2021-08-22 – Philippians 3:1-11 – My Goal is to Know Him

2021-08-22 – Philippians 3:1-11 – My Goal is to Know Him

Good morning everyone. It is so nice to be able to spend some time with you all in fellowship with the Lord. Thank you and God bless you for being with us today.

I just love that we start our morning’s worship services with a few hymn songs and prayer. The second song we sang today was On a Hill Far Away, otherwise known as The Old Rugged Cross. It was written by a man named George Bennard in 1913. He said it was given to him by God over a period of several weeks. He was from the town of Albia, Iowa (just 156 miles west of here). He served with the Salvation Army in Iowa for several years before he was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church. When he composed this beautiful song, he was contemplating the meaning of the cross, and was inspired while meditating on John 3:16 and John 19:17 which reads, “and carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha”. I have seen that hill Golgotha and I have prayed to Jesus there. Like George Bennard, when I contemplate all what Jesus did for me some 2000 years ago, it makes me want to know Him even more. That is the goal of our message today. Again, I thank you for your company and your fellowship.

Please turn with me now to Philippians 3:1, page 1041 in your pew Bibles, which we call God’s Inspired, Infallible and Living Word.   Prayer..

To catch you up to where we are in today’s passages, you should know that the Apostle Paul, who was being held in prison, wrote this letter-book to the church he started several years prior in the city of Philippi, Greece. In the last chapter we read where Paul had commended and commissioned two of his most trusted servant-leaders, Timothy and Epaphroditus to go back to Philippi to get and give a report as to their status. Paul appreciated very much the care that the Philippians had rendered to him during his missionary trials. So let us now see how Paul starts out this next chapter 3 of his letter. Starting at verse 1 he wrote:

1 In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you.2 Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh— 

In this first section of text, we can surmise that some people were infecting the church of Philippi. Paul called them dogs because they were causing problems and disunity in the church body. They were trying to enforce that all the Christian men were to get circumcised. That “requirement” came from the Old Testament Jewish law that is no longer part of the new covenant contract we have with God through Jesus Christ. Even today there are those that advocate that in order to be a true Christian, you must perform some act or do some additional ritual. As Paul points out here, that is hypocrisy brothers and sisters. You see, anything that is added to the “requirements for salvation” other than simply accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior is wrong. For by adding other “requirements” like circumcision, effectively it means that you believe that Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection isn’t good enough to save you. Regarding circumcision, Paul wrote about that more in the book of Romans. In Romans 2:29 it says, “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God”. So, when Paul says in our verses today “we are the circumcision”, he is inferring that although the Jews were circumcised in the flesh, we are circumcised in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and that is much better.

As a born-again Christian in a Baptist church, we have a lot of general practices that is for sure, but don’t confuse those practices with requirements for salvation. So even though it may be a good practice to tithe, it isn’t a requirement for salvation. Even though it may be a good practice to get baptized, it isn’t a requirement for salvation. Even though it may be a good practice to even come to church, it isn’t a requirement of salvation. Are you getting this. The only thing that is required so a person can be saved, is that they except the saving grace of Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, nothing else.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He also said in John 3:16 “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. He didn’t say do this or that and believe, He said that when we need simply choose to believe, then  we  will  be  saved.

However, I feel it also prudent council to say that if you truly did believe and accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, then you will naturally want to start doing the things that He did. You will want to start getting to know Him better, and you will want then to do the things that our Owner’s Manual (being the Bible) says that pleases the Lord for us to do. Not as a requirement, but because you simply appreciate so much what Jesus did for you, that He saved you from an eternity in hell, so then out of sheer gratitude and love you will learn to want to do them. Are you with me on this?

Paul continues at verse 4. He writes:

4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

If you haven’t read Paul’s extensive resume throughout the New Testament, let this be just an introduction to all his credentials. Paul was an amazing Hebrew of Hebrews and accomplished Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul was training up with the best of the self-proclaimed righteous men to become the eventual High Priest of the Hebrew Nation. He was on fire for the causes of the what he thought was righteousness as defined by the legal and religious authorities of his day. They thought that “The Way” or the followers of Jesus were purely heretical, and Paul was going out and even dragging Christians from their homes so they persecute them and put an end to what they thought was heresy and blasphemy against Yahweh God. But then, after Jesus had ascended back into heaven, Jesus called out Saul of Tarsus, and appointed Saul to become His apostle to the nations. And that’s when Paul realized how wrong he had been. All that he had previously thought and did for righteousness was actually going against God’s will. That’s when Paul turned his life around and became the most ardent of evangelists.
I will easily argue, that if God can even use a man like Paul, then he surely can use you and I as well. Paul continues that thought now starting at verse seven:

7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

I hope you can see here, that Paul clearly counts all his prior accomplishments, all his credentials, all his lineage, all his work, all his rights, all his education and experiences prior to finding the Christ-Messiah as nothing compared to what he now enjoyed and valued in his relationship with Jesus Christ. In some ways, I could argue that Paul was even embarrassed to some degree of his former self.

This reminds me of the many times through the years that I tried to build-up my own prideful self-image, and maybe even at the expense of others. Paul is being very transparent here with the hope of causing others to change their ways.
He wants us to recognize that as Christians, all we are, and all that truly matters, is because of Jesus and not that of ourselves. He wants us to learn from his mistakes in this regard. What do they say, “Pride goes before the fall”. That is actually a proverb coined by the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon. In Proverbs 16:18 is written, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”. We should learn to become more of a humble servant like Paul and like Jesus, and in that God will be pleased. Paul concludes this section of verses starting at verse 10..

10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

I just love that first statement, “My goal is to know him”. As a Christ follower, that is truly a great life goal. And Paul knows what the value of his resurrection means: It will mean everlasting fellowship with Jesus in a new body, on a new earth, without sin, sorrow or pain, and filled with joy. So, he is eager to even walk the very same path that led Christ to the cross—a path even of suffering with Jesus in that resurrection. Paul knows that being with Jesus in the end will be worth any price of suffering we might experience in the here and now.

Like Paul wrote here, I now heartily now echo, that it is “My Goal is to Know Him”

I love Him so much that I want to read about Him in scripture; I love Him so much that I want to Pray to Him throughout my day; And I love Him so much that I want to do the things that He does, and even suffer for Him if necessary. What Jesus did on that cross for me, I can never be repay. I hope you feel the same way. This Christian life you have chosen to join up with is real brothers and sisters. Like Paul, and like me, it will even change your heart if you let it. It will cause you to want to become a better man or woman then you can even imagine. I pray that you want that. That you want to become a better person. That you want to be a humble servant for Jesus Christ. And that you want to truly get to know Jesus. I promise you, that it will be worth it.

And that takes us back to that song I spoke about at the start. The Old Rugged Cross. The refrain goes like this

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown

The takeaway today, I would suggest, is that we lay down our trophies. That we put away our prideful ways, that we get to know all we can about Jesus. And then we help others to know Him and what He did for us that causes us to now Praise His Holy Name, Amen?

Like Paul, when I compare what little I have gained or accomplished on my own compared to that of Christ, well let’s just say that there is no real comparison at all.

Would you please stand now and let us close together in prayer.