One of the real perks of being a pastor lies in the privilege of getting to know people. It has been my joy through the years not to just know about people, but to know people—to be invited into their homes and into their lives. Also, it has been a joy to share their victories and defeats, their joys and their sorrows, their lives and yes, sometimes their deaths. These relationships have greatly enriched my life.

I believe it is this kind of relational yearning that inspired Paul to write the text I want to use today. Please read it with me. “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" (Philippians 3:10-11).

I want to know Christ:
- Not as a prophet of history
- Not even as Savior of the world.

I want to know Christ as intimately as I know my wife and benefit from that relationship now and forever. I want to know Christ. Do you know Him?

I. I WANT TO LIVE LIKE CHRIST...

....in the power of his resurrection. Christ knew who he was. You've probably never heard the name Ted Giannoulas. He has been the San Diego chicken for thirty years. At first Ted loved his alter ego. “It was freeing to act like a chicken and stir up the crowd. But," says Ted, who is now fifty, “if you are not careful, you can lose yourself in that suit. I have plenty of chicken stories, but I don't have any Ted stories. I've lost myself by being a chicken."

The crowds wanted to make Jesus a king. The kings wanted to crush Him out of existence. The majority of people ignored His birth and passed by His death. But Jesus Christ knew who he was. He never hesitated to identify Himself as the Son of God and the Son of Man, a mystery that still perplexes us today.

Do you know who you are? Has the world squeezed you into the mold of a false identity? Are you trying to be all things to all people? Does the applause of the crowd and the pressure of people persuade you to be something you are not? Wouldn't you like the freedom of knowing that you are a loved child of God? That's what Christ wants for you. I want to know Christ.

Jesus Christ knew where he was going, why he was here, where he was headed. Do you? Yogi Berra said, “If you don't know where you are going, you will likely wind up someplace else." German philosopher Hegel said, “Life has value only when it has something valuable as its object."

The great preacher of last century, Harry Emerson Fosdick once said, “No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined." Do you know where you are going? Do you know your purpose in being here? Out on the Damascus Road Paul found a purpose for living, a passion for being, a destiny of mission that would shape every move he made for the rest of his life. Here in a Roman prison he writes, “All things I once thought were so important for me are now insignificant dog dung. I have dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him." Have you that kind of purpose and passion for life? I want to know Christ.

II. I WANT TO SUFFER LIKE CHRIST...

...by sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings. I've never given up anything to be a Christian. Being a Christian is less costly than being a Rotarian. The church reminds people of their absence while you are kicked out of the Rotary Club for absenteeism. I know, I've been there. Should we expect more of Rotarians than we do of Christians?

There are people, however, who pay a great price to be a Christian. Young people from Perovo, Russia visiting us this weekend tell us it's not cool in Russia to be a Christian. As Bishop Vaxby told us a few weeks ago, Methodists are suspect in Russia. They are considered cults. The opposition no longer comes from Communism, but from the State Church. Methodists are taxed heavily, harassed regularly and observed suspiciously. It's costly to be a Christian in Russia. But people throughout history who have found Christianity costly have also discovered that suffering for the faith is not a penalty, it is a privilege. Paul said he had his share of suffering. I want to learn to suffer like Christ suffered.

I do not know what it is like to suffer from being a Christian, but I do know what it is to suffer. All of us have some pain to bear. I do know that trouble can make you bitter or trouble can make you better. I do know that its not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you that makes the difference in the long run. I do know that the stripes of Jesus and the nail prints of his hands are sources of comfort for the strung-out soul. I want to take my suffering like Christ took his, seeking every way possible to find something redemptive about it. Don't ever let a trouble go to waste. I want to know Christ.

Alan Paton said, “I have never thought that Christians would be free of suffering. For our Lord suffered. And I have come to believe that He suffered not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear our own suffering. For there is no life without suffering." “I want to know Christ," said Paul. Not to know about Him and not even to read the Bible and not even to know some history about Him, I want to know Him like I would know the most intimate friend of my life.

III. I WANT TO DIE LIKE CHRIST...

...by becoming like him in his death. Henri Nouwen, in his book Finding My Way Home talks about being rushed to the hospital as a result of a car accident. Lying there in the emergency room Henri says, “I heard the physician say you might not live long. There is serious internal bleeding. We will try to operate, but we may not succeed." Suddenly death was right in the room with me. I felt shock, but I also felt the embrace of God which gently reminded me “Don't be afraid, you are safe. I am going to bring you home. You belong to me. I belong to you." I was at peace. Later when I woke up in ICU, I was almost disappointed. What am I doing here, I wondered? I thought I was going on to be with Jesus. I knew I would never face life the same way again because that day I had learned how to die.

William Cullen Bryant was seventeen years old when he wrote that immortal work called Thanatopsis:

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustain'd and sooth'd
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

As Luke tells the story [Luke 23:44-46], it was about noon and the whole earth became dark. It was a total black out that lasted for three hours. The temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit." When He had said this, He breathed his last. I want to leave this world with that kind of confidence. I want to know Christ. Don't you?

IV. I WANT TO RISE LIKE CHRIST...

...by attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Fanny Crosby who lived to be ninety-five was blinded at six weeks of age from a childhood illness. Fanny Crosby, who could see more in her blindness than most of us comprehend with our eyesight, never became bitter about her lot in life. She went on to write nearly nine thousand hymns, many of which we still sing today. Someone lamented to Fanny one day how awful it was that she lost her sight. The great hymn writer replied, “Don't feel sorry for me. When I get to heaven, the first face I will see will be the face of Jesus." Fanny Crosby is buried in Bridgeport Connecticut. On her simple tombstone are these immortal words:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,
O, what a foretaste of glory divine.

You and I are on a pilgrimage that will only get better as the years go by. As surely as our birth ushered us into a brighter, better world, so our death will transport us to an eternal home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Because of the resurrection of Jesus:

I plan to rise again.
Ain't no power on earth gonna tie me down.

I want to know Christ. We are Christians, not because we are good or concerned, and certainly not because we are nice, though hopefully we are as decent as ordinary people. We are Christian because we believe in God as God is made known in Jesus Christ. To know Christ is to know God. So with heart and soul and mind and life, let us determine to know Christ.

Christ be in my head, and in my thinking,
Christ be in my heart, and in my loving,
Christ be in my living, and in my dying,
Christ be in my resurrection, and throughout eternity,
Christ be in me, now and forevermore.