That I May Know Him, Philippians, 3:10-11
Philippians 3:10-11 · Vern Peterman · Sep 28, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 33
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262259174047

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

The passage that we have on the screen here, Paul has listed his human qualifications. And now he said, but even though I now value things differently, I regard the things that I regarded as highly valuable before as pure rubbish. And so then he says the things that he does value in this passage, What we'll see here as we begin to look at this passage here is he has listed in 7 through 9 what is of value, because he has said what is no longer of value, but he also has made clear what is of value.

It's not just a negative statement, but the positive statement. He said this is of value, this is for the sake of Christ, knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And by the way, those of us who were in this church history class previously, we looked at Islam This, in contrast, says, that is what is of value. I can know Jesus Christ. To gain Christ and to be found in Him, he says, is of value. A righteousness which is through faith in Christ, that righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, not on the basis of works, not on the basis of keeping a law. Real different gospel.

So now we get into this passage here in Philippians 3, and Paul says, "...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Now, that's not a long passage, but there's a lot in it, and you might notice that here we have just two short verses and three pages on your handout. But there's reason for that. There is so much depth in what Paul says, we don't want to miss it. It's important to see that he's also making a shift. He is still saying what's valuable, but as he shifts into verses 10 and 11, he's adding to that not just what's valuable, but this is how it is impacting his aspirations, his hope, his perspective. What he is anticipating has now changed. And so that's what he's looking at in these two verses, 10 and 11.

Okay, we'll take a look first at some key words. Are you ready? Blink the eyes, okay? Those of you in the back, get your binoculars out. There's some of the pew racks there. Okay. Take a look first at these key words. The first one is know. We looked at this last week. Gnosis. It's the same word. It's used in a slightly different sense here. But this, again, refers to the personal knowledge of Christ and relationship with him. Notice here, it's personal.

It's not just knowing about. It's not having a lot of facts. A person could get a PhD in Jesus Christ and not know him. So this isn't just intellectual. This is heart and personal knowledge. As it says here, it is the knowledge of one who sees himself as the beloved of the Lord. That's how I see myself. and loves Christ in response to His love for us. See that? It has to do with how I see myself and how I see the Lord. That's what knowing Him is about here.

Paul isn't, by the way, expressing a probability. When he says that I may know Him, that's not may or may not. It's not a probability statement that he's talking about. He's expressing a fixed aim. This is his aspiration and hope and perspective. That's what he's looking forward to day by day.

The next word that jumps out at us here is power. The Greek word is dunamis, and it has generally the sense of ability rather than something necessarily flashy or explosive. One of the things that people frequently point out when they see this word dunamis is they say, well, that's where we get our word dynamite, and so people automatically jump to the idea that it means dynamite or something like it. Well, we have to be careful that we don't get our understanding I'm going to give you an example of this, based on a derived English word. There's a lot of words, and this is one of them, where it isn't exactly equal.

The reason I mention that, Paul is not desiring to explode, but rather to live by the enabling of Christ's life in him. He isn't intending that this necessarily looks flashy on the outside, but instead that the power, God-given ability comes from God, and that being the kind of power that's in the resurrection. So that brings up our next word, the word resurrection. Anastasis, the girl's name, Anastasia, is basically founded on this word. Resurrection from death to life. You see, Paul isn't writing about some sort of resurrection principle or some sort of vague terminology, It was an unfortunate thing.

I heard a radio interview one time. There was one pastor in a large city. I believe it was like Philadelphia. And one of the people in the media went around and interviewed around Easter time, interviewed a number of different church leaders in that area. And this one pastor that was being interviewed said he was the only one of all the numbers that had been interviewed by the media. that held to Jesus was actually physically resurrected.

