{"id":293,"date":"2014-03-16T22:57:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T21:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2014-03-16T22:57:59","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T21:57:59","slug":"all-i-want-is-to-know-christ-philippians-31-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=293","title":{"rendered":"All I want is to know Christ Philippians 3:1-15"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you want most out of life?
\nBig house? Nice car? The latest iPhone or iPad?
\nTo be happy?
\nTo be successful?
\nTo be safe and healthy<\/p>\n

The apostle Paul had very different desires and ambitions.
\nPhilippians 3 10 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, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
\n10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, 11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life. (Good News)
\nALL I WANT is to know Christ <\/p>\n

Paul was writing towards the end of his life under house arrest in Rome. But knowing Christ had been his one and only goal since that day when he encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. From that day forward Paul had been excited about Jesus. He had been passionate about Jesus. Paul was fanatical about Jesus!<\/p>\n

Because Paul had discovered how wonderful and marvellous and exciting Jesus is!
\nJesus Christ \u2013 Son of God \u2013 Immanuel, God with us.
\nJesus \u2013 crucified for our sins, so that we could be forgiven
\nJesus Christ \u2013 risen from the dead!
\nJesus Christ \u2013 King of Kings and LORD of LORDS
\nJesus the returning King \u2013 one day EVERY knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
\nNo wonder Paul was passionate about Jesus. Paul was fanatical about Jesus! Because Jesus was worth it! Knowing Jesus was the only thing in life worth bothering about.
\nHaving a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
\nExperiencing the power of Christ\u2019s resurrection in our lives
\nEven becoming like Christ in His death was worth it! Sharing Jesus\u2019s sufferings was worth it! For the incredible blessings of knowing Jesus.
\nThe Psalmist prayed: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1). The greatest desire of a true Christian is to know God. Every other desire pales in significance to this one.
\nJesus is so important and precious that knowing him is more important than anything else in life. Because of how great and wonderful Jesus is!!!!<\/p>\n

Jesus IS SO GREAT:-
\nEverything else is rubbish<\/p>\n

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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 \u2026. 10 All I want is to know Christ<\/p>\n

Some people seem to have it all! A Jew called Saul was one of them. Faultless pedigree, first rate education, a top job with all the prestige and power that brings, and all the privileges that money could buy. But then Saul\u2019s life was turned upside down on the day when Jesus Christ appeared to him on the Damascus Road, and Saul the persecutor became Paul the apostle. So Paul gave up all his privileges, because knowing Jesus is SO MUCH MORE valuable than anything else we could aim at and strive for.<\/p>\n

There are so many things that people work hard for in life and strive for in life. <\/p>\n

Careers, Family, Hobbies, sports, pastimes<\/p>\n

All these, says the apostle Paul, are worth NOTHING compared to knowing Jesus Christ. Yes, they are important, they demand our time and efforts, but compared to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, all these things we may work for and take pleasure in are worth NOTHING.
\nMESSAGE: Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant .. I\u2019ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. \u2026. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself.
\nPaul gave up everything to know Christ. So what have WE given up so that we can know Jesus better?
\nAround 250 years ago, two young Moravian men heard of an island in the West Indies which was owned by one plantation master. He was a violent man who treated his slaves with complete contempt. He would not allow them to know anything about Christian things and no missionaries were allowed to come and work among the slaves. God gave these two young Moravian men a burden for this group of people who would never hear about the love of Jesus. So they sold themselves into slavery to that plantation master. They used the money they received for their own lives to pay for their boat passage to get to the island. They gave up their lives to go and live among that community of slaves and bring them the gospel.<\/p>\n

Their families came to the docks to farewell them, knowing it was highly doubtful they would ever see them again. Their mothers were crying on the shore as the ship pulled out of the harbour. The last words ever heard from them came from one of the young men shouting from the ship\u2019s deck: \u201cMay the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.\u201d That became the rallying call of that small Moravian community. They sent out a total of 2,158 missionaries all over the world. Jesus had died for people who would never hear the gospel unless someone went to tell them.<\/p>\n

When we hear stories like that of those two young men, we may be tempted to think \u201cThat\u2019s not NORMAL! Selling yourself into slavery? Leaving everything behind, even family. That is not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what IS the \u201cNORMAL\u201d Christian life? According to the Bible, according to the example of the Early Church, according to the apostle Paul here in Philippians 3, the normal Christian life is one of FULL DEVOTION to Jesus Christ. Total Commitment. Anything less than TOTAL devotion to Christ is SUB-normal. Not what Jesus intends. Jesus Himself said: \u201cIf anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up ALL rights to himself, take up his cross and follow me.\u201d (Mark 8:34 \u2013 J.B. Phillips)<\/p>\n

Giving up all rights. Throwing everything else away. Follow him. Being Fanatical about knowing Jesus.That is the NORMAL Christian life. Total commitment, full devotion to Jesus Christ.
\nAgain Jesus said in Luke 14:33, 33 Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. <\/p>\n

