Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #9: "The Joy of Pursuing Spiritual Excellence 2 (Phil 3:17-21)

Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #9: "The Joy of Pursuing Spiritual Excellence 2 (Phil 3:17-21)

Philippians chapter three, and we're gonna be reading from verses 12 through to 21. On screen, it should say 17, but as I was thinking, I was like, it'd be good to get the context of what we're reading, so Philippians three, beginning in verse 12.

Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse 12. If you have one of those red hardback Bibles we give away, should be on page 1042. Page 1042, Philippians chapter three, from verse 12 through to 21. If you're able to do so, can I invite you one more time to stand with me out of reverence for God's word?

We stand because God's word is worthy of reverence because it's coming from him, and so we like to demonstrate that even with the posture of our bodies as we come to his word. So Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse 12, and reading through to verse 21.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. Not that I have already reached the goal, or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of.

By Christ Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my prize the goal promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way, and if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now I'll say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross.

Of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and they are focused.

On earthly things.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a savior from me, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding.

Let's pray, ask for the Spirit's help,.

Which we so desperately need, and we will get into the message this afternoon. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have the gift of your Holy Spirit, that not only does he open our minds to understand the scriptures, not only does he open the eyes of our understanding so that they can be enlightened, but Father, he also, your word says in Romans chapter eight, gives life to our mortal bodies.

And Father, oh, how I need that this afternoon especially. So I would ask that your Spirit be at work, not just in the hearing, but even in the preaching of this word, which is so, so important. We pray that as we continue walking through this letter, and we are challenged by so much of what it has to say, Father, I especially pray this afternoon that your word would find fertile ground in the hearts of your people.

Lord, I can prepare, but only you can speak to hearts. And so I ask that you would do a work of speaking to the hearts of your people through your word, even now. Father, we take a moment to pray for our sending church, Redeemer Gilbert.

This week, they made some changes on their campus to accommodate more people and open their, what is now their new worship center. We thank you for your provision in that way. Lord, we know that they are still looking for a more permanent future home.

Father, your word says that you own the cattle.

On a thousand hills.

And since that is the case, Lord, we pray that you would provide for them in the just wonderful work that they are doing and seeing the valley there in Phoenix reached for Christ. Pray for Pastor John and for the elder team there as they seek to give leadership.

Continue to give them great wisdom, continue to give them great grace. Thank you for the help that they are to us here in Medford. And we just pray for your continued blessing on them. And we pray for your blessing on us now as we come to your word.

We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Amen, please be seated. Well, this afternoon, we continue on in our summer series that we've been in, in the Letter to the Philippians series that we have called Deep Joy, Deep Joy, the message of Philippians.

And I want to bring to you really what is part two of a message that I began last week that I've entitled the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence, the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence. As most of you know, because I talk about it incessantly, I'm Ghanaian, I'm a very proud Ghanaian.

Yes, I was born in the UK and that's home, but I will always credit my parents for instilling in me a love of my motherland, even though I have been there, let me not tell lies, I have been there, but nowhere near as often as I probably should.

And so that means that though my parents instilled in me a love of my culture as best they could for the child of, well, basically a second generation child of immigrants living in one of the biggest cities in the world, they did their best, but it meant that because I wasn't always willing to listen, I haven't always been the most knowledgeable Ghanaian.

That all changed when I had a son. When we realized we were gonna be having a son, it hit me that he needs to know where he came from, especially living in Medford, he's pretty far away from that culture.

And so I realized that the little that I knew was not gonna be enough for me to effectively teach him the culture he came from. So I, for the last few years, been on something of a cultural and historical kick, if you will, learning parts of Ghanaian history and culture that I don't know quite as well.

And it's been fun, I've learned a lot. And one of my favorite discoveries in recent years has been coming across just the wealth of Ghanaian music that exists. Again, not the most popular form of music in the world, but actually there are a number of styles that have either been sort of freshly indigenous to what we now know as Ghana, or has been a melding of various styles that exist already.