All the rest of them held to some sort of, it was sort of an encouraging concept, a stimulating mythology. No, he's talking about an actual resurrection, a physical resurrection here. Now, we're going to see this word pop up again, but Paul does something, he adds to it a little bit, and we'll see how he adds to it and the difference that that makes here in just a little bit. Something to take a look at in Paul's letters, there's an insight that we need to gain. As Paul wrote to the churches, he used this word dunamis, that we translate into power, and he frequently associated that with the resurrection of Christ. What he wanted to do is to qualify the kind of power, that the Lord not only used in the resurrection of Christ, but uses in his dealing with us and is directed to us now and in our own bodily resurrection to come. That kind of power.

And we'll take a little bit more of what we're talking about here. Romans 1, he starts off, here's Paul introducing himself to the church at Rome, starts off as he typically does, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, By the time he gets down to verse 4, he talks about Jesus Christ being declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Same message, isn't it? Same message. With power by the resurrection.

By the time we get to the letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6.14, he puts it very simply, but now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. That same power. the very same power that resurrected Christ, that same power will resurrect us. That's amazing. Ephesians, he comes up with a similar message, only goes even deeper with it.

It says in verse 18 on through 20 there, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surprising greatness of his and the power of His power, dunamis, to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." Do you notice that? Do you see that? What is the surpassing greatness? Not what will be. What is the surpassing greatness of His power? These are in accordance, according to the working and the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ."

Right now, present tense, right at the present moment. As we look here in Philippians 3, 10 and 11 again, this word fellowship comes up. And you'll recall that we looked at this word back when we were studying Philippians 2. And so that word has come up now again a second time, and this word The word koinonia is related to the adjective koinos, which means common. It's that which is shared jointly. And just so we make sure we get the insight there, we've got some more on koinonia. In the secular Greek, because what we have is, in addition to the New Testament, we also have other Greek documents from around New Testament times, and that secular word koinonia And it was also used to, and sometimes to refer even to a business partnership, entering into relationship as equals.

In 1 Corinthians 1-9, Paul says that we were called into fellowship with Christ. But here's the difference that Paul makes here in Philippians 3-10. He says that he is aiming specifically for knowing fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. How about that? I want to know fellowship with Christ in his suffering. Isn't that something? He looks at that not as, well, I guess it's got to happen. It's an aim. It's part of his perspective and aspiration. How about that? We'll take a look at that in a bit. That is kind of an amazing perspective. Another key word, and boy, to me this is potent.

As a matter of fact, the entire second page is all committed to this word because it's so important for us to understand what it means. One of the things, by the way, for those who are joining us just recently, this is to help you keep track of which page we're on. You'll see the overhead and it'll be found on that page in your handout. This word conformed, or the King James has conformable, the Greek word is a compound word, sumorpho, or put it together, sumorpho.

And what that's talking about Paul had used the word morphe previously in Philippians 2.6.

It was, as we mentioned back then, a Greek philosophical term, and get this, it is a term which has to do with the outward expression of something that is essential or basic to the inner nature. So the word conform, it's almost like we don't have a word to match it, and you need to dig into it to see what he's talking about. It isn't meaning just sort of externally shaped. It means expressing outwardly that nature which is inside.

That is a potent word, and we'll see even more why it's potent. He uses it here with sun, which means together. Now here we have this part, here comes the sun. This isn't the sun, this isn't the moon, this is the sun. Now, here comes the soon, and the soon, if we look in Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, here is a passage where he uses that soon prefix three times. Look what he says, because it is a powerful set of verses. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with, see that underline there, together with that soon Christ by grace You have been saved and raised us up with, together with Him, and seated us together with Him, soon, in the heavenly places in Christ. That's that kind of word that this soon is. Not the sun but the moon, not the moon, it's the soon. That prefix there tells us together with, and it's a very important prefix even though it's short.

The reason it's important is because it comes down to This is telling us, in this passage, three of the important five identification truths. We've included that on your handout, and we keep coming back to this subject here as we talk about these truths at Holly Hills because it is so critical for believers to understand that they have been identified with Christ. It is death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding.

