Philippians 3:4-14 | Only Christ is Gain
The Fifth Sunday in Lent | April 6, 2025
In the book of Acts, there was a man named Stephen who once gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” [Acts 7:55-56].
What would you give to have an experience like that? To be able to look up and see Jesus? To know that he really is up there? To see him alive, raised from the dead, reigning above all angels? What would you give to have that kind of an experience?
Stephen gave his life. He had been preaching to the Jews about Jesus when it happened. And as Stephen saw heaven open, the Jews cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. …[T]hey cast him out of the city and stoned him… And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he breathed his last [Acts 7:57-60], and at his death, his soul ascended through ranks of angels to the throne of God to wait for the final resurrection.
Standing nearby was young man named Saul. He approved of Stephen’s execution [Acts 8:1]. And the people who executed Stephen laid down their garments at the feet of … Saul [Acts 7:59]. They pledged their allegiance to him. They looked to him if not as their leader – as their strong ally.
He was young, but he had everything going for him. He had been circumcised when he was eight days old – the earliest possible day, meaning that he wasn’t a convert – he had been a Jew for his entire life. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews – his lineage was pure. He had Jewish blood in his veins. More than this, he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin was Israel’s favorite son after Joseph. That’s the tribe king Saul came from, that’s the tribe where Jerusalem is, the place the temple was. He had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel [Acts 22:3] – a Pharisee honored by everybody [Acts 5:34] – Saul had been trained by him according to the strict manner of the law. And he kept that law as flawlessly as the top Pharisees.
On top of all of this, Saul was zealous for the Jewish religion [Acts 22:3], to keep it pure from any Christian influences that would distort it. On the day Stephen was executed, Saul began ravaging the church in Jerusalem. He went from house after house looking for Christians, and when he found them, he dragged them off – both men and women – and threw them into prison [Acts 8:3]. [T]he high priest and the whole council of elders [Acts 22:5] supported him. Saul was rising through the political ranks.
And it wasn’t enough for Saul to destroy the Christians in Jerusalem. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any Christians in Damascus, he might tie them up and bring them to Jerusalem.
But as he approached Damascus … suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. He was blind. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was blind, and neither ate nor drank [Acts 9:1-9].
But God did not leave Saul alone. He sent a disciple of Jesus to lay his hands on Saul. Ananias laid his hands on Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road … has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit” [Acts 9:17]. ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name’ [Acts 22:15-16] And immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened [Acts 9:18-19]. Saul became a Christian.
He stayed with the disciples at Damascus for a little while. He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ [Acts 9:19-22].
Eventually, Saul would become known to the church as the apostle Paul. Paul – the guy who wrote thirteen books of the New Testament, who made three missionary journeys to evangelize the Gentiles – he used to violently persecute Christians. He used to hate Jesus with a burning passion. In spite of all that, Jesus appeared to Paul and gave him faith.
Think of what Paul left behind. All his old friends. All his opportunities for advancement among the Jewish religious leaders. All his old beliefs about Jesus and God. All the acclaim from the people in power. All the resources they could give him. He left it all behind.
All of the Jews he knew put their trust in these things. They thought that the righteousness of the law would please God. They thought that being zealous for persecuting the church would please God. They thought that being part of the right ancestry would please God. They were confident in these things.
It is to them that Paul speaks today. Now that you understand who Paul was and where he came from, you can understand the text for this sermon today. It comes from Philippians, chapter 3. Paul says this:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But 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 and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Do you see what Paul is saying? He’s saying – “You Jews who think that you can be confident in yourself because you’re a good Jew – I was the best Jew! I was born from the right people! I was circumcised at the right time! I did everything right, everything to be a good Jew – but now that I know Jesus, I know that being a good Jew doesn’t gain me anything in God’s eyes. Take it from me – I had gained everything a Jew could want – and I gave it up for Jesus. And I would do it again.”
I find it interesting that the things the Jews were proud of, nobody is really proud of today. I don’t know anyone who boasts that they were circumcised on the eighth day, or that they were from the tribe of Benjamin. I don’t know anyone who tries to live according to the law of the Pharisees.
We’re not tempted to put our confidence in being the perfect Jew. But I think we can easily be tempted to put our confidence into being the perfect Nortonite. What does the perfect Nortonite look like?
Maybe you can tell me better, but I think it looks like an average guy. Friendly, not too pushy, maybe a people pleaser, helpful to others, able to do your job well – that’s what gives you social standing with the people around here. That’s what we consider gain. If you can be that, then you’ve really gained something in the eyes of our community.