You know, Ghana has a colonial history, has a British colony, with that comes all sorts of interesting fusions and melds of things, and music, I've discovered, is one of them. In my sort of cultural journey, if you will, come across the music of a composer whose name was Dr. Ephraim Amu.

Dr. Ephraim, or most people pronounce it Dr. Ephraim Amu. Dr. Amu was a lifelong Presbyterian, and he became a catechist, which is a, they don't have them so much nowadays in Presbyterian circles, but back in the day, catechists were basically sort of lay Bible teachers in the church, and so he was a catechist, but he was also in charge of singing in the church, and bear in mind, this is in the early 20s and 30s.

He began to long for a way to kind of fuse the very traditional Presbyterian form of worship the missionaries brought with them with distinctly African influences, and he was pretty successful, and over time, he came to be respected as one of the fathers of modern Ghanian music.

In my research, I discovered that his most popular song to this day is a song he wrote called, and I'm gonna give you the tree title, then I'll give you the English title. Tree's one of the many languages spoken in Ghana.

He actually wrote it originally in another language called the Ewe language, and then translated it into tree. The song has the title, Yenara Asasini. It literally means, this is our land, and some have called it the unofficial anthem of Ghana, which is very interesting.

I actually prefer this one. This should be the national anthem, but that's my opinion, and in English, the lyrics of the song call for Ghanians to take their identity as a people seriously. I won't give you the tree version, because I don't know it quite so well, but here's the English translation of it.

The song says, this is our native land,.

What a priceless heritage,.

Acquired with the blood our ancestors shed for us. It is now our turn to continue what our ancestors started. Bragging of educational achievement, or useless greed for material things, and bad lifestyles are destroying our nation and disgracing it.

Bear in mind, he wrote this in the 20s. The chorus of the song very simply says, whether or not this nation prospers, whether or not this nation prospers, clearly depends on the character of the citizens of the nation.

Dr. Obu rightly recognized that the quality of the nation is inherently tied to the health of its citizens. As the people go, the nation goes. And one of the things that has been fascinating for me to think about as I've learned about this song and its history, I often wonder, what would he say in 2023?

He died in 95, so I was four years old when he died. But I wonder, what would he say in 2023? And I couldn't help but think of that song as we came to this portion of The Letter to the Philippians because the sentiment that Dr. Obu puts so beautifully into song, I think is the heart of this passage.

His simple point is this, that there is a way that citizens of a land, that citizens of a nation, that citizens of a kingdom should conduct themselves. The Bible describes believers as the citizens of a kingdom.

So in Colossians 1, verses 12 and 13, the Bible says that Jesus, well, the Father, excuse me, in the work of Jesus, has transferred us out of the domain of darkness. We were in one kingdom, and he's transferred us out of that domain into the kingdom of the Son that he loves.

In Matthew 5, verses 3 through 12, we commonly call this section of the Bible the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes essentially lay out what is the character of a citizen of God's kingdom. Matthew 5, 6, and 7, that we call the Sermon on the Mount, I prefer to call the King's Speech because that's what it is.

The king is laying out what it is to be a citizen of his kingdom, and he starts with that short little section, saying this is the heart attitude and heart character of a citizen of his kingdom. In the middle of that sermon, Matthew 6, verse 33, verse we call all the time, seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

We're actively told to seek, and when he says seek the kingdom of God, he means the priorities of that kingdom. He says we ought to actively seek the priorities of that kingdom, and in doing so, everything else we need will be provided for us.

This isn't the time for me to go into a whole teaching about what the Bible says about the kingdom of God. Actually, when I get back from my sabbatical, I'll be doing that in our men's Bible study, so if you're interested, come and join me then.

