Philippians 3:4-8, Acts 13:44-52
It’s fall, its my favorite time of year because it’s football season! And we are actually getting a football season which is really quite remarkable considering the situation our world is facing. Today every football fan has a clean slate with anticipation and expectations of their team winning the prize of all prizes, a Super Bowl championship.
I have been an unapologetic Green Bay Packer fan for a number of years and one of my bucket list items would be to go to Lambeau Field to watch a live Green Bay Packers game. The problem is the tickets are so hard to come by. In fact the last time I checked the waiting list for seasons tickets for the Green Bay Packers had over 130,000 name on it and was 30 years long.
For many people, football watching is appointment television, it takes on a life of its own, we could go so far as to say people are religious about football.
Now before we go too far down the road of vilifying the sport of football because of peoples religiosity with it, whether we want to admit it or not we all have things we hold to religiously. It may be a television program that you watch religiously or a hair appointment that you have religiously or a family vacation that you have held to for years religiously or that line item in your checkbook that never gets overlooked.
To be religious is to hold to something so tightly, so rhythmically, so regularly, so unapologetically that a person will not allow anything to interfere with its practice. I want you to hold onto that definition of religion throughout our time this morning.
When we hear the word religious or its root religion, especially in the church, we attach negative feelings toward it.
In the church, religion has become a dirty word, something we don’t want to be accused of, but religion and being religious according to how it’s defined isn’t a bad thing in itself right? I mean, I’ll bet you are appreciative that I religiously shower and brush my teeth on Sunday mornings.
The word religion isn’t bad and even the concept isn’t bad and yet somehow we have a bad taste in our mouth with regards to being religious.
In the church we’ve attempted to down play the word religion with sayings like, “Christianity isn’t about religion, its about a relationship.”
We can make that statement and that’s fine and I can agree with what you affirm, but I have to disagree with what you deny because Christianity is, in fact, a belief in a highly religious man, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was religious. He religiously was in the synagogue on the Sabbath, he religiously practiced the passover, he would probably affirm the reality that the church is not a building, but driving out people who were desecrating the religious building where he worshiped shows that the place where religious practice took place mattered.
Christianity is certainly about a relationship, but we cannot deny that it is also about being religious. But its about being religious in the right way with the right heart. Going back to the definition I gave you what if we framed Christianity as a religion in this way:
The Christian religiously holds to Jesus Christ so tightly, so rhythmically, so regularly, so unapologetically that they will not allow anything to interfere with their Christian faith.
This is the type of Christian who is a world changer. And over the centuries of the church, God has used religious men and women, ordinary yet religious people to expand his kingdom and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ…the question becomes am I going to be one of those people?
We are starting a new series this week we are calling Everyday Leaders: Biblical Leadership Principles for Every Christian. The aim of this series is to point each other to guiding practices and principles we can learn from individuals in scripture. As we start this series we are going to look to one of the greatest leaders the church has ever seen, Paul the Apostle. This morning we are going to look at two passages that work together to give us a picture of Paul as a leader. If you have your Bibles or electronic devices would you turn with me to Philippians 3 starting at verse 4, but also we we will be looking deeply at Acts 13. There were several things that made Paul great as a leader, a leader in world missions, a leader who God used to write the majority of the New Testament. Part of the DNA of who Paul was, is that he was most known for being a Religious Leader and I believe Paul’s religiosity can teach us something that we can emulate.
What I hope we will see this morning is that Paul’s religiosity toward the right things made him a leader we want to learn from and that from the church, from us, the world needs religious leaders.
Let’s stand together as we read God’s word from Philippians 3:4-8, Hear the Word of the Lord:
Philippians 3:4-8 (ESV) 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 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; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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.
I understand the word religion incites some bad thoughts, it’s something you may not have or ever wanted to associate with the Christian faith, but I want to challenge you to wrestle with the concept of religion and what it means for the faith.
