I Want to Know Him More June 20, 2025 L. Jaberg

What I know about life from my mother. Yeah, buckle up.

My mother taught me how to appreciate a job well done. She used to say, "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside."

I just finished cleaning.

My mother taught me religion. "You better pray that that will come out of the carpet."

My mother taught me about time travel. "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week."

My mother taught me about the circle of life. "I brought you into this world and I can take you out."

My mother taught me about genetics. "You're just like your father."

And my mother taught me about justice. "One day you'll have kids and I hope they turn out just like you."

All right. We're working this thing out here together. It's gone well. Thank you.

All right. What are some words or phrases that describe Jesus Christ? We've already sang lots of them.

What are some words or phrases that describe Jesus Christ? I'm going to start with this table:

Forgiveness.Faith.Love.Joy.Peace.Savior.God.Compassion.

How about some words that describe who he is?

What was that? Perfect? Almighty. Consistent. You guys are doing really good.

We could just stay here, couldn't we? I mean, you guys just keep coming up with good stuff.

Savior, Redeemer, Son of God, Son of Man, the Good Shepherd.

I want to read to you from Philippians 3, 10 through 11. The Apostle Paul writes to us, "I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and the participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, so that somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead."

Just contemplate this. I didn't point to you, I'm sorry. I just do this, but I'll do, yeah. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Steal second. Yeah. Think about this. The Apostle Paul writes, "I want to know Christ." Thatwould be like LeBron James saying, "I want to learn how to play basketball." Or perhaps Tiger Woods saying, I want to learn golf. Or maybe Meryl Streep saying, I want to learn how to act. This is the Apostle Paul, toward the end of his life, saying, I want to know Christ.

Let's take a look at the Apostle Paul. Well, this or this or that or something. So Paul was a Pharisee, and he said he was a strict Pharisee. He was faultless in keeping the law. He was well-educated. He was raised in a Jewish family. And we first see him surface in the book of Acts, and this photo or this painting depicts the stoning of Stephen. Can you figure, I gave you the direction, but can you figure out where Paul is in this painting? Do you remember the story? There's like a little footnote that Luke gives us in the book of Acts. Yes. Bottom left. Well, I kind of gave you the clue there, right? But Luke tells us, as he's telling us this historical story about the stoning of Stephen, he tells us that Paul was sort of in the background, holding the outer garments of those who were stoning Stephen.

Paul had a passion and a focus to hunt down followers of Christ, and not only to have them arrested, but in some cases have them killed. That was his sheer focus in life when we first meet him. He's on his way to arrest some more followers of Christ, and a brilliant light appears on the way to Damascus, and Paul drops to the ground. And a voice that can be heard not only by Paul, but Luke tells us in the book of Acts, others also hear this voice that says, Why do you persecute me? And Paul responds, at this point it's Saul, Paul Saul, says, Who are you? And the voice says, I am Jesus.

Now, I don't know too many of us who have had a vision. Some maybe have had a vision of Jesus, but a vision in such a way that other people around us also had the same vision. I don't know too many people that have had that experience. How well do you think Paul knows Christ? He's blind for three days. He goes into Damascus. Ananias, who is a Christian who lives in Damascus, who would have been arrested and maybe killed by Paul, is told to go and pray for Paul, and it's like, Are you kidding me, God? You want me to go pray for the guy that's about to arrest and kill me? God said, Well, yes, I do want you to do that. And so he goes. He prays for Paul. Paul's sight is returned. He's baptized, and he begins a journey of beginning to know who Jesus is in his life.

Look at us just working in tandem here. So here are just some snippets from the life of Paul:

He was imprisoned at least three times, if you read the book of Acts and read his letters.He was shipwrecked on an island for months.He was flogged with a whip that had stones embedded in it.He was beaten.He had at least three missionary journeys.He founded a multitude of churches.He wrote Romans and 13 other letters.He was a pastor.He was a theologian.He was a preacher, a missionary, a writer, and a teacher.