But that kingdom is both present and future. There is a present aspect to that kingdom in that all of those who have turned from their sin and turned in faith to Jesus, who is the king of that kingdom, they become citizens of that kingdom already, and he is ruling and reigning in the hearts of his people, and there is also a future aspect to this, where that kingdom will come upon the earth, a very physical, present kingdom in a recreated world, but in receiving the king by faith, we become part of the kingdom now, and that reality would not have been lost on our original audience here in Philippians.

For those of you who've been here regularly, you know that I've talked about this letter and I've made the point that Philippi was a Roman colony. There weren't many of those around in the Roman Empire.

One of the things that made Philippi unique as a Roman colony was that if you were born within its city limits, you had automatic Roman citizenship, which again, was not common in the ancient world, and so the people of Philippi knew what it was to be citizens of Rome's kingdom, and as we come to Philippians chapter three, Paul pulls on that language as he seeks to remind the Philippians of what it is to be kingdom people.

The Spiritual Mind: Three Facets

If I can remind you how we've broken up this chapter up to this point, we've said that Philippians chapter three is, in essence, describing for us the spiritual mind, the mind that focuses on Christ and Christ alone, and we've said that when you look at this spiritual mind, it has three facets to it.

The spiritual mind has a new set of values. We looked at that in chapter three, verses one through 11. This spiritual mind has a new set of values. It values Christ's righteousness over its own. That leads to a new vigor for this spiritual mind where we pursue Christ's purposes over our own, and what we want to consider this afternoon, this spiritual mind has a new vision.

This spiritual mind has a new vision. It lives out Christ's identity over its own, Christ's identity over our own. As I put this message together, I realized that this is really the second part of what we talked about last week when we talked about this theme of spiritual excellence, but it's a little bit different because where last time we looked at Paul's example and the attitudes that drove Paul, Paul is now turning the corner away from his own personal example, and now we're going to get very specific encouragement and exhortation from Paul.

Now we're going to hear from Paul, how do we do this? It's one thing to hear from somebody else's example, but okay, how do we go from his example to our own practice? That's what we're going to consider in this message.

Living as Citizens of the Kingdom

Really, the question that looms over us as we come to this chapter is, how can we live excellent lives as citizens of the kingdom? If you're wondering, where did he get this citizen theme from? Look at chapter three and verse 20.

So Paul says, our citizenship is in heaven. This is the reality that grounds the Christian, and if this is the reality, and we'll come back to this verse in more detail later on, but if this is the reality that grounds the Christian, the question is, how does a Christian live an excellent life as a citizen of that kingdom?

If in the words of the song by Dr. Amu that we just heard, the prosperity of a nation clearly depends on the character of its citizens, and I think that's true even in the church, if that is the case, how do we live excellent lives as citizens of the kingdom?

Well, that kind of leads to my big idea for this message. How do we do this? Simply put, living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples and staying focused on Christ. Living as citizens of the kingdom, living as citizens of this thing we call the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples, and it also calls for staying focused on Christ.

One more time, living as citizens of the kingdom calls for following godly examples and staying focused on Christ. For the rest of our time, I want to consider really just two vital actions of kingdom citizens that you should pursue if you're going to glorify God.

If you're going to be the kind of citizen that lives excellently, that lives in a way that glorifies God, out of this passage I want you to consider two vital actions that Paul gives us out of this passage.

Reflect on Our Conduct: Following Godly Examples

Two vital actions. If you're going to glorify God as kingdom citizens, well, that begins as we, point number one, reflect on our conduct. Reflect on our conduct, verses 17 to 19. Reflect on our conduct.

Paul begins his encouragement and exhortation with a call to evaluate our behavior as God's people, and he's very specific which aspects of our behavior he wants us to evaluate. In Paul's usual way of communicating, he does this over and over and over again in his letters, he gives us a positive and he gives us a negative.

Here's what you should do, and here's what you shouldn't do, or here's what you should avoid,.

Probably a better way to put this. So he gives us a positive and a negative. Well, positively, Paul calls us to follow the example of excellent saints. Follow the example of excellent saints. So look at verse 17, Philippians 3, verse 17.

