Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord #2
Philippians 3:8-11 · JD McCulley · Jul 1, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926319573406

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

Alright, so Part 2 to Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord is what we've titled it. Philippians 3, 10 through 11. And I mentioned last week that that passage was, I guess if you backed up to where Jeremy started, the 7, 8, and 9 really goes well together. And then 10 and 11 just carry that thought forward. And so I mentioned last week just how exciting it is sometimes to teach what's very, very clear and matter-of-factly stated in Scripture. And that's what we did last week. And we looked at a lot of the things that Paul valued, and we'll go ahead and just read through those first three verses again to get a running start back into that. Chapter 3, 7 through 9, Paul writes, he says, But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ.

Remember what those things that he counted as loss? Or even, he said, they're damage, they're actually a disadvantage to me, is what we looked at. He said, whatever they were gained to me, those things I counted as loss. All the things that he was by birth privileged to, and also by works that he felt that he was privileged to.

And so he broke those things down last week, but he says, I count those things as lost for the sake of Christ more than that. And so to go beyond just that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

We talked about knowing last week. We're going to talk about knowing again. This is the part two of that. for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ." Remember that word rubbish? That idea of the place where the sewage goes.

And that's what he considered it in comparison to knowing Christ. Not that he considered it all things that way, but in comparison to, that's how he viewed it. So that he might gain Christ. know him in a way that causes for him to compare loss and gain in that sense. And then he may be found in him.

We talked about being found in him, the passive nature of that, and how just the identification of being found in Christ or in Christ just rang so true in that verse. Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, very clear, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. We talked about how our personal account has been credited with that righteousness, not through law, not through birthrights. Those things are counted complete loss in comparison to knowing and having the righteousness of Christ which comes through faith. Oh, by the way, we don't have handouts yet. No worries. That's okay. Don't don't even worry about it. It's okay.

We're gonna have fellowship with Roy in the same way Handouts and so we're just gonna press on with the PowerPoint You're gonna have to pay you're gonna have to look up here at me more today, and I'm so sorry about that Sorry about that What was a value to Paul He says, the sake of Christ, knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, to gain Christ, to be found in Him, that righteousness which comes through faith.

And so that was where we came from last week. That was the way that Paul ramped up into where we're going today with these next two verses. But it was the value, it was the perception of value, it was the economic perspective that he had on the bigger picture of life and how Christ fit into that. And as we look at Philippians 3, 10 through 11, we're going to see that there's a shift here. But let me go ahead and read those verses. He says that I may know Him, again we're talking about Christ here, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death in order that I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So those two verses are not very long. I mean, compared to where we went last week, it seems like we would have a lot more to say last week. But really, I mean, this is one of those lessons, I think, that's just packed full of information.

There's a lot of keywords here. There's a lot of stuff going on in the original languages that don't just pop out in the English translation. I was thinking about the difficulty of actually being an English translator, especially if we were part of the board that translated it, and here comes the Holly Hills group, and it's like, but it says so much more, and if you take it out, you're going to miss it all. You know, I can see us kind of throwing a big fit about how someone, but those publishers, man, they really do cause you to have to get down to one word and you miss so much.

So I'm so thankful that we can unpack sometimes and just feel the freedom to do that. And I think that these two verses need to be unpacked quite a bit. But there's a shift here in that Paul went in verses seven through nine. He told us about how about his value and what he perceived as value to him and how that exchange had taken place. And so he moves from a shift of value to telling us about his perspective and longing and his anticipation. So here's the things that I used to value don't value those anymore.

They've been replaced. And not only have they been replaced, they are now causing me to look forward and I've got this intense anticipation towards something. And it is an intense anticipation. Here's what's kind of neat. As you just look at the biggest picture of observation I think here in terms of the shift of these two, it's not just that he knew he had something. It's that that knowledge caused him to look forward to something and to see and to desire these values into the future and how they would impact him. And so I think there's something here to that, that as we look at this passage today, that we think about how it is looking forward and causing us to recognize in the same way that Paul did, there is value to the things you have today, but how does that impact your anticipation of what's to come? And that's where Paul kind of moves in a big shift kind of sense here.

