Philippians 3:4-14

What does it mean to give it your all? Can you think of a time in your life when you gave it your all? One of the things that you will find out about me is that it’s all or nothing or at least that’s the way it use to be. Everyone probably knows someone who absolutely has to win. Those who are on the bowling team know exactly what I’m talking about. Losing is not an option for them. I am by nature competitive. I’m not as competitive as I once was, but there are times. All you have to do is look at my expression when I’m bowling and you will know what kind of night I am having. I do play to win. But I can also deal much better now with losing.

We want to continue to take a look at what it means to pass from death in our sins to new life in Christ. This week has been a wonderful week as nature springs to life all around us. This past Wednesday night several our students made decisions for Christ. I thought it was cool that they made those decisions in spring. Spring, when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ – the old can be made new.

We want to pick up where we left off last week. Paul is a man who was “all the way.” There was no middle ground in his vocabulary.

We want to go to his letter to the Philippians, chapter 3. We have been wandering around his writing throughout this season. Paul makes it quite clear what is require of a Christian in order to live the life that Christ has called us to.

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, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more.

I told you Paul was an all the way kind of person. Two weeks ago we address the later part of this passage. There were two types of troublemakers in Philippi. There were the antinomians and there were the legalists. To put it simply, antinomians believe that “anything goes.” We can be a Christian and do anything we want to. Paul encouraged us to live by his example and to be heroes of the faith. They set their minds on the things of this life. Their god was their stomach. This indicates that they were extremely self-centered. On the other side of the coin were the legalists. They were the ones who were telling Gentiles in order to be a Christian they needed to be circumcised. We have legalists today. Some would say to be saved you need to be baptized. Some would say you can’t be a Christian if…? Why do we put these boundaries on the Christian life? To put it quite simply we like lines. We want to know, where is the line so that I can’t cross it. The Pharisee’s built laws around God’s laws, so they wouldn’t mistakenly cross God’s lines. We still do that today. That way when we don’t cross our own lines, we can say, “Look how good I am.” But Paul says, “Not so fast.” If anyone can say he’s good through all his good works, I’m number one in line. Let’s take a look at why he claims this in verse 5.

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. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed without fault.

Paul, in effect, was saying that these legalists had nothing on him. If anyone could have confidence that he was doing the right thing, it was Paul. Paul was a perfect Jew, even persecuting the young Christian faith because he felt it threatened the Jewish faith. Is there something that you put your confidence in? Something that you are so sure of that you would be willing to die for it like Paul did? Paul was an “all the way” Jew. Paul was an “all the way” Pharisee. But that was not enough.

In verse 7 he continues, “I once thought these things were valuable…” Being an “all the way” Jew and Pharisee was important to Paul. His bloodline was important. His circumcision was important. His obedience to the law was important. Here Paul turns us around.

But, now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

What? Everything that Paul considered important is worthless? Yes. He wrote all of this off as a loss, worthless trash. It was a total write-off. In the insurance industry, they total your car if it is a total loss. This is what Paul did with his confidence in himself. He wrote it off as a total loss. It was garbage to him. Especially when he compared it to knowing Christ. Paul went from being an “all the way” Jew to being an “all the way” Christian.

We pick up this theme in the next sentence. “For His (Christ Jesus) sake I have discarded everything else…” The only thing of any importance to Paul is Christ Jesus. “…counting it all as garbage, so I could gain Christ and become one with Him.” What a wonderful prayer for all of us. What is there in our lives this morning that we consider valuable? If you knew a thief or a flood or a tornado, or a hurricane was coming, what would be most important to you? What is most important in your life? If it isn’t Christ, it’s really nothing but garbage. Do you know Him? I mean really know Him?

Paul continues, “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.” There is nothing that we can do on our own that will make us righteous. Yes, we’ve been down this path before. It is only through faith in Christ that we are made righteous. Nothing else can do it. It doesn’t matter what your bloodline is. It doesn’t matter if your mom and dad are Christians. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fifth or sixth generation Christian. That doesn’t make you a Christian. It doesn’t matter how good you are a singing or praying or taking care of the homeless. If you don’t have faith in Christ, it’s all garbage.

Paul comes down and tells us what is really important.

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, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead.

Paul doesn’t want a dead religion. Paul doesn’t want a head knowledge religion. He wants the real thing. He doesn’t want just the facts. We are tempted that way. We want to know that facts about Christ, but we don’t want to really know him. For really knowing might require a change. It’s easy just to know the facts but to really know him requires hard work. It’s a knowledge gained through experience, and it transforms the entire person. I know there’s that word again, transformation. You’ll note our verse on the front of the bulletin, to be transformed into the image of Christ. That is what it means. To know Christ means to be transformed into his image. Paul wants to experience the power of the resurrection. Yes, we all want that. We want Christ’s mighty power, but there is a second part to the equation. In order to experience Christ mighty power of the resurrection, we must also share in His sufferings. We must die to ourselves. This is not popular teaching. Too many times we are a resurrection Christianity, forgetting that Christ had to suffer as well. In most churches, you go directly from celebrating Palm Sunday and the triumph of that, to Easter Sunday, forgetting that Christ suffered for us. Christ suffered greatly for us. His body was beaten beyond recognition. He suffered for us. We can not just be resurrection Christians but we must also want to share in His suffering. And when we do, we will share in the resurrection from the dead. This is the great hope of being a Christian.

Paul has all the marks of a mature believer. Catch what he says next in verse 12.

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God , through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

That really sums it up. As mature as Paul was, he still did not consider himself to have it all together. That is a real mark of maturity. That was not an excuse to be lazy. No! He was willing to press on toward heaven, focusing on heaven. That is my prayer for our church today. That we would be Christians “all the way.”