STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
9.8 - Finding Joy in Christ, Part 2
As Paul continues his encouragement to put confidence in Christ, he reminds his readers of their upward call in Jesus.
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well, welcome continuing in the book of Philippians, the theme of finding joy, where our true contentment joy, occasion for rejoicing it's in the gospel, it's in service to others in the family of God. And now it's ultimately. Chapter three of Philippians, Noah. It's, it's in the Lord. It's, it's in Christ. Mm-hmm. And Paul just, you know, he just strips everything down to a point to make sure that those in the church who are in Christ appreciate and understand where our confidence lies what we take confidence in, and it, and it's all about being found in Christ. It's all about. The knowledge of Christ, it's all about knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. All all of that's because of Jesus. It's not because of us and it's our faith. It's, it's our choice. It's our obedience of faith, but our righteousness comes through faith in Christ Jesus.
Noah:Yeah. Amen. Amen. And Paul's gonna make that pretty clear here. If people got uncomfortable with him rolling out his resume in the previous section of chapter three hopefully here we see. Paul's intention continue to be very, very clear. We saw last week how his rolling out of his resume was essentially delighted on fire. I mean, yes, he rolled it out to say this, this is trash compared to Christ. And I'm willing to give it up compared to Christ in order to gain Christ, in order to share in his death and his resurrection. Therefore and this, this section, I think. Troubles us sometimes in a different way because the, the language that Paul uses in verses 12 and following, sometimes I think we, we go on, we, we, we, we tend to, we see something like not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect. We always get hung up when we read the word perfect, I think. Mm-hmm. But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. And I think we sometimes get tangled up in that sentence going, what is OB obtained? What exactly? And what is this perfection that he's talking about? And we sometimes get so hung up on that, that we don't. Keep reading and see where Paul actually goes with this statement. And I think that's gonna help us as we work through this section of the text.
Paul:Yeah, because he had said if anybody should boast in the flesh, have confidence, flesh, I'm more so. Mm-hmm. We talked about the spiritual MVP, the most valuable Pharisee Paul was it. Now he's, it's as if he's, he's the focus is shift some. But he's still making the point. Okay. If anybody now in Christ mm-hmm. Should start saying, well, I've had my sins forgiven and I've got a relationship with Christ Jesus, if anybody should make the point, I've arrived. Mm-hmm. I don't have any more growing to do. I don't have any more learning to do. I don't have any more service fill in the blank that connects to discipleship. And, and Paul says, n no.
Noah:Mm-hmm. No.
Paul:Yeah, so,
Noah:which I think is particularly potent. Just appreciate that coming from Paul, especially if we back up one verse or two verses. He wants to know Jesus. He wants to know the power of Jesus' resurrection, sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and attaining the resurrection of the dead. Now if there's anybody that we could point to that had shared in the sufferings of Christ mm-hmm. You know, we could point to Paul, but Paul's saying. I, I can't claim to have achieved anything. Right? I can't claim to have arrived anywhere. And I think that that's particularly powerful because Paul is inoculating his readers against carnal thinking in spiritual terms.
Paul:Oh, I love that
Noah:he's saying you can't think because you have suffered with Christ and because you have come to know Christ, that now you're, you're great. You've got, like you said, just a moment ago, you've got nothing left to do. And again, when we look at who's speaking, that should become a more powerful message. Yes. You can't, you can't bring carnal thinking into your spiritual growth. We, we have to press on.
Paul:Yeah. If Paul says, I press. Then we need to press on exactly as well. So for those Noah, those that can follow us by listening to us, cannot follow us by reading the text along with us. Give us the text starting in verse 12, Philippians three, starting in verse 12. I think we talked about the chapter division ends in verse 21. Go ahead and give us chapter four verse one. So Philippians three 12 through Philippians four, one.
Noah:All right. Paul says, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own brothers. I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do 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. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything, if in anything, excuse me, you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly and a glory in their shame with mind set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for my joy and crown. Stand firm, thus in the Lord my beloved.
