Fifth Sunday in Lent April 5-6, 2025
“The Basics” Philippians 3:4-14
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Don’t miss next week at Ascension. Everything that we are as God’s children is addressed next week. Holy Week is next week. Palm Sunday. Holy Thursday. Good Friday. Easter. These are the days that develop our foundation and faith.
Today I’m hoping to get you ready for next week. I’m talking about confidence, the very foundation of who we are. Paul was amazingly confident in who he was. He had the right family, the right religion, the right zeal. So he thought. He was circumcised on the right day as a Jew. He was dedicated enough to become a Pharisee. And he held to the right religion that God was a spirit and NOT a man.
When followers of this new sect called “The Way” (the first name that Christians were called), he opposed them violently. Can you believe that those folks, in that new religion, were following a man? He couldn’t. Paul’s purpose was to serve the only God and to serve Him faithfully.
Paul headed to Damascus with papers in hand that allowed him to arrest these heretical followers of Jesus and to bring them back to Jerusalem to have them imprisoned and punished. Paul was confident he was doing the will of God. And then God shattered his confidence. He stripped him of his faith. He was blinded and then heard a voice from heaven that said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) Paul asked the words, “Who are you, Lord?” And what he heard were the most miserable words he had ever heard, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:5)
Paul had it all wrong. Everything that he had built his life on, was as he said, “a loss” (verse 7), he says that all his self-made confidence was “rubbish” (verse 8). That word translated “rubbish” in our Bibles is so sanitized. This past Wednesday I visited Pastor Ginkel at his home. Pastor Ginkel has a cute dog named Teddy. That afternoon Teddy left Pastor a little “present” in his study. That is the word for “rubbish”, that little brown stuff you step in, or sometimes find in Pastor Ginkel’s study.
Do you know that God is good but He is not always gentle. St. Paul, all his life, learned that his false confidence in self would leave him empty. His confidence had to be in Jesus. “I consider them (all his own works) rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (Philippians 3:9)
God is good but He isn’t always gentle. I read about a pastor in Texas who was accused of having an “inappropriate relationship” with a “young woman.” He was the lead pastor of a large congregation. 73 years old. He is known for his “fiery preaching.” The allegations were found to be true. This pastor, Steven Lawson from Dallas, wrote this letter recently:
It is with a shattered heart that I write this letter. I have sinned grievously against the Lord, against my wife, my family, and against countless numbers of you by having a sinful relationship with a woman not my wife. I am deeply broken that I have betrayed and deceived my wife, devasted my children, brought shame to the name of Christ, reproach upon His church, and harm to many ministries.
I alone am responsible for my sin. I have confessed my sin to the Lord, to my wife, to my family, and have repented of it. I have spent the past months searching my heart to discover the roots of my sin and mortifying them by the grace of God. I hate my sin, weep over my sin, and have turned from it.
My sin carries enormous consequences, and I will be living with those for the rest of my life. Over the years, many have looked to me for spiritual guidance, and I have failed you. I beg for your forgiveness.
I am grateful for the unmerited grace of God in the gospel to extend His full forgiveness to me. Again, I ask for your forgiveness as well.
Wow. So many leaders, so many pastors, run from making any statement of repentance. So many don’t want to admit sin and come clean. But this man said he had no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in his deeds. He looked only to Christ.
Paul, when he evaluated his former life says, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who have given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” (I Timothy 1:12-15)
All this stuff about our faith is not about me and it is not about you. It is all about Him. Have you learned that yet? Has anyone told you that? Paul had a false confidence, and Christ came to him directly and gave him a real confidence. That true confidence is based only on Jesus Christ and His action of redemption so we can be forgiven and saved. Look at who takes center stage in his life:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (Philippians 3:7-9)
Now, he had a true identity. Now, he had a confidence not built on self but built on Christ. We are sure of our position in life, who we are and where we stand with God because we have faith in all that Jesus has done for us. Do you want to get down to the basics, those things that never change? Get down to faith in Jesus. Paul, in that beloved book of Romans speaks plainly, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” (Romans 3:21-24)
Sometimes people let their past determine who they are and what they can do. They had a bad childhood. They have lots of scars in life. They live with regrets over foolish and sinful choices they have made. They get stuck. Is that you? It could have been Paul. So he addresses it, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
Everyday God is at work to create a sure confidence in us – a confidence that we belong to Jesus, that we are a new creation in Jesus, that we live with a certain hope through faith in Jesus. Just like John the Baptist said, “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30)
It is not easy to have our life turned all around. Paul was certain he was on the right path when he was putting all his confidence in his own flesh. But what a joy he had when he could say, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
We are going to conclude this message with a simple song that many of you have known from childhood. It is the very basic truth of what we believe and how good our God is to us.
Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so,
Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! He who died Heaven’s gates to open wide.
He has washed away my sin, Lets His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
(Lutheran Service Book, 588)
Amen!!
