Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord part 2

Philippians 3.10, chapter 3.10 and 11, which I could not quote by memory. I didn't mean to... I have this whole picture in my mind from 1 through 11, because it all sort of, it's in context. Oh yeah, that's great. So I'll start with, I'll read 1 through 11 here as a short review.

We were the evil workers and the false circumcision. There's probably more false doctrine in there than I just gave it, but we studied that. And on to verse three, for we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in flesh.

And four through six here is the confidence in the flesh things that he's going to mention. Although I myself, in verse four, might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, word for of is ek, so Hebrew, just meaning that his two parents were Hebrew, and he came out of those two Hebrews, so he was fully a Jew, not a proselytite. As to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness, which is in the law, found blameless.

But whatever those things, all that four through six were gains to me, and gains plural, as we learned from Roger. Whatever those things, I count, I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. And that's a careful, deliberate counting, a deliberate judgment concerning all the facts on into the future. I consider those things a loss for Christ. More than that, I count And that word is, hego am I, keep on counting all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

And here's where we get into our subject today and last week. So that I may gain Christ, in verse 8, and I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the law, but that which is through faith, the righteousness which comes through God on the basis of faith. And 10 and 11, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings conform to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

And if you think about, I was thinking about somebody saying that he had so much And I was trying to think of an example. It was like, in his religion, in the Jewish religion, he was like the Elon Musk of the Jews. Imagine if Elon Musk, he has Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, right, or X. So imagine if he gave all that up, gave all of his billions up, and then started working, making waffles at the International House of Angles. I think that's sort of, because, yeah, in your class, Roger, you mentioned that the amount of, what's that word in there, that he really counts this as loss.

So there's where we are and where he wants to know Christ. He wants to be found in it. So that's our short little review. Now I have up here 8 through 11, the verses there, but we're going to go through these. There's six purpose clauses, and this is Merriman's kind of view on this. There's six purpose clauses.

Because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, We're going to look at these, we have looked at three of these vases. So he says, one, that I may gain Christ and gain his perspective, his values, his graces, his fullness, his viewpoints, his divine viewpoint, that I may be found in him.

And that means to be discovered or discovered to be in him by fellow men. So that when others look at his life, they'd say, he's a man in Christ. So we've covered those two last week. So we're on purpose clause number three here, and that is to know him, to have an experiential knowledge of his person.

And four, to know the power of his resurrection. And Merriman kind of has this aspect of the inherent dynamic of his rising as a stimulus to daily life. So the power of its resurrection, Purpose Clause 4. 5 is to have fellowship with the sufferings or communion with the sufferings, and not his past sufferings, but sufferings in the present. And then finally to attain the resurrection of the dead in verse 11. So six purpose clauses. And we're at three of six because Purpose clause three of six, that I may know him.

I may know, I would think that's a, maybe I will know him, maybe I will not, subjunctive. I said subjective there, didn't I? But I meant subjunctive. But it's not. It's an aorist additive and infinitive. So it's a point fact thing of knowing him. And the once for all goal of knowing Jesus Christ. and all of his attributes and his glory. And it's a directional pursuit. So he's going on towards this goal of more knowledge, intimate knowledge, and to know Christ as his object.

And I put in here, and J.B. Stoney mentions this a lot. He's, we're in a wilderness here, wilderness wandering here on earth. And we're just sojourners here. We're just passing through this foreign place. But in this wilderness wandering, that's what we want to do is to know Christ, as Paul says.

And I liked your mention of this last week, Roger. There is an overwhelming preciousness or surpassing value in knowing him. that I may know him. What does that mean? It's very big, you know. And so, know is, as we know, is ginosko. It's knowledge, a Greek word for knowledge. And that's coming to know by a process, by learning, by taking in doctrinal knowledge. It's like going to university and that's how, that's ginosko knowledge.

It's not all at once. and through beholding. Contrast that to oida, the other Greek word for knowledge, that's knowing fully and completely and provided by the Holy Spirit. That's just an intrinsic knowledge. God has oida knowledge because he doesn't have to learn things. He just, it's all there. He has all knowledge. So it's intrinsic to his nature.