Paul:Yeah, I, you know, I, I love how Paul starts it. It's interesting. If you go back to chapter three, I mentioned this off, off the air verses eight through 11 in Philippians three, one long sentence in the Greek. Mm-hmm. There's a lot there. Well start in verse 12, and Paul says, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. I haven't arrived. There's still room for growth in me. He says, I press on great eagerness and zeal, strenuous effort. I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. There's Paul's motivation. Mm-hmm. I, we talk about, we need, we need gospel preachers, not motivational speakers. Mm-hmm. I understand what people mean by that. Stay in the text. But Brother Bowman used to tell us as young preachers, you haven't preached if you haven't stormed the wheel. Mm. Part of storming the wheel is using motivation, and Paul uses motivation. What motivated Paul now in Christ to strenuously? Keep on growing? Keep on serving regardless of the cost or consequence? He said Christ Jesus made me his own. Mm-hmm. Oh my. Paul never forgot his conversion. He never stopped. I mean, read First Timothy, when Paul would write to Timothy and he talks about Christ judged me faithful. I received mercy, Grace Paul never forgot. His salvation came by grace through faith. Jesus saved me. He wanted me. He died for me, escalations two, he loved me. Mm-hmm. He gave himself for me. The reason Paul was able to continue by faith with such motivation. Where is he when he is writing this? He's in prison. Mm-hmm. Paul's motivation came from the fact Jesus saved me. Mm-hmm. What joy? That's joy. That's the joy that we need regardless of the circumstances in life. To keep on keeping on.
Noah:Yeah. This is what motivated Paul's movement. Yes. And, and that's, that's the language that he uses. His language of movement. I, I press on, I strain forward. He has something in mind that he is pursuing. Mm. He calls it the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, or really the prize. He, he strings a lot of things together here, the prize. Of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What he is talking about is, like you said, just a moment ago, Christ Jesus has made me his own. I belong to him. I am his possession. And Paul recognizes that as a good thing. By the way, we sometimes that language might make us uncomfortable, kind of like the slaves to righteousness language.
Paul:Hmm.
Noah:Well we were slaves in sin and now we've been freed. Yes. But that's because we've been bought and now we belong. To God we're slaves of righteousness. And Paul saw that as the good thing it was. And he says in response to that, I see that I have an upward call. God is calling me somewhere else. He's calling me to something greater in Christ than where I came from. So I'm gonna forget everything that that lies behind and I'm going to move. There's this movement language here. And all of that is motivated by the fact that Christ did what was necessary to buy him.
Paul:Ooh, yes. I wanna offer this motivation toward movement. I'm stealing that, by the way. That's fine. But what hinders the movement. Mm-hmm. He says, I'm forgetting what lies behind, sometimes forgetting. And I don't know exactly what all Paul had in mind there. So, I'm, I'm taking maybe some liberty here, but sometimes, because we don't forget mistakes of the past. Hmm. It hinders movement in the present. Paul had his mistakes now he said, I dig, did it ignorantly in unbelief. Okay. That's fair. Mm-hmm. But he still did it. He, he still was persecuting Christians. Think about occasions there, there had to be no occasions when, when Paul now as, as an apostle, is preaching Christ and the joy in the gospel and somebody out there hearing him is like, you were responsible for somebody in my family. Yeah. Being went to death. He, he had to forget. That's hard. Mm-hmm. He says one thing I do think about how many things we dabble in one thing. So the, what is the one thing? He talks about this, there's a forgetting and there's a reaching forward. We, we, we sometimes are unable to reach forward like God wants us to. Yeah. And Grace and I can do all things through Christ. He strengthens me sometimes. The, the present. Is becoming more difficult for us because we haven't forgotten some things that we need to leave in the past.
Noah:Yeah. Paul, as a person, I think is a beautiful illustration of being able to live in, I, I think this is kind of a, I don't know, maybe this is kind of a popular phrase right now, and I'm not trying to pull in a popular phrase, but like he lives in tension of he's, it's the same man who refers to himself as the chiefest of sinners, and he will relate. Stories of what, who he was before he came to Christ. And he will relate his story of his conversion. And yet all of that for him only serves as greater motivation in light of what Christ has done. And I think that that is some of the key to forgetting what lies behind is. None of us are capable of erasing our memories, right. Instead, Paul in Christ is able to transform. What do those memories, what does the, what do those recollections do? Do they drag him down? No, they push him further forward. Mm-hmm. They motivate him even more because they put in, they, they frame the context of what Christ has done for him, and in that sense, he leaves them behind. Christ has left them behind. He can leave them behind and it pushes him forward. And he says, this is an interesting thing to me in verse 15, that this is how mature Christians should think. Mm-hmm. That, that those of us who are mature think should think this way. And if anything, if in anything that caught me the first time, it got me again there. Mm-hmm. If in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. What he's saying is he's acknowledging that his readers are gonna be at different levels of maturation than each other, and then him and he's saying, this is what you should be thinking like. Mm-hmm. And you may not be there yet, but whatever you do, don't go backwards.
