“To Know Him”
Ph.3:10
The Apostle Paul is the writer of Philippians. He was a man who knew the Lord. We have the record of his conversion in Acts 9, where the Lord knocked him to the ground and completely humbled him. It was a dramatic conversion, and we see the fruit of it on the following pages of the book of Acts, as one of the greatest enemies of the Christian faith became perhaps the greatest defender of the faith the world has ever seen. He knew the Lord.
Paul knew the Lord in sanctification, that is, in being set apart from the world, as he grew in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. He experienced great things with God, and even at the time of the writing of this particular letter, he was in a Roman jail, which was actually a dungeon, in the most primitive conditions. He was there, not for doing wrong, but for doing right. He was there because he would not shut up or back up when it came to preaching Jesus. He knew the Lord.
In spite of all the victories Paul had experienced in his life, in spite of the fact that he was able to say in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And, the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” in spite of that, in Philippians 3:10 he said, “That I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Now, for reasons already mentioned, he could not have been talking about initial knowledge of the Lord, but he had to be speaking of increasing knowledge, an increased intimacy with Christ, or what we would refer to as further Christian growth.
Those who know Christ, know Him through a connectedness with Him through the word of God, the Bible. In John 5:24, Jesus said, “Truly I say unto you that he who hears my word and believes on Him who sent Me, has everlasting life...” Notice, the requirement of hearing the word. Now, we understand that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, as we are told in Ephesians 2:8, but in Romans 10:17, God’s word says, “Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” So, anyone who is saved, or will ever get saved, there is this requirement of being exposed to, and trusting in the word of God. The same thing is true for Christians who grow in the Lord. First Peter 2:2 says, “Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” The word is a necessary element for growth, or Christian maturity.
In Philippians 3:10, we have this statement of desire, “That I may know Him,” then there are to specific areas in which Paul says he wants to know Him, or as we have established, know Him more completely: 1) “the power of His resurrection;” and, 2) “the fellowship of His sufferings;” then, we have a statement as to how this is going to come to pass. He says, “Being conformed to His death.”
Being conformed to His death doesn’t mean being crucified just like Jesus was, but it means what the Bible teaches in Luke 9:23: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” To deny one’s self means to deny our self anything that is contrary to God. It is to have a heart like Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemene, when He prayed, as recorded in Matthew 26:39, “O Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” This doesn’t happen in every Christian’s life. As a matter of fact, most Christians never tap into this, and as a result, they miss the greatest quality of life that anyone could ever live. Paul had experienced enough of this that he wanted more of it.
Knowing Jesus in the power of His resurrection, for Paul, meant to increase in this knowledge. He had seen the resurrection power of God operative in his life in some big ways. For instance, he had seen the power of God cause an earthquake, the falling off the shackles that were on his hands and feet, and the opening of the prison doors in Philippi. He had experienced the raising of a young, dead man back to life, after he had fallen asleep and fallen out the upstairs window during one of his long sermons in Troas. So, he wasn’t talking about a first time experience, he was talking a growing experience.
While I certainly do not discount that God is able to send a special anointing of His power down on an individual, instantaneously, those who consistently live in His power, so through their connectedness to the word of God. They do so by a willingness to receive God’s word, then to act upon it in faith. In Mark 4:10, Jesus began to explain a parable to His disciples. It is the parable of the sower who sowed seeds that fell on the different kinds of ground. The seed was the word of God. The same seed fell on each of the types of ground, which represented the hearts of those who heard the word. There was nothing wrong with the seed, but there was something wrong with three of the four types of hearers. But the good ground brought forth fruit. Now, everything in Mark 4 really has to do with teaching about the word of God being seed. In verses 21-25, Jesus talks about a light not being put under a bushel, and He’s really not talking about our Christian witness, but He’s talking about the fact that the word on good ground is going to come forth, and if it doesn’t come forth, it wasn’t good ground. In verses 26-29, He is saying that if it’s good ground, the fruit is an automatic by product of the word being placed into it. The farmer doesn’t make that seed grow, he just does the human thing of planting it, etc, but it is God who germinates it and causes it to sprout. In verses 30-32, Jesus talks about the growth of a mustard seed to indicate that when the word comes forth, it can do big things! Then, in verse 35, Jesus says, “Let us cross over to the other side.” They soon find themselves in a violent storm, and Jesus is asleep in the boat, of all things. These seasoned sailors become afraid, and they wake Jesus, asking Him if He doesn’t care if they perish? Jesus gets up, speaks to the wind, and everything goes peaceful. Now, you would think Jesus would say, “Sorry about that, guys,” but He doesn’t. He rebukes them for being afraid and having no faith. Why would He do that? Because, in verse 35, when He said, “Let us cross over to the other side,” that was the Lord’s word. He did not say, “Let us go out in the middle and drown,” but “let’s cross over to the other side.” They were destined to get to the other side, they had Jesus’ word on it. Jesus rebuked them, because they should have said, “It doesn’t matter that the wind and waves are violent, we’re going to the other side, according to the word of the Lord!” If they had done so, they would have demonstrated the seed of the Lord’s word had fallen on good ground.
Then, Paul said that he wanted to increase in his knowledge of the fellowship of the Lord’s suffering. That sounds like a strange statement. Our natural mind can understand wanting to live in the power of God, but our natural mind can’t comprehend wanting to join in the fellowship of sufferings. He wanted to more and more stand on the word of God, against the tide of the world, the flesh, and the devil. If the world said, “You can’t talk about Jesus here,”he wanted to say, “I’ve got my orders from a higher source,” and he wanted to do it, regardless of the cost. If his flesh, or his natural senses, cried out for selfish fulfilment, he wanted to bring his body under subjection to the purposes and power of the Living God. If the devil attacked him and tried to instill fear in his heart, he wanted to steadfastly resist him in the faith, and the pricetag didn’t matter, because Paul knew that no one can ever out give God. We often say that in regard to money, and it’s true of money, but it’s true in every area of our life.
We are living in a day of great opportunity, but relatively little results. There are multitudes of churches, who went all year last year without a single convert. More than 90% of Christians never one time in all their life attempt to lead another person to Christ. There’s nothing wrong with the seed. The Lord hasn’t changed.
What is God telling you about yourself? Do you want to know Him? Do you want to grow in your knowledge of Him? Doesn’t it make sense if the great Apostle Paul acknowledged such a need in his life, that you and I certainly have that need? Do you need to come to know Him in salvation? Would you turn to Him and trust Him, now?