So, more on this knowing him, and it implies, and I put Gnosko in the Georgian press, which is probably not terrible Greek, you can't do that funny, in English, and for us novices in Greek. I think who used to do that? Maybe Merriman? Gnosco-ing. Gnosco-ing.

The Lord Jesus Christ. It implies growing in intimacy with Him and hanging out with Him in spirit and truth. Menno, abiding. It's a word for abide. By taking in doctrine, divine viewpoint of all that He is, His glory. And then I have the aspects of His glory here. Infinite-ness, in power, in presence, in knowledge. And just all the whole package of what he is and taking that in, that is knowing him. And Peter says, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And 2 Peter 3.18, there's the word knowledge there.

So growing in that and to know him is We can do that by, we can do that through beholding him in his glory, 2 Corinthians 3.18. And to behold, and this is from John 17, is ethereo, and that's to be a spectator of, or to take in, or to attentively survey who he is. To consider him carefully. as my dad loved to say. And it's very clear. So you're gazing at him in awe and wonder, spending time with him, as Macintosh would say, in the closet. Closet ministry. You're going in by yourself and just being alone with him.

Even though 2 Corinthians 3.18 is another word for it.

It's a cataprizo, I think. viewing, but I never knew where my dad got Theorau. He got it from another, John 17, another source. And here's where he got it. Father, I will that they will also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. And that's Theorau, which thou hast given me. with him, that's an incredible phrase.

And this is right now, this isn't in the by and by. Yeah, right. This is now. Now, yeah. That's what he wants right now. And so that gets wrapped up into that I may know him, that purpose clause up there. So it's, and I think the word behold in John 17 is theoraho.

And if he, so theater him, and that's him personally, whereas In 2nd Corinthians 3.18, the other word for beholding is in a mirror. It's indirect. You see how the one word is indirect? So through a mirror or in the mirror. And this word that he used in John 17 is directly. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Yeah. Think about that.

And I never... How is that possible? How can I know the God of the universe Why not? How do I do that? Yeah, infinitely. But I'm just throwing all the things, the kitchen sink at this, that I may know it. Because it's, you can't really, you gotta live with it. And we'll be doing that for years and years, won't we?

To know what that means. So Purpose Clause 4 of 6, that I may know the power of this resurrection. And I was thinking only of this in terms of physical power at first. And power is dunamis in Greek, and you have the word dynamite, right? That's where we get that.

But this resurrection power, his resurrection is a brand new thing. It's the first of its kind. Christ is the first fruits of this new resurrection. He restored to life, or he resurrected three people, the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. But in that, he just... And think of that power. Their soul and spirit were separated from their body, and he got those soul and spirit, and he re-put those into those dead bodies. from Shoal or wherever they were being held at that point. Resuscitated. Resuscitated, yeah, right. I know a guy who was clinically dead and got resuscitated. Okay.

But this is really dead. They were, especially Lazarus, right? And imagine the power that that entails. But Christ's resurrection is resurrection from the dead, and that's out of the dead, the place of death, and the place of dead people. So he's out-resurrected, is what it is, into a new quality of life, and it's unprecedented and novel. So that's, I think the Greek word is kainos, right? New and quality.

And a whole different level. Now you have the restoration of Lazarus, but you have this whole other level of power going into resurrecting Christ from the dead and giving him this new resurrection body. Boy, what is that? That's a powerful body. And there was never a time before the Christ's resurrection that this was done, so it's a new thing. And in Ephesians 119, that's a little smaller. Hopefully you can read it. And Paul says, what is this surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe those in accordance with the working of his strength and of his might that he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead. There it is. And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly place. in a dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age, but for the one to come.

In Romans 1.4, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Christ Jesus our Lord. So a lot of dunamis power. resurrection. But there's also a spiritual side. So, you know, Merriman and I found that some commentators like Mackintosh concentrated on a physical hour and Merriman and Macaulay kind of went for the spiritual side of this resurrection.

