Sermons on Philippians 3:18
The various sermons below converge on two clear convictions: the cross is the decisive touchstone for judging teachers and lifestyles, and Paul’s “with tears” is read as a pastoral grief that propels ministry rather than mere rhetorical flourish. They agree that “enemies of the cross” names people whose lives undermine the cross’s claim—whether by self-righteous religiosity, worldly license, or inward religiosity that masks earthly allegiance—and they move from that diagnosis to similar pastoral responses: urgent evangelism and church expansion, testing leaders by fruit, persistent intercession, concrete gospel deeds, vigilance against spiritual decline, and intentional imitation of godly exemplars. Nuances emerge in how those priorities are argued: some dwell on the Greek nuance of compassion to shape Paul’s tears as compassion-driven sorrow, others formalize a threefold program (tears, prayers, deeds), one sets the warning alongside Israelite narrative for a prophetic alarm, and another emphasizes contagious, observable sanctification through mentorship and example.
They diverge sharply in homiletical emphasis and pastoral posture. One approach makes the sermon a pastoral lament that moves congregations toward outward evangelistic action; another makes it an exegetical litmus test for identifying and correcting false teachers; a third turns grief into a devotional strategy of holy dissatisfaction that issues in persistent prayer and ministry; a fourth uses the text as a prophetic wake-up call about spiritual decline and the need for accountability; and a fifth centers discipleship—imitation and community—as the primary safeguard. Each choice shifts tone, desired converts, and concrete applications—do you press the cross as sorrow that spurs outreach, as doctrinal gatekeeping, as a program of prayerful persistence, as a call to vigilant repentance, or as an agenda for visible Christlikeness—
Philippians 3:18 Interpretation:
Embracing God's Work Amidst Challenges and Growth(Crazy Love) reads Philippians 3:18 as a pastoral lament: Paul’s repeated warning “even with tears” signals not mere rhetorical flourish but pastoral heartbreak at people who, though religiously active, actively oppose what the cross demands; the preacher emphasizes the cross as the scandalous truth that indicts human self-righteousness and interprets “enemies of the cross” as those who reject the cross’s claim that we deserve punishment and therefore need a substitute — using the Greek sense of Jesus’ compassion (discussed elsewhere in the sermon) to frame Paul’s tears as compassion-driven sorrow rather than triumphalism, and applies the verse to motivate evangelistic urgency and practical church expansion so people won’t “walk away” without encountering the gospel.
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) offers a sustained exegetical reading of 3:18 that distinguishes two contrasted groups — those whose destiny is destruction and those whose citizenship is in heaven — arguing Paul refers especially to professing teachers within the church who, by the pattern of their lives, show themselves to be “enemies of the cross”; Begg unpacks the phrase cluster in v.19 (destiny, stomach, glory/shame, earthly-mindedness) as a diagnostic: test teachers by fruit, not gifts, and interpret “enemies of the cross” theologically as those whose lives undermine the cross’s truth (either by legalism or by worldly license), then applies the verse to the necessity of visible transformation and the church’s countercultural witness.
Finding Hope Through Tears, Prayers, and Deeds(Desiring God) interprets Philippians 3:18’s “with tears” as paradigmatic of Paul’s pastoral posture — not stoic resignation but a holy, grieving dissatisfaction with the present state of unbelief and sin — and develops an applied theology that ties those tears to a threefold response (tears, prayers, deeds): tears as righteous grief, prayers as persistent petitions for conversion/healing, and deeds as concrete gospel activity, so the verse becomes a pastoral program for Christians who ache over lost loved ones and refuse to accept worldly complacency.
Vigilance in Faith: Lessons from Saul and David(SermonIndex.net) reads Philippians 3:18 in a cautionary register, pairing Paul’s tears with Samuel’s mourning over Saul to argue that Paul’s weeping over “enemies of the cross” warns ministers and congregations that gifted beginnings can end tragically; the sermon treats the verse as a prophetic alarm that Satan can hollow out lives that once showed promise, so Paul’s tears function as a pastoral wake-up call to ongoing vigilance, repentance, and prayer in ministry contexts.
Choosing Heavenly Role Models for Spiritual Growth(SermonIndex.net) treats 3:18 as the hinge for Paul’s practical command to imitate godly exemplars: the warning about “many…enemies of the cross” provides the negative pole (what not to imitate), and Paul’s injunction to “join in imitating me” supplies the positive remedy — the preacher interprets the verse as insisting that visible, Christlike patterns of life (humility, self-denial, other-centeredness) are the decisive evidence of genuine faith and the best safeguard against becoming an enemy of the cross yourself.
