Be Imitators of Christ

Following Paul’s Example in Philippians 3

Today we're going to continue our journey through Paul's letter to the Philippians and it's just a privilege to be up here and to be able to preach and serve the Lord this way and kind of sub in for Rob who will be here next week, but we've been making our way through this book of Philippians and we're going to be in chapter 3 verses 17 through 22 today.

So I'm going to open in prayer and then we'll then we will get right into it. Gracious and Heavenly Father we thank you for our time this morning. We thank you for the presence of each of these saints who are here this morning.

We thank you also for anyone who you've brought who has does not yet know you but who is considering your great gift that we even sang about this morning. You died Lord so that we could live. We ask that your Holy Spirit which indwells each of us who are believers that they would that spirit would enlighten us this morning, would sharpen our minds and soften our hearts to your word and that Lord we would take home some application from Philippians chapter 3 this morning.

So gracious God we thank you we thank you in advance for your your powerful word that leads us and guides us in our life. In your name we pray Jesus amen. So I'm gonna do a little bit of review but I thought what I would do is just read those five verses because that'll give you a good context for where we're gonna go and Paul starts out here by saying brethren join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose God is their appetite and whose glory is their shame who set their minds on earthly things for our citizenship is in heaven from which we will eagerly await for a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

Okay wow that's quite a passage so we're gonna get in here and take a look at that but to help with the context we want to remember in this chapter Paul warns the believers at Philippi to beware of the dogs, beware of the Jewish legalists, beware of the evil workers those who work against the gospel by adding works to the gospel and beware of the false circumcision that is the assertion by some that circumcision by Jewish tradition was somehow required for salvation.

Paul reminds us that he puts no confidence in the flesh and nothing of his exquisite Jewish heritage made any difference at all in his relationship to Jesus Christ and nothing of his heritage contributed anything to his salvation.

He tells us clearly that he counts all earthly things as loss for the sake of Christ and he derives no righteousness from the law but derives righteousness only through faith in Christ and it is through faith that Paul wishes to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.

He realizes that he must join in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings and be conformed to the image of Jesus even to death but he looks forward to the time when he will attain the resurrection from the dead but then he counts all things to be a loss in view of surpassing value of knowing Christ and counts the earthly things as rubbish so that he might gain Christ.

He tells us that he has not yet gained that perfection but he presses on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and then he reminds us that not only must we have these attitudes but we must live them.

So it's worth taking the time to remember these things before we look at our text today because that is the context for our study this morning which begins in verse 17. So let's look at verse 17 which says brethren join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

In this verse Paul exhorts the believers in Philippi and he's exhorting us also to follow his example and not only his example but the example of his example of his brethren who also walk according to the pattern that we've seen in them.

Now what pattern does Paul refer? He refers to the very pattern that he has described for himself earlier in this chapter, the pattern kind of which I just reviewed. It's a pattern of a truly committed follower of Christ.

He wants the believers in Philippi to do more than just talk the Christian talk but he wants them to walk the Christian walk. And why they say you know they might say Paul you are a company of poor despised persecuted people who make no figure and pretend to no advantages in the world.

Who is going to follow you? And to this Paul would say nay. Remember there are two kingdoms and our citizenship is in the heavenly kingdom not yet seen. We have a near relationship to the king of that kingdom and we are represented by him.

His name is Christ Jesus. It is good to have fellowship with those who have fellowship with Christ and it's good therefore to follow the example of those who walk by faith with him. And so Paul exhorts the Philippian believers to follow his example and he said much the same thing to the Corinthians when he said be imitators of me just as I am also of Christ.

So Paul wants us to see that stark contrast between the true believers and the dogs, the evil workers and those who add Jewish traditions or works to the gospel of Christ. If by emulating Paul and his brethren you can become closer to Christ then by all means do so.

