There is Only One Way pt 2

1:1 – 11

prayer of gratefulness 

and prayer that they continue into greater expressions of faithfulness and love

1: 12 – 26

is about how he is following Christ’s example

1:27 – 2:18

is encouraging them to follow Christ’s example

2:19 – 30 gives two examples of “Christness” (Timothy and Epaphrodites)

last week…

3:1 – 4:1 Paul’s example

• former life vs new life
  • circumcision of the flesh compared to circumcision of the heart (true circumcision)
  • human credentials and accomplishments (steaming pile of dung) vs knowing Christ
  • human righteousness vs righteous of Christ imputed through faith
  • living in the power of the resurrection
  • serving now, sacrificing now (surrendered his former status like Christ did)
  • awaiting the day we are rewarded, transformed in our bodies, and perfect into the likeness of Christ
  • reminds them to stand firm in the Lord (in the lifestyle he outlined) and be his joy and crown

3:1-9 

• the benefit of repetition 
• corrupters of the faith (false gospels – benevolent or malicious)
  • paul specifically attacked the false circumcision
• Paul’s extensive jewish pedigree of law following 
• Comparison of the worth/value of law abiding to that of knowing Christ (understanding the gospel)

knowing Christ

• historical acknowledgement and research
• biblical context of His teachings
• application of His teachings
• understanding His purpose
  • understanding the gospel 
    • propitiation for sins
    • substitutionary death
    • resurrection
      • what it means for Him
      • what it means for us
    • purchase of freedom (Gal 5:1)
      • from what
      • to what
• relationship
  • fellowship (sharing in a common goal, support, protect, encourage)
  • intimacy (personal exchange, ideas, likes, dislikes) sensitivity to the other … this requires:
  • communication (2-way) (hearing and listening are very different)
    • hears us ?
      • does not:
        • Ps 66:18 (if there is iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not listen to my prayers)
        • Isaiah 59:2 (sin separates us from God, He hides His face, and will not listen)
        • James 4:3 (asking with wrong motives will prevent us from receiving)
      • does:
        • Rom 8:26 (Spirit intercedes for us)
        • Heb 11:6 (only in faith can we approach Him and He waits to reward those who earnestly seek Him)
        • Eph 3:20-21 (He can do more that we can even imagine)
        • Matt 17:20 mustard seed of faith
          (obviously the amount of faith is not the real issue, it’s what or who we place our faith in
          You have to walk out on the ice , fall through and you are dead
          would you rather have a lot of faith in thin ice or a little bit of faith in thick ice?
      • Heb 4:16 (come boldly to the throne of grace)
        • obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need
      • James 4:8 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
      • 1 John 5:14 (if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us
      • Phil 4:8 (true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy)

how does Paul describe knowing Christ ?

3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

3 things listed here as ways that  he desires to know Christ:

(and two things that are considered “action points”)

1. know Him

• γνῶναι = (root is ginosko) discern, understand with mastery
• in aorist active infinitive (knowing presently, ongoing)
• “This is Paul’s major passion, to get more knowledge of Christ by experience” from Robertson’s Word Pictures
• i.e. experience of a cyclic behavior “understand, then do”

2. power of His resurrection

• δύναμιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ (dunamis tais anastaseoos autou) 
• strength of the rising up of Him
• in the sense of assurance to believers in immortality

resurrection

[Mounce Greek Dictionary]  

GK G414 | S G386   ἀνάστασις   anastasis   42x  

a raising or rising up; resurrection, Mt. 22:23; meton. the author of resurrection, Jn. 11:25; met. an uprising into a state of higher advancement and blessedness, Lk. 2:34 → resurrection.

☞  MOUNCE | NIV | ESV | HCSB | NRSV | NKJV | KJV

ana – stasis

i.e. not the same as before

the resurrected body of Jesus:

• enter closed rooms (John 20:19)
• disappear at will (Luke 24:30-31)
• doesn’t seem to need rest
• body is not weakened by previous injuries still existing (John 20:26-27)
  • John 20:26 ¶ After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
  • John 20:27 Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
  • below this is speculation:
  • perhaps his resurrected body had no blood ?
    • Jesus had “flesh and bones (Lk 24:39). Why not flesh and blood? Is it because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev 17:11) and a resurrected person is infused with a different kind of life?
• 1Cor. 2:9  but just as it is written, 
  • “^aTHINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, 
  • AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, 
  • ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
  • i wonder if it’s not just that we haven’t gotten there to see what He has prepared but that
  • our existing senses would not even properly take it in ?
    • eyesight, hearing, taste even improved to take in greater spectrum of information
    • (imagine seeing sound or hearing colors)

all this to point out that resurrection is not the same as a plain restoration

RESURRECTION

The doctrine of the resurrection is pivotal in the Christian faith. Paul wrote, “If in this life only we hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Co 15:19). What, then, is the shape of the believer’s hope? The NT speaks decisively. 

It is not a simple restoration of earthly existence. 

It is rising to a new extraordinary state, with all that resurrection implies!

