More About Jesus

"More about Jesus"

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Introduction: Have you ever heard someone say, "The better I get to know him, the better I like him!" That's always a good thing when that happens. Unfortunately, just the opposite is also true, sometimes when we get to know someone better the less that we like them. This often happens in relationships whether they are related to business, or education or whatever. If this happens in a marriage you've got a problem. But just what does Paul mean when he says, "...that I may know him?" and this is important because on the surface this is somewhat confusing for several reasons. First, by the time Paul writes this letter to the believers at Philippi he has been a Christian for many years, had served as a missionary church planter, author of much of the NT, mentor to ministers and had suffered for his faith in Jesus; and second he is approaching the end of his life for he is in prison and it will not be long before a Roman sword will separate his head from his body and Paul will be carried into glory on angels wings. So, it is obvious he is not speaking of his salvation and if he is not, then what? Let's take a minute to examine and amplify what he does say. A careful translation of this (that I may know Him) phrase would read, "...to have personal acquaintance or experience with..." and this is the passion of Paul's life! So I believe Paul is indicating a desire for a deeper intimacy with Jesus. In verses 8-10 he mentions three things that would "deepen" his experience with the Lord. Notice that "...to know..." is taken from knowledge in verse 8 and refers to "...not having..." his own righteousness but having the righteousness of Christ which is of God and therefore knowing Jesus in that way; the power of His resurrection is the power that the resurrection exerts upon us by taking us from "grace to glory" and the fellowship of His sufferings is participation in Christ's sufferings being conformed to His death (in Paul's case it would be martyrdom) which would be "the spirit and temper, the meekness and submissiveness of Christ; to His unselfish love and devotion, and His anguish over human sin." Vines Word Studies

What do all these theological terms mean in everyday speak? To me it means that even after all the years of following Jesus Paul still had a burning desire to "know" Jesus in a deeper, richer, fuller way; to experience Jesus more intimately than ever before. Paul understood something that all of us need to experience. The more that we know about Jesus the more we will love Him and the more that we love Him the more we will want to know! Simply put, to know Jesus is to love Jesus and the more we love Jesus the more:

I. We Will Want to Worship Him

You Can Do This by Offering God Your Whole Self: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God..." (Rom. 12:1-2) When an Israelite had received a blessing from God, he could have a priest offer up an animal as a "whole burnt offering" to show God his gratitude. God was pleased by this costly sacrifice, and expressed this by calling it a "...sweet savor..." (See Lev. 3:5, 16) Paul says that as Christians, we have received the mercies of God through Christ's work - a gift so fantastic that he spent the previous eleven chapters of this letter describing it. How can we say "Thank you!" to God for such a fantastic gift? Not by offering an animal, but by presenting to God something much more precious--our very selves. We can "sign over the title deed" of our lives and say "God, I want the rest of my life and every part of my being to be one long expression of my gratitude for the gift that you have given me." We may think that this sacrifice is not very great because we have so many problems and faults, but God says that it is "holy" and "well-pleasing" to him! Notice that according to Paul, this sacrifice is our "spiritual service of worship." The Greek word for "service of worship" is the word from which we get the term liturgy. Paul is saying that the elaborate worship service enacted by the Old Testament priests no longer has a place in Christian worship; it is now replaced by this very personal sacrifice. - See more at: http://www.xenos.org/classes/um2-2.htm#sthash.T4h9rwmJ.dpuf