Andy Miller preaches on Philippians 3:4b–14 at Sumner Redcliffs Church
A Sunday sermon on passionate pursuit of Christ, drawing on Paul's letter to the Philippians.
Summary
Andy Miller, a missionary speaker visiting Sumner Redcliffs Anglican Church (and currently travelling with Voice of the Martyrs), delivers a sermon on Philippians 3:4b–14, exploring Paul's declaration that all worldly credentials and achievements are worthless compared to knowing Christ. Miller draws extensively on the founding of the Philippian church — the conversion of Lydia, the exorcism of a slave girl, and Paul and Silas's imprisonment — to show that the church was born in suffering and joy simultaneously. He argues that Paul's central passion, knowing Christ personally rather than merely knowing about him, is the model for every believer. Miller also applies the passage personally, sharing his own background as a missionary kid and his fourteen-year journey through bipolar disorder, and he challenges the congregation to deepen relationships with one another as the essential environment for the Holy Spirit to move.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and Context
Andy Miller: I'm not going to be here again until the 25th of November — the 29th of November — because I'm travelling around and speaking with Voice of the Martyrs around different parts of the country. So I'm not going to be at church conference next week. But you be there. Shona's going to be there, and she wants people to be around her. We really value you as a church.
Paul is writing in this letter to a precious, precious church. He says, "I want you to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection." He says, "And participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead." That's what he wants to do. He wants to know Christ. He is facing possible death. He's in prison — possibly in Rome. He doesn't say where he is. He's not even writing by himself. He's writing with Timothy. I don't know if you noticed this, but a lot of Paul's letters, it's not just Paul writing. He's going with a team. It's Paul, Timothy, the overseers, and the deacons. There's a whole group of people from the church that are discussing this, and they're writing to the Philippian church to encourage them.
I want to go into the background of this message, and I'm quite excited about it. I've gone over this message — I don't know — I think about four or five or six times in the last week. I've listened to it. I've read it in different versions. I've read it in different languages. I've written a letter, a message to my church back in Costa Rica, because I love them. And I feel the same way with you, maybe not as much as Paul, but in a similar sense, because we've been missionaries from the church here.
The Background: Paul's Letter as a Thank-You from Prison
It's an interesting season that we're reading this letter, because we are reading it after missions month. Essentially, Paul is writing a thank-you letter to this church who have gone through their own missions month. But in those days, what they had to do was to send somebody with the funds. Epaphroditus has gone all the way to wherever Paul is.
I think he was probably in Rome. Different theologians think differently. My father is a theologian and missiologist. He thinks possibly Caesarea beforehand. The tricky thing there is that Paul says, "The household of Caesar has come to know the Lord, because I'm in chains — it's good news that I'm in chains, because the household of Caesar, the guards, have come to know the Lord, people of influence." But there were palaces of Caesar in different areas — Caesarea would have had a palace of Caesar — so it doesn't necessarily mean he was in Rome. But that doesn't matter that much. The issue is that he's in prison, he's facing life and death, and he's writing to a church that is also facing persecution.
I'm not saying this because I work for Voice of the Martyrs and we work with persecuted Christians around the world — you can't escape it in Philippians. It's a letter of joy. It's full of joy. And he's writing to people saying, "You are going through what I went through when we first met."
How the Church at Philippi Began
What happened when they first met? Paul was trying to go around Asia with his group of friends. He had split off from Barnabas — and even the greats have arguments and rifts, isn't that a good thing to think about? We have disagreements sometimes with the people closest to us. They split off from Barnabas because Barnabas wanted to go with Mark, and Mark had abandoned them last time. Paul thought Mark was irresponsible, and Barnabas gave Mark a second chance. So they went over to Cyprus, and the other team — Paul finds Timothy and goes with a team of people, goes with Silas — and they're going around Asia, and the doors keep closing and closing.
All of a sudden, Paul one night has a dream. It's a man from Macedonia saying, "Come and help us." Some scholars think this man is Luke, because at that point the next verse says "so we went." Luke is writing the book of Acts, and all of a sudden he steps into the story. They go along to Macedonia. Macedonia is the centre of the kingdom founded by Alexander the Great, and his father was Philip — so the capital city was Philippi.
