Hear the Apostle Paul’s words from Philippians 3:10-11-I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
I want to talk to you about discipleship. It might surprise you to know that Jesus never used the word, “Christian.” He never called His followers “Christians.” He called them disciples. Jesus’ disciples came to be called Christians in Antioch as is noted in Acts 11:26. That word, “Christian,” means, “little Christ” or “little anointed one.” It makes sense that Jesus’ disciples would become known by His name, but it isn’t the name Jesus used for His followers. He used the name, “disciple.”
Why is that important to note? It’s important because of the weight the word, “disciple” carries. Paul was a disciple of Jesus. He summed up both the call and cost of discipleship in these two verses in Philippians 3.
When Paul said he wanted “to know” Christ, he used a weighty Hebrew word. It is the word, “yada.” It implied an intimate connection, an experiential, up close and personal connection with Christ. He wasn’t referring, of course, to knowing Christ in a physical sense, but that word, “yada,” is the same Hebrew word that was used when we read in Genesis 4:1 that Adam “knew” Eve, and they had a son. Adam and Eve knew each other intimately. Paul used the only language he could to talk about being as close and personal with Christ as he could be.
Friends, to know Jesus is not the same as knowing about His life. It’s not the same as knowing the doctrines He taught. It’s not the same as knowing He lived as a moral example for us to follow. It’s not the same as knowing about His work and miracles. What kind of knowing is Paul talking about? Let’s press in to find out.
We can’t say we know someone if we can’t distinguish them from anyone else. If we can’t look at someone and say, “That is Joe Schmo,” and I know it is Joe Schmo not because I’ve seen a picture of him or because someone has described him to me, but I know it is Joe Schmo because I actually know him. Joe and I are in a relationship, so I would recognize Joe Schmo anywhere. Do you know Jesus that way?
We can’t say we fully know someone if we aren’t personally acquainted with what they do. To say you know the local baker, but if you have never sampled his or her bread, if you have never seen their baking operation, you can’t really say you know them in regards to what they do. Do you know Jesus that way? Do you know that Jesus gives strength to the weary? Do you know that His yoke is easy and His burden is light? Do you know that He is the Provider and Sustainer of your life? Do you know Him as the Peace Giver and the Burden Bearer? Have you “sampled” His work? Have you seen what He can do?
We can’t say we fully know someone if we only see them twice a year, say Christmas and Easter. We can’t say we are in an ongoing relationship with someone we rarely talk to. We can’t say we really know someone just because we “follow them” on Facebook. You can only fully know someone’s heart through regular participation and regular conversation with them. Do you know Jesus that way? How many times this past week did you talk to Him?
I can say I know my husband because we are husband and wife. We live together. We are in constant communication and constant communion with each other. We share our thoughts and feelings. We are partners in life and ministry. We have shared dreams and goals. We are working towards some things together. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him and there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for me. I ask about the things that occupy his heart and mind. He asks the same of me. Do you know Jesus that way? Is your life lived in constant communion with Him?
There are ways of knowing Christ that include all of these ways of knowing someone and there are ways that supersede them all. The point is, knowing Christ is more than knowing about Him, and it is even more than belief in Him as the Messiah. Knowing Christ, really knowing Him, is part of the call of discipleship. Sadly, I think there are many people who call themselves Christians who don’t really know Christ personally, experientially, and deeply.
Do you know He is a refiner? Do you know He is a forgiver? Do you know that He breaks bondages? Do you know He is a Shepherd? Do you know He is a Provider? Do you know He is a Healer? In what ways do you know Him? In what ways are you seeking to know Him? Is knowing Him a preoccupation of your life? Is knowing Him better each day something that crosses your mind?
Paul said he wanted to know Christ in the power of His resurrection! How much power is released when there is a resurrection? Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God! He who was dead was given life in that tomb after dying on the cross for the sins of the world. How much power did that take? For a heart to start beating, for every system in the body to be jumpstarted, for breath to return to someone’s lungs, for mental faculties to be summoned to attention, for a lifeless body to regain all of its function? How much power does that take? I literally get stiff sometimes just watching TV…how much power did it take for every member of Jesus’ body to come back to life? We know when the resurrection took place, there was an earthquake. There was so much power released when Jesus was raised from the dead that the earth shook. The resurrection caused an earthquake, Matthew 28:2. Paul said, “I want to experience the kind of power that causes dead things to come to life. I want an earthshaking kind of power.” Do you know Jesus in that way? Are you living with Resurrection Power?
It causes great problems when the power goes out in a community. Power keeps life moving forward. A lack of power causes things to spoil, creates thermostat challenges in people’s homes, and keeps businesses from operating as they should. Without power, when darkness takes over, people are susceptible to falls and injury. Life gets complicated when we have no power.
Disciples of Jesus are supposed to live with power. We aren’t the source of power, but as we become disciples of Jesus, as we learn to really know Him, His power resides in us, flows through us and is dispensed to the world around us. Disciples of Jesus are powerful people!
In Ephesians 1, Paul prayed that Jesus’ followers would become aware of the power that resided in them. Look at his prayer beginning in verse 18:
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
We are not powerless to deal with the circumstances of our lives. When we truly seek to know Christ, we will know Him in a way that releases His power in our lives. Just as you can call on the name of the Lord and be saved, you can call on the power of the Lord and be helped!
