THE GREATEST AMBITION - Phil. 3:10
I. Introduction
A. Paul States emphatically that God can be known
1. Not only can he be known intellectually, but according to this text He can be know experientially.
2. There are four ways of knowing a person
II. We can know a person Historically
A. By that we mean records which have been preserved from the past which characterize their deeds.
1. We know many great figures from the past in this way
a. Daniel - David - Moses - Caesar - Napoleon
b. There are a great many others who have commanded more than ordinary attention on the stage of history
III. We can know a person contemporaneously
A. We can know them not only as to their past but we can know them for what they are now.
1. Take Reagan for example: I have heard him speak, read articles by him
2. Yet I cannot say I know him directly, by personal introduction and contact
IV. We can know a person contractually
A. This is much closer than merely knowing "about" someone yet it can mean no more than a chance or casual contact
1. We meet people in social life or in business connections. We pass the time of day or make an interchange of comments on current topics.
2. But that is all; we do not know them closely no can we consider them bosom friends.
V. We can know a person Familiarly.
A. These are people we are close to. We are frequently in their presence.
I. We know their ways of thinking, feeling, reacting
2. We are aware of their habits and idiosyncrasies
3. There is a genuine fellowship and feeling between us..
VI. There are Four ways of knowing Christ
A. We can know Him Historically
1. We can believe He died, buried, rose again and ascended exactly as the Gospel narratives tell us.
2. We can believe He is Son of God and Savior of the world
a. We can believe it all, in the sense of assenting to it with the mind.
b. Yet we do not really accept it so as to allow the truth of it to change our lives.
B. We can Know Him Contemporaneously
1. We can believe He is in control of the universe.
2. We can speak of His being with us yet we have not made real contact with Him.
C. We can know Him Contractually
1. We say that we have accepted Him as our Savior.
2. We are changed, we are different, yet we do not quite grasp the significance of what it is all about.
3. However, I Cannot say I know Him in the way Paul is talking about in Phillippians 3:10.
D. Paul wanted to know Him Familiarly
1. Paul wanted to know Him in a richer, fuller, deeper, communion.
2. He is not concerned with certain facts or theories of Christ.
a. He really wants to know Jesus in a personal way.
b. The Old Testament uses the verb to know of intimacy - Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived (Gen. 4:1)
c. Paul is speaking of the most intimate personal knowledge of Jesus possible to a human being.
3. It is not Paul's aim to know about Christ but he wants to know him personally
E. To know Christ means for him several things.
1. It means to know the power of His resurrection.
a. It was not merely something that happened to Jesus.
b. It is a dynamic power that is to operate in the life of each believer.
2. It is the guarantee of the importance of this life and of this body in which we live. It was in his body that Christ arose and it is this body of ours which He sanctifies (I Cor 6:13).
3. It is the guarantee of the life which is to come. Rom 8:11 and because He lives we shall live also - His victory is our victory.
4. It is the guarantee that in life, death and beyond the presence of the risen Lord is always with us.
5. The resurrection of Christ is the guarantee that this life is worth living and that our physical bodies are sacred.
6. It is the guarantee that death is not the end of life and that there is a life beyond physical death.
F. To know Christ means that we share the life that He lives forevermore.
VII. The Fellowship of His Sufferings
A. We cannot enter the sufferings that transpired between God and His Son at the cross.
1. But we can feelingly enter into His spurned and cruelly requited love.
2. We can enter into the compassionate yearning of His heart to share the good news to the race of sinners that repudiates Him.
3. We can enter into His heart brokenness over the sins and sorrows of this world.
Years ago, when he (Dr. Montgomery) was in New York with Charles M. Alexander, the well known song leader in the Torrey Alexander evangelistic campaigns, Mr. Alexander asked Sam Hadley if he would take him to see some of the night dens of New York, so that he might have a clearer idea of what went on in the city during the night. The two of them started at twelve midnight. At 2 A.M. Mr.Alexander had become so sickened by what he had seen that he needed to call off. He left Sam Hadley at a street corner, but after walking away a few paces, he heard Hadley's uneven limp stop, and on looking around, saw him leaning heavily against a lamp-post, he head resting wearily on his arm. Mr. Alexander hurried back, thinking his friend was ill but as he drew nearer, he heard Sam Hadley sob, "Oh, Cod... oh, God... the sin of this city is breaking my heart!" Have you and I entered into "the fellowship of His sufferings" to such a degree as that?
III. To Know Him Should Be Our Controlling Desire
A. He cannot be known by a few hurried little snatches of prayer in the morning or at bedtime
1. We must get alone with Him often enough and long enough: for Him to make good His promise in John 14:21
a. think of how devotedly some of us pursue the passion for money, knowledge, achievement even for discovery
b. Yet how lackadaisical we are in this most noble and heavenly pursuit that exceeds all else
2. Hosea 6:3 - Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord
B. To Know Him meant a developing communion with Christ
1. Paul already knew Christ as the one who had transformed His life
a. but he didn't stop there - that was the starting point not the goal
b. In Jesus Christ there is never anything static or final
2. In Christ we have an ocean without a shore.
a. Col. 2:3 - The treasures are not only IN Him but they are HID in Him.
b. why are they hidden? Is it because He is reluctant to reveal them?
c. NO it is so that we can have the joy of continual discovery