So they go to Philippi, and when they get there, they go to a place where there's water. Normally, if there wasn't a synagogue, Jewish people would meet somewhere where there was water. There they meet Lydia — a devout Jewish lady who trades in purple, so she has good finances — and she receives Christ. She and her whole household are baptised. They're there for a little while, just a number of days, and while Paul is travelling back and forward to the place of prayer, there's a slave girl. This slave girl is demon-possessed, but she has a gift — a spirit upon her — that she can supposedly predict the future. She is going around, and it sort of mimics prophecy. She is going around declaring a truth: "These people are coming to tell you about the one true God." Wouldn't you like that sort of publicity? Somebody said no publicity is bad publicity. Paul did not agree, and he was a little bit grumpy.
I love the way the Bible puts it: Paul got angry. He does not do this out of compassion. He turns around and says, "In the name of Jesus, leave her." The demonic spirit leaves her. The girl is set free. But there's a problem — she was working for her masters and earning them money, so now they've got no money. The masters go around town and get everybody up. This would be similar to things that happen in India today. In towns in India, you'd have a kind of witchcraft, a worshipping of idols, and you'd see the spirits at work. The same demonic spirits are here today — you just need to talk to Peter and what his daughter is doing in the area of deliverance. There is deliverance. We fight against the demonic reality happening.
So Paul has cast out this demon, and then they do a big commotion and get everybody around and almost want to lynch them. This is the thing that does happen in places like India. Paul and Silas are placed in prison. But before that, they're beaten. It's illegal to beat them because Paul is a Roman citizen, but there's no time to ask questions. They beat them and put them in the deep part of the prison.
In those days, if you were a jailer, you were responsible for everybody you were looking after. And in the middle and the depth of the prison, they sing a song of worship. So Paul is reminding the Philippians: you are going through what I went through when we met. That means somebody in the church has been beaten and put in prison. They are known as the poorest church, the most persecuted church, the most generous church. In fact, in the letter to the Philippians, Paul is not telling them to repent at all. We should repent — as Christians, we should repent — but this is a totally encouraging letter. He says, "You partner with me in the gospel."
The Song of Christ and the Church's Foundation
He doesn't explain the gospel, because the church knows the gospel already. He does describe Christ. The song — I think last week Finn preached a phenomenal message; please listen to it if you can — he mentioned the song that they sang about Jesus. I suspect that this is the song that Paul and Silas sang in prison. I suspect this because I think if I were Paul, I would be reminding them of this anecdote, because this is how the church started. Lydia has come to Christ. The whole of the area of Philippi would have known about what happened. There are rumours going around. What a great way to start and grow a church — and they're in prison, and Paul is looking at this situation of suffering as an opportunity.
I don't know what you're going through in your life. I don't know what hardship and suffering you're going through. But this church started in the midst of suffering, with suffering being an opportunity, and the church started witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit at move.
It's interesting that in this letter Paul doesn't mention much about the power of the Holy Spirit — he doesn't have to. The church knows. The church knows that we are to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is just normal. The church knows about who Jesus is. So when they're in prison, they sing a song about Jesus being the very nature of God, who didn't consider equality with God something to be taken to his own advantage, but rather made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, humbling himself and becoming obedient to death — even death on the cross.
He doesn't mention that it's his death on the cross that takes our sins. He doesn't mention the great exchange of Jesus being our substitute. He doesn't have to, because the church knows about it already.
Now, if you're here and you're not used to coming along to church, there are many people sitting next to you that you can ask. If you're not sure whether you'd be spending eternity in heaven, spending eternity with Jesus, there are people here that can tell you about this. I'm not going to address that now, because in this letter Paul is writing to people who already know — and many of us here know — and he wants us to press on. He wants to encourage us to be the church.
The Attitude of Christ and the Work of God in Us
What Paul is saying to the church is: have the attitude of Christ Jesus. Be humble. And I think that if we can grasp this, it can really light a fire under us. Because sometimes what we want to do is see the doings of God. We want to see the power of God. And I do — I desperately want to be involved in revival. I think that's what we're here for. I want to see people healed and delivered.
