We are on a journey, a kind of a marathon,

and I’ll ask you right at the very outset,

because I’m talking now about the journey with Jesus Christ, the journey as a Christian here

on the earth these days, that we spend on the earth following Jesus, and I’ll ask you at the very

outset, so how are you going on this journey? Are you sprinting in terms of spiritual, in terms of

walking with God? Are you steady? Are you slowing down? Are you dragging your feet?

Have you stopped for a wee rest in terms of following Jesus, or have you stepped right out of the risk and joined the onlookers along the side, because you know the finishing point is coming,

and we need to be spending this journey well. I took you to Paul writing in Philippine’s chapter 3,

that’s the passage we’re on there, Philippine’s chapter 3, and particularly one verse,

I want to look at verses 10 and 11, but that we touch on on the rest of it afterwards, but especially

verses 10 and 11 there of Philippine’s chapter 3, where first of all the Apostle Paul is setting out,

as he thinks about focusing on the goal, he sets out for us his priority. What he wants, he says,

I want, do you see that in verse 10? He says, I want to know Christ, and the part of His resurrection,

and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow

to adhere into the resurrection from the dead. Okay, he says, here’s what’s important for me,

here’s my priority for this journey with God. I want, and he says, I want to know the greatest person.

I want to know Christ. Do you see it there in verse 10? What a brilliant way to start. He says,

I want to know Christ. Would you say that this morning? This is my number one priority.

I want to know Christ, but then many of you are saying, but I’ve already come to know Christ.

I’m a born-again believer. I’m following Jesus. I can take that box. And yet look who he’s saying,

I want to know Christ. This is the Apostle Paul, who is a spiritual saint walking with God now

for 25 years. He’s traveled thousands of miles with the gospel. He’s led kindless people to Christ.

He has set up churches. He has even been asked by God and with the help of the Spirit

to write part of the Scriptures. That’s the man we’re talking about. He is able to say to me,

to live as Christ. And yet he’s saying, I want to know Christ. Is that not a little bit strange?

Amen. And you say, well, obviously he knows he knew Christ a lot better than I do.

And yet he’s saying, I want to know Christ. But you see, it’s that word know that he’s using there.

 

It’s a very strong word. It’s a very deep word, a very intense word. He wants this intimate,

deep, non-personal knowledge with Christ. He wants to know more of Jesus. He says, yes, I know him.

Yes, I’ve come to trust him. Yes, he’s my friend. But he says, my number one priority is to know him

better, to be completely wrapped up in Christ. Is that what you’re wanting for your life?

He’s saying, I want to first and foremost in this journey, I want to know Christ. What are you doing

about it? Are you spending time reading, praying? We have this marvelous access. We sang a moment

ago, bold, I approach the eternal throne and claim the crime. We go right into the throne room

of God. So if no excuse for not getting to know Christ, well, you’re honor. He says, I want to know

the greatest person. And then secondly, he says, I want to know the greatest power. You read on

their verse 10. He says, I want to know Christ, excuse me, and the power of his resurrection.

And the word that he uses for power there is the Greek word dunamis. And it’s where we get our word

dynamite from. It’s a very powerful word. He says, I want this power that no obstacle can obstruct

and no temptation can defeat and no despair can overwhelm. He says, I want to be filled with the

energy of God. I want the full energy of the Holy Spirit in my life, enabling me to conquer

sin and to live a victorious life and to face all the difficult situations with triumph. He says, I

don’t want to be an average Christian. He says, I want to be powerful for God. I want this power

surging through me. And you know, you have that power there at the cross. That power has already been

secured for you. You know how we love to sing? There’s power in the blood. And in every sense,

there is. It is through the sacrifice of Jesus, through his shared blood that we know as Christians

have mighty power, mighty power. And already through conversion, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell

on you. Already the Spirit is dwelling within you. Already you may know the full majestic power of

you. But how do you get this full power of the Holy Spirit? You need to go to a meeting where they

hand out the second blessing or something. You need to do that. No, you don’t. What do you need to do

to get to know the full power of the Holy Spirit as you just need to walk close with God every day?

Just walk close with God. You don’t need anything spectacular. Just walk close through the Bible

and through prayer and through living the life and putting yourself in a position where you need

the power. Do you remember how Jesus, it says, he appointed the 12 disciples that they might be with

him and that he would send them forth. And that’s the key to experience in the full power of God.

That number one, we are with him. We’re walking with him. We’re close to him. We’re living and close

intimacy with the Lord. And we’re going out for him. I identify the world. He says, I want to know the

greatest person. I know they’re wanting to know the greatest power. And he says, I want to know the

greatest. I’ve called it Perseverance because he goes all in verse 10. I want to know Christ and the

power of his resurrection. Here it is. And the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Huh, that’s

not so good. To know the all together, lovely Lord Jesus Christ and to know him better, that’s brilliant.