Paul:Yes.
Noah:Whatever you do, hold fast to what you, to the level of maturity you have gotten to. And keep moving forward. Again, this movement language as we come through here.
Paul:Yeah, the new King James says, have this mind in verse 15. Other translations take such a view of things, and again, Paul's been pressing a certain way of thought, a certain attitude, if you will, that is absolutely necessary in the thing that Paul's pressing here. Movement, a straining, a reaching forward a a growing in Christ. So again, I think of the Apostle Paul, I mean, ideally to, to live a life of no regrets. Mm-hmm. But we're gonna have them. On some level, but I, I can't imagine the Apostle Paul at any point after his conversion. In fact, we don't see anything even close to this in his writing or in his preaching where Paul says. All of this, all these fleshly things and the, and the, the titles and the pedigree and all this. I kind of regret that I gave that up.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:There's, there's no regrets,
Noah:right?
Paul:Not with Paul. We need that kind of attitude. When we come to Christ. It, it's an all in. Now, when I say a all in, yeah. We, we, we're gonna grow. We need to keep growing. We're gonna make mistakes, but keep growing, keep learning. God is on our side to help us in this Christ. It's, it's, it's all about being found in him. And so if I'm all in, then what matters most to me is what mattered most. The Apostle Paul I press toward the goal mm-hmm. For the prize. Your father-in-law not long ago, and I went to him and told him Amen and amen. And I love the fact that he said that.'cause I, I think that's what Paul's saying here in Philippians three. The goal is not the prize. The prize, yes. Heaven. Yes. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. But the goal is being more like Christ. Mm-hmm. And Paul says, look, as we mature and have this attitude and this particular mindset, we just want to be conformed to the image of Christ. We want to grow to be more like, that's discipleship 1 0 1.
Noah:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Which, speaking of discipleship and how Paul uses this, he continues in verse 17 saying, join me in this. Join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. He's saying this is, this is the mindset. This is what we've been called to, and you should be joining me in this. You can even look to me as an example he's saying of, of how to do this. And then he on, when he's thinking about that. This is how I picture it. At least when Paul's writing this, he's thinking about those who have stopped, who have stopped moving. They've stopped pursuing the upward call. What we see in verses 18 and following is actually kind of a parallel to the first section of chapter three, that if the first section of chapter three was, a Paul talking about not putting confidence in the flesh as a Jew. Mm-hmm. Or in Jewish things, verses 18 and following is not putting confidence in the flesh as a Gentile. And he says, there are people that you and I know who. Have gone backward, right? They've stopped pursuing the call and they now walk as enemies at of the cross of Christ. Verse 19 is so vivid. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. This is a description that makes me wanna say, let it never be said of me.
Paul:Amen.
Noah:Let it never be said of me that one, people who once knew the power of the cross, people who once knew what Christ had done for them and then turned and they made carnal things, fleshly things, their God. This is putting confidence in the flesh in a different way. Than we saw earlier in chapter three.
Paul:Yeah. That's, that's not imitating Paul as he imitated Christ. Certainly not. I mean, to, to, to describe someone as their, their own appetite. Their, their God is their ability, their appetite was so self-focused, self-driven. If, if, if they wanted it go after it. Mm-hmm. Tho that's indicative of someone who's setting their mind on earthly things. We have our idols. Mm-hmm. And being gripped by our idols is the very thing or the things that are gonna prevent the point that Paul is making, being found in Christ pertaining to the resurrection of dead. You haven't arrived. So there there were those that Paul was concerned about and he said, look, they've set their mind on earthly things. And so because of that, they're in destruction.
Noah:Yeah, yeah.
Paul:And we need to be, I need to be careful of that as well.
