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Jesus is who we need
Intro:
In dealing with people I have come to learn that we all live our lives according to our priorities.
The priorities that we set dictate to us how we live,
what we do,
who we see and interact with.
For some people work is their priority.
Everything they do seems to center around their job.
For others it's family,
everything that is done is some how related to their family.
For others their priority is themselves.
They think of other people's needs and feelings but only about themselves
They seek pleasure for themselves at times at the expense of others.
For others money is the priority.
They will Do anything for more money.
People will work hours and hours,
neglecting their families,
their friends
and whatever else they have to
all in the persuit of more money.
But a few have made God their number one priority,
and rightfully so,
Because when God is number one in our life,
Then everything else just kind of falls into place.
So if you will just look at your life then you as well as everyone else can see exactly what your priorities are simply by the way in which you live.
Today I want to look at the apostle Paul and see what some his priorities were,
Both before and then after meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.
We can see these priorities by noting three things from our passage for today.
First What Paul had,
Second What Paul lost,
and then third What Paul gained.
So if you have your bibles with you then turn with me to Philippians chapter 3:4-9
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
As we get started I want to first say that I believe that the mark of true Christian is that they put no confidence in the flesh but that their confidence is strictly in Jesus Christ.
And the apostle Paul basically confirms that throughout our scripture reading for today were he is basically saying hey look, if anyone has a right to have confidence in the flesh it’s me.
If anyone has a right to brag about their self-rightouseness it’s me.
Paul then proceeds to list the things that he could brag about
if salvation came by good works that is
Which we all know that it does not
But Paul make a list of those things which he had.
He first says that he was "circumcised on the eighth day".
Here he makes a reference to the command given in Gen. 17:12,
which stated that all Hebrew males must be circumcised on the eighth day after they was born.
This was the seal of the covenant that God had made with Abraham.
What Paul is saying here is that he was not a Jewish convert,
but that he was a Jew from the day he was born.
Now Those who converted to Judaism would certainly not have been circumcised on the eighth day.
But Paul was.
He was raised in Jewish home.
He was a pure Jew.
He also states that he is "of the stock of Israel".
Here Paul notes that he belongs to the race of God’s chosen people.
Deuteronomy 7:6
6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
You know A Lot of the Jews who lived in Palestine during Paul’s day they were of mixed stock.
Meaning that one of there parents or grandparents was not totally Jewish
But not Paul.
No He was a direct descendant of Abraham.
There was No gentile blood in his veins.
He is stating here the he is of the race of God’s chosen people.
And not only of Israel but that he is of the tribe of Benjamin.
Now If we Looked at the tribe of Benjamin we would see that it produced the first king of Israel,
who Paul was originally named after, Saul.
The tribe of Benjamin was also the foremost tribe in the army of Israel.
So Paul was proud to be of this tribe.
And He goes on to say that Not only was he circumcised the eighth day,
not only is he of the stock of Israel
and of the tribe of Benjamin,
but he says that he is "a Hebrew of the Hebrews".
Meaning that There was no mixing of the customs of the gentiles in Paul’s life.
No He had lived by the ways of the Hebrew people,
he had stuck to their customs,
he had stuck to their language,
he was strict Jew.
But Paul does not stop their.
No He still has more to brag about.
Not only am I all this he says
but I am a Pharisee to.
Which we all know was to the Jew in those days the ultimate in religious experience.
If anybody was going to heaven it was the Pharisees
At least that was the way they saw it in those days
You see the Pharisees in Paul’s day was regarded as being extremely righteous.
Sometime about 100 B.C. when Greek influences started to make their way into Jewish customs there arose a group that fought against those influences,
that group became known as the Pharisees.
They was very strict in obeying the law of God,
as they saw it anyway
Paul continues to say that he was not just any Pharisee,
but that he was a Pharisee with zeal.
One who would fight against any and all opposition.
You will all remember I'm sure that Paul had persecuted the early church
But what I want to point out is that he did so because he saw it as an enemy to the Pharisees,
As an enemy to God himself.
He was determined to crush this new sect.
Now that is not an excuse for what he did
but he was pointing out to these people that he was one who would have done whatever necessary to protect Gods chosen people and Gods law that they followed so strictly
Paul then goes on to say that he "was blameless"
as far as the law was concerned.
He had attained the righteousness that he saw in the law.
Now Paul is certainly not saying that he was sinless.
But What he is saying is that he had lived up to their standard of righteousness,
a standard that he believed at the time was God’s standard.
So these are the things which Paul had.
These are the thing which he had placed all his confidence,
these are the things that he had lived his whole life with and doing
And the things that he had believed would get him into heaven.
And he was letting the people know that if salvation was based on good works
religious zeal
And the law
Well then He would have no problem getting in.
He is telling the people of Philippi,
That those people who have come to you telling you that you need to this and that in order to be righteous before God,
These so called religious leaders well they don't have nothing on me,
just take a look at my record,
Take a look at my resume
Just look at what I have done.
But then Paul tells them, that while I'm telling you that if anyone has reason to brag it’s me,
I want you to know that all that I had gained prior to Christ is totally useless
Then After Paul made a list of everything that he had gained and accomplished in his live,
Well he then tell us what he had lost.