Missionaries in later generations also give us challenging and inspiring examples of self-sacrifice. C.T. Studd was born in 1860. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and also a world-class cricketer. He was saved under the preaching of evangelist D.L.Moody, and at age of 25 C.T.Studd went to China as a missionary, one of the \u201cCambridge Seven\u201d.
\nHe inherited a vast fortune and gave it all away to Christian work and went to be a missionary in India but had to return to England due to illness. Back home Studd went along to a meeting entitled, \u201cCannibals need missionaries\u201d and against the advice of his doctors, he went out and worked in central Africa until he died aged 71. <\/p>\n

C.T.Studd once said “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”<\/p>\n

One of his fellow missionaries said about him: “C. T.’s life stands as a sign to all succeeding generations that it is worthwhile to lose all this world can offer and stake everything on the world to come. His life will be an eternal rebuke to easy-going Christianity. He has demonstrated what it means to follow Christ without counting the cost and without looking back.”
\n1.\tA Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus COUNTS ALL THINGS \u201cLOSS\u201d.
\n2.\tA Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus HAS A PASSION TO KNOW CHRIST.
\n3.\tA Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus IS PREPARED TO PAY THE PRICE.
\n4.\tA Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus LIVES A NEW LIFE.
\nA simple illustration: a businessman was selling a warehouse he owned. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, the businessman promised that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out all the rubbish. But the buyer said: “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I\u2019m going to build something completely different. I don\u2019t want the building; I want the site.” <\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t come into our lives and rescue us because He likes the buildings we have build of our lives. He wants the site. He wanted US, so He can build an entirely NEW building. Something beautiful. Something we could NEVER have built. Something in the image of Christ. If we are trying to improve our lives so that God will accept us are like people tidying up a warehouse that is destined to be demolished. That\u2019s pointless!
\n\u201cI gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally,\u201d says Paul
\n5. A Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus SEES LIFE AS A RACE TO BE RUN TO THE FINISH. Throughout His life to the very end, the apostle Paul was <\/p>\n

Focussed on the goal<\/p>\n

We need to make knowing Christ and running the Christian race our top priority
\n12 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. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
\nIt is a sign of Christian maturity not that we put our feet up and wait for heaven but that that we \u201cforget what was behind, strain towards what is ahead and press on\u201d.
\nMESSAGE : By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I\u2019ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward\u2014to Jesus. I\u2019m off and running, and I\u2019m not turning back. So let\u2019s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision\u2014you\u2019ll see it yet! Now that we\u2019re on the right track, let\u2019s stay on it.
\nFocussed on the goal \u2013 which is Jesus \u2013 knowing Jesus.
\nHear again what Paul is saying. We should be:-
\n\u201cpressing on\u201d (endurance)
\n\u201creaching out\u201d (focussed on the future)
\n\u201cforgetting the past\u201d – forgetting the bad AND the good!
\n\u201cmoving forward\u201d (progress)
\nTHIS IS CHRISTIAN MATURITY. Maturity as a believer is not measured by how much you already know – it\u2019s measured by the passion with which you are committed to moving on to know Christ better, to see Him more clearly, love Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly, day by day.
\nGrowing in Christian maturity:
\n Growing in our relationship with God
\nGrowing in knowledge and understanding
\nGrowing in witness and service
\nGrowing in the image of Christ
\nGrowing by deeper fellowship
\nGrowing in victory
\nGrowing in passion
\nWhat do you want most in life? Most of spend our lives multitasking \u2013 chasing a number of things at one. Career. Family. Success. Popularity. Comfort.
\nOne thing I do (v13) \u2013 all I want (v10) \u2013 in contrast to multitasking \u2013 chasing lots of different things at once. The apostle Paul was single minded. \u201cOne thing I want\u201d he said. ALL I want \u2013 the only thing I want \u2013 is to know Jesus.
\nWe happened to be visiting Florida in 2008 when revival broke out for a short while at Ignited Church in Lakeland. From that church, revival spread out across the world particularly in signs and wonders, miracles of healing and deliverance. One sentence from that evening is particularly appropriate: a simple truth:-
\n\u201cA FANATIC IS ONLY A PERSON WHO LOVES GOD MORE THAN YOU DO\u201d
\nThe apostle Paul was a fanatic. We may have friends who think we are fanatics. I certainly had colleagues who couldn\u2019t understand why I walked away from a very successful and promising teaching career to become a Baptist Minister. God calls us all to be fanatical about Jesus \u2013 because He\u2019s worth it! By comparison, everything else is just rubbish.
\nThe Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot who was martyred by the South American Auca Indians, Jin Elliott once said,
\n \u201cThat man is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose!\u201d
\n10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, 11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life. (Good News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you want most out of life? Big house? Nice car? The latest iPhone or iPad? To be happy? To be successful? To…<\/span><\/p>\n

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