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Would you pray with me, please?

 

Father, we are about honoring You, making Your son known, enjoying

Your spirit. Come and fill this place with Yourself. Make Your name known.

Glorify Your son and reveal Your spirit. We pray in Christ’s name.

Amen.

 

Good morning!

 

There’s an illustration I want to read to you out of a book:

The athletics match had just reached a critical stage. One of the final races was left to be run. It was the 440 yards—the older version of the 400 meters. The athletes were bunched together as they came to the first bend of the track, and one of them was pushed over and fell right off the track. Quick as a flash, he was back on his feet as though electrically charged by the incident, caught the other runners with a few paces to go, overtook them to win at the line.

 

That’s the famous victory which is now featured in the movie Chariots of Fire.

 

What do you think you would have done if you had fallen over?

 

Most of us, I suspect, would have been tempted at that moment—once we fell over—to just view ourselves as out of the race with no hope left. We might have been angry, but there would have been nothing we could do about it. What had, in fact, just happened would keep us, or could keep us, enslaved with no hope of going on to what might have been.

 

With the athlete in question, the famous Eric Liddell, it was just the opposite; it was as though he had been reading the passage that we’re going to look at today. Forget what’s behind, strain with every nerve to press on to what’s ahead and chase on ‘til you’ve reached the finish line.

 

Paul in our Chapter, in the section that we’re going to be looking at—and you can turn to Philippians Chapter 3; we’ll start in verse 10, page 1829 in your pew Bible—Paul has just transitioned from, in essence, bookkeeping metaphors where he was saying, “You used to count on this; now count it as this,” “Now you count Christ as this; you used to count yourself as that,” to now metaphors that deal with the world of war and deal with the world of athletics.

 

Let me read this to you starting with verse 10:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I don not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of you who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

 

Identity was the thrust of Paul in the preceding section in the Scripture in Stephen’s message.

 

Paul can see that he is really pressed so far in one direction that he now has a concern that he will lose his audience. They think that they have gained Christ. They see that they have received a righteousness from Christ. That maybe then they have reached spiritual perfection. And if they’ve reached spiritual perfection, there’s nothing left to do. Paul didn’t want that to take root in his little church.

 

There is something comforting though about the concept or the idea that we’ve arrived in the faith. Isn’t there? Everyone wants to know that we’ve arrived in some measure in the faith. And there are places that we have arrived. If we’ve confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, then we’re new creatures with a new identity. But it’s easy to begin to think or to lose our way in the busyness of life that that’s all there is to being faithful—just a commitment and then we’re done: a commitment and back to—as you heard last week—ME!. ME! God…ME! God…ME! You see the difference?

 

Something much more dramatic and profound is going on here. Paul ends verse 11 with a talk about resurrection—an event in the future toward which all Christians are drawn like athletes sprinting towards the finish line: drawn towards the realities of death and the hope of resurrection. It’s because of Christ’s resurrection and our incorporation into him, that we look forward to our future—our future bodily resurrection into the new creation when God will make all things right. That’s when the resurrection life for us will be complete, but it’s started by repentance and faith and when we were incorporated into Christ.

 

The error Paul has concern over in verse 12 is that the young church will begin to think that the fullness of this resurrection life that is out there has come into the present. And that’s not so hard to imagine. Once again he has made clear to them that everything that they used to count as value is now lost compared to the surpassing wonder of knowing Christ: that along with this new status as righteous in God’s eyes made it possible to think that maybe they had been perfected—that those promises that are out there in the future had come present into their lives today.

 

But in verse 12 Paul ushers in two parallel statements with an intention to crush this notion. Let me read those for you—verse 12. No, actually I don’t need to read it; I have it in my notes. Literally they say this:

Not that I have already attained or not that I have been made complete or mature.

 

Our translation, the NIV, has “perfect,” but it’s better to translate that “mature” or “complete.” The same word is translated exactly that way just a few verses later.

 

Paul is clear to say he’s not already been made complete.

