Jesus is Better
Notes
Transcript
Good to worship together. Love being with here…
Any hockey fans in the room? I remember growing up as a kid and going to the Tampa bay Lightning hockey games. They had some great years as a team while I was growing up in tampa and we had some close friends that were able to get us to a lot of the games. Novelle Kirwin was one of my parents friends and his son was the Video Coach for the Lightning so he was able to go to any games he wanted to. Not only that, but he also had access to a special lounge area that was called the XO Club back then. And tickets to be a part of this club could cost from 4 to 6000 dollars per game. But once you got in you could do anything you wanted. It had all you could eat food and drinks. Big couches and cushioned seats in the boxes and even private bathrooms. As a kid I remember being able to go in there an enjoy everything on my own because it was a locked area that no one could get into without being a member of the club. Even getting to that part of the arena was blocked off by security because you would walk near the garage where all the players parked their blacked out range rovers. There were times that my dad and I would end up walking in on our own and sometimes we’d have to answer the question- are you a member of the club. And my dad would say no, but we Know Nigel and Novelle Kirwin and we are their guests. And they would let us in. See, we had no status in and of ourselves. We were in way over our heads. But because of who we know, we had an all access pass to the best that arena had to offer.
Sometimes it’s all about who you know. In our passage tonight, the Apostle Paul says this- “ I consider everything to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Tonight I want us to ask this question-
Do I believe that knowing Jesus is better than anything else in this life?
In our world it is so easy to get distracted by things that don’t matter. We all have thought about this, heard sermons on this- hey make Jesus the main thing in your life, don’t let him get crowded out by things that don’t matter, and that is true.
But I believe many of us fall for a different struggle. What about when we pursue things that really do matter? They aren’t minor distractions, they are even essentials. Excellence in school, success in our hobbies, studies, careers. What about having a great family one day and a good job to provide for them, and the college degree to make all of that possible? And then of course, there’s being a good Christian like being a leader in the church and serving well, and leading a grow group and reading the entire bible consistently…
These aren’t distractions, they are big, important, good things. Some of them are even “Christian” things.
Again, the question must be asked- Do I believe that knowing Jesus is better than anything else in this life?
Paul shares his experience with this question in Philippians chapter 3. Turn with me to Philippians 3 .
Tonight we are going to see, big things or small things, good things or bad, are all insignificant compared to knowing Jesus! Jesus is better than anything else.
Read the passage with me, Paul is writing to the church in Phillipi and says:
But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Paul shows us 3 areas that Jesus truly is better than. And he begins with Jesus being better than our best accomplishments.
1.Jesus is Better than our best accomplishments.
1.Jesus is Better than our best accomplishments.
But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ
Just before these verses Paul has been warning the Phillipians about false teachers who were trying to get these christians to add a bunch of jewish laws and traditions to their faith. They were essentially bragging about how religious they were and guilt tripping the christians into thinking they needed to do more than place their faith in Jesus in order to be saved.
How tempting is it to think we need Jesus plus good religious works to be saved? This is what these false teachers were trying to impose on the new christians.
Paul, points back to who he was before he met Jesus. He says hey, if they think they have reason to brag and manipulate you, I have even more. I was the perfect Jewish man- I followed all of the right Jewish laws and traditions, I was a top Pharisee and religious leader, I was so zealous as a jew that I was hunting down and killing Christians…
Paul had every reason to be proud of who he was and what he had accomplished in life. He was at the top of the Jewish hierarchy and every Jewish man would’ve been jealous of Paul living the dream!
But he stops and in verses 7-8 Paul explains what happened when he encountered Jesus.
Paul says he met Jesus and suddenly everything that he thought mattered, everything that he had previously found his value and worth in, everything he had been giving his entire life to, suddenly seemed completely worthless. It wasn’t a gain, or a positive addition to His life, he says it was considered a loss, it took away from his experience of the Life Jesus had for him. Paul uses very strong and even vulgar language here- that word dung in verse 8 can be translated pretty explicitly but really to say it politely- everything he had before was like a big pile of dog poop compared to how great knowing Jesus is.
This is a good place to hit pause. What does it mean to Know Jesus?
What does Paul mean when he says this throughout the passage?
