HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?

Phillipians 3:10, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.”

Paul is expressing a desire which should be the desire of every man.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?

Do you know him only as a mystical, mythical figure who was endowed with certain supernatural powers only in the minds of his superstitious followers? Or perhaps you are of those who see him as an historical figure who captured the minds of a downtrodden world.

Then there are some who love to see Christ as the cute little babe of Bethlehem who had a rather remarkable birth, about which the world still talks and wonders. And then there are many who learned in Sunday School as children that Jesus is the Son of God.

Paul already knew him better than any of these. He knew as a student of the Old Testament, what the prophets had said about the Messiah, but this didn’t satisfy him. He knew the recent fact of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and desired to know him still better. He had even had that memorable personal encounter with him on the road to Damascus at which he had accepted Jesus as the Messiah and his own personal saviour. Yet he still expresses this desire to KNOW him!

After his salvation experience he had enjoyed years of the close companionship with Christ which enabled him to exhibit a bouyant spirit of hope and cheerfulness in spite of his trials and persecutions. He could do this even to the extent that he was able to express the thought in Phillipians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthen me.”
It seems that the more he knew of Christ, the more he wanted to know Him! The closer his relationship with Christ the greater was his desire to know him better.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?
If you know him only as the infant of "Christmas", let me introduce you to the man of the cross, the one who triumphed over the tomb! I wonder if there are not many who would prefer to keep him an infant, to be adored for a season and then quietly put away for another year than to have him as a real savior who might change their lives?

Though the virgin birth is an indispensable part of our faith, we must remember that it was as the man of sorrows that he died for our sins. It was the cross and not the crib in which Paul said he gloried . Your first need, then, is to know the crucified Christ and to understand that he died for YOUR sins. You must come to know; to REALLY KNOW him as a personal savior. This doesn’t mean to accept certain dogma, rituals or ceremonies but to receive him, THE PERSON! Only then are you ready to learn what Paul meant when he said, “I know whom I have believed-“ Not what, but whom. “And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.”

Perhaps you already know him as savior. The next step is to know him in your life as a daily companion. This is not accomplished by trying to make him a junior partner in the affairs which you might choose, but rather by a transforming of your whole being to HIS service, by the renewing of your mind. [Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.]

Phil 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus

Those who know him as savior have a real need to know his mind ; To know his thoughts, his desire, his loves and what he hates. To know the mind of Christ is to experience the same desires, manifest the same humility and follow with the same obedience as He followed the Father's will.

The mind of Christ has never yet led one of his into a life of cold indifference. His mind never leads except into paths of rightousness.
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?

HOPE EAGER ANTICIPATION

HOPE, EAGER ANTICIPATION

Rom. 8:16-27
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are notworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Following the new birth we become MORE than mortal souls with temporal hopes!

V-16, 1. We are the children of God.

V-17. That which is born by natural descent.

1.Heirs in the sense of a special lot NOW.

2.Joint heirs. Psalm 8

8:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy
glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

IF we suffer = To be affected by; good or bad

IF we suffer = ie ; to share his desires And dislikes!

3. THEN shall we share his glorification! 8:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Then we shall share his glorification.

Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

1 Peter 5:4 4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

1 John 3:2 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

V-18. A little pain, a lot of gain!

2 Cor. 4:17 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

1 Peter 1:6-7 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1 Peter 4:13 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

V -19-22 All creation shares our despairs and hopes.

V-19. earnest expectation = to lean forward in expectation.

The glory revealed in us. As vv 18 -20. Man’s sin brought chaos, righteousness in Christ brings peace.

V-23. Here is why God’s people are so agitated by the world; TheHoly Spirit struggles like a child in the womb.!

V-24-25. Hope keeps us going.

2 Cor. 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen

V- 26-27. The Spirit reaches out in ways we but dimly perceive.