Well, let's look at some of the key words that are found in this passage, and we'll string it together, and I think it'll become clearer. The word gnosis, again, knowing, we've titled these last two lessons, Knowing Christ for a Reason, because that word appears in both sets of verses. And we looked at that, and we'll just review it real quickly, but this gnosis, this idea of knowing Christ, is not getting your Ph.D. in Jesus Christ. There's a lot of people that do have an academic perspective of Christ and that's not what Paul talks about here. This is personal. This is the kind of knowledge that comes from a relationship, an intimacy with Christ. And it's the knowledge of one who sees himself as the beloved of the Lord and he loves Christ in response to his love for us.

And so that 1 John 4.19 just characterizes the kind of love and the kind of knowledge that comes packed into this word. And so he's not expressing a probability. that I may know Christ. He's not saying, well, I sure hope I do. I might know him or I might not. That's not what's going on here.

This is a statement of certainty that Paul is talking about here, and that his knowing is a personal kind of knowing. So just to review that word there, I think it's helpful to remind us that his value comes from a knowledge that's personal, and it moves beyond value and into an anticipation, as we'll see. He says that I may know him and the power. Okay, the power. So, we've got this word used quite a bit.

It's one of those words that in the original language, you get this dunamis, you get this idea of what? Dynamite, right? This is where we get our word dynamite and the explosive power. And it's dangerous to consider understanding an original word, a word that's derived from the English, so we can't go backwards and say, well, this is where we get our word dynamite, so the Greek word must mean explosive power, because that's not actually what's going on here, but it has more generally this sense of ability rather than this flashy power or expression of ego, and so he's not saying that I may know him and the power, this explosive flashy nature of Christ, but rather the power that resurrected him. It's not the explosiveness of it, but the ability that's unique to God himself. This is a dunamis, an ability or a power that exists in the realm of the Creator.

And as we look at the source of the word, we've got to be careful not to translate it backwards in that way. There's actually a number of additional passages that we'll take a look at that associate, we're not going to actually take a look at them, I don't want to put that slide in here. Let me just have a look here and see. I am going to get to that.

So the word power here is associated with resurrection in several of the passages but I wanted to get this word resurrection out first and then we'll look at how power and resurrection, that combination of terminology, is used in other places by Paul. So, when it comes to the word resurrection, so just set the power as being an ability that's unique to the creator, set that on the shelf, we'll come back to that in a minute. This word, anastasis, the resurrection, it literally means resurrection from death to life as you might expect, but Paul's not writing about some just general resurrection principle. or a vague terminology of actually the resurrection of a specific historical person.

And it's Jesus Christ in this case. And it's not necessarily in the next case that he uses it. And so we want to look at what does this resurrection apply to and what's different about it. But he does use this, again in this passage he uses this word, but he uses a different prefix and we're going to talk about why he does that in a minute.

So we have this insight into Paul's letters here that he's using this power and resurrection together and he's tied these words before when he's written to other churches. And he wrote, so to qualify the kind of power which God used to raise Jesus from the dead and to reveal that kind of power that God has directed and will direct to us now and in our bodily resurrection. So Paul uses that power of resurrection not only for Jesus, but also to believers who will be resurrected, as we'll look at in the second part of this passage.

But if we look at Romans 1, and again, sorry for those of you, we don't have any handouts, so you're going to have to You're going to have to just divert your attention back up here to me. There's no worries. I actually like the idea of PowerPoint being the sole point of focus, but that's okay. Nobody knows what's coming up next and I can actually ask questions. Romans 1, 1-4. Donna, do you mind reading that for us?

Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. So here we've got, in the final verse four there, the combination of those two words, power and resurrection. Which resurrection is this referring to?

Jesus Christ. That's right, okay. Here, remember, we don't want to see the dunamis here as being a flashy explosiveness, but rather a unique ability of that of the Creator. And so it is with that unique ability that the Son of God was raised from the dead.

