2023 04 09

Well, good morning church. This time we're going to go ahead and dismiss our three to five year olds. Three to five year olds, you can head off to your class. And for the rest of us in here, happy Easter. And if you would go ahead and open up your Bibles and turn with me to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3.

That's going to be our text for this morning. Philippians 3. And what I want to do uh is first just look at the very first verse here in Philippians 3:1. Um as it is honestly going to be kind of our prayer for for this morning and and what we're hoping uh the Lord does a work in our hearts. And so Philippians 3:1 it says this, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord." to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you.

That is my prayer for us today is that we would simply rejoice in the Lord. That we would rejoice in the Lord. That's my hope for this Easter Sunday and that's what God through the Apostle Paul is instructing us to do. Rejoice in the Lord. And to preach that again and again and again is no trouble for us because we know it is as Paul is saying it's safe for you. It's safe for you.

It's good for you to hear it again and again and again. Rejoice in the Lord. Now, that may sound like a churchy phrase or an overly simplified phrase. You might think or interpret it as equal to kind of the lyrics of Bob Marley where he just says, "Be happy." But this is deeper than mere happiness, which is derived from happen stance. It's deeper.

The word rejoice in Greek is Cairo, which according to the Greek lexicon means to be exceedingly joyful or filled with gladness. To rejoice to Cairo is where our term for grace caris is derived from. So to rejoice, it's a gift. It's a gift from God for us to do this, for us to experience this. It's not something that we do to to try and get God's attention, but rather it's something that God gives us for our greatest good. For our greatest good.

So if it's this greatest gift in the world, I want to show you why and how we are to rejoice in the Lord and the correlation that it has to the resurrection of Jesus. Because if he is still dead, if he is still dead, then there is nothing, absolutely nothing to rejoice in. to rejoice in. Now, for some here, it may sound like an easy task because you may be coming in here already rejoicing. Already rejoicing. Whether that's uh through an abiding relationship with Jesus that is flourishing or maybe you're rejoicing from um honestly just a a chapter of life that feels like the Lord's answering all your prayers or he's meeting all your needs or whatever it might look like.

It might feel as though that's a process of making it easier to rejoice. Maybe for some of us in this room, it's hard to come in here or maybe even seems impossible to rejoice because of a sorrowful chapter of life or a difficult circumstance that you're walking in. For others in here, it might just feel like something that is numb to you or something that's indifferent to you. I don't know that I want to rejoice or I don't know how to rejoice or it's just never been something that I've contemplated. It's kind of foreign to me. Regardless of how you walked into this church on this Easter Sunday, my prayer is that with the help of the Holy Spirit that your heart and your spirit would well up and would overflow with rejoicing and the goodness and the glory of Jesus.

That's it. I I my that's my prayer. And I don't want it to be anything that I try to come in and be like, "Let me spin this Easter message in such a way that you've never heard it done this way before." Like, we cannot manipulate rejoicing. All we can do is behold Jesus and see what it does in our spirit, see what it does in our heart. So the why and the how.

Why focus on rejoicing in the Lord? Charles Spurgeon once said, "Christ being raised from the dead then ascended into glory to dwell in constant nearness to God where joy is at its fullness forever. Would there be any place you'd rather be than experiencing joy in its fullness forever? I mean, can we think about that? Can we Is there any place we'd rather be than in the presence of joy in its fullness forever? You see, Christ being raised from the dead has changed everything about your human experience.

Everything. And so, continue with me here in Philippians as we look at this. Paul begins with a warning to the saints in Philippi. And this is tied to verse one as we just talked about because what he just said to the church was I want you to rejoice in the Lord because this is good for you. This is safe for you to do that. But now he's going to move and pivot a bit to the things that are robbing them from being able to actually rejoice in the Lord.

He tells them, 'Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Now, at first glance, that seems pretty simple, okay? Just avoid sinners, right? Like, that's what it looks like.

Just avoid the bad people. Avoid those who are outside of us. Avoid those who are different from us. Avoid those who do wrong. But this is not a they versus them. He's writing to the church.

And as he's writing to the church, what we're actually seeing here in the context is that there are people within the church, there's a group of people who are not rejoicing in the Lord and possibly starting to drag down others with them. And there may be a part of the church or they may be a part of the church but they aren't believing and doing the things that would reflect a heart that has been actually transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ. It says they are like dogs, evildoers and mutilators of the flesh. Paul Apple who's a pastor and a graduate of Grace Theological Seminary. Any Grace College graduates in here? I know we got a few.

