In the movie Apollo 13, director Ron Howard grippingly captures the mission of Captain James Lovell and his crew in the tiny Apollo spacecraft. Have you seen the movie? It was incredible. If you haven’t, go out and rent it; you can watch it with your kids. But if you’ve seen the movie, you know that three days after blastoff, Captain Lovell spoke, in a rather monotone voice, the famous words: “Houston, we have a problem.” They had a systems malfunction, and they could not complete their mission. As a result, they had to shut down all the computers on board - everything that was nonessential - all the lights had to be shut off, all the computers had to be shut off. They were actually flying blind.

As they floated, Command Central noticed that they were straying off course. And Command Central said that they had to make a critical correction to their course. It would mean a 39-second blast of the main engine. But they could not turn on their computer to steer. So how would they make this correction without navigational equipment? Captain Lovell came up with a solution. He figured out that if they could keep a fixed point in the sky, and just look at that through the tiny window of their spacecraft, then he would be able to steer the Apollo 13 manually. It was no easy decision.

They had only 39 seconds to do this. And if they strayed off course, they would be lost in space forever. So it was vital for their safe return to keep focused on that one point in the sky, which incidentally was the Earth, for 39 seconds in order to keep on course. Remarkably, they were able to do it. It’s a harrowing moment in the movie as they lose their focus and then they get again, but they were able to do it by remaining focused on that one reference point in the sky.

We at Markham Baptist Church are not spinning out of control in space. But it is equally important for us as a church to keep our focus and to stay the course. It is so easy for us to become distracted and to lose our way and to forget why we are here and what we are about. It’s so easy to become distracted. That’s why in 2002, the leadership of this church called out to God to give us a vision of where he would like us to go in the next five years. We wanted to keep our reference point clearly in view.

I don’t have time to go over our vision statement - it’s very thick - and I don’t have time to go over it point by point with you today, but copies of it are available.. But as we begin our program year, I do want us to think during the next two weeks about our reference point. I want us to be clear about what we are aiming for. It can be summed up very succinctly in the phrase “To know Him and to make Him known” - to know Jesus Christ and to make Jesus Christ known. That’s what we are about: to know Him - that is, Jesus Christ - and to make Him known. That is our ultimate goal: to know Jesus Christ and to make Jesus Christ known.

Be very careful when you read the vision document that you do not begin to think that our ultimate goal for this church is to plant a new church. That is one of our goals. But it is not the ultimate goal. Do not think that the ultimate goal is to have a dynamic small group ministry in this church. That’s one of our goals; it’s not the ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is not to develop a caring fellowship where people are cared for and nurtured. That’s a goal, but it’s not the ultimate goal. Those are all means by which we want to achieve the ultimate goal, which is to know Him and to make Him known. This morning I want to focus on the first part of that phrase, “To know Him,” because it is so easy for us to become distracted and to stray off course.

This is a warning that Paul had to give to the Christians at Philippi, not to stray off course and to keep focused on the ultimate goal. In fact, he wrote them a little note warning them not to stray off course. It was a great danger for the early church, and it’s a great danger for us in this day. There were those in the early church who believed that if you are going to be a Christian - if you are going to win God’s favour - then you had to keep all the rules and all the regulations of the law.

To be sure, Christians want to keep all the rules and regulations of God’s law, but not in order to win God’s favour. We obey God’s law because we love Him and because we want to obey Him and because we are just so enamoured of Him that we want to do whatever He says is right. We want to follow the law but not to win His favour; we already have His favour. We know that. We already have His favour in His saving love and in His mercy in the person of Jesus Christ.

But there were those who said that if you want to have God’s favour, then you have got to keep God’s law. Specifically, they said that new believers - that is, Gentiles, people who were coming into the faith - had to be circumcised. That’s what they said: “If you’re going to become a believer, you have to be circumcised, because that’s a sign of devotion to God. If you don’t do it, and if you don’t keep all these regulations, then you don’t have a real relationship with God.”

Paul had some strong words for these people, who focused on the outer trappings of the faith as a means to gain a place in Heaven. In Philippians 3:2, he has some strong words - the strongest words that Paul writes - about those who oppose the gospel: “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers,” - that’s what he thinks of these people - “beware of those who mutilate the flesh!?” Why? Because the outward rituals are not a true sign of an inward, living faith. Those outward appearances are not the way to win God’s favour, Paul says. “If you want to talk about circumcision,” he says in verse 3, “okay, let’s talk about it.”

