieves cover up such an obvious crime? They started another gasoline engine and
left it running right beside the generator. The robbers took off with their prize, while the owner
was lulled into a false sense of security created by the sound of his own riding lawnmower.
(Citation: Don Aycock, Palatka, Florida)
> I wonder if our religious nature can be a bit like this… if it can become a substitute that is
used to steal away what really matters… what really generates power?
As we continue… series… Apostle Paul… the distinction wasn’t so subtle… he was the master
of religion… and today we come to Paul’s most personal testimony about a life that has been
changed… about what has led to an extraordinary life… and what we could refer to as
extraordinary spirituality.
Paul knew the nature of religion all too well… and now he explains what is so essential for
those who know something of religion but long for more.
• Maybe one seeking truth… beginning to see who Christ is… reach a clarity you can take
hold of.
• Maybe one who became a Christian… something has felt a little adrift… loosened from the
love that began.
Shift from religion to relationship… from law to love.
• On this holiday weekend… good time to have this morning to stop and evaluate our own
spiritual journeys.
Philippians 3:1-4a (NLT)
Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling
you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
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Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be
circumcised to be saved. 3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly
circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human
effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.
Refers back to previous discussions of this issue. It’s a matter that he knows may sound
strong… but is so essential that he knows is worth stating again… and in the strongest of
terms.
> It is a need to confront those who would direct these who have met Christ… and the love
and grace of God… back into their religious nature. Judaizers – they demanded that Gentiles
could only come to salvation through the Judaic heritage… and needed to take on at least
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the Jewish rituals. This undermined the significance of all that the early disciples of Christ
had worked through. (Acts 10 – Cornelius’ call, Acts 11 – Peter discovers that Gentiles can
indeed becomes Christ followers without becoming Jews, Acts 15 – Council meets at
Jerusalem… and resolves that indeed God is operating beyond the external symbolic rituals
they had known.)
[Note: “The result of the conference (Jerusalem in Acts 15) was an approval of Paul’s
ministry and a victory for the Gospel of the grace of God. Gentiles did not have to become
Jewish proselytes in order to become Christians!
But the dissenters were not content. Having failed in their opposition to Paul at Antioch and
Jerusalem, they followed him wherever he went and tried to steal his converts and his churches.
Bible students call this group of false teachers who try to mix Law and grace “Judaizers.” The
Epistle to the Galatians was written primarily to combat this false teaching.” –Wiersbe]
So he speaks in full force….
• “Dogs”…. Are not the nice pets but the scavengers who are loathed.
• People who do evil – the point is to make a provocative contrast to what they were deeming
as doing righteousness… that were actually driving people further from God… and anytime
that some form of conservative behavior is used to drive people from God… it is ultimately
evil. People who said Christ is not enough… you must take on these other things they have.
• ‘mutilators of the flesh.’ – Circumcision but uses a similar Greek word that means
mutilation. If you are depending on outward signs, you are not really circumcised, you are
only mutilated.
Deuteronomy 30:6
“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your
descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul,
and live.”
> The outward was only to direct people to the inward.
Not necessary to be circumcised…. What matters is what is inside.
Not where you worship… but by Spirit of God…. Presence.
Therefore they should glory in Christ ….relationship … alone.
Key here is CONFIDENCE… what one is depending upon…
Philippians 3:4b-6 (NLT)
4b
Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!
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I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a
member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the
Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I
harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
He mentions a few of the things we might seek to place spiritual confidence in…
Basically two categories… those that he was born into… and those of his personal
achievements.
Outward marks of religion
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• Nationality and race (‘People of Israel’… when Jews wanted to stress their special
relationship with God… they would invoke the title Israelite… for the name of the nation
Israel was that given to Jacob by God. Invoking their heritage. Hebrew of Hebrews…
referred to maintaining the racial purity of culture and language that many had lost when
dispersed in other countries)…. American… God’s own country…
• Outward signs of religious commitment (Circumcision) - Baptism though not exactly like
circumcision is not the same… being a nominal member of a church)
• Religious background of family… ancestry, tradition of family…tribe of Benjamin…the
elite of Israel…. they were the leaders of people… first king came from this tribe… from
that name Saul that Paul had been given his own Jewish name Saul.