Knowing Jesus is referring to having a personal relationship with Jesus through faith in Him as your Savior and Lord. Savior- as in the only one who can pay for your sins, and Lord- the only way to find true life as you follow and obey Him.
And to be very clear-
Knowing Jesus is totally different than knowing about Jesus.
Just because you know about the Tampa Bay lightning doesn’t mean you can get into the XO Club. You could list off every coaches name, every players stats, and list off every game on the schedule coming up and you wouldn’t get in. The only way in is if you have a personal relationship with one of those coaches who will vouch for you and give you access to the club.
Just because you were raised in church, know all the answers or even raised your hand in a service one time does not mean that you know Jesus as Savior and Lord. There must be a point where you have encountered Jesus, realized your sin and your desperate need for Him to save you and you decided YES Jesus is way better than life on my own. I need him to save me and I want to follow Him as Lord of my life. And then you turn from your sins and begin following Him in a new, personal relationship.
That is KNOWING CHRIST!
See, Paul had every earthly accomplishment you could want in his culture. He was a Pharisee, a leader, respected, educated, and zealous.
But when Paul encountered Jesus, he realized that all those accomplishments were nothing compared to knowing Christ.
How often do we look at our accomplishments- how good our grades are, how popular we are, how athletic we are, how many colleges we get accepted by… to give us a sense of worth, value and significance?
Paul says, Jesus is better than our best accomplishments!
Fulfillment and purpose in your life is ONLY found in Jesus. Jesus is Better than anything else!
He keeps going to say:
2. Jesus is Better than our best behavior.
2. Jesus is Better than our best behavior.
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
Remember, Paul has already said that he was living out the law to perfection, and yet, when he encountered Jesus, he realized he had NO righteousness of his own. Righteousness refers to right living and right relationship with God. Apart from Jesus we know everyone is a sinner, broken off from relationship with God and incapable of living a holy and righteous life. That’s Paul’s point here. He admits, he had been living in the delusion that he was a really good Jewish man who was innocent before a perfect and holy God. But part of what happens when we encounter Jesus is that we see real perfection. We see a sinless man and we realize how sinful we are. No one is good, not a single one.
Even Paul’s righteousness according to the law was like filthy rags before God.
See, Jesus is better than our best behavior because our best behavior is still sinful and broken before a Holy God! Nothing good we do can earn God’s love, or deserve the saving power of the Cross.
Paul says it is only by faith in Jesus that we can be saved.
Especially if you grow up in church and around Christians, it is so easy to believe that you are actually a pretty good person and obviously other people are sinners in need of salvation but honestly you aren’t that bad. This is a terrible lie that keeps plenty of church people from ever truly knowing Jesus for themselves. Following all of the right rules, living like a good christian boy or girl, and checking all the right boxes does not save you, does not make you right with God and does not mean you know Jesus.
It’s not by any work of your own that you can be saved from your sin and right with God. It’s only by putting our faith in the work of Jesus on the cross that we are saved. Scripture teaches us that when we follow Jesus, his righteousness becomes our righteousness. This is called Justification. When you KNOW Jesus, God looks at you and no longer sees your sin, but He sees Jesus’ righteous perfection! Your guilt is wiped away, and Jesus’ holiness covers you. It’s as if you’ve never sinned and have always obeyed.
That’s your new status with God when you know Jesus- that is better than any of your best behavior. Your best obedience can follow after you Know Jesus but Without Jesus your best behavior is worthless.
Jesus is better than our best accomplishments and behavior,
Finally, we see Jesus is better than our best plans.
3. Jesus is Better than our best plans.
3. Jesus is Better than our best plans.
My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Ok, this may not be what you expect but stick with me. Paul says his Goal is to Know Jesus, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
The first part should sound great, the second part not so much.
Let’s look at the good part first.
When you know Jesus you get to walk in His power. His Spirit fills you and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you!
Our plans of becoming the best football player, or college student, or having the dream job, family, house, car… all become insignificant. Knowing Jesus means that our goal is to know Jesus more and become more like Him. And Jesus will direct our path ahead as we do that!
I love how John Mark Comer says it:
“Being a disciple of Jesus is about Being With Jesus, Becoming more like Jesus and doing what Jesus did.”
That’s it.
