Knowing Christ

A group of friends went deer hunting. They paired off in 2’s for the day. That night 1 hunter returned alone, staggering under a 12-point buck. “Where’s Harry?” his friends asked. “Harry’s a couple of miles back up the trail. He had a stroke.” “You carried the deer back & left Harry laying there???” “Yes!” said the hunter. “They might steal my deer. But no one’s gonna’ steal Harry.” That hunter focused on one thing, his greatest priority. He chose not to remember anything else. In our verses, Paul says we should also focus on our greatest priority. Knowing Jesus. Prior to our verses, Paul listed his human assets. 100% Jewish lineage in the highly regarded tribe, Benjamin. “Harvard” education under Gamaliel. He was a Pharisee. Only Pharisees obeyed The Law & all 3000+ laws in the Mishnah (tradition). Paul’s obedience to The Law was flawless. His zeal for the Lord? Unparalleled. A rising superstar in Jewish religion, the high priest authorized him to persecute Christians. Paul represented the best of Jewishness. Lineage, education, religion, & zeal. It had all led him away from Christ. Not to Him. Then, on the road to Damascus, Paul met Christ. Now, he assesses all those assets in Php 3:7. His conclusion? 7Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Consider is perfect tense. His past decision is for the rest of his life. Why? Those good things hadn’t led Paul toward Jesus. They led him away from Christ. He’s now all in for Jesus. Our message? Look back at all the good things in our life. Our lineage. Education. Accomplishments. Our zeal for the Lord. What led us toward Christ? What led us away from Christ? What’s our assessment? What should we do? That’s where Php 3:8-14 picks up. 8aWhat’s more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Present tense, ongoing. This is Paul’s focus going forward. Every worldly accomplishment. Every worldly reason to be proud. No matter how good it is, it won’t lead to Christ. It’s worse than worthless! It’s no asset. It’s loss. Why’s knowing Christ so important? Jesus told us in Jn 17:3. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, & Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Knowing Christ is knowing God. Look at what Paul says is surpassing greatness. Knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. It’s personal. Jesus is Paul’s Lord. If we want eternal life, He’s our Lord, too. And that’s why knowing Him should be our surpassing greatness, too. our one thing. From here forward? 8bFor Christ’s sake I’ve lost all things. Keep our eyes on Him. In comparison to Him, even good things fall way short. Christ alone can lead us to Himself. And when He leads us to Himself, He leads us home. All else leads us away. Paul once counted his many assets as to his profit. By flawless religious obedience, he thought he’d gained salvation. Going forward? 8cI consider all those things crap, that I may gain Christ 9a& be found in him. The point? I no longer have 9ba righteousness of my own that comes from the law. My only righteousness 9cis through faith in Christ. Not by religious works. In all world history, to date religious works have saved no one. Instead, we are united with Christ. In Christ, His faith becomes ours. We gain even more. 9dMy righteousness comes from God & is by faith. By faith, in our union with Christ (God) we also gain His righteousness. 10aI want to know Christ & the power of his resurrection. Know Christ = eternal life. We get that. Why the power of His resurrection? The power that resurrected Jesus was the power that healed everyone who came to Him. Resurrection power stilled the wind & waves. Resurrection power brought Lazarus back to life, along with every other dead person Jesus met in the gospels. 10aI want to know… 10bthe fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. If we want to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection, we’re going to share in His sufferings. Jesus used that power in His ministry. Look how He was received. Will we fare better? No. Why? People we help may be glad. The prince of this world won’t. He’ll see Mt 11:12. The KoH is forcefully advancing. In power ministry, we’ve attached the enemy. It’s war. He’ll retaliate. Paul’s next sobers us. I want to 10cbecome like him in his death. Why? Christ lived a perfect life. And so His Father raised Him as 1stfruit of the resurrection. He sits at the Father’s right hand. What does Paul hope to gain by becoming like Him in His death? 11Somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Being raised to glory. Isn’t that what we want, too? Sounds like Paul isn’t sure he’s saved. Even more troubling, sounds like he thinks he has to attain resurrection. To work for it! And he seems to confirm it in v. 12. 12aNot that I’ve already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect. Paul! Author of much of our NT. If Paul isn’t sure, how can we be sure? Why isn’t he sure? Does he really think he has to work at it? If so, doing what? Besides, isn’t salvation by grace through faith? Isn’t that what Paul wrote in Eph 2:8-10? Let’s look. He clarifies what he means, there. Yes, we’re saved by grace thru faith. But we’re saved to do the good works he’s talking about here. Doing all that Jesus did and more, as we share in Jesus’ works. Sharing in the resurrection power He uses to heal others, to free them & bring them into the Kingdom. Sharing in Christ’s suffering as the enemy counterattacks. Becoming like Jesus in His life, His ministry, & His death. Doing His good works, with Him. He’s already prepared the good works in advance for us. We just have to do them! This is what Paul is saying we’ll all have to strive to do. This is the paradox of being saved by faith. Saving us is all God’s work. And for our prize we have to work harder than we’ve ever worked at anything. Paul summarizes it this way. 12bI press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Jesus takes hold of us at the moment of salvation. In the end, it’s up to Him to hold onto us. Yet we have to work as hard as we can as if it were all up to us! Really? 13aBrothers, I don’t consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 13bOne thing I do. Focus on that one thing: eternal life getting to know Christ better. 13cI keep forgetting what’s behind & keep straining toward what’s ahead. Eyes on the prize. Straining for the finish line. We each have our own lane. Our own course. Our own life-marathon. All we have to do is finish. 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Is anything holding us back from our prize—eternal life with Christ? Get rid of it. How much that we lug with us isn’t helping us toward our prize? Get rid of that, too. Try to drag too much with us, & we may not finish. By the way, what’s the prize? Our salvation? Our reward? Or something else? Paul’s answer in his illustration: a race from Greek games. To enter the games, you had to be a citizen. We run our race as citizens of the KoG. So, we aren’t running for salvation. The prize is our reward for our works. It’ll vary for each of us, but it’ll be good. To earn their reward, many Christians try to do everything. But the secret is to focus on “one thing.” This decision was a turning point in D.L. Moody’s life. Before the Chicago fire in 1871, he was involved in Sunday School, YMCA, evangelistic meetings, & many other activities. After the fire, Moody determined to devote himself to evangelism. “This one thing I do!” became his reality. As a result, millions of people heard the Gospel. What’s the one thing Christ has for us? As we learn to focus on it, are we willing to forsake everything that doesn’t lead us into knowing Christ better & better? Are we willing to share in Christ’s sufferings? If we do, we’ll be blessed in a very unexpected way. In 1991, a fire raged through Oakland, CA. It destroyed a number of homes, including a preacher's home. It was totally destroyed. Most of his family's possessions burned to ashes. But one item survived intact. It was a small porcelain rabbit. Next Sunday, Preacher took it into the pulpit. He held it up & told his congregation that it alone survived the fire. Then he asked, “Why would this one item survive the flames?” He smiled and said, “Because it had already been through a fire once.” Let’s learn to run our race. Strive for the prize at the finish line. Count it all loss if it doesn’t lead to knowing Christ more deeply. And share in Christ’s suffering. As we do, we, too, will survive any fire.