Experiencing the Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ

"Philippians 3:7-10 and particularly verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings becoming like him in his death and last time we focused on no the power of his resurrection this that is a purpose or a result of something here and I suggested that these fourfold I counted as loss everything I count everything as loss I have suffered the loss of all things I count them as rubbish those four acts of Paul to reckon all the things that he had just meant in verses 3 through six were his which were his religious pedigree his Zeal and his righteousness in the law all these he counts as nothing in order that he might gain Christ in because of the surpassing worth of no knowing Christ so gaining Christ and is part of that having a deep sweet precious uh experiential knowledge of Christ and in that knowledge and in that gaining have a righteousness not his own but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God all of that experience there is so that and he's returning with this no here to this no here it is of supreme value to have an experiential knowing relationship with Jesus and therefore oh that I might know him that I may know him and then he shows how experiential this knowing is by saying it's a knowing of an experience of his power it's a knowing of the experience of his sufferings and that's where we are today that I may know him that's the first direct object of know second direct object power third direct object of know sharing or partnership or Fellowship could be translated coia can be translated all those ways I want to be a part of what he walked I won't know him as I ought to know him if I don't share his sufferings and I think this belongs with the sharing if I can share his sufferings I would become like him in his death because his sufferings were the Prelude to his particular kind of death now let's look at just a few other passages that will shed light on this and I think the key one is to stay in Philippians and and look at 2 5-8 as the key one but I want to go outside Philippians and then end with this one right here so let's start with Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified crucified with Christ so already in a in an identification with Christ in his sufferings I have entered into them spiritually and I am counted as dead in the eyes of God to sin I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith and the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me then in 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul says I protest Brothers by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our lord I die every day in other words he is being conformed form Med to the death of Christ as he suffers and denies himself every day and you you can see the roots of this in Jesus words can't you in Luke 9 22 to 24 Jesus said the son of man must suffer many things that's the destiny of the son of man Jesus and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed there's the death and on the third day rise and then he he applied it to his disciples if anyone would come after me on this road let him deny himself and take up his cross a cross is a place of execution to take up your cross is to die and to take it up daily is virtually what Paul said here I die every day I take I get up in the morning and I reckon myself Dead with Christ crucified with him and then I look at his cross and I resolve I am willing to die die to myself die to ease die to my situation that I might serve Christ so I think that statement comes from this one Jesus saying you got to take up your cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it and then here is another startling parallel 2 Corinthians 4 we are afflicted in every way but not crushed perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed these are these are sharing in Christ's sufferings Afflicted crushed persecuted struck down always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so this is being conformed to his death all these hardships are like experiencing with him his death day by day the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies for we who live are always being given over to death now that probably means I run the risk of being killed over and over again for jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh so death is at work in us but life in you so we're given over to death every day as we carry in our body the death as we take on all these kinds of different dangers and sufferings and as we experience this life is coming to you through our sacrificial service Romans 8: 16 applies it to all of us the spirit himself Bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then HS HS of God and fellow HS with Christ provided we suffer with him so there's the sharing in the sufferings of Christ for all of us in order that we may be glorified with him in other words even I don't I don't think this means that every one has to be persecuted the same way Paul does it does mean that whatever we experience in this life by way of hardship we must experience it with him rather than turning on him and shaking our fist in his face we stand with him and we receive it from him and we endure it by faith in his mercy and power and then here comes the final text that I said was most important so now we're let me go back and make sure we're seeing what we're seeing I want to know him this is the great Passion because because of the surpassing worth of of knowing Christ Jesus so I want to know I want to know him I want to know him in the power of his resurrection and I want to know him by crawling inside his experience of suffering and becoming like him in his death and over here the previous chapter this most important passage he says to us Believers and surely says it to himself have this mindset among yourselves have this mind in your own heart and mind be conformed to this mind what mind the mind of Jesus Jesus doing what suffering and dying this mind is yours in Christ Jesus who and here's the description of the mindset that we are to be conformed to and adapt our minds to though he was in the form of God now the reason I put the Greek here and here is because over here let's see there it is so here's verse 10 of chapter 3 spaced out that I may know him the power of his resurrection the sharing of his sufferings becoming like him now that's the Greek word being conformed to him in his death and you see the the word morph right there morph conformed to and I think Paul would not fail to realize that he has used this phrase this morph word here in this particular passage which describes the Conformity to the death of Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a servant so this this servanthood is going to Define his suffering and death being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death that's Conformity to the death of Jesus to become obedient as a servant to the point of death even the worst of deaths so I think this probably right here defines most clearly what Paul means when he says I want to be like him in his death I want to be conformed to him in his death that is I want to have the mind of Christ described in two 5 through 8 which includes the sharing in his sufferings that's how we get to know Jesus most deeply when we are willing to take on ourselves whatever hardships are required for obedience and for service that's where we taste most deeply this this surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" [00:00:09]