• Devotion to religious study - Law… “Pharisee… there were relatively few… spiritual
athletes of Judaism… very name means the ‘separated ones.’dedicated whole life to keeping
law… religious devotion itself.
• Religious sincerity and passion… “zeal”…persecuted all who followed Christ
Some say today that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere… but Paul
knows that he was sincere… but sincerely wrong…. Even persecuting the church.
• Outward righteousness… “I did my best to live a good life.”
Our best is not good enough… that’s what Paul realized when he encountered Christ.
Ex –
o Feeling we’re quite good at something until we come face to face with another
level… sports, etc…
o Or consider yourself a relatively good person… then meet a truly good
person… a Mother Teresa.
o Or before going to the dentist you probably give your teeth a thorough
brushing You think they’re clean but in fact they aren’t as good as they look The
Dentist may give you a special coloured mouth rinse, Even though you’ve
brushed your teeth it shows up all hidden plaque and dirt. No amount of
brushing gets rid of that Only the Dentists tools can properly remove the
accumulated plaque and scale.
o Your life may feel pretty clean but only Christ through his death on the cross
can disclose the reality of sin hiding in your heart and remove it! Remember
Jesus came to be our Saviour & Sin bearer -giving his life on a cross. He alone
can remove our guilt - nothing would deflect him from fulfilling that destiny+
COMMENT: People have come to recognize a bit of the limitations of outward religion …
commonly state today… ‘I’m spiritual but not religious.’ I’m not into organized religion… but
I have a relationship with God.’
> But if explored at all…. Beneath the surface of the description…it’s generally more gracious
sounding in values… concern for others and such… but the same self reliance… confidence in
one’s own religious philosophy and practice.
TRUE confidence comes from just one thing.
Philippians 3:7-11 (NLT)
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7
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of
what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all
as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own
righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For
God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and
experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing
in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
‘BUT NOW’ – Must be given full force. The time has come to end this retelling of his past and
state clearly the point of demarcation… of reassessment… the re-evaluating of all values.
‘Count them as loss’ Paul has traveled down the list… and now says they are counted as loss…
rubbish…. literally excrement.
– not simply neutral or negative view…. He treats them as a liability. (Barth)
Why? Because the key here is RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Gordon Fee – ‘Righteousness is a matter of having a right relationship with a righteous God
demonstrated in right living that reflects the character of God.’
Paul is essentially raising the question: How can one experience righteousness… or a right
relationship with God.?
All my life I’ve been trying… I epitomize the ways of religion… and had the most invested in
placing my confidence in such acclaim and accomplishments…. but it was no better than
rubbish.
> How did I come to this end? I was encountered by the one who held true rightness…
and held me… and now helps hold me in it.
When Paul trusted Christ, he lost his own self-righteousness and gained the righteousness of
Christ. It means “to put to one’s account.” Paul looked at his own record and discovered that
he was spiritually bankrupt. He looked at Christ’s record and saw that He was perfect. When
Paul trusted Christ, he saw God put Christ’s righteousness to his own account! More than
that, Paul discovered that his sins had been put on Christ’s account on the cross.
Physical illustration of taking that which lies upon us (book in hand) and stands between us
and God… and Christ has righteousness between God (white handkerchief in other hand)
…Christ exchanges.
• The one ground is knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… not academically but personally… ‘my
Lord.’
• You can know him personally… maybe not see or audibly hear… but hear in heart and
converse in heart…
• In him I have a new righteousness = right relationship
This is true spirituality… and in many ways is radically divergent from our common religious
pursuits. True spirituality is centered in a personal relationship not a practice of religious
behavior.
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The spirituality that fulfills the ‘rightness’ we long for comes from God through
reckoning with the vanity of our own acclaim and accomplishments, and opening our
hearts to a personal relationship with the living presence of Christ and his true
righteousness. Such a relationship involves sharing in both the pain of his sufferings and
the power of his resurrected life.
A few key truths about the ultimate spirituality and ‘rightness’ that God offers…
1. The ultimate spirituality and ‘rightness’ that God offers comes
from the relational presence of God not the religious practice of
ourselves.
