Knowing Christ

Shanksy, what do you know? Shanksy, what do you know? My mate Gary, I grew up with him in high school, and that was a line that he used to say to me.

Shanksy, what do you know? I think it was because his brother and sister were like a lot older. He was sort of a younger kid.

And so his dad was a bit older than our dads, and it just felt like a slightly different generation, that question. Did anyone get asked that? What do you know?

OK, it's probably an older one. What do you know? We live our lives out of what we know.

What we know is really, really important. It makes up our world view. What we know.

How do you get to what you know? Family of origin is a big thing. What we were taught as kids by our family.

Sometimes, it's quite false, but it's what we know and what education we've been given and what experiences we've had in life, what our street smarts are.

Every time we interact with other people, we are engaging in a collision of knowings, aren't we? Because everything that you hear, you're hearing stuff from the pulpit here, from the sound system, and what you know has formed a filter.

And you're hearing it and processing it, and it changes your assumptions about what it means. What do you know? What do you know?

The Apostle Paul is a Roman citizen. He's a Greek-speaking, Hebrew-speaking Pharisee. He's a Jew.

He's a zealot. And he has excelled in accumulating knowing. He knows a lot about the rules that the traditions of the Pharisees have taught.

And he knows a lot about the Old Testament. But that was all turned upside down when he was on that road to Damascus. And as a person who knew a lot, he met Jesus and Jesus had lived, died and risen again and gone back to heaven.

And Jesus opened up this portal between heaven and earth and revealed himself from heaven to Paul who was called Saul. And he said, Saul, you know, you need to follow me.

And so with this new revelation, he was called Paul, which is a more gentle, friendly name. We know him as Paul. And he took that new knowing that changed everything for him to know Jesus and that he was the Messiah of Israel.

And he took that knowledge and he wrote half the New Testament. And so one of the letters of the New Testament that he half of it that he wrote is this book Philippians, which is a letter that he probably wrote from prison in Rome. What do you know?

What do you know? We have these experiences and we have what we know. And there's normally a gap.

And we sometimes make assumptions to fill in the gap. And so we're going to talk about how the gospel is the best way to fill in that gap tonight. Paul says from his prison cell, I want to know Christ.

That's what I want to know. I want to know Christ, to know who he is. But the best way you'll find out who Christ is or who Paul thinks Christ is, is by understanding what he has done.

That's the best way to understand Christ. Paul writes, I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. And so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

You know what's interesting in this wonderful letter, the Book of Philippians, in about a chapter's time, we'll get another cracker of a memory verse where he says, Do not be what about anything? Anxious.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition present your request to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Anxiety is not to oversimplify it, I don't mean to do that, but anxiety is typically caused by not knowing something you think you need to know. Like, what am I going to do? What am I going to say?

I don't know, I don't know how to react, I don't know what's going to happen to this loved ones of mine that are going through something and we have this sense of anxiety.

I just want to encourage you that this is foundational to be able to cast all our anxieties on the Lord. What you know will help you with your anxiety. And Paul says, I want to know Christ.

He starts with, I want. Anyone remember a song that came out in 1989 that Queen, the pop band from England sang? I want what?

It all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.

Something like that.

That was not very close to it at all. It sounds like the desires of the world, doesn't it? I want it.

Queen was saying, you know, the anthem of the evil one, the anthem of humanity needing redemption is, I want it all. I just want what I need, what I want. And Paul says, in stark contrast to that, I want to know Christ.

Have you prayed that prayer? You've heard me say this so many times, but God took hold of me just before I turned 20, down the road at French's Forest. And I read the New Testament for the first time, and Philippians was covered with underlining.

I remember thinking, this is so cool. And actually, Ephesians and Philippians were one of the passages that I remember thinking, this is where preachers must get all their stuff from. This stuff's so great.

And I've found this verse in Philippians 3, and it was, I want to know Christ. And I used to pray that prayer.

I used to be face down in the dark at the church, breathing in the fluff of the carpet, saying, I want to know you, Christ, I want to know Christ. And I think about it now, and I think it's a bit mystical, isn't it? I mean, what does that mean?

I want to know you, Lord. I want to know Christ and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. That's what's stuck in my mind from the first NIV version, the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.

I don't think it is mystical, but it doesn't have to be mystical. That line, I want to know Christ. Because to know Christ, what He's like, who He is, is to know what He has done for us, who He is.

And you can find that out by saying, God, as I read your word, because it's the best way to find out what Christ is like, to know Christ. I can come up subjectively, and that is powerful, with my understanding of knowing Christ.

And it is a conversational intimacy with the Spirit of Christ that we live with as Christians and interact with. But you can't beat knowing what the Bible says, amen, about who Christ is.

