The Surpassing Worth
AI Summary:
In this sermon, Mark Oshman explores the concept of life as a resume, emphasizing the human desire for acceptance and approval. He discusses the burdens of resume building in various aspects of life, including relationships and spirituality, and highlights the dangers of false teachings that promote a 'Jesus plus' mentality. Oshman reflects on Paul's teachings in Philippians, illustrating how true righteousness comes from faith in Christ alone, not from personal achievements or moral standings. He encourages listeners to embrace the grace of God and to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus, moving beyond mere knowledge to a transformative experience of faith.
AI Transcript:
Welcome to redemption Parker. If you're new, my name is Mark. It's my joy and privilege to open up God's word with you this morning. We are working our way through the gospel, gospel, the letter to the Philippian Church. Philippians chapter three is where we're going to be. So if you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way there. If you have a smartphone, make your way there either way. Put your eyes on God's word as we work our way through it. As you're turning there, let me ask this question. Anyone here recently, you know, within the last year or two,
done a resume or applied for college or college essay anyone? Okay, yeah I know Cole has. Cole how many jobs did you apply for with that resume? Like 40, 40, someone had 75 last time. No one else? My daughter's in the back row, she's not raising her hand, she should be, she's gotten to college, there you go, college essays. That's an intimidating time right? Like down on paper you're trying to put,
all the reasons why you should be the one, why you should be accepted and not rejected and why you should be accepted above everyone else. Like when you have to do that, it's not fun, right? I remember the first time coming out of college trying to get a real job doing that, but the problem is they wanted this experience, but you don't have the experience. You got to spice up your resume. And we didn't have ChatGPT to spice it up. Like you just had to come up with something like,
Choose me please. Right. And so the whole point of the resume is accept me. Bring me in. Here's all my strengths. Here's my experience or lack thereof. Here's you know why I would be awesome. And the whole point of that is to put forward your best self and then to hide. Actually I don't have these strengths and I don't have these experiences and I don't really have these skills. So that's the whole thing. Resume.
But here's the thing, whether you've done it actually in the last couple years, our whole lives are really presenting a kind of resume to people from the very beginning. And it's the same thing. Here's who I am. Here's why you should bring me in. Here's why you should accept me. Here's why I'm good enough. Here's why you want me. And so it starts, I remember just that feeling in elementary school, like, okay.
What do I need to do? What sports do I need to play? How do I, what people do I need to get in with? Like how can I present to them a resume that will cause them to want to bring me in? Of course that rolls into middle school, then high school, there's all that pressure, you're always presenting your resume and then you're trying to get into that school. So you gotta have the right resume and the right college essay to get into that school. Why? To get that degree, why? To get.
that job, to have that on your resume, to get that job. Why? Because you want to climb this ladder. You're just constantly, constantly presenting a resume. And we do this with everyone. When you're trying to find a spouse, when you're dating, that's all about the resume. Hey, here's all the good things about me. If you choose me, here's the humor that you're going to be exposed to. Here's the wisdom and here's the...
Here's my earning potential and my family values. Look at me, choose me please. Here's my resume. Meanwhile, we're trying to hide the things that they're not gonna love. I don't want them to know about that. I don't want them to know about my experience in this area. I don't want them to know about my insufficiencies here. That's all of dating, right? Like here's my resume, choose me. And it can be exhausting living our lives constantly.
trying to seek the acceptance and the approval of others. But this kind of horizontal resume building and resume showing, it really has a, from a Christian worldview, a theological root to it. It has a vertical root to it. Since our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled in the garden, were kicked out of the garden, the whole human project has been a resume building project to be accepted, to find your way back.
