This World Is Not My Own Series

[BUMPER: Clip of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz]

There’s no place like home! How many of you have NOT seen that clip before from the Wizard of Oz? Even if you haven’t seen this movie clip before, can we all agree with Dorothy that there’s just no place like home? Listen, you can go on your fancy vacation and even stay at a 5-star hotel but there’s still something special about coming home to your own bed! I remember traveling a lot with Taylor when she was just a baby and Shannon and I used to get the biggest kick in bringing her home and watching her reaction when we placed her back in her own crib. Even babies know that there’s just no place like home.

I want you to hold that thought in your head this morning as you turn to Philippians chapter 3 as we continue on our Joy Ride series with a message titled “This World is Not My Home.” Last week in the beginning of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul built the case that joy does not come from external achievements or religious performance and today, in the last part of chapter 3, he’s going to paint two pictures of joy…the first in a negative light but the second in a positive light.

Philippians 3:17-4:1 (NIV)

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Have you ever been guilty of a “do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do” style of parenting? You know what I’m talking about…that just as the words are rolling off your tongue (usually in a corrective conversation), you realize just how big of a hypocrite you actually are? Did you know that kids are much more likely to do what they SEE us doing that what we TELL them to do? Fortunately, Paul understood this and the words of his mouth matched up with the words of his life. Remember what he said to the church at Corinth? “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). In his letter to the church at Galatia, Paul said, “Become like me!” (Gal. 4:12). Now here in verse 17 he says, “Join with others in following MY example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”

Well I told you that Paul paints two pictures in the passage that both have an effect on our joy. The first picture that Paul paints is that:

1. JOY DOES NOT COME FROM EARTHLY THINGS – vs 18-19

Look back at verses 18 and 19: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”

These verses introduce us to the enemies of the cross of Christ. The first time I taught this passage, I remember spending a fair amount of time trying to figure out WHO exactly Paul is talking about when he refers to enemies of the cross.

Some teachers believe that Paul was talking about the Judaizers that he had railed about in the beginning of the chapter when he said, “You dogs, you mutilators of the flesh.” If you remember last week, these Judaizers added works – or more specifically, circumcision – to the cross and thus they were the enemies of the cross. So Paul could be referring to the Judaizers.

But I seem to agree with other commentators who think that Paul was referring to a group of Greeks in the church who were more inclined to loose, licentious living than to the legalistic practices of the Judaizers. “Yes we believe in Christ but we want to live anyway we want.” It was enough to JUST believe in Christ and it didn’t matter HOW you lived after that – your Christian life didn’t need to produce good works.

Listen to how that stands in contrast to what Paul describes the salvation process in Ephesians 2:8-10: “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”