And we often, we quote this so many times at this church, but it's worth it. Colossians 1.15. You need to read a passage like this, with that filter, that question, that request.

I want to know Christ. Lord, help me. As I read this passage, that it might help me know Christ.

The Son is the image of the invisible God. Paul wrote the first born over all creation.

For in him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He's before all things.

In him, all things hold together, and he's the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning and the first born from among the dead. That is, he rose from the dead.

So that in everything, he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. This is God in human flesh.

And through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. To know Christ is to believe that.

To know Christ is to believe this Christian sounding stuff that we often talk about and hear about at church. He is worthy of the glory of my heart. He is to be honored with everything that I can offer.

He is to be worshiped. Why? Because that, what we just read about him, is true.

He's the author of life. He's the one who breathed out creation in all its forms, from the stars and the planets and the insects. He sustains life.

He's the holder of every molecule together. He is the eternal God, the only eternal God. The second part of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is Jesus we're worshiping. And he came to reconcile this fallen planet to himself. And that includes you and I.

Us. He came to die on a cross for us. That's who we're longing to know when we say, I want to know Christ.

It's who Paul is saying, I want to know him. Paul says, I desire, I'm motivated to know Christ like Adam and Eve knew God, walking with him in the cool of the evening in knowledge. I want to know him.

So is that your prayer? What do you know? What are you filtering the life through?

Because you're filtering it through the story that you know. Our stories are framing up all that we encounter. Think about some of these ideas, these scenarios.

Do you ever find yourself carrying prejudice? You just have a preconceived idea about that type of person. It's called prejudice, and it comes from what we know.

It comes to come from anywhere else. It's from what you think you know. But we know some stuff, and we experience some stuff of certain people, and there's a whole gap in between, and we make a whole bunch of assumptions, and that's called prejudice.

But it comes out of what we think we know. Every generalization about people comes from what we think we know. Is that fair to say?

I'm just trying to unpack this idea of what we know. It's so important, because it drives our world view and our filter about how we interact with people. It's what's making the collision happen when we come together with our knowings.

Every self-condemning thought, every self-whip comes from something you think you know about yourself that deserves you to do that. Every critique of others or of a church is coming out of what we know. Every idol we have come to worship.

Anyone got some idols they worship? That has been established in your life from what you know, what you think you know. Because we bow down to worships when we think they're going to give us something.

It's often a lie, isn't it? What do you know? Paul says, I want to know Christ.

Some of us know things that we told ourselves as kids, like, I will never. It's got an inner vow. And it's something we know, but it's a lie.

So you got to be careful about what you think you know, don't we? What do we know? Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of the Resurrection.

I want to know the Gospel. I want to know what Christ has done and who He says I am by what He did for me. Every hunch about our future, which is driving the anxiety sometimes we feel, where's it coming?

My thesis is pretty clear, isn't it? I think it's from what we think we know.

I think it's from what we think we know, because like, you know, when you wake up at four o'clock and it's like, you're processing this stuff, it's all what I think I know, and the gap between my experience and what I know, I'm going to fill that in.

Probably with anxiety, with anxious thoughts. Every pessimistic thought, every anxious thought. The Gospel is good news.

It really is. It is good news. It's good knowing.

It's good knowing. We need to get the Gospel knowledge into our hearts and minds, don't we?

And the Gospel is this, God paid for our sins in Christ, and no matter what, how many times we fail, His character, God's character is such that we can trust Him to be merciful and kind to us. Hallelujah. That's the truth.

That's what you can bank everything on. Knowing that it's good news, it's not bad news. Paul says, I want to know Christ because I need some good news.

I'm in prison. I need that good news to frame up my life. But have you found that it's hard to keep that knowledge present?

It's hard. It sort of gets eroded. I'm doing the 60 to 60 read through, so I'm halfway through John.

But by the time I got through, halfway through Luke, I was getting pummeled in my, not my faith, but like I, does anyone else find that reading the Bible is a challenging thing to do? Like, it all sounds great.

It's a love letter, more and more love letter, more. But you read it, you actually read it, you're like, this doesn't feel like a love letter.

Where's the love letter part?

You know, because I'm hearing Jesus at 1.5 times speed. It's my confession. I know you listen to my podcast at two times.

But I'm listening to Jesus in Luke, and he's just going bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. It's just, I just feel like, does anyone get an easy ride, Lord? And I've got to confess what I felt like, and even I think I did it out.

I went, do you are harsh?

It's not just the pharaoh.

We all go, oh, he's always harsh at the Pharisees. I'm like, no, no, it was a woman with a demon possessed kid. He was like, oh, why do I have to deal with you guys and the disciples who are clutzes?

You know, they don't know what they're doing. Well, where is your faith? And I just, I'm just, does anyone ever felt that?