 

We live in a world that is almost obsessed with performance. What’s your grade point average? What’s your SAT score? What’s your class rank? It starts early. Have you published lately? Have you met your grant quota? Is your progress on your project going as it’s supposed to? Are your experiments yielding results? Is your department hitting its sales or income target? Did you see enough patients to keep the administrators off your back? Did you increase the bottom line? Did you match the projected quarterly income? Are your students doing better on the ISTEP’s than they did last year? Did you cut your underwriting losses? Are your kids good, are they bright, are they athletic? Did you get more done and, if you did, did you get more done with less?

 

Whew! It’s everywhere, isn’t it? It’s everywhere, this performance mentality. But, of course, we aren’t after the opposite of that because that would be sloth. Work and doing—they’re part of what it is to be co-creators and co-regents alongside God, but that does not establish or give us a status with God.

 

Jesus alone and our active obedience to him—those establish us. It is good to know though that at the very hub of our life—at the very hub of our life with God—that perfection is not something you’re expected to have reached at this point. But if that’s true, could it be that we’re not now on the other side of the equation: one side says you need to be perfect, the other side says you’re imperfect, but that’s okay. Where’s the balance? What’s up?

 

Paul’s personal claim to imperfection holds the key: the words “not that I’ve already obtained, not that I have been made mature” which says there is more, more of Christ to be had in this life! It’s amazing, isn’t it, how easily we lose sight of the more that Christ offers? And we move into this sort of spiritual malaise as if we’re driving down the road and our car goes into neutral and we never notice.

 

What is the aim of the spiritual journey and how do we get there?

 

I want to go back and read verses 12-14 again. Paul says this:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 

The verbs “press on” and “take hold” are grabbed from the battlefield. Paul employs them together to command us to pursue Christ as you would an enemy that you are seeking to destroy. Do it vigorously. Do it determinately. Do it thoroughly. Together they express a single-minded focus to reach the goal and the goad is the resurrection life.

 

According to the NIV, Paul’s goal to reach works like this: “for that which Christ took hold of me,” but the Greek isn’t actually like that. Behind the phrase “for that which” is better understood like this: “I press on to take hold of it, because Christ Jesus has already taken hold of me.”

 

That is to say Paul vigorously pursues knowledge of Christ in joining in his sufferings, in his resurrection power, and the work of the gospel—the union with Christ on that final day—because back on the Damascus Road God took hold of him.

 

So what did Paul receive on that road that changed his life so much? Paul received things like this: new life, a new nature, a new identity, a new mind, a new desire, a new life. This is what was the motivating factor behind Paul: Christ had taken hold of him and we now pursue him because he first loved us.

 

Where do you start out each morning of each day? Do you start out with God at zero, or negative 2, or maybe a plus 2 or 3? Where do you start out when you wake up?

 

There is a whole branch of psychology now called positive psychology. In the past, psychology, I think by default, made it their goal to move people from the negative back to zero. But now with the study of positive and happy people and their traits, there’s a new goal to get you beyond zero into the positive. But where do you see yourself as starting with God? Where do you see yourself as starting in the morning with God?

 

We should see ourselves as starting as forgiven people—starting with the Spirit in-dwelling us, starting with new life, starting with resurrection power at our sleeves, starting with our inclusion in Christ being seated in the heavenly. Now does that sound like a negative or a zero?

 

You don’t start at zero. You start at a hundred percent. The question isn’t so much why are we not growing, the question is why are we slipping?

 

Do you know what Paul’s absolute favorite term for you is? It’s not sinners; it’s saints. We are people who are set apart by Christ, who are holy in his sight.

 

It’s not a fiction. We begin with the positive that the psychologist could only dream about. Now it’s a question of what are we doing with the gift what we’ve been given?

 

I have to acknowledge that when I wake up in the morning, it doesn’t start out on top of the heap. I probably, by nature and by experience, have a tendency to let the troubles and the cares of the day—the fears and the concerns—slip into the cracks of my life, and then somehow when I’m in my bed, they come out at night to play, and in the morning they attack like little monsters. They attack me and they seek to try to tell me that I’m not who I really am and the wrestling match of every morning is to reacquaint myself with who I am in Christ. There have been times in my past where I’ve actually taken some anxiety medication to help me quiet those little monsters and that helps some—for a season. But what puts me on the right path is the pursuit of God, is the pursuit of Christ, is a knowing of Him and a knowing what’s true about me and knowing what God has for me.