into God and every religion in the world says basically here's what you need on your resume. Now there's different resumes out there but essentially here's what you need. Here's the prayers you need to pray, the sacrifices you need to make, the things you need to do, the things you shouldn't do and if your resume is good enough maybe just maybe you can come back to God. I mean that's every philosophy, every worldview that there is this internal longing to
well, in Christian terms to be righteous. It is our greatest need and it is our greatest problem. We know that that God is holy and we know we need righteousness. But we also know in and of ourselves, no matter how many successes we have, no matter how many MVP trophies, what our title is at our job, or whatever Nobel laureate or Grammy award. At the end of the day, when you lay your head on the pillow,
There's this voice. Is it enough? I don't think it's enough. And so there's this void. It's our greatest need and our greatest problem. And even even the philosophies that deny the very existence of God. When they're honest, the atheist philosophers that they they recognize there's still this thing that haunts them. I saw many this week. I'll just pull out one from Jean Paul Pulsart, the atheist. says this that God does not exist. I cannot deny.
So in his mind, there's no God. But then listen to what he says. That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget. He's like, there's no God, but really all I want is God. That's what he's saying. Like there's this existential angst in his soul. And so we're faced with this dilemma. We're resume building people. think, what do I need to do to be accepted by one another and by God?
And Paul wants us to feel the weight of that, feel the burden of that, feel the problem of that, so that when you hear the good news, you can feel the freedom from that. So Philippians chapter three is where we're at. We'll pick it up in verse one. I ask you to listen carefully. This is God's word. He starts off writing this. Finally, my brothers and sisters, he says, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble.
to me and it is safe for you. says rejoice in the Lord and he says I'm going to write the same things. What are the same things. Well we're going to see in a few moments what is the same thing. But if you remember the history of this church. Philippi in Acts chapter 16 Paul goes to Philippi goes down by the river where there's kind of a Bible study going on and and he encounters this.
woman named Lydia, this business woman, he explains the gospel to her. the scripture says, the Lord opened her heart. She receives Jesus, becomes the first Christian in Philippi. This church is started. And then the power of God just continues to roll out over the next several days. There's a demon possessed slave girl who's following Paul around. And then he turns to her and in the power of Jesus, exercises the demon and she is set free. She's added to the church.
And then there's the Philippian jailer, Paul and Silas are in jail, but the jailer is just this kind of blue collar, drink a beer on the weekend, watch the game, try to get through retirement, kind of life, and all of a God shows up, rocks his world, opens his heart, he becomes a follower of Jesus. And Paul just teaches him the gospel.
over and over over the next weeks and months and years he's teaching them the gospel and more and more are coming in and he reminds them of the gospel see for paul the gospel is not just the entrance into the kingdom of god the gospel is not the abc of the christian life the gospel is the a to z of the christian life it is the alpha and the omega it's an inexhaustible well and it's what we must always come back to and he says so it's no problem for me
to remind you what I taught you when I was with you, because we need to remember, we need to rehearse, because here's the thing, we have a tendency to drift. Both that there's pressure internally in our hearts and minds, externally, there's pressure outside the church, there's pressure inside the church, as the old hymn said, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. This is just the pull of our heart. And so Paul says, no, it's safe for you
come back to the gospel. It is and must be central. Don Carson who was a professor at Trinity Evangelical School wrote this about this. says, is it in the Christian faith that excites you? Today there are endless subgroups of confessing Christians who invest enormous quantities of time and energy in one issue or another. Abortion, pornography, homeschooling.
women's ordination for or against, economic justice, a certain style of worship, the defense of a particular Bible version, and much more. Not for a moment am I suggesting we should not think about such matters or throw our weight behind some of them, but when such matters devour most of our time and passion, each of us must ask, in what fashion am I confessing the centrality of the Gospel?
that we have a tendency to drift, that there is pressure, that there is this internal pressure that when we forget the gospel, we begin to add things to the gospel. When we forget that it's all about Jesus, we begin to make it Jesus plus something, Jesus plus a certain kind of behavior. And it's not that what we already saw in this letter, we are called to live a life worthy of the gospel, but
But it's not in the sense that it adds to our righteousness at all, but we feel it. What must I do so God will be happy with me? It's got happy with me because I went to church. It's got happy with me because I gave. It's got happy with me. What must I do to be accepted? Here's my resume. And then there's there's outside pressure. There's false doctrines, false teachers that will come in. There are wolves in sheep's clothing and
I say that is most false teachers that come into the church, they look good. But like they appeal to the sense of like, Hey, just do a little bit more. Look at my morality. Look at my family. Look at my successes. Don't you want that? Like, yeah, that looks pretty good. But Paul has no patience for false teachers. He sees them as they are. They are wolves.
