Philippians 3:17-21
Who are the people you look up to? When you were growing up, who did you idolize? If you had a picture of someone on your bedroom wall, who was it? When I was a young teenager, The Beatles took over the American music scene. There was a girl in my 8th grade class whose bedroom was plastered with Beatles posters – or so I was told. When the Beatles first movie came out, she went to every performance at the local theater, sat in the first row, and screamed the entire time.
Since the World Cup has begun, here are the top ten most popular footballers. Does anyone have a picture of any of these athletes on their wall at home?
10. Mesut Özil
9. Paul Pogba
8. Wayne Rooney
7. Sergio Agüero
6. Luis Suárez
5. Gareth Bale
4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
3. Neymar Jr
2. Lionel Messi
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Maybe sports is not your thing. Who are the top ten most popular people on social media in 2018?
10. Kendall Jenner
9. Justin Bieber
8. Dwayne Johnson
7. Kylie Jenner
6. Taylor Swift
5. Kim Kardashian
4. Beyonce
3. Ariana Grande
2. Christiano Ronaldo
1. Selena Gomez
(Reading through this list is reason enough not to get entranced with social media.)
When I was growing up my boyhood idol was Bill Bradley. Bill Bradley was considered to be the top high school basketball player in the US. He applied to five universities but was offered scholarships to 75 universities. He turned down the scholarships at the top rated basketball programs and went to Princeton University because he saw beyond his basketball career and wanted an education that would help him with his desire to work in government or foreign service.
Princeton did not have an exceptional basketball team, but because of Bradley, they went to the national championship tournament and ended up third. Despite being on the third place team, Bradley was named the MVP of the tournament. He was drafted by the New York Knicks, a professional basketball team, but delayed his pro career for two years to go to England as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.
When he returned to the US he played with the New York Knicks and won two championships in his ten year career. As he traveled around the country during those years, while others were out partying, he read and studied about the issues facing cities in the US. He met with leaders in the cities of the US to talk with them about those issues. And when he retired from basketball, he was elected senator from the state of New Jersey and served three terms.
In 2000 he ran for president of the US but was unsuccessful. He was asked about the primary system that chose the candidates for the election and said, “How should we Democrats select the next presidential nominee? Smoke filled rooms? Brokered convention? National primary? Personally, I prefer jump shots from the top of the key.”
I admired Bill Bradley for his athletic skills and his academic intelligence. But I did not learn anything from him about how to live my life as a follower of Jesus.
I loved my father and wanted to be like him. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be an engineer, like my father. When I went to university I began studying mathematics because I wanted to be like my father.
I learned a lot from my father.
When you dig from a pile, dig from the bottom and let the pile work for you.
When you get bucked off a pony, get right back up so you don’t become afraid of riding.
When you have a dispute about a bill from a reputable company, pay the bill in full and then dispute it later.
Tip a larger percentage at breakfast because the bill is small.
Pass by a chain restaurant to get to a good restaurant when driving.
Coil a rope so it is ready to use next time you need it.
When you pass a truck, watch the front wheel closest to you to see if it will turn as you pass.
When you pass a car at night, don’t look at the headlights, look at the line marker at the side of your lane so you will not be blinded by the light.
When you put up a row of shingles, measure from the base line, not the previous row. If you measure from the previous row, your errors get compounded.
When you have people over to eat, make sure you have more than they will be able to eat.
I learned a lot from my father, but I did not learn anything from him about the questions that have always been at the front of my mind: What is the meaning of life? What happens after we die?
My father was not curious about these existential questions. He told me once, “I believe in God. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. If I took it any more seriously I’d have to read my Bible every day and I don’t want to do that.” Even his belief was half-hearted, without conviction. Other times he questioned the existence of God. The truth is that he was just not curious about these issues.
My father was a good man and I miss him. But I think my father is now a bit more curious about what happens after we die then he was when he was alive. I think my father regrets not having thought about the meaning of life during his years on earth.
Bill Bradley is a highly competent man with great accomplishments. When he speaks out on issues it is well worth listening to what he has to say. But has his thinking directed him to submit to the love of Jesus for him? I don’t know. Is he ready to die? Is he prepared for what comes after death?
Joseph Kennedy, father of President John Kennedy, made a fortune, a billionaire in today’s reckoning. He did this by choosing jobs that were not the highest paid or the most prestigious, but jobs where he could learn from someone about their industry. He did this with banking and then investing in the stock market. His ethics were problematic, but he learned from people how to become wealthy.
We can learn from people about how to be successful in this world and it is not bad to do that, but there will be an end – and then what?
There are good things we can learn from people we admire, but there is a day coming when we will die. And when we die, what happens next? Who can help us live our lives now in a way that prepares us for what is coming next?
Paul, in his Philippians letter, has talked a lot about following the example of others. In his encouragement to the church in Philippi to love and care for each other, he told them: (Philippians 2:5–6)
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
There is only one person in history who has come from what happens after we die to tell us how to prepare for what happens after we die. Only one person in history came from an eternal existence, died, broke the power of death over us, and rose to new life. Jesus knows what happens next so we look to him for our example of how to live life now during our earthly existence.