To know this surging power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Of course, I want that. But what about this

bit? The fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Now, as Christians, we understand that to follow Jesus

that leads to suffering. And we talked about the race a little bit. We touched in with the kids

even saying that it’s not easy being a Christian. And we know that suffering actually comes directly

sometimes. Some of the suffering comes. Some of the abuse comes from the very fact that we follow

Jesus. But note what the Apostle Paul is saying here. He’s not saying suffering is a consequence

of following Jesus. Therefore, I’m prepared to put up with it. He said, I want to know this. I want

to experience it. We live in a sinful world where either we stand for Jesus or we go with the world.

Either we encounter this suffering or we try to try and avoid it. Jesus said there’s disciples

the night before he was crucified. He says, if they persecuted me, they’ll persecute you also. He

also said to the whole crowd one day, if anyone will come after me, let them deny himself and take

up his cross and follow me. Jesus was clear with us. It’s not easy to be a Christian. And if you’re

hovering on the edge and thinking it’s going to be all sweetness, it’s not going to be. It’s tough

along. It’s the best life, infinitely better than living without Christ. But it’s not an easy life.

Yet he said, I want to experience, I want to share, to be in fellowship with his sufferings.

Over in chapter 1 and verse 29, there he said, it has been granted to you. Here’s your gift,

here’s what God has given you. Verse 29 of chapter 1, he says, for it has been granted to you

on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him. And he says, here’s God’s

gift to you, to believe on him and also to suffer for him. And early on in the book of Acts,

in Acts chapter 5 and verse 41, when the apostles had actually been flawed, we read that they

came away praising God that they’d been kind of worthy to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so this is one of the bits that maybe we didn’t want to hear. Whenever we read this lovely verse,

we want to know Christ and all this power. We want to know that power flooding through us. But this

bit of enduring is suffering and yet there’s such blessing here. Fourthly, he says, I want to know the

greatest purity. We read it on there. This little bit sounds strange. At first, he says, I want to know

Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing and his sufferings, becoming

like him in his death. Now, he’s not suggesting that he wants to die physically, but rather he’s

talking about another type of death. For example, he speaks of it in Romans chapter 6 and verse 11,

he says, to Christians in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God and Christ Jesus.

He’s not wanting physically to die as Jesus dead in the cross, but he’s saying, I want the sinful

part of me to die. I want to put that to death. I want them to crucify that for me that it will have

less influence upon it. It’s his old selfishness and sinfulness. He says, I want rid of that. I want that

crucifying. He wants to kill that part that is self-centered so that he would live as he should for

the Savior. Just he wants the Lord to nail his wickedness to the cross, the stuff that’s pulling him

down. He wants to be holy, to be like Jesus, we’re saying, and that’s our great desire and the

human. That’s the apostles’ passion. Here’s his priority. He says, I guess I want to know the greatest

person, Jesus, more and more of him. I want to know the power of the Spirit flowing through me. I want

to even enter into his sufferings and stand with him in every situation. And he says, I want to be clean.

I want to be like Jesus. And fifthly he says, I want to know the greatest product day. Where’s the end

of all of this? He says, I want to verse 10. I want to know Christ, the power of his resurrection,

the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him and his death. And so here it is now,

so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. And he’s talking about the spiritual

resurrection first and foremost that as we are born again and as we experience the new life

flooding through us, but also he’s talking about that ultimate resurrection for us Christians,

which we are so looking forward to. Excuse me, I discovered so many even Christians don’t really

understand what happens. Here’s one of the big questions that often comes in relation to resurrection.

What happens between when a Christian dies and when Jesus comes again and the resurrection

takes place? It’s very, very simple actually. Bible is crystal clear. It tells us that at the moment

of death for a Christian that instantly we are absent from the body present with the Lord.

The body is left behind to die, to go to the grave, but instantly we go to be with the Lord.

And then when Jesus comes again read of it and first says so means for. It tells us very specifically

that he will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Christ. They’ll be brought back from

the glory. Their bodies will be raised, transformed new bodies and those still living in the earth.

And that’s a great resurrection we’re looking forward to. When we all go there to be with the Lord,

to the glory land. There’s there’s where it’s handing. Excuse me. So the Apostles priority.

That’s the main thing I wanted to talk to you about this morning. Just want to tag on

a wee bit to the end of it then. That’s his priority. That’s what he wants most of all. Those are the

things that he’s yearning and longing for it is like are those the things that you want to know

Jesus, to know the power of the Spirit, to be prepared to stand and share in the sufferings,

to know that purity and holiness and looking forward all the time to this great resurrection.

That’s the priority. But the problem you see is the problem is we haven’t arrived there yet.

We haven’t. We’re not there yet. Are we nearly there yet? The kid says when you’re driving along.