And so what about in this passage? Les, do you want to read this one? Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. See, the same set of terminology That power is directed now to a creature rather than himself. So instead of the Son of God receiving the ability of that resurrection, Now we've got that same unique power of the Creator to raise life from, or raise the dead to life and it's being applied to us now in this case.

It's pretty neat to see how the same power, I mean we go and through the celebration season that we have and the Christmas season and we look at you know, moving on from there. We celebrate his life and we celebrate all that he accomplished through his life and we get to the Easter season and we start to focus on the death, the burial, and the resurrection. And we think about and we concentrate in those seasons about the uniqueness of the Son of God, God becoming man, and then literally man dying on the cross, being buried, being raised, and we celebrate the unique nature of how God raised Jesus from the dead, and that same exact power and focus of ability is going to be applied to you. So I'm just trying to magnify how we, if I just said it without contextualizing it, maybe in some of the seasons that we focus and celebrate and we sing and we get very, very focused on the nature of Christ being a man, dying, Being buried and being raised and yet we were going to be given that same Power in the resurrection of our future in the future It's pretty cool again in Ephesians 1 18 through 21.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know that What is the hope of His calling? What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Again, forward-looking stuff. Paul's, you know, not only looking forward in this passage that we're talking about today, but here in Ephesians, looking forward that we might be enlightened, you know, the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward 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 the right hand in the heavenly places. The power that raised and seated Christ, the identification truths, this death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seating, all of this power that was associated with that is the same power that's associated with you and your identification and your seating with Christ in the heavenly places as well. It's pretty magnificent to think about.

It's the dunamis that does this identification. And it's the same dunamis that was used in raising Christ from the dead and seating Him in the heavenlies. That power applies to us as well. That's identification. It's pretty cool stuff. And then verse 18 through 21, I pray that... Oh, I'm sorry, we already read that.

But to call out in verse 19 there, Just these two points and what is the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might. And so we're just talking about that power and how that applies to us in that way. Let's move on from the power and the resurrection terminology and get into the fellowship. Have we talked about this before?

Konanina. There's a lot of fellowship in Philippians. In fact, when I first started I think I had an introductory lesson into flippings. I talked about fellowship being one of the bigger themes actually throughout this book. There's a lot of fellowship going on with Paul and the believers of Philippi about believers and their fellowship with God, and the unity amongst themselves, fellowship with one another, and so there's all these different types of fellowship or koinonia. In this particular case, we're talking about the kind of fellowship that comes from the idea of participation and sharing.

And just to reread verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. So Paul wants to know about this kind of fellowship. He wants to have a fellowship that comes from a participation with Christ's suffering. That's how he wants to know him. See, again, this isn't a kind of knowledge that comes from reading and studying and passing a lot of exams. Paul's saying, I want to know him by participating with him in his sufferings. I want to know him by sharing in his sufferings.

In Philippians 2.1, someone want to read that for us just to remind us how we've looked at that in the past?

If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, If any affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and turning upon one purpose. So this idea of having a common purpose, this koinos is the root to this word, but it's referring to that which is shared and jointly shared.

Unity. Has unity been a big theme throughout this book as well? Yeah. It's neat to say though that We don't just come together and spend time together and try to find common interests, right? I mean, yeah, you like that particular thing, and I like this, and you did that last week, and I did that. I mean, if we both went camping, we might have something in common to talk about, or if we're both engineers, we might have some work stuff to talk about when we come to church, and we can fellowship around that. But Paul, it's interesting, and I think that just seeing the theme of Philippians, that it's our fellowship comes from our common interest in Christ.

And we have such different backgrounds. I mean, we've all come from different places. And I've been in other fellowships where it's literally just such a huge big in ethnic diversity. We don't have a lot of ethnic diversity and race diversity in that way, but we sure do have a lot of different places where we've all come from.

But those are not the things that we're trying to look to have in common with one another. I think it's interesting when I hear people church shopping. You know, you've been there, but they're just not like me. I just don't feel like I fit in. And it's not to say that those value judgments don't have their place, but the real question is, do you have Christ in common with these people?