Paul says, join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. The Philippians were to imitate Paul and his mindset, but not only to imitate Paul and his mindset, but they were to also watch, observe, pay careful attention, as the CSB says, to those who lived the same way.

That's the aspect of conduct he wants them to reflect on. And it's interesting, when you read the New Testament, there is this pronounced emphasis throughout the New Testament on imitating the example of godly people.

It comes up again and again and again, and for a few moments, I want us to see some of these passages. I'm gonna read to, I'm gonna have you look at two. So for a moment, turn to 1 Thessalonians 1. I will join you there in just a moment.

1 Thessalonians 1. As you're turning there, I'm gonna read a couple passages from Paul in 1 Corinthians, where he talks about this idea of imitation. So you turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, I'll be there in a second.

But in 1 Corinthians 4 .16, Paul tells the church at Corinth, who had so many problems, so, so many. 1 Corinthians 4 .16, therefore I urge you to imitate me in what? Paul was talking about the fact that he viewed himself as a servant, not as a celebrity, which is how the Corinthians treated it, or some of them did anyway.

It says, therefore I urge you to imitate me. Be a servant just like you've seen in me. 1 Corinthians 11 .1, same thing. He says again, imitate me as I also imitate Christ. The context there is chapters eight through 10.

He's talked about Christian liberty and how the Christian uses their liberty in a way that glorifies God and doesn't tear down their brother or sister. And right at the end of that section, which our Bible's wrongly put as 11 .1, it should be the end of chapter 10 in my opinion, he says, imitate me.

Use your liberties the same way as I also imitate Christ, who did not take his liberties for granted. I told you to join me in 1 Thessalonians 1, pick it up in verse four with me. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse four.

Paul is recounting his experience among the church in Thessalonica and he says this, 1 Thessalonians 1 verses four to six. For we know brothers and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance.

Know what he says next. You know how we lived among you for your benefit and you yourselves became imitators of us. If you are the underlining type in your Bible, you might wanna underline that phrase or highlight that phrase, imitators of us and of the Lord.

Underline that whole phrase, imitators of us and the Lord. When in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. Flip over to chapter two. 1 Thessalonians chapter two, pick it up with me in verse 10.

Once again, Paul is reminding them of his experience with them when he first got to Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 10, he says, you are witnesses and so is God of how devoutly, righteously and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers.

As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. This is why we constantly thank God because when you receive the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively.

In you who believe.

Please note verse 14, for you brothers and sisters became imitators of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, since you have also suffered the same things from your own people of your own country as they did from the Jews.

And we could pick up more passages in Ephesians, this language comes up a bunch again and again and again. This theme that was apparently very well known in the pages of the New Testament that there was a pattern of living and a pattern of teaching that came via Christ, well from Christ, via the apostles and all of God's people were to imitate those who lived in that kind of way.

If I can pause for a moment, there's a reality that I think sometimes even in our circles where we love preaching and Bible teaching, at least I hope we do, that there's a principle that gets lost in our circles.

And it's the principle that there is a sense in which spiritual excellence, this thing that we've been talking about.

For the last couple of weeks,.

Spiritual excellence is more caught than it is taught. Do you know what I mean when I say that? That there are some things I can, for example, stand up here, open passages of the Bible and teach them and it can be very easy to say, okay, if you say so.

There are some things you can teach but some things are only learned by being muddled. There are some things about this thing called the Christian life that you only learn by watching other people do it.

And I think sometimes in our circles where we love Bible teaching and we love theology and we love to dig deep down into the Bible and rightfully so, I think we sometimes forget this, that there are some things where words just won't do.

There are some things that are only learned by observing and then doing what you've observed. I mean, think about it. Does everyone wonder why in Christianity so much of what we do is encapsulated in particular acts?

