This Lord’s Day our pulpit was filled by our brother and friend, missionary A. M. Kuriachan, who labors with the gospel in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He came to us with a single sentence he was not willing to let us miss, and so he said it twice: “The supreme goal of a believer is to become like Christ.” Everything else in the hour hung on that. He took us to Philippians 3, where the Apostle Paul—imprisoned, tested, entrusted with the very mystery of the church—pours out his heart about what he actually wants. And what Paul wants is not what a man of his stature might be expected to want. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead” (vv. 13–14).
Br. Kuriachan began where Paul begins: with a résumé. Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness in the law found blameless. Paul was not exaggerating; he really was that man. And every line of it he now files under one word: loss. “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ”—not merely set aside, but counted as rubbish, in order that he may gain Christ and be found in Him, “not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.” Our brother then told us his own version of the same ledger: a proud young Syrian Orthodox Sunday school teacher with a heritage, a bishop, and a patriarch behind him, and a priest who pursued him for five years to be ordained. In 1978 he met Christ, and everything changed—his speech, his outlook, his songs. When he refused to pray to Mary or pray for the dead, the excommunication letter came for him and for his mother and father. His response was, “Praise the Lord, we have full freedom.” This, he reminded us, is not a principle or an idea. It is a living experience, the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, and no one can argue a man out of it.
The third movement was the sharpest. Having such a man of knowledge and suffering before him, Paul insists: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect.” Br. Kuriachan pressed the point on us—if Paul has not arrived, none of us has a right to be complacent. Christ’s desire for us is that we become like Him, and that outranks every ministry achievement. Taking up 2 Corinthians 3:18, he gave us the picture that stayed with many of us: the Word of God is a mirror in which the glory of Christ is seen; look into it long enough and honestly enough to find where you fall short of Him, correct it, cleanse it—and little by little that radiance is transferred to you. Not that we become God, but that the very compassion, love, and heartbeat of Christ come to be seen in ordinary daily life. So we forget what lies behind—the achievements we are tempted to carry as a package, and the failures we are tempted to carry as a sentence—and we press on. His own longing he put simply: “I want to give more of me to Him, so that I may gain more of Him.” And he left us where Paul leaves us: our citizenship is in heaven, from which we await a Savior who will transform our humble bodies into conformity with the body of His glory (Phil. 3:20–21). Let us hold up our brother and his wife Molly, and the work the Lord has entrusted to them, before the throne of grace this week.
- The Elements of Self-Prominence (vv. 4–6) — Paul lays out seven grounds for confidence in the flesh — birth, nation, tribe, pedigree, party, zeal, and law-righteousness. He is not boasting falsely; he really had every advantage a man could want.
- The Indispensable Need for the Rejection of One’s Own Prominence (vv. 7–11) — All of it is counted loss and rubbish for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, of being found in Him with a righteousness that is not our own, of knowing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
- The Absolute Focus on Growing into the Very Likeness of Christ (vv. 12–14) — Paul has not arrived; he presses on. Forgetting what lies behind, he reaches forward toward the goal, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Key line to remember: “The supreme goal of a believer is to become like Christ.”
Reflection and Preparation
Day 1 — The Ledger Reversed
Read: Isaiah 64:4–7; Philippians 3:4–7
Adults
- Paul lists seven things that were genuine gain to him, then files them all under “loss.” Make your own honest list—what would you have offered God as a reason to accept you?
- Isaiah says our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Why is it so much harder to give up our good record than our bad one?
- Br. Kuriachan said that when a man meets Christ, “the previous prominence becomes unimportant.” Which of your former ambitions has Christ already made small—and which one is still holding on?
Children
- Paul had lots of things he was proud of. What did he decide was more important than all of them?
- What is something you are proud of? Can you thank God for it without needing everyone else to notice?