He encourages them: put each other first. Lift each other up. Humble yourself and lift each other up.
I mentioned last Sunday night when I was preaching that there's a verse in chapter 2, verse 13, that is quoted all over Latin America. I never hear it quoted in New Zealand. It says: "It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose." That's the NIV. I think the New Living says it better: "It's God that gives you the desire and the power to carry out his will."
It is God that gives you the desire and the power to carry out his will. It's not about what we do. There's nothing that we can do to earn salvation. And even fruit — bearing fruit — is not about the numbers of people that we bring. It's not about going up notches. It's not even going up different levels. Christianity is not Buddhism. It's not about what we can achieve in our own spirituality and our own righteousness. Because it's all about God. It's about the Spirit of God at work in us through the work of Jesus in Christ.
It is God that gives you the desire and the power. That's so freeing, isn't it? Because we go through so many guilt trips. I am a black belt in guilt trips. We come to Christ — oh, I'm such a mess. And yes, we recognise God is holy and I am not. And then we become Christians, and then we feel like we have to be good. And it's so embarrassing to still be a mess after so many years. Like I am often a mess. But Jesus takes us as we are, and it's him that is transforming us. It's his fruit — the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's not my fruit. It's his fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. I am forced to make it. But Paul is saying to the church that if we put each other first, if we start looking at the people around us, that creates an environment for the Holy Spirit to move.
You want to see the Holy Spirit move in this place? You want to see healings? You want to see miracles? You want to see people saved? I talked to Tim, and Tim, you've just got such an inspiring dream or vision — whatever it was — where you see thousands of people at the beach being baptised. I've come here to the beach, and I walk along the beach, and I've been thinking, oh, it would be a great place for a beach mission. So he tells me about this, and I start thinking, how could we do this? How could something like this come about? We'd need to have the whole church working in unity. We could do this with the whole church. We're quite an open church. We could talk to different people. We could make a beach mission. I'm thinking about this, but the Lord can bring it about, because it's not about what we do for him — he can do immeasurably more than what we think or imagine. We just have to think and imagine in that way.
Relationships, Reconciliation, and the Environment for Revival
So Paul is writing to encourage the church in how we treat each other. Later on, there are two ladies that are arguing in the church, and he wants to encourage them to have reconciliation. He's interested in our relationships. How we treat each other could block the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
Take a moment and think: is there somebody you need to reach out to this week and say sorry? Maybe I've said something that offended you. Because Paul has encouraged them — and when we get to him talking about his emphasis on knowing Jesus, his focus of the whole letter, I believe, starts in this prayer in verse 9: "I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God."
He wants us to have fruit. He wants us to know God. He's looking forward to the day that Jesus is coming. How do we prepare for the day that Jesus is coming? There was an immediacy, a sense of urgency in the early church that we should still have today. We don't know when Christ is coming. I personally want to live to 130 or die trying — that's one of my sayings. If Christ comes earlier, fantastic. But I want to be involved and see lives transformed while there's time.
Paul's CV — and Why He Counts It All Loss
I love Paul here. I love Paul because he's so excited, so passionate. He goes and gives his whole CV. He talks about all his credentials in the reading. But the reading doesn't make sense if you don't read the three verses beforehand, because when we started reading, we read from verse 4, which says, "If anybody else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more." But he's responding to something he's already written. He's encouraged them. He's told them of his circumstances. He's told them the best way to prepare for persecution is loving one another. And the word for love doesn't quite work in English, because it's agape — how do you sacrificially love one another? It's not lovey-dovey. It's growing your sacrificial love for one another.
And then it's like the elders and Timothy and the deacons have said, "Hey, you should remind them of this." And he changes tack. He says, "It's no trouble for me to write the same thing to you again — and it's a safeguard for you." And I love his words: "Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision — we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh — though I myself have reasons for such confidence."