Got a few. He puts it this way. He categorizes these three people in three examples. He says, "The dogs represented their character. The evildoers represented their conduct. And the mutilation of the flesh represented their creed.

It's what they're putting their hope in." You see, what was going on in Philippi was that there was a group of people within the church of Philippi that was practicing an outward religion that was ultimately joyless. So, he's trying to get the church back to or being aware of, don't let this creep in and rob you of being able to rejoice in the Lord because you're starting to turn to doing church rather than being the church. They were practicing religion by their own merit without a relationship with the risen Christ. And when there's no relationship with Christ, there's no fruit. For Jesus says in John 15, "Apart from me, you can do nothing.

You can do nothing." So what was Paul's response to the church in Philippi? How how did he fight for their joy with truth? How did he help them and spur them on to a life that would actually rejoice in the Lord? Well, first he reminded them who the true circumcision were. That is who the true worshippers of God were.

He says this in verse three, for we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the flesh. You see, our worship, our worship, what we come in here and what we do on Sundays, what you do on a daily basis, our worship is only something that the spirit of God can produce. And it can only be directed at Jesus. Period. True worship actually comes from God through us for God. It is something that God does and it is something that we get to do but we only get to do it when it is done in us.

We we are essentially passive active worshippers. We receive worship in order to worship. We receive the spirit of God in order to glory in Christ, the son of God. There's nothing produced by us. There's nothing directed at us. And that's exactly what these people were doing in Philippi is they were producing their own worship.

They were mutilating the flesh. They were practicing the art of circumcision when it was no longer necessary anymore. Because what replaced the sign of the people of God was not circumcision, but was actually being baptized in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. It was being saved in Jesus that replaced and now is the sign and is the illustration of us belonging to the people of God, us being the true worshippers. Because if it were there or if there were to be any reason or cause for us to have confidence in ourselves, another word for that is pride. The opposite of humility.

When it comes to pride and confidence in the self, Paul is saying there's nobody there's nobody who has outdone him in practicing worksbased religion. Listen to what he says here in verse four. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. He's saying if if you're trying to produce worship in your own merit, in your own works, if you're trying to earn God's favor in your life, if you're trying to earn the ability to rejoice in the Lord, he's saying nobody has done it better than me. I myself have confidence for flesh. And if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

And he goes on this rant. He says, circumcised on the eighth day. That was the lawful custom for all Jewish boys of the people of Israel. If we're going with that dog analogy, he's saying, "I'm a purebred here." Of the tribe of Benjamin, of the 12 tribes, the first king, King Saul, came from the tribe of Benjamin. It was also one of the only tribes that when there was a revolt against King David, they were loyal to King David.

So, there's a lot of pride and prominence in this in the reputation of the tribe of Benjamin. He goes on to say, "I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews." What that means is that he kept to the original Hebraic language instead of adapting to the Greek language of the Henistic Jews. He's trying to stay as true as possible to following what was passed down. As to the law, a Pharisee, he's essentially saying, "As to the law, I was a professional law-abiding citizen. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church, passionate.

You're not going to find anyone more passionate when it comes to trying to destroy any opposing view to Judaism as to righteousness under the law. Blameless. You will not find any fault in Paul's religious works. But here's what he says. Whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss.

You see, when it comes to gain, that word is kerados, which is an accounting term meaning profit or advantage. From his pedigree, Paul was awarded with incredible profits, incredible privileges and advantages. in Israel and specifically in Judaism, Paul could have whatever he wanted. He'd be considered celebrity. He'd be considered um politically. He privilege advantage.

He'd be considered top of the society, wealthy, famous. It's what Paul had accomplished out of his own strength and his own pride and his own merit. He's saying if you could attain heaven out of merit and works then he would have done it is what he's basically saying. But when it comes to gain, profit, he's saying none of it was worth it. Of this worldly gain, Jesus puts it this way in Luke 9:24-25. For whoever would save his life, whoever would gain, whoever would take in whatever they want will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world status, privilege, wealth? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and then loses or forfeits his soul? Jim Elliot, who is a well-known missionary, he was killed by a people group in Ecuador in trying to reach them with the gospel. He once said this, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." You see, something changed in Paul's character.

Something changed in Paul's conduct. Something changed in Paul's creed. He gave his entire life to his devotion to Judaism, to being a lawabiding, righteous person out of his own merit and his own strength. But something changed. Paul had been transformed from a life of selfishness to a life of selflessness. But what made the difference?

