Sunday, February 27, 2000   

Now friends, to be a believer is great. It is wonderful, but there is a difference between a believer and a disciple. The very moment you believe, you are saved. In John 6:47 Jesus says: ""Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."

I. VERSE 10 a, THE BEST TO BE DESIRED

     A. "That I may know him." To be a disciple, "to know him," must be our controlling desire. Too often other things choke out Biblical teachings. "To know him" means that all other things must be secondary.

     B. "To know him" must be our all-consuming desire.

          1. Shakespeare defines desire as: "a consummation devoutly to be wish’d."

          2. The height of a Christian's ambition is "to know him."

     C. You cannot know Him without prayer.

          1. We must learn to spend time in prayer. Our prayer lives need to be real. We must pray long and hard.

          2. "We must somehow get unhurriedly alone with Him for Him to fulfill that promise of John 14:21: "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love Him, and will manifest myself to him."

          3. To know Him means that we must develop communion with Him. To do this, we must want to be with Him.

               a. You'll never know Him without the Word. Read the Word. He will talk to you through the Word. He communicates through the Bible.

               b. In prayer, we speak to Him. You'll never know Him as you should without prayer. Daniel 6:10 says: "Daniel kneeled three times a day on his knees."

     D. To know Christ is a spiritual revelation.

          1. The Spirit reveals Christ to us in salvation.

               a. Matthew 16:15-17. He was revealed to Peter.

               b. In Galatians 1:15-16, we see that God revealed Himself to Paul.

               c. To know Christ is a spiritual revelation. Many people think they know Him when they don't.

          2. To know Him, conversion is a start not a goal.

               a. I Corinthians 2:9-15, do you love Him in such a way that He will reveal to you spiritual truths that others miss.

               b. Psalm 25:14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." You can't know Him with having a reverence of Him.

               c. Spiritual things are hidden from the worldly wise, but revealed to those who trust and love the Son of God. In Matthew 11:25-29, we have the knowledge of Christ in salvation and deeper knowledge of Him.

               d. To more closely know Christ, we must seek to know Him (Matthew 7:7-8).

               e. In Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, he asks for spiritual illumination. They are believers, but Paul knows there are depths to be plumbed (Ephesians 1:18-20).

II. VERSE 10 b, RESURRECTION POWER

     A. Paul desired to know the power of Christ's resurrection.

     B. The empty tomb means that we have victory in Jesus because of death is conquered by the Gospel (II Timothy 1:9-10).

     C. The power of the resurrection is:

          1. Justifying Power (Romans 4:25; 8:33-34).

          2. Certifying power (Acts 17:31).

          3. Demonstrative power (Romans 1:4).

          4. Consolatory power (Hebrews 7:25; 4:15).

          5. Re-animating power we shall rise (I Corinthians 15:20, 22).

     D. The resurrection makes a proclamation. It proclaims victory over sin (Romans 6:9-14).

          1. By raising Christ from the dead, God the Father attest to the fact that there is no sin in His darling incarnate Son (Acts 2:24).

          2. We have victory in Jesus. Oh to know his resurrection power.

III. VERSE 10 C, PARTICIPATION IN HIS SUFFERING

     A. "....And the fellowship of His sufferings...." Paul has in mind Christ's suffering on Calvary and His present suffering.

     B. To fellowship in His Calvary sufferings, is to be sympathetic to those sufferings.

          1. Oh, to fell what He felt rejected, cursed, beaten, whipped, crucified.

          2. Can you read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and not be touched?

     C. To fellowship in His sufferings is to sympathize with His present sufferings.

          1. He feels our hurts Hebrews 4:15.

          2. On the road to Damascus, the risen Lord said to Saul, the persecutor of Christians: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

          3. We fellowship in His sufferings when we undergo persecution because we stand for right.

               a. When we are ostracized,

               b. When we are stigmatized.

               c. When we are penalized,

               d. When we are disenfranchised.

IV. VERSE 10 d, CONFORMED TO CALVARY

     A. "Being made conformable to his death." This is not physical conformity; it is obedience and self-denial.

          1. Jesus was obedient unto death.

          2. The love of Christ was so great that He said: "Not my will, but thine be done." This is self-denial.

     B. We are to surrender our lives daily (Galatians 2:20; I Corinthians 15:31).

          1. We are to see ourselves dead to self and sin (Romans 6:6, 11).

          2. The life of surrender is the life conformed to His death.

V. VERSE 11, ATTAINMENT DESIRED

     A. Paul is not uncertain about the resurrection of the saved, and his in particular. There is no uncertainty found here.

     B. Paul was saying that: "If there is any rank or order on the day of resurrection, I want to be at the front of the line, the honor student."

CONCLUSION: You can be a believer without being a disciple, but you cannot be a disciple without being a believer.