And they send out their own missionaries and they look good and they they might look like a life that you want but but in in the end it's Jesus plus something which equals nothing. And so in the first century the first heresy that would find its way into the church after Paul would plant these churches of the gospel of grace amongst the Gentiles it was called the Judaizers. These these people would come in these Jewish people would come in and they say to these Gentiles hey it's great that you have
followed the Jewish Messiah. Now all you need is to follow the Jewish life. You need to do Jesus plus circumcision in their case or Sabbath worship or this dietary law or these 612 rules. Whatever it is, this is how you can build your spiritual resume so that God will really be happy with you.
And again, they come in, they look successful, they look moral, they've got Bible verses to point you to on this, and they make this compelling case, and people are like, yeah, I have this internal desire to prove myself. So I do want Jesus plus that thing or this thing or this activity. And so without even thinking about it, you begin to take that on. And Paul says, no, no, no, that's a very dangerous thing.
And he says, this is a safeguard for you to remind you of the gospel. And he calls out these false teachers and he uses explicitly inflammatory language on purpose because he does not want to be kind to wolves. Like wolves should be called out as wolves. And so as there's Judaizers and those that are sympathetic to the Judaizers in the Philippian church, when they get this letter and this part gets read, they begin to feel very nervous. Look what Paul says in verse two.
He says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Like what in the world is he talking about? Look out for those who let the dogs in, right? Dogs in the first century weren't pets. They were considered unclean, dirty, and dangerous. Like in the countryside, that would be dangerous to come across a pack of wild dogs. And Paul calls these Judaizers, these very
morally upright, externally pristine people, dogs, unclean, dirty, dangerous. He says, look out for the evil doers. Now they're offended by this. like, we're not evil doers. We're known as the good doers. Like we're just telling people to do good so that this must be good. He says, no, no. And the motive that you're telling them is actually evil. We'll see why in a moment. He says, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.
It's a reference to circumcision, but it's also a parallel between the pagan idol worship. When pagans would worship idols, they would often mutilate their flesh. And Paul's saying essentially this is what the Judaizers are doing in requiring circumcision. It's inflammatory and intentionally so. Paul shows them what are true marks of genuine believers.
Verse three, for we are the circumcision. In Galatians chapter five, says circumcision in the new covenant is circumcision of the heart that the spirit does. He says, we are the ones who worship by the spirit, or your translation might say, serve by the spirit. It's the same word. spirit-filled, genuine believers, their energy and motivation and strength to do everything they do comes by the spirit. Jesus said this would happen. John chapter four, the woman at the well, he says,
A day is coming and is already here when the true worshipers of God will worship by spirit and truth. And so Paul says, this is how we know we're genuine. Our energy comes from the spirit and glory in Christ Jesus or boasting Christ Jesus. Our boasting is not in ourselves or our church or anything else. It is simply Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So what he's saying is
For the genuine believer, there is no Jesus plus something. There is no sense of, well, look at all the religious activity I've done or look at the good works I've done or look at how many people I've helped. And then crediting that to our account as as somehow our behavior makes us more righteous in the sight of God. I mean, we all feel this, right? I mean, the more you do like there are good works we're called to, but we can shift in our mind to think
God must be happy with me. And Paul says, no, no, no. We put no confidence in the flesh. None of the things we do, we put in the column to our credit. This is the mark of genuine believers. Well, the Judaizer says they would come into a church, they would essentially say, do you want the best resume for God? Yes, Jesus, plus these things.
