Sermon Notes
Series: Why Did Jesus Come?
Sermon: #4-So We Could Know God
Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14
God’s desire all along for man has been that man would know and love God and have intimate F_______________ with Him.
I. We cannot know God or become the people God wants us to be through the F_____________., 3-8.
If Paul’s...heritage, education, work history, and obedience to God’s Word is what you can depend on to make you what you need to be, HE would have had it made... He should have been ultimately F_____________ in life.
But they caused him to miss out on where he needed to put his T___________, which is in Christ
II. We can ONLY know God or become the people God wants us to be through J_____________., 9-14.
Jesus said that we would know the Father, if we know Him. (John 14: 8-9, John 10:10, 1 John 5:20).
III. How do we get to know God through Jesus?
Read the Bible with a T_________ to Know God
Ps 42:1-2
2. Grow in our fellowship and L________ for a group of Christians.
3. Reach out to other people to become a part of our spiritual F_______________.
The number one need for human beings is Love and B________________.
One of the greatest ministries that helps us do that is the ministry of H__________________—inviting people into your home—people in your class and people you’re reaching out to.
Series: Why Did Jesus Come?
Sermon: #4: So We Could Know God
Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14
It is said that Marilyn Monroe wanted people to see her for who she was deep down and not just for being physically attractive or being the sex symbol that she portrayed. Because no one seemed to truly want to know her, she felt empty and ultimately committed suicide.
(adapted from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/i/intimacy.htm)
God’s desire all along for man has been that man would know and love God and have intimate fellowship with Him.
All the way back at the time of the Exodus, God says that He is going to deliver the people of Israel, so that they will know that He is the Lord their God (Ex. 6: 7). God brought the plagues on Egypt, so they the Egyptians would know that He is the Lord (Ex. 7: 5). Deuteronomy 7: 9 Moses reminds the people, before they go into the promised land to “know that the Lord their God IS God.”
On and on through the Old Testament, God declares that He does what He does, so that people will know HE alone is God and will know what He is like and will submit to Him as God. After the prophets, and after the 400 years of silence from God, when God’s timing was right, He sent His Son, Jesus. At 30 years of age, Jesus began His ministry of teaching us by words and by example who God is, what God is like, what God’s kingdom is like, and how He wants us to live. One of the reasons Jesus came was so that we could know God.
But the first point that Paul is making in these verses is that
I. We (you and I) cannot know God or become the people God wants us to be through the flesh., 3-8.
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
The word, ‘confidence,’ means ‘to be so thoroughly convinced of something that you rely on it, you depend on it, ‘ I am not convinced that the things of the flesh will give me the kind of life God will be pleased with, and will not give true and complete fulfillment, and will not lead to the resurrected life in eternity. Now, that’s putting it in my words for what he says here in this passage.
Now, Paul goes on to talk about what He means by the word, ‘flesh,’ in the next two verses.
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Paul says, If anybody’s got the right to put their faith in the flesh, or the worldly things that he is about to mention, it’s me. Then, he gives us a list of things that, in the world’s view might put him up higher on the spiritual ladder of success.
5 circumcised on the eighth day-As an eight-day old child, his parents saw to it that he met the requirement of the Old Testament Law.
...of the people of Israel-God’s chosen people; the people who knew the one true God.
...of the tribe of Benjamin,-Here he makes reference to David’s lineage, so there’s Hebrew royalty in his blood.
So he feels like he can call himself a Hebrew of Hebrews; If there ever was a Hebrew, he’s the prime example.
...in regard to the law, a Pharisee;-Pharisees were sticklers of the Law. They wanted to obey it to the letter. Now, today, among Christian people, because of Jesus’ interaction with them, the Pharisees don’t have too good of a reputation. But back then, among the Jews, the Pharisees were the ones who were the most serious about striving to obey God’s word in everyday life. They went overboard and lost the spirit of the Law. But the average person would have said, If I want to be more spiritual, I need to be like the Pharisees.
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church;-”’zeal’ comes from a word that means, ‘to be hot.’ When it is used about liquids, it means ‘to boil.’ When used of metals or coals, it mean ‘glowing hot.’ Used of people, and it refers to the things we are passionate about, things we are enthusiastic about, things that are very important to us. For Paul, his religion was so important to him that he persecuted the church. The word. ’persecuted,’ literally is the word for ’pursued.’ He went after those who believed in Jesus.
as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.-When it came to following the Law, he considered himself to have NEVER broken it.
Paul is saying that if anybody had the right to say that their heritage, education, work history, or obedience to God’s Word is what you can depend on to make you what you need to be, HE would have had it made. Because of all of his background and all of his experiences, and all of his beliefs, he should have been ultimately fulfilled in life.
But all of these things are of the flesh. They are temporary things. They are things of human nature, and human experience. And in the world’s eyes, they might point to a very spiritual person. But he says in verse 7, But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. All the things that said, “I have arrived,” or “I’ve got it made,” they were really a detriment to him. They caused him to miss out on where he needed to put his trust, which is in Christ. And he wants to emphasize this so strongly that he says in verse 8, I consider all this stuff to be “rubbish.” And that’s the nice word for it. The King James uses the word, ‘dung,’ and we know what that is. The word is literally a compound word that means, ‘something that is thrown to the dogs.’