What is it exactly about being religious that is so off putting? Here are some of the things I’ve heard:
Well we don’t want to be seen as zealous, as a “religious nut”.
When you become religious you become legalistic like a Pharisee.
If I’m too religious I will lose my opportunity to share the gospel with people. I don’t want to drive them off.
I would contend that as a Christian we should be the most religious and in fact good leadership from the Christian community comes from being religious and it is a religious ethos that we can learn, I think Paul helps us see this. Just because we’ve misused religiousness and made being religious a bad thing as humans, doesn’t mean it is necessarily a bad thing. Let’s be real, if we try hard enough we can make anything a bad thing.
I’m not here to try to argue for anything that God wouldn’t want for us or to disabuse you of the bad connotations of religion. I want to point you to what scripture says about being religious, what Paul teaches us here. Paul was in fact a leader, he demonstrates leadership all throughout the New Testament and he was in fact unapologetically religious.
According to Paul’s own witness about himself, he was a religious man. In fact it was his religion that made him so zealous as a Jew that according to the text he was willing to persecute the church. Paul was so zealous for God prior to his conversion, wanted to defend God and what he thought he knew about being a child of God that he was willing to radically come against anything he thought would defame his God. He was wrong, but we have to appreciate his passion for God even prior to his conversion and in his conversion, when God corrected his thinking with the revelation of who Jesus Christ is, that did not change his religious passions, it simply redirected them, this is a guiding principle for every Christian.
Move 1: We need to be religious about the right things.
As we survey this passage it may look at first glance that Paul is setting aside his religious nature, but nothing could be further from the truth, in fact he is reenforcing it. Look again at verse 8
Philippians 3:8 (ESV) 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.
In another letter he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2 (ESV) 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
It wasn’t that Paul ceased to be religious, zealous for God, he was simply zealous in the wrong way prior to his experience on the Damascus Road.
When we look at what Paul’s religiosity led him to; he was willing to lose everything in order to gain Christ. Everything. That’s religious; a man so willing to arrange his life, his practices, his pursuits around Jesus Christ.
The reason we start with Paul in what it means to be a biblical leader is his religiousity is the foundation for what it means to be a true godly leader, a relentless life oriented around Jesus Christ. It is about relationship absolutely, but Paul’s relationship with Jesus was born out of his religious bent toward that relationship.
And what Paul teaches us about being religiously committed to Jesus Christ will have an impact on how we can lead in every area of life.
Move 2: Godly leaders religiously defend the gospel.
In Acts 13 Paul was on his first missionary journey with Barnabas and here he faced a dilemma, a dilemma tied directly to what we read about him in Philippians 3. Paul described himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, but in Acts 13 he is going to have to contend with those who once loved him and appreciated him for his religious zeal as a Jew.
Acts 13:45 (ESV) But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.
At one point Paul was aligned with these individuals in the wrong way religiously, he was everything we say we don’t want to be when we run from the word religious, but now that his religious pursuits are aligned with the gospel it is causing him problems, it is creating a tension for him. This was Paul’s life before knowing Jesus Christ, this was his old life as a religious Jew staring him in the face and now he is faced with a decision of whether or not he would hold firmly to what he now believed, In Acts 13 we get to see Paul living out the religious convictions of Philippians 3f when faced with his pre-Christian life.
Have you ever found yourself as a Christ follower faced with your old life and you had to make a decision whether or not you were going to hold firmly to what you now believe or wander back into your pre-Christian life?
Wouldn’t it have been easy enough for Paul to simply pacify the Jews, let them believe what they believed, maybe not be so “controversial”. Let’s play this low key, let’s not lose our opportunity, let’s agree to disagree with them, downplay the whole “religious thing” but look at how Paul responds?
Acts 13:46 (ESV) And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
Paul didn’t cease to be religious, he simply reframed his religion, he aligned his passion rightly with the gospel and when he was faced with a challenge to his rightly aligned religious faith, he didn’t become less religious, he became more religious.