There's these things and if you the more you get of these things the higher you'll be in the kingdom of God the more you'll be accepted the more you'll be righteous and and again It's appealed to them. And and so Paul says you want to play the resume game? We could play the resume game Paul says I understand the resume I have the resume and and as Paul starts to talk about the next line I'm sure the Judaizers get very nervous. Look what he says
He says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Every Judaizer that came in there that tried to convince them of doing more, Paul says, I've done it more and better than anyone else. He points to seven things that that would have in his pre-Christian life, he would have counted as his own righteousness. He says this.
I've been circumcised on the eighth day. He points to ritual. He says, yeah, the ritual of circumcision. I know some people say, well, you know, I'm a Christian because I was, my parents baptized me when I was born. The ritual was checked. The box was checked. Paul says, it doesn't do anything for you. It does nothing. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel. He points to as ethnicity. He's not a convert to Judaism. He is...
He is a Jew of Jews. He is from the line of Abraham. He points to his ethnicity. He that's not sufficient, Sometimes people are like, of course I'm a Christian. I was born and raised in Alabama.
No, that doesn't make you a Christian.
He points to his ethnicity, he points to his rank of the tribe of Benjamin. He's not just of Israel, he is of the tribe of Benjamin. Of the 12 tribes, 10 of them rebelled and followed the Baals and two stayed faithful, at least for a time, Judah and Benjamin. So if you were part of Judah or Benjamin, you were like the upper class of rank in the Israel mine. He says, I have the best rank.
but it does nothing for me. A Hebrew of Hebrews, he comes from the best tradition. He points to his tradition and he says, that does nothing for me. As to the law of Pharisee, he was a moral guy. Again, in the first century, Pharisees, besides the gospels, aren't really looked down upon. They're seen as pristine. They not only keep the law, they keep their own laws to...
help them prevent breaking the law. they're extremely moral. They've got this upright life. He's like, I was a Pharisee, but that's not what saves me. As to Zeal, a persecutor of the church. Now we live in an age where Zeal seems like the only thing that's important. Whatever you believe, as long as you believe in it, you have Zeal, that must be good for you. And then Paul's like, no, Zeal does nothing. Does nothing for your spiritual account. And then finally he says,
Number seven, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Now Paul's not saying that he was perfect, but in the first century in the Jewish mind, there is a category of submitting yourself to the law to such a degree that you are blameless. He says, if anyone did it, I did it. I've got all these things on my spiritual resume, or at least I did have them.
The next thing that he says just shocks them. He says, but whatever gain I had, whatever was on my resume in the pro column, he says, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. In Paul's mind, all of those good things, all of sudden when he encounters Christ on the road to Damascus and Jesus reveals himself to him, all of sudden, all of that long list of zeal and tradition and ritual and.
rank and rule and obedience, all of that gets shifted over to the negative column. And then in the positive column, there's just one thing, just one thing, Jesus. That is on his resume now. He says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.
my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things." In Paul's mind, everything is lost, but he's got the surpassing worth of now knowing Christ Jesus, the Lord. Now when you read that, at first glance it can just sound like, well, compared to Jesus, compared to Jesus, all this stuff is nothing compared to the infinite greatness of Jesus. That's partially true.
But that's not what Paul says. It's not just that Jesus is better and we'll see that in a moment. It's not just that Jesus is infinitely better. No, he's actually shifted some categories here. All of those amazing things that obedience, that heritage, his ethnicity, his nationality, all of those things, he's now put in a negative column. It's a loss. It's a debit. What's going on there?
I had a friend in our church in Japan. He came from a very conservative, very, very legalistic background, very, very legalistic tradition. And he still had some of those tendencies. And so I remember having this conversation with him and he was like, Mark, Mark, I get it. I could see how grace is better. I acknowledge that. But is it really so bad where I came from? Is it really so bad?