And if so, there's something very unique about that. In fact, the body is supposed to be diverse. We get that from other writings of Paul about how you're the eyes and you're the hands. If everybody looked and dressed and acted and were all web designers, I mean, there's churches that are literally designed for artistic-minded people. There's churches that are designed for musical kinds of people. And so, you design churches for your common interests, and Paul's saying, no, I want to know about Christ and I want to fellowship in His sufferings, and that's where we have our common interests.

That's where we get our koinonia, our fellowship. We're sharing and participating, in the suffering of Christ and all of that, but we participated in what? Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seeding. We've got a lot in common. And we've got a lot to talk about. So it makes sense that that's where we focus. So a little bit more on this koinonia concept.

In the Greek, in the secular Greek writings that have been looked at, that same word meant a close and intimate relationship that people would enter into, and it was also used to refer to business partnerships. So, you know, when you think about the kinds of things that you share in a business partnership, there's a lot of interest there. And there are the kinds of interests that strike home really quick because it affects your pocketbook. And so you're challenged at many levels in that way, but that same term is used in secular writings in that way.

And then in 1 Corinthians 1.9, Paul says that we were called into fellowship with Christ.

And so just going back to 1 Corinthians 1.9 there.

Someone want to read that? I just think that would be ideal. In this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. 1 Corinthians 1 9 God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord. you were called into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord. That's our common interest.

And that was Paul's point in previous verses and even in other letters. And here he's getting very intimate about it. So he knows that the fellowship amongst believers is on this point, but here he's not necessarily talking about that. He's talking about his personal fellowship that comes from identifying and participating with his sufferings. And what's the result of doing that? He knows Christ. Here's the cool thing.

When you suffer, on behalf of Christ, you come to know Him in a way that you would not have known Him before. So you may have already known that, but here this verse impacts us in a way that we want to suffer on Christ's behalf, we want to know the sufferings of Christ, we want to identify with those sufferings, and here, what are the sufferings that are in view? What suffering in this passage are we identified with in the same way? his death, that's right, and his resurrection. Is that a suffering?

No, but it's the result of it. That's where he's saying, I am related to Christ in this event that he went through. I suffer there and I know him by my participation in that as well. You know, I've been talking to the kids a lot about baptism recently and the picture that that is. And you come to know Christ by identifying with him, right? And you are identified with him. But that picture of baptism helps draw out how we know Christ in that way. And so in the same way, I mean, these are all tied together. I think baptism is a topic that could be easily moved on to from this passage. because it is such a clear picture of what is taking place when we are identified and know him in this way.

But here Paul in 310 rather, he aims for fellowship with Christ in his sufferings. That's how he wants to know him. Let's look at the word conformed. This is a cool word because we often don't see it the right way and there's a lot packed into it. The Greek word is combined of two roots here, and one of them is the idea of morph. And we've looked at morph in the past. Does anybody remember what we said about that?

Biblically speaking, in Philippians 2.6, that morph, we've translated it form. Somebody want to read 2.6 here, so we can just have a little bit of context. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Did I read you? I put the wrong verse there. What was that passage that we looked at?

It's in the past. I'm looking forward. I am identifying with this verse. We'll find it. But Paul used that word more, and I remember in the form we talked about, in the form of Christ. Someone can find it. Is it the word appearance? It might have been the word appearance and it was translated to form. Well, actually, I mean, New York State has appearance. And being found in appearance as a man? Yes, in the form of a man. So, yes, that word there is translated to form in some translations. But that's what we're trying to get back to. And when we talked about that passage in 2.6. Actually, it's 2.8. Okay, I did have it wrong. Thanks. What do we say?

That is this just the outward appearance of? Did Jesus just have the outward appearance of a man? So in some Greek philosophical writings, this word carried and packed a lot more into it than just being appearing on the outside. It was actually the essence on the inside translating out to what is being seen on the outside and so we talked about it being an inside out. So form starting on the essence and the inside and having an outward appearance of.