Restoration of earthly life. Both OT and NT report incidents in which individuals are restored to earthly life. Among them are the restoration of 

• two women’s sons (1 Ki 17:17-24; 2 Ki 4:18-37),
• raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:22-43; Lk 8:41-56)
• raising of Lazarus three days after his burial (Jn 11). 
• Each of these incidents demonstrates clearly that God has power over death. But none of them involved resurrection. For resurrection, as we discover it in the NT, is to an endless life in a transformed state of being. 
• Each of those restored to earthly life died again, whereas the resurrected pass beyond the power of death and decay.

The resurrection of Jesus. The significance of Jesus’ resurrection is beyond imagination. Just a few of the NT themes associated with resurrection show the central place that his resurrection must play in our faith.

First, Paul points out that Jesus “through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead” (Ro 1:4). The resurrection is proof of all of Christ’s claims and a solid foundation for our faith.

It is also true that Jesus is called the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Co 15:20). His resurrection is the guarantee that the death that grips the human race because of Adam has been conquered and that life is now our destiny.

 

Next, Jesus’ resurrection to endless life guarantees that “because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb 7:24-25).

Finally, Jesus’ resurrection is the key to fulfillment of all the OT and NT promises about the future. God’s purposes will be achieved only when Jesus’ returns.

5. The resurrection of the believer. The NT makes it clear that the dead must appear before God for judgment (Heb 9:27; Rev 20:11-15). But resurrection as transformation to a different state of being is for believers only. We can perhaps best sum up the core of NT teaching on resurrection by answering three questions: What do we know of resurrection as transformation? What do we know about the resurrection state? What is resurrection power?

First, what do we know about resurrection as transformation? John wrote that God has made us his own children (1 Jn 3:1) and then added (v. 2), “What we will be has not yet been made known;” but we do know that when Jesus “appears, we shall be like him.” Paul in 1 Th 4 provides the broad outline. When Jesus returns, “those who have fallen asleep” (v. 14) will come with him, and those left alive will meet them in the air. The “dead in Christ” (v. 16) will be raised before the living believers are caught up, and together the whole family will meet Jesus in the air. Paul concludes, “So we will be with the Lord forever” (v. 18).

There are more details in 1 Co 15. To the questions “How are the dead raised?” and “With what kind of body will they come?” (v. 35), Paul simply notes that the resurrection body will correspond to our present body, but in contrast it will be imperishable, glorious, infused with power—spiritual rather than natural (vv. 42-44). (See SOUL AND SPIRIT) It will be in “the likeness of the man from heaven” (v. 49), through a transformation that will happen “in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (v. 52). Then the “dead will be raised imperishable, and we [who live then] will be changed.”

Second, what do we know about the resurrection state? Very little, according to the apostles Paul and John. But many have found it fascinating to observe the capabilities of the resurrected Jesus and speculate what being “like him” might mean. For instance, the resurrected Jesus had “flesh and bones (Lk 24:39). Why not flesh and blood? Is it because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev 17:11) and a resurrected person is infused with a different kind of life? Others have noted Jesus’ sudden appearance among his disciples in a locked room (Jn 20:26). Is this teleportation? Or can a resurrected person move between the atoms of the physical universe?

While such speculation has a fascination, we do best to let the issue rest with God, as John and Paul did. We do not yet know what we will be, but we will be like him. The limitations of our physical nature will be gone, and, whereas we are now perishable, we will then be imperishable. Power will replace weakness; immortality will end mortality. (See HEAVEN AND HELL)

Finally, what is resurrection power? This is one of the most exciting of NT themes. Paul writes that “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Ro 8:11). The point Paul makes is that the Holy Spirit, the agent of Jesus’ resurrection, lives within the believer. This means that resurrection power is available to us even in our mortal bodies. Through the Holy Spirit we are raised beyond our human limitations and enabled to live a righteous life.

This doctrine is sometimes overlooked, and certain biblical passages are therefore misinterpreted. For instance, in Php 3, Paul is not expressing uncertainty about his own resurrection when he yearns “somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (v. 11). The entire sentence reads, “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” (vv. 10-11). Paul’s thought is focused on the present—living a resurrection kind of life now—not on eternity. The “power of his resurrection” at work in our lives today is an exciting prospect for the Christian.

the resurrection of Jesus that is the final proof. Jesus’ resurrection not only declared him to be what he claimed to be, the Son of God, but also provided a guarantee for us who believe. Because Jesus lives, we too will live. And we will share his destiny: “When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2).

3. fellowship of His sufferings

• κοινωνίαν τῶν παθημάτων αὐτοῦ (koinonian ton pathamaton) = sharing (participation, communion) in His affliction
• Partnership in (objective genitive) his sufferings, an honour prized by Paul 
• Col. 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh ^bI ¹do my share on behalf of ^cHis body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking 2in Christ’s afflictions.
• Phil 1:21 to live is Christ, to die is gain

notice that most of what Paul mentions is present day living ?

from the message:

Phil. 3:10 ¶ I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself.

Phil. 3:11 If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

Paul happily trades all his accomplishments for knowing Christ

• personally (a deep intimate relationship)
• experiencing the confidence that comes from the resurrection
• partnering in the suffering