Fifth Sunday in Lent
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt April 6th, 2025
“That I Might Actually Know Him” Philippians 3:7-16
I read a story on the internet this past week, so I know it has to be true. It seems a woman in Romania found a very interesting rock in a creek bed and used it as a door stop for many years. When she died a relative saw it holding a door open and thought it very unusual looking. So he took it have it appraised. Verdict? The woman’s door wedge revealed itself to be one of the largest intact pieces of amber deposits in the world. I looked it up and found out that Amber is a fossilized tree resin that has undergone chemical changes over a very long period of time. Anyway, this doorstop weighed 7.7 lbs. and appraised at over 1 million Euros or 1.1 million in US dollars.
For me the most interesting part is the reason it was considered so valuable. It’s estimated to be between 38-70 million years old and originally was likely the resin of prehistoric coniferous trees.
As I thought about that I realized that the old adage that “One persons trash is another person’s treasure. For my money I think the old woman used the prehistoric resin in a way that benefitted her. A door stop.
Each of us will respond to the value of things depending upon whether or not the thing in question means anything to us personally. For many the claim that around 2000 years ago a man named Jesus Christ died upon a Roman cross apparently to pay the price for our sins but that doesn’t really seem like such a big deal to many, if not most.
Certainly there are many stories down through the history of people doing strange things meant to affect others in ways that still seem hard to understand or maybe just appropriate for what was going on then. The amazing thing is that the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is still being told, and today there are hundreds of millions of people’s lives that have been transformed, and real hope has been found through the Gospel message. All around the world there are people still living and dying because of their unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Lord. I personally know about that because my life has been drastically changed because of my decision to follow our Lord according through the message of His holy word.
Today is the 5th Sunday of Lent. Lent is the season where our focus is to be on the cross of Christ and the seriousness of our sins because they separate us from the holiness of God. The Son of God came to pay the price for our sins.
Today we will be focusing on our passage from Philippians 3:7-16.
In other sermons I have shared that years ago Philippians 3:7–11 had a major impact on me as I focused on the need to know more of Christ in my life. I was moved that Paul saw the loss of all things, which in his case was his life as a Pharisee, his reputation in the synagogue, his family and most of his Jewish friends and of course his safety. In other words, he willingly gave up everything that he once held dear and of first importance. I wondered why he would consider all that as rubbish (which is actually translated as excrement or dung) in comparison to what he had gained in Christ? What had he gained in Christ? What changed his mind? This is what I wanted to know, not just intellectually, but way down deep in my soul and it was his prayer that floored me.
I understood clearly why he would want to know Christ in the power of the resurrection, that made perfect sense, who wouldn’t? He wanted to have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. What made him think that was possible? But to be like Christ in his sufferings and become like him in His death? Why would he want that? It was clear to me that the two went hand in hand. I felt the Holy Spirit reminding me of Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he intended to arrest the Christians there and throw them into prison. Acts 9:3–6 reminds us what happened,
“Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Saul of Tarsus (later changed to Paul) had been a faithful Pharisee, zealous for the law of God, which is why he persecuted those in the church, whom he felt had turned away from the law of God and were blaspheming him. In Philippians 3:6 he writes concerning his former life, “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
In Christ, Paul moved from “behavioral righteous” where he had hoped to gain an advantage with God by keeping the law of Moses, to “positional righteousness” given by God to those who come to Christ by faith alone. Now he would be seen by God as righteous because of Christ’ righteousness. For all his striving to be righteous according to the law, Paul had yet to meet the one who had given the law to Israel.
The encounter that Paul had with Jesus that day changed everything in his life, even to the point that he was willing to suffer and die for the glory of Christ. Whatever he would suffer was worth it because of what happened to him when he encountered Jesus. I don’t know what that was like, but it led him to say, “becoming like him (Jesus) in his death, that by any means possible I may obtain the resurrection from the dead.” I didn’t recall anyone that I knew who was praying like that. I wondered if this was what was normally considered fanaticism.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so years ago I began praying the same prayer as Paul because I wanted to encounter Jesus in the same way that he did. I felt that he and I were in a similar situation. We both found our lives in a mess and reasoned that it didn’t matter what it cost. If I could encounter the resurrected Lord, the creator of all things, what could be better than that. If measured by outward righteousness Paul seemed to be a man of God, zealous for the law of God. Within Judaism Paul seemed completely sold out to God.
