MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH
BROWNSVILLE, TX
In writing to the Christians at Philippi the apostle Paul makes some amazing statements. Listen as I read what he wrote in Philippians 3:7-11.
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
“I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ & 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 & is by faith.
“I want to know Christ & the power of His resurrection & the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, & so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
ILL. When you find yourself forgetting things it can prove to be embarrassing. Several times people have come up to me & said, "Do you remember me?" I look at their faces & I know I’ve met them before, but at that moment, at least, I just don’t remember their names.
There have been times, too, when I was preaching along & forgot what I was going to say next. At times like that you sometimes grope for words until your memory comes back & you remember what you intended to say.
ILL. The story is told about a young preacher who went to hear an old & well-known preacher, thinking that maybe he could pick up a few pointers on preaching. As he listened, the old preacher, in his sermon, made this amazing statement. He said, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man’s wife."
Now instantly the old preacher had the attention of the entire congregation. Everybody was on the edge of their seat, & the young preacher thought, "Boy, that is really an attention-getter if I have ever heard one."
The old preacher repeated it just to make sure everybody got it. He said, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man’s wife." Then he went on to explain that the woman he was talking about was his father’s wife, in other words, his mother.
The young preacher thought, "That was really great! I’m going to use that in one of my sermons soon." So a few weeks later he was preaching along & he made the statement, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man’s wife."
And it worked for him, too. I mean everybody listened & he wasn’t used to having that kind of attention from his audience. So, basking in their undivided attention, he decided to say it again with a little more flare.
Gesturing & emphasizing the words, he repeated, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man’s wife." And then his mind went blank. He stumbled around in his words for a few moments, & then said, "For the life of me I can’t remember whose wife she was."
A. When I read these words in Philippians 3, I get the feeling that the apostle Paul has paused in the midst of his writing. He leans back in his chair & begins to remember how & why he became a Christian, & what has happened to him since that day.
Once he was looked upon as a man of great influence among the Jews, a member of the ruling aristocracy with wealth & fame. Soldiers & servants followed him wherever he went.
But Paul had given all of that up to follow a man known as a carpenter, an itinerate preacher who didn’t own anything except the clothes that He wore.
And when asked why, Paul says, "I looked at all I once had & decided it was rubbish." Paul had come to realize that if you have all the things of the world, but you don’t have Christ, you are poor indeed.
But if you have Christ, you are rich indeed. He had come to realize that Jesus is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field. He is worth selling everything you have in order to have Him.
B. It seems that is a message the church needs to hear today.
There aren’t any Rolex wrist watches in this passage of Scripture. No custom made Lincoln town cars are here. No million-dollar mansions are found in this passage of Scripture, only humility.
ILL. A few years ago the religious community was being rocked by one scandal after another. Headlines featured sexual exposes. But in my opinion the problem was not lust. The problem is that there is a large segment of Christianity that has ignored the Biblical structure of the church.
God never intended for one man to have control over multiplied millions of church dollars, because “the love of money is still a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). You can take the most well intended disciple of Jesus & fill his pockets with too much money, & sin will come knocking at the door.
I think that’s why in the structure of the church in the NT you always find a plurality of elders. It serves as a check & balance system, & God intended it to be that way.
When someone stands up with the supposed authority of God behind him & says, "I just heard God’s voice & God said you are supposed to send me lots of money," it’s time to re-examine the Scriptures.
SUM. That is why Paul’s words are so important. Paul said, "You want to know why I became a Christian? You want to know why I followed Jesus? It is because I looked at all of this that the world seeks so fervently, & it is rubbish. The only thing that really counts is Christ."
C. Now look at the last part of vs. 8. Paul says, "I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ." And in vs. 10 he says, "I want to know Christ."
ILL. Two people get married. They love each other as they have never loved anyone else, & then they begin to understand a bit more about God’s love for us.
ILL. You have a baby, & as you hold that baby in your arms, I have heard young parents say, "I think I understand the love of God better now than I ever have before."
PROP. We go through many experiences in life - victories & defeats, troubles & trials, problems & heartaches. But every time we turn a corner there is Christ, & we get to know Him better as we rub shoulders with Him & experience His power in our life.
I. I WANT TO KNOW HIM IN THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION.
A. Now notice what Paul says in vs’s 10 & 11. First of all, he says, "I want to know Christ & the power of His resurrection..."
Paul begins with the resurrection. He doesn’t end with it. He begins there because that is where he met Jesus.
Once, he had learned some facts about Jesus. He had studied hard to get all the facts together. His conclusion was that Jesus was an impostor, & that the greatest service he could render for God was to destroy the church.
So he set out to persecute the church, thinking that he was doing exactly what God wanted him to do. And then, one day on his way to Damascus, he met the real Jesus, the resurrected Christ.
B. You see, all of us have been in the same fix that Paul was in. We were lost & hopeless & headed for a Christless grave with no hope for eternity.