Think about it. We sing, we pray, we study the scriptures, we gather, Titus chapter two, which I think is the forgotten chapter in so much thinking about discipleship. The body is designed to be teaching the body how to be mature.

So much of what we do is not just things we hear and believe. Yes, there is a doctrinal component to Christianity. I, of all people, will be the last to downplay that. But there is a very strong reality that's given to us in the pages of our Bibles that there are some things you will only learn by having godly examples to show you how to do them.

And so if that's the case, I ask a very simple question. Whose example are you following? What pattern are you living in light of?

Who showed you the ropes.

So that you could be today where you are? Whose example are you following? When I was back in London, my pastor used to ask two questions of all of us. He asks us all the time. Two questions he used to ask all of us who were involved in any kind of ministry in the church, whether it was a public, front-facing one, or one that was behind the scenes.

He'd always ask us the same thing. I can hear him now. Kofus, that was his nickname for me. Kofus, who are you discipling, and who is discipling you?

Who are you discipling?

Actually, he used to ask the other way around. Who is discipling you, and who are you discipling? Now, he never asked it. It was always kind of rhetorical. He never wanted to just actually give him an answer.

But he wanted us to always be thinking about that. And I was thinking about it just this week.

He lived it.

Our growth group has been meeting through the summer. And last Wednesday, I told the folks that I was watching my pastor back in London preach, and it hit me for the first time in a while that as he was preaching, I was like, he does so many things that I now imitate, and I didn't even plan on imitating them.

I won't tell you which ones. You don't know what to look for. But I was humorously surprised just how much I imitate him in preaching without even thinking about it.

Well, it makes sense.

I spent five years under his discipleship. I have not been at that church for almost six years, pretty much the entire time I've been here in the US. And the fingerprints are still there. I thank God that I had the privilege of a man who at times could be brutal, not in an unloving way, but he was a man who took very little nonsense.

And I thank God for it because now I'm serving in ministry. I'm beginning to realize that's why he got annoyed when I did that. Okay, I get it now. And he's still faithfully preaching God's word. He's had some health challenges and he's just pushing through it.

I thank God for his example. And with that, I lay this question with you again. Whose example are you modeling your life on? And get this, as they are following Christ, I'm not saying just follow people because they've been around church a while.

Don't just say I'm following people because, oh, I like this person. Their personality jives with me.

No, no, no, no, no.

Notice what Paul says. Look at 3 .17 again. He says, join in imitating me and pay careful, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. That's why I labeled this up point.

Follow the example of excellent saints. Ain't everybody's example you need to follow. Follow those who are following the apostolic pattern. That means also you need to know what the apostolic pattern is, which means you need to be in this book.

Because thankfully, we have the teaching of the apostles, or that the spirit felt we needed to know anyway, in the pages of the book. So if I want to know what the apostolic pattern for Christianity is, I don't go ask my friend.

I don't go ask scholars. I don't ask any, frankly, I go to this book. And I go to this book, and I go to those who have lived in line with what this book says. And of course, the reality is, if that's the case, that means not everyone's going to be an example worth following.

Yes, you should follow the example of faithful saints, but watch out for the example of worldly saints while you're at it. Watch out for the example of worldly saints. Verses 18 and 19. So verse 18, why should we join in imitating Paul and pay close attention to those who follow his example?

Beware of Worldly Saints: The Enemies of the Cross

Verse 18, for I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, my sub-point here might seem a little surprising. Like, why did you say saints and put it in air quotes?

There's a big debate when it comes to this passage of scripture. Who is Paul actually talking about? Is he talking about false teachers? Is he talking about those who oppose the Christian message? They weren't Christians at all.

They were persecutors from outside. I don't think either of those work, personally. I think Paul is very honest when he's talking about false teachers, and if he's talking about those who persecute believers, he wouldn't be weeping about it.

Why?

Because that's expected. That's just normal, everyday, biblical Christianity. Are we sure, Kofi, are you sure that this is a reference to Christians, or at least professing Christians? Yeah, I think I am, and the reason why I land there is look at verse 18 again.