It's like, oh, and so I had to tackle to the ground what I thought I knew.

Because I felt like I could I could hear a slithery tongue in a hot breath, and I thought, that's probably the devil, because he was saying, you can't trust him, you know, he's harsh.

So I had to go back to what I know, and I know that God left heaven in my Lord Jesus Christ and He died on a cross for me. I know that. No matter.

And then I started realising, no, but he's prophet, priest and king. And I thought, wait on, like he's a prophet. How many of the prophets were cute and cuddly?

Like he had three years to come and give the truth. He's not tickling ears. Like that's a fallacy to think that he's doing that.

He is incredibly empowering to those who have been treated in an unjust way and left out. He includes, he's the most compassionate person you could ever imagine. He hung on a cross and said, Father, forgive them.

And I had to reframe and recalibrate and remember what I know. And I think sometimes we have to do that more frequently than you think. Because I'm laboring the first three words of this, but Paul knew something when he said, I want to know Christ.

I think he could have said, I need to know Christ. I need to remember. So let me say publicly, Lord Jesus is not harsh.

He's not harsh. He's tender-hearted and compassionate and loving. And he also tells the truth.

Paul wants to know Christ because to know Christ is to reframe your situation.

Paul also knows that Jesus himself has said, Luke 9, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save

it. Now, whether Paul knew that from some of the disciples or not, I can't know for sure that we know that. That's what Jesus said. You want to follow Jesus, you're going to have to pick up a cross.

Paul himself says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

It seems like to know Christ, this is a super important part of the next portion of this scripture, to know Christ is to know not only about the cross shaped life leading to the power of resurrection that Jesus had and experienced, but as the cross

shaped life the disciple has to walk, to find the power of the resurrection. Because there's a cross for us to bear, not to pay for our sin, but in quite a mysterious way, to access the power of the resurrection.

Paul says, I want to know Christ, just to know the power of his resurrection. We all want that. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is, there's nothing that our God can't do.

Like, it's just, yeah, give us power. But some of us know this passage is, and participation in his suffering is becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

And if we were to say in some, to know the power of participation in death to self, and the resurrection power that follows. That's what he's saying, isn't he?

He's saying, to know Christ is to know what Christ has done, but to know Christ's power, the power of the resurrection, is to fellowship in his sufferings, which means to die to self.

To allow him to live through us in that resurrection power is to die to the old way of trusting in ourselves. So what does that look like, a cross-shaped life?

It's knowing the power of self-forgetfulness, like we've talked about before, thinking about ourselves less. It's stopping chasing the glory. That's what it is to die to self, to know Christ, to know the fellowship of his sufferings.

I'm not going to hang on a cross. I can't know his sufferings from blood loss, though some have for sure when they've suffered, but it's probably not what we're going to experience. But what are we going to experience?

The fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. We're going to die to self, yes? Is that fair to say?

That the cross we bear is one of humility, of saying no to the self that wants to chase all the glory. The false self that says, I need the praise of women and men. I need to accumulate wealth to feel okay.

I need, like some of us have these needs, I need to make them laugh in that group. We need to die to that. That false self that's finding its fulfilment in the shadow of who we really are.

That dark side of our spiritual gift that wants to do something powerful, but take the glory for ourselves. There's all sorts of ways that self gets in the way.

Paul is saying, there is the power of the resurrection on the other side of letting that die, of dying to self.

I've got a quote here that I just put together, knowing Christ is being led by Christ daily and resting in the perfect relationship we have with the Father because of the cross and the resurrection.

And it's knowing the freedom from anxiety which comes from allowing the good news of the gospel to flood our knowing every day. Anxiety is dealt with as we let the truth of the gospel flood through our life every day. This is the truth.

It's not me who lives, but Christ who lives in me. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. This is what I know.

The only way that we can access this is to die daily to ourselves. Amen. So this is the great secret to know Christ, is to know the gospel.

He had to die on a cross before he rose again. And that's what he invites us to do. So there is a cross to bear for us to access this power that we long for.

Paul says, not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Now these are preaching words, aren't they? We know these ones.

Press on to the goal. Is this cross shaped life as a prelude to the power of the resurrection, is that a once off thing? Well, salvation is a once off thing.

Justification, we put our faith in Christ, we declared not guilty. But as we've talked about so many times, there's this process, there's this daily process of dying to self again and allowing Christ to live through us.

The power of the resurrection is on the other side of the cross. It's a process, it's a long process. Can I just ask, I know Alex is one of them.

Who, if you're in exercise, who are the endurance people? Put your hand up, if you're in it, we've got Alex, Richard, Rachel, we've got some endurance people over there. Sam is in, and Bec.

