Phillippians 3:4b-14
Who is Paul? Well, he starts off this morning with a pretty good list of credentials. This is exactly what they are. Credentials from one Jew to a fellow Jew. See who I am, I've done everything exactly right, but this isn't why Paul is using this list. Paul is using this list to show them that what he once thought was essential and important is all really nothing, lost. Why, because of Jesus. Because Jesus has made Paul have a radical change of view.
Think about it. One of his credentials is being a persecutor of the church. How do you go from being so radically against something that you ultimately change your whole thinking about it? This guy was not nice, he stood by while Stephen was being stoned. He just watched the whole thing unfold. When he has his encounter on the rode and Ananias is told to go and heal him, Ananias replies to God, are you crazy this guy is a bad dude. God has to reassure him he is not headed to his death.
And Saul, Saul is changed so radically he becomes renamed Paul. Do you remember any other people this has happened to in the Bible? Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Sarai to Sarah its all people who have had some kind of God encounter which radically changes the way they think. Abram's people were meant to stay in the area they were born in, not wander around the earth searching for a land from God. Sarai had visitors who came and told her she was going to have a baby, even though she was old and she laughed and it happened. Jacob wrestles with God all night and walks away from this encounter with a limp and we never hear another story of him lying or cheating. Saul persecutes, kills people who believe in the Way has an encounter and joins the very group he is persecuting.
Why? Because he has this radical encounter and is blinded then healed or if you hear Paul describe it, it is such an otherworldly thing all else is lost. If we turn to Paul's retelling of this encounter it is in second Corinthians 12:2 and he can't quite explain it. He has to distance himself from it. He talks about being taken up and he learns things he never quite knew before and then he is given a struggle out of this encounter. A struggle which is nothing because of Christ.
How many radical changes have you made in your life? Maybe I should put it this way, how many times have you read your bible, come to church, been out walking somewhere and have all of a sudden had an encounter which has radically changed the way you thought about your Christian walk? See this is what happened to Paul. He knew his Torah, he is a Jew by birth and even knows his tribe, he is a Pharisee (you know the ones questioning Jesus' authority in the temple today), he didn't regard the Way as anything but to be stomped out and then... All this has changed, this doesn't matter because its all garbage.
In reading our study on Rob Bell's book What is the Bible we have talked about this book being a gem which we need to keep turning. In other words we need to expect that we will keep having revelations or epiphanies and keep seeing these stories in a different light so that we might go out changed and share this with others. One encounter for Paul and it radically turned the gem of the Torah to believe in Jesus. Enough so he radically says being a Jew first in order to believe in Jesus isn't a law. Its in what you do, how you act. Everything is just garbage for the old fashioned sewer. This encounter is not limited to Paul or to these ancestors of the church. This rethinking of the establishment is for all.
We need to press on, press on to the goal and what is the goal, a prize in a call from God in Jesus. So now we need to look back to Jesus what is the prize, how we treat one another. The people we label undeserving are deserving and those we label deserving are sometimes the least deserving. Examine it, who does Jesus reach put to, the poor, the unclean, the women, the lost and he reaches out to us. Waiting for us to turn the gem and find something new. Something which makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of others.
Who is Paul? Well, he starts off this morning with a pretty good list of credentials. This is exactly what they are. Credentials from one Jew to a fellow Jew. See who I am, I've done everything exactly right, but this isn't why Paul is using this list. Paul is using this list to show them that what he once thought was essential and important is all really nothing, lost. Why, because of Jesus. Because Jesus has made Paul have a radical change of view.
Think about it. One of his credentials is being a persecutor of the church. How do you go from being so radically against something that you ultimately change your whole thinking about it? This guy was not nice, he stood by while Stephen was being stoned. He just watched the whole thing unfold. When he has his encounter on the rode and Ananias is told to go and heal him, Ananias replies to God, are you crazy this guy is a bad dude. God has to reassure him he is not headed to his death.
And Saul, Saul is changed so radically he becomes renamed Paul. Do you remember any other people this has happened to in the Bible? Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Sarai to Sarah its all people who have had some kind of God encounter which radically changes the way they think. Abram's people were meant to stay in the area they were born in, not wander around the earth searching for a land from God. Sarai had visitors who came and told her she was going to have a baby, even though she was old and she laughed and it happened. Jacob wrestles with God all night and walks away from this encounter with a limp and we never hear another story of him lying or cheating. Saul persecutes, kills people who believe in the Way has an encounter and joins the very group he is persecuting.
Why? Because he has this radical encounter and is blinded then healed or if you hear Paul describe it, it is such an otherworldly thing all else is lost. If we turn to Paul's retelling of this encounter it is in second Corinthians 12:2 and he can't quite explain it. He has to distance himself from it. He talks about being taken up and he learns things he never quite knew before and then he is given a struggle out of this encounter. A struggle which is nothing because of Christ.
How many radical changes have you made in your life? Maybe I should put it this way, how many times have you read your bible, come to church, been out walking somewhere and have all of a sudden had an encounter which has radically changed the way you thought about your Christian walk? See this is what happened to Paul. He knew his Torah, he is a Jew by birth and even knows his tribe, he is a Pharisee (you know the ones questioning Jesus' authority in the temple today), he didn't regard the Way as anything but to be stomped out and then... All this has changed, this doesn't matter because its all garbage.
In reading our study on Rob Bell's book What is the Bible we have talked about this book being a gem which we need to keep turning. In other words we need to expect that we will keep having revelations or epiphanies and keep seeing these stories in a different light so that we might go out changed and share this with others. One encounter for Paul and it radically turned the gem of the Torah to believe in Jesus. Enough so he radically says being a Jew first in order to believe in Jesus isn't a law. Its in what you do, how you act. Everything is just garbage for the old fashioned sewer. This encounter is not limited to Paul or to these ancestors of the church. This rethinking of the establishment is for all.
We need to press on, press on to the goal and what is the goal, a prize in a call from God in Jesus. So now we need to look back to Jesus what is the prize, how we treat one another. The people we label undeserving are deserving and those we label deserving are sometimes the least deserving. Examine it, who does Jesus reach put to, the poor, the unclean, the women, the lost and he reaches out to us. Waiting for us to turn the gem and find something new. Something which makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of others.
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