Philippians 3:7-11

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

 

John Stott is a wonderful Christian writer and theologian.  He is also an avid birdwatcher. In his last book, Stott tells the story of the late Roger Tory Peterson, famous birdwatcher and artist.  In particular, he tells the story of how an encounter with a bird changed Roger Peterson’s life as a boy:

On a walk in the country at the age of eleven he spotted a flicker (a species of wood-pecker).  It appeared to be just a bundle of brown feathers, clinging to the trunk of an oak tree.

Gingerly I touched it on the back.  Instantly this inert thing jerked its head around, looked at me with startled eyes, then exploded in a flash of golden wings, and fled into the wood.  It was like a resurrection – what had appeared to be dead was very much alive…

Elsewhere Peterson described this as “the crucial moment of my life.”  “I was overwhelmed,” he continued, “by the contrast between something that was suddenly so vital and something I had taken for dead.”[1]

It occurs to me that some of you may find yourself in the same position in which Roger Peterson found himself at the age of eleven, when, out for a walk in the country, his life was forever changed.  Perhaps you have come this morning not knowing quite what to expect.  Perhaps some of you have come out of a sense of duty.  Perhaps you have come because you feel that it is expected of you.  Perhaps it is expected of you!  Perhaps subtle pressures have been administered to get you here.  Or maybe you were just passing by.

Either way, I suspect that some of you may view Jesus and the gospel of Jesus in the same way that Roger Peterson viewed this flicker.  Perhaps you have come – for whatever reason – to draw near, but, in reality, you have come to look at something that you think is a dead thing.  Maybe you even want to touch it, just to see.

If so, I want to caution you:  this Jesus is not dead after all.  In fact, when you draw near to touch Him, you will find that He is very much alive, and He will shock you with His vitality.

This Jesus did die.  He was, in fact, dead.  But when the women drew near to touch His dead body, they were shocked by the amazing beauty of resurrection.  In fact, for over two thousand years, believers in Christ have been shocked by the dazzling beauty of resurrection.  Or, to use Roger Peterson’s words, for over two thousand years, believers have been “overwhelmed by the contrast between something that is suddenly so vital and something [we] had taken for dead.”

My prayer for you this morning is that you, too, will be overwhelmed by the contrast between something that is suddenly so vital and something you had taken for dead.

The women who came to the tomb that first Easter morning were overwhelmed.  The eleven hiding disciples were soon overwhelmed too.  So was one of Jesus’ late-coming disciples, a man we know today as the Apostle Paul.

Paul was transfixed by the resurrected Christ.  His heart’s desire was to know this Christ, but knowing Christ would mean being drawn into His death and resurrection.  Let us hear again the amazing testimony of Paul concerning His desire to know Christ from Philippians 3:

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Knowing Christ: The Most Valuable Possession

Paul was a man of no small accomplishments before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.  He was brilliant, for one thing.  He was learned and schooled and had a sharp and penetrating mind.  Also, he was considered a righteous man, a keeper of the law.  In the Jewish world and mindset, Paul would have been considered a man who had it all.  In fact, he rehearses his prior credentials in the verses immediately preceding our text.  Begin in the middle of Philippians 3:4:

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

So Paul had it all, as far as righteous Jews were concerned.  Then, one day, on the way to Damascus to persecute the Christians there, the resurrected Jesus confronted Paul with power and glory, and Paul’s life changed forever.  What he valued before did not matter at all, and what he despised before became the most valuable possession of his life.  Listen to his amazing testimony of concerning his change in values:

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Do you see?  The sterling reputation, the scholar’s mind, the sense of his own righteousness:  none of it mattered now.  Why?  Because he had encountered something infinitely more valuable!  What did Paul find?  Listen:

⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Why did Paul now despise what he once valued above all else?  Because he now knew “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Knowing Christ, for Paul, changed everything!  A church in Rochester, NY, put the following words on an invitation to their Easter services a couple of years ago:  “This changes everything.  This change is everything.”

This was Paul’s position as well.  Knowing Christ is, for the believer, the greatest and most valued possession in life.  Not only did Paul come to value Christ above all else, he was willing to lose it all for Christ as well.  He continues in verse 8:

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

And what did Paul get in return for what he was willing to give up?

⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith

What he received was a righteousness that he did not have before.  He received the righteousness of God by grace through faith. The righteousness he had previously trusted in – his own – had proved to be nothing but pride.  The righteousness he had previously despised – Christ’s righteousness – now became for him his only hope and salvation.

Knowing Christ changes everything for the believer!  In His amazing prayer from John 17, Jesus speaks of “knowing God” as salvation:

¹When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ²since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

So, to know Christ is to know the salvation of God.  To know Christ is to have the greatest possession in the world!  Knowing Christ changes everything for the believer.

The magazine, Commonweal, once had the following words on the cover: “Easter: Has It Made a Difference?” The subtitle on the article said: “The Evidence is Mixed.”[2]  How utterly absurd!  It is not mixed for the believer.  For the believer in Christ, Easter has made all the difference in the world.