 

Paul then adds two descriptions—two images from the world of track and field. Like a runner who has learned what a backward glance does—that it only slows you down and probably causes you to be passed before the finish line, Paul says that he “forgets what’s behind” and second “he strains with everything within him to reach the finish line and to gain the prize.”

 

So, what is it that Paul is calling us to forget about the past? Paul forgets his past life in Judaism. Paul forgets his past sins and, if they get in his way, Paul even forgets his past successes in the faith; anything that might steal his eyes from the finish line—from the prize that sits before him—he sets aside.

 

So what is it for you? What do your eyes get fixed on? What do you struggle with from the past that you need to be setting aside—that keeps you or slows you in your spiritual progress in becoming more like Christ?

 

Paul would say, “Whatever it is, stop! That’s not working by focusing on it. Begin to focus your heart and your mind on Jesus and all that he’s done for you and all that he’s doing for you and all that he will do for you. And if you can’t do that, get some help so somebody can get you on that path as quickly as possible.”

 

So what’s the prize?

 

Too often we hear that this heavenward call has simply been “heaven”—the place where Christians aim to go when they die. But that can’t be what Paul means in this section. In verses 20 and 21 he says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there to come here: the Lord Jesus Christ who, by his power, will enable him to bring everything under control and, when he comes, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his. That’s the reverse. Going to heaven is going this way. What we await is his coming to us and making all things new.

 

The prize isn’t about going to him. The prize we strive and strain towards, the prize that we set aside everything for, is the prize that we get at the end of the age when Christ comes: when a Savior comes from there to us here.

 

Living in heaven is not the aim, though it’s a beautiful interlude; rather, it’s living in God’s new world with our new bodies, so that the upward call of this resurrection life itself impacts it. We’re living that life today with a taste of it, and we can get more of it. That’s what Paul’s telling us: that end reality has already entered our present life through Jesus—through his work on the cross. It’s entered your life if you’re really Christ, and its power is already fully available for you to follow Jesus. And if we press into it, we can get more and more of him. Always remember that we do it because he first laid hold of us not as some measure of earning but as a response to this free and unmerited favor of God. We don’t work for our salvation, we work out our salvation because of what he’s done: a faithful response to a lavish grace.

 

We strain forward towards it, like an athlete leaning towards the finish line. The prize awaits just beyond means that living in this present light, we live in the present light of that final glorious new creation. We also live in light of a reality that we don’t often talk about—a reality of final judgment: of a day when we will stand before the Lord with the whole of our life, the full of our work, in front of Him as well, and be judged on the basis of that. Not unto condemnation, but judged unto reward. That motivates me. That gets me movin’ and thinking. I will stand before Him. I want to live for Him today. I want what’s true about me to be more true. I want to know Him more. I want to live for Him.

 

Paul says in verse 13 that he has not finished the race:

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

 

Paul, this amazing man of the faith.

 

And verses 15 and 16 follow naturally from it:

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

 

I think this is a clearer translation:

Thinking like this is what maturity is all about. If you think differently, God will reveal that to you. What we have attained already, let us live up to it.

 

But what is it we’ve attained in the faith? We’ve attained again Christ and everything that comes from his faithfulness. We have the forgiveness of sins, if we’ve ever repented. Repentance gives birth to faith, and true faith makes it possible and natural for us to grow in Christ—grow in obedience, an obedience that gives birth to deeper and deeper understanding of Christ and sets the cycle of maturity in place.

 

Now God’s call, and always by God’s power, is this: He says what you’ve received, what you’ve understood, what you’ve attained to this point, respond to that, live it. That’s what the call of God is.

 

This verse is not re-enthroning some sense of perfection as saying that you’ve attained Christ’s perfection, now you—right now—be perfect. That’s exactly what Paul has been trying to save us from.

 

No, what you’ve attained to this point in your pursuit of Christ, live that. And where you’re out of step with the Spirit, if you remain in fellowship with God, He will make that clear to you and He will show you whatever errors live in you now. It’s a very different picture.

 

I think a curse lives over the life of excessive, oppressive, independent self examination—a curse. Instead, Paul’s call is to press on and strain with singular devotion to take hold of Christ. He will meet you. Let him convict and convince you of the right and the wrong in your life.

