The best Christians know Jesus. Philippians 3:4b-14

I think it is safe to say that, for most people, the goal is to be the best.  The serious student doesn’t stay up late at night studying so that they can just squeak by, they want to be the valedictorian.  The serious athlete doesn’t give 110% in practice so that they can be a backup bench warmer, they want to be the one on the field, court, mat, or in the pool leading their team to victory.  Nobody intends to get divorced when they get married, rather the intent is to grow so close that you get his and hers matching Christmas pajamas and you… (Michelle?) finish each other’s… (Michelle?)  sentences (apparently we have more growing to do).  Nobody wants to be known as the mediocre mom or the dead-beat dad, rather, every parent wants the mug; you know the mug that proclaims you to be the world’s best mom or dad.  Nobody goes to work hoping to lock down the entry level position for the next 40 years.  We want to climb the corporate ladder faster than everyone else and all the way to the top. 

In every area of our lives the goal is to be the best.  Therefore, it stands to reason being the best is our goal as Christians.  As your pastor I am hoping and praying your goal isn’t to slip through the pearly gates when Saint Peter is distracted.  First, saint Peter isn’t the one letting people through the pearly gates, Jesus is, and there is no “slipping past” Jesus.  Second, I am hoping and praying your goal as a Christian isn’t to slip past but to skip through those pearly gates more confident than Tom Brady visiting the Football hall of fame. 

In order to reach that goal, you will have to be the best Christian you can be.  But what does it mean to be the best Christian?  If being the best Christian works like every other area of your life, all you must do to be the best is to be better than everyone else.  Which would be good news because then you would at least have a shot, maybe not at being the best Christian on planet earth, but possibly the best Christian here at Messiah.

So far in 2025 there is only one member at Messiah who has perfect worship attendance.  However, don’t be discouraged, that member is the same person who records worship attendance and I know for a fact that she watched one worship service on her husband’s phone on a beach in Cancun, so those records are suspect.  Besides the “100% lady” there are a handful of people who have worshiped here more than 95% in 2025.  But all you have to do is hope all those people either get sick or ticked off at the pastor and you should be able to climb your way to the top of the attendance chart by the end of the year.  But worship attendance is only one part of what it takes to be the best, there is also a service component.  You will need to serve more often than everyone else, which here at Messiah is no small task.  We don’t track service hours, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the time to beat was more than 300 hours of individual volunteer service a year.  But if you talk to Kara, I bet she could find more than 300 hours of volunteer service before the doors to our new preschool even open.  Then there is the touchy subject of offerings.  I am not going to share with you names and numbers, I myself rarely look either but I can tell you if you want to be the best giver here at Messiah you will need to be generous with a capital G.  Still, even if you are the most faithful attender, the most tireless servant, and the most generous giver I am not sure that will be enough to make you the best Christian at Messiah.  You should probably also teach Sunday School, sing up to be a greeter, and sing in the church choir just to be safe.

The good news is, if being the best Christian at Messiah simply means you must be better than everyone else, than it is going to be difficult but it’s possible, maybe not probable, but possible you could be the best.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is, being better than everyone else is not what it takes to be the best Christian. 

Saint Paul used to think that it was.  Back when he was known as Saul his goal was to be the best believer in all of Jerusalem.  And by most accounts it appears he was.  Listen to his list of accomplishments.  In his letter to the Philippians Paul writes, “4b… If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put 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; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Paul sounds like he was at least a better believer than most.  It’s not every day you can use circumcision as a flex, but Paul pulls it off.  Paul was the son of a Pharisee who followed the old ways to the letter of the law, or, in this case, to the exact day on which the Old Testament law required a baby boy be circumcised.  Genetically speaking Paul was better than most.  He was an Israelite which made him a child of Father Abraham and one of God’s chosen people.  Specifically, Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, one of only two tribes that remained fairly intact after the Jews returned from exile.  Paul was a pure blood Hebrew of Hebrews but what really set him above the rest was his work as a Pharisee.  Pharisees were biblical scholars who not only followed the Old Testament laws better than everyone else but also invented their own laws, commands, and traditions to make sure they were better than everyone else.  Even among the Pharisees, Paul proved himself to be the most zealous and the most righteous. 

