That I May Know Him
TEXT: Philippians 3:10
August 11, 2002
Rev. Elias Rivera-Reyes - El Buen Pastor U.M.C.
What is the greatest desire of a Christian? Throughout Scripture, the great men and women of God say that their passion is to truly know Him. Moses says to God: "I pray You show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). David prays: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God" (Psalm 42:1). And Paul says that his heart longs to "know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). The greatest desire of a true Christian is to know God. Every other desire pales in significance to this one.
Did you know that it’s possible to be a Christian and not really know God? John 14:8-9 tells us that Phillip, after following Jesus for a number of years, says to Him, "Lord, show us the Father." And Jesus replied, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?"
Maybe the problem is the word KNOW. When the Bible talks about knowing God, it’s not referring to a merely intellectual exercise. Knowing God does not mean knowing facts about God. To know God is not just reciting His biblical resume or hearing testimony of what He has done in someone else’s life. Knowing God involves encountering Him and finding out that He is who He says He is.
It might seem surprising that Paul says he wants to know God in Philippians 3:10; after all, he knew all about God from his intense training in the Law and his lofty stature in the Jewish community. In Philippians 3:4-7, Paul explains that he met all the religious qualifications of the day, and he was at the apex of Jewish leadership. Paul knew all about God, but Paul did not know God until he met Jesus face to face on the road to Damascus. Paul’s life changed because God revealed Himself to Paul, not because Paul had all the right answers. That’s why Paul says we should have no "confidence in the flesh" (v. 3).
In order to truly know God, Paul says: "Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ" (v. 7). Paul had to be willing to turn his back on his human accomplishments in order to gain knowledge of Christ. He continues: "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (v. 8). Paul uses the present tense verb "count" here, indicating that this is occurring in his life at the time of his writing. This shows us that even after the moment of his salvation, Paul continues to put the things of the world far below his priority of knowing Jesus Christ. This is an example of sanctification-what started at the cross with salvation continues to influence the way we live. Christ becomes a Christian’s greatest passion; knowing Him is the Christian’s number one priority.
The Power of Knowing Christ
Paul says that he longs to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. This power is the same force that brought Christ out of the grave. Every believer in Jesus Christ has been resurrected; for we died with Him, we are buried with Him, and we have risen with Him. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we understand the power of the Resurrection. Paul is saying that he wants to know what it’s like to live a resurrected life, to no longer be in bondage to the flesh, to have victory over sin. Knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection means that you live a resurrected life yourself.
If you stick a fireplace poker into the fire and leave it there long enough, it will become red hot, signifying that the heat of the fire has heated the poker. If you take that poker and hold it close to a piece of paper, the paper will catch on fire because the heat will transfer to the paper. Whatever that poker touches will be lit with the same flame. If you have been hanging around with Christ long enough and you know His resurrection, His resurrection rubs off on you so that what you touch catches His fire.
Paul says he wants to have this resurrected kind of life. His focus is on knowing Christ because Christ’s power will enable him to overcome the power of sin in the flesh.
The Pain of Sharing His Suffering
Most people walk their dogs on leashes. Or rather, the dogs "walk" the people by dragging them along behind! But when a dog and his master have a close, tight relationship, that master doesn’t even need a leash to keep the dog close. The relationship keeps the dog close by his side. He doesn’t have to pull or tug the dog because the dog doesn’t want to escape and doesn’t want distance to come between him and his master. He wants to be close.
This should be our desire as well-to know Him, to be close to Him, to want to know His power. In order to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, Paul tells us that we have to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Everybody is perfectly willing to experience the good stuff-the benefits-of knowing Christ. But only a true follower will understand and experience the fellowship of His suffering. The reality is that living for Jesus isn’t easy. The closer you get to Christ, the greater an enemy you become to Satan. As you go down the road of knowing Christ, you will run into challenges that are tough, awkward, and painful. At these times, the decision you face is crucial: Do you really want to know Him? At the place of suffering there is also always the simultaneous call to intimacy. In trials we often ask, "Why is this happening to me?" Very often, the reason behind our trials is that God will take us to the next level of intimacy with Him as we trust Him and grow in Him. Think about a shirt being ironed; a hot, heavy iron presses down on that shirt, moving over every inch with its pressure. But this process is required to get out all the wrinkles.
College students sometimes decide to audit classes rather than take them as registered students. Auditing means that they can sit in on the classes and listen to the lectures, but they don’t have to do any of the work or use the textbooks. Auditing students simply listen and observe. One tendency of half-hearted Christians is to audit the Christian life. They might attend church or Bible study, but they don’t put those lessons to use in their daily lives. They might profess to follow Christ and even go through the motions of obedience, but they don’t really know God or live in His power.
When we go through the fire of trials, we are stripped of the opportunity to rely solely on ourselves. We can’t be self-sufficient because there is nothing we can do; we must rely on God. Of course there are many sub-purposes of trials and many reasons we go through hard times, but one thing is for sure: God will use our trials to draw us closer to Him and to help us know Him better.
Paul is so serious about sharing in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering, he wants to be "conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (vv. 10-11). Paul wants to stand out in the crowd; he wants resurrection power to distinguish him from the rest of the world, so that the world will see Christ in him. In the midst of spiritual death, Paul wants to be a picture of life. In the midst of defeat, Paul wants to be a picture of victory.
The Perspective of Knowing Christ
Paul’s priority is to know Him. With that priority comes power-a resurrected life. With that power comes pain-sharing in Christ’s sufferings. So how does Paul deal with the pain? By gaining a new perspective-the perspective of knowing Christ. "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).
Paul acknowledges that he can’t change the past, and he says that he doesn’t have it all figured out, but he will persevere toward that for which he has been called. He had a perspective that not all believers have. He says: "Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory, is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven" (vv.17-20). That is what keeps us going: We belong in heaven. This is a different perspective from that of the world around us, where the here and now is so important. The key to living victoriously on earth is to develop the mind-set of heaven. Paul doesn’t tell us to ignore the fact that we live in the world, to shirk our responsibilities, to walk around with our heads in the clouds, but he tells us to live our lives in light of eternity, with the assurance of the promise of heaven. This world isn’t our home.
You may recognize the name of Florence Chadwick. In 1952, Florence was the first woman to attempt to swim the 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. As she began this historical journey, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if she got hurt or grew tired. Hour after hour Florence swam, but after about 15 hours, a thick, heavy fog set in. Florence began to doubt her ability, and she told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she didn’t think she could make it. She swam for one more hour before asking to be pulled out. As she sat in the boat, Florence found out she had stopped swimming just one mile away from the California shoreline, her destination. Florence explained that she quit because she could no longer see the coastline-there was too much fog. She couldn’t see her goal.
Two months later, Florence got back in the water to try her task once more. This time was different. She swam from Catalina Island to the shore of California in a straight path for 26 miles. The same thick fog set in, but Florence made it because she said that while she swam, she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind. She didn’t lose sight of the shore because she focused on that image of the coast in her mind, and in this way, she reached her goal.
As you walk this Christian walk, it’s going to get foggy. You’re going to wonder how you will make it. But God tells us that if we pursue Him, Jesus Christ will give us a glimpse of heaven that will help us keep our eyes focused on the goal. We can persevere in His strength, so that we might "know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings." Amen.