Verse 3: “For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh….” If you want to talk about circumcision, then we are the true circumcision. We are the ones who were truly given over to God and have a real relationship with God. If that’s what circumcision is, that’s what we are. We have a real relationship with God. Why? Because we have an experience of God in the heart.

He says we “worship in the Spirit of God”. We don’t worship according to laws and regulations. Of course we seek to keep them, because we love God and obey Him, but we worship by the Spirit of God, not by the letter of the law; we worship by the direct Spirit of God, who has been given to us by Jesus Christ, and as the Spirit directs, so we go. That’s life. It’s not the dead law. It’s the living Spirit who directs us and enables us to worship. Not only that, but we “boast in Jesus Christ”. We don’t boast in ourselves. We don’t say, “Hey, look at us. Aren’t we special? Look what we’ve done for you, God.” No. We boast in Jesus Christ, who has done it for us perfectly, and fully we boast in Him. We are the ones with a true relationship with God, he says. We don’t boast in our own achievements. He says we “have no confidence in the flesh” - no confidence in what we are able to do personally.

He says, “You know, I used to be like them. I can boast of my achievements.” And he goes on to list them. He says in verse 4: “- even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.” “I could boast of all that I have done and how well I have kept the law.” And he goes on to list all the achievements. He was a wonderful Jewish follower of God. “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh,” he continues in the middle of verse 4, “I have more.” Why? Because - verse 5 - I was “circumcised on the eighth day,” which was, according to law, the time to be circumcised.

He was “a member of the people of Israel....” He wasn’t a Gentile who became an Israelite. He was actually born into the people of Israel. He was a true Israelite. He was “of the tribe of Benjamin,” - that’s a small tribe, to be sure; of the 12, it was the smallest, but it was a special tribe, because it was one of two that remained faithful to the Kingly line of David. And he could boast that he was from the tribe of Benjamin. He could boast, he says, that he was “a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;” - and we know how they sought to keep the law perfectly - “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;” - “I mean, I was such a good Jew that I even sought to persecute the church, who we saw as against Judaism - “as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”

He doesn’t say that he was sinless, but he says, “I kept all the outward regulations. Do you want to know about outward appearances? I did it.” Then he says, “I don’t need those outward trappings of religion any more.” He goes on to write in verses 7 and 8 - and this is the vision part - “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” The value of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord: “I consider everything loss,” he says, “compared to the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord, knowing that I don’t have to keep up appearances any more. I don’t have a long list of things that I have to do in order to please God.

The joy of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord: We know that if we fail to keep one of His laws, we are not condemned, but by the grace of God we are forgiven, and we are still firmly in God’s hands, aren’t we? Does that mean that we can sin all we like? No. It means that we don’t need to strive to keep all the rules and regulations in order to say we are special: “Hey, God, aren’t we great?” No. We already know that we are special in God’s eyes, because he has given us His son. We don’t have to strive to win the favour.

In another place, Paul says, “What makes you think you can keep the law anyway?” He says, “Face it, we’ve all sinned and we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve all fallen short of God’s requirements.” Face it, we can’t do it. But thank God we are free from doing it, for Jesus Christ has died for us, He has lived the perfect life, He has lived the law perfectly for us. And through faith in Him, we have God’s favour.

Paul continues: “For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” - all those things - “and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.” That’s us. Our right standing with God is based on faith in Christ. Now we are in Christ. You know, sometimes it’s hard to think about being in a person; how are we in Christ?

Think of Christ as a boat, say - as Noah’s Ark. Think of Christ as being in Noah’s Ark. There is Noah; he goes into the ark. God shuts the door. The rains come down, the floods come up, and where is Noah? He’s safe in the ark. The wrath of God comes down upon the Earth, and where is Noah? He is safe in the ark. You and I are in Christ. We’re safe in Him from the wrath of God. We’re safe in Him. We no longer need to worry about our lives. We no longer need to worry about what we will wear or what we will eat, for we are in Christ; we are safe in Him.