Does this mean it didn’t create a challenge for Paul, that he was not going to lose relationships over it? No, in fact if we continue this passage here is what we read:
Acts 13:50 (ESV) But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
Paul held so boldly, so religiously to what he believed about Jesus Christ, remember our working definition: To be religious is to hold to something so tightly, so rhythmically, so regularly, so unapologetically that a person will not allow anything to interfere with its practice., that he couldn’t not share the truth of the gospel in every walk of life because everything in life with out the gospel according to Paul’s witness in Philippians 3 is rubbish, it’s trash, it’s not worth anything.
But friends that was not the only effect. Again Paul was a religious man and he did in fact have those who once aligned with him challenge him, but he also had those who he once aligned with, align with him and with Jesus.
Acts 13:42-43 (ESV) 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
The same people he once was religious with in the completely wrong way, came to faith in Jesus Christ, wanted what he wanted, aligned with what he aligned with.
Now wouldn’t it make sense for this story to stop here? Paul was a religious Jew, now he has reached religious Jews and some are coming to know the truth about the gospel. Wouldn’t that be a good stopping point? No, Paul’s religion granted him an even greater opportunity.
Move 3: Being religiously faithful to the gospel increases your reach.
Paul’s willingness to be unswervingly religious when it came to the gospel did not diminish his witness it expanded his witness.
Look at Acts 13:44 (ESV) 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
Where some offended by Paul, absolutely, did they want him out of their city and out of their lives? Definitely. But look at the infectious, attractive nature of the gospel. If we went back to read how Paul articulated the gospel it was simply a brief history of Israel pointing to Jesus Christ and the people wanted it. I don’t know why they wanted it but they wanted it. But here is what I can presume, because we see it today, anything other than the gospel eventually lets us down. Why would they come back, why would the whole city come back? Because the gospel is that good. It’s the best news people never realized they were always looking for.
Paul’s religious nature as a leader fueled with the gospel made him a transformative voice in Antioch with some from his people group, it expanded his witness to the entire city, but it was even broader then that.
Acts 13:48 (ESV) And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Paul’s nature as a religious leader gave him a voice with a people who were not his people, a voice with people who would not have expected him, yet he was so religious, so devoted that he was compelled to share his relationship with Jesus Christ with the Gentile world.
And friends we have a lot to thank Paul for, for his religious leadership, because unless you are an ethnic Jew, your faith is tied to Paul’s call to religiously reach the Gentiles. Paul was relentlessly religious in living and preaching the gospel and we benefit. But the gospel didn’t come to us directly from Paul, it came though Christian after Christian through the centuries who held religiously to an ethos for the spread of the gospel and if they could, you can.
Bottom Line: The World Needs Religious Leaders
Closing:
Friends this is the foundation of leadership, that you would open up room in your life to be called a religious leader, someone who is viewed by the world as someone who is unapologetically sold out for the gospel of Jesus Christ, someone who wants to know Jesus Christ deeper and more intimately in a way that people can see.
It will mean being less religious about other things and that is something that each of us needs to work out with God. Friends all of us are religious. It’s what we do…we give our time, our affection, our money our talents to something and we do it in a way that people identify us by. Let me ask you, that which you are giving yourself to religiously, will it last?
The most lasting impact you will have in this world will be to hold fast and unswervingly and passionately to the gospel and that is what people need from you in all walks of life whether they realize it or not.
You want to be a great parent, be a religiously devoted Christ following parent. You want to be a great boss, be a religiously devoted Christ following boss. You want to be a great team captain, teacher, civic leader, Bible study leader or whatever it is? Be religiously devoted to Jesus Christ.
Religiously hold to Jesus Christ so tightly, so rhythmically, so regularly, so unapologetically that you will not allow anything to interfere with you Christian faith.
Because the world needs religious leaders.
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