Day 2 — The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ
Read: Jeremiah 9:23–24; Philippians 3:8–9
Adults
- Jeremiah says the one who boasts should boast in understanding and knowing the Lord. How is that the very thing Paul says he still wants more of in verse 8?
- Paul already knew Christ better than almost anyone alive, and still called his knowledge inadequate. What does that tell us about a Christian who feels he has “heard all this before”?
- Our brother said, “I want to give more of me to Him, so that I may gain more of Him.” What is one specific part of your life you have not yet given Him?
Children
- Paul said knowing Jesus was worth more than everything else he had. Can you name three things that are precious to you?
- What is one way you could get to know Jesus better this week?
Day 3 — A Righteousness Not My Own
Read: Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 5:17–21
Adults
- Psalm 130 asks, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?” How does Philippians 3:9 answer that question?
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 says He was made sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Br. Kuriachan said this is why he can stand and preach at all. How does it change the way you come to worship?
- Where are you still quietly trying to earn what Christ has already given you freely?
Children
- Whose goodness makes us right with God—ours or Jesus’?
- If Jesus has already made us clean, do we need to be afraid to talk to God? Why not?
Day 4 — His Resurrection Power and the Fellowship of His Sufferings
Read: Isaiah 53:3–6; Philippians 3:10–11
Adults
- Paul wants to know both the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Why do these two belong together and not apart?
- Br. Kuriachan pointed out that Paul sang in prison, endured hunger, cold, and beatings, and called it sharing in Christ’s sufferings. Where has God given you strength you know was not your own?
- Our brother said of his own death, “It doesn’t matter where I am buried. I will rise up.” What fears would loosen their grip if you truly believed that this week?
Children
- What happened three days after Jesus died on the cross?
- The Bible promises that everyone who belongs to Jesus will rise again too. Does that make you glad? Why?
Day 5 — Pressing On Toward the Promise (Preparing for the Lord’s Day)
Read: Genesis 13:2–18; Hebrews 11:8–16
Adults
- Abram is given a land he does not yet possess and offspring he does not yet have. How is his “reaching forward to what lies ahead” the same posture Paul describes in Philippians 3:13?
- In Genesis 13, Lot lifts up his eyes and chooses what looks best; then God tells Abram to lift up his eyes and see what has been promised. What is the difference between those two ways of looking?
- Hebrews says these saints died without receiving the promises but greeted them from afar. As you come to worship, where is God asking you to trust a promise you cannot yet see?
Children
- When Abram and Lot could not stay together, who got to choose first—and was that fair of Abram?
- God told Abram his family would be like the dust of the earth, too many to count. Did Abram have any children yet? What does that teach us about trusting God?
Next Lord’s Day Preview
The Covenant Reaffirmed — Genesis 13:2–18
Abram has come up out of Egypt very rich. Now the wealth itself becomes the trouble: the land cannot support both his herds and Lot’s, and strife breaks out between their herdsmen. Abram, who holds the promise and has every right to choose first, hands the choice to his nephew instead. Lot lifts up his eyes, sees the Jordan valley “like the garden of the LORD,” and moves his tent toward Sodom—where the men were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.
Then God speaks. He tells Abram to lift up his eyes as well, and look north and south and east and west — not at what is watered and pleasant, but at what is promised. The land, and offspring like the dust of the earth. And Abram, who still has no son, walks the length and breadth of a country he does not own and builds an altar at the oaks of Mamre.
- Come ready to consider why the man who holds the promise is free to surrender his rights—and what Abram’s generosity toward Lot reveals about faith.
- Come ready to consider the two “liftings up of the eyes” in this chapter, and how the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent are set apart by what each man chooses to look at.
- Come ready to consider what it means that God reaffirms a covenant Abram had done nothing to deserve and much to endanger—and what that promises to us.
Hymns for Next Lord’s Day
- 36 — All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
- 462 — Be Thou My Vision
- 45 — Though Troubles Assail
- 13 — Rejoice, the Lord Is King
Blessings,
Pastor Mike