And that comes from, if we look at Romans 6, which I just threw up there 1 through 7, priests, may it never be, for how shall we die to sin and still live in it? For do you know that those of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death? And that's part of what we're studying today, being conformed to that death. Therefore, as we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. And there it is, there's our identification with his resurrection there in Romans 6, 4. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with. application there in verse 6 and 7, for he who has died is freed from sin. But that likeness of his resurrection, and I tried to pronounce this Greek word homo mea, it's H-O-M-O-I-O-M-A. Any takers on it? Yes, thank you. I can't get that little twist on that. Do you have your mic on so people can hear? Yes, I do. Okay, good. So out there in Zoom land, there it is.

But that's being a like kind of his resurrection. And one of the subs, this is the word, Roger, that I was telling you about that has the sub meaning of identity. And that's might have were whoever way back when in the identification truths through that homaima word in Greek, like kind or likeness of, you know. So we further evidence this spiritual power in Romans 6, the identification things in like Ephesians 3 20. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond what we ask or think according to the power that works within us. And there's that resurrection power working within us.

Or 1 Peter 1.3, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. There's spiritual power and there's working it out in our everyday life. So that's spiritual power working there. Through the true knowledge of, there's our word knowledge again, true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory.

1 Peter 1.3. Okay, on to this fifth purpose clause in these verses here in Philippians. The fellowship of the sufferings in verse 10. So knowing, Paul wants to know, have fellowship with his sufferings.

And that word is koinonia. And I just put all the kitchen sink English tenements in there. So it's association, community, communion, joint participation in his sufferings or intercourse with his sufferings. That's the hard word, the Greek word koinonia.

And suffering is ephema. And it can be all the, here's the other kitchen sink, English synonyms, calamities, mishaps is pathema, evils, afflictions of the mind, emotions, afflictions, emotions, passions. That word pathos is passion or sorrows or emotions. So I think that we probably get the word pathetic out of this pathos word. And you see, I don't know if we get the medical stuff like pathogens out of there, but it's all the negative things, right? The calamities that can happen.

So having fellowship with Christ in those. And Christ experienced these in his earthly walk and even the cross, right? That cross was a calamity for him. It was an evil put upon him. And think of his affliction of mind, especially in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? He was sweating blood. That was a pathema. That was intense. So we, you know, we don't have that, but we have like similar things that he appoints us to, and we go through suffering, but he's there with us.

So is he still suffering today, Christ? And I say yes, because his pathema is dispersed among us, his body, the Church, individually, trials and tribulations individually and collectively. The Church is, and look at today, the Church is persecuted, right? And it's growing and it's been persecuted. I look at in Europe and Africa, Canada, they're burning down, right?

Churches. We need Miles in here today. He's in the other room. Yeah. And so it's the persecution is, and that's the FEMA is increasing that suffering. And, but who's being Who is really being persecuted? That's like when he confronted Paul. He rode to Mass. Right. Yeah, I was thinking that. So he was done with the cross. He was in glory. He was on cloud nine, let's say. But he said, Paul, why are you persecuting me? So he was in heaven and he still felt the persecution here on earth where he was rejected.

And there's another verse that comes to mind where we're filling up the sufferings of Christ. I'm not sure what that is. Yeah. That kind of plays into here too. Maybe you're going to get to it. Sorry. I think he's going to get to it. Is it? No, no. Yeah. Now that I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

Colossians 1.4. And in my flesh, I do share on behalf of his body, so in joint participation with him there, koinonia, community, communion, on behalf, and on behalf as a representative of the church, and he even spells it out there, his body is the church, what is lacking, filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

Christ is persecuted from the moment he got here all the way through now and on earth he's persecuted. Until he comes again. Until he comes again, yeah. And then puts down the powers, rulers, and principles and he won't suffer because he'll take care of it. When we suffer with him, sharing the identity and baptism with him unto death. And it's with this benefit, we have sweeter fellowship or koinonia with the Lord. In suffering and trials and tribulations, we have his sympathy.

His very presence to Sikur, Sukkur, I don't I think it's a sucker. It could be sucker, but it sounds like we're suckers. And it's to soothe our pain, right? If someone had this, I think it was maybe Macintosh, if he always delivered, oh no, it's JB Stoney. If he rescues us, delivers us, We don't get his sympathy, his, his, and see that word sympathy is sum atheo, which is from pathos of the thema. And that's, and sum is with, together with, so he's suffering with us. And that's, so sympathy, think of that. That's, that's quite cool.