He first says
"what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."
He is saying all those thing I just told you about
Well I'm willing to lose all of that for Jesus, because without him, there nothing.
Paul says my church status means nothing without Christ.
Without Christ it does not matter that I was circumcised on the eighth day.
My ancestry, The fact that I am a direct descendant of Abraham means nothing without Christ.
Without Christ it does not matter that I am of the stock of Israel,
It does matter that I am from the tribe of Benjamin, it
does not matter that I am a Hebrew of Hebrews.
Without Christ none of this means anything
Without Christ it don't matter that I was a Pharisee,
without Christ it don't matter that not only was I a Pharisee but a Pharisee with zeal
Without Christ all of that means absolutely nothing.
All these things Paul had spent his entire life working for,
striving to attain,
he says are all lost for Christ.
They just didn’t matter anymore.
Not only did Paul see those things listed as a loss for Christ,
but he considered all things as a loss for Christ.
All his life Paul had looking at the wrong things.
He was faithful in obeying the requirements of the law,
but in the light of Jesus Christ, he looked and realized that all things, without Jesus Christ, are loss.
They are useless.
They are as Paul said not only useless but he counts them as dung
As I'm sure everyone already knows
That word also means "manure".
So Paul is saying that everything he did in his own righteousness,
needed to be cast away.
It needed To be gotten rid of,
It needed to be replaced by the Lord Jesus Christ.
To Paul everything compared to Christ was dung
Just a pile of manure
It meant nothing
Because Paul knew that without Christ we really don’t have anything anyway.
And without Christ we will lose everything in the end.
Anything that got in the way of a personal relationship with Christ
Well it needed to be cast away like garbage.
Now we have seen what Paul had,
We have seen what Paul lost,
Now let us look at what Paul gained.
Paul tells us that he had given up all these thing that he might gain Christ.
Wow!
What a thing to gain.
The Lord of Lords,
the King of Kings,
the prince of peace.
Everlasting life
Paul realized that nothing he had lost, could possibly compare to all that he had gained in Jesus Christ.
What do we gain when we gain Christ?
We gain a friend,
We gain a advocate who stands before the Father on our behalf.
We gain a mediator,
a Saviour,
a redeemer,
a high priest,
and the list goes on and on.
I urge you all to study the first four books of the New Testament, and see for yourselves what you gain when you gain Jesus.
If you truly pay attention to what the gospels tell us then you will want to gain Jesus.
But Most importantly when you gain Jesus you gain eternal life,
and there is nothing more important than that.
Eternal life in the presence of the Almighty God.
Paul makes note of gaining "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus".
He about gaining an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
A personal loving relationship with our Creator.
This knowledge of Jesus don't come from reading about him
or hearing about him,
the knowledge of Jesus comes from a relationship with him.
We all know about Barrack Obama
We can say we know him in the sense that we know he is our president,
we know what he looks like,
we know his voice,
we know how he acts.
But I don’t think anyone here really knows him in the sense that they have personal relationship with him.
You see what I'm trying to say is
To know Jesus is not to know just what he taught,
Not just to know the he died on a cross,
No the excellence knowledge of Jesus Christ that Paul speaks about here means to have that personal relationship with Him.
And to know the Son is to know the Father,
and to know the Father,
to have a relationship with the Father
Well that equals eternal life!
John 17:3
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
PAUL ALSO GAINED RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH HIS FAITH.
THROUGH THIS KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS.
NOT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW
BUT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS
Verse 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
HE GAINED THE ONLY RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT COUNTS
Our own righteousness won't help us
Isaiah 64:6
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Now I want you all to notice that Paul made this gain by giving up everything else
By casting them away,
by setting straight his priorities,
which come by and through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
So as we have looked at what Paul had,
at what Paul lost
and at what Paul gained how do we apply it to our own lives.
Let’s begin by asking the question of What do I have?
What can I boast in?
Maybe you was born of Christian parents
Raised in a christian home
Maybe you Know Christian truths
You are Associated with Christian fellowship,
church attendance
Maybe you have a Zeal for Christian work,
You give to missionaries.
Well there is nothing wrong with those things
But I want you to know that those things mean nothing if you do not trust,
love,
and obey Jesus.
They mean nothing if you do not a have an excellent knowledge of Jesus,
They mean nothing if you have never gained Christ
Ask yourself what am I willing to lose?
Are you willing as Paul was to lose everything to gain Christ?
Well If you understood all He has to offer then there would be no question.
Are you willing to loss your very life to gain Jesus?
Jesus tells us in
John 12:25
25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
We must be willing to lose it all if we want to gain Christ.
When we put our trust and our faith in Him we gain so much more than when lose.
To gain Christ is to gain everything because Jesus Christ is everything
So I ask you today to put your priorities straight.
Pray to God for the strength to give up all things for loss that you may gain Jesus Christ
that you may gain eternal life.
I would just to like to close with some words from a missionary in South America by the name of Jim Elliot
He was killed by a group of natives that he was presenting the gospel to
that same group would later accept Christ through the work of Mr. Elliots wife.
Mr. Elliot wisely said
"He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
LET'S PRAY!