On the one hand follow Paul's example and on the other hand Paul warns us even as Matthew did in Matthew 7 beware of the false prophets. Beware of the false teachers who come in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs gathered from thistles are they? So every good tree bears good fruit but bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear or produce good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them and who is them? You will know them the true believers by their fruit. So walk in the pattern of a true believer, the one who is dedicated to Christ.

Enemies of the Cross and Earthly-Minded Living

And this exhortation from 17 then leads us right on to the next two verses 18 and 19 and I'm gonna read those. For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their appetite and whose glory is their shame who set their minds on earthly things.

Here Paul warns the Philippian believers for many walk that are enemies of the cross of Christ. With great sadness here Paul tells us that he realizes there are many who walk in a manner contrary to his teaching and to his example.

These certainly included the legalists, they certainly included the false teachers, but they also claimed the grace of Christ without a thought of repentance and without any sincere conversion. That is they claim to be Christians but they were not born again.

They were enemies of the biblical truth of atonement that Jesus made for us on the cross and as we sang and again in that last song and its ongoing power and effect over their lives. They were truly enemies of the cross if they refused to take up their cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and his pattern of self-denial and sacrifice.

Paul reminds the Philippians that hey look I've told you of these people often it just wasn't once in a while he had told them frequently that there were enemies of the cross of Christ out there. He implies here that you can identify them more by their walk than by what they say or their confession.

The thought of these enemies brings Paul to tears. He weeps when thinking of them because they disregarded God's holiness and some of them betrayed Paul and turned against Paul claiming that he preached a cheap gospel which required no commitment.

Now Spurgeon, the famous preacher from England, thought that Paul wept for three reasons. He thought that first of all he wept on the account of the guilt of these enemies of the cross, second on the account of the ill effect of their conduct especially among on the true believers in the Philippian church, and finally on the account of their doom.

You read a scriptural account of Paul weeping when he underwent persecution and he underwent plenty of that with shipwrecks and being stoned and he tells of all of this in his epistle but he doesn't weep but here he weeps of his brothers that are not truly representing the cross of Christ and he weeps at the thought of those who are perishing at their refusal to follow the Lord.

He then tells us of the character and the circumstances of the enemies of the cross. Their end is destruction, their way may seem temporarily pleasant but death and eternal damnation are at the end of it.

Their God is nothing but their appetite or their belly. They minded nothing other than their sensual appetite. They lived for the pleasure of mind, body, and soul and in that they made an idol of those things.

They took glory in their sin and they boasted in the things of which they really should have been ashamed. It sounds a little bit like our culture doesn't it? You think of those things that this commonly what we see.

The design of the cross was to overcome sin by the blood of Christ himself yet by setting their minds on earthly things these enemies of the cross ignored the power of the cross to set them free from sin and it did nothing but guarantee that they would remain slaves to sin.

Our Citizenship in Heaven and the Hope of Christ’s Return

Now if we look at verse 20 a little brighter a little brighter verse here for our citizenship is in heaven from which we eagerly await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Well the King James Version here is interesting the King James Version reads this for our conversation is in heaven from whence we also look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

Interesting Matthew Henry talks about this. Matthew Henry was a 15th century commentator. He wrote a commentator's book for the entire Bible and here he says observe good Christians that while we remain on this earth our conversation is in heaven.

We stand related to the world but our citizenship is in the new Jerusalem. The world is not our home but the one that is coming is our home. There are greatest our greatest privileges and concerns lie in heavenly places.

The Christian sets his affections on things above and where his heart is there his conversation will be also. We look for our Savior Jesus Christ and his second coming there is good reason to keep our conversation pointed toward heaven because Jesus is there and we will be with him shortly.

Now other translations like the one I have here reads our citizenship is in heaven. Now think of what this meant to the Philippians in that day Philippi was under Roman rule. The Caesars of Roman rule claimed to be gods.

The Caesar had statues and temples and shrines built to them. The Caesars were often in the temple. Above them the Caesar was called Savior and even Lord and if we remember it wasn't long after Paul's journey that Christians were martyred for refusing to call Caesar Lord.