We have a few passages here which combined present all five of those truths, either explicitly stated or implied. Together, between these passages, all of them together state each of those truths explicitly when you combine them. The point being, and what Paul is bringing up here in this passage in Philippians, he is operating with this as a statement of what has taken place in the past.

That is the reason that he can come across, here in this Philippians 3.10 and 11 passage, he can come across and use this word, being conformed.

It's a soon word, it's a word we're conformed together, and we need to look carefully at why he uses that and what he is saying. More on this being conformed, okay? Important word. So this special being conformed that Paul is writing about is something which is done in union with Christ.

It's not something that you and I do. I don't go out and say, hey, I think I'll be conformed today. I'm going to go out and do some conforming of myself. No. This is something instead that has to do with our identification with Christ, which is entirely God's doing.

As in Philippians 2.6, the word means to give an outward expression of that inward nature. In this context, what he's saying is that Paul desires that Christ, and Christ is our inward nature as believers, he wants Christ's very nature in him to be expressed outwardly through him. You get that?

It isn't just kind of like molding some clay. He says, I want in my daily life, my aim and my desire and my hope and my perspective, in daily life, right now, is that the inward nature of Jesus Christ would be expressed outwardly. That's what this is talking about. Now, we're not done. Even more!

In Philippians 3.10, this being conformed is in the present tense. It isn't a matter of just saying, well, someday the Lord's going to get this job done and then it'll happen. It's not a matter of that. He uses a present tense when he says that. It happens right now. I am now being conformed. Furthermore, it's in the passive voice.

It is not up to you and I to conform ourselves to Jesus Christ. It is expression of His nature through us, His doing, passive voice. Passive voice means it's not ours to do. So we should not walk out of here thinking we've got to go out and try to be like Jesus Christ. We don't have to ask, what would Jesus do? Because it's not looking at Him and us imitating that. It is His nature in us expressed outwardly. Radical difference. Huge difference. Now, Romans 8 and 29, because we're not done. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed.

This is summorphos, a very similar word here to the image of the sun. be expressing outwardly the inward nature that we have by position already. This is that conforming process in our present conditions to the image of the sun. This is a word that Paul has used similarly in this passage here.

He's going to use it again in 321, the same word that we see in Romans 8.29 here. All right, now, that I may attain. Now this is one you look at and say, hmm, what's he talking about?

You know, I have to tell you, I am glad that my job is not to be a translator of our Bibles, because a lot of these just simply take more words of explanation than what you can get across. You already saw that the word conformed is something a little different than what we think of as conformed. This is also similar to that. and the English translations just don't get there. And we'll see it doesn't get there in some other respects too, but let's take a look at it.

"...that I may attain." This word doesn't convey the idea of attainment like Paul is, boy, he's going to work hard and he's finally going to get to that point where, okay, now I deserve to be resurrected. It's not Paul's efforts that he's expressing a hope for here.

The word is used in Greek literature, and by that I mean literature even outside the Bible. They use it in this way, to reach a destination, or even it is used for fruit getting ripe. I know a lot of us feel like we're getting ripe, but that's all right. But this is reaching that point of ripeness, is the way the word is used, or arriving at a goal or destination, either travelling or even at the end of a race. It would be used for that, reaching that finish line.

That's what we're looking at here. That's the word that he is using. Now, resurrection, this is not the same, although it's similar, not the same as the other resurrection word we saw earlier in the passage. That's why I come back to it. The difference is this. You see this out in front here? Ek-anastasis. Out-resurrection. Different. Different.

Paul is using the same word as in verse 10, but he's adding this prefix x, which when it gets combined comes out as an x sound. And so he adds this prefix. What's interesting, this is the only place in the entire New Testament that word ex-anastasis is used. It's the only one. The emphasis on this rare word is the idea of out. Paul doesn't stop here with the idea of out.

He even adds out to the verse again. Philippians 3, 10 and 11, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death," verse 11, "...in order that I may attain to the out-resurrection, out from the dead." The English translations don't get that across. They kind of skip over it. But it's the out-resurrection, out from the dead. When Paul gets done with this life, he wants to be out of here. He is talking about out, and he says, I want out-out, okay? I want out-out when I'm done here.