Philippians 3:18 Theological Themes:
Embracing God's Work Amidst Challenges and Growth(Crazy Love) emphasizes a pastoral theology of tears: Paul’s tears are theological, not merely emotional, and signal a pastoral anthropology in which compassion and sorrow over unbelief are the appropriate affective responses of leaders who long for people to embrace the cross’s humility and forgiveness rather than cultural self-justification.
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) foregrounds the cross as the doctrinal touchstone — the sermon develops the theme that the cross is the decisive criterion for evaluating teachers and lifestyles (i.e., doctrine must be measured by whether it produces cross-shaped living), and sharpens the theological contrast between inward, ecclesial holiness and outward religiosity that masks worldly allegiance.
Finding Hope Through Tears, Prayers, and Deeds(Desiring God) develops the distinct theological theme of “holy dissatisfaction”: Christians are not to be reconciled to sickness, death, or unbelief in this age but properly grieved while trusting God’s sovereignty; that dissatisfaction is itself a Christlike posture that issues in persistent prayer and active ministry until God’s providence clearly directs otherwise.
Vigilance in Faith: Lessons from Saul and David(SermonIndex.net) presents the theological theme of pastoral accountability and spiritual peril: even prominent spiritual beginnings require continual dependence and vigilance because spiritual decline can befall the elect’s outward profession; Paul’s tears are a theological sign that pastoral sorrow should drive intercession and searching self-examination to prevent shipwreck.
Choosing Heavenly Role Models for Spiritual Growth(SermonIndex.net) emphasizes discipleship theology: sanctification is primarily contagious and observable — Christians are transformed through imitating holy exemplars — and the particular danger is that absence of godly models leaves believers vulnerable to adopting the life-patterns of “enemies of the cross,” so the remedy is intentional community, mentorship, and visible Christlikeness.
Philippians 3:18 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Embracing God's Work Amidst Challenges and Growth(Crazy Love) draws on a lexical-cultural detail when discussing Jesus’ compassion (in the passage leading into Philippians 3:18): the preacher points to the Greek word behind “compassion” (translated as the visceral word for the bowels) to argue that both Jesus’ and Paul’s reactions (including Paul’s tears) are rooted in a gut-level, culturally intelligible expression of sorrow that carried strong emotive force for first-century hearers, shaping the understanding of “weeping” as pastoral agony rather than rhetorical flourish.
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) situates Philippi culturally and historically — explaining that Philippi was a Roman garrison town with Roman law, architecture, Latin documents and a populace living “Roman” life away from the imperial capital — to underline Paul’s image of Christians as “aliens” or expatriates whose citizenship is not local but heavenly; Begg also traces how first-century markers of status and public religiosity could mask spiritual bankruptcy, which helps explain Paul’s concern about false teachers operating within a church embedded in Roman civic religiosity.
Philippians 3:18 Cross-References in the Bible:
Embracing God's Work Amidst Challenges and Growth(Crazy Love) connects Philippians 3:18 with Matthew 9 (Jesus sees the crowds as “harassed and helpless” like sheep without a shepherd) and Matthew 9:37 (the harvest is plentiful, workers few) to show Paul’s tears as an extension of Jesus’ compassion and missionary urgency; the sermon uses those Matthean contexts to move from Paul’s lament to the church’s responsibility to pray for and send workers and to act compassionately so people aren’t left “wandering” away from the gospel.
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) weaves a web of cross-references (Philippians 3:17–21 framed by Romans 8:29 on being conformed to Christ, 2 Corinthians 3 on transformation, Matthew 7:15–23 on false prophets and recognition by fruit, John on the new birth and love for the world, and Matthew 7:13–14 on the narrow gate) to argue that Paul’s warning about “enemies of the cross” must be tested by fruit and final destiny; Begg uses Matthew 7 especially to underscore Jesus’ own warning that vocal profession and spectacular gifts are not the decisive marks of allegiance to Christ.
Finding Hope Through Tears, Prayers, and Deeds(Desiring God) explicitly cites Romans 9:1–3 and Romans 10:1 to show Paul’s sorrow for his kinsmen, 2 Corinthians 12 on Paul’s thorn/prayer, Luke 18 (the persistent widow) to encourage perseverance in prayer, and Philippians 3:18 itself as an example of apostolic grief; these cross-references are used to build the triadic pastoral response (tears that mourn lostness, prayers that persist, deeds that change circumstances) as biblical precedent.