Then he says in verse 10: “I want to know Christ.” It’s the vision of this church. And if you want to be a part of this church, then that must be your vision, because that is the vision of this church - to know Him. Be very careful; it doesn’t say to know about Him. Those are two different things. We want to know Him, not just about Him, but we want to know Him. You can know all about Christ and still not know Him. One speaks of the head, and the other speaks of the heart, doesn’t it? One speaks of distance, and the other speaks of intimacy. One speaks of casual detachment, and the other speaks of a grand adventure.

Did you go tubing this summer? It was just a couple of summers ago that we were able to go tubing. I remember John went first, and I stayed on the shore. He came back all excited about going tubing, and he described how cool it was to be riding the wake of the boat and the speed and the fun. Up to this point, I only knew about tubing. I only knew about it, because he told me about it. It wasn’t until I got in that inner tube and the boat revved the motor and we zoomed away from the dock and I felt every ligament in my body being pulled to the extreme, and I felt the water go up my nostrils and I felt the thrill o f hitting the wake of the boat and going up in the air, that I knew tubing. Up to then, I just knew about it. But then I really experienced it, and it made my heart race and I knew what tubing was. That’s our vision: We want to know Christ with our hearts. We want to be able to touch Christ. We want to be able to taste His grace. We want to be able to see Jesus Christ at work among us. We want to experience the fullness of Jesus Christ Himself.

Be very careful when you read our vision statement. You’ll read all sorts of ways which are ways for us to know about Him. For instance, we want to establish a small group ministry. We want to develop a ministry in which people can understand and experience the community, the Christian community, of being together as a body in small groups. We want to establish a series of modules in which people can grow in their understanding of who God is. Perhaps we have already started module 1, which is the Alpha program; it’s an introduction to Christianity. Module 2 might be “Growing deeper and stronger in your faith.” Perhaps module 3 would be

“Understanding stewardship.” And module 4 would be “Exercising and using your spiritual gifts.” Module 5 would be “How to share your faith in a way that is non-threatening.” All those things could be mistaken for ways of how you can know about Jesus Christ. But at the end of them, we all want to be able to say we know Jesus Christ in our hearts. That is what we are striving for. That is what we are longing for, that we actually experience Jesus Christ fully and completely, in our worship, in our caring, in our equipping and in our outreach.

Our problem may not be that we are seeking to keep a set of rules. Our problem may be that we are looking to fulfil this vision statement, that we are going to do this and this and this and then we have done it. No. We haven’t done it if we have not experienced God’s grace, God’s fullness, God’s power in our hearts. That’s the goal: to know Him. How are we going to do it? Paul goes on in verse 10: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death....” That sentence is linked together with the word and, but I believe that this means by: “I want to know Christ by the power of His resurrection....”

What does that mean? The resurrection was a time in which God turned death into life; and that’s what we want. We want to know Christ by the power of His resurrection. We want to see dead people - dead in their sin - resurrected into the life of the grace of Jesus Christ. We want to see dead marriages revived and see them have the joy and the experience of Christ in their marriages. We want to see people who have dead relationships being revived as we pray for them and as we walk with them, as we see them experience Christ in the power of His resurrection, and all the deadness in our lives turned into the life-giving power of Jesus Christ Himself. That’s what it means. “…and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death....” Christ’s sufferings were an act of obedience. That’s what Paul says in Philippians 2; he was obedient unto death.

Obedience and death are linked together. We want to be obedient to our God. We want to follow in His way, no matter where he leads us, no matter what it means, we want to follow Him in obedience. That’s the goal. That’s how we experience Christ in our hearts; we trust Him to bring life out of death, and we obey Him fully.

He concludes: “...if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” That’s the goal, isn’t it? Paul wanted to receive the final prize. He has pressed on, leaving everything behind him, to receive the prize. He’s not saying that somehow, in some way, that I might squeak into Heaven; that’s not what it means. It means that somehow, even I, great sinner that I am, would receive the resurrection from the dead.

My friends, our goal is to know Jesus Christ fully, to know Him in our hearts. There is an old word in the church called “revival”. That’s what we want. We want to experience revival. It means to be brought out of death and into life. That’s what we want to experience. We want to experience Christ’s life, His fullness in our worship, in our caring and in our equipping, fully, in our hearts - not just to know about Him at a distance but to know Him in our hearts.