Philippians
3:8-14 *
More than once I’ve gotten emails in my
inbox that have been a get-to-know-you survey. They have a bunch of questions
that you are supposed to fill out and send to everyone you know. I don’t know
if I’ve ever actually filled out one of them out, but I’ve seen enough of them
to remember one question that often shows up. The question is this: If you
could meet any historical figure, living or dead, who would it be? The idea is
that the person you choose says something about you.
I can think of all kinds of people that I
would like to know. You probably can, too. It would be interesting to sit down
with national leaders like George W. Bush or Abraham Lincoln. I would love to
meet Martin Luther. But I think the
people I would most like to know are biblical figures. And I think I’ve got it
narrowed down to just a handful: King David, the prophet Isaiah,
But if I had to pick just one person,
there is no doubt that I would want to meet Jesus. How wonderful it would be to
hear the sweet gospel message coming from his own
lips.
The apostle Paul says in our text for
today, “I want to know Jesus.” But I don’t think Paul had in mind just to meet
Jesus, or talk to him, or even get to know him. We want to find out what Paul
means here when he says “I want to know Jesus” because we want to know Jesus,
too. Especially during this Lenten season we want to know Jesus, as we watch
him go to the cross on our behalf.
As we look at the word of the Lord before
us, let us say with Paul,
I
WANT TO KNOW JESUS
I.
I want to know Jesus’ life
II. I want to know Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.
What does it mean to “know Jesus.”? Paul
says it a couple times in these verses. He talks about the “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (8) and even more plainly he says “I want to know Christ.” (10) First of all, the word Paul
uses helps us understand what he means. He uses a word for knowledge that means
more than just a head knowledge. He was talking about
more than just being acquainted with Jesus or knowing who he was. Paul wanted
to know Jesus by experiencing who he was, by being closely associated with him.
Paul helps us understand even more when
he uses a variety of different words to describe what he wants. In verse 8 he
says he wants to gain Christ. In
verse 9 he says he wants to be found in
him. Both of these show that what Paul wants is to be intimately associated
with Jesus Christ.
The first way Paul goes on to show that
he is connected with Christ is by knowing Jesus’ life.
Of course, what Paul starts out talking
about in verse 8 is not Jesus’ life, but his own life. He says “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.” (8) In the verses previous to our text Paul was warning
against people who placed their confidence in the flesh, in human achievement.
And Paul said that if anyone had reason do that it was him and he listed a
number of reasons why he could so boast.
“If anyone else thinks he has
reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law,
a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the
church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (4-6)
Paul’s life was, relatively speaking,
pretty good. He was born into the right family, he was a member of the right
group, he did the right things. He did all the things
that, at least in his mind and the minds of many of the people of the time, would bring great gain before other people and even
before God.
Yet listen again to how Paul speaks about
his life: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (8)
What was the difference between the old
Paul and the new Paul? The difference is “the
surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” On the road to
Damascus, on a trip that had the persecution of Christians the #1 agenda item,
Christ Jesus appeared to Paul and let him see his life for what it really was:
a loss, rubbish. Paul’s life wasn’t getting him closer to God,
it was driving him further away.
For Paul, knowing Jesus Christ meant
turning his attention from his own life, with its own prideful merits, and
turning to the life of Christ. “I
consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law...” (8-9)
Paul had tried to gain righteousness on
his own from the law—by doing the works of the law. But it didn’t work. It
didn’t work, not just because Paul was imperfect and weak, as though he just
didn’t try hard enough. Paul was a sinner from birth. From birth his entire
nature was God’s enemy. So even his attempts to win God’s
favor were sinful. As God says through Isaiah “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous
acts are like filthy rags.”(Isaiah
64:6)
For Paul, knowing Christ meant knowing,
that is, being closely connected with Jesus’ life. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 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.
Paul’s life was loss, rubbish because it
was sinful. Jesus’ life was great because it was perfect. But by faith, Jesus’
life became Paul’s life. Paul wanted to know Jesus because his life was
completely dependent upon Christ’s.