That's his focus. He emphasizes that by using that twice, even to the point of putting a prefix in front of resurrection, out-resurrection, that he never uses and no other writer in the New Testament uses ever again. It's because he wants to be emphatic here. Something we need to recognize here This is a cultural thing.

In the mountain above Philippi, a lot of the archaeologists, as well as people who go there to visit, have noticed something. It's the hill right above Philippi and that mountainside right above it, there are lots of grave markers and lots of rock carvings on the adjacent rocks. And what those rock carvings make clear is these people were very concerned about death. You see in the understanding that the people of Philippi had.

There were all these multitude of gods and you had no assurance where you were going to go. And they had a special society called the Society of the Thracian Horsemen that were supposed to come alongside you and help you and do all the right grave markings and special rituals to make sure that you got turned to the right path when you got out of here. And even then they weren't sure. And they kept carving on the rocks and doing all their crazy rituals And they were still very doubtful and fearful.

And one of the things that's important is this fits in with what we understand. We've shown this some weeks back and I thought I'd return to it. This is a kind of an artist's depiction of the Greek underworld. And this is River Styx. You may have heard about it. It shows the skeletons and I mean, just very bizarre mythology. This is the goddess Theia, the goddess of the underworld.

You are not allowed to pronounce that name. This was all very mysterious, scary stuff in their minds. And they just worried about it terribly. And when someone died, they never had any assurance. So along comes Paul with all that background, and he says, we're talking out-resurrection, out of here! And he's looking forward to it as a certainty. And that perspective is something that was completely unheard of among the pagans of Philippi. What he was telling them right here for the people of Philippi was shocking news. Shocking news. Here's the big picture of what he's presenting here.

Once a person is a believer, and this is Paul's perspective, I am going to look at, I want to know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of the sufferings being conformed to His death right now, here on planet Earth. I'm not waiting to get to know Him. It's right now. There will come a time when Paul, when he uses that word, when he gets ripe or reaches the goal, arrives at the destination, when he will be out-resurrected from the dead. He's out of here.

That's the perspective that he's put out. So it's really important that we get the idea that this is an ongoing process of knowing him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death right now, ongoing, day by day, every day until that day when he would be out-resurrected out from among the dead in that one singular event. So we need to see the first three items as process looking forward to that one event.

There's also something in the Greek text that comes out that doesn't show up in most of our English translations. And I want to bring this out. What you have is in your handout on page 3, is you've got Philippians 3, 10 and 11, but what you don't have is the underlining, and I left those out so you could see them and underline them yourself. "...that I may know Him and the power of the resurrection of Him and the fellowship of the sufferings of Him, being conformed to the death of Him, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

He is emphatic and specific. And this is translated just with the idea of focusing on those definite articles that come out in the Greek. When Paul is writing this, he is not being vague about any of these things. The, the, the, the, the, seven times.

And he's zeroing in, and what he's telling them is, Look, you all have a whole bunch of different gods, and you hope that this god will do this and that, and you don't love the god, and you don't know the god, and you can't count on the god, and you don't know what the god's going to do, and when you die, you really don't know what's going to happen, and so you put markings on all the graves and do a bunch of goofy rituals. He didn't use that word, but I will. And you do a bunch of goofy rituals, and then you hope that you'll end up in the right place that won't be too bad. So what does Paul come off with?

He uses a bunch of specifics and a bunch of definite articles, seven of them here, to underscore he is talking specifics, definite things. And the particular ones, not just any old one. He's emphatic about it. All right, let's look at this passage. This is the expanded and explained part here.