What made the difference? After all, if you were to just look at Paul's former life before Christ, what he was chasing is honestly the American dream. Having anything and everything at your disposal, having all the friends in the world, having all the popularity, having the family, having everything like he had it, but something changed in order for him to consider it all lost. He said, 'Indeed, I count everything as loss.' How did he come to that conclusion? Because because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Let me ask you an honest and hypothetical question and really think about this question. If everything in your life was stripped away, everything, family, career, friends, comfort, pleasures, like the things that we consider good gifts of God, if all of it was stripped away and all that was left is Jesus Christ, Christ. Is it a good deal? Is it a good deal? Remember the gain in the profit.

He says surpassing worth. Surpassing worth. Here he is saying, I weighed out the options. Knowing Jesus Christ is superior in value and worth than anything else this world has to offer. Jesus is better than fill in the blank. That's what Paul's getting at here.

Paul's personally rejoicing in the Lord because he knows the creator is greater than the creation. If it's between creator or creation, what Jim Elliott is saying, what Paul is saying is, I'd be foolish to choose creation over creator. But that's the very definition of sin, is it not? Worshiping creation rather than creator. Seeking to gain creation rather than gaining creator rather than Christ who is the creator. All things are from him and through him and to him.

Paul has looked at creation and he's looked and behold Christ and there was a change in him that now Christ has surpassed creation in his heart desires and affections. That's why he opens the gate in Romans 1 with saying I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of it because I've had all of creation. And I found that it is rubbish for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, my creator. And I love what CS Lewis has always said. He said, "If you aim at earth, if you aim at creation only, you don't get God.

But if you aim at God and you behold him and you rejoice in the Lord, you get God and you get creation thrown in with it because he gifts it to us as an inheritance. We get to like he's going to provide for us. He's going to take care of us. I mean, a lot of times people look at Job and they say Job had everything stripped away from him, right? And what was left? God.

He still also got restored his family after the fact. So this isn't a you get everything stripped away and it's just God only. That's the gift. But God is good and God is loving and he does provide for us gifts that we steward well. We just don't worship those gifts. We worship creator rather than creation.

in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. Again, that's what he's charging with the Philippians right now is that the mutilation of their flesh, the evildoing, they're they're trying to earn this out of their own righteousness and it's not working. He's trying to remind them that we've gained Christ and we've been found in him. Not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. It depends on the gifts and the favor that he has bestowed to us. The worship that he provides for us.

Verse 10, that I, and this is where it all comes together, that I may know him. know him intimately in relationship abiding in him. Not just knowing him like some Facebook facts like lots of us have Facebook friends that we know of but we are not in intimate relationship with this is different. I I'm from the south. I knew of Jesus before knowing Jesus. And many of us know of Jesus but may not know Jesus and a surpassing worth that he has that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.

There's Easter. You're wondering, you've been wondering this whole time. Are we going to talk about the risen savior? and that we may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Here's the beauty of Easter and where it comes into play. It's not about the pastels or the egg hunts or the flowers and food.

Nothing wrong with those things, but there aren't they aren't the point. They they they allude to the point. But the point is that on Friday there was darkness, there was despair and there was death. But today there is light and there is laughter and there is life. When we understand that Jesus's death actually brings about life and joy, how does joy come into play in the light of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection? When you actually understand what has happened, the only proper response is wonder and amazement that leads to worship and adoration.

It leads to Cairo. It leads to rejoicing in the Lord. It's the only appropriate response when we behold what he did on Friday and then rose on Sunday is to behold the whole story and to see Jesus and to stand and wonder because it came about not from any righteousness of our own or any merit of our own but by faith in Jesus for all that he came to do for us in order for us to actually be able to experience rejoicing in the Lord. Eugene Peterson once said, "It is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder." It's the very nature of wonder, to catch us offguard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can't be packaged and it can't be worked up.

It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement. In other words, we can't manipulate you to wonder. We can't manipulate you to rejoice in the Lord in light of what we are celebrating today. You may have heard it 20, 30, 40 times now on Easter that Jesus has risen from the grave. But have you heard it? Have you heard it with your heart, with your spiritual ears?

Has it instilled in you a sense of wonder that is beyond you? As if you were one of the first ones at the tomb with the stone rolled away? Do you feel like you were there when Jesus appeared to them in the upper room? When the disciples are on the mountain and Jesus appears to them before ascending into heaven, do you feel a sense of awe? As is as if it's a memory of yours or are you still skeptical thinking, I guess you just had to be there. What Paul is doing for the church in Philippi, he's reminding them of what they have in Jesus because of the resurrection of Jesus.