And so in the same way this word conformed, it contains that but here it's combined together with this word soon. In this particular case, soon, when it's translated with morph, it has this idea of together with, and together with form. So, let's look at the word where soon is used in Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, just to get an idea of how that's been done. I'll read here, verse 4, 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, that's the soon, together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with, soon, him, and seed us soon with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That word is a big identification term, right? And in this particular case, the word for conformed is combined with soon. So there's this together with and form.

And so it's actually a very unique word that finds its relationship to identification regularly throughout the New Testament. So this idea of being conformed to death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, you can see this is a chart that Verne put together. But here in some of the New Testament passages, Paul's writings, he's got these five different identification truths and where they're taught explicitly or implied. And so this idea of being conformed to the death and burial and resurrection is done regularly throughout his writings. He's continually identifying his being conformed with these particular things. And that's why we focus on him so much, because being conformed to these things packs the whole concept of identification for us. So a little bit more on this term conform. This is a special being conformed that Paul is writing about. It's something which is done in union with Christ.

In other words, you don't get conformed in the way that Paul is talking about outside of Christ. There's no way to do that. It has to come from a personal relationship of knowing Him, identifying in His sufferings, that you become conformed in union with this person. See, in any other belief system, how are you conformed, if you want to use that term? Are you conformed in a personal relationship by identification with them? This concept is completely absent in any other belief system.

It's your responsibility to transform yourself through your meditative efforts, your philanthropic efforts, your mental efforts. All of these different efforts that you attempt to do, whether in private or in public, are designed to transform you to a higher place, to achieve something. In this case, it's actually a knowledge of a person. and a faith that is placed in that conforms you to someone else's works.

It's totally different. But this union with and being conformed to is something that's very unique to Christianity. And you know what? It's not just that we have a different gospel message, good news message, than the rest of the world. We also have a different sanctification message. And most of Christianity does not understand the uniqueness of what we have and how we're conformed.

And in Philippians 2.6, this word just keeps going. I mean, the reality of what's being said here, it just keeps unfolding. But going back to 2.8, the word means to give outward expression of the inward nature.

So in this context, it means that Paul desires that Christ, who is the inward nature of Paul, by reason of Christ's indwelling, he desires that Christ's very nature be expressed through him. He wants Christ's life to be seen in his life. He wants to be conformed. He wants to find himself in union with, together with Christ, and because of that being conformed, he wants that to be shown by Christ doing the living in his life.

Even more on this passage, back to 3.10, being conformed is in the present tense. It is a current, ongoing process from one day to the next. You're continually being identified with, formed with. It is also in the passive voice. You're like, yay, it's passive. It is. And what does that mean? It's pretty intense. You don't do the conforming. Not your job. Don't do it.

I saw a fellow wearing the WWJD bracelet yesterday. And it didn't actually take me long to figure out that he had a bit of a law-based perspective on morality. I don't know that he even understood that in full, but what was very interesting is that it reminded me of just how people want to be like Christ. I mean, you don't have to be a Christian for very long to want to be like Christ.

We've all tried it, right? I would think that we probably have all tried it. You clock in, and you clock out, and you clock out probably more than you want. It may be a little early, because it's not easy. This isn't an easy thing to do. In fact, it's not possible to do. All you can do is fake it. And you can't even fake it until you make it. You just won't even make it. All you can do is fake it, right?

Here, it's passive, so God is the one that's carrying out this process, together with. It's that the active voice would mean that it is ours to do, but Paul makes it clear by using the passive voice that it is God who's doing the conforming. I would write that, you know, if I were still writing in my Bible. I've got this little note that I've got to peck away at on the phone now, but passive. God's doing the conforming. This is unique.

Nowhere else in any other belief system does the Creator or the God do not only his I mean, Allah, think about Allah. In the Muslim perspective of Allah, you can't even know Him. You hear Paul say, I know Christ, I have an intimate knowledge of Him and His sufferings. I am together with Him formed. I am being conformed to His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. I'm being conformed to the image of Christ and it's Him that's doing it. I'm not even doing it. This is radically different than any perspective outside of true biblical Christianity.

