1. PHILIPPIANS
CHAPTER 3
Verse 10
March 4, 2012
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
Announcements!
GOING DEEPER with GOD CONFERENCE
When: Sunday, March 25th and Monday, March 26th
Where: On Sunday, March 25th ALL ADULTS will meet in Fellowship Hall East.
This will take the place of our Sunday School class on March 25 th at 9 am.
Led by: Dr. Greg Frizzell
"Praying For Our Jerusalem" Acts 1:8
Praying For Our Jerusalem is a prayer effort by which we attempt to go into every
home of our church family for the sole purpose of praying with the people in that
home. It is that simple. No gimmicks, no signing up for something, just to pray. Prayer
Warriors will visit up to four homes and pray with our church family from April 1-30.
Dr. Frank Page will lead a Training Session for all enlisted Prayer Warriors TODAY at 4:45
p.m. in Fellowship Hall East. This prayer emphasis will be a life changing event for each
of us individually and for our church family.
Prayer is a double blessing:
It blesses those on the praying end and those on the receiving end.
If you know someone willing to serve as a Prayer Warrior, who will be going into 4
homes during April 1-30 and pray with our church family, please call Trish Jenkins at
(601) 949-1941 or e-mail her at: pjenkins@fbcj.org.
BREATH OF LIFE
What: A Sunday School Class for those with a chronic cough.
When: Sunday, April 15th @ 8 a.m.
Where: At FBCJ in ROOM E423
Thank You for Serving
What: A banquet to honor waiters & waitresses.
When: Monday, April 23rd from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: The South, 627 East Silas Brown, Jackson, MS 39201
3. Paul gladly shed the threadbare robe of his own righteousness and stretched out his
empty hands to receive the glorious royal robe of God's righteousness.
So now we come to:
Philippians 3:10
10“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death;” Philippians 3:10
“that I may know Him”:
personally (intimately)
powerfully (resurrection)
passionately (sufferings)
Philippians 3:10a
“that I may know Him” (personally)
Philippians 3:10a
To know Him personally is more than merely to know a doctrine about Him.
The Holy Spirit brings us not only to redemption, but to the Redeemer Himself.
To know Him: in Hebrew the verb is ‘yada' and in Greek it is translated by ‘ginoskein’.
This verb indicates the most intimate knowledge of another person.
To know Christ is to know Him with such intimacy that in the end we are as united with
Him as we are with those whom we love here on earth.
That initial saving knowledge of Christ became the basis of Paul's lifelong pursuit of an
ever deeper (intimate) knowledge of His Savior. (by sanctification)
Paul is no longer going to try to build up legalistic righteousness.
He isn't going to see how religious and pious he can be any more.
Since he has changed his bookkeeping system of the past, Paul has also
changed his purpose for the present.
Like Paul, since we have been saved by faith, we now have: a new motivation,
a new life purpose, a new life-style.
Some people get the impression that being saved by faith means there is no
motivation for: 1) godly conduct or for 2) works done in faith.
They think that if a person is saved by grace it must mean he just sits around
and twiddles his thumbs.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Saving faith is a faith that moves us.
4. James 2:18
18 …“I will show you my faith by my works.” (faith-works not law-works)
Paul dissipates any notion that being saved by faith means you can sit in a rocking
chair and rock yourself all the way to Heaven.
Paul exhibits an effort and an energy that is derived from the Holy Spirit, which is far
greater than any legalistic effort.
Under the Law, Saul was so zealous that he was willing to go to Damascus to stamp
out the followers of Christ.
But now, under the grace-faith system, he will go to the ends of the earth to make
followers of Christ and to witness for Him.
Faith produces good fruit!
Your faith in Christ is a motivation for you to live for God.
That is the reason Paul went on to live as he did – as should we.
Motivation - Greg Frizzell said on page 73 of his book: How to Develop a Powerful
Prayer Life “that in 1981, God led him to begin praying through all nine fruit of the
Spirit. To this day, I have never found anything that comes close to the power of daily
praying these character words for my own spiritual growth.”
“that we may know Him” – experientially, personally, intimately.
That’s the aim of the "righteousness" just mentioned in Phil 3:9.
Some saints give the impression that they have complete knowledge and they only
need to polish their halo every morning.
Yet Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever seen, said at the end of his life;
"My ambition is still to know Christ personally, intimately.”
The cry of Paul’s heart was “that I may know Him” (personally, intimately).
Paul also longed to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Philippians 3:10b
10 “that I may know Him (personally) and the power of His resurrection” (powerfully)
Life pushes us (those who are saved and those who are lost) to our destinations:
either to Heaven or to Hell.
A lost soul is never too dead for a resurrection!
Paul knew there was no power in the Law.
He also knew there was no power in his flesh to overcome sin or serve God
(Rom 7:18).
5. Romans 7:18
18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is
present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Romans 7:18
Because he knew Christ and had His righteousness imparted to him, Paul had been
given the Holy Spirit. The same spiritual power that raised Jesus from the dead now
enabled him to accomplish the work God had sent him to do.
The resurrection was and is the greatest display of Christ's power! (Rom 1:16)
Rising from the dead revealed Christ’ absolute power over both the physical and
spiritual realms.
It is the resurrection power that saved us, a truth Paul affirmed in Romans 6:4-5:
Romans 6:4-5
4 "Therefore 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.
5 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.” Romans 6:4-5
At salvation, we are identified with Christ both in His death and in His
resurrection.
But more than that, it is Christ's resurrection power that sanctifies us to defeat
temptation and trials, lead a holy life, and fruitfully proclaim the Gospel.
Paul gladly exchanged his impotence for Christ's potency – His resurrection
power!
Paul desired to experience its fullness as should we.
Philippians 3:10
10 “that I may know Him (personally) and the power of His resurrection (powerfully)
and the fellowship of His sufferings,”
Philippians 3:10c
“and the fellowship of His sufferings,” (know Him passionately).
That we may know Him:
personally
powerfully and
passionately.
Philippians 3:10
6. We are conformed to His death at salvation(Rom6:4-5).
But Paul has something more in mind here, a deep partnership and
communion with Christ in His suffering.
When he met Christ, Paul gained a Companion to be with him in his suffering — One
Who endured far more intense persecution and suffering than anyone else who ever
lived, all of it undeserved.
The deepest moments of spiritual fellowship with the living Christ are at times of
intense suffering; suffering drives us to Him.
"I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chattered all the way;
And left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And not a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me.“
Robert B. Hamilton
Jesus Christ
“In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the
world.” John 16:33b
“God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”
Augustine - Works and Biography
