Technicolor Joy: Philippians 3:1-3
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
07-30-2023
Liz’s Question
Her name was Liz. She was in her early 20s and I worked with her at Red Lobster. She came to me at the end of her shift crying and asked if she could talk to me in the back.
When I got back there, most of the waitstaff had congregated around Liz to try to see what was going on.
She looked me straight in the eye and said, “Jeff, Am I going to hell because I have short hair?”
I felt my blood pressure go through the roof. I knew what had happened. There were two young guys who were in a local Bible college that was incredibly legalistic.
Liz said that one of them told her that she was going to hell because she had short hair. She wanted to know what I thought. Everyone around us got very quiet and I was able to tell the Gospel love story.
I explained that no one goes to hell because of their hair. God wanted her heart. I took a breath and said, “For God so loved Liz, that He gave His only Son, that if she would put her faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins, she would never have to worry about hell, but live with God in heaven as a part of his forever family.
I prayed with her and then went and found one of the young legalists and told him that if he ever said anything like that to Liz again I would punch him in the throat…in Jesus’ name!
Remember, it’s Jesus + Nothing = Everything!
It’s not Jesus + short hair or Jesus + baptism or Jesus + speaking in tongues or Jesus + the “correct” translation of the Bible.
We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
But the Jesus + people are everywhere and their religion is not one of freedom but of slavery.
Video of guy screaming about beards.
In today’s verses, Paul is going to give the Philippians a command and a warning and contrast real Christianity with false Christianity.
Turn in your Bible to Philippians 3.
Prayer
Joy
“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.”
When Paul writes “finally,” you might think that it signals the end of the letter. But there are two more chapters to go.
Is this a “pastor finally?” At the church we attended in Mississippi, the pastor had been going for almost an hour when he said, “And finally.” Some actually let out a loud sigh because they knew that meant he wasn’t really done.
This is better translated, as “as to the rest” or “furthermore.”
And what does Paul command? He commands the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord! The verb tense means to go on constantly rejoicing. And it’s plural.
The word joy, rejoice, or glad is used 326 times in the Bible making it one of the major themes.
In John, joy comes from answered prayer.
In Acts, joy comes with the advance of the Gospel.
In Romans, the kingdom of God is joy.
In Galatians, joy is a fruit of the Spirit.
In Colossians, we can have joy in all affliction.
In I Peter, we are filled with joy.
In James, when we know the truth we find joy.
In I John, we find joy in Christian fellowship
In Revelation, we will experience joy through eternity.
Walter Hanson wrote:
“Like a mighty river surging through solid rock, joy flows from this letter to the suffering community of believers in Philippi giving them love for one another and the presence of God.”
Paul uses the word joy, rejoice, or glad sixteen times. We need to distinguish joy from happiness.
Happiness is dependent on circumstances. When everything is going well, we are happy. When they are not, we are unhappy.
The kind of joy Paul is discussing here is very different from happiness. This is contentedness, a deep-seated joy in believing the Gospel.
Philip Ryken writes:
“Joy is the exhilaration of the heart that comes from being right with God.”
In other words, this joy comes from Paul’s relationship with Jesus Christ:
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1:8-9)
Billy Sunday, the early 20th-century baseball star turned evangelist, said,
“The trouble with most men is that they have just enough religion to make them miserable. If there is no joy in your Christianity, you might have a leak!”
Paul doesn’t suggest that we be joyful. He commands it twice. Here and in chapter four.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4)
Easy right? Hmmm…
It’s not easy to be joyful when the diagnosis comes back and it’s not good when the bank account is running dry, when your marriage goes south, or your kids go wild.
This is not a natural joy.
This is a joy that only Jesus can give to you. It’s a supernatural joy.
We need to fix our eyes on Jesus and remember that at the cross, He chose joy:
“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Paul tells them that he never gets tired of telling them about joy! It’s easy, not a burden, to remind them of what he told them when he was there in person.
Most of the preaching and teaching of the Bible is just repetition. I don’t have anything original to say. I say the same things in different ways each week. We all need reminding of the Gospel because we forget so easily.
Repetition is how you learned your ABCs, times tables, or lines in a school play.
I heard of a story of a young preacher who preached his first sermon at his new church. The sermon was called “Love One Another.” Afterward, the church was buzzing. It was a great sermon and everyone told him how great a job he did.
The second week, he got up and preached the exact same sermon. People thought that maybe he had a hard week and didn’t have time to prepare.