When Jesus washed the feet of his disciples he told them, (John 13:15–17)
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Peter wrote to followers of Jesus who were being persecuted and told them, (1 Peter 2:20–21)
if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
Jesus came to rescue us, to help us do what we would never have been able to do ourselves. Because of Jesus we are on a pilgrimage through this life, heading toward our heavenly home. The encouragement of the New Testament is to look to Jesus as an example of how we should live and think.
As followers of Jesus, we want to be Christlike. We want to be like Christ. But Paul takes us a step further. We are to follow the example of Jesus and we are, ourselves, to be an example to others. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
We model ourselves after Jesus and then become an example to others who know us. This is the theme Paul picks up in the text for this morning.
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
Following the example of a teacher was part of Paul’s Jewish heritage. Rabbis had disciples and the disciples not only gained knowledge from their teacher, they also worked at putting into practice the example of their teacher. The disciples of a rabbi watched how the rabbi lived his life, interacted with others, dealt with challenges and conflicts. The rabbi was a model for his followers.
This is what Jesus did with his disciples. When you read Acts, pay attention to the ministry of Peter and you will see how he did what Jesus did. When Peter healed a man who was paralyzed, he said, (Acts 9:34) “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Peter told Aeneas to roll up his mat just as Jesus told the man who was lowered through the roof to pick up his mat. When Peter raised a woman from the dead, he used the same words Jesus had used when he raised a girl from the dead. Peter watched Jesus and learned from him how to act.
Paul expected that people in the churches he started would look to him as an example of how to live and think. He wrote to the church in Thessalonica, (1 Thessalonians 1:5–8)
You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
Paul wrote:
just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
Be on the lookout for people “who live as we do.”
Who was Paul thinking of? Well, he had already talked to them about Timothy and Epaphroditus. He promised to send to them Timothy (Philippians 2:20–22)
I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
And he wrote about Epaphroditus, a member of the community in Philippi, (Philippians 2:29–30)
So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.
As I mentioned in an earlier sermon, Paul was constantly lifting up those who worked with him, honoring them in his letters.
Was Paul limiting those who “live as we do” to his team of workers? I don’t think so. There were many others, not just Paul’s team, who visited Philippi.
Philippi was a small Roman city on the main highway East and West, and a full day’s walk from Neapolis on the coast. The Christian community was undoubtedly frequented by all sorts of itinerants who would be given Christian hospitality. They passed by and were invited to speak to the community. The problem with this is there are all sorts of itinerants.
When I was first ordained, I was pastor of two small churches in Eastern Ohio. One had about 35 people and the other 65 people. Because they could not afford to pay more than the minimum salary for a pastor, they did not have a lot of choice about who would be their pastor. The churches either had people like me, just starting out, or pastors who lacked the talent to move to larger churches.
Pastors tended to stay for three years and then move on to another church. (I stayed for 5½ years.) During my time there I became a friend of a Methodist church pastor, an older man, who moved from church to church every three years. He had three years worth of sermons and program ideas and when he came to the end, he moved and began over again with his already prepared sermons and programs.
Because so many different pastors had been at these churches, the people were somewhat confused theologically. I was meeting with the church leaders to fill out a form for a group that was considering coming to the church to encourage renewal. The church leaders had to describe themselves as theologically liberal, moderate, or conservative. They were confused and so I asked them if I was more or less conservative than their previous pastor (who had a liberal theology and wore three-piece corduroy suits with a flannel shirt). They said I was more liberal which surprised me. So I asked them why and they said I was more liberal because I played the guitar in church. They had been presented with so many different theologies over the years they were unable to see the differences.
This is the danger of having many people come to speak in a church. There needs to be some discernment about who is coming to speak or the church can be led astray or get so confused they don’t know what to believe.
So Paul warns them:
18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Paul was not gentle in his attacks against those who preached a different gospel. Tolerance was not something Paul practiced, nor is it a characteristic of God. God is not tolerant about false religion. (We need to respect and protect the right of others to worship as they choose, but this does not mean we have to agree with what they believe.)
The reason for this is that the stakes are too high. It is not a matter of style or taste. It is not a matter of preference or what feels more comfortable. It is not a matter of one truth among many truths. It is a matter of life and death.
Note that Paul has compassion for those who are living as enemies of the cross of Christ. He writes: “and now tell you again even with tears.” Paul had a great heart, full of compassion. He wrote his letter to the church in Rome and after eight chapters of brilliant theology, he wrote chapters 9, 10, and 11 to express his deep concern for his fellow Jews who were less receptive to the gospel of Christ than the Gentiles.
Paul has great compassion but he will not let this get in the way of protecting the church in Philippi he loves so much.
18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
Paul has already warned the church in Philippi about the Judaizers, (Philippians 3:2)
Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.
It was the imposition of Jewish law on Gentile believers that upset Paul. But now he is talking about people who are taking the gospel of Jesus and trying to make money out of it.
