What do you want? What do you long for the most? What captures the attention of your heart and mind? In my observation, people will go to great lengths to get what they want.

Fame, fortune, power, control, comfort, security, respect, love, companionship, acceptance, escape; these desires are powerful motivators for all kinds of sinful thought patterns and behaviors.

For many of us, nothing is too valuable to spend obtaining these little treasures. Like the character Gollum from the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies, we often cast all caution to the wind as we pursue the intoxicating effects of our little “Precious”. In short, we will do almost anything we can to gain the object of our affection by any means possible.

While some of us pursue the object of our affections through outwardly immoral behaviors such as pornography, substance abuse and overspending, many of us pursue our “precious” through less visible, more acceptable means such as worrying, gossiping and manipulation.

Before you know what even happened you are stuck in an endless cycle of keeping up appearances with your scripts and your masks as you try to get your performance to match your self-made resume. This is to say that before you know it, you’re caught in the vicious cycle of legalism.

Up until this point in chapter three, the apostle Paul has ferociously ripped into legalists who would seek to derail the Philippian believers from living their lives in a manner that is worthy of the gospel (1:27).

He knows that legalism is an anti-gospel; there is no good news in the news that you must work to obtain or prove your salvation. This is why the apostle Paul joyfully reminded the Philippian believers to avoid the legalistic dogs, evildoers and mutilators as they rested in who and whose they were (3:1 – 3).

Then, he took a second swing at his legalistic opponents with a heavyweight glove that was full of his superior resume and his superior account (3:4 – 9).

In short, the apostle Paul has just landed the one-two knockout punch that deflated the claims of legalism as the superior way.

In effect, the apostle Paul took the theology of legalism which claims that Jesus plus something equals everything and he proved by contrast that for the true believer, the gospel-centered theology of Jesus plus nothing actually equals everything.

You see, it is as we bring our filthy rags of nothingness to the foot of the cross that we are transformed into the image of Christ. There is no righteousness to be found in our works; the cross-centered life is the life of true righteousness.2 The cross-centered life is where the “my precious” of Paul’s heart was transformed into the desire to know Christ. Take a look at what Paul says he wants in our text…

PHILIPPIANS 3:10 – 11

10 – That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

#1: I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST (V. 10)

Paul has just said that “7 whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ… 8 I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ… 10 that I may know him” (vv. 3:7, 8, 10).

For the apostle Paul, there was no higher desire than to know Christ.

It has been thirty years since Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and in those thirty years his desire to know Christ had grown more and more intense because he had experienced the radical, selfless, sacrificial, steadfast love of Christ.3 Do you want to know the radical, selfless, steadfast love of Christ?

#2: I WANT TO KNOW THE POWER OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION (V. 10)

It’s no secret that powerful people can draw a crowd. Most of us enjoy being around people of power and influence. It makes us feel special and sometimes it makes us feel safe.

Tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, lepers, the lame, the deaf, the blind, the demon possessed and even the dead (in the case of Lazarus) wanted to be close to Jesus because he was a powerful man; he was God in the flesh. No one on earth had ever or will ever possess the power that Christ possesses.

The apostle Paul met this Jesus in the flesh on the road to Damascus thirty years earlier as he was turning and burning in a terroristic rampage to destroy Christ-followers by any means necessary. On that road, the apostle Paul came face-to-face with the resurrected Christ and he was instantly transformed.

This is why the apostle Paul says that he wants to know the power of his (Christ’s) resurrection (v. 10). The power of the resurrection is the power of conversion and transformation; the power that transformed the selfishness of the apostle Paul was the selflessness of the risen Christ.4

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lived in Paul and after thirty years of being filled with that resurrection power, he thirsted for more. Do you want to know the power of Christ’s resurrection?

#3: I WANT TO SHARE IN CHRIST’S SUFFERING (V. 10)

It struck me as I studied this passage that we have a suffering shortage in comparison with the early church. I also believe we have a suffering aversion.

In our prosperous American culture, we have become spoiled and opposed to the sanctification that suffering brings into the life of the believer.

We have yet to face the horrors of being burned alive at the stake, beaten with whips, crucified on the roadside, beheaded in front of our families, boiled in oil and sawed in half because of our faith.

Such has been the fate of many believers throughout the generations (and such is the fate of many believers across the world today), but never have we experienced this kind of suffering in the West.

Catchy slogans like “find your best life now” or “discover your potential here” or “find the family you always wanted inside our doors” or “the church for people who don’t like church”, these are the catchy slogans we use to entice people to come and check us out as though we are trying to sell something to an already over consumerized culture.

It seems to me that these pithy, empty, powerless, unbiblical slogans would make the saints who suffered throughout the generations, hot with righteous anger.

So, let’s take a quick look at some of the key texts in the Bible regarding suffering just so we can get a grasp on a small portion of the theology of suffering in the New Testament.