They stood by the conviction that only Jesus Christ was Lord. So Philippi was a Roman colony and its citizens had all the privileges of Roman citizenship even though they were far from Rome. Yet Paul is telling the Philippian believer that they should consider themselves first citizens of heaven and therefore in a way they were a foreigner or an alien to Rome and if they were foreigners then they should be distinct in their foreign land.

They should be marked by their heavenly citizenship. Now in his commentary David Gusek, I don't know if you're familiar with him but he's quite a commentator, he adds that foreigners should do good works in the land that they sojourn through.

They have privileges as well as duties in that foreign land but they may not be eligible for some of the same rewards and recognitions as citizens of the land in which they are making their way and they should not be focused on building riches in that land.

What he's saying here is our hearts and eyes are focused on heaven as our home and it's there that we store our treasures. We have certain characteristics as citizens of heaven. As citizens we are under the government of heaven, we are ruled by God himself, as citizens we share in heaven's honors and we have property rights as heirs to the king in heaven and as citizens we will enjoy the pleasures of heaven.

In other words we love heaven and we feel attached there even though we're making this journey on earth. So we see the contrast between those that Paul describes in verses 18 and 19, those were the enemies of the cross of Christ and here he's describing the true believer in verse 20 so what a tremendous contrast this is.

There were unbelieving enemies of the cross but as for the saints in the church at Philippi, they were citizens of heaven even as we are. So is our citizenship on this earth or is it in fact in heaven?

Well Paul is making an effort to answer that question. He declares that we are citizens of heaven even during our time in this world and that while we are here being refined by the refiner's fire we eagerly await the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.

So Paul ends chapter 3 with a glorious promise and let's connect verse 20 with verse 21 to see this promise if we read it this way, we eagerly wait for a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state to the conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

So the King James Version here declares who will change our vile body in that I love the King James sometimes it I mean it doesn't mince any words who will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body that contrast of our vile body if you will and his glorious body that is no small promise as we consider how incredible for instance the transfiguration when you think of where the face of Christ shined like the sun and his reign his raiment was as white as the light we are now you know if if you look at where we are compared to that we are now subject to disease we're subject to infections we're just we're subject to death on this planet but that will not be the case at the resurrection of our bodies when we will be fitted with a body that conforms to our Savior Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8 29 reminds us for those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. So by his power our Savior can do something that none of the Caesars in Rome could do he can transform our resurrected body after the pattern of his own resurrected body which was seen firsthand by those who by those apostles who knew him after his resurrection Peter James John and so on.

Therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Isn't that an amazing verse. Our outer man is decaying but our inner man is being renewed day by day.

And also for we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down we have a building from God a house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.

For indeed while we were in this tent we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed. So what is mortal is swallowed up by life. Well that that's an incredible section of scripture that's from second Corinthians chapter four and five.

So if you ever get discouraged you're sick you're in the hospital you've got feeding tubes you've got all kinds of different problems. And go go to second Corinthians chapter four and go to second Corinthians chapter five.

And what an encouragement that is. I mean I it doesn't matter how sick you are that is going to encourage you to to no end. So we we have a we have a God that has the power to convert sickness. And and there's the death has no no power over over him.

What glorious verses these are. I saw lots of pain and suffering with disease and death daily as a physician. But how comforting. How rare reassuring to hear the words of Paul when he says do not lose heart.

Don't you know that while your body is decaying day by day the spiritual inner man is being renewed day by day. What a message this was to try to convey to my patients in my practice. What an encouragement to everyone who trusts and believes in our glorious savior.

And what a challenge to convey this message to those who have not yet made that commitment to our lord Jesus Christ. What a challenge it is sometimes to remind our even our true believers that you're you're being renewed day by day.

So day by day my effort was to alleviate pain you treat the disease comfort those who suffered. But I also had to remind them of God's power and God's grace for what I lacked in power our lord Jesus Christ does not lack.

