What is Truly Important in Life? - Philippians 3:10-12

What is Truly Important in Life? - Philippians 3:10-12
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 31, 2009 AM

Mike Hayes an award-winning NYC radio producer wrote about how his life priorities were changed suddenly in his Senior year of college. He wrote that “During my junior year in college, I ran myself ragged…. I had two roommates that year, Scott and Dave. Scott was a giant, about 6’ 4” and 200 pounds of solid muscle…. Dave was the polar opposite. About 5’ 7” and maybe 100 pounds. Dave was plagued by diabetes and a heart condition. He had to closely monitor his diet, and he added about six or seven pills to his daily regimen of food as well.” Mike’s relationship with God suffered as much as his relationship with his friends. His “wake-up call came the next year.” “I had moved into a new residence hall with other friends… I got the call from Dave's new roommate... Dave was headed to the hospital. ‘Something with his heart.’ It didn't look good.” Dave was dying yet he was only 20 years old. Dave’s one chance was a heart defibrillator. Sitting with friends, waiting for Dave’s surgery, Mike began to realize all the time he had missed with his friend Dave and how much he needed God back in his life again.

He writes, “I was a better person when I graduated later that year. I was better for the friendships I had made with these men and women who had banded together to support their friend in his time of need…. I never let him become so distant from me again. During the last five years of Dave’s life, I attended his block party every year, and there wasn’t a Super Bowl that I didn’t watch in his basement. Dave died December 8, 1995. He was only 25. I thank God for those last five years…. Every year, I take December 8 off from work. I use that day to tell those around me how much I love them and how my life would be worse if it wasn’t for their presence.” What is truly important in life for you?

Paul writes, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have 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.” (Philippians 3:10-12) Paul had discovered what was truly important in life and he shares with us the three things he had discovered.

First, Paul wanted to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection!” Here is an open and honest confession to the Philippians of the Apostle for us to read. Paul had already trusted his life to Christ. He had placed his faith in Jesus, but now Paul was sharing that he desired above all to “know Christ.” He literally wanted to know Jesus by experiencing Him fully in his life. Remember, back in verse 8, he had written: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things!” For Paul it was more than a feeling or a head knowledge of God or of Jesus. It was the intimate “power of [Jesus’] resurrection” that would change Paul’s entire way of thinking and living! It is this power that brought Jesus back to life that operates in the life of every believer because they have “been raised with Christ!” (Colossians 3:1) To fully know Jesus is to fully know the power of His resurrection. The idea is one of overcoming resistance. For Paul that resistance was anything that kept him from fully knowing Jesus. His life no longer depended upon following a set of rules and regulations, but was instead empowered by faith. Paul would declare: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Do you want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection? What is truly important in life for you?

Secondly, Paul wanted to know “the fellowship of sharing in [Jesus’] sufferings, becoming like him in his death!” These “sufferings” Paul mentions were not Christ’s sufferings on the cross. He did not want to submit himself to some weird cultic self-abasement or flagellation. Paul knew that the suffering of Jesus on the cross could not be shared or duplicated. They were Jesus’ alone to endure. Remember, Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8) But Paul did desire to participate with Christ, since he was one of His, in suffering for the sake of the gospel. At the very beginning of Paul’s journey with the Lord, Ananias had told Paul what God had said to him concerning Paul’s life: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16) And throughout the Apostle’s life he had indeed suffered for the sake of the gospel: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-27) Paul realized that Christians “always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:10) Paul was not some sadomasochist, he was a willing follower of Jesus who willingly gave himself over to “the fellowship of sharing in [Jesus’] sufferings, becoming like him in his death!” The words “becoming like Him” translate to “being conformed inwardly in one’s experience to something.” As Christ died for sin, so a believer has died to sin: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7) In fact the word here for “resurrection” is used nowhere else in the New Testament. It literally means an “out-resurrection.” Paul wanted folks to see Jesus when they saw his life. Paul became like Jesus when he died to himself and let the world see Jesus. That was his “out-resurrection”! What is truly important in life for you?

Finally, Paul realized that he had not “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.” Paul knew he had not arrived: “Not that I have already obtained all this.” He knew he had to walk further with the Lord, and Paul also knew that he had not “been made perfect.” He had a ways to go! However, Paul pursued his life in Jesus like a long distance runner going for the goal. He saw his life as beginning when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and it now stretched out before him to the finish. He could not see all the obstacles, hardships, or what might occur in his life, but he certainly saw the finish line. Paul ran for the goal: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” The goal of every Christian is to head for the finish line. Some have already finished the race, others are near its end, but many of us our far from the final ribbon. Along the way Jesus gives us water for our thirst and sustenance for our downcast souls. We can rest beside the still waters and picnic in the green pastures, but we to never forget to get up and get going to finish the race that God has called us to.

Psalm 112:6 states that “the righteous man will be remembered forever.” David H. Roper notes that “One reason we’re left here on earth and not taken to heaven immediately after trusting in Christ for salvation is that God has work for us to do. ‘Man is immortal,’ Augustine said, ‘until his work is done.’

The time of our death is not determined by anyone or anything here on earth. That decision is made in the councils of heaven. When we have done all that God has in mind for us to do, then and only then will He take us home—and not one second before. As Paul put it, ‘David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep’ (Acts 13:36).

In the meantime, until God takes us home, there’s plenty to do. ‘I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day,’ Jesus said. ‘Night is coming when no one can work’ (John 9:4). Night is coming when we will once for all close our eyes on this world, or our Lord will return to take us to be with Him. Each day brings that time a little closer. As long as we have the light of day, we must work—not to conquer, acquire, accumulate, and retire, but to make visible the invisible Christ by touching people with His love.” What is truly important in life for you?
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This article is the copyrighted 2009 © property of Lee Hemen and may not be copied or reproduced in any way shape or form without using the full text of this entire article, and getting the permission of its author.

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