  1. (Jas. 1:2 – 3) James says that we should see suffering as the joyful opportunity to be tested and grow in patience.
  2. (1 Pet. 1:6 – 7; 3:14 – 18) Peter says that suffering is a blessing because it proves that our faith is genuine.
  3. (2 Tim. 1:8) Paul tells Timothy that the power of God is what will enable him to suffer well for Christ.
  4. (1 Thess. 3:3 – 4) Paul tells the Thessalonian church that he had previously warned them that they would suffer for the sake of Christ and that they should not be dismayed at what they are experiencing.
  5. (Rom. 8:17 – 18) Paul told the Christians in Rome that they would in fact suffer if they belonged to God.
  6. (Acts 14:22) Paul encouraged Christians in various small towns to continue in the faith by understanding that entrance into the kingdom of God meant suffering and tribulation; no suffering equals no kingdom.
  7. (1 Cor. 4:9 – 13) Paul described the suffering that he and his companions had experienced with words like sentenced to death, hunger, thirst, poorly dressed, buffeted, homeless, reviled, persecuted, slandered, scum of the world and the refuse of all things.
  8. (2 Cor. 4:8 – 9) Again to the Corinthian church, Paul describes his suffering with words like afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down and carrying in their bodies the death of Jesus.
  9. (2 Cor. 11:24 – 28) Just in case the church was still in a place where they couldn’t stomach the thought of suffering for Christ, the apostle Paul gets even more detailed when he says “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches”. Why should we expect anything less than the experience of the apostle Paul?

And now in Philippians 3:10, this apostle, who knew what it meant to suffer for the sake of Christ, says that he wants to share in Christ’s suffering.

Paul’s slogan for his church plant was “come and share in the suffering of Christ” because he knew that suffering for Christ is a sign of sacred intimacy with Jesus that moves the believer beyond the role of beneficiary of Christ’s death to the fellowship of sanctification through suffering.5

Suffering like Christ is not a sign of God’s neglect but is a sign of the proof of God’s grace at work in our lives. The power of the resurrection is what enables us to withstand the fellowship of suffering and not only withstand it but actually long for it so that we may know Christ more intimately.6 Do you long to intimately know the suffering of Christ?

#4: I WANT TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST IN HIS DEATH (V. 10)

Oftentimes we attend the funerals of loved ones and we hear the list of things that they either accomplished or stood for in this life and we long to be like them.

This is not a bad thing; it’s a natural and good thing to want to emulate the life of someone else as we encounter their death and think about our own impending death.

Some of this is present in what Paul is saying here. He wants to be like Jesus. But he’s not pointing to the life of Jesus he’s pointing to the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary for the sake of his enemies.

Paul knows what every true Christian who has been discipled in the way of Christ knows, namely that the life of a Christian is conformed to Christ’s death because every Christian is called to carry multiple personal crosses that lead to a series of deaths whish result in a series of mini-resurrections that we call sanctification (becoming more like Christ in this life through his death).7 Do you long to become like Christ in his death?

#5: I WANT TO ATTAIN THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD (V. 11)

Paul literally says, “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead”. The word “resurrection” literally means “out from the dead” and in that word we are reminded that every day is a believer’s personal resurrection day.8

Every day we have the opportunity to experience the transforming power of the resurrection in our lives.

And Paul knows that after thirty years of following Jesus, there is nothing more transforming in the life of the believer than the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do you want to attain the resurrection of the dead?

CONCLUSION…

Let me just ask you again: What do you want? What do you long for the most? What captures the attention of your heart and mind? In my observation, people will go to great lengths to get what they want.

What do you want? Fame, fortune, power, control, comfort, security, respect, love, companionship, acceptance, escape; these pursuits are powerful motivators for all kinds of sinful thought patterns and behaviors.

For many of us, nothing is too valuable to spend obtaining these little treasures. We often cast all caution to the wind as we pursue the intoxicating effects of our little “Precious”. In short, we will do almost anything we can to gain the object of our affection by any means possible. By any means possible…

While some of us pursue the object of our affections through outwardly immoral behaviors such as pornography, substance abuse and overspending, many of us pursue our “precious” through less visible, more acceptable means such as worrying, gossiping and manipulation.

Before you know what even happened you are stuck in an endless cycle of keeping up appearances with your scripts and your masks as you try to get your performance to match your self-made resume. This is to say that before you know it, you’re caught in the vicious cycle of legalism.

But God, through the apostle Paul, has given us an example of what it looks like to live a life that worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1:27).

The apostle Paul wanted to know Christ; he wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection; he wanted to share in Christ’s suffering; he wanted to become like Christ in his death; he wanted to attain the resurrection of the dead.

In short, the apostle Paul had been transformed from a selfish man into a selfless man because of the bloody cross, the empty tomb and the hope of Heaven.

The cross-centered life is where the “my precious” of Paul’s heart was transformed into the desire to know Christ.

Do you want to know Christ? Do you want to know the power of Christ’s resurrection? Do you want to share in Christ’s suffering? Do you want to become like Christ in his death? Do you want to attain the resurrection of the dead by any means necessary?

If the answer is yes then begin spending your life at the foot of a bloody cross, in the doorway of an empty tomb as you cling tightly to the hope of Heaven. In this place you will be transformed into the image of Christ. – Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 R. Kent Hughes, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon: The Fellowship of the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, ESV Edition, 2013), 139.

3 Ibid., 139 – 140.

4 Ibid., 140 – 141.

5 Ibid., 142 – 143.

6 Ibid., 143.

7 Ibid., 143 – 144.

8 Ibid., 144 – 145.