If being the best simply means being better than everyone else than Paul was, dare I say, better than any of us.  And that is part of the problem.  You see, It’s not terribly difficult to find someone to be better than.  Even if you were the worst Christian at Messiah you are still a better Christian than someone who is not a Christian.  Plus, and I know I am biased, but I believe the members of Messiah stack up pretty well when compared to other Christians, you might even be better than most, better worshipers, better volunteers, better givers.  But the problem is, even if you are better than most, there is always someone better, someone like Paul.  But, as I said, that’s only part of the problem.

There was a time in his life when Paul, like a grad schooler lining up in the hallway for lunch, pushed himself to the front of the line, but when he got there, the Holy Spirit showed Paul what the real problem is.  The real problem is the front of the line doesn’t get you closer to heaven, rather your attempts to be better than everyone else lead you in the opposite direction.  Skipping through those pearly gates is not about you being a better worshiper, or a better volunteer, or a better giver; it’s not about you being better than most.  Because even if you were the best of us, you still would not be good enough.  To skip through those pearly gates, you have to be better than the best, you have to be perfect, and brother, not a single one of us it that. And that my friends, is the real problem with trying to be better than anyone else.

When the Holy Spirit showed Paul where his efforts to be better than everyone else were leading him, Paul changed his mind about what it means to be the best.  Paul wrote, “7… whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”  Paul even went so far as to describe his efforts to be better than everyone else as “8… rubbish”.  The actual Greek word Paul used is σκύβαλα.  Σκύβαλα is a word that makes Greek students giggle not just because it is a funny sounding word but because it is a bathroom word.  Paul recognized what a foul smell his efforts to be better than other people were in the nostrils of the Lord.  Just as I hope you recognize how badly you stink when you play that comparison game with your fellow believers here at Messiah.  When we look down on others because they don’t worship as faithfully or volunteer as often or give as much and we start to think of ourselves as better than others, we smell like… rubbish.

Being the best Christian is not about being better than other people, it’s about knowing Jesus. Like Paul, the best Christians “10… want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The best Christians want to know all they can about Jesus: “6 Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”[1]; they want to know all about the one who was and is better than the best yet never once looked down on another person or considered Himself to be better than anyone else.  The best Christians want to know all about Jesus who had no sin but God made “to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”[2]; they want to know all about the one who suffered and died so that their sinful comparisons would be forgiven.  They want to know all about Jesus who once promised, “Because I live, you also will live.”[3]; they want to how through Him they too might somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The best Christians are not concerned about being better than other people.  The best Christians just want to know Jesus and they want to know Him better and better each day.  The best Christians never say things like “Jesus loves me this I know, and this is all I want to know”.  Instead, the best Christians “12… press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me [them].”  They “forget about what is behind”; they forget about comparing themselves to other people and they “strain toward what is ahead” they strain to know Jesus, because only through can they reach “14… the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward.”; only through Jesus are we able to confidently skip through those pearly gates.

As your pastor I want you to be the best Christian you can be.  But that has nothing to do with you being better than your fellow believers here at Messiah or anywhere else for that matter.  Pushing yourself to the front of that line isn’t going to get you closer to heaven.  Only Jesus can do that.  Therefore, if you want to be the best Christian you can be, I strongly suggest you do what all the best Christians do, get to know Jesus get to know who he is and what He has done for you and get to know Him better and better each day.  The best Christians don’t worry about being better than other people, the best Christians strive to know Jesus.  You want to be the best Christian you can be, then do what the best Christians do, make it your goal to know Jesus.  Amen

[1] Philippians 2:6-7

[2] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[3] John 14:1