To know Christ

 

LIMAVADY BAPTIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2024 – PASTOR JOHN TAYLOR

Philippians 3 verses 1 – 14

One commentator on this book has said “it is an open window in to the apostles very heart.”  Within this letter we see how much this church meant to Paul.  He had a great love for them. He enjoyed their fellowship in the gospel.  Paul saw his relationship with them as a partnership.  They had helped him financially and great blessing resulted.  The Philippian church was founded in Acts 16.  It all began during Paul’s second missionary journey.  He had visited a number of churches and encouraged them in the Lord.  Paul however was not permitted to go into Asia.  He arrived at Troas and heard that great Macedonian call “come over and help us.”  Paul responded and visited that Roman colony and there God blessed his ministry.  God was working behind the scenes long before this time.  At a meeting outside the city Lydia attended a prayer meeting and was converted.  She and her whole household responded to the gospel message.  Her home became the base for the Philippian church.  All of this happened simply because the Lord opened the heart of one woman.  One household was committed to Christ.  One home became the basis for that little church in Philippi.  Never underestimate what God can do through one persons life, in any family, in any individual church.  Never underestimate your life as an individual.  You might say “I don’t have these gifts.”  If you are prepared to give yourself to Christ there is no telling what he can do in your life.   In verse 10 Paul sets out his heartfelt desire for his life.  That every single one of us should have.  He is speaking about Christ – “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.”  An important part of the Christian life and journey is fellowship.  That is why we meet together in the local church, in prayer and bible study.   Through knowing fellowship in any church we should also know the fellowship we can enjoy in our relationship in Christ.  There are 4 things about this verse and Paul’s heart.

 

A personal dimension – “that I may know him”.  Paul already knew the Lord as his Saviour.  Jesus’ love for him gave him his motive for his ministry, kept him going when things were difficult.  Paul’s account of how he came to know Christ is recorded several times in Acts.  On the road to Damascus he was converted to the Lord and the risen Christ – “that I may know him”.  Has he lost the assurance of his salvation?  Some people do the same.  Some haven’t walked with Christ as should have done.  If you put your faith in Christ all those years ago maybe you are wondering why you are doubting.  Plead Calvary!  Don’t doubt your standing in grace.  Paul didn’t do that.  “That I may know him.”  Do you know Christ personally?  Paul wanted to come to know him more and more.  Paul said previously “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Paul knew, loved and served Christ.  There is a desire in his heart even though Christ was pre-eminent in every area of his life – “that I may come to know him by experience.”  He wanted his relationship with Christ to deepen, for spiritual growth to develop, for his relationship to be more meaningful as every day passed.  Do you know Christ in a personal way?  Have you ever repented of your sin and come before him, bowed the knee and said “Jesus Christ I take you as my Saviour today?”  You are missing out on the most wonderful experience anyone could ever know.   In verse 7 Paul said in order to achieve this he was willing and prepared to give up everything for Jesus Christ.  I am sure if you love the Saviour, enjoy an intimate relationship with him that you would love to know more about him.  Paul is encouraging you today to keep on going.  Keep on growing.  Don’t become stale.  Strive for a closer intimacy in your walk with Christ.  You might be asking “how do I do that?”  How do you get to know anyone?  You take time with them, you listen to them and you share with them.  In all those ways your relationship with that person becomes real, more meaningful.  With Jesus it is the same.  You need to spend time listening to his word and then in obedience follow it through.  Surely our pressures and problems today will draw us back to God more and more.  It is good to come to him and tell him, to ask him for more grace.  Grow to know God.  Grow to love him and you will reap great benefits in your life.  To deepen our faith he will bring us into a personal intimacy.

 

A powerful dimension – “and the power of his resurrection.”  Paul is not just saying I want to know him more powerfully in my whole life but I want to experience more and more of the power of the risen Christ in my life  That power was the resurrection power.  We have just come through Easter when we were thinking of the death of the Lord.  Chris died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried on the third day.  He rose again from the dead.  He is alive and alive for ever more  We can know him personally and intimately.  You can know the power of the risen Christ in your life day after day.  The power to live above sin.  That is what Paul wanted in his service.  To transform him, to make him more like Christ.  We all have our weaknesses.  That is what I need.  More power to live my life in a way that has a more meaningful impact on my family and in the world I live in.  Paul knew something of the power of Christ – “it is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.”  What I need is more of the power of the risen Christ every day.  To live above sin.  To cope with all the temptations that life brings.  Not just going through the motions of life but to do it from the depth of my heart.  We need that in our lives, in our land and in our world.  We need that power in the pulpit and the pew.  Powerful living for witnessing, for serving.  That will only come when we lean to personally cultivate personal intimacy with Christ.  C H Spurgeon said if he had only one prayer in his life it was this “Lord send into thy church men filled with the Holy Ghost and with power.”

 

A painful dimension – “and the fellowship of his sufferings”.  To grow as a Christian, to seek that place of intimacy will never be achieved without pain and without difficulty.  You and I need to be under no illusion.  The Greek scholar said that the word “fellowship” means a joint participation in something.  Paul does not say he wants a share in the substitutionary sufferings of Christ on the cross because he would never understand what it meant for God the holy one to bear away our sin. Paul is talking about suffering here on earth for righteousness sake.  If every day Christians were called to rise up and suffer for Christ surely it would cost so much more.  It costs greatly to stand out for Christ in the face of discouragement.  In a day when the bible is being turned on its head to suit every whim. there comes a time when you have to stand on what the word of God says.  That will not be without its difficulty.  For Paul it cost him greatly to suffer – he was beaten to the point of death, shipwrecked, imprisoned for his faith. But what did he say?  “I count it an honour to suffer for Christ’s sake.”  Imagine saying that.  Sometimes we don’t understand what it means to suffer and sacrifice for the gospel.  To become uncomfortable in our lives and lifestyles.  We don’t know today what others come through for the sake of Christ.  Paul says “don’t become too comfortable that you lose sight of him.”  Many around the world are being asked to suffer for Christ.  Many Christians across our world are suffering today.  Churches are being burned, believers tortured and killed because of faith in Christ.  If you and I are going to take a stand for the word of God and the fundamentals of faith it will cost us.  Paul was willing to do that.  “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.” (C T Studd)

 

A practical dimension – “being made conformable unto his death.”  Paul wanted to get to the place where he would die to self and sin.  He wanted to get to the place in his experience of Jesus Christ that he would empty himself of everything that would hinder him.  His desire is for Christlikeness.  Conforming to Christ.  We ought to desire more and more of Christ.  That is the very reason why God has saved us.  The goal of the Christian life is true Christlikeness, a great conformity to Christ.  That would solve many of the problems today.  If we were to pray “let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me” what a difference it would make in this world.  Robert Murray McCheyne lived his life so much that people knew he was in the presence of Christ.  Such was his daily fellowship with Christ that he brought a great likeness of Christ wherever he went.  He said “it is not great talents that God blesses so much as a great likeness to Christ.”  Paul says of him “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.”  Get to know him.  Grow to love him.  Serve him whatever the cost.  Pray daily that you would become more like him.