You don't get that if you get delivered from a trial. It is interesting how we always pray that way. It's hard to pray not to be delivered. I think I prayed for all the Bob Eccles guys to be delivered. I'm not suggesting we stop doing that, but I'm just saying it's hard to have that mindset. But to have the members of our body who are suffering And they're getting, they know they're getting sympathy in what they're going through.

Our three, currently three sufferers with this fellowship. And there's probably more than that. Yeah. And more than three. But well, aches and pains. Yeah. OK. Oh, no. Right. Right. OK. So my sciatica, I don't know. It has to rise above a little higher. No, this is true. Even those things, those are important to the smaller stuff. It's only for the people who can handle it. Well, I just. It's tough.

So, Purpose Clause, we're on the Fellowship of the Sufferings, but then he adds this modifier for the Fellowship of the Sufferings, and that is being conformed to his death. It's a modifier. So that's in the present, like we discussed, but Notice that it's in a passive voice. So it's the Holy Spirit working through us to work in his ministry of immersing us into Christ's death there.

And all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death, Romans 6.3. So he's conforming us to his death. is how Paul ends verse 10 as a modifier. And to conform is, there's a S-U-M or S-Y-M, sumorphizo, and that's having the same form or the same shape as, or the same nature.

And that's, the root word there is morphi, morphi. Morphe. And what do you think of when you... English, what do you think of when you think of morphe? Morphology. Morphosis. Yeah. Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis. Or morph. That's the modern word. Morph into something.

I was watching a scene from Terminator. The old Terminator where The Terminator is beyond Arnold Schwarzenegger because he was a skeleton structure underneath his Terminator. So he had a structure, a metal structure under him. But then in the future, it was the new Terminator could get destroyed and he turned to this liquid mercury, liquid, and it would just, he would be liquid, but then he would rise up and he would morph into a man, a shape of a man that looked like he was water. And then came skin on him. So he had morphed into what looked like a human being, but he was really a Terminator.

So that's what I was thinking. And it's visual too. It's having the same shape, nature, and form. Like when God said, like, Anthropomorphism. Yeah, right. When he has the eyes of God, the hands of... Yeah, oh good point, yeah. When he describes him in that way in the Old Testament. Is that the Old Testament? Yeah, well, all through Scripture. Yeah, that's an anthropomorphism. Thanks, that's a great example. So Romans 6, 3, and 4. Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore, having been buried with him through baptism unto death. Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into or unto death. to his death.

For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, in Romans 8, 13. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body. So, think of that, think of this concept, the dunamis, or the power in the process of our identification with his death, burial, and resurrection. There's power that he exerts to keep us in that place of death, so death to the old nature. Merriman described the identification or the I reckon myself to be dead unto sin. And he, if you put the word power in there, so I reckon myself to be dead to the power of the sin nature, because even Satan and the sin has power. So he calls it the separation of powers, being separated from the sin nature.

And so, there's power involved in that spiritual aspect of his resurrection and our identification, too. And it's just all over it, and it's hard to take it all in, but it's power. So, I have this... I thought that was pretty clever, to illustrate Sum Morphizo, And we have on the lower line is Christ's death on the cross, the real thing, the actual event. He became sin for us, then he died to that sin and he judged sin.

And he did that in our place and he died to the world too in Galatians 6.14. And I have that. And that is, but may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to me and I to the world. So then we have the shape or the same shape or the same form is our death, burial and resurrection with Christ in Romans 6 applied to us that death, his death applied to us above the line above and we were separated from our sin nature through the identification with him in his death, burial, and resurrection.

And we have death in relation to the world, or death from the power of the world, or the cosmos system, from Colossians 2.20. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why? Why are you living as though you were in the world? Isn't that Colossians 2...8? I think it's 2...20?