 

Let’s be free through growing dependence on the Spirit, trusting Him to do the work that we never get right when we stay focused there. Amen? Amen!

 

But there is so much more in this passage. I want to read a little bit more starting in verse 17:

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

 

I want to start with verse 20. When we hear in our culture “our citizenship is in heaven,” we don’t hear it at all like the Philippians would have heard it.

 

About a hundred years before the time of Paul’s writing—before he came to Philippi—Philippi was the setting for a great battle. It was the Roman Civil War that broke out after the death of Julius Caesar. Two victorious generals in that civil war—Roman generals, Antony and Octavian—found themselves in northern Greece with nothing really left to do.

 

Now Rome wasn’t interested in bringing all those soldiers back there with nothing to do. That would be too dangerous. So they gave them land around Philippi making it a Roman colony. The colonists were proud of their Roman connection, their culture, and their citizenship. It was their task as Roman colonists to bring about that culture—to influence the whole culture of the region as a Roman colony. And that’s just what colonists were supposed to do. And the newest innovation was the establishment of the imperial cult: Caesar, the emperor, was to be worshiped literally as savior and lord.

 

Hearing “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” wasn’t just information to them the way it can be to us; it was a call to a new allegiance to a new Savior and a new King. And instead of expecting to go to meet with him in the air, they would have heard it that it was their responsibility as citizens of heaven to bring the life and the rule of the King of that new realm, Jesus, to bear in Philippi and the regions beyond.

 

When Paul in verse 17 tells this church to follow his example and those around them who are living in this pattern, this is the pattern he’s speaking of.

 

So, what will it mean for us, for us collectively, to live more and more as a colony of heaven on this earth? What will it mean to more consciously extend the truths and the values of Jesus to your work, to your home, to every area of life: things like servanthood and humility, counting others more valuable than yourself, grousing less and being openly thankful more, honoring one another even when the other person is wrong and especially if they’re in authority over us, being SALT and LIGHT—earning the right to be SALT and LIGHT with the hope that we can tell people about the life that’s within us?

 

Secondly, where are the places where our culture tries to draw us in to patterns of thinking and patterns of behaving that, over time, steal our allegiance—our allegiance to Christ and our allegiance to all that it is to live for Christ?

 

Let me read verse 18 and 19 again:

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

 

It isn’t clear that the behavior that Paul talks about here is present in the church as much as it’s a warning against this sort of pagan behavior, against the draw of such a lifestyle over time to all of us.

 

I recognized this recently when I started watching the TV show that I thought was just a lot of fun—funny, creative, but the more I watched it I began to realize that it was starting to twist and turn my patterns of thinking, twist and turn my patterns of thinking. It didn’t quite reach behavior, but when I saw where it was coming from, I had to let it go. An honest reality is I’m having a very hard time finding very many shows that I should watch that aren’t more and more determined to try to twist me away from full allegiance to Christ in this day and era.

 

We are to be a different kind of people; we’re to be a people who aren’t slaves to their bodily impulses like so much of our culture calls us to be. Primary allegiance to our bodily longings untested by Scripture, untested by the Spirit, untested by the people of God is really a form of worship and a covenant with death. Our bodies are going to die, and if that’s what we worship, we too will die. Jesus’ cross stands in front of that path and turns us back to life—a life of true freedom and joy in our bodies and with our bodies—but towards an eternal purpose.

 

I want to read this last verse:

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

 

We should stand firm in the Lord by having our eyes clearly fixed on Him, by recognizing who we are, to Whom it is that we belong and what it is He has done for us.

 

We stand here in an interesting place. To really hold onto the Christian life, we have to do something like this: we have to live in the present moment with the tension of the reality of what Christ has done in the past and the reality of what Christ will do in the future. And we must live in that moment utterly committed to him and we must put ourselves in a place that we aren’t yielding to the temptations that would steal our allegiance from the beautiful and pure devotion to Christ.

 

He says, “This is how you should stand firm in the faith.”

 

Let’s pray.

 

Father, we are weak in spirit, but we are strong in You. We have been made

new. We are Your creatures. We are Your creation. Strengthen us as we look to

You. Take hold of us. Help us strain and pursue You all the days of our lives so

that You might be known, so that we might be filled, and so like Paul the world

would know. We pray in Christ’s name.

Amen.