We are talking about life-giving power. We are talking about the power to shake things up. Do you know Jesus in the power of His resurrection?
There are three different Greek words that could be translated as “power.” The first is “Exousia.” It means “authority or right.”
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority (EXOUSIA) in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
In this Great Commission, Jesus was telling His disciples they had authority, exousia, power to make disciples. Believer, you can be a soul winner. Believer, you can lead someone to Jesus. Believer, you can teach them how to follow Jesus. Believer, you have the right to represent Jesus on earth and to call people into a discipleship relationship with Him. He is with you as you go, so that means His power is with you as you go. Did everyone that Jesus talked to become a disciple? No! Will everyone you speak to about Jesus become His disciple? No! But you have been given the power, backed up by His authority to be His messenger.
Paul’s desire to know Jesus was a desire for experiential knowledge. He wanted to experience God’s power! You will never know Jesus in His exousia if you don’t exercise His authority to be His witness. You come to know God’s power as you begin to exercise it! The surest way not to lead someone to Jesus is to never be a witness. The surest way to abdicate your authority to share the Gospel is to never do it. Whether you see results with every person you engage, don’t question your authority to keep Jesus and His life, death, burial and resurrection coming out of your mouth. His power engages with our obedience to be His witnesses. Have you experienced Jesus in that way?
As you have begun to talk about your relationship with Jesus have you all of the sudden had the right words to say? Have you suddenly been emboldened to ask spiritual questions of others? Has Scripture immediately come to your mind that fits the exact questions someone is asking of you? That is the EXOUSIA going on! Do you know Jesus that way?
The second Greek word that can be translated as “power,” is “Dunamis.” Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power (dunamis) when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Dunamis is representative of a power that has an inherent force. Dunamis power gives a person an ability to do supernatural things, power to do miracles! We know what happened when the Holy Spirit fell on those gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem after Jesus ascended. They were given the ability to speak languages they had never learned. That is a miracle, right? An inherent power, might I even say, “an inherited power,” began to flow from them. And because those who were in Jerusalem for a festival each were able to hear the Gospel in their native language, and knew the people speaking in those languages didn’t possess the ability on their own to speak those languages, those gathered there knew an epic miracle had taken place, AND THOUSANDS WERE SAVED! In that moment, the Upper Room disciples knew the “dunamis,” the resurrection power of Christ!
In Mark 5:6-8, Jesus delivered a man of demon-possession using His “dunamis” power. He went on in the same chapter to raise a child from the dead with that same inherent force, with that same “dunamis.” Right in the middle of those two miracles, there was another demonstration of “dunamis” when a woman who had suffered with a bleeding disorder for 12 years made her way through the crowd in an attempt to just touch the hem of Jesus’ clothes. She believed the reports about His power and authority so much that in faith, she pressed through a crowd to touch Jesus’ garment. She was desperate to experience the “dunamis” power of God. And as she stretched through the crowd to touch Jesus’ clothing, her bleeding stopped because the “dunamis” flowed into her. Mark 5:30 tells us Jesus realized the “dunamis” had gone out from Him, and He stopped to speak with the woman and to tell her that her faith had connected with the dunamis power of God. She wouldn’t suffer that way again.
Oh Church, the faith of the woman activated the “dunamis” power of God and supernatural healing came. Paul said, “I want to know Christ in that way.” I want to be so close to Him that His healing “dunamis” flows to me and to the people around me. “Dunamis” is resurrection power. Do you know Jesus’ “dunamis?”
Exousia is the Divine authority God has given to us. We have power to witness!
Dunamis is the Divine force God has given to us to send demons fleeing and to access healing. It is the Holy Spirit Himself!
In Luke 24:49 Jesus told the disciples, “ I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power (Dunamis) from on high.” We know what He sent! He sent the Holy Spirit! Do you know Jesus in the “dunamis” of the Holy Spirit? It’s a kind of power that is meant to be on display as we witness about the love of God!
The third Greek word that is translated as power is “Kratos.” It means might or strength. We see this word in the Ephesians 1:19-20 passage we have already read, the passage where Paul prayed the Ephesians would know God’s incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.
It’s the word we find in Ephesians 6:10 where we read, “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (Kratos). 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Oh friends, this whole passage is about how to do spiritual warfare and overcome. It is about the kind of power that enables us to stand and to take our stand against the devil’s schemes. Kratos is the power to stand! Kratos is the power to flee temptation. Kratos is the power to endure and to conquer. It is the might and the strength to keep on keeping on and to overcome any enemy you will face. What is your tomb right now? Is it a dead marriage? Is it the grave of addiction? Is it a dead-end situation at work? Is it a hopeless health circumstance? What is your tomb?
Today, you can know Jesus in the power, in the Kratos, of His resurrection, and you can stand and remain standing even if you were to be the last one standing. Kratos keeps you from caving inside a tomb of shame, keeps you from being buried by your past, keeps you from surrendering to your enemy and causes you to rise victoriously with Christ! Do you know Jesus in the “Kratos” of His resurrection?
Do you know Jesus in the exousia, in the dunamis, and in the kratos of His resurrection? Because He has given you authority, and because He has deposited His power inside you, and because He has already defeated the devil, you can know Christ’s resurrection power in fullness as you fully pursue knowing and experiencing Him!
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