Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Philippians 3:4

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 ⁹ 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-- ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹² 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. ¹³ 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, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

2KX3 – just a series of numbers and letters right? Is there meaning in things like this. 2KX3, it sounds pretty cool but hardly appropriate for a sermon title, or is it? Do we recognize things by symbols or sets of numbers and letters that don’t make up a word? Of course we do. If I said R2D2 you would expect a picture of a robot from Star Wars. What about C3PO, of course you expect to see a picture of his companion robot. Those are easy. What about M1? For us military minded folks the image is that of the M1 Abrams tank but for the rappers in the house it would be the rapper M1 and for those of the greatest generation it would be the rifle of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. What is it with these series of numbers and letters that is so appealing? Even the auto industry uses random sets of numbers and letters to make the car name sound cool. RX8, the Mazda car with the only rotary engine. MKX, the Lincoln SUV. All these name sound cool or serve a naming convention but they really don’t stand for anything except the thing in the picture.

Our text for today actually generated this set of numbers and letters with a little help from a seminary professor and some seminary students obsessing about his class. At the seminary you may see people wearing T-shirts with this symbol on them. (show sign - 2KR) It stands for the doctrine of two kinds of righteousness. The contrast of these competing righteousnesses is the heart of Paul’s message to the Philippians in this text. When we look at the beginning and at the end of his message we find two other examples of "two kinds" of something and this is where I get my title: "2Kinds Times 3."

;Paul starts out with 2 kinds of confidence; confidence in the flesh and confidence in Christ. When you first read this section of text it sounds like Paul is placing his confidence in the flesh. He sounds like He is boasting about his ancestry and all the ceremonial laws he kept along with his timely circumcision in accordance with the Law. But in reality he is not boasting but merely setting up a comparison to prove his point. You see, there were converted Gentiles that wanted to mix Christianity with the ceremonial laws Christ abolished. They claimed circumcision was required for salvation and Paul sets them up by taking their reasoning to the extreme to which they don’t measure up. He compiles an impressive list of advantages and qualifications and he has them all.

According to their reasoning he should have the most confidence for his salvation because he is kind of like the Captain America of the Jews; he has what it takes to do it all. Even though he has it all and has done it all he discards it all because he knows it gets him nothing before God. Keep in mind he is discarding noble birth and membership in the covenant. These were important things, these were things given by God! Paul tells the Philippians that confidence in Christ isn’t just icing for the top of the confidence he had in his advantages; he is saying it is the cake and the icing. The old confidence is gone, not augmented or improved; gone! Wait a minute, this kind of confidence in the system sounds awfully familiar. I think I’ve heard something like this before and not about Paul. Oh yes, I remember. It was the born and bred Lutherans I heard that sounded like this. They were born into the Lutheran church, baptized, went to Sunday school, maybe even to a Lutheran school or college, confirmed, and married in the Lutheran church. Check, check, check! We too can put our confidence in the system and forget about Christ.

There is nothing in us, by birth or by effort that can allow Paul or you to stand confidently and claim to be right before God. All that "stuff" is now worthless when it come to true confidence before God. No longer is Paul confident because he has given his best for God; he now knows that God has given his best for Paul and you in Jesus Christ. We have heard quite a bit about Christ’s suffering and death during this lent. We know He took your sins to the cross so you are forgiven and we will look at that again at length on Good Friday but today let’s look at the ultimate reason for confidence; the empty tomb! Christ broke through death and we will too when He comes back for us on the last day. We will spend eternity in His presence. Have confidence in that! Jesus did it all for you! The suffering the dying, and the rising! This leads right into the next 2 kinds of something. What is the gift Christ gives us with His passion? He gives us righteousness.

There are 2 kinds of righteousness (show sign 2KR). Paul talks about them in verses 9 through 11 only one kind is a little outdated. The outdated kind of righteousness is the kind the Jews had before Christ died on the cross; the kind of righteousness earned by keeping the law. He talks about the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. This is the righteousness that our salvation comes from. The contrast of righteousness Paul is making is "my own", keeping the Law or "from God." Since Christ’s death we still have the 2 kinds of righteousness. Of course your righteousness through faith in Christ is the same. But the keeping of the Law is a bit different. Now you strive to take His example and live a life characterized as Jesus disciples. Because of His righteousness, you try to live a life that imitates God and thereby become righteous in life.

The final 2 kinds of something are two kinds of pursuit. In the past Paul was "pursuing" the Christians and now he is "pursuing" the goal of full knowledge of Christ. He is pursuing the full knowledge of the experience of the power of Christ’s resurrection. And believe it or not he is pursuing the full knowledge of Christ through participating with Christ in His suffering. Paul is suffering, he is in jail. He suffers as a form of pursuit. In both cases Paul pursued with everything he is and has. Notice Paul doesn’t look back or pause to see how far he has come. He doesn’t look back to his ancestry or his own works for his confidence. He looks to Christ.

He puts all his energy, all his concentration, all his hope in Christ! He lives, he serves, and he is for the sake of Christ; because of Christ; to gain Christ. The goal is Christ!

2KX3 – 2 Kinds Times 3 - two kinds of confidence, two kinds of righteousness, two kinds of pursuits. Put your confidence in Christ for your salvation. Your righteousness is based on faith in Christ. Pursue Christ with all you have and all you are. 2KX3 - Now that is a symbol with some meaning.

Amen.