The greatest gift of knowing Jesus, IS knowing Jesus. - The greatest gift of salvation is a growing, personal relationship with the God who saved us!
we get to know Jesus, the God who created us each and every day as we follow Him. We get to know him and his love for us and walk in his power, live in his kingdom even now while we are on this earth.
So, that’s the great part we get to experience and one of the goals Paul mentions.
But…what about the last few things Paul says? …He wants to experience the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings and be conformed to his death?
That’s a weird goal.
Let’s just be honest, to suffer and die like Jesus would be a weird 2025 New Year’s Resolution….
Here’s the thing, Jesus wasn’t loved by this world, he was hated, arrested, tortured, and killed by a world that didn’t want to believe He was Better. Like you and me, the world wanted to stay in the illusion that their accomplishments, behavior and plans were all good enough. Why should they stop living for themselves and follow Jesus instead?
Jesus claimed that he is the only way to be saved from the death of our sin and he is the only way to be right with God and experience life in His kingdom.
Jesus says he is the only way, every other way is a lie, and He is the only one good. That is an offensive message and an exclusive message. But it’s only a hateful and arrogant message if it isn’t true.
If it is true then it is the most loving and compassionate message ever, because it is the message of salvation!
This message is the same message you and I carry today when we believe Jesus is better. When we believe Jesus is better we tell people who don’t know that Jesus is better so that they can experience how Good He is for themselves!
We believe that them doing life for themselves will only lead to death and we want them to experience life in Jesus!
But when we live like Jesus in this world and share the gospel- we will face suffering and persecution. But like Paul we can have hope that this life will not end with suffering or even death, but we look forward to the hope of the resurrection. That, like Jesus, we will all rise when he returns fully healed and restored, with not effects of sin remaining.
So, even if we do suffer today, even if we are hated by this world, we can rejoice because like Jesus who suffered, we will also rise like Jesus rose.
So, Jesus is better than our best plans, but his plans probably won’t look anything like ours. We will have good days and bad days, we will have wins and losses, but when we know Jesus is better we can face any high/low or suffering in this world with Joy and hope knowing that God is doing something good and in the end we have a eternal life beyond all that we go through here now.
Jesus is Better!
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
So, I come back to my first question- Do you truly believe that Jesus is better than anything else in this life? You either do or you don’t and I hope that has been clear tonight. Jesus is either everything or nothing to you. There really is no middle ground.
Let’s be a ministry that lives like Jesus is better—because He is!
Bow your heads with me and let’s respond together. Take a moment and ask God to speak to you. Ask Him to show you your heart and where you are at with Him right now.
1. Do you know Jesus, or have you just known about him? Tonight, do you need to go all in and surrender to Jesus as Lord of Your life? We all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. None of us is good and righteous. But God loved us so much HE sent His son Jesus to save us. Jesus DID live a perfect life. Jesus took our sin with Him to the cross where He died the death that we deserved for our sin. And Jesus rose from the grave and offers anyone who puts their faith in Him forgiveness for their sins, a personal, right relationship with God and eternal life in his Kingdom.
Is there anyone here tonight that knows that they don’t Know Jesus, they have never truly followed Him as Lord and you need to tonight?
2. If you do know Him, two questions for you. 1. Does your life show that you believe Jesus is better? Is he first and foremost in your life? Are you truly viewing everything else as less than Jesus? Is knowing Him your primary goal each day? and 2. have you fallen for the lie that you know him enough… Paul said his goal was to know Him… this was an ongoing goal for Paul. He wasn’t complacent in his relationship with Jesus, He wanted to keep growing and becoming more like Jesus by His power. Do you need to get back in the Bible, spend more time in prayer, recommit to being a part of this ministry to really get refocused on Knowing Jesus more and and becoming more like Him each day? Confess that to God right now, and talk to Him about how you can obey Him calling you to himself.
3. Finally, if you believe Jesus is better, like we said, you go and tell people about him!Are you praying for your three lost friends every day? Are you telling people about the Jesus who is better than their sin and brokenness and lostness? Listen, this year, we need to go after the people around us and declare that Jesus is better like never before! Share the gospel, invite them to church, love them well so that they can see Jesus truly is better! Who can you lift up in prayer right now and ask God to give you boldness to reach out to them and talk to them about Jesus?
Pray
Pray