It starts off with, my aim and constant aspiration is that I would continually know Jesus Christ personally, and also know the unique and extraordinary power of his specific resurrection in my present life, and that I would know the common participation in his sufferings. By God's doing outwardly, expressing the inner nature of Jesus Christ in my life, by reason of my being identified with him in his death." See that? So then, verse 11, in God-given fulfillment of my confident expectation, I will arrive at the intended destination, which is the out-resurrection, out from the dead ones, having then a resurrection body as does Jesus Christ with whom I've been identified.

See that? Now, as we look at this really brief passage, it's got a lot in it, but there's some things I think we want to take particular attention to this morning. If we look at this, first of all, the recognition that Paul's aim and his perspective is knowing Him, not just knowing about Him, not just doing Christian things.

You know, it's real easy to be a Christian actor And I don't mean going to Hollywood. I mean, okay, we do the church thing, and we say the prayer before the meal, and we sit down, and the checklist goes on, and you show up at church, and you go home, and you don't do too much too bad. And it's real easy to just kind of go through the motions, and just kind of acting externally.

That's not what he's talking about. It's having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ on the basis of faith. And he very definitely says, that is my perspective now that I know what to value. He goes on here in the power of his resurrection. Not then. Sure, I'm looking forward to that. He says that. I want this out-resurrection out of here.

But up until the day that the Lord says, now's the time, I want to know that power of that resurrection, the specific one, right now. That's what he's spelling out to them. I want to know it right now when I get in the car to go to work. I want to know it right now when I'm in the grocery store line. I want to know it right now when I'm waiting to get into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Those times. All the time. And then, that conforming process. I want to know, not just positionally, certainly I want to know that, but in my everyday, day-by-day condition.

I want to know the nature of Jesus Christ expressed outwardly. Not mine. It isn't going to cut it. But the nature of Jesus Christ expressed outwardly. I want to know that. The outward expression of His nature that indwells me. And notice that that comes along with the fellowship of His sufferings.

Been going through a tough time? Your body been not cooperating lately? Mine goes through various degrees of cooperation. As I've been joking and many of you know, a poison oak came at me a few weeks back here, and my skin's just getting to it, but really oddly, I started getting this poison oak, and I've had this stuff before, and it's nasty, but really oddly, here I was in the middle of this thing, and knowing it's going to get a lot worse, I was just saying, thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in the middle of it. Thank you for this poison oak.

And it's because of this perspective that Paul presents here, not because I have anything to offer here, but it's seeing that it is through those things that are uncomfortable, that are difficult, that are great struggles, the kinds of things that people use four-letter words for.

Those are the things that he says, I'm looking forward to that, because that is the very process of the very nature and the life of Christ being expressed That is connected, basically, essentially, intrinsically, to the conforming, that expression of the nature of Christ.

It's not through those good and nice times, it's not through all the good things that happen, but in the sufferings. Can you imagine? Paul is actually expressing here an aspiration, a hope, a hope for the future. He values those sufferings that are in the process of conforming.

And it's in that that he looks forward to that out-resurrection, not to get out of here, because I can't wait to get out of here, but because that out-resurrection, out from the body, will make me in every regard like him, and my condition will permanently be consistent with my position in Christ, which is already fixed and irreversible. That's good news. That's marvelous news. The reason he focused on the out was not because he was wanting to get out of things, because actually the difficulty he was going through was a part of that conforming process.

He wanted out because that meant with Christ like him. That's the difference. And it's a marvelous difference. Isn't it a wonderful difference? We can look forward to resurrection not just to, hey, I'm going to get out of this thing. Yeah, I could sure use a new one. But to be with the Lord, to see Him face to face, not just to be at some distance saying, boy, isn't that a great guy?

Sitting with Him, Ephesians 2.6. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful? Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for what you are doing and the hope and aspirations that Paul expresses here, continuing on what is valuable. And Lord, what a marvelous perspective this is, to look at the things that are going on in this world, including the fellowship of suffering. to look at those things as good things that you're doing in our lives, to conform us to the image of your Son. We thank you, Lord, for these truths. We thank you for revealing what we could not know on our own. We thank you for them all and give you praise for it. In Jesus' name, Amen.