There were people saying that as a Christian, Jesus wasn't enough. The grace of Jesus wasn't enough. You needed to be circumcised. It's interesting, because when we look in the Gospels, we see Jesus speaking to Pharisees and priests. Jesus criticised a lot of the Pharisees. I believe one of the reasons we have all these conversations between Jesus and the Pharisees is because so many of them came to Christ later on. So many of them came to Christ that they also brought with them their traditions, and they're saying, "You need to be circumcised." And Paul is saying, "You don't need to be circumcised." What's more, he's just so annoyed with them — don't make it hard for somebody to come to know Christ.
He says, "If we needed something more to come to Christ, I could boast about it." He says: I was circumcised on the eighth day, as the law says you should be. I'm a Benjamite. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I studied under Gamaliel. As for the law, a Pharisee — the Pharisees were very particular and pedantic and very focused on following the law. And as for zeal, I persecuted the church. As for righteousness based on the law, faultless. He followed the law so much.
But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. He had the best profession. He had the best titles. He could have been a person of influence and financial means in Israel. But he had this encounter with God that captured him and so transformed that moment.
We know about the road to Damascus — Paul was on the way to Damascus and he encountered a vision of Christ. This story is told three times in the book of Acts. Anybody that encountered Paul would have heard the story about how he came to Christ.
And he says that all his prestige counts for nothing because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Not knowing about him — knowing him. And I think this is a key thing.
Knowing Christ — With All Our Knowing, Being, Having, and Doing
I've helped translate a book. We translated it into Spanish before it was published in English. We've done a course at different churches talking about the importance of releasing disciples, because we're all called to be in God's mission. We have a purpose, a goal together. It's not just about being in church — being a disciple is knowing God with all our knowing.
And it's not just our knowing. He said, "For the sake of whom I have lost all things — I consider them garbage — that I may gain Christ and be found in him." It's not just about our knowing. It's about our being, our identity. I want to know God — not just know about him, but know him with all my being.
And then he says, "Having a righteousness not found in me but found in Christ." What do we have in God? We have righteousness in God. We have authority in God. We have all our giftings. But we serve God with all that we have.
And finally he says, "This one thing I do." So we are disciples of God, and Paul is a disciple of God with all his knowing, with all his being, with all his having, and with all his doing. There are all those aspects of our life, and we are the same. We're called to be disciples of Christ with everything that we are and everything that we have.
The One Thing: Pressing On Toward the Goal
And it says this: "But this one thing I do." I think this is a little bit like the Spanish Inquisition — anybody come across Monty Python? He says, "I do one thing. One thing: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." Two, two things — forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. "I press on." Three things. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
But actually, it's just one thing. He forgets what's behind — and there can be, we are redeemed in Christ. Yes, there are things that we've done wrong. There are things that people have done to us. Paul had persecuted and killed Christians. He forgets what's behind, and he looks to what's ahead. He anticipates Jesus' return. That's his direction. Christ is coming soon. He anticipates glory.
We went to two memorials this week — Joan Mitchell and Ken Rossiter — and they were amazing. It was just wonderful to see the lives of people who were anticipating heaven, anticipating Christ.
But Paul is saying he does one thing. So forgetting what is behind and looking to what's ahead are not the one thing he does. Those are leading up to it. What he actually does is press on toward the goal for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus.
And we are called. He's saying, "Come on, guys. Press on for the goal." What is the goal for which God has called him heavenward? I think it's to bear great fruit. Paul is focused on winning the Gentiles — not just the Gentiles, also the Jews. He wants to go to Spain. He wants to go to the ends of the earth. He believes Spain is the ends of the earth. Can you imagine what he'd think about us here in New Zealand, and his words coming all the way over here?
And the thing I love about Paul is it's not about him. It's not about "look at me, great Paul." In fact, his whole ministry wouldn't be a ministry if people hadn't come to know Jesus — if people who are totally unnamed weren't moving in the power of the Holy Spirit right where they are, in hidden circumstances, in the background, like the sound man where no one sees.
The Sandcastle: A Picture of Pressing On
He's encouraging the church to press on. I love building sandcastles. And I don't just build sandcastles — I build civilisations. I go and I want to build a sandcastle that will last a week, that will survive waves, and that will reach the water. When I was a child, there was a big pit that I jumped in. They'd built a sandcastle that had water at the bottom, and I never forgot that feeling of wow.