I couldn’t claim that but knew that if measured by outward righteousness I was a dead man walking. However, I found out that I could never be righteous enough to earn my way into God’s presence, nobody could. Trying and failing over and over again drove me crazy because I assumed that my guilt made God despise me.
I had missed the point of the cross. I needed an encounter with Jesus, that would set me free from guilt and shame and change me into the man Jesus wanted me to be. In this I discovered that the ultimate goal is not to be able to keep the rules but to intimately know the one who created us. What God has for us in Christ is far more personal and intimate than just woodenly keeping the law. It’s having an encounter with the lawgiver who changes the law from a burden to a joy. Instead of a heavy weight that is far too heavy a burden to carry, it changes us so that we see it as the way to live in joy and peace with the Master. Paul found that his righteousness would never be enough, but through faith he could be acquitted and set free because of Christ’ righteousness. Coming to that understanding changed everything for Paul and it’s still changing everything for me.
Paul was not saying that everything would now be all rosy (all glory without pain), but neither did he know anything of the rather gloomy stoicism that is often presented by many as the life of Christians in historic Christianity. I have had people tell me that they believed that Christianity took all the fun out of life. That wasn’t Paul’s experience nor is it mine. Over the years I have discovered that this wasn’t true of others who chose to follow Jesus Christ even at a great cost.
I became acquainted with many Puritan writers like Thomas Watson, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Richard Sibbs, John Bunyan, Thomas Goodwin, and many more. What I found were men of God who had a passion and dedication to God and therefore His Word was more precious than gold. They had such joy in their relationship with Jesus Christ and they were instrumental in teaching the truth and purity to be found in God’s Word. They were instrumental in showing how all of life is to be lived to the glory of God. They discovered along with the Apostle Paul that life lived in the power of Christ's resurrection was the greatest reality for the life of the Christian. Paul was so convinced of what happened on the cross of Christ, and of the encounter that he had with the Risen Lord on the Damascus Road. He came to understand that Christ's resurrection guaranteed his own. He could throw himself into the present with a kind of holy abandon, full of rejoicing and thanksgiving; not because he enjoyed suffering, but because Christ's resurrection had given him a unique perspective on present suffering, as well as an empowering presence whereby the suffering was transformed into intimate fellowship with Christ himself.
For Paul the Christian life was not simply a matter of salvation and ethics but was ultimately about knowing Jesus Christ. Even in the resurrection, Paul’s sole focus was not on the life to come, but all his focus and efforts were on the prize of knowing Christ Jesus himself and making Him known to others. In our passage he admitted that this was his journey, as it should be for all who call themselves Christ followers. However, it would be a lifelong struggle in this fallen world, but he found it was worth it.
So with that background let’s turn to Philippians 3: 12-14.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
As many of you know, during this Lenten season we have the Tuesday night Lenten Soup Suppers. It’s a great time of fellowship around different wonderful offerings of soup provided by different people each week. Each week we have a short study. This year we’ve been considering Jesus, not just his time on earth beginning in Bethlehem, or as the child who grew up to be our Savior, who died for our sins. We’ve gone back to the beginning of Genesis where Jesus was the agent of creation used by the Father to call everything into existence out of nothing but the power of his word. John revealed the truth of that in the first chapter of his gospel verses 2 and 3, “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” I love the way the Apostle Paul confirmed that in Colossians 1: 16-17, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
That goes way beyond the story of a baby born of a virgin and growing up to be the Savior of the world. We looked at the example where throughout the Old Testament the “Angel of the Lord” accomplished many miracles and visitations. Even then, long before the incarnation Jesus appeared to men and women as the “Angel of the Lord” revealing the plans of God.
We have seen that Jesus is immutable, He never changes and is therefore we can trust His word and promises.