Are you going, not me, not me. I'm not, I've never been an endurance person. I've enjoyed, like with the fellows' training, doing tests of manhood on strength and stuff.

I've always enjoyed that for fun. But endurance, it sounds like too much hard work for me. And in fact, I just, I don't know, I just have never been that good at it.

But, since my life is a little bit public, being a pastor, I have recently fallen in love with an inanimate object. It's called a rower. Sorry.

A rower, a rogue rower. And anyone else done a bit of rowing in their life? Oh, a few of us.

I love it. I'm becoming an endurance athlete. It's the best.

It's the best. It's good for your heart, et cetera, et cetera. But what I've discovered is the problem with doing something endurance like 5K or 10K row is, you want to give up at the point.

Not too long in. And you've got to trick yourself. You've got to work out, how am I going to keep going?

And I'm thinking that it's got to be like some metaphor for the Christian life in this. There's always something. But it's actually true.

Rowing, I'm learning from my coaches online, the YouTube channels and stuff that you watch. Rowing has four parts. You lean forward in the right way and you do the catch.

And you've got to pull out of the catch just at the right time. And the drive is with your legs and then your hip hinge and then your arms. You're enjoying this, aren't you?

Not really, are they? Just roll your eyes. So have anyone asked for one amen?

I've been very good tonight. But then so there's the catch, the drive, the release, and the recovery. So four parts.

What I've been discovering is when I'm trying to do a 10k row, you could hurt yourself if you get 6k's in and you're trying to get a PB, personal best. You've got to just go quickly, think what is good form.

I bet you that's what you guys do in endurance, don't you? Isn't that the way you do it? How do you run well?

How's my stride? If you're a swimmer, endurance swimmer, how am I going to make sure my stroke is correct? It's good form.

I would put it to you, I reckon that's what we need in our Christian lives. We need to work out what is good form daily. What is good form daily?

And it's pretty simple. It's know Christ and to know the power of His resurrection is to get up on that cross daily and go, it's no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me. I'm dying today.

I want you, Lord Jesus, to shine through me because I know I'm keen for some glory if I don't get on that cross. I'm keen for some glory. I'm just designed that way.

But it's like, no, like the rowing, you have to go catch with my back forward, brace the lats, pull through the legs, breathe, go again. And I'm finding I get better. And the same is true.

Physical training is of some value, but training for what is of value in all things? Training for godliness. I think there's something super powerful in this.

And this is what Paul goes to. You might think I'm being silly, but it's exactly what he says in his little sermon. He goes, endurance athlete.

I'm not that, but they knew what these things were. Brothers and sisters, verse 13. I don't consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, I know it's an endurance race, and I'm not earning God's favour.

I'm just appropriating it daily, because I get in the way. I get in the way, forgetting what is behind. I'm going to forget that I failed yesterday.

I forget that I didn't get my PB. I let the flesh get in the way, but today, I'm remembering I want to know Christ, and there's a power for my life and those around me. If I know Christ, I know the power of His resurrection.

How do I get to that? I die to myself daily, and I let Him live His life through His grace through me.

Hallelujah.

Forgetting what is behind and straining, pressing in like skiing down the mountain, straining toward what is ahead, because I can trust what's ahead, because God's ahead, He's down there.

I'm going to strain toward where God is and press on toward the ultimate goal of knowing Christ, which is eternal life beyond the grave, for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Isn't it a mystery, this Christian life, between the sovereign hand of God doing it all, to will and to act and to fulfil His plans in our life?

And hopping on the cross and dying to self, doing every effort to add to our salvation, faith and goodness, and like 2 Peter 1, there's this synergy that, to God's glory, He invites us into. We can't do it without Him.

We can't do anything without Him. In fact, I can do nothing without Christ's grace. But He says, you got to do something here.

I've done it all, you got to hop on that cross, die to self, let me live through you. And what we get when we know Christ is we get the power of the resurrection. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us.

And that does something to anxiety, if we can get a hold of that. It does. Let the Gospel fill in the gap.

What is your experience telling you about how to interpret all these knowings around you? You know something and your experience is taking you there. I just think, let that gap be God's gap.

Am I making sense? Let the truth of the Gospel fill in the gap. And then I can live with a bit of ambiguity.

You're like, I don't know the future, but you do, Lord. And I don't believe the devil's lie.

You are good.

You're trustworthy. And I'm trusting today with my life in your hands and those that I care about in your hands. Paul says, I want to know Christ.

Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship or participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, which is obedient, saying, let the fathers will be done. And that's our response.

And so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead, that is running the race to get the prize at the end, which is ultimately resurrection from the grave. How good is our God?

How good is our God that we're invited in by faith to a life beyond the grave and the power of the resurrection now?