So I go out and I dig and I dig. I'm just playing, and I'm thinking through things, trying to process — because a lot of the time I'm thinking, what am I doing in New Zealand? What am I doing? God, what do you want me to do? I'm a big picture person, and I want to be involved in what God is doing. I'm digging the sandcastle and thinking through things. I want to do a moat first. I have an aim. I go around and I want to go deep. I have a picture of what I want, and I just press on.
And do you know what? People come over and they ask me, "What are you doing?" And I go, "I'm playing. I'm building a sandcastle." It's like life, isn't it? It doesn't last long. But why don't we do something amazing with it?
And often I get volunteers. I've had minions come and work for me. If I go to a campsite, I have twelve-year-old boys that spend five hours digging. I have a dream of going out to Sumner with ten spades and making the biggest sandcastle ever, just going around and thinking — but there's a purpose.
Paul is set in his purpose. He's got a purpose. God has called him heavenward, and he wants the church to bear good fruit, and he wants to encourage the church, and he wants us to do that. But the purpose isn't what we do. It's in knowing Christ.
The Body of Christ: Releasing Disciples and Loving One Another
Sometimes as Christians we compare ourselves to other people — "Here I am, Lord, send him." But it's the same Spirit that is at work in your life, that is at work in Paul's life, that is at work in Harry's life. And Paul wants us to be the church.
I think one of the key things that the body of Christ needs today is for the disciples to be released — just to have permission. Be who you're called to be. And love each other more deeply.
Have a look around the room. I know, it's awkward. Have a look around. Everyone's looking. They don't know you're looking at them. Just have a look. See if there's someone you don't know. What can we do as a church to know each other more and to love each other more? It is counter-cultural. Because you will get to know Jesus better when you come across other people that know Jesus. He's not writing this just to an individual. He's writing this to a whole church.
And later on, in the next verse, he says this: "All of us then who are mature should take such a view of these things. Only let us live up to what we have already obtained." He's talking about this in terms of pressing on toward the goal, to win the prize for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. Let us live up to what we have already attained.
What have we already attained? We've already attained salvation. We've already attained eternal life. The same Spirit that raised Jesus up from the dead is available in our own life. Do you believe this? As you come out of this place, you carry the presence of God wherever you go. And if we have a desire to know God, he will let himself be known. How hungry are we? God responds to our hunger.
Andy Miller's Personal Story and Closing Challenge
I need friends. I talked to Peter a while back, and the night before I said, "I just need to be loved. I just feel like I need to be loved." I travel around and I speak in different places, but I need friends. Peter asked me a challenging question, but I said to him, "Peter, I just need friends." And Peter said to me, "Andy, you need to be loved." He repeated to me everything that I'd said to Shona. But it's those intimate moments where we are the church.
How can we — and this is a challenge, because it's very easy to be with the people you've always hung out with, and the Pharisees created cliques — how can we be open to, how can we challenge our own culture to invite other people? Who would not love to see two, three hundred people from Sumner Redcliffs come to know Jesus? How do we prepare ourselves to receive them?
Tonight, I would like to share my testimony. I looked at Paul's background — he talked about his CV. Part of my story is that I grew up in Peru. My parents were missionaries. I was at Bible college at fourteen with pastors. I studied at one of the most prestigious schools. I studied international relations. In Europe, I thought I was going to the Muslim world. I met my wife in Spain. We got married, moved to New Zealand. The year I got to New Zealand, everything fell apart for me when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It took fourteen years, but God healed me substantially. Throughout that time, those fourteen years, I was in ministry.
I'd love to share that tonight, and also have opportunity — if you have any sickness, you would like to invite somebody else — we're going to pray for the sick together.
But I want to finish on this. Paul is passionate about knowing Jesus above anything else — above the programme of the church, above his honours, above his finances, above anything that is prestigious in his life. And he comes to God with all his knowing, with all his being, with all his having, and with all his doing. And he encourages the church to have that same passion. And I feel that we are that church. That God is moving in us, and it's so exciting to be part of you. Thank you.