Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services

Christmas Eve 2000

INTRO: The 5 best things I know. I want you think that over while I tell you how Linda Ellerbee, a noted TV journalist, answered this question in an article she wrote for McCall's Magazine a few years back. This was her answer. The 5 Best Things she knew.

1. Do what you believe is right.
2. In this world,a good time to laugh is any time you can.
3. Always set a place in life for the unexpected guest.
4. If you don't want to get old, don't mellow.
5. The best things in life, really aren't things.

 Not a bad list. But what are the 5 best things you know? A number of things may be found on that list. They might include, honesty, a successful profession, integrity, financial security, courage, commitment, kindness. All would be wonderful additions to Ellerbee's list.

 But since I am a pastor, and this is a worship service, I want to get perhaps a different perspective one that is biblical and I believe  practical as well. I want us to go back in time and ask the Apostle Paul, what are the 5 best things he knew.

 From the text, it seems that Paul would say, I only have one thing on my list. Above all else, I want to know Christ. What was it that made Paul answer that way? Did he have a 'holier than thou' attitude? Or was there something else that made Paul choose the way he did? And is that a choice we need to make as well?  Let's take a look at the text.

I. Rejoice (Eph. 3:1)
 Rejoice in the Lord, Paul says. Where did that come from? Paul just got done in the previous 2 chapters spelling out that although the Christian life is difficult and Christians must walk in a manner that would show their faith in Jesus Christ, they would not do so alone.

 Paul told them that because of their faith in accepting Christ as their Savior, He now resided in them by His Holy Spirit and He will work in and through them to help them in life. He encouraged them that the Jesus whom they have faith in has been exalted by God the Father and that every knee will one day bow before Him as God, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

 So Paul tells them to rejoice. You are not alone and the one who lives in you and walks with you is almighty God Himself. He will bring you to eternal life in heaven, not for your good works, but because of the work of Jesus on Calvary, dying for our sin and raised for our righteousness. Your future is secure because you know Christ...so REJOICE! Being able to rejoice in the Lord is a characteristic of one who knows Christ in a personal and intimate way.

Trans: Paul, because he loves the Philippian Christians, next gives them a word of warning.

II. Watch what you know. (Phil. 3:2-6)
 Paul said, because of Christ and what I have already told you about Him and your life ass a Christian, you know what true worship that honors God is and, you know the kind of life you are to live to please God, your Father.

 BUT, I want you to know that there are those who want to add to what is necessary. They believe that works, doing good deeds is not only important but necessary to be saved, to truly know Christ.  Being able to please God by what you do so much so that you can obtain eternal life by your actions, Paul calls 'confidence in the flesh'.  This is what Paul warms them of.

 He says, Let me tell you what my 7 most important things I know used to be.
1. Circumcised on the 8th day
2. Born in Israel
3. Born in the tribe of Benjamin
4. Hebrew of Hebrews (both mom and dad were pure Jews)
5. A member of the prestigious Pharisee religious party.
6. A zealous persecutor of the church
7. Blameless according to the Law of the Pharisees

 Talk about a successful man, Paul was it. These 7 would have been on the dream list of the 5 things all Jews of that time aspired to be. Paul knew them all. And he was not boasting here. He was telling the Philippians, and us as well, some of the things that the world around him thought important to know.  Things that he was now warning them about, not to place their confidence in because in the long range scheme of life, they really don't matter.

Trans: Why did they no longer matter? And why was he warning the Philippians and us not to place our trust in them as well?

III. Know only one thing...Christ (Phil. 3:7-14)
 Paul said that all those things he knew and experienced and held in high esteem now meant nothing. Not just nothing, but rubbish, trash, dung. Why? Because they can keep people from knowing Christ. Paul wasn't saying that these 7 things or Ellerbee's 5 or whatever 5 things you came up with are necessarily bad or not worth knowing or obtaining. He was saying 2 important things here.

1. These things, as important and wonderful as they may be, will not bring you to a relationship with Jesus Christ that leads to the forgiveness of sins, the indwelling presence of God and eternal life in heaven.

2. There is nothing in all of life more important than knowing Christ...period.

 Knowing is not just an intellectual understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done based on what you have heard or read. The word for know here means intimate, experiential, personal contact. It is the same word used when Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Adam and Eve in marriage became one flesh, united, intimate. That is what knowing Christ here means. It is more than you mind, it involves your heart and will and emotion. Paul says there is nothing more important in life than knowing Christ in this way, for it brings eternal life and it is the reason Christian can rejoice even in difficult times. Because we have Emmanuel, God with us, in Christ.

 Understand that Paul was no different than you or I. He was not setting the bar so high that only he could reach it. He said in this text that he was not perfect, he had not yet obtained the fullness of the knowledge of Christ. So this means you and I can enter the race as well. And a race it is...or perhaps more like a football game.

 Paul says ' I press on, I reach forward to why lies ahead, I press on toward the goal .

 When I read this my thought came to the great running back Hershal Walker. I watched many of the games he played as a Philadelphia Eagle. What made him so great was his running. He would square his shoulders in line with the goal and run, run and keep moving his feel, often time with 3 defenders on his back, run and inch forward without ever loosing sight of the end zone..the goal line.

 That is what Paul is saying. Forget what you knew as important. (Forget doesn't mean having amnesia. It  means not letting the past (the good or the bad)  negatively affect your present or future.) Know only one thing, get to the goal line,
know Christ. Paul had only one thing on his list of the 5 best things he knew. The best thing anyone could know is knowing Christ as Savior.

CONCLUSION
 It is tempting to get a grass roots work underway to change the name of Christmas to thing-mas. Far too many of us get wrapped up in things and never know the joy and peace knowing Christ can bring.
 Paul knew a lot of important things, Paul was very religious..before he was saved. He finally realized that his religion and good works couldn't save him.

 You see, Knowing Christ, being a Christian  is not a religion it is a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, an intimate, personal and powerful relationship.

We live so divided lives. So many things are so very important to us. So much so that we have a difficult time prioritizing them and trying to live some resemblance of a peaceful life.

 God tells us through the pen of Paul, this one thing I do, I want to know Christ. Will you make this the one best thing you know?  Your answer will greatly influence not only the rest of your life but your after life as well. Choose well, Choose to know Christ.