In the book of Acts, Simon Magus, a magician, saw how Peter and John laid hands on people when they received the Holy Spirit. He wanted to buy the knowledge of how to do that and Peter condemned him. (Incidentally, Simon Magus went on from this incident to create a cult that had a widespread following and lasted for three hundred years.)
From the very beginning the church has been plagued with people trying to make money from the gospel. Paul attacked what he called the “super-apostles” in Corinth who were bold, talented, respected, smooth-talking, and persuasive. They made a great impression and were not afraid to deal with the Corinthians in an authoritarian manner. And, they were more than willing to take money from them. Compared to them, Paul did not seem so impressive. In contrast, Paul had a broken body, was self-supporting, and was not a trained speaker in the Greco-Roman style of oration.
Paul defended himself against these “super-Apostles”. (2 Corinthians 11:5-6)
I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” 6 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
Paul’s heart was broken by how the church in Corinth was being led astray by these “super-Apostles.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4)
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
It pained Paul to see the church in Corinth being mistreated by these men. (2 Corinthians 11:20)
In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face.
The letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth could not have been good news to these ‘super-apostles”. Paul wrote: (2 Corinthians 11:12-15)
And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
From the very beginning and all the way up to today, the church has been plagued with people seeing the church as a money-making opportunity. Like Simon Magus, they look at what God is doing in the lives of his followers and see how they can use that to become rich.
Pastors and evangelists appeal for funds to buy 65 million dollar jets. They live in rich mansions, buy expensive clothes and jewelry, drive expensive cars – and claim that if Jesus were here today he would be living like they do. “Their glory is in their shame.”
Those Jesus calls to be shepherds for his sheep are supposed to follow his example and serve the flock they are given. As John Michael Talbot says in his song, One Faith, “some of the shepherds have pastured themselves on their sheep.” Good shepherds sacrifice themselves for their flock; they do not sacrifice their flocks for themselves.
It’s ok for a pastor to receive money for his or her work in the church. Paul wrote to Timothy: (1 Timothy 5:17–18)
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
But when the pastor is living in luxury with expensive homes, personal jets, staying in luxurious hotel suites when he travels, then a line has been crossed and such a pastor is a bad shepherd, deserving of the condemnation of Jesus for abusing his flock.
Stay away from such pastors. Cut your ties with such pastors. They will lead you astray.
You have to be responsible to examine the character of a pastor. Don’t automatically trust a pastor. Let a pastor earn your trust as you observe him. Follow a pastor who is following Jesus and leads as a servant. Let a pastor prove that he can be trusted.
Here is a test for you to discern whether a pastor or evangelist is worthy of being an example for you. If you cannot picture Jesus doing what they do or saying what they say, they are not worthy of your support and respect.
Can you see Jesus standing on a stage with a white suit, with the spotlight on him, telling people to send him money? Can you see Jesus waving his jacket around in a circle, causing people to fall over “in the Spirit”? Can you see Jesus living in such extravagance?
Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
These people think they have it made, but they will face the judgment of God for how they used and abused the gospel for their own glory.
In contrast, Paul writes:
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Paul considered his exceptional pedigree and his impressive list of accomplishments as rubbish because he was not interested in a beautiful mansion on earth, his eyes were fixed on his eternal prize. Paul was able to throw away what manipulative pastors and evangelists hold on to so tightly because he had a clear picture of where he was heading.
Who are your heros? Who do you want to be like? Your eyes will be on someone, who?
The movie, Black Hawk Down, was filmed in Rabat and Sale in 2000/2001. The people working on the film came to RIC to recruit Africans as extras for the film. One of the actors and the head of the stunt team came to church. The voice coach, Sandra, who trained British actors to sound like Midwest Americans, was walking by when we were singing and began to come.
She started coming to our home on Sunday afternoons to relax and get away from the film set. After getting to know people in the church she told me that people around the world idolize the actors in the films she worked on, but what the actors are looking for and what people around the world need are what people in the church have. In particular she was impressed with my friends Ruth & Habib. They were in their late 60s at the time. They do not wear the latest fashions. They would not be mistaken for the jet set. But they glow with the love of Jesus and everyone who meets them feels loved and cared for. They move through their days with the peace of Christ.
Sandra saw the love and peace of Christ in Ruth & Habib and that encouraged her to pray to follow Jesus herself.
Who are the people whose walk with Jesus you respect? Who are the people you look to as models for how you want to live your life with Jesus? Watch those people. Learn from them.
It is easy to believe that we should look to people we respect and follow their example; it is much more difficult to believe that others will look at us and want to follow our example. But when we persevere in our relationship with Jesus, when we hang on to Jesus in the good and the difficult times, we grow in faith, our character is transformed, and we become – to our amazement – someone other people admire and look to as a model for how to live their Christian life.
Look to Jesus. He is our example of how to live and think. Thank God for the people whose walk with Jesus you admire. Learn from them. Be inspired by them. Talk with them and allow their wisdom to encourage you as you make your way through this life. And then, as humbled as you may be, be grateful when others look to you and are encouraged by your example.