Do you think he knew who Jesus was? And yet, and yet he says, For those of you that are watching, I'm not having a cardiac arrest up here. Anyway. At the end of his life, after all of these things, and he's in prison when he writes this, after all that he has experienced, he says, I want to know Christ. He had a life of prayer. He had a life writing about some of the most exquisite passages in the Bible about Jesus, Paul wrote. He led others to Christ. He grew disciples wherever he went. This would be like Shakespeare saying, at the end of his life, I want to know how to write a play. Or it would be like,say, Carole King saying, I want to know how to write a song. Or Aretha Franklin saying, I want to know how to sing a song. How to write a song, or Aretha Franklin saying, I want to know how to sing a song. I mean, he says, I want to know Christ. If Paul recognized there was more to know about Jesus Christ, don't you think there's more for us to know about Christ?

This is my family, minus one grandson. And so what do I know about my family? I know that my daughter-in-law, Liz, is a great mom. She just graduated from seminary. I also know that she's often late. If you're watching, Liz, everybody knows this about you, Liz.

Jake, next in line there, is my grandson. He's kind. He drives like a little old lady, which means he's really safe on the highways. He's very faithful about attending church and volunteering in church.

Emma, my granddaughter, is smart. She is a junior in college, and she runs the family.

Peter, my son, is headed to Australia next week for a month. He works at a company that installs 911 software, and so he travels a lot. He's smart. He's funny.

And then Luke, who's not in that picture. I'm sorry, Luke. Luke loves dogs. He collects guns, and he also faithfully attends worship, even when his father doesn't. Just mentioning that. Father was a PK. Anyway, that family has a great sense of humor, and they love Jesus Christ. That's what I know about them.

So how is it that we are to know Christ? Well, let's just take a little deep dive into the word "know" as it appears in the Greek text in Philippians. It means you know the truth about someone. It means that you know Jesus is Savior, he's shepherd, and he's sovereign. You know truth about Jesus. It also knows that you know some practical things about Jesus. You know that children were really important to him. You know that he valued and respected women in his ministry. You know that at times he got hungry. At times he got angry. You know that he loved his friends.

And then the third part of knowing something is an intimacy, a oneness with knowing someone. So, oops, that didn't show up so well, but you can see it. It means can you tell the voice of Jesus? Do you know the voice of Jesus when he speaks to you through the word or through others or in your prayer life? For me, when Jesus speaks to me, which doesn't happen very often that he literally speaks to me, but it's always peaceful and it always has a slow cadence to it. That's just the way I hear Jesus. You may hear him differently in your life.

But can you distinguish the voice of Jesus from the noise of this world? That would be knowing Jesus. Do you know what pleases Jesus? Not just what pleases you, but what pleases Jesus Christ in your life or in the world? Have you identified Christ at work in the lives of other people or in your own life or in the world? Can you see, oh, that's the Holy Spirit, that's Jesus moving in that person's life or in the world. Those are ways that we know Christ.

And then Paul adds to this list the power of the resurrection:

Do you know the strength that God can bring to you?Do you know that he holds you even when you're wiggling and trying to get away?Do you know that he preserves your life?Do you know that he leads you?Do you know that he's in the process of transforming you into his image?

And then one more thing does he add: Participate in his suffering. I bet nobody told you in Sunday school that to become a Christian you'd have to suffer. Did anybody get that? Were you absent that day when they taught that lesson? Now we're not talking about suffering to redeem anybody. Jesusalready did that. We're not talking about suffering because you ate too much enchiladas or whatever the night before. It's not suffering because of your behavior or your sin. It's suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ. It could be you're at somebody's house and you don't want to offend them and so you ate the enchilada because you didn't want to offend them and then you struggle that night. It's suffering for the sake of Jesus. It's sharing your own personal faith journey and then having your friend shun you. It could be you're feeling particularly convicted to pray about something and you lose sleep because you're praying. It could be because you do the right thing and your friends betray you. That's suffering for the sake of Jesus.

If you've ever experienced that, in ministry there have been times when the only things I had were Jesus and my dog. In that order. When you suffer you come to understand better who Jesus is in your life.