“By Any Means”

“By Any Means”

“...that I may know [Jesus] and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection...I press on...” [Phl 3:8-14 NKJV]

“By any means” is a phrase of desperation. (No one ever says “by any means” if they have a viable plan B.)

“By any means” tells me to throw caution to the wind; to go for broke; to do or die.

“By any means” tells me that my objective is more valuable than my life.

“By any means” tasks are only carried out by those who are all in.

This verse was written by a guy named Paul who had a lot going for him. He was well educated. He had connections. He was smart. He had passion and drive. Yet, Paul is throwing all of those things overboard like excess baggage on a sinking ship.

Why do such a thing? Paul ditched his own glory that he might be “conformed to [Jesus’] death”. The word translated “conformed” in our English Bibles means “assimilation”.  Now this is not some spooky Star-Trek borg-ish “resistance is futile...you will be assimilated” assimilation. This is a desire on the part of a believer to become indistinguishable from his Savior in both death and Life.

Jesus’ death was totally voluntary.

His life was not taken. It was given.

His blood was not spilled. It was poured out.

Paul understood this, and he too is voluntarily surrendering his very will, his very life, conforming himself to Jesus’ death, considering himself already dead to this world.

Paul is just following Jesus’ example...

So that “by any means” he could “know [Jesus] and the power of His resurrection,” he explains.

It’s a brutal truth, but it is truth: The more we live in the power of this world, the less we live in the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

Even the great Apostle Paul did not claim to have reached the great and difficult goal of self surrender. He did, however, understand the importance of dying to self and was “pressing toward the goal”. His admonishment to the Christians of his day rings true for us as well:

“...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind…”  

Ultimately, Paul did lay his life down for the sake of the Gospel and will someday rise in the  glorifying power of the Resurrection to stand among the redeemed in the presence of the Savior.

May it be so with all those who name the name of Jesus Christ.

LESSON OUTLINE: "Anticipation".

Family Life Class        June 27, 2014 

<sub>Almost everyone has experienced separation from loved ones. Sometimes it is temporary. Other times separation seems permanent.  The "Blessed Hope" of believers is that Jesus will soon return for his church. In this lesson we will talk about the longing the church should have for the return of Christ, and how that longing will affect our everyday lives.

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" [Titus 2:13 KJV]

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 KJV]

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." [Hebrews 9:27-28 KJV]</sub>

·         _{Does the Bible support the idea of reincarnation or any other “do over” theology?}·         _{Should Christians grieve over the death of another Christian?}·         <sub>What is the believer's hope?

"For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in [this] tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore [we are] always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." [2 Corinthians 5:1-8 KJV]</sub>·         <sub>Does the Bible speak of the death of a believer as a loss or a gain?

"Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present [us] with you. For all things [are] for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal." [2 Corinthians 4:14-18 KJV]</sub>·         <sub>What evidence do we have of bodily resurrection?

"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body." [Romans 8:22-23 KJV]</sub>

·         _{Is death natural?   Why is death so unpleasant?}·         _{How does being “born again” impact my soul?}
·         _Spirit?·         _Body?

"The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God." [Psalms 9:16-17 KJV]

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." [Matthew 10:28 KJV]

·         Do all people automatically go to heaven when they die?

·         What effect should this knowledge have on believers?

·         Ultimately who knows the destination of another’s soul?

Redemptive scars...

 In early April 2006 Amy Hawkins was home with her two young sons in Hendersonville, TN.  A F3  tornado tore through their neighborhood and hit her house. She had gone to the basement  and was covering her two sons with her body. The tornado tore her house apart and broke apart the blocks of the basement. She suffered a punctured lung and a broken back. Amy Hawkins is paralyzed and scarred for life, but she saved the lives of her two young sons.

Amy’s family and community rightly considers her a hero.

The hard truth is that in this life everyone gets scarred. Moments after your birth, someone tied and cut your umbilical cord. When that little stub attached to your belly fell off, you were left with a scar.

The funny thing about scars is that identical injuries can be either marks of shame or a badge of honor, it all depends on how you gained the scar. Amy Hawkins scars mark her as a hero, but someone who obtained those same injuries from some careless or irresponsible act (such as drunk driving) would be seen in a far less favorable light.

I notice in the Bible that God is in the habit of leaving his mark on his people.
*Jacob wrestled with the angel of God and suffered a hip injury that left him limping for the rest of his life.
*The Jews, as a mark of God's covenant, were given the rite of circumcision.
*The New Testament tells us that Christians have a "circumcision of the heart".
*And yet future, in the book of Revelation, we find that there are 144,000 of the Jewish people who carry the seal of God in their foreheads.

Now lets look at Jesus.

The wounds Jesus received during his trial and crucifixion were generally considered wounds of shame. His was the death of a common criminal, but because he died for others his marks of shame became marks of glory…
Jesus returned to heaven different than when he left…

Throughout the Bible we see glimpses into the heavens. The description we always read is that of a gloriously perfect place. When we get to Revelation chapter five, however, we see that heaven's greatest glory, is a glorious imperfection.We see the rising of The Lamb that was slain. The wounds make him worthy to open the book and to act as judge.  When the scarred, wounded, resurrected Lamb rises to his feet, the deafening worship of an unimaginable multitude ensues. He stands, not in the glory of perfect beauty, but as a gloriously scarred redeemer.

I don't know what kind of scars you may carry. Perhaps they are emotional. Perhaps they are physical. Hopefully they are redemptive. Maybe you were scarred fighting for your country. Possibly you bear scars that were forced upon you through no fault of your own. Maybe you bear the scars of a past foolishness.

I have no idea what your scars are, but I can tell you there are scars about which you can brag. Those would be the scars of Jesus. He suffered shame, humiliation and death to save your soul from an eternity without God. The Apostle Paul said, "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…"

If you don't know him today as your Savior, may I please urge you to take that step toward him? He loves you so much he was willing to die in your place. You can trust him with your life.

May God's face shine upon you today!