Trusting or Earning

Text: Philippians 3:4b-14

Focus: trust

Function: to help people see

⁴If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More 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, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not practicing a justice of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, doing the justice from God based on faith. 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.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. ¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Throughout my ministry of over 45 years, this passage has been an inspiration to me. Brother Paul, a fellow minister of the gospel explains the passion, or the zeal that he has had his entire life for God.

I titled this sermon Trusting, or Earning because I want to explore the difference between human zeal and the power of God, through the Holy Spirit, that results in our lives when we place our trust in the Christ.

Over in Ephesians 2:10, brother Paul tells us that the purpose of our salvation was so that we could in turn respond by doing good works.

In this passage, again, brother Paul speaks of his zeal for serving Christ and he compares it with the zeal that he had before he trusted Christ. That was when he was trying to earn his salvation with his zeal.

At both times, after trusting Christ and before trusting Christ he was a deeply religious man, committed to the scriptures and to serving Allah, the name he would have used for God.

You can be religious and zealous for God and not committed to doing the justice that Christ calls us to do.

There is an element to zeal that has to do with our own personal choice. Brother Paul speaks of the sacrifice of Christ, and most probably having heard the stories that would soon be recorded in the gospels, heard that Jesus himself said that if we want to follow him we must take up our own cross and follow. (Luke 9:23)

Brother Paul reiterates those words in verse 10 when he says “I want to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.”

I often think how someone who has never heard of the way of the Christ before and how they would take some of the statements and phrases that we take for granted in our Christian sub culture.

And the question comes up here. Does this mean that in order to become a Christian I have to die?

And the unbeliever may very well answer follow up that question with this question; “Why?”

Why should I die in order to gain salvation? That doesn’t sound very life giving. In John 10:10 Jesus said that it is the thief, or Satan, or evil, that has come to take away life and that he, Jesus, came to give us an abundant life.

So, we have a contrast here and Paul addresses it in this passage. We ask ourselves the question: Is our zeal mere religion or is it spirit led?

When Paul met Jesus he had a transformation. He too, was born from above by the Spirit of God and now he practices, he says in our text, a justice or righteousness that is not his own making, but one that come from faith in what Jesus has shown us.

I believe that on the cross, Jesus showed us how to face down evil. He did not resist it, or spare his own life. Instead, he conquered death by rising from the dead.

Now, understand, Jesus’ death was political. They killed Jesus because his politics were upsetting the Roman system of slavery within which the rich were exploiting the poor. They killed him to maintain the status quo. They wanted him to be silent, to go along to get along. ButJesus was a prophet, led by the Spirit of God and he couldn’t keep silent, even though it got him killed.

But Paul’s persecution of the church was religious, not political. He was persecuting the Church because he thought it was a cult. He was an important leader in the Jewish gatherings, also called churches, and felt he had a responsibility to keep the faith pure. And he was offended that these people were following a man they believed to be a false prophet.

And then he met Christ by a vision after the resurrection and was changed.

All of a sudden he says, his zeal changed from one of judging and persecuting others to one of carrying out the justice that Jesus preached so much about.

We are called to continue the work of Jesus Christ. We are called to be just people.

Paul says we are called to do that work even up to the point that we might have to give our lives.

And again, the question comes up, “why?” Why should I die when he promised abundant life?

Well, I believe that part of abundant life is living with a purpose beyond ourselves.

Paul regarded his life as on a mission from God.

And if we had the kind of revelation, vision, blindness, immediate healing and hearing the voice of God from heaven that Paul had, we too, might be more apt to be willing.

I imagine that the vision was overwhelming.

And that is part of why we worship. When we sense the moving of the Spirit in our midst, we too can be overcome with a sense of love from God and a sense of love for others in total forgiveness that frees our hearts and leads us to care for others as much as we do for ourselves.

At least, that is how I describe the moving of the Holy Spirit in my own life.

Before Paul trusted in Christ. Before he trusted in the fact that no matter what happens to him here in this life, God has shown him through the resurrection that in the end, our love for others will be vindicated.

Now, I confess, I do work to earn a reward from God.

But it isn’t an earthly reward. Jesus did call us to work for rewards in heaven that are eternal. (Matthew 6:19-21)

So, what do I believe Jesus is calling us to be willing to do?

I am certainly willing to have an abundant life.

And this is where faith comes in for me. I trust that speaking for the justice that Jesus died for, no matter what it cost me to be defiant of the culture and cry out for God’s Spirit to rule over human selfishness, I trust that speaking the truth will fulfill my calling as well. That will be me thriving in the purpose for which God has called me. This is the zeal that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Now sometimes I get in trouble for what I say.

For example, I believe that God commands us to treat the refugees at our borders as we would our neighbor. I believe the term “Illegal” is a dehumanizing term designed to assuage our guilt. I believe politicians garner following based on how tough they appear but most importantly, from scripture, I believe, that God will either bless or curse our land based on how we care for the least of these. Godly people in a righteous nation full of abundance can figure it out how to care for the least of these. I know from personal experience that you cannot out give God.

Jesus has called us as his followers to be different from the culture around us. It is normal for them to express that kind of bigotry, it is part of human nature to congregate into tribal groups and be afraid or warlike toward the others.

But Jesus wants us to overcome this hatred and teach people to love one another.

Paul was transformed by the Spirit of Christ and all of a sudden, he started accepting foreigners without conditions! God was moving and he was willing to forgo the command in scripture to not associate with people who were not Jewish and started caring for peoples everywhere.

And as Paul is saying in this passage, the righteous person is the one who follows Christ’s example and does these acts of justice and kindness and perhaps even speaks up on behalf of the voiceless and marginalized, as Jesus did.

When I think of zeal, I think of boldness. And I love the boldness of Jesus who keep up the message even though it cost him his life and then triumphed in the end by raising from the dead.

We too, do not need to fear death or its power because we are in the grace of God and have the promise of heaven and are willing to live our lives here for our heavenly reward instead of chasing greed.