Reality Distortion Series

How many of you happened to be here a few weeks ago when I showed the State Farm commercial as the opening illustration? The point was to show how easily it is to misunderstand a conversation, especially if you are only hearing one side of it. This week, when I was working on my sermon, I was actually reminded of another commercial by another insurance company called Geico. This particular commercial featured Pinocchio, the puppet whose nose grows if he lies. I thought since you responded so well to the State Farm commercial that what I would instead of having to create an opening illustration, I would just allow you to watch this commercial for your viewing pleasure. (Commercial shown here.) As you can see, not everybody makes a great motivational speaker, especially if his name is Pinocchio. As we continue our study in the book of Philippians today, we will see that the apostle Paul was not only a good pastor, but really he was quite the motivational leader because he was able to paint a picture of reality of life with Jesus, what it could look like, and then spur people on toward that goal. We have been going through this series called Philippians and going through the book of Philippians. We talked about several times that the book of Philippians is actually a letter that was written by the apostle Paul to the church that he planted in the city of Philippi.

As we know, last week was Easter and I thought I was going to have to take a break from the Philippian study to focus on a gospel passage that dealt with the resurrection. But fortunately, the timing was perfect because the Philippian passage that was due that particular week happened to fit right in with the resurrection passage. So we are right on target to finish the series about May 10. What I did last week was look at two passages that dealt with the resurrection. The first one being from the gospel of Luke that pretty much detailed the complete story of the events of resurrection morning. Then I coupled that with a passage from Philippians that spoke not so much about the resurrection but a man named Paul who didn’t just want to know the resurrection as a series of events but wanted to embrace the resurrection as a reality in his life. He goes on to say in Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.” This was the key passage last week. What I talked about was the idea that when Paul says he wants to know Christ, he didn’t just want to know him on an informational level by reading about him. He wanted to really know him on an experiential level, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, what some scholars suggest is that Paul had such an intense desire to know Christ that he actually wanted to feel the pain that Christ felt as the nails were driven into his hands and feet on the cross. My point being last week is that we should seek to know Christ in that sort of a way. We should seek out the power of the resurrection even though that resurrection power often comes alongside with sufferings. I mentioned how the daily sufferings that we experience just by living in a fallen, broken world, as well as the sufferings that we experience by being followers of Christ are part of the process. By experiencing those sufferings, we fellowship in some mysterious way with Christ’s sufferings and then we are able to actually experience the full power of the resurrection within our lives.

This passage makes it clear that Paul had an incredible passion to know Christ. I mentioned how, next to Jesus, Paul was probably the most popular person in the New Testament if not the entire Bible and probably one of the most quoted persons. He wasn’t just quoted because he wrote half the New Testament but really again I think the appeal towards Paul is because he had this intense desire to know Jesus Christ in a very real, very experiential way. I have been a Christian for about 30 years and, to be honest with you, I have known a lot of Christians, but I have never known anyone that had the passion for Christ as Paul did. In fact, speaking for myself, to reflect on this passage in particular is really to realize how I am in some sense a slacker when it comes to spirituality or the love of Jesus Christ. I imagine that there were people in the church in Philippi that, when they received this letter, were kind of feeling the same way. The apostle Paul was some sort of a super saint and there was no way they could ever measure up to that status. They could never know Christ the way that Paul knew Christ. Paul seems to address this. He seems to know that they have been thinking this because he goes on to say “I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me.” This is The Message version. It shatters this idea that Paul is some sort of a super saint. Paul knew himself and obviously he knew God, he knew Christ. So he knew that in his life, he would never really know Christ as fully as Christ could be known because, for one, our minds are not capable of comprehending Christ. The second thing is that we have this thing in our life called sin that really keeps us from really ever fully knowing Christ in this world. In fact, Paul speaks about this in one of his earlier letters in 1 Corinthians where he writes “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Paul again implies here that there is only a partial understanding of Jesus Christ, but that does not deter him from wanting to press on to seek as much knowledge of Christ as he can in this world.