Jesus Is More Series

A few years ago, the Barna group took a survey of a large pool of Christians and discovered that 48% of the people surveyed believe that “if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others, and follow the 10 commandments...they will earn a place in heaven.” The president of the Barna group, George Barna, responded by saying the following: “There is plenty of reason for church to worry if nearly one-half of their people who believe in evangelism also believe in salvation by works. The central message of Christianity is salvation by faith in Jesus, yet many Christians seem to believe and be preaching a different message.” Pause / Transition. We have been studying Philippians for 6 weeks now, coming into our 7th week today, and so far most of what we have studied has had to do with the inner life of the church in Philippi, and then there were some personally notes between Paul and the church there as well. But the first century was the formation period of the church, it was not yet established, it was still new and vulnerable. It had been born out of Judaism, and there were many Jewish converts who were trying to twist and shape Christianity, and they posed a big risk to the church, so much so that Paul warns Christians about them all through his ministry They were known as the Judaizers. They believed that new converts should be made to follow the law, that they needed to be circumcised in order to be saved, they needed to become Jews first. If they wanted to be saved, they needed to earn it. And while we can’t relate to the threat of that group today, according to the Barna group, we are facing the same type of threat as a church, the belief that if you want to be saved, you have to earn it. You see, this group of people, these Judaizers, they put their faith in their heritage, their customs and laws, and their upright standing as God’s chosen people, keeping themselves separate from the unclean Gentiles, they took pride in these things. But we are not that different, are we? The church, throughout the generations have taken pride in being Christians, being good, decent people, descended from generations of church families, always trying to follow the bible and the ten commandments, not hanging around with the wrong type of people or saying bad words, we take pride in those things. We may not say it, but sometimes we are as guilty as the Judaizers of living as if being a good person, being from the right background, following the rules, as if these things can actually save us. We act as if they make us better than other people. But the truth is, compared to the value of knowing Jesus, our efforts are all worthless. Because Jesus is more.

Today we are studying Philippians 3 verses 1-14, and I’m reading from the New International

Version: “Finally, my brothers, 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, 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 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. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”