For those, Romans 8.29, key passage on this, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed. Here it is again. Who does the conforming? It's that sun morphos, that with, together, being formed. to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

Paul uses this word in Philippians 3.21 when somebody gets to that down the road here. Alright, let's keep moving. That I may attain.

Now this sounds like something Paul does, but he doesn't actually use it that way. It doesn't convey the idea of attainment as if it were Paul's efforts that might or possibly would achieve resurrection from the dead. Instead, the word is used in Greek literature for reaching a destination. And it has the idea of fruit being ripened or you getting to the finish line, achieving the final condition of whatever it is that you're doing.

So it's not that he may attain by his own works, we just said that it was Christ that did the conforming, but he sees that conforming coming to a point. And that's what this point is, that he has a point in where he's headed. It's not just being conformed or being conformed for conform's sake. He has this idea and understanding that his knowledge and intimate fellowship, koinonia, with his sufferings conforms him. God does that conforming and that he may attain to something. He is going to get to a point. And what is that point? That point for him is resurrection. That's where he sees himself heading. That's interesting.

Have you thought of yourself heading towards resurrection? I mean, I haven't really thought of it that way. I've thought about, yes, I can't wait until I'm face-to-face, but have you thought about the dunamis, unique creator power of God being applied to you in your situation, being conformed to the image of Christ by literally God raising you from the dead in the same ability and power that He used to raise the Son of God from the dead, so that you might be conformed to His image and be face-to-face with Him and fully seated in the heavenlies for eternity? Have you thought about it that way? I haven't either. What? get that on mp3. I was going to say on tape. I actually still use tapes. My kids don't even know what a tape is. It's kind of weird too, isn't it? I've got to get that on mp3.

The word resurrection here though, the point of where Paul is going to be seen as having fully ripened or completed as far as his attainment. It's ex-anastasis or ek-anastasis, out-resurrection. He applies this prefix and this is really unique. And it translates, and you would have never seen this in English, never once, ever, would it have come out, unless you looked at it. And not only that, you would have never seen this anywhere else in the Greek, because this is the only place in the entire New Testament that Paul uses ek-anastasis, and the idea of out-resurrection, from death to life. And Paul's using the same word in this verse, but he's using this prefix uniquely here. I just mentioned this is the only place in the entire New Testament, but there's an emphasis in this rare word.

And Paul's saying, I'm going to use this differently, look how I'm using it. And that's the point of doing something different. And when Paul does it differently, when he writes a word differently, the point is emphasis, emphasis, emphasis. I'm saying something important here, and what he's saying here is this word out is being combined with resurrection. Out-resurrection.

How do you think that's coming across? Why would he use that? Let's look at it in terms of how it might be read. Verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings be conformed to his death, in order that I may attain, reach that destination to the out resurrection. And then he uses again, out from the dead. Why is he doing that? Where is he headed? Out of here. I'm getting out of here. I'm headed out of here. I'm going to be raised out of here. This is where I'm headed. This is some of the mental activity that was going on in Paul's mind when he talks about, I don't know whether to stay or to go.

Because He is headed out of here, and He can't literally wait to be conformed to the image of the Son, conformed to His death, so that He might attain, in His mind, the goal of His entire race is to get out of here. And is it just to get out, or is it to be with? See, it's through death that you enter life. And that's what He's saying.

I want to be conformed to the death, and I want to get out of here in resurrection. And that's a personal, historical, future perspective of Paul. So the question is, how does that apply to us? Do we have that same cultural, I'm sorry not cultural, historical perspective on our future? I swear the word cultural just bounced into my head. Cultural insight. In ancient cultures there was a great fear of death. Does Paul have a fear of death here? No, there's no fear here because he knows that it is through death that he will be conformed. Now, when are we conformed to Christ's death?

Is that a future thing? Is it a past thing? It is a present thing. It's present. You are being conformed to his death. We said that conformed was present tense, and it's passive. So God is presently conforming you to his death. See, the idea, what does that mean? I've asked myself.

