Philippians 3:1-11 ‘Outward religion will make you difficult to live with’

A vicar in Canada had to take the funeral of a very wealthy businessman.  This wealthy businessman had done many impressive things.  He was chairman of this committee and that.  He was very well respected.  The businessman’s friends and family asked the vicar to read out a list of the man’s good deeds and achievements at the funeral.  So, he did.  But after he read the list, he looked at the congregation and said, ‘and you know what, the whole lot is rubbish.  It won’t help John a jot now he is before God.’  And he tore up the list in the presence of the mourners.   

That vicar may not have been the most pastorally sensitive person in the world but what he said is true.  We ought to put no confidence in the achievements, for no amount of good works can put us right with God!  It is all about grace.

Thinking I’m a good person will make me insecure (1)

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord (1).  The book of Philippians is a glad book.  It is glad because it centres on the theme of grace.  Grace is God’s free, unmerited, unearned and undeserved favour.  If you came to my home and wash my windows, and I give you twenty Euro, that is not grace.  That is money you earned.  But if you come to my house and break my windows, and I give you twenty Euro that is grace, for you have done nothing to earn that gift.  We have done more than break God’s windows, we crucified his Son, yet he longs to have us as his own dearly loved children.

The apostle Paul says that it is no bother for him to keep writing the same things to you.  He never tires of talking about the good news of grace.  In fact, he needs to keep reminding them about grace because we have a tendency to forget it.  It is not long into the Christian life before we are tempted towards pride.  We start to think a little too highly of ourselves.  We think that we are especially good Christians because we go to the right church, have become very respectable or think that we have all the correct doctrine.  Paul has to keep reminding them that they are right with God purely because of grace as safeguard for them.

A gospel that is based on me thinking I am a good person will make me proud and insecure.  How will I ever know if I have done enough to please God?  A gospel based on grace will make me thankful and joyful.  Jesus has done it all for me, and how could the Father not consider Jesus’ work sufficient for me? 

Mere rituals can make you proud (2)

The church at Philippi seems to have brought the apostle Paul more joy than and other church that we know of.  But all was not entirely well.  We will see that there were two leading women who didn’t get on with each other.  There were also false teachers who were infiltrating the church saying that grace was not enough.  They said that you were not the real deal as a Christian unless you had undergone the Jewish ritual of circumcision.  Paul does not hold back in his criticism of these men, calling them dogs, evildoers and mutilators of the flesh.

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul proves that it is not circumcision that saves you, because Abraham was made a follower of God simply by faith, before circumcision was given to God’s people.  Circumcision was a sign that you belonged to God, but it was not what made you belong to God.  Similarly, in the New Testament, baptism is a picture of what God has done for us, but we are not saved by any ceremonies or rituals.

Can you see that if becoming a Christian is the result of undergoing some ritual you rob the gospel of grace of its power?  If I am a Christian because of my baptism, church membership, confirmation or attendance at the Lord’s Supper make me right with God it would make me proud.  I could claim that I am a Christian because I am an obedient person who has followed all God’s regulations.

It also robs God of his beauty.  What sort of God simply wants a people who have come to him through a set of rituals?  Our God is one who wants to bring people into a joyous, life-transforming relationship as he works to change our hearts.  Our God is a one who has given his One and Only Son that we might become his sons and daughters.  It is nothing to do with the mechanical operation of rituals.

Outward religion will make you difficult to live with (3—6)

Of course, if you want to have a religion based on rituals and self-righteousness Paul can point to his own past.  He had been like one of those false teachers that opposed the gospel of Jesus.  He had been circumcised on the eight day, like Jewish boys were supposed to be.  He was a Jew, one of God’s Old Testament people.  He was from the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of King Saul, after whom he had been named.  He was a Pharisee, one of that religious grouping of men who felt that the religion of their day was weak, and who would show the world how to properly follow God.  As for zeal, persecuting the church—sadly, all over the world there are people who persecute Christians thinking that they are acting in obedience to their god.Paul even says that he was faultless regarding outward observance of the law.  That tells us everything about how ugly outward religion can be.  Think of Paul, in the book of Acts, on the day that Stephen is being stoned.  There he stands giving his approval as a mob kills a godly man.  Mere outward religion breeds the most unloving of hearts.  It is very hard to live with someone who thinks that they are a good and religious person.  They will never be able to take correction or criticism, no matter how well meaning it is.  They will always need to prove themselves.  So, show that you understand grace by being quick to say that you are sorry and ready to admit your many faults. 

Thinking you are a good person will make you shallow and insecure (7-11) 

Notice that Paul draws a complete distinction between his old religion of ritual and self-righteousness and his faith in the grace of Christ.  You can’t have both.  You can’t claim that you are essentially a ‘good person’ and also be a ‘God person’.  Paul had thought that he could belong to God through observing rituals and proving his righteousness.  He now considers all that rubbish compared to knowing Christ.  If you think God accepts you because of what you do for him, then you will not be willing to totally depend on what he has done for you.  It is all of grace or it is nothing.

In the last church I worked with, a woman who was visiting the church was offended by my sermon, because I claimed that we were all essentially flawed and sinful people needing rescuing by God.  I couldn’t apologise for what I said.  That is the truth of the gospel.  Good people are enemies of the cross.  

If you think that God will accept you because of who you are or what you have done, you will end up insecure and shallow for you will not be able to look within your heart and see all that is wrong with you.  Our culture tells us to search for the hero inside of ourselves, but I see in my heart someone who is self-centred and selfish.  But I can face what is in my heart because on the cross Jesus has taken the punishment for my past present and future guilt.  Indeed, he is changing us, not with our strength but by the very power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Conclusion

I preached on this passage at the last baptism service we had in our church.  Three people were being baptised and they were all great illustrations of these verses.  

There was Sunok.  She grew up in Korea.  She had gone to church and being baptised because that was what was expected.  But it meant nothing to her.  She hadn’t met God yet as her loving Father.  Now she wept as she recalled how she had come to realise that God loves her with an immeasurable love, and she was so thankful for all that he had done for her.  Christ was changing her as she said that thanksgiving was replacing complaint in her life.

There was Amin.  Amin grew up as a Muslim in Iran.  He never could be happy in his faith because he had no assurance of forgiveness.  Then he met a Christian who had a sense of peace about them.  Now he radiates joy as he thanks God for sending Jesus to die for his past, present and future sin.

Finally, there was Whitney.  Whitney had grown up going to church, but it made little impact on her.  Then she had got involved in a Christian community where she had felt at home.  At a women’s retreat in England everything had fallen into place.  She experienced God’s love like she had never before.  It changed her and now the gospel is great news to her.

These three young Christians are not proud, not shallow, not self-righteous but glad.  The reason for that is grace.  They know that God has not treated them as their sins deserve but according to his loving-kindness.