In the end, nothing else matters except God. In the end, nothing else matters except God. What do you think when you hear that? In my year seven classes at school we’ve started the Christian Studies programme by looking at the theme, "What’s important in my life", and ultimately seeing where God needs to fit into our lives. We did this exercise where I wrote on the board a whole list of different things that kids might consider part of their lives – food, family, sport, computer games, music, etc – and, of course, I put God up there as well. Then I told the kids to prioritise them, list them in order from most to least important to them. Of course there were lots of individual responses, but there were some general themes I could identify. Most of the girls put family at the top while most boys put either playstation or sport. After they had completed the exercise, one of the more thoughtful students asked me, "where should God go on the list?" A few other kids became interested in the question, so I said, "let’s see what Jesus says about – what sort of priority does he say we should give to him?" We looked up Luke 14: 26-27 and we read this: (Jesus says), "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple". After we had talked about what that actually meant, one of the kids exclaimed, but that’s ridiculous! And when we read Luke 14, or we read of Paul’s attitude in Philippians, I think that’s our sort of reaction. When Paul says that he considers everything else rubbish so that he may gain Christ, many of us might be tempted to think that they are just the words of a specially-chosen, freakishly religious man. But surely the rest of us mere mortals can’t expect to be as singularly committed as he is. That’s not to say Christ isn’t incredibly important to us. He is, but we’ve got other things in our life as well that, we’ve got responsibilities too. I remember my parents once saying to me, "It’s right that God is important to you, James, but don’t forget that there are other things in life as well." What does Philippians 3 say in response to that sort of attitude?
Paul begins by reminding them of a warning. He wants to safeguard them against a certain false teaching. The particular false teaching he’s referring to is that from the circumcision group, most likely the same teaching referred to in Galatians, Titus and other letters. Most of the early Christians were Jews and they had a difficult time accepting that Gentiles could also now be part of God’s people. Some were insisting that people had to be circumcised to be saved. But Paul condemns such thoughts. Those who teach such things are dogs, they are men who do evil, they are mutilators of the flesh, from vs 2. The use of the term dogs is significant, because this was the way Jews often referred to Gentiles, but instead here Paul is turning the insult around. It is not them who are the true circumcised people, the true people of God are those with circumcised hearts – in others words, people who put their hope in Christ and follow him rather than trusting in [how much of their genitals they still have] the flesh – and as I’ve heard said before, it’s an awfully small bit of flesh to put your confidence in..
Paul doesn’t put his confidence in the flesh, and he’s got more reason than anyone to do so. He lists them in vss 5-6: 5 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; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" These were all the things he used to pride himself in. He used to put his confidence in the fact that he was a Jew, and a zealous, righteous Jew at that. But since Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul has known that it’s not about circumcision or legalism or birthright. It’s about Jesus dying and rising again, and granting his Spirit to those who put their faith in him – whatever their background.
I’d be very surprised if there was anyone here today who was constantly troubled by the temptation to put their confidence in the fact that they are circumcised or a Pharisee or of the Tribe of Benjamin. But that doesn’t mean that this passage can’t be a warning for us as well.
If you’ve been a Christian for a long time, or sometimes even if we haven’t, there’s always a temptation to slowly and subtly start shifting the focus of our confidence away from the person of Jesus Christ and onto ourselves, onto the flesh. Instead of Paul’s list in vss 5-6, we’d have our own: "Been a Christian for 5,10,20 years, born into a Christian family, am a church warden, teach Sunday school, am an upright and respected member of the community." We wouldn’t say it like that. We wouldn’t even admit to ourselves that we’re thinking like that. But we’d still be slowly replacing the cross with ourselves. And whatever sort of person you are, that can’t give you real confidence, it can’t save you because it’s of the flesh – it’s sinful and it won’t last.
There’s a kid in one of my classes at school and he’s - well, he’s a interesting sort. I can’t help liking the kid, but he can be annoying and hyperactive and rebellious. He’s taken a particular liking to flicking rubber bands around recently – but then so have half the school. Everyone always seems to comment on what an idiot he is, and a lot of the time he behaves that way. In class a couple of weeks ago we were looking at sin in the world today a whole lot of examples that we had found in newspapers and elsewhere of sin. This kid enthusiastically put his hand up and said, write my name on the board ’cause I’m an idiot. He got a few laughs, which was probably what he was looking for, and he then continued with the theme for the rest of the lesson, with a whole range of self-putdowns, all with the same grin on his face. I’ve been around kids long enough to know that, despite the grin, this self-deprecating behaviour was probably indicative of a boy who is pretty lonely and has very low self-esteem. And, the trouble is, he can’t find confidence in himself. If we all looked at ourselves honestly, I think we’d find the same thing. He’s an annoying kid who acts like an idiot a lot of the time. He was theologically right on the mark, because he is sinful and his name, along with everyone else’s, deserved to go on the board. I found myself thinking in a very profound sense that period – this boy needs Jesus. They all do, of course, but it struck me especially with this boy – in Christ, he can know that whatever he is and whatever he has done, God loves him. He can have a righteousness that doesn’t come from his behaviour but from faith in Christ’s sacrifice. He can know the creator and saviour of the universe.