But through the power of His resurrection God lifted us up, & gives us new life inside & out. And we want that power. We want to know power such as the world doesn’t even begin to understand, power to overcome our problems, & our difficulties. I want that, don’t you?
II. SHARING THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERING.
A. But Paul didn’t stop there. He went on to say, "I want to know Christ…& the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings…"
Now wait a minute, Paul. That is going too far. Sharing His resurrection is okay, but sharing in His suffering? That is going a bit far isn’t it?
ILL. A veteran of WW 2 proudly proclaimed that he was a member of the survivors club of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. There are not many of them left, but he was one of them. And as he spoke you could tell that he & his brothers had suffered together, & because they had suffered together, a unique fellowship existed among them.
ILL. Alcoholics go through that. Those who have overcome their alcoholism can understand it better than others because they have suffered the same pains & the same hurts.
ILL. People who have come through divorce can help other people who are going through divorce because they have felt the same hurts. They know what it is like, you see.
ILL. People who have lost little children can help other people who are coming through that same experience in life because they have been there. They hurt the same hurts.
So there is a fellowship in suffering, isn’t there?
B. Look at Paul’s life. He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, thrown into prison. And finally, Paul was beheaded for Christ. Yes, he suffered.
When he looked at the scars on his body, the scars inflicted by the whips & the stones & the lashings, he called them the marks of Christ. "I bear on my body the marks of Christ," he said.
Do you want to suffer with Jesus? I think that happens in a lot of different ways.
ILL. A minister went to his barber shop a few years ago during the time of the preacher scandals. The barber, who had been cutting his hair for 15 years, said, "Preacher, are you laying low this week?" The preacher asked "Why?"
"Well," he said, "all preachers are suspect now, aren’t they?" He said, "You probably have a group of people looking over your shoulder, just waiting for you to make a mistake, wondering if you are a phony, too."
It’s sad, isn’t it? If one Christian stumbles & falls, all of us are seen as phonies.
C. Jesus suffered when they brought sinners to Him. He looked over the city of Jerusalem & He cried. He cried because this city had been offered forgiveness. The city had been offered the way that was right, the way of God. And they turned their backs on it.
Sin causes hearts to be broken. We suffer with Jesus when we look at a world that is caught up in sin & selfishness. We weep over it & we share in the suffering of Jesus by doing that.
III. SHARING IN HIS DEATH.
A. Finally, Paul says this, "I want to know Christ…by becoming like Him in His death, & so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
That really is going too far, isn’t it? I don’t want to die. I want to live, & I guess all of us do. But, you see, in a sense every moment that we live for Christ we are also dying for Him. All of us are moving towards that moment in time when we will finally lay down this body & take up our new existence with Christ.
Paul literally died for Him by being beheaded for the cause of Christ. If history is right the other apostles (except John) did as well. They gave their lives for Christ. And in a sense we do, too. We live our lives as a living sacrifice to Jesus.
There is something precious, isn’t there, about being able to say, "I have lived out my moment on earth for Christ. I have given Him my time, my energy, & my talent. And I am willing to become like Him even in death."
ILL. John Wilson preached for 44 years in Springfield, OH. At the age of 75 he was still preaching every Sunday. He often introduced himself by saying, "I am John Wilson. You have never heard of me, but you have heard of my brother, Seth."
He had spent most of his life preaching to a congregation in the little town of Springfield, OH. He had built a strong church there, & was wondering how to pass the baton on to a younger man who would follow after him.
He asked a very penetrating question, "When I quit preaching do I have to quit ministering? Do I have to stop calling on people? Do I have to stop praying with people?"
You see, he didn’t want to interfere with the new man that was coming in, but his question was, "Do I have to stop serving? I don’t want to stop serving."
When you look into his eyes, you’ll see the marks of Jesus, marks of kindness & understanding & sympathy that have been etched in his face over decades of serving. Decades of faithful preaching & decades of marrying young people in love & burying people who die - decades of counseling & praying & serving & administering. It is all there.
His watch was made by Timex. His suit comes from J.C. Penney. He drives a compact car. You won’t see his name in the headlines. But he left everything to follow Jesus. And that is the greatest epitaph that you can ever have put on your tombstone.
SUM. In a time of materialism, in a time of corruption in religion, there seems to me that there is not a passage in the Bible that has more to say to the church than this one.
You see we don’t offer an invitation that just promises the power of the resurrection. The invitation also includes the fellowship of suffering & also the promise of death.
You may not want an invitation like that, but it is important for you to understand that the invitation always includes that, whether you want it or not. That is the only way we are ever going to gain Christ & get to know Him.
You’ll find, as Paul found, that it is well worth it. Christ is that pearl of great price. He is the hidden treasure. He is worth whatever sacrifice you may be called upon to give in order to gain Him & to know Him.
That’s our invitation. We pray that you will respond to it.