Let me ask you a question this morning: what do you value most?  What would you say is your prized possession?  Is it some thing?  Is it a relationship?  Is it a career?

None of these things, in and of themselves, are sinful or wrong, but they become so when they are elevated above the greatest good of having and knowing Christ.  For Paul, knowing Christ was the greatest possession of his life.  Hands down, it won the prize!

How about you?  Do you know Him today?  Do you treasure Christ Jesus?

Knowing the Power of the Resurrection

But Paul did not merely want to know about Christ.  Neither did he wish to have a mere acquaintance with Christ.  There is more:

¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection

Paul wanted to know Christ “and the power of his resurrection.”

Let us make no mistake, the resurrection of Jesus Christ involved a staggering divine power that trumped all of the naturalistic expectations that come with death.  Dead men don’t come back to life.  They don’t, that is, unless some power greater than death exerts itself on the dead man raising him to life again.

The scriptures speak often and consistently of God having raised Jesus from the dead:

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.” (Acts 2:32)

“let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.” (Acts 4:10)

“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

This involved an astounding display of divine power.  God worked a staggering miracle in that tomb, and the Son rose again.

Even more staggering, the same power of God that resurrected Jesus is open to believers today.  In Romans 8:11, Paul writes that “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.”

Paul wanted to know this power.  Please note, however, that Paul wanted to know this power not so that he could acquire and posses it himself.  The thought of claiming divine power for himself was nowhere on Paul’s radar.  No, Paul wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection simply because he knew that the same divine power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead was his only hope as well.  Furthermore, Paul wanted to be so drawn into the life of Christ that he, too, would be drawn into and nourished and strengthened by the reality of God’s power working in his own life as well.  Paul wanted to rest in Christ Jesus, and that meant resting in the power of God in which Christ walked.

Paul also spoke of resurrection power in Colossians 2.

¹¹ In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

We are raised with Christ “through faith in the powerful working of God.”  We see, then, that the resurrecting power of God is also one of the worthy objects of our faith.  We believe that God has raised Christ from the dead, so we dare to believe that He can raise us up as well.

Sharing Christ’s Path to Resurrection

Paul wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, but that’s not even all.  He has yet to make his most shocking declaration:

¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Simply astounding:  “and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead”!

It is astounding because this sounds so utterly foreign to our way of thinking, doesn’t it?  “Share in His sufferings?!”  We are tempted to say, “What can that possibly mean?  Why on earth would I want to suffer with Christ?  I want the blessings of His sufferings, but I do not want to suffer myself.”

But that is not what Paul said, is it?  Paul wanted to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

This means many things.  It means, on a practical note, that the suffering Paul was going through when he wrote this letter made sense when he viewed it alongside Christ’s sufferings for him.  Christ had suffered for Paul, in other words, so it was an honor to suffer for Him.

Furthermore, it is a statement of recognition that if a person claims to know and follow Christ, he cannot distance himself or herself from the Jesus’ central saving act:  the cross.  To know Christ is to take up your cross and follow Christ.  Jesus said the very same in Luke 9:

²³And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

But Paul also wanted to share in the sufferings of Christ because Paul knew that he must reach the end of himself and truly be willing to give his life, his everything, to Christ.  This explains verse 11 of our text:

¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul is not saying that one must die a violent death to be saved.  Paul is not saying that he contributes to his own salvation through personal sacrifice.  Rather, he is saying that he has not truly trusted in Christ until he has been willing to give it all for Christ, even to the point of dying with Christ.

Church, Paul understood that the resurrection of Jesus meant that Jesus, not Paul, was truly Lord!  Paul did not merely want the glorious benefits of resurrection.  He was willing to know Christ even in the path that led to His resurrection, namely, Christ’s sufferings on the cross.

Paul was a man on fire.  He was, as we say, “all in.”

What a deep, deep tragedy that we have divorced the resurrection of Jesus from the path that brought Him to the resurrection.  Brothers and sisters, you cannot have the empty tomb without the cross! You cannot rise with Him if you have never truly died for and with Him!

Are you willing to embrace Christ resurrected?  Very good!  But what about Christ crucified?  Are you willing to embrace Christ crucified?  Are you willing to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”?

We live in a consumer market as it pertains to God.  People simply want to visit God like they are visiting a supermarket and take from Him what they desire.  But the Lord Jesus came to offer you a life, not merely a service.  Jesus came to lift you from your sins, not merely give you the blessing of eternal life.

The blessings of the resurrection of Jesus Christ are yours:  His power, His victory over sin, death, and Hell, and the hope that the resurrection brings.  But His cross is yours as well:  yours to embrace and yours to imitate in your willingness to give everything to God as well.

I pray for you this Easter the great joy of resurrection.  But I will do more.  I pray for you as well the great joy of suffering for Christ should He call you to do so.  I pray for you and for me the privilege of the cross that leads to resurrection.

I pray that we will embrace Jesus and His gospel, all of it, the blessings and the burdens, so that we might truly know the beautiful Savior.  To follow Christ is to know true joy, whether it be the joy of giving all for Christ or the joy of His empty tomb.

Come to Him today.