It's a small little word. You'll miss it. You'll blink and miss it, but let me read it again. So verse 18, for I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Please note that Paul doesn't say they are enemies of the cross. He says they live like enemies of the cross. I think the most straightforward way to read this is that Paul is talking about people who professed faith in Christ, and yet their practice belied their profession.

You know what I mean when I say that? That how they lived undermined severely what they professed. That's why Paul is, again, he says, and now say again with tears. He's more than likely weeping as he dictates this letter.

Why would Paul be weeping over them? Because I think the argument can be made. Paul knew the people he was talking about. There were specific people in that congregation that he was keenly aware of were living in this kind of way as enemies of the cross of Christ.

I think I've mentioned that I've made a habit in this series of reading a Spurgeon sermon every time at the end, because if you read them before, you want to copy them, but at the end of my prep, I read a Spurgeon sermon, and once again, I can't improve on what Spurgeon says, so I'm just gonna put it up on screen as I read it.

Spurgeon said on this very verse, I never read that the apostle wept when he was persecuted. Though they plowed his back with furrows, I do believe that never a tear was seen to be, was never, never a tear was seen to gush from his eye while the soldiers scourged him.

Though he was cast into prison, we read of his singing, never of his groaning. I do not believe he ever wept on account of any sufferings or dangers to which he himself was exposed for Christ's sake. I call this, and he's referring to the weeping in this passage, he says, I call this an extraordinary sorrow because the man who wept was no soft piece of sentiment and seldom shed a tear even under grievous trials.

Can I be honest with you for a moment? I read this sermon, and it's a hard sermon to read. You can hear the pain in Spurgeon's voice as he preaches this, and it convicted me because if I'm honest, I don't generally cry over things when I'm frustrated.

It has to be really bad, like all hope is lost. My general response to people like this, if I'm really honest in my heart of hearts, my general response is frustration, not tears. It's all too easy to complain, to lambast, to get on the soapbox, but it's hard to be moved to tears the way that Paul is.

This broke Paul's heart to know, and I think it broke his heart because he knew exactly how they were living. Look at verse 19. Verse 19, he says, their end is destruction. After all, if you claim the cross of Christ, but you're living like its enemy, well, guess what?

You're going to get the result that comes to those who are enemies of that cross. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach. In the ancient world, the stomach was considered the seat of your appetites.

These people lived only to satisfy their needs and their appetites and not to glorify Christ the way that Paul has been talking about throughout this letter. He says their glory is in their shame, that that which should have been considered shameful, they celebrate it.

And why are they like this? The CSB kind of has it as another thing in the list. In the original language, it's actually separated by the way the grammar works. What's at the core of this spiritual confusion?

Because these are Christians Paul is writing to. He says, they are focused. I'm going to remove that word and in the CSB because it just isn't there. They are focused on earthly things. At the core of their spiritual confusion was a confusion about where their focus should be.

Unlike the folks we read about in verses 12 through 14, remember that from last week, those folks who have the goal of knowing Christ in front of their eyes, who have the prize of eternity in Christ's presence in view, unlike those folks, the folks that Paul is writing about here, these folks were fixated on the here and the now.

I've quoted him several times in this series because his commentary is actually really good. Pastor Tony Morita, nice, easy to read commentary called Exalting Jesus in Philippians. Pastor Tony Morita put it like this.

These saints just get excited about worldly things. They aren't captured by Christ, his cross, and his resurrection. Now, now, now, now, I've got to pause for a moment because I can tell the objection.

Kofi, are you saying a Christian can't have other interests except Christian stuff? There's a way to read this verse that sounds like that. Is Paul calling for a sort of disconnection from the world? You know what monks try to do if you know the history of the movement of monasticism, so-called, basically the movement to separate from the world because the world's an evil place, it's gonna mess up your salvation.