Religious standards and practice do provide a needed backdrop for morality… human life in a
fallen world … and I can appreciate religion and for rules that keep you from feeling free to
steal my stuff…. Better than merely guns.
They help define what is moral… but they don’t make me moral. The help us know what is
good.. but they don’t make us good.
We want to be a community grounded in God’s rules… but growing in love that issues
from God… in response to God.
TEST TAKER ALLOWED ALL HE COULD FIT ON ONE SHEET HAD ANOTHER
STUDENT STAND ON IT
Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, writes about his last college test--a final in a logic
class known for its difficult exams.
To help us on our test, the professor told us we could bring as much information to the
exam as we could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as many facts as
possible on their 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper.
But one student walked into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor, and had
an advanced logic student stand on the paper. The advanced logic student told him everything
he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an "A."
The ultimate final exam will come when we stand before God and he asks, "Why should
I let you in?" On our own we cannot pass that exam. Our creative attempts to earn eternal life
fall far short. But we have Someone who will stand in for us.
2. The ultimate spirituality and ‘rightness’ that God offers recognizes
how vain our personal acclaims and accomplishments are.
Paul was passionate in considering the outrwad form f righteousness as a loss… a liability… a
detriment. H didn’t mean that all his staure or studies were bad… he valued them on many
levels… but as a means of defining where he stood with God… they were a liability.
They are a farce of where we really stand. Paul had to be willing to turn his back on his
human accomplishments in order to gain knowledge of Christ.
As Brennan Manning says,
“The pharisee within is the religious face of the impostor. The idealistic, perfectionist, and
neurotic self is oppressed by what Alan Jones calls "a terrorist spirituality." A vague
uneasiness about ever being in right relationship with God haunts the pharisee’s
conscience. The compulsion to feel safe with God fuels this neurotic desire for perfection.
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This compulsive endless moralistic self-evaluation makes it impossible to feel accepted
before God. His perception of personal failure leads to a precipitous loss of self-esteem
and triggers anxiety, fear, and depression.
The pharisee within usurps my true self whenever I prefer appearances to reality,
whenever I am afraid of God, whenever I surrender the control of my soul to rules rather
than risk living in union with Jesus, when I choose to look good and not be good, when I
prefer appearances to reality.” -Brennan Manning, "Abba’s Child"
Paul doesn’t speak merely of having ‘counted’ such things as loss… he uses the present
tense verb "count" here… meaning he continually counts. And we do well to do the
same… lest we begn to confuse religious behavior with relationship.
3. The ultimate spirituality and ‘rightness’ that God offers comes
through opening our hearts to a personal relationship with the
living presence of Christ.
Now look at the last part of vs. 8. Paul says, "I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ."
And in vs. 10 he says, "I want to know Christ."
When he was living under Law, all Paul had was a set of rules. But now he had a Friend,
a Master, a constant Companion!
Paul had sought to reach God… but now he knows that God has been at
work to reach us.
Paul had literally been swept off his feet…. Confronted by a God that he discovered had been
after him. Paul knew all about God, but Paul did not know God until he met Jesus face to
face on the road to Damascus.
Jesus would remind his followers that not all who follow may really know him. John 14:8-
9 tells us that Phillip, after following Jesus for a number of years, says to Him, "Lord,
show us the Father." And Jesus replied, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have
not come to know Me?"
Paul says that his heart longs to "know Him and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10).
‘Knowing Christ’… just to know about Jesus would be worth giving up everything for.
If you realized that you had bought into a lie… and have been trapped in his inadequacy….
You would give it all up just to see the reality beyond.
Paul was trying to find a way to get God accept us. Paul realizes what we often suppress… we
are all trying to get anyone to accept us.
The Biblical story at the core is a story of love.
Can’t function well without love… so we take counterfeits. Paul notes all that he had .
Love is what transforms us.
‘In medicine we have recognized a new focus which defines health as being more than
the absence of illness. In the personal realm, if I have a serious problem, it grows out of
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all proportion when I become preoccupied with it. Fighting insomnia does not bring
sleep. Hating shyness does not bring social poise. Trying not to think about food, does
not help a dieter. ‘ The old Scottish preacher, Thomas Chalmers, in his famous sermon,
"The Expulsive Power of A New Affection," exhorted hearers to a relationship with
Jesus as a way of overcoming life’s crippling problems.’