In the third week, we preached the exact same sermon, “Love One Another!” When he was done, one of the members stood up and said “Do you realize that you have preached the same sermon three weeks in a row?” The young pastor said, “Yes, I do realize that. I’m going to preach it until you start doing it. Then I’ll move on!”
Peter wrote:
“So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.” (2 Peter 1:12)
Paul says that this joy will be a safeguard for them. This word means “protection against tripping or stumbling, leading to great injury.”
Nehemiah 8:10 tells us: “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Paul knew there were false teachers that could steal their joy. That’s why he then gives them a warning.
Beware
“Watch out for those dogs, those men that do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.”
Paul is saying, “Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!”
When we see “Beware the Dog,” we know to be wary of the pup on the inside of the fence.
When we encounter a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign, we walk a little more carefully.
When we see this sign, we know not to stand behind a hippo!
Paul loves this church and doesn’t want anything, or anyone, to steal their joy.
He is going to contrast the false teachers with true Christians. He uses three words, all starting with the letter k, to describe the joy-stealing teachers.
Dogs
When you read “dogs,” don’t think about Luna Mae, Pepper, Bear, Zach, or Gracie. In that culture, dogs weren’t pets. They roamed in packs, would attack people, eat garbage, were full of disease, and were considered unclean.
Jewish people actually called Gentiles dogs. Paul turned that around on them and says, “You are actually the dogs!”
Just like the mangy mutts, these dogs growled and snapped at those who trusted in Christ alone through faith alone.
Men who do evil
From the outside, these false teachers looked very religious. They wanted to keep the Philippians on the straight and narrow. Yes, yes, we are so glad that you have trusted Christ. But that’s just the beginning. Paul left out the most important thing. In order to become a Christian you must first follow the Jewish rules and most of all be circumcised.
Those mutilators of the flesh.
This is a play on words. The word that Paul uses here is not to cut around but to cut off!
Paul is saying that if you make circumcision a pre-requisite for salvation then you are no different than the pagan priests who cut themselves as they danced around their altars.
Once Gentiles started coming to faith in Christ, there was a lot of controversy.
But Paul had been a part of the official church meeting that settled the Gentle question once and for all:
“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.” (Acts 15:19-20)
Why should they abstain from food sacrificed to idols? Because they were pagans and that was part of their old way of life. And why should they avoid sexual immorality? Because that was part of the practices in the pagan temple.
Notice what James didn’t say that Gentiles had to do - be circumcised, follow the dietary laws (they could keep eating their pork sandwiches), or celebrate feast days (those were a shadow/symbol of Christ).
Jesus had fulfilled the Law for us, in our place, when we couldn’t. We are no longer under law but the church was starting to learn to dance to the rhythm of grace.
Paul was preaching to pagans who had never heard of any of that. All they understood was that they were sinners and that Jesus died in their place, for their sins, to redeem them and give them a relationship with God.
Paul’s view of Circumcision
Let’s stop for a moment and answer a question that some of you might have. What’s the deal with circumcision? Why is it so important?
In America, more than 80% of men are circumcised, usually done in the first couple of days of life. For the most part, this has nothing to do with religion but is a health issue.
But for a first-century Jew, it meant everything:
It was commanded in the Old Testament.
It was a mark of holiness that set Jewish males apart as holy to the Lord
It was a mark of the covenant and a doorway to the whole Law.
It reminded him at the most intimate times of his life that his body was not his own and that he should honor God with all the parts of his body.
Paul was circumcised and, as a Pharisee, he had taught that a person must be circumcised to be a Jew.
The false teachers demanded that these new Gentile believers be circumcised:
“The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” (Acts 15:1)
But now, he dances to a different rhythm:
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:2-6)
What a completely radical transformation of thought! Circumcision was a symbol and Christians were not to have their foreskins removed to be saved but to have their hearts circumcised.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“It is impossible for us to estimate how much we owe to the apostle Paul of all who have ever lived, we who are Gentiles owe more to him than to say other man. See how he fought our battles for us. When our Jewish brethren would have excluded us because we were not of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, how bravely did he contend that, if we were partakers of the same faith, Abraham is the father of all the faithful that he was loved of God, and the covenant was made with him, not in circumcision, but before he was circumcised, and that we are partakers of that covenant.”
John Stott writes:
“The law requires works of human achievement; the gospel requires faith in Christ’s achievement. The law makes demands and bids us obey; the gospel brings promises and bids us believe.”
These Gentiles had not even heard of the Law. All they knew was that they were sinners and Christ died for them. When they placed their faith in Christ, God lavishly gave them the Holy Spirit.