You see, they have a guarantee that they too will one day be resurrected in glory just as Jesus was. That they will not taste an eternal death separated from God, but that they will feast on an eternal life near the presence of God where the fullness of joy lives. And Paul concludes his message to them saying this. It's not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. In other words, Paul is saying, I I've not risen yet to my glorified body that is like Jesus's glorified body that we're celebrating on Resurrection Sunday. We don't have that yet.

You probably woke up this morning realizing that, right? Paul's saying, "I've not risen yet." But we press on in these broken down bodies in view of the reality of what Jesus has promised us one day. He says, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do." How do you rejoice in the Lord? Here's how we do it.

Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, what we're experiencing is we're living somewhere in between Friday and Sunday. That is the experience of the Christian this side of glory is we are somewhere now we've seen it in full for Jesus death burial resurrection the reason why we groan for the day of his return is because in some way we're buried right now we have died and we have the promise of the resurrection Now identity we're there. We're the already not yet. We are righteous. We are saints.

We are believers. That's what gives us the ability to worship in the moment to rejoice in the Lord. But we're in this in between stage. And I think that's why he encourages us over and over and over and over and over again. He says, "This is good for me to write this to you again. Rejoice in the Lord because you are going to experience the suffering because you are not yet glorified.

We're not in glory yet. We're not to that promised day yet. We're in the already, but not yet. While you're here, rejoice in the Lord. Forget what is behind Forget the things that put Jesus on the cross to begin with. Forget the reasons of why you were considered a sinner and strain forward toward the goal that is Christ and Christ alone.

What he's saying is don't get caught up in all of the things of the world. Focus on the prize. The prize that is already yours and yet you're trying to obtain it. You already have Christ and yet we're running to Christ. That's the work of the believer every single day of their life. I have all of Jesus in me and I am all in Jesus.

Yet I am to press on to rejoice in the Lord to continue running to him in persevering everything that we experience in the suffering of the in between. The in between. You see, we've been crucified with Christ, but not yet glorified with Christ in the resurrection. So, what do we do in the meantime? We press on. We rejoice by not by forgetting what lies behind and straying forward to what lies ahead.

John Newton shared an illustration about a hundred years ago about how we should forget what lies behind and look forward to what lies ahead. and I'll modernize it for us today because it he used the illustration of a carriage. Um, and so we don't we don't drive carriages today. Um, unless we have Amish, I don't know. Um, but suppose your greatgrandfather was George Vanderbilt, the owner of the Builtmore estate or had it built back in the day in Asheville, North Carolina. He built the Builtmore for $5 million, which in current um is $150 million.

So to date, the most expensive house ever built. Suppose he's your great-grandfather and he's left the estate to you. That'd be a nice gift, right? Don't get caught up in creation, but it'd be a nice gift. He says, "How foolish would it be knowing that we're receiving this gift to jump in our busted down, rusted out Honda Civic and we're on the way to the Builtmore and we're on the way to receive this inheritance. And when we're a mile out, that rusted down Honda breaks down and we have to get out and we have to finish walking the rest of the way."

He goes on to say, 'How foolish would it be. I want to read it specifically. What a fool we should be to think that. Should we see him on that milelong walk, he should be ringing his fists and blubbering out, "My car is broken. My car is broken. What will I do?

I lost my car." It's foolishness to lament the loss of creation when we have gained the creator. You see, we as a people of God receiving the resurrection of Jesus should not be living our lives as naval gazers. We get glory. So, we need to get our heads up and we need to live life rejoicing in the Lord. Again, that's not always going to look like be happy.

We're going to have some difficult sufferings that we walk through, but we get to have our heads up because we get to look beyond the broken down experiences because we know what we are inheriting in our creator gain Christ surpassing worth. And if at this moment you're still numb or indifferent to it, Paul says this in verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. I mean, how good is that? How good is that that right now if there's people in this room who are struggling to rejoice in the Lord and just can't see it, don't feel it, don't experience it, just can't get there, God will reveal that to you. Let us hold true to what we have attained, what we've received.

And I want to take you into communion with these last verses that he shares with us in 17- 21. Brothers, join in imitating me. I mean, how how uh arrogant is that, right? Imitate me. Do what I do. Ah, remember the entire picture of Paul.

Imitate me in the fact that I left everything for Jesus. I consider it all loss, worthless, rubbish that I may gain Christ. And in gaining Christ, rejoice in him. imitate that. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. If it's hard for you to to to rejoice in the Lord, get around those who are rejoicing in the Lord.

It's contagious. For many of whom, I have often told you and now tell you even with tears may walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. And he's talking about these these ones that he's calling out, the dogs and the evildoers and the mutilators of the flesh. Their end is destruction. Their god is their belly. And they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.