-Bruce Larson, "The Meaning and Mystery of Being Human"
For Paul… the greatest miracle was not that the world around him changed… but that the
world within him changed…. That something had birthed a new dimension / dynamic of love
within him.
One of he best evidences for the existence of something is the effect it made… so for Christ.
Paul wants to KNOW Jesus (this time intimacy word)… because it changes.
If we want an extraordinary life… you will need extraordinary love.
But Paul didn’t stop there. He went on to say, "I want to know Christ…and
‘the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings…"
Now wait a minute, Paul. That is going too far. Sharing His resurrection is okay, but sharing in
His suffering? That is going a bit far isn’t it?
This Memorial day weekend we are reminded of this truth as veterans gather… because they
had suffered together, a unique fellowship existed among them.
Support groups that face losses whether of loved ones or legs… they can understand it better
than others because they have suffered the same pains & the same hurts.
> There is a fellowship in suffering.
Look at Paul’s life. He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, thrown into prison. And finally, Paul
was beheaded for Christ. Yes, he suffered.
When he looked at the scars on his body, the scars inflicted by the whips & the stones & the
lashings, he called them the marks of Christ. "I bear on my body the marks of Christ," he said.
Do you want to suffer with Jesus? I think that happens in a lot of different ways.
And “the power of his resurrection”… the power to the flows when eternity informsd and
forms the present.
CLOSING: G.K. Chesterton… famous author connected to J.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis…
Standing on a London street corner, approached by a newspaper reporter. "Sir, I understand that
you recently became a Christian. May I ask you one question?" "Certainly," replied Chesterton.
"If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what
would you do?’" Chesterton looked the reporter squarely in the eye and said, "He is.”
> That is the life changing truth,
Potential Ideas & Illus –
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DONALD MILLER DESCRIBES FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS
I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls
in love with Jesus.
Sometimes when I go forward at church to take Communion, to take the bread and dip
it in the wine, the thought of Jesus comes to me, the red of His blood or the smell of His
humanity, and I eat the bread and I wonder at the mystery of what I am doing, that somehow I
am one with Christ, that I get my very life from Him, my spiritual life comes from His working
inside me, being inside me.
I know our culture will sometimes understand a love for Jesus as weakness. There is
this lie floating around that says I am supposed to be able to do life alone, without any help,
without stopping to worship something bigger than myself. But I actually believe there is
something bigger than me, and I need for there to be something bigger than me. I need
someone to put awe inside me; I need to come second to someone who has everything figured
out.
All great characters in stories are the ones who give their lives to something bigger than
themselves. And in all of the stories I don’t find anyone more noble than Jesus. He gave His life
for me, in obedience to His Father. I think the difference in my life came when I realized, after
reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn’t just love me out of principle; He didn’t just love me
because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that caused Him to
love me. I think I realized that if I walked up to His campfire, He would ask me to sit down,
and He would ask me my story. He would take the time to listen to my ramblings or my anger
until I could calm down, and then He would look me directly in the eye, and He would speak to
me; He would tell me the truth, and I would sense in his voice and in the lines on His face that
he liked me. He would rebuke me, too, and he would tell me that I have prejudices against very
religious people and that I need to deal with that; He would tell me that there are poor people in
the world and I need to feed them and that somehow this will make me more happy. I think He
would tell me what my gifts are and why I have them, and He would give me ideas on how to
use them. I think He would explain to me why my father left, and He would point out very
clearly all the ways God has taken care of me through the years, all the stuff God protected me
from.
I was watching BET one night, and they were interviewing a man about jazz music. He
said jazz music was invented by the first generation out of slavery. I thought that was
beautiful because, while it is music, it is very hard to put on paper; it is so much more a
language of the soul. It is as if the soul is saying something, something about freedom. I
think Christian spirituality is like jazz music. I think loving Jesus is something you feel. I
think it is something very difficult to get on paper. But it is no less real, no less
meaningful, no less beautiful.
The first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a music birthed out of
freedom. And that is the closest thing I know to Christian spirituality. A music birthed
out of freedom. Everybody sings their song the way they feel it, everybody closes their
eyes and lifts up their hands.
- Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, pp. 237-238, 239+