He demonstrate. He demonstrated his power over sickness disease and infirmity during his days on earth. Remember he brought sight to the blind. He healed the leper. He made the lame man walk. He restored the paralytic who took up his mat and walked.

He halted the bleeding from the woman who had suffered for years. He touched the hand of Peter's mother-in-law and rebuked her fever which immediately left her. The centurion servant was paralyzed and fearfully tormented and Christ healed him.

And while the sun was setting all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and laying hands on each one of them he was healing them. And then he raised Lazarus from the dead.

Our lord has the power over sickness and death. And by the exertion of that power he is able to subdue all things to himself. John 6 44 says. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up.

On the last day the Sadducees asked Christ asked Jesus a woman married seven brothers now in the resurrection whose wife of the seven will she be. For they had all married her. Jesus answered you are mistaken.

You do not understand the scriptures nor the power of God. So don't let us. We should not fall short of understanding and believing in the power of God who is capable of transforming our humble body into a new glorified body that will be perfectly fitted for heaven.

He is able to subject all things to himself. Satan is under his control. He Christ has overcome death and even the winds and the waves obey him. What can we take home now from these last verses in Philippians chapter 3.

Practical Applications: Mentors, Discernment, and Heavenly Priorities

How can we apply all of what we've studied this morning. Well first of all Paul tells us it's good to have a mentor. It's good to have someone to look up to. It's good to have someone that you can follow their example.

And here what does Paul tell us. Look for a pattern of godliness. Do not look for human perfection. You will not find that. Do not look for human perfection but look for a pattern of godliness. Look for the fruit in the life of the godly one.

And then produce your own good fruit by serving the Lord and by serving others especially brothers and sisters in Christ. And the second thing Paul tells us we can take home is beware of the dogs. Beware of the legalists.

Beware of the false teachers. And those who teach and preach a false gospel. Do not follow their path because Paul tells us that leads to destruction. Recognize those people because they're earthly and they follow their own appetite.

They take pride in their sin in which they should be experiencing shame. In short Paul says. Live the life directed by Christ. Listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and walk out your days by faith.

Third remember our conversation or our citizenship is in heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness and everything else will be added onto you. Store your treasure in heaven and remember where your heart is there your treasure will be.

Also wait eagerly in anticipation of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And finally remember we have an all-powerful sovereign God who has the power to subject all things to himself. This includes sickness and death but it includes all of our circumstances not just if we're sick and in the hospital.

It includes every every little thing. You know a faucet that leaks or a basement that's wet with rain for two days. Whatever it is our Lord has power over it. He is sovereign. And remember that while our outer man is being subjected to decay our inner man is being renewed day by day.

And at the resurrection we will have a new glorified body conformed with the glory of Christ himself. And that body will be perfectly fitted for our eternal life with Jesus our Savior. So that brings us to the end of Philippians chapter 3 and we'll end right there in prayer.

Oh gracious God. Oh Lord in heaven. Hallowed be hallowed. Be your name. Holy is your name. Hear our prayer oh Lord. Allow us oh Lord to follow the godly example of Paul. Allow us to walk by faith and trust in you Lord.

Give us a good measure of discernment that we might recognize the false teacher and the enemies of the cross. Steady our convictions as Christians in a top and turvy world that calls evil good and calls good evil.

Guide us and steer us oh Lord as citizens of heaven. And remind us constantly that our conversation is in heaven. Set our mind dear God on heavenly things and remind us that earthly things are just a vapor.

Lead us oh Lord to store our treasures in heaven where they will be secure. We affirm eagerly that we wait eagerly await the second coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. Strengthen those who are sick or who are weak oh Lord.

Give them hope. Give them assurance that although the body weakens the inner man the inner man woman and child is being renewed day by day. We look forward to the day when our earthly bodies will be transformed and conformed to the body and the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ.

But in the meantime we remember and trust that Christ is subjecting all things to himself. A God who can save us is a God who can keep us we walk in these glorious truths. In your name we pray. Amen.