Noah:Yeah. And I think it's worth noting that,'cause you talked about their idols and their appetites, it's worth noting that our idols are indicative of us. That in the end. If we put our trust in, in something fleshly, ultimately it's really putting trust in ourselves. Even if we, even if we aren't directly acknowledging that, even if we're putting our trust in circumstances or in job or, or in our. Excuse me, I lost the word, but in, in wealth or occupation or political situations, anything that we're doing there we're really, eventually, if you stack it up, the idols point back at us.
Paul:Mm-hmm.
Noah:That's that appetite's, you know, the, the, the, our God is our belly. That certainly speaks to a specific physical appetite, but I think he's just talking about appetites in general. And Paul contrasts this with. Now, you and me, Philippians, that's not us, right? So some similar to how he said in the early part of chapter three. Don't listen to the mutilators of the flesh. We are the circumcision here. He says, don't go this way. Don't walk this way because your citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. Our citizenship isn't in the things around us. Nothing we see is our hope. Nothing we touch is our confidence. Nothing we can hear or smell or interact with in a physical sense is our God. It can point us to God, but it is not God. Our citizenship is in heaven.
Paul:Yeah. I mean there, there's, there's so much out there that can take us off focus. What is the spiritual focus and the way you answer that question, the way I answer what is my spiritual focus will help me to determine whether or not I'm achieving my goal. We ask people all the time, what is your goal? Mm-hmm. Well, if, if I haven't defined what my target is. Then how do I know if I'm reaching my target? Mm-hmm. You know, it's kind of like if, if I'm, I'm concerned that sometimes even in the preaching that goes on and in the way those in the pew are hearing the preaching, it's, well, I, I don't want to go to hell. My goal is to not to go to hell. Mm-hmm. Okay. But. I think there's a more noble way to look at that. The Apostle Paul does here in Philippians three. His goal was want to be conformed to Christ Jesus. I want to become more and more like Christ Jesus, and so I've got some growing to do. I've got some learning to do. I've got more service to do, and that will brings suffering at times. But my goal is not just. Not to go to hell.
Noah:Right.
Paul:My goal is to be more like Christ. It's kinda like when you ask parents raising their kids, what's your goal for your kids? Well, I, I don't, I don't want'em to go to jail. There, there's a, there's a higher goal there. Yeah. And so, and, and our preaching and in discipleship. What's the goal?
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And when we define that being more like Christ, then setting the mind on the earthly things and letting our own desires become our appetite. Making it about you.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we can take that one step further here as we, as we wrap up, this connects to the last couple verses that we've read. So I think this might be a good way to, to continue here. But. The goal isn't even. So you, you said the goal isn't just not to go to hell. Okay, but the goal also isn't just to sit around and wait for heaven.
Paul:Correct.
Noah:Now, Paul says, our citizenship is in heaven, and we do wait like we, we do await a savior who's gonna return and he's gonna transform us and he's gonna subject everything to himself and Amen. You know, Lord, come quickly. In the meantime, what are we supposed to be doing? Well, in verse one of chapter four, he says, stand firm thus in the Lord. Now again, when we read that, we could think, all right, that means I'm gonna sit right here. I'm gonna plop down and no one's gonna move me, and I'm gonna wait. But if we do that, we've ignored the context. Yes. Because remember, in the context, what's the language communicating? A striving, a working, a pursuing, we have a call. So in the meantime, as citizens of the unseen realm, what are we doing in the scene realm of as citizens of heaven? What are we doing on earth while we wait for the savior? Paul's answer in the context is we strive, we work, we labor, we press on. While we do, so we stand firm chapter four, verse one.
Paul:Yeah, man, I love it. Let, let, let just see the book ends. Chapter three, verse one. Rejoice in the Lord. Mm-hmm. Chapter four verse one. Stand fast in the Lord. Mm-hmm. I can have joy because of the Lord. I can stand firm because of the Lord, but it's my faith.
Noah:Amen and amen. Well, thank you for joining us again for the Stand Strong Podcast. We've wrapped up chapter three, which means, Paul, we just have one chapter of Philippians left. It's kind of hard to believe we've made it this far in already.
Paul:Chapter four, Paul's gonna turn into name calling. Oh boy. Is that, is that what this is? He's gonna toss out a couple of names.
Noah:Oh man. So if you're following along I encourage you to read chapter four before we come back next week for for the next episode. And thank you for joining us in this. We hope that it's beneficial for you and helps you as you press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Together we know that we can find joy in the Lord, but also in the Lord. We can stand strong.
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