We have discovered that Jesus is our mediator between us and the Father, and we have seen Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This coming Tuesday night we will see Jesus through all that He created. We understand Jesus as creator but then discover how all creation points us right back to him and His glory.
I believe that Paul was in some ways able to more clearly see that than the other disciples because he had such a deep understanding of the law of God and the prophets. When through the lens of the Holy Spirit he was able to see how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the promises God made through the Hebrew scriptures, it brought new life into him.
However, there can be the tendency to assume that at this point in Paul’s ministry he had arrived at a level of maturity and strength that made him the constant victor over sin and temptation. He reminds his reader that nothing could be further from the truth.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8 Paul wrote, “for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” Later in the same letter he would write in 2 Corinthians 4:7–11,
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
Paul needed Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish in him all that God had commanded, just like you and me. He grew weary of the struggle; he felt the pain of suffering even to the point that he wanted to be done with all of it and simply go home to be with the Lord. Paul speaks of suffering as a way of encountering Christ and knowing him more intimately.
Paul gives us the reason that he is willing to suffer and die in our passage in Philippians 3:12b, “…but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” I love the wordplay here. He has “not yet” attained perfection but “Christ Jesus has made me his own”, so he will “press on.” I think that Paul made it his habit of remembering his story from the beginning on the road to Damascus, where he first encountered the risen Savior. Sometimes it is helpful to remember your beginnings and victories through Jesus as a shot of adrenaline for continuing the race. It’s helpful for us to speak of the victories that we have had in Christ so that others might be encouraged to follow him as well. Why had Jesus made Paul his own? Paul knew why because in Damascus Jesus sent Ananias to tell Paul what he must do. Acts 9:15–16,
“But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
In other words, suffering was simply a part of the apostolic calling upon his life. To be faithful to his calling he had to embrace what Jesus had called him to do- which included suffering. Paul had begun the letter to the Philippians by exhorting the church at Philippi to be willing to suffer. In Philippians 1:27–30,
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”
We can see here that for Paul suffering is not limited to apostles only but should be seen as a gift for all those who believe. Was this merely the opinion of Paul or was it to be seen as ordinary for every Christian. Jesus was very up front to those who listened to His teaching. He told the crowd in Luke 9:23–24,
“And He said to all, ‘if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Paul was focused on one thing and would not let those things which are behind distract him from it. He pressed on for the prize. I suspect that we often let those things which are behind us distract us, whether they be good things or bad things. Looking at what is in the past often keeps us from what God has for us in the future. If you’re like me, the enemy likes to whisper in my ear that I am not worthy because of bad things I did in the past. Certainly, Paul had many times been reminded by Satan that he had been responsible for the persecution and death of many Christians before he encountered Christ. It is a deception to live either in the past or in the future; God wants us to press on in the present because the present is where eternity touches us now. Paul knew that a race is won only in the present moment, not in the past or in the future.
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” The prize is the upward call of God. Just like in Exodus 24 where Moses was invited to enter the glory cloud into the presence of God on Mount Sinai. The prize is the call itself to encounter God. The prize is being able to run the race and working with God as a servant-partner to do the work of His kingdom. Paul knew that the calling had come from the heart of God and that made it holy and wonderful. It was a summons from Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father.
Paul’s life had become one thing and one thing only- the pursuit of Christ. It had become his singular passion to know him in the power of the resurrection and that became the goal of his pursuit. The metaphor here is likened to a race where the finish line must be kept in view.
Paul knew that there was never a shortage of things to take his focus off of his pursuit of Jesus which is why he needed to focus intently on the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He also knew that the more he found Christ in the middle of suffering the less he was inclined to find satisfaction in himself and the world.
In conclusion, let's read Philippians 3:15–16,“Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
Paul is speaking to those who are mature in their faith and those who consider themselves to be so but maybe aren’t. He is challenging each one to evaluate their priorities as to whether they line up with the upward call that God has on their lives or not. He is calling the church at Philippi to be united in their pursuit of Christ and the building of the kingdom of God. It would come with a price but should be seen as well worth in light of the prize of knowing Jesus intimately.