These things, I mean, after all, this saved me from a lot of stuff. I didn't go into a life of debauchery like so many people. I don't have all this sexual sin in my background. And though I was forced to memorize all this scripture, you know, now that I've come to grace, I've got all that scripture in my mind. So, is it really that bad?
Well, let's have Jesus help us understand that one. I'll put it on the screen. Luke chapter 18. Jesus tells a parable about this.
Verse 9 says, he also told them this parable, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, believed in their own spiritual resume. And not only that, they treated others with contempt. Here's the parable. He said, two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, morally upright, respectable.
seemingly righteous. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, the worst of the very worst.
says the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God I thank you that I'm not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector and in his prayer he he pulls out his spiritual resume he says I fast twice a week not just the one time required I give a tithe of all I get not just
my income. But then look what Jesus says, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus concludes, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
righteous, justified, accepted. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So why does Paul put all of that list in the negative category? Because it's this, there's two ways to keep yourself from Jesus. It's full on headlong into sin and rebellion that everyone in the world knows about, and it's self-righteousness.
Your life can look impeccable, but if it blinds you to your need of Jesus, it is a loss. It is detrimental to your soul. Any trusting in your own work is detrimental to your soul because you don't believe you need His grace. You don't believe you need His mercy, and that's all you need. And that's all you must have to get His righteousness. So he says it's a loss.
I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for the for the sake of for his sake. have suffered the loss of all things. It's true when he became a Christian he lost his prestige. He lost his position. He lost his family. He lost his friends. He lost his rule and role like he lost everything but he says it's worth it and he counts all the other things as well the ESP says rubbish.
The word is scabula. Maybe yours might say other than that, the old King James version gets a little bit closer, dung. It means excrement. Sometimes the Bible translators are more genteel than God's word himself. This is what Paul says, all that stuff that was to my account, it's crap. I mean, your problems with the Bible right now if you're offended, it's crap. Your good works is crap.
If in them you are trusting in yourself and not in Jesus, it's crap. If you think it adds anything to your salvation, it's crap. If you think it is in any way to your spiritual benefit, you count it as crap. In order that I may gain Christ. Then Paul just reminds him, remember, it's no trouble for me to write the same things to you and it is safe for you.
He unpacks the quintessential gospel. I love what he says. He says, order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. I love that language because remember in the garden when Adam and Eve sin and God comes down, God knows where they are, but he looks for them, right? Remember? Where are you, Adam? But I imagine this now, God coming down and be like, where's Mark? Where's Mark? there's Mark.
He's I found him. He's in Christ. He's in Christ. That means he has the righteousness of Christ. That means he has the perfect life of Christ. See, to be justified. Maybe you've heard it before. Just if I'd never sinned. Well, that's only half the equation. It isn't that Jesus just came to wipe away our sin. No, on the cross, Jesus does the great exchange. He actually takes it on himself so that it is just if i'd never sinned. But not only that, he gives us his resume, his
victories, his good works, his perfect life of obedience, all of it gets credited to us so that we are found in Christ Amen I mean you could be excited about this. This is the gospel That means you could stop striving and stop trying to show God that your resume is sufficient if you are found in Christ you're in You're in you have all of his righteousness all of his victories credited to your crown
He says, having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. is quintessential gospel. This is a summary of the entire book of Romans. It is Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourself, so that no one may boast. Like this is the gospel. So in light of what Paul is saying here,
How now shall we live? How do we respond? How does the Spirit help us respond? Well, we stop striving and we start resting in Christ alone. And when those temptations to start to think, God will be happy with me if I do X, Y, and Z, I'll get some spiritual credit, then we repent of that and we trust in Him alone. So maybe you're here, this is...
