I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;
8 sermons cite this verse
The righteousness from God that depends on faith that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. this is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. In the book of Philippians, Paul has been sharing with us his secret to the good life, demonstrating to us both what it is and how we can obtain it. And in chapter 3, Paul lays out an important component in our quest for the good life, and that is helping us identify what we think qualifies us for the good life. You see, Philippians 3 is Paul's resume, so to speak, of what Paul believed pre-Jesus qualified him for the good life, and then how he sees things now after having met Jesus. A resume, when you think about it, is essentially an argument. It's an argument for why you deserve something. …
… is such a theme of my life because I think that deep down, I have such a desire to know the Lord. One of my favorite scriptures, my life verses, Philippians 3.10, where Paul says, my one purpose is that I would know Christ. It resonates with me. That really resonates with me. And yet I think as deeply as I desire to know the Lord, there's a part of me that really hesitates to let the Lord know me. But full intimacy requires full access. This Psalm is so beautiful because David is laying forth a theology that tells us so much about God. There's a simple structure to this. It goes six verses, six verses, six verses. For the first six verses, he's talking about the simple idea that God knows everything. The theological term for that is God is omniscient. It means there's nothing that he doesn't know. David says, you know when I sit, you know when I lie. You know the words I speak before they even come out of my mouth. …
… And there in the third chapter beginning at verse 10, we find these words from the English standard version of the Greek New Testament. It reads that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death. that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. You may be seated in God's presence for just a few moments with your prayers. I'd like to use as a subject from which to share, if you know, you know. If you know, you know. Have you ever felt like war has been declared on your mental health, anxiety, attacks you. Bad news bombs your life and breaks your heart. Difficulties and disappointment depress you and doubts start to dog you. Fear locks you up from the inside out and makes you a prisoner of war in the war on your mental health. Pressure has a way of puncturing your peace and before you know it suffering explodes in your life and then shame has a way of haunting you down. I'm simply saying there's a war that has been declared on your mental health. A war has been declared on my mental health. You go to work and there's no peace at work. You find yourself driving up to your place of residence and even at home the phone may ring and before you know it there is an assault on your mental health. There seems to be a relentless all-out war on our mental health. The question often becomes how do you maintain your sanity in the …
… event, Cassie Bernal, that young girl, wrote in her journal Philippians chapter 3, where Paul said, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable even to his death, if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead. That's a quote right out of the Bible. And she wrote that in her journal. And then she wrote this. She said, now I have given up on everything else. I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again and to find out what it means to suffer and die with him. So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead." End quote. and she closed her journal. And for the last 27 years, Cassie Bernal has been enjoying her heavenly inheritance. She lived with hope, and she died with hope, and now she's in heaven. …
… Why? Because Paul said in Philippians chapter three, verse 10, I want to know him. I want to know the power of his resurrection and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Being conformed, conformed. I want to be patterned after. How did he die? He died not as someone who was self-absorbed. he died not as someone who's self-exalted, not someone who's self-important, not as someone who's a victim, not as someone who's driven by his appetites, not as someone living a life of shame or self-reliance. Those things were crucified with Christ. And so we don't have to live a day longer in those things because we're not that which we used to be. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm saying this Good Friday could be the death of you. It could be the death of you. You don't have to be alive to sin anymore. You don't have to be alive to flesh anymore. You don't have to be alive to wrath anymore. You don't have to be alive to shame anymore. That doesn't have to be who you are anymore. …
… Look at verse 10. Philippians chapter 3, verse 10. Paul says, I want to know Christ. And I want to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship, there it is again, you can circle it, that's koinonia, fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead. So there's that fellowship, a sharing in the sufferings of Christ. That Christ, because of His sufferings that are being played out in our lives, we share together in those. One more instance. 1 John. You go past a bunch of books, Hebrews and James and 1 and 2 Peter. Come to 1 John 1. In these verses we're about to read, four times John uses the word koinonia. Look at 1 John 1, verse 3. He's talking about Jesus here. And he says, We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship. There it is, koinonia. Fellowship with us. And our fellowship, our koinonia, there's the second time, is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. …
… trying to get where you think you need to be or trying to get to what you think you wanted. Paul said, I want to know Christ. I'm clear about the outcome. I want to draw closer to him. If I have to suffer to get to know him, I would rather suffer and know him than succeed and forget him. I would rather go through something hard and have him than to be far from him and everybody else think my life is wonderful. I would rather have Christ. I would rather have him. I don't want to miss him on the way to it. It's so important that you understand whatever you're going through in your life, that God hears your cries. What do we mean when we say that? Well, let me break it down for you. I can't exactly explain this to you, but when I describe it, the Holy Spirit will help you to know what I'm talking about. Sometimes God answers your prayer by putting something in your path that looks like what you prayed for. That happens. …
… it's like i want to be perfected in my sufferings i want to bear the reproach that he bore i want to become like jesus that's why paul says i want to know christ I want to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings see I know a lot of you come from backgrounds where you want to know the power of his resurrection but did they ever talk about the fellowship of his sufferings we kind of want to stop the verse right there I want to know Christ, I want to know the power of his resurrection but it continues and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings I want to be at that cross that's why Jesus, if you want to follow me you're going to have to deny yourself pick up your cross and follow me and when you arm yourself with that type of thinking now you're unstoppable if you have the mindset of the cross and understand I've decided to follow Jesus there's no turning back and I've got this cross and I'm picking it up and I'll go see Jesus when he had a bunch of people in front of him. …