Don't do that. But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await. We await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will that's hold on to when Jesus promises something. Okay? When he says, "I'm going to do something," he's God. He never lies.

Therefore, you get to hold on to it with hope and with rejoicing, with excitement. We get this. We receive this. This is the egg that we open up and we get as believers in Jesus who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. Happy Easter. That's Easter.

That's what we get to receive. We are the byproduct of his resurrection. He's the first fruit of it and then we get to be the fruit of it as well. We get a glorious body by the same power that enables him. I mean, think about that. Jesus has a power that enables him.

I mean, at least when I read it, I never contemplated that before. There's a power that is God that is enabling God. And we get that power. That's why Paul's able to be so bold to say things like at the end of Romans 8, can there be anything that messes this up? Can there be anything that separates you from the love of Jesus? If you are brought into the family by the power of God that is enabling God, there's nothing that can separate you from that.

Nothing. By the power that enables him, even to the subject of all things to himself. He's bringing back his authority. All authority is mine in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and I will be with you always.

We get so focused on the mission of the work of the church going and making disciples. We forget that the whole thing is enabled by the pre or the the the u the preface which was all authority in heaven on earth is mine. I am being enabled by the power of God. I am enabling you with the power of God. And not only that, but I am going to be with you always, always to the end of the age. Therefore, go and make disciples.

Be the church as you experience God in your life. He's able to transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body because as Galatians 2:20 says, we have been crucified with Christ. Our lowly bodies get put to death and we get guaranteed a glorious one. What we do get to experience in the now is that our spirit, our heart, our identity gets it now. We get it now. We get to crucify the passions of the flesh and the desires of the flesh.

We get to forget the things that lie behind us and we get to stand and we get to we get to stir up and we get to spur on one another and those new affections that we have and this new heart that he's given us from this power that is enabling him. We get those things now in order to rejoice in the Lord. Do not be enemies of the cross. Embrace it for it is the power of your salvation. Declare it and proclaim it. As we often say when we come to communion, 1 Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes."

It was the power of God to crush him on the cross and to kill him. That was the power of God. That was the wrath of God. And it's that same power that is then satisfied to raise him back to life. You see, that's why when we celebrate communion, when we come to it and we behold the cross of Jesus Christ, we don't come to it as Jeremy shared in our our prayer time at 8:35 before the service when Jesus appeared. I want to say I got Cleopatra in my mind.

It's not Cleopatra. I know Cleopus. Cleopus. Is that right? sure was going around hopeless saying we put all of our eggs in this basket. Pardon the Easter pun.

We put all of our eggs in this basket that he was going to be our savior and here we are three days later with no savior, no king, no ruler and didn't realize that in the moment he's talking to the risen savior. Behold Jesus that the power that killed him is the power that resurrected him. So that we get to be the recipients of all of that. All of that. You don't have to die because Christ died for you. And you don't have to earn a life eternal because he grants that to you as well.

That's what we get to receive. And therefore, he says in Philippians 4:1, "Therefore, my brothers whom I love and I long for my joy and crown. Stand firm in this. Stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." My beloved, I want to pray and then we enter into a time of communion. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.

We thank you that you did all the work. As we talked about on Friday, the final words of Jesus, forgive them. Forgive them. And then Jesus also said, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" We cannot have the first without the second. You crushed your son Jesus on the cross for our sins, for our penalty, for our death.

You did that for your goodness and for your glory so that we might experience the resurrection of Jesus that brings us back from the dead. And we get to rejoice in the Lord and experience the joy and its fullness forever more. No greater place to be. No greater thing to receive in all of creation but to receive you as our creator through the resurrection of Jesus. We thank you. And so in Christ's name we pray.

Amen. Would you please stand? Communion is a time for us to again enter into that moment of Jesus's death. But we do not enter into that moment without hope. We enter into that moment with celebration, with proclamation, rejoicing in the Lord for what he's accomplished for us that we don't have to do. We don't have to break our bodies and we don't have to shed our blood because he did it in our place.

That's why it's substitutionary atonement. It's a gift so that you don't have to. So we remember that and we worship him in his sacrifice and we rejoice in the Lord because we also know that he was risen from the dead. If that never happened, we're not here today. We're not here today and we're not getting to receive this rest as Paul has talked about. He'd still be doing it all in his own merit, all in his own energy, all trying to figure it out.

Always wondering if it's enough. We don't have to wonder that because in Christ, the last thing he said on the cross, it is finished. So stop working. It's done. Just receive it and rejoice in it. Please come down front, grab the elements, and bring them back to your seats.