Good. For Nothing?

Text: Philippians 3:4-11

Focus: Turning the other Cheek

Function: To help people be aware of our commitment.

Form: GON

Intro:

I watched a profound movie, The Black Robe. It's a true story about a missionary to a tribe of Native Americans in Canada. It was produced in the era when it was popular to bash Christianity in the theaters.

And the way they attacked Christianity was really sad. He converted this tribe to Christianity, and they decided to live like Jesus. Eventually they were completely wiped out. First by, the slave traders who still called them savages, even thought they were Christians and then by other tribes because instead of fighting back, they choose to turn the other cheek.

The movie influenced me to consider what Jesus really meant when He said: “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek.”

At the end of the movie, my first gut reaction was that these people were converted, became good, and it was all for nothing.

How do we respond when people are critical of us? In this passage, Paul is being criticized because he preaches that Gentile believers do not need to adhere to all the Jewish laws.

Paul is concerned that people trust in the religious practices of the law instead faith in Jesus to save them.

And, his preaching has caused some significant degrees of conflict in the Churches. There were people sent out who were telling Gentiles that unless they adhered to all the OT laws, they were not really Christians.

Last week we saw that even the council of leaders, the Jewish council of leaders decided that none of those regulations applied and they merely asked the Gentiles to be sensitive to the needs and traditions of their Jewish brothers and sisters.

However, sometimes conflict doesn't stop even after cooler heads try to persuade people to be kinder.

Maybe it is pride. Maybe it a feeling that we were not actually heard in the first place.

But I love the way Paul addresses the issue.

He first tells them that if he wanted to defend himself with his adherence to Jewish law, he could put them all to shame.

But he doesn't boast about that at all. The only thing he speaks about, in the midst of this conflict is Jesus.

He replies with an attitude that is a great example of pastoral leadership!

“Look!” He says: “If I am placing my confidence in what I am as a man, all of my education, all of my credentials, all of my abilities would be nothing more than a stinking pile of old napkins, fouled by waste.”

What he says is a mode for all of us. He is saying: “If all of this teaches me any one thing it is this: It reminds me to look at Jesus. Because in all of my struggles, the Lord keeps reminding me of what is actually happening. I am getting a chance to live out the same kind of life that Jesus lived out.”

And Paul is happy to be suffering criticism and persecution at their hands. As a matter of fact, it appears that this is a kind of a badge of honor, A Christian “Red badge of courage.” All of this is a spiritual reward.

He gives a us perspective to look at when things aren't going as well as we would like.

He reminds me to ask the big questions instead of fearing about the moment.

Literally, his statement is this: ^8aMore than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish...

Does that apply only to him? Does that apply to us as well?

His attitude toward all of his worldly and religious accomplishments is this: “Next to the value that I have received in just getting to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, everything else is like rubbish.”

Wow!

I find that statement challenging!

It is strange working again in a secular environment and working with people who have enough money to get along well, but feel as if the only way they can have real value is to make more and more money. As if the only concept of self is derived from what we can earn.

Now, having enough money is good. It keeps us from the pressure of having to strive just to exist. If we have a good relationship with money, it is a form of protection and a form of security.

But the only real security that we have is in Jesus Christ Himself.

I think about that movie and that tribe of Native Americans. I think of the accomplishment of that missionary to lead them to Jesus. And it would be really neat if they were able to leave behind a legacy of generations and generations of Christians who lived out the life of Jesus.

But instead, because of their faith, they were destroyed.

The producers of the movie used the movie to criticize us believers with the idea that if we had not brought them to Jesus, the tribe would still exist.

And I ask myself why God allowed evil people to destroy them?

And here is the example of brother Paul.

Paul, instead of being offended at the criticism he received decides again to turn the attacks, curses, and backbiting into another opportunity to serve Jesus.

His accomplishments are being discounted. And He doesn't care!

The only thing that matters to him is what Jesus accomplished for all of us.

I suppose the gratitude we feel towards Jesus is an important motivator. But there is also another reason.

He states it at the end of verse 8 and following: ^8bin order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Here is what Jesus said: “^24bIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me” Matthew 16:24

These words haunt me. They should haunt us. These words inform us of just what a new life in Christ Jesus is all about.

Paul says, in comparison to all that he has achieved by worldly and religious standards, none of that is important when it is compared to the privilege of knowing Jesus.

I have often reflected on that phrase.

It gets in the way of our own pity parties.

In Psalm 73, the prophet Asaph is beginning to have a pity party.