All that stuff that makes us feel so important, or sometimes even makes us feel superior to other people, it’s just a bunch of junk.
You and I cannot know God or become the people He wants us to be through fleshly things, temporary things, or just because of our heritage and education, and background, our money, our jobs, or because of ANYTHING like that.
II. We (you and I) can ONLY know God or become the people God wants us to be through Jesus., 9-14.
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
10 I 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.
To put it my own words, Paul is saying, “Righteousness, or being right with God, doesn’t come from all that stuff, especially the Law, it only comes from God through faith in Jesus, so I want to know Jesus and everything about Him!”
Jesus came so that we could know God, because He is God in human flesh. There is one God who has shown Himself, or revealed Himself in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And one of the three persons of the godhead, the Son, left heaven, and was born as a baby, who was named Jesus. He grew up and began a ministry of teaching us about God the Father and the Spirit, and about God’s kingdom, and He gave us a human example of how to live out the character, the holiness and righteousness of God in human form.
Jesus Himself said that we would know the Father, if we know Him. Listen to these words from John 14: 8-9, “8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me...?” (NIV). In John 10:10 He said, “I and my Father are one.” John writes in his first letter (1 John 5:20), We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.“ NIV
It is only in Jesus that we can truly KNOW God and become the people He wants us to be.
If all this is true, then…
III. How do we get to know God through Jesus?
1. Read the Bible with a thirst to Know God
It would be so easy just to say, “Read the Bible,” wouldn’t it? And we know, that’s definitely the place where we learn about Jesus. The Old Testament tells us of God’s involvement in the lives of the people of Israel from creation to the prophets, and prepares us for Jesus’ coming. The Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ life, and what He taught—how He lived, how He died, how He rose again, and ascended into heaven. The letters that come after that tell us how the first Christians taught and lived out their faith in their everyday lives. And Revelation gives us a peek into eternity with Jesus. So, yes, we need to read the Bible. But we need to read it with a hunger and thirst to know God.
Ps 42:1-2, “1 As the deer pants [longs, thirsts] for streams of water, so my soul pants [longs, thirsts] for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (NIV)
Boy, that needs to be our attitude when we come to reading and studying the Bible. Whether we are studying alone at home, or we are studying in our Sunday School classes, we need to long to know God, and long to know His Son, Jesus.
2. A second thing we need to make sure we are doing is growing in our fellowship and love for a group of Christians. Most of us would probably say that the entire church membership is our church family, and that’s true.
You know, with our biological families, we have a nuclear family (which is usually a mother, father, and the kids), then, we have extended families (which might include grandparents or cousins, or close uncles and aunts), then, we have like the “family reunion family group (2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins, great grandparents and the OTHER side of the family that we only see once a year).
We can’t be “nuclear family-close” to the 40-50 people we might see once a week on Sunday. Our Sunday School classes are meant to be like an “extended, spiritual family” and some of them may even be more like a ‘nuclear-type spiritual family.’ But ideally, every Christian needs about 4, 5, or 6 other Christians who are thirsting to know God. And it’s more than just a social thing, and it’s more than just a Sunday morning duty. It’s more like: “This is my spiritual family that I love and care for. And just like I thirst to know God through Jesus, I want to help them thirst to know God and get to know God.
And that spiritual family unit will be growing in its faith and love for one another, they will be meeting each others’ needs.
3. And together, that spiritual family unit will seek to do the third thing: they will reach out to other people who will fit into that family.
Since Jesus came so that we could get to know God, God wants us to help others get to know Him through Jesus. And part of the way that we do that, is by building a relationship with others by meeting needs.
Do you know what the number one need for human beings is? It’s been identified in psychological circles for years. Love and belonging. It’s the need to be loved and to feel like we belong. That’s what we need. And that’s what unbelievers need. And that’s what Christians who have fallen away from the church need. We all need to be loved and feel like we belong.
If we didn’t feel like we were loved by the people here at church, and didn’t feel like we belonged in this church family, we’d either be looking for another church to go to, or we’d stop going altogether.
When I was in seminary, and I moved into the dormitory, I went to the largest church in Fort Worth at the time. I was looking for a church to join, because I believe it’s important for Christians to be a part of a local church. I didn’t like the idea of “shopping around” for a church, so I joined it. Other than just saying, “Hello” to me, I don’t remember anybody ever making an effort to talk to me. I don’t think anybody ever came to see me. I went for about a month. Then my dorm mate told me about another church that was less than a fourth the size. So, I visited there. I think it was either that same Sunday or the Monday following that a couple of people from Sunday School came to visit me. They introduced themselves to me, and invited me to the next fellowship. They had five singles classes, so I got to know some more of them. I went back. Eventually I wound up renting a house with two guys that were attending that church.
I felt loved. I felt like I belonged. Because people around my age and in a similar life situation reached out to me.
Sunday School classes and other small groups in the church need to reach out to people that fit into that group. That’s how people feel loved and feel like they belong. And one of the greatest ministries that helps us do that is the ministry of hospitality—inviting people into your home—people in your class and people you’re reaching out to.
As they see that they are loved, and they begin to feel like they belong, even lost people will become more receptive to the gospel message. They will begin to desire to know this God that we know and love. And they will come to Jesus, because Jesus came, so that we can know God.