Why in the world, would they try to add works of the law to their faith?
Because following rules is just easier. This Is how we are wired. Tell me what I need to do to make God happy with me and I’ll do them.
But Christianity is not about rules, it’s about a relationship with Christ. We obey God not out of fear but out of love and freedom.
In other words, we don’t worry about people’s hair we are concerned about their hearts.
What has Jesus set us from?
We have been set free from the burden of our sins
We have been set free from the guilt of our sins
We have been set from empty religion
We are free from the penalty of sin (justification) and from the power of sin (sanctification)
We are free to call God “Abba” has His children
We are free to approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16)
We are set free from the fear of death
I love what Matt Chandler says, “We have been set from fear-based behavioral modification.”
And if Jesus sets you free you are free indeed!
When you add to Jesus you subtract the joy that comes from dancing to the rhythm of His grace.
We see this best in the story of the Prodigal Son. The young man asks his father for his inheritance and takes off to a foreign country. He wastes all the money on “wild living” and ends up destitute working in a pig pen.
Scripture says he “came to his senses.” He started home, prepared to be just another one of his Father’s servants. But the father was looking for him. He told his servants,
‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15: 22-24)
Meanwhile, the older brother was in the field. When he came to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come”, he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has back safe and sound.”
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father.
“All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”
Instead of celebrating the return of his brother, he immediately starts a pity party for himself!
He becomes angry. He loses his cool. He blows his top. This is the ultimate indignation. His brother returns home looking terrible and smelling like a pig and he gets a party?! “I’m not going in there!” he snorts. I’ve been slaving for you. You never let me have a party with my friends.
This is the attitude of legalism. I have done for you and what do I get for it? It is an attitude of pride. The self-righteous smugness of the older brother not only mirrors the Pharisees but also many in our culture today.
Christians are angry with people who sin. Just remember cows don’t lay eggs. Sinners sin because they are sinners. It is their nature. One of my favorite Brian Billisms is that we often do not like people who sin differently than we do.
The Pharisees could not imagine God being this gracious. There are really two prodigals in the story. The younger brother abandoned his father physically. The older abandoned him in heart. He was there the whole time, working and serving, but his heart was far from the father.
All the sins of the younger brother could not keep him out of heaven due to his repentance. All the virtue of the older brother couldn’t get him into heaven because of his pride. He was just as lost as his brother but he was too self-righteous to admit it.
Perhaps you have been working hard for God, but, if truth be known, your heart is far from Him. Can you hear such a person?
“Why all the fuss about these new families? What is this church coming to? We used to be so proper now we’ve got people showing up without ties on. We have kids with green hair and their belly buttons pierced. We’ve got single mothers, divorced dads, alcoholics and drug addicts, and a pregnant teenager with a tattoo. We’ve got a family who aren’t even Christians sitting right in front of us. One time the whole herd sat in our row, in our very seats! When’s the last time the pastor honored me for my faithfulness to this church?”
Just like the older brother, we will miss out on opportunities to celebrate God’s work in people’s lives if we do not focus on the heart of the matter:
Lost people matter to God so they should matter to us as well.
The story is really more about the Father’s heart than it is about the prodigal son.
The father goes out to meet the brother and he pleads with him to join the celebration. He accepts him “you are my son…all I have is yours.” He offers him grace and forgiveness. The story ends with the dad and older brother standing outside the house staring at each other and the younger brother basking in the celebration.
The story also ends with the sinners and tax collectors understanding the passion of God’s heart toward lost people. The Pharisees walked away from the crowd, shaking their heads, and following their rules.
The story is told of two beautiful young ladies and their joyless father, who is a pastor of his own joyless religion. The sisters grow old, still devoted to their father’s religion, and now leading a dying little group of uptight, aging, true believers.
One rainy night a young woman comes to the door, begging for help. She’s a refugee from war-torn Paris. She becomes their maid and cook and serves them for many years until she wins the lottery.
She takes her lottery winnings and decides to make the most ridiculously fabulous meal imaginable for the old ladies and their congregation.
Little did they know that she was one of the greatest chefs in the world until she had to leave France.
She served buckwheat cakes with caviar, turtle soup, and her specialty - quail in pastry with foie gras and truffle sauce. This is paired with the rare and delicious wines and she served the entire meal on fine china she ordered with new linen and crystal.
The ladies watch the preparation and aren’t happy. It’s just not right.
They decide, along with their little congregation, to eat it but not enjoy it. They realize it’s a gift but they don’t have to like it.