He asks God if his being a good man has done him any good. He sees some wicked people and they are strong and healthy. They scoff at people who do good and mock them by telling them that it isn't helping. They laugh at God and say that that God doesn't care enough about the earth to judge evil people.

And the Psalmist asks God if he has been “good for nothing.”

Did you ever wonder if it would be better to chuck it all, live for the moment, forget about doing good, giving, and forgiving? Did you ever wonder why some people seem to get away with indulging their revenge, or their greed?

Remember Paul is telling us that all the worldly things don't mean anything compared to the value of knowing Jesus.

And then there is a scary part to the Psalm. The Prophet recounts what happens to him when he goes into the house of God to worship.

He says: “When I get in the presence of God, I am reminded of their final fate when they face God at the end.” He knows that God will indeed judge the wicked in the end.

He doesn't gloat over the fate of the wicked. He isn't proud, nor does he feel self-righteous. His only real response is perhaps the same sadness that God feels over every lost soul.

He understands the value of salvation.

Paul understands the value of salvation and that makes the petty bickering and competition in this world less important. Or, in Paul's words: about as important as a pile of dirty diapers.

When I think about these words of Paul. He is saying, “Just think of where I would be for eternity if I hadn't experienced the grace and mercy of Jesus.”

The response to our salvation given to us freely is our own lives.

Jesus bought our lives from an eternity without Him.

Paul reminds himself that no matter what people do to him, that one treasure is his and it cannot be taken away from Him.

Everything else is forfeited to the privilege of knowing Jesus.

It is not an privilege that we brag about. But it is an eternal privilege. It is the most important privilege there is.

So, when he is given an hard time by others, he justs adds their persecution of him to the list of things that make him more like Jesus Christ.

This privilege is the gift of God.

With this privilege, he gains Jesus Christ, and everything else in this world is nothing compared to that.

Did you ever wonder how those first Century Christians could allow themselves to be made a spectacle of in the Roman Arenas?

Was their faith good for nothing?

Did you ever wonder where that courage comes from?

It wasn't just Paul, but all of them understood the value of their faith.

Knowing Christ Jesus changes or attitude and value system. Look at verse 10: ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This is the goal of his life. To Know Christ.

And again he is suffering criticism and he refuses to whine about it. He refuses to defend his own credibility. He doesn't even ask the Lord to defend him. He just takes the problems and recognizes that in every situation, he can act like Jesus acted, like Jesus wants us to act, or he can act according to the value of this world.

He knows that he is serving the Lord.

He tells us that if there is any way that people might find the example of Jesus in his own life, let it be by the way he trusts God.

Jesus did not retaliate. Jesus, turned the other cheek. Jesus told us to live the same way and trust God to work it all out in the end.

So when he says: “I want to know Christ, and the fellowship of His sufferings...” he is saying that one way that we can live out Jesus' love to a dying world is if we choose to respond like Jesus did in those times when we have been treated unfairly.

Listen. The same Holy Spirit that kept on filling Jesus lives inside of us.

That same Spirit that raised people from the dead. That same Spirit that healed the paralytic. That same Spirit that cried out “Lazarus, Come out of that tomb!” That Spirit lives in us.

Paul says everything else on earth is worth it if I can just know Jesus.

To know God.

I loved our sign: “Do you know God?”

Listen, we are not called to a social club with with values that we can embrace when it is convenient for us. It isn't some boring, or “take it or leave it” thing that Jesus calls us to.

This is eternal life.

He says it is worth it because ever other alternative makes life meaningless. Every other alternative is a life lived for ourselves.

Every other alternative is a life lived without the hope of glory, and the Love of the Father.

Just what would happen if Paul gave into self-pity when he was being criticized? Is that faith?

Just what would happen if Paul decided to return criticism in kind? Is that faith?

Would God declare to the angels that He knows Paul if when persecution or hardship comes he merely reacted with anger or pity?

No. Because that is not the path to obedience.

But Paul says, instead of worrying about it. Instead of praying “God, someday let me be proven right.” Instead of hoping that those who were doing this would stumble, fall and be shown to be the fakes that they are.

Instead of all that, his attitude is: “Good news!” I get to prove that the Holy Spirit in a life makes it a life that reacts differently.

Good news? Jesus said, “If they persecute me, they will persecute you.” I must be doing something right.

And Jesus is not alone. I now get to partner with Him in suffering.

And in so doing, he has this great place in the family of God.

If God never choose to vindicate him. If God permitted those Native Americans to die off without leaving generations of believers for their posterity. Paul knows that in the end, at judgment, it will be much better to have been faithful to Jesus.