But... Oh no, you're right, you're right. Am I? Okay, sounds good. Yes. 2...20, okay, good. I always thought you were a Galatian speaker. Sometimes, I never write books. Yeah, sometimes we do that, right? We just, we put in the wrong... Well, that's a very familiar...2...20 is a very familiar number, right? It is. Colossians 2...20, yeah. Right. I'm crucified with that. That's Colossians, that's Colossians. So is that do people see the sum or feet. So in my administration the line conforming to the other line. So that's that in the shapes are. Yeah. Same shape. Same. So I don't know how helpful that is. I don't completely understand what Paul is saying in relation to 6 4 2.

The world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Is he saying, is he saying that I've been, he was separated from the world? Yeah, yeah. And the world is separated from him? Yeah. So crucifixion ultimately means death. Right. Or separation. Yeah. And separation. The world has been separated from me and I've been separated from the world. And what do you mean by that?

It's a cosmos system. It's a whole system in place and it's Satan's cosmos, isn't it? That's exactly right. Satan's the authority over this world. He gained it from Adam. Right. And it's a whole now about the streets outside the cars, all the rules, the government, it's all the Cosmos system, and it has power, a lot of power. And so when he died, he died to all that, the whole system, the whole power. And we, through identification, should be also dead to the power of the world, too. Yeah, because Christ was, right? Yes.

You know, it's like Satan's last temptation, where he said, you know, if you bow down and worship to me, I'll give you all this. All this material worth, if I have authority over it, I'll give that to you. Well, that had no effect on Jesus, because Jesus owned it all anyway. Yeah, but there was a temptation in there, so there was something in there that was attractive, that can be attractive. But so that was the world, the whole world. Yes. He was offering. Satan had authority over it.

And he didn't... And we've heard it before, but he didn't challenge that assertion. No. He didn't challenge the premise of that. He said, yeah, that is all yours. Yeah. Right. He didn't deny that it was Satan's authority. It's just Jesus has the authority over the spiritual realm. and that's so much better than his material realm, so it had no effect on Jesus because Jesus didn't have a sin nature. Right, yeah. That was the whole thing. Satan could, Satan threw all his temptations at him throughout Jesus' life. He tempted Satan, he tempted Jesus from the day he went out into the desert to the day he died on the cross. Yeah. You know, so Jesus, so he, And the author of Hebrews can say Jesus was tempted in every way that we are. And beyond what we are. Way beyond what we are. Way beyond, yeah.

But he was without sin. He didn't have a sin offering to tempt him, really. So, think of the guys who, in the early part of the church, or later on, well, like in the 300s, And there was sects who would leave the world and go up on a mountaintop and wear sackcloth and just be separated totally from the world. And that's a... Paul is saying to do that, but not do it in that religious manner, right? Don't be conformed to the world, but transformed.

But they take that to a... then they get puffed up because they can do it. And then they have pride because they're separated from the world. But they really weren't separated, they were still in the world, you know, and they still had that sin nature in them. Well, yeah, the sin nature is still there. And they're probably lusting for their iPhone that they left in the closet. Hey, Andrew? Yeah. Just a thought here.

I mean, if I think about Christ and his temptation, I think a better way to translate it in terms of identification is to prove who he really was, right? So he was not tempted to sin, but the temptation was to leave his heavenly throne and position to be conformed to the world system. And he had nothing to do with that. So we as believers, when we're were tested, I think it's a better way to think about that than tempted, because the old nature can always be tempted, can it not?

And the new nature can't. So anyway, just a thought there. And he needed to do all that too, as the representative new man to reverse kind of, this might be clunky in saying that, but we had Adam who failed, and he was our representative man. And now You have a new man, so reverse engineering the creation of man, and now you have Christ, the new creation. He wasn't created, but our new representative man.

Andy, you might want to move along. Sorry. You have next week, too. And I'll cover the... Do whatever you feel is right. No, I'll wrap in verse 11 to next week, because that'll be a good place to start. Yeah. Okay, so you want to... Is that okay? I don't want to... Yeah, no, I'm just...

I have one more illustration slide I'll give you. Okay, do that one. I'd like to see this guy. Oh yeah, wow. I don't want to miss that. I don't want to miss that guy. I love that, yeah. So yeah, well, those Africans, wow. That was a good discussion. Thanks. And we ran over time, which is good. All right, I'll close up. Thank you for the dynamic power of your word and all that's in it. And just a fantastic resource we have. and everything else that they've done.