And maybe you have more than that. Maybe you’re smarter than average. Maybe you make a lot more money than others. Maybe you’re more musical. Maybe you can fix more things than the next guy.
We’re tempted to put our confidence in these areas. And there’s a sense where you can be proud of all these things. But compared to knowing Jesus, they are nothing. Everything our world considers to be a gain pales in comparison to the gifts that Jesus gives. He gives us the forgiveness of all of our sins that he won by suffering on the cross. He gives us the righteousness from God that he earned for us with his perfect life and death. He gives us his body and his blood here and now for our sanctification.
Nothing we have on earth can do any of these things. They don’t help you get any closer to God. They can’t raise you from the dead. You can’t put your confidence in them. You must count them as loss.
Honestly, it’s still hard for me to use the word “loss” – it’s such a strong word! I imagine it is for you too. But our hesitation shows that we are more confident in our own flesh than we are in Jesus. That’s our sin. We’re more confident in the things our world can give us than the things Jesus promises to give us. Paul calls us to repent. To count everything we’ve gained in this life as a loss. Everything except our knowledge of Jesus.
If you don’t, they actually hinder your journey to heaven. If you put even just a little bit of confidence in what you can do or in what you have, you have taken away a little bit of your trust in Jesus. And then you’re poised to lose much more. You’re poised to lose your resurrection.
That’s why like Paul, you must press forward. You must treat knowing Jesus as the primary thing in your life. That means you must put prayer and church attendance as your number one priority. It means that you must strive to expel sin from your life. It means you must get rid of anything that would hinder you – you must discipline your body and keep it under control [1 Corinthians 9:27]. You must pursue knowing Jesus as much as Saul pursued the church.
It's difficult, and it’s interesting that Paul says that he has not already obtained his goal – that he’s not already perfect. What does he mean?
He certainly means that he hasn’t stopped sinning. Sure, he’s cleaned himself up, he’s stopped murdering Christians and speaking falsely about God – but he knows that sin still dwells in him. He’s not to the point where he can say, “I no longer sin.” He knows that he won’t get to that point until Jesus returns.
We must not think that we’re any better than Paul. If you think that you have overcome sin and are already perfect, you need to examine your life a little closer. You need to recognize that you will always have your sinful flesh with you – and even your desires to sin are sin. Nobody has mastered sin except Jesus.
But I want you to see that when Paul says that he is not already perfect, this isn’t all he’s talking about. The word translated “perfect” means perfect in the sense of “complete.” In this sense, even Jesus needed to be made perfect. Not because he had sinned and needed to be forgiven, but because his life wasn’t complete.
Jesus was made perfect through suffering [Hebrews 2:10]. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him [Hebrews 5:9]. Jesus was perfected on the cross. That means that his life’s purpose was completed, his journey was perfected by being finished.
Even if Paul had never sinned again, he still wouldn’t be perfect until he shared in Jesus’ sufferings, became like Jesus in his death, and attained the resurrection from the dead.
Sharing in Jesus’ suffering requires losing what he had gained. If Paul hadn’t counted those gains as loss, then he wouldn’t be willing to lose them, and he wouldn’t be conformed to Jesus’ sufferings, death and resurrection. Like Paul, you must still press forward, counting everything except for knowing Jesus as loss.
Do you know who else counted everything he had as loss? Stephen, the guy Paul helped to execute. Stephen could have just stopped talking about Jesus like the Jews wanted. He could have just said what the Jews wanted to hear. Then he would have gained a few more years on earth. But he would have lost Jesus. And so even his own life Stephen counted as loss, as he was crushed to death.
You see, Stephen knew that he had already died. In his baptism, he had been buried with Jesus, and brought back to life – a life hidden with Christ in God [Colossians 3:3].
You have the same confidence Stephen had. You’re still driving sin out of your life, sure – but in your baptism your sin was forgiven. Your life is still being conformed to Jesus’ death, sure – but in your baptism you were buried and raised with Christ. So seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth [Colossians 3:1-2].
Like Stephen, you can have a vision of heaven. Maybe you won’t literally see Jesus like he did, but in the Bible you hear about this hidden life. In the Lord’s Supper you receive Jesus’ body and blood – hidden under bread and wine. These things give you the confidence that Jesus is Lord. That he has taken away your sins. That when Christ … appears, you will rise from the dead. You will appear with him in glory [Colossians 3:4]. You will see the life that now is hidden.
Even if you lose everything you have ever gained on this earth, you will still rise from the dead. You will still have Jesus, because he has made you his own. He is the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God [Hebrews 12:2]. You don’t have to look up into heaven to know that he’s there, you just have to open God’s word. That is where your confidence lies.