When you try to do what Jesus do, that's when you recognize that you are dead. You have no capability whatsoever. to do this. You have to go through being conformed to His death, literally dying, being separated from, and recognize that when I'm separated from fellowship with God, I can do nothing that brings glory to Him. There's nothing that I can do. I can only produce flesh.

So it is that separation from Christ and our fellowship with Him that causes us and reminds us that the only way that Christ's life is going to be lived through us is by being not separated, not this death, but being joined in His life. So it's important and I think Miles Stanford talks about the process of a seed and how when it falls into the ground, it goes through a process of decay, only to come back and bear fruit. And in the same way, our decay is our separation from God. When we find ourselves being separated, do you have a thought?

Well, I've been just thinking about what would Jesus do? It would have to be our own thoughts about what we think If you know good and well, then you can't do what he did. That's right. You need death. I don't know how they did that. What would Jesus do? Die? It's right. Just to your point, when you know that Jesus says, you must die with me. How do you do that? What would Jesus do? He would die in your place and you would be identified with him there? Okay, I'm going to do that. I mean, how does that look?

It doesn't work. It just doesn't work. Biblically speaking, the identification and understanding that we get from the New Testament would not have us mimicking Christ. It just doesn't work. You try to read that into Paul's letters and it's really difficult.

And I say that because I've done that. And sometimes I still do. I sometimes confuse restful trust in Christ to do the living with, I got this. I can pull this out. I can make this happen. And sometimes I don't make that decision outwardly, or it's not present, like right in front of me, and I'm choosing to trust myself. It's just kind of an old habit. I still struggle, and I think we all do, to some degree, with wanting to do what Jesus did.

But Paul says, no, being conformed is something that God does, is you trust Him. And that previous verse, verse 9, talks about the basis of righteousness. It's not your work, it's by faith in the Son of God, and that's the basis is faith, and what's applied? Righteousness. You don't acquire righteousness in your own way. It's only by faith. Verse 9. Did you have something? Yeah.

Talking about being conformed as an ongoing present thing that's happening all the time. And we have the five, you know, the death, the burial, and so on, that were identified with him in. And aren't they all the same, in that they are present and ongoing. And so we are already identified with the resurrection of Christ, but this is final to the out.

Here's something that just occurred to me. We look at identification as death, burial, resurrection, essential sin. We remember that. We memorize it. We're like, okay, five things. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And we see the downward and upward progression. We have it in our head.

That is not what we should be thinking about when we think about identification. We should be thinking about Christ. It's about a person, not a process. It's not this fancy little terminology that we refer to or this nice little checkmark concept. It is Christ. That is the focus of identification. So they're all present and they're all in Christ. We don't focus on death alone and resurrection alone.

But they are aspects to the person of Christ and whom we are identified with. And so when we think about the history of Christ, And what he did on our behalf, and the way that we're identified with him, we think about this progression. And that's what it is. It's a chronological downward and upward progression that we often use here. But it is a present, ongoing thing that's a focus on Christ, and all of these aspects are involved in that.

However, Paul is drawing out a specific clarifying statement that he is ready to get out of here in a conditional resurrection sense. And it's not to say that he doesn't want to be with the Philippians. He's already said that he did. It's just that he's so forward thinking about where he is to attain in Christ that that's where his mind is.

You know, Vern and others have heard you guys say, you know, about the Lord's return. I hope it's today. Does that mean you don't want to be here? Does that mean you don't like us anymore and you want to get out of here? That's not what we're saying when we refer to that. I hope it's today that the Lord returns, you know, to take His own.

It's an excitement about a future reality. And that's where Paul's mind is in this verse, I think. Here's something that's neat. Paul's talking about being identified and conformed to something that was historical. Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. There's our little nice graphic. We've branded it up, but remember that that brand shouldn't be a brand in and of itself. It's about Christ. It's about the person of Christ and the process of his death, burial, and resurrection.

So as we see that, and Paul communicates the historical reality of that, there's a lot of time that is taking place in this New Testament period, right? In this church age. And there's this ongoing movement towards, for us, our resurrection from the dead. And there's a historical reality that's future for us. And so that's an event. But then there's this other thing that Paul's talking about Knowing Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, this idea of being conformed to His death, is that a future event? Or is that today? So here's the thing.

