Word of Salvation – Vol. 15 No.33 – August 1969

 

That I May Know Him…!

 

Sermon by Rev. P. G. VanDam, M.Sc., B.D. on Philippians 3:10a

SCRIPTURE READING: Philippians 3:7-21

PSALTER HYMNAL: 37; 72 (Law); 430:1,9 (Creed); 47; 376; 493

 

Brothers and Sisters in our Lord,

Paul’s epistle to the Philippians is sometimes called his letter of joy.  And rightly so.  If you would read the whole of this letter, you would discover that Paul is writing it with joy in his heart.

Joy, because there was a very good relationship between the congregation of Philippi and Paul.  Joy also because the Philippians were a very faithful and believing church.  But above all the joy which he shares with them of “being in the Lord”; as he writes of it at the beginning of our chapter: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord”.  There, after all, is our true joy: in the Lord.

And then, in our chapter, we move from the first verse to the verse of our text.  In verse one: the command, the urge to rejoice in the Lord.  In verse 10 the explanation: why there is this joy in the Lord.  Then it is in this that we have the foundation, the real reason of our joy: that we may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.

It appears that our text has two parts:

a.  In the first place it speaks of knowledge; the knowing of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.  In other words: what is meant by this knowing of Paul?

b.  In the second place our text deals with the subject of that knowledge.  What precisely is it that we must know?  And what does this mean: to know Him and the power of His resurrection?

So, these are our two questions:

            a.  What must our knowledge be like, and Who and…

            b.  what is it that we must know?

A.  WHAT MUST OUR KNOWLEDGE BE LIKE?

In what manner must we know?  What must be the nature of our knowledge?  Just purely the knowledge of the mind, the knowledge of understanding?

Well, in a way, we wonder about Paul.  Why this very intense longing to know Jesus Christ?  After all, we might be inclined to say: but, surely, Paul knew Jesus!  We remember his experience on the road to Damascus, when Jesus stopped him from persecuting the church.  And where, in reply to Paul’s question He answers: “I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest”.  And it is from that moment that Paul believes in Jesus, when he asks Him: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”  But this was 30 years ago.  And since then Paul has made his three missionary journeys.  Should he not know Jesus Christ?  If he did not, who would?  But what then does he mean when he says that he longs to know Jesus?  Well, how do we, how do you know Jesus Christ?  Would you say that you know Him?  Would you?  Of course, you will agree – at least: you should – that there are two ways of knowing Him.

1.  We know Who Jesus is.
  He is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lord.

2.  There is the knowledge of His life;
  the facts and the incidents of His life and death,
  and of His resurrection.
  He came to die for our sins, and to give us eternal life.
  True, that is knowledge too.
  And, to be honest, we do need this knowledge;
  we do need to know that Jesus did die for our sins;
  that He did indeed arise from the dead,
  that He conquered death in order to give us life.
  It is all important to know that these are facts, that they did happen.

But what Paul means to say here is this: how do you know these facts; what is their meaning for you?  In other words are these facts merely facts for you, just intellectual knowledge, just book knowledge?  Or is your knowledge more than that?  Is it knowledge in which your heart is involved also?  And there is a real danger here.

We know the facts of His life and His death and His resurrection?  Yes, but in addition do you also know in your heart the love wherewith Jesus died for you?  And the love wherewith He conquered death for you?  Do you feel, do you have that love in your heart?  Does that love mean anything to you?

For that is the knowledge which Paul speaks of.  To know Jesus; that is: to know His love, to experience His love.  In a good marriage the wife knows her husband.  But that is not just:  who he is, and how he is.  But she knows him; that is to say: she experiences his love for her in her heart.

As a child knows its mother.  It experiences her love for him.  That is the knowledge Paul wants to have; the experience of the love of Christ in his heart.  To let that love rule his life.  As the life of the wife is ruled by the love of her husband for her.

To know Jesus Christ, it is not only, not merely, a living close to Him.  Not merely to do what He says.  But as a wife is ruled by the husband who loves her, and knows herself to be one with him, so must we be ruled by Jesus Christ Who loves us, and know ourselves to be one with Him.

That is the knowledge of my heart, of my innermost being.  That experience of Jesus’ love penetrating through to the very core of my being.

B.  And then we have the second part of our text which deals with the question: WHAT EXACTLY MUST I KNOW?

Paul says: Him and the power of His resurrection.  And this means: to know Jesus Christ, that is: to know the power of His resurrection.  To know what in His love He has given me when He overcame death for me.  In His love He has taken the power of death away from me.