The problem is we haven’t because we read on verse 12. He says, “Not that I’ve already obtained all

this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus

took hold of me.” Brothers, I don’t consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do

for getting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win

the prize for which God has called me, have a words in Christ Jesus. The problem is we haven’t arrived yet.

By the way, if you’re not yet born again believe or if you haven’t yet come to Christ,

you absolutely haven’t arrived and you’ll never arrive in the glory land. You need Jesus Christ

as your Savior. And if you’re sitting here and I have people that sat in my congregation

week after week and they didn’t yet know Jesus, you still need to know Jesus. And at any moment,

your time can be up your journey over. You need to know Christ as your Savior. But for those of us,

and you may come today, and that’s the great thing if you’re not saved today, the door is still open.

This is still the day of opportunity, the day of salvation, and this very day you may come to Christ.

But for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, we haven’t arrived yet. We haven’t arrived at

all the things that we’ve been talking about there that are priorities. We’re still on the journey.

And so in your love for the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s not the way it should be, it’s not.

In your living for Jesus, living out the life, it’s not the way that it should be either.

And then your labor for the Lord, your busyness for the Savior, and all of us surely must look

at our lives and say, “Well, I definitely haven’t arrived.” And here are things that need

addressed. And as a church, every church we haven’t arrived. Our worship isn’t as it should be.

Our warmth isn’t as it should be. Our witness isn’t as it should be. Look at those three words now.

Worship is us to the Lord as a church. Our worship, our celebration of the Lord, our serving,

our praising of the Lord, it isn’t as it should be. We haven’t arrived yet. Our warmth,

the worship was to the Lord. Our warmth is with each other as believers. And it’s not as it should

1. We need to work on that, don’t we? And our witness then, which is us out to the world. And again,

it’s not as it should be. We’re not the witnesses that we ought to be. And so the problem is we haven’t arrived.

But thankfully, there is progress. The Lord is at work. God is moving among us. We’re not there yet,

but we are getting there. God is speaking. He is moving. Jesus is saving people in these days. We

are going forward. Thank God. And thank God that we are on the move as His people. And here in this

congregation, thank God that you’re having impact and that you are moving. We’re not there yet,

but we’re on the way. And so verse 12, the Apostle says, “Not that I’ve already obtained all this

or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold

of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of one thing I do. For getting

what is behind, straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal, to win the prize,

for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. That’s the last thing there is the prize.

We’ve seen the priority on what He wants for His life. We’ve seen the problem that He hasn’t yet

got there and fullness. The progress thankfully, but ultimately then, the prize. We will get there and

look where we’re going. Verse 14, He says, “I press on towards the goal, to win the prize for which

God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. God has called us to this prize.” This is not

endless. It’s not accidental, but God has individually dealt with His believers in Christ. He has

dealt with you in this most powerful way. You’ve been born again. And He has prepared for you the

crime, the prize. He has prepared a place for you, very specifically, for you with your name on it,

and called by God and called to glory, called heavenwards, where Mark changed his eye. And so,

we’re on a journey and tie in with what we started off by saying to the young folk, “Here we are

on a journey with the Lord.” Now, have you started out because some of you maybe are still in the

crowd and you’re a spectator. You haven’t come to Christ yet. You haven’t signed up for the race,

and the race starts and you’re not even on the race. And maybe that’s what you need to do today.

You need to come to Christ. But for those of us who have come to Christ, we’re in this race. It’s not

easy. It’s not easy. But let’s brilliant, absolutely superb. It is just so lovely to be following

Jesus here in these days. And what’s your priority there in life? Are you one thing

very closely to be walking with Him? Looking forward all the time. Go back to what you said to the

young folk. It’s not an easy journey. Not an easy journey. But hey, we’re looking forward to the rest

that the book of Hebrews talks about, where we lay aside all the burdens, all the cares and concerns.

We’ve already believers in Christ been enabled to set aside the burden of sin. It’s been taken away

from us. It keeps gathering and he keeps removing. But on that day, all the worries, all the pressures,

everything that hurts and harms and makes life difficult, all of it’s going to be gone. We’re going

to lie down in the track and rest and say, “Thank you, Lord, I’ll race on earth as over and then the

price, the cry of glory that is waiting for us.” It’s great to be able to leave. I hope you know the Lord

and I hope you’re surging forward for Him. Let me pray with you. And so our Father, we thank you for

your grace and goodness to us. We thank you, Lord, for what you’ve done through the cross in Calvary.

And Lord, we thank you very personally. You’ve been working in our lives and we pray that

you will speak to us all as we go home and that you’ll draw us closer, ever closer to you and

make us more powerful for you and help us more and more to enjoy this journey that we’re on with

Jesus, where we ask it in His precious name. Amen.