That’s why Paul says in vs. 8 that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. "Whatever was to my profit," he states in vs. 7, "I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." By that he means all those things he thought were good for him – the zeal, the legalism, the circumcision – he now considers them a loss, because they could draw him away from Christ. And even more remarkably, everything is a loss simply because it is not Christ. Wealth, prestige, family and friends, respectability, a nice car, a good job, happiness and contentment, it’s all rubbish, says Paul. The word rubbish doesn’t fully capture the disdain Paul holds for the flesh, though. The KJV translates it as "dung". God is saying that all that stuff which people in this world value so highly is faeces – it’s about as worthwhile as poo. That doesn’t mean Paul completely ignores them – he still worked and earned money as a tentmaker, if you remember – but any other activity is completely subservient to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. He worked so he could support himself as he took the gospel to the nations, so he could pay his way and wouldn’t be a burden on others. But it is knowing Christ which drives him. It is serving God and, as a consequence, serving other people, that is the singular focus of his life. Look at vs. 10: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering." Paul wants to suffer so he can have fellowship with Christ. It’s that sort of single-minded commitment, that realization that nothing else matters, which spurs Paul on, and also needs to drive us. In 1:21, there’s the famous statement: "To live is Christ and to die is gain". And that’s what Paul is reflecting here. Christ is not just a part of his life, the Lord is his life, and he longs to be with him, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
A story is told of a preacher who held a meeting in the southwest.
At one point in his sermon, the old minister spoke of Simon of Cyrene and asked the audience to determine in their own hearts their reaction to that scene.
Just then a young boy came walking up the aisle on little fat, brown legs, with serious determination in his eyes. The preacher stopped speaking and the congregation was as quiet as death.
"You asked what I would have done if I had been in the crowd when Jesus fell under the weight of His cross." He looked earnestly up at the preacher. "Sir, I would have helped Him carry it."
He was a Mexican boy around nine years old. His father was a miner and his mother was an outcast.
The minister lifted his arm and cried: "Yes, and if you had helped Him to carry His cross, the cruel Roman soldiers would have beaten down across your back with their whips until the blood ran down to your heels!"
He never flinched. Meeting the preacher’s look with one of cool courage, he gritted through clenched teeth: "I don’t care. I would have helped Him carry it just the same."
Two weeks later, at the close of the service, the old preacher stood at the door, greeting people as they left. When the little boy, Pedro, came by, he patted him affectionately on the back. Pedro pulled away with a little cry. "Please don’t do that. My back is sore."
The preacher stood astonished; he had barely touched his shoulders. He took him to a room and removed his shirt. Crisscrossed from his neck to his waist were ugly, bloody welts.
"Who did that?" the preacher cried in anger.
"Mother did it. She whipped me because I came to church."
Is it worth it for a nine year old boy to suffer such terrible abuse so that he can worship God? Absolutely.
If I went home from here this morning to discover that someone had broken into my flat and cleared out all my worldly possessions, and the only thing left in the place was a letter sitting in the middle of the bare carpet from the Peakhurst Area Scripture Board saying sorry, but they couldn’t pay me for the rest of the year so I’d just have to get by. If that was what faced when I got home this morning, in the end it wouldn’t matter if I knew Christ Jesus as my Lord.
Whatever we have in the flesh is of no value. Everything is loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. It’s there that true riches, true happiness, true contentment, true life really resides. If you are suffering from a painful terminal illness, if you have been abandoned by your friends and family, if you are a child who is abused and neglected or a wife who is beaten, if you are jobless, penniless and homeless, if you are destitute and lonely – if you are all these things but you know Christ Jesus, then you are better off than the wealthiest, the most well-respected, the happiest person in the world.
And if you’re here tonight and you don’t know Christ, then think about what you’re missing out on. You’re missing out on being a personal friend of God – more than that, a son of God, you’re missing out on being filled with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and you’re missing out on being with God in heaven forever. One of my aunts always used to tell me, "nothing lasts forever, James", and she was right, except for one glaring exception – the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. That car we dream about owning, that holiday we’re saving up for, that position we’re striving towards – how long will it last? Five, ten years? If we’re incredibly lucky it might last our whole life – 70, 80 years. But knowing God lasts forever – and surely that does make everything else look like rubbish, doesn’t it?
The things you value – are they for your eternal profit or will they spoil and fade? The bike, car, house, job, relationship that you long for – how does that compare with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ and knowing that you will spend eternity united with him in paradise? In the end, the question we need to answer is: what are we living for? Ourselves, our family, our possessions – the flesh? Or are we devoted to knowing Christ?
There’s been a theme of joy throughout Philippians. Paul rejoices at the faith of the church. Ultimately, though it’s when we know the righteousness we have through faith in Jesus and when we have the confidence of sharing in his resurrection that in our hearts that we can echo Paul’s words in vs 1: "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord."