Good news. This is the best news. It's on the table for everyone in this room. You have been made in the image of God. Maybe you're here and you've never called yourself a Christian. Maybe you're here and you know you're not a believer, but the offer on the table this morning is you can be by grace alone through faith alone in your seat. You can trust in Christ and be found in him. Get his victories, his righteousness credited to your account. You can do that today. And if you do that, we'd love to talk to you about that. Help you walk in that.
to know Jesus more. But maybe, maybe when Paul was going through that list of his pre-Christian resume, maybe some of it resonated with you. Yeah, I have, I do like Jesus, but I have trusted in my tradition or my ethnicity or my political affiliation or anything else in the blank. If you're waking up to grace today, that's a beautiful thing.
That's what Paul had to do on the road to Damascus. Martin Luther. You know, in the 1500s, the church had lost its way. It was a Jesus plus system. It was Jesus plus, do these works. It was Jesus plus, go on this pilgrimage.
to Jerusalem and Rome and if you do that and if you go to each step of up to the Basilica and you pray on your knees at each step then you can take 10,000 years off of your time in purgatory. Jesus plus pilgrimages. Jesus plus relics. The churches even Luther's own church in Vittenberg had something like 8,000 relics.
These things that were supposedly from the cross of Christ or some gown that Mary wore or some table that Jesus built, like little pieces of that, the church taught. If you go and see those things, you will take years off your purgatory. If you give money, this is the equation for how much you can take off of purgatory. was Jesus plus. They would say, it's absolutely Jesus. Absolutely Jesus died on the cross for you. Now just add to that.
these things. And Martin Luther was like that. He was like the apostle Paul. was like he had this sense that God was holy, righteous and just and he was terrified of God. And so he knew that he needed righteousness and so he tried his hardest. went on the pilgrimages. If they asked you to fast a week, a day he'd fast a week, they would find him sleeping in the snow as a way of penance for his sins.
He would whip himself so that he would bleed like he just showed the world and really he was trying to show God. Here's my resume. I'm good enough. Accept me God. And some later would say well you must have really loved God Martin. He said love God. No sometimes I hated him. A God who punishes sinners. I was doing anything I could to try to earn his favor. But it wasn't until.
He was asked in Wittenberg to teach a class, a class through the book of Romans. He said, OK. And he began to study Romans. And he came to the line, and the righteous shall live by faith. And it unlocked grace in his life. It's like all of this striving, all of these accolades, all of this resume, it's.
righteous will live by faith and it unlocked the Reformation. So maybe you're here today and you just realized you've had Jesus plus something you can repent of that and just have Jesus and you have it all. You can have it all or maybe you're a Christian here and you just need to remember and rehearse the gospel every week every day. Find those rhythms of your life to remember rehearse and rejoice. This is what's true. This is what's true. It's not about
my work, it's about his work. So let's let the gospel fuel our praise and our perseverance. And then one last thing in this passage, we see it in verse 10. It says, righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him. Talking about Jesus. Well, Paul, you already said you know Jesus. But here's the thing for those that have had a genuine encounter with the Lord.
There is what I'd call a holy angst. There's a holy angst that wants more. Don't ever confuse the very dangerous thing of knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. We can have churches full of people that know a lot about Jesus, but to know Jesus is to want to know Him more. He's an inexhaustible well.
He is infinite in glory and majesty and grace and mercy. That means forever and ever we get to go deeper into the ocean that is Jesus. And for those that taste a little, they want more. This has always been the case. Moses has amazing encounters with God. What does he say? Lord, I want to see your face. Show me your glory, Lord. He wants more. David in the Psalms, here's a man after God's own heart. He just wants more.
Psalm 63, example, verse one, you God are my God earnestly I seek you. Do you hear that the holy angst I thirst for you my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I just want more. So the Christian life is about going deeper into the well of Jesus, not to earn his righteousness, but to soak in his righteousness, to soak in his
presence and his power and his being. This is the cry of the apostle Paul. My prayer for us and for the church and for churches around the world and in our city is that there would be a holy angst. A holy angst to go hard after Jesus, not to earn your righteousness, but because you have his righteousness. For the joy of God and the glory of all people. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.
