Title: “Not I But Christ”                                                                                        Calvary 032110
Text: Philipians 3:4b-14

Sometime in life we have all had to endure a “know it all.”
 
Maybe it was that annoying kid in class who read the dictionary for fun and whose hand was always waving wildly in the air wanting to answer the teachers every question.
 
Know-it-alls plague us later in life as well.
 
The co-worker who always has a “better way” to do things.
The clueless who claim they “know” just how you feel.
The powerful who “know” what is best for the powerless.
The relative who is the resident know-it-all of the family.
 
The claim of “knowing it all,” of having “absolute knowledge”
guarantees the same results as “absolute power” . . . absolute disaster.
 
In the first few centuries after Christ, there were lots of different religious practices based on special, secret knowledge. Among Greek and Roman religious cults, Judaism, and certain early Christian communities, being privy to special “gnosis,” or “knowledge,” created “insiders” and “outsiders.” There were those “in the know” and those left out in the dark.
 
We still have lots of secret societies or what one might even call “Gnostic” tendencies today. If you joined a fraternity or sorority in college, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Remember all the crazy initiation rites you had to go through? Remember how you were sworn to secrecy from that time forward?
 
We all are seduced by this idea of secrets. Movies like “The Da Vinci Code”, “Indiana Jones” and “National Treasure” fed on this interest we have in knowing what’s the secret? In being in the know.

In today’s epistle text Paul takes the first century love of secret “knowledge” and turns it upside down. All the impressive elements that had made Paul one of the most “in the know” religious know-it-alls within Judaism . . . He suddenly declares as “loss,” as absolute “rubbish.” Paul put a big, fat, minus sign in front of all that had been previously seen as positive in his life.

The situation of the Philippians church and all the early churches.
Gentiles and Jews:
The Gentiles, some were Romans high status others weren’t
Even within the Jewish community there was a status based on the tribe that you come from.

Paul was not only a Jew but of the tribe of Benjamin from which came the first king of Israel, King Soul (1 Sam).
After Solomon died and the kingdom split the tribes of Benjamin and Judah where the only ones that remained loyal to the house of David (1 kg 12).
Even after the exile those 2 tribes were the ones that returned to Israel .
So Paul was among the elite when it comes to genealogy.

Not only that but Paul was also a Pharisee, which means he dedicated his life to studying the law and to living by its every word. All this gave him a very high status in the community.

Yet Paul’s encounter with Christ had such a profound impact on his life that in his letter to the Galatians, which we believe to be one of Paul’s earliest letters, he writes “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
 
Paul wanted the church to forget about all the things that separate them from each other or that distinguish them from one another. And focus more on the things that unite them, on the things that as Christians should be the most important, and that is to know Christ, and to live life as he lived. He was saying that our goal is to imitate Christ.

One of the things that I’ve found to be challenging when I traveled to other countries was to not say “we in America do things this way or that way in the church” but rather to see how they do things and to appreciate the culture and the reason and the difference in how they worshiped.

Sometimes we walk around in other countries with a chip on our shoulders, because we’re Americans, we’re stronger, richer, more glamorous maybe.
The challenge was when I would lead teams into countries where America isn’t seen in this way, it might even be disliked, and it was really hard for people to down play the fact that we were from AmericaJ.

But that’s not just an American thing. People ask me where I’m from and I say Egypt and they are so exited and immediately they ask me if I’ve seen the pyramids and I suddenly feel extra proud as if I built them with my own handsJ, yep my dad and I built one right in our backyardJ

Humility is not something that comes easy for us

For Paul, all that was replaced, all these human achievements where replaced with one thing

“the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord” (v.8).
 
As Christians, isn’t that our greatest desire? To know God, and to have this relationship with Jesus?
If we believe in God and in his love for us that is seen in J.C. shouldn’t getting to know God be the greatest desire of our hearts?

Throughout Scripture, a common desire among those who served God and lead his people, was this passion to truly know God.
- Moses “I pray you show me Your glory” (Exod 33:18)
- Psalmist “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Ps 42:1)
- Paul says “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (vs 8)

They were all basically saying, “Not I But Christ” Not my Glory but God’s Glory.”
That is our challenge in this season of lent and every day of our lives.

But what is this “knowing” that Paul talks about?... What is it to know God?

When we talk about “knowledge” today we immediately think, “head knowledge”, information that is stored in our brain, knowing certain facts about a particular subject.
But that is not the knowledge that Paul was talking about.

As a Jew and particularly as a Pharisee, the tradition he grew up in and the teachings and instructions he received since he was a little boy defined knowledge of God in a different way. For early Christians especially those who came from a Jewish background like Paul, knowing God meant 2 things, Honoring God and Obeying God.
It’s not about how much you know, but rather about how much you care.
It’s not about understanding as much as it is about compassion.

To be a follower of Christ you don’t need to know so much up here (pointing to my brain) as you need to feel so much in here (pointing to my heart)

Our challenge as we continue through this time of LENT, as we examine our lives and our hearts, is to ask your self is it all about me? Or is it all about God? And to challenge ourselves to start each day with the thought of “Not I But Christ” 

My hope and my prayer for us not only in this season of Lent or as we look forward to the incredible celebration of Easter coming up, but all throughout our lives as Christians, as Gods people, is to pray this prayer…

       “Lord it’s all about you, help me to live each day in that knowledge. Not the type of knowledge that fills our minds, but the type of knowledge that fills our hearts with love and compassion.”  AMEN..

Charge and blessing:

The world says “(head) knowledge is power” but for us “Honoring and Obeying God is power” power to live and to love, to feel and to care.