They eat slowly at first. They eye one another, making sure no one is enjoying this too much. But it’s too good. It’s all too good. The setting, the atmosphere, the soup, the wine, it’s simply spectacular. And joy breaks out!
Babette had spent all her winnings on her feast and the little joyless congregation found joy again.
Paul is now going to contrast this false teaching with true faith in Christ.
The Real Deal
“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.”
True circumcision
Paul wrote to the Romans:
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29)
He’s just reminding them of Deuteronomy 30:
“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.” (Deut 30:6)
Only the Spirit of God can circumcise your heart. This is a heart that has been captured by grace. The things that take the heart away from God are cut away and our heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh. (Eek 36:26)
Paul then lists three defining features of someone whose heart has been circumcised [born again]:
serve/worship God by His Spirit
Paul doesn’t use his normal word for worship. The word he uses means “service, expressed in devotion to God.”
When Jesus met the woman at the well, who had been married five times, and started trying to talk to her, she wanted to argue about where people should worship.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:19-20)
Jesus’s answer changes everything:
“…believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24)
Paul is writing about a lifestyle of worship, energized by the Spirit, where we worship Him with all our hearts which leads to joy!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1)
This isn’t just singing songs on a Sunday morning, although that is good. This is about picking a friend's beans on a hot day because she’s having a hard time.
boast in Jesus
In trying to get through to the Pharisees, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:9-14)
Jesus then blew their minds and said that the tax collector was justified before God, not the religious man.
The Pharisees wanted to boast about how pious they were. The tax collector knew he couldn’t boast about anything other than God’s mercy.
I love what he wrote to the Corinthians:
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (I Cor 1:26-31)
The only thing we add to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.
Paul understands this and wrote to the Galatians:
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14)
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song that captures this:
And how can I kneel here / And think of the cross
The thorns and the whip and the nails and the spear
The infinite cost
To purchase my pardon / And bear all my shame
To think I have anything worth boasting in
Except for Your name
'Cause I am a sinner / And You are the Savior and
I want to make much of You, Jesus
I want to make much of Your love
I want to live today to give You the praise
That You alone are so worthy of
I want to make much of Your mercy
I want to make much of Your cross
I give You my life
Take it and let it be used
To make much of You
R. Kent Hughes writes:
“We boast because it is not our hold on Christ that saves us - it is Christ. We boast because it is not our joy in Christ that saves us - it is Christ. We boast because it is not even our faith that saves us - it is Christ.
Is Christ your one, single magnificent obsession?
put no confidence in the flesh
When Paul uses the word flesh he is not meaning your skin. In this context, he is meaning your ability to save yourself.
You cannot hop high enough for God’s holiness. You cannot be good enough to get into heaven.
What if we had a contest about who could jump over the grand canyon? Can you imagine each of us trying and falling? But as we lay there on the ground each of us starts bragging that we jump further than the person next to us.
Who cares! No one came close to achieving the goal!
We couldn’t be good enough to keep the law perfectly. But Jesus did. And His A+ was applied to the top of our tests.
You don’t go to heaven because of anything you DO but because of what Jesus has DONE!
And understanding that leads you to see others with new eyes.
Tony Campolo is a sociologist, writer, and professor. He was speaking at a conference in Hawaii and couldn’t sleep. He walked down to a diner and sat at the counter and had a piece of pie.
At about 3:00 am, a group of women came in together, and it was pretty obvious what profession they were in.
Tony overheard one say to a woman named Agnes, “Isn’t your birthday tomorrow? Do you want a cake?”
Agnes answered, “I’ve never had a birthday party or cake so why start now.”
When they left, Tony asked the guy behind the counter if they came in every night and he said yes.
He then suggested that they make a cake and throw her a birthday party.
The next morning the place was packed. Word had gotten out and the place was full of prostitutes. Harry had the cake that read “Happy Birthday Agnus” ready.
When she came in the place erupted into Happy Birthday.
Agnes was flabbergasted and a friend actually had to help hold her up.
She blew out the candles as tears ran down her face. She then said, “Please don’t cut it. I want to keep it. I’m going to take it home and I’ll be right back.”
Tony stood up and asked if he could pray. He prayed for her salvation, for her life to change, and for her to understand the joy that only Jesus can give.
The guy behind the counter said, “You never said you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
Sometimes the words come at just the right moment. Tony smiled and said, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 am in the morning! “
Harry answered, “No you don’t. Because that kind of church doesn’t exist. But if they did, I’d be the first one to join!”
Jesus + Nothing = JOY!