The power of death.  What is this?  Well it means this, that God would have been right, if in punishment for my sin He had left me in the power of the one whom I had decided to serve in my sinful life: Satan.  And to be left in his power, this means: eternal death in hell.

But now Jesus came.  And in His love for me He decided to carry my punishment for me, in order that I would not have to die in the punishment of eternal death anymore.  And in this way Jesus destroyed Satan’s power over me.  I am no longer Satan’s possession, but “belong to my faithful Saviour”.

That is the power of His resurrection.  His victory over Satan.  When He arose in newness of life.  To give me a new life.  That as He arose from the bond of death, so I, with Him.

So that my sky is no longer overcast with the grey clouds, the grey shadow of an inescapable death, but that Jesus Christ has broken through it.  That I may see through, and see His sun. For me to know that as the sun is the condition for all of natural life, so has Jesus – the sun of life – broken through the clouds of death to once for all secure for me and to absolutely convince me of eternal life.  For me to know that what governs and possesses my life is not Satan and His power, but the power of my Lord.

* * * * * *

But that also means this: that if I know Him, and His love for me, then I will also know and experience that power in my life.  That is to say: the power that comes to grips with – that breaks through and overcomes – my desire for sin.  That power which will make me fight sin, and which – says Paul (Rom 6.4) – will make me “walk in newness of life”.  A life which wants to break with my desires, with my likes and dislikes, with my hopes and my fears.  Knowing that it is this power which “makes me heartily (with all my heart) willing and ready from now on to live unto Him” (Heid. Cat. Q/A 1).  Yes, indeed, as John says it: “Every man who has this hope in him (this hope is the surety of the victory of Christ over death) purifieth himself, even as He (Jesus) is pure” (1John 3.3).  No, with that love, and with that power in us we just cannot be of this world anymore.

And it is this knowledge – the experience of this love and this power in my heart – which is the only knowledge of Jesus Christ that the Bible speaks of.  Do we have this knowledge?  Do we?  No, this is not an easy question.  It is not, for that question does not suit our own everyday life, does it?  Yet, it is the question of our life!  The question as to which power rules in your heart.  And mere intellectual knowledge by itself does not have a great deal to do with that question.

Do you know how important that question is?  Well, verse 10a really is the explanation of vs 8, where Paul writes: “I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord”.  The “excellency” of that knowledge, it is the “super-ness” of it; it is superior to all things.  The excellency to have that knowledge of Christ Jesus: my Master, my Ruler, my Power, my Owner.  The excellency of the knowledge that I do not have my life and all things in it, but that Jesus Christ owns and governs it.

Do I have that knowledge?  That assurance?  That comfort?  That strength?  We may, we must, honestly admit that it is not easy.  Paul himself confesses that he has not fully reached that knowledge yet either.  Says he in vs.13: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended…”; no, I have not gained that perfect knowledge yet.  “But”, he goes on, “this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.”

No, he is not yet perfect (vs.12).  We are not either.  But Paul does something for it.  He does work towards it – with all his zeal!  That!  And is this then also what we are doing, to attain unto that marksmanship of the full knowledge of Jesus Christ?  In other words: are we working in that direction?

Paul urges us to do this!  “Brethren, be followers together of me…!” (vs.17).  See, we either work at it, for it; we either follow Paul’s example, and let Jesus work in us, and live in us, or we give first place to our ideals, our work, our problems, our loves, our criticism.  But if that is what we do, we will lose sight of Jesus; and we will lose interest in Him.  And Jesus will withdraw.

Jesus either gains in our lives, or He will withdraw.  One of the two; there is no stand-still.

So it is with Paul.  The more he grows up in the knowledge of His Lord, the greater the urge to know more.  Or to use Paul’s word: the stronger the urge not to live my own life, but to let Jesus live in him.

Yes, this takes effort.  To become smaller all the time that we may surrender to Him more and more, every day.  And this certainly also means that I do not want to be the foremost (which so often is what lies behind criticism in church-life!), but that I am the least of all saints.  Just feeding upon the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord.  Just that!

How?

The Bible gives us two ways.

The first way is, using Paul’s own words: “Always to labour fervently in prayers”.  Labouring, he says.

The second way we must follow is: “not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.” (Heb.10.25).

“…till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God; unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…. that speaking the truth in love we may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, Christ.” (Eph.4.13,15).

AMEN.