(Based on a sermon preached October 8, 2023 at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO. This is not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: October is clergy appreciation month and I’m grateful for the men of God whom our Lord has placed in my life. Words can’t express how much gratitude I feel for them, even if I didn’t always feel that way in the past!
One preacher who might have some things to appreciate was Paul. He was given some things, he achieved some other things, but he realized at the last what was really important. Let’s begin.
Text, Philippians 3:1-11, KJV: 1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
1 What Paul had received
I may have mentioned this before, but it’s worth remembering that Philippi was a unique place in those days. Philippi was a Roman ‘colony”, a place made to look and feel like Rome, in honor of the Roman army veterans who were able to live there. I was shocked to learn that the typical Roman army recruit enlisted for 20 years (!) but, if he survived, was given a great number of privileges and benefits. One such benefit was the chance to retire to a colony, like Philippi.
With this in mind, Paul starts this third chapter of his letter to the Philippians with a word of exhortation (rejoice in the Lord) and a word of warning. Something to remember was that “dogs” were wild animals in those days, scavenging and basically not worth getting to know. I’ve never heard of anyone keeping a pet dog in those days.
He also warned the Philippians to beware of the evil workers and the false circumcision. We’re not told of any problems in Philippi which had plagued Galatia (see the letter to the Galatians and also Acts 15) but Paul knew full well what these false teachers could and did do.
Paul didn’t stop there, by the way. He emphasized that believers were the true circumcision and paraphrases a good bit of Romans 4 in the process. The main idea is that circumcision doesn’t save the soul but faith in Jesus Christ does.
After this, he begins to explain some of the things he had already received. I mean, nobody is able to choose their parents before birth and nobody I know of has been able to request, “God, I would like to be born to millionaire parents” or anything like that! Paul, then, couldn’t have had anything to do with his parents (and, interestingly, we’re not told who they were!) or where he was born. Tarsus was better than some other places, I’m sure!
Now Paul begins to list some of these inherited things or what he had received. First, he says he had been “circumcised the eighth day”, in accordance with the Law (Leviticus 12:3). This means his parents were devout, observant, Jews. I don’t read anywhere else that any male was required to be circumcised unless he was a descendant of Abraham. True, Paul did have Timothy circumcised but that was a special case.
Paul went on to say that he was “of the nation (“stock”, King James Version) of Israel”, meaning he and his family were truly descended from Abraham, not converts or proselytes. Certainly there was nothing wrong with this, as Rahab, Ruth, and others left their previous culture and religion/s to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This only means that his family had maintained their devotion to not only the God of Israel but also the nation of Israel.
And Paul could also trace his ancestry back to the tribe of Benjamin. Now, the Roman army veterans who lived in Philippi may not have known or cared about this, but Paul was making sure to prove his identity. Then again, the Romans might have known about Benjamin being a warrior tribe, when this one tribe held off two massive attacks in Israel’s first civil war (Judges 19-21). Admiration aside, Benjamin was almost wiped out as a tribe! Only 600 men out of over 25,000 survived the tidal wave of the other Israelites. One of Paul’s ancestors, then, must have been one of these 600 (as one wag put it, had his great-great-whole lotta great-grandpas died, Paul wouldn’t have been born!).
Then Paul gave a word about his parents. He said he was a “Hebrew of Hebrews”, which may mean several things. For most Jews, Hebrew or Aramaic was their first or heart language, especially true of the Jews who lived in and near Israel itself. For other Jews, living away from Israel, their most fluent language seemed to be Greek or the dialect where they were living. Acts 2 gives a sample of where many Jews lived, from Babylon to Rome.
So, Paul’s parents seemed to have lived as Jews of Israel no matter where they lived. It’s true that Paul was born “Saul of Tarsus”, and Tarsus was many miles away from Jerusalem on the coast of Asia Minor or Turkey of today. Saul was born there but was brought up in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3) and this was the foundation for his life as a promising young Pharisee.
2 What Paul had achieved
There’s not really a break in thought as Paul wrote verse 6 but we can see where he changed his focus. He had listed things which he really had little control over; now we can see how he tried to chart his own course, so to speak.
He first says he was a Pharisee, as to the Law. Again, now much the people of Philippi knew about the distinctions in Judaism is something we may never know. Paul, though, knew and had probably dealt with the Sadducees, Herodians, and who knows how many others during his days in Jerusalem. The Pharisees were outwardly righteous and religious, but they were some of the fiercest critics Jesus ever faced. Just skim any of the Gospels, especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and take note of how many times the Pharisees came to Jesus—mostly to argue!
Then Paul said he was not only a Pharisee, and a member of “the strictest sect of our religion (Judaism), Acts 26:5”, but also zealous to the point of persecuting the Church. As Saul of Tarsus, he was there when Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 7:54-60). After this, he began looking for people in Jerusalem who followed Jesus in order to have them punished or even executed (Acts 26:9-11). He was on his way to Damascus to arrest more believers when he met the Risen Lord as he traveled (Acts 9). I doubt he ever got over this.
And he capped off all of this by saying, as far as the righteousness in the Law was concerned, he was blameless! That reminds me, some, of what the rich young ruler had said to Jesus in Mark 10:17-31. The young man had listened to Jesus list six of the commandments and said, “I’ve kept all those since my youth!” But the difference between these two is tremendous: the young ruler met Jesus, but walked away; Saul of Tarsus met the Risen Lord and chose to walk in His way.
It sure looks like Paul had a lot of good things going for him, and, humanly speaking, he did. But, Paul realized that all of the stuff he had done, earned, whatever, just didn’t add up to much of anything when he saw what the Lord Jesus Christ had given him. Let’s take a look at this.
3 What Paul had realized
It’s true, Paul—when he was still known as Saul of Tarsus—was a rising star in Judaism during those early days of the Church. The apostles were preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and standing firm even in those early days of persecution and this became more than the leaders could stand. Acts, chapters 3 through 7, show this vividly. The martyrdom/execution of Stephen was probably the first or second step in Saul’s rising through the ranks among the Pharisees.
But everything changed when he met Jesus and believe in Him. Paul had to realize that everything Judaism, including being a Pharisee, wasn’t enough. He said that all he had gained, he counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed he did: compare all that he had received and achieved, as listed in this passage—he lost them all!—with his own self-description in 2 Corinthians 11!
There’s more that Paul said in this passage but let me close this one by saying, of all the things that Paul used to have, as impressive as they were, he appreciated what Jesus had done all the more. In fact, Paul said in so many words that all he used to have was rubbish or trash, nothing worth holding on to.
I’m reminded of a painting or picture in volume 10 of “The Bible Story” books—you know, the series where volume 1 was in the doctor’s office, dentist’s office, wherever. The painting I’m thinking of shows Paul, standing beside a beautiful throne. There was also a victor’s wreath, a large bag of money with coins spilling out of it, a sword, and maybe some other things too. But Paul was standing next to the throne, almost like he was shoving it and all the other goodies away, because he saw Jesus! And for Paul, that was enough. He had Jesus, and that was enough.
You and I all have things we’ve received, and things we’ve achieved. None of these will get any of us into Heaven, though, and in fact may be a hindrance! But when we see Jesus, and experience the grace and salvation He alone provides, we’ll realize that all of the “stuff” we had isn’t worth much of anything.
And like Paul, we can realize that when we have Jesus, we’ll always have enough.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