Do you want to know Jesus? I suspect you
do, judging by your presence here during the season of Lent. During Lent we
attempt to get to know Jesus. We’ve seen his life, how he was tempted by Satan,
how he was tempted in every way that we are, but without sin. We see the life
of Jesus, lived for people who have succumbed to nearly every temptation Jesus
faced. And yet, some of us, no, all of us have at times boasted (though maybe
not out loud) that our lives are actually pretty good. And during the season of
Lent our lives are revealed for what they really are—garbage, filthy, stinking
garbage. Yet during Lent we also learn to know Jesus. We learn to know his
life, his perfect life, and by faith claim his life as ours.
Paul then goes further in explaining what
it means to know Christ when he says he wants to know Christ’s suffering,
death, and resurrection. “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, ...” (10) Paul again uses a variety of ways of
saying he wants to know Jesus. He lists different things he wants to
know--different ways of being closely connected to Jesus. 1) the
power of his resurrection; 2) the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings; 3)
becoming like him in his death.
Perhaps we should start from the last one
and work our way back. Paul wanted to know Jesus by becoming like him in his
death. Paul wanted to know Jesus by dying with him. And he did. Paul wrote
to the Romans “For we know that our old
self was crucified with him” (Romans 6:6) and “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3) By faith in Christ Jesus, those who are
baptized into Christ, who know Christ, receive the life-giving benefits of
Christ’s death.
Paul wanted to know Jesus by knowing the fellowship of sharing
in his sufferings. Paul knew that followers of Jesus would also be on the
receiving end of the same hostility that Jesus received. In Paul’s life, that
showed itself in hostility from his own people, the Jews, and from the
Gentiles, the people to whom he was specifically sent, who rejected the
stumbling block and the foolishness of the message of Christ crucified. Paul
wanted to know Christ, and because he did, he joyfully accepted whatever
suffering came his way.
And finally, Paul wanted to know Jesus
by knowing the power of the resurrection. What is the power of the
resurrection? What was the resurrection of Jesus Christ able to effect for
Paul? The power of Jesus’ resurrection is Paul’s resurrection. Knowing Jesus
meant knowing that the goal of life is the resurrection.
So Paul states 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, and so, somehow, to attain to the
resurrection from the dead. This is by no means an uncertain statement, as
though Paul hoped that after all this, after wishing and hoping, somehow he might rise from the dead. Knowing Jesus
meant knowing that he, too, would
rise. The only thing uncertain was “how” it would happen.
Paul was not in heaven yet, and he did
not know how the rest of his life would turn out. Yet because he did know Jesus,
he could confidently press on to the goal, his own resurrection. “Not that I have already obtained all this,
or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for
which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus.” (12-14)
One week from today marks the beginning
of Holy Week, when we observe the most important events in all history —Jesus’
suffering, death, and resurrection. At
this time of year, more than any other, we might say “I want to know Jesus.” I
want to become like Jesus in his death, that is, I want his death to be the
death of my sinful nature. I don’t want what is dead (my sinful past) to haunt
me and burden my conscience anymore because it is forgiven. And I don’t want
what is dead (my sinful nature) to be a living part of me anymore. I don’t want
to give in to re-occurring temptations, as big or small as they may be. I want
to know Jesus. I want to share in his sufferings. If it be that hardship
comes my way because I know Jesus, so be it. I know that just as surely as Lent
will come to an end, as surely as Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday, I
also know the power of the resurrection. I know that after suffering comes glory; after death comes life.
I mentioned earlier that the apostle Paul
was one person I would enjoy getting to know. Perhaps I will get that chance
when we stand together in heaven. But short of that, my best chance to really
get to know Paul is right here in his letter to the Philippians. The letter is
full of auto-biographical material. How interesting, that in the section where
we are able to get to know Paul, what he tells us is that he would like to know
Jesus. May God grant that when people get to know us, when we talk to people
about our life—who we are and what we want—this same
thing is what they hear from us: I want to know Jesus.