Vigilance in Faith: Lessons from Saul and David(SermonIndex.net) frames Philippians 3:18 alongside 1 Samuel’s narrative of Saul and Samuel’s mourning (1 Samuel 15, 28, 16) and Jude 12 (trees without fruit) to warn that early spiritual promise can end in destruction; the sermon uses Saul’s trajectory as biblical precedent for Paul’s tears, arguing that scriptural tragedies demonstrate the reality of spiritual backsliding and the need for persistent sorrow and intercession.
Choosing Heavenly Role Models for Spiritual Growth(SermonIndex.net) collects related New Testament material (1 Corinthians 11:1 “imitate me as I imitate Christ,” Hebrews 6 and 11 on imitating faith, Colossians on walking worthy, and Matthew 23 / John on hypocrisy versus authentic fruit) to argue that Paul’s admonition to imitate godly patterns and his warning about “enemies of the cross” are functionally integrated: the Bible consistently invites imitation of visible Christlikeness as the proof of genuine conversion and the way to guard against worldly or hypocritical exemplars.
Philippians 3:18 Christian References outside the Bible:
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) explicitly appeals to JB Phillips for the paraphrase “their God is their own appetite” to illuminate the meaning of “their God is their stomach,” and he closes by echoing Augustine’s language about “our rest in God,” using these Christian thinkers to sharpen pastoral application: Phillips supplies a succinct contemporary paraphrase that clarifies the Greek idiom, while Augustine supplies the theological posture (rest in God) that should replace earthly appetite, both used to reinforce Paul’s diagnosis and the remedy of heavenly-mindedness.
Choosing Heavenly Role Models for Spiritual Growth(SermonIndex.net) invokes modern evangelical exemplars and scholars (D. A. Carson for the observation “many things are more easily caught than taught,” biographies of Hudson Taylor, D. L. Moody, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and authors like Ian Murray and Daniel Smith) to argue practically that the imitation Paul prescribes is historically grounded; the sermon names these figures and biographies as living pedagogical tools—Carson as a contemporary exegetical voice to support the “caught vs. taught” dynamic, and the biographical authors as concrete means by which believers can observe Christlike patterns when local mentors are unavailable.
Philippians 3:18 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Embracing God's Work Amidst Challenges and Growth(Crazy Love) uses a detailed street-interview video shot by students at a mall (Santa Monica) in which strangers give candid, culturally varied definitions of “Christmas” (responses ranged from tradition and family-time, to consumerism, to atheism and even death-metal concert jokes); the preacher retells specific clips — the young woman calling Christmas “fake,” an atheist remarking on taking money from old people, teenagers equating Christmas with family time — and interprets these secular snapshots as vivid evidence that much of contemporary culture misunderstands or dismisses the gospel, thereby illustrating Paul’s claim that many live as “enemies of the cross” by their casual indifference or hostile misframing of Christian truth.
Living as Citizens of Heaven: A Call to Transformation(Alistair Begg) deploys several mainstream cultural touchstones to dramatize the gospel contrast: he recounts the 1998/2002 World Cup example (Croatia’s unexpected national passion and public displays of emotion) to illustrate how collective belonging and visible identity shape people’s response to existential realities; he also cites popular music and advertising — Mick Jagger’s “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” as emblematic of restless worldly yearning and Budweiser commercials (Clydesdale imagery, wink-wink sexualized ads) as examples of cultural substitutions for ultimate meaning — and even quotes a 1960s pop lyric (“two-room apartment on the second floor”) to show how secular aspirations map onto idolatrous earthly minds that Paul warns against.
Choosing Heavenly Role Models for Spiritual Growth(SermonIndex.net) uses everyday secular analogies to make imitation concrete: he compares spiritual apprenticeship to professional training (doctors learn by watching mentors, students learn trades by observation) and gives the simple childhood image of a toddler imitating a grandfather smoking (the boy taking a twig or toy cigarette) to illustrate how imitation happens naturally and powerfully in the moral formation of persons; these secular learning and socialization analogies are used to show why visible Christian exemplars matter more than abstract teaching when it comes to shaping the next generation and guarding against being seduced by ungodly examples.