Paul's looking forward to a future event, but it has a present, ongoing reality today. These things that we talked about on the bottom are the present ongoing process that Paul is working through by faith in his mind. And it's producing Christ's life in him. But he's very excited, I think, about the future event of his resurrection because that means that condition and position have been united and will for eternity remain. And he's just really excited about that.

There's something else in the Greek text in Philippians 3, 10 through 11. It's this use of definitive articles. You're like, ugh, what is that all about? But there's seven times, and again, it's so neat because how to study the Bible, and you get into all this Greek, and you're in the original languages, and you're dealing with grammar, but it's so neat to see that grammar, it's like big exclamation points all over the place. And once you start looking at how The writers of the New Testament use grammar and they use the words to draw attention. For example, we would have never known about Paul's emphasis on resurrection had we not seen that prefix ek. And it's only used one time. That's really cool. There's emphasis there. There's also an emphasis that Paul uses in the use of these articles. But he's drawing out a specific singular identity of each of these different items. And let's look at that. And we'll just look at it in verse 10.

Because I didn't... No, we'll look at it in verse 11. I'll put 11 up there. But I didn't highlight it. That I may know him and the power... This is how it reads. It doesn't read this way in your translation because the editor is like, ah, sounds weird. Can't do it. 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. That's how it actually reads.

Why? Because Paul's driving home each of these individual things and emphatically stating them. He's drawing attention to each of them. Donna? Well, I mean, you're going to go there next to the thing that I may know him and him and him against, right? I wasn't going to go there.

But that's incredible. But you wouldn't have seen that if you had a handout. It's only because... I just had to go in there and grab credit for your unique observation. That's right, there's repetition, him, him, him, him, and what's related to him, the power, the resurrection, the fellowship, the suffering, the death, the resurrection and the dead. What's that? We have handouts now. Take those home. Let's look through the expanded and explain.

Again, thanks to Vern for all of this. Verse 10, my aim and constant aspiration, Paul speaking, Paul's 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. A lot there, but it brings it to life. See how that morph, just that one word, form, you know, that suit together with conform, you know, could be translated out by God's outwardly expressing the inner nature of Jesus Christ in my life by reason of me being identified with him in his death this conformed comes in out and God does it from the in to the out it's your essence now it's who you are right verse 11 so then in God-given fulfillment of my confident expectation I like that 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 have been identified, and will at that point be face-to-face for eternity with."

We've got five minutes. Thoughts, questions? I don't really... I didn't leave a lot of room for questions today. I'll just get excited about this and I just start going. I think for us it's a mental realization in the same way that Paul had. that his history is Christ's history. That's what he is identifying with, is Christ's history. We have a new history.

We don't go traipsing through the junk of last week or the week before. We might, and we might need to draw some things out for clarification in our hearts and our minds, but we move forward. We move forward with a past history that is in Christ. And we also move forward in a future history that is in Christ, and it has conditional and positional realities. I think that's part of our koinonia too, is our future. I mean, we're together for eternity. That's right. When was the last time you sat around and had coffee and talked about the future, resurrection?

It was a big deal for Paul to see himself in prison, locked down, unable to be with these believers like he wanted to, and to sit and to think about the future that he had in Christ presently and conditionally. Let's pray. Lord, I just thank you so much for the truths of the book of Philippians here, how it just drives home our identification with you. Lord, the flesh in so many ways would have us mimicking and and trying to attain to how you do things and how you think about things. But Lord, we know that there's no fruit in that effort and that it is only on the basis of faith that we can have the righteousness applied to our account that comes from you. It is only by faith that you will do the living through us and that you can remind us regularly about our future the resurrection that we will have in you, and Lord, you remind us about the present realities of life that we have in you, and our history in you, and I thank you for that. And I pray that we might have unity in these things, and that our unity is personal and might be focused on you. It is your name that we pray. Amen.