Philippians 3:12-16 • Eyes of Joy
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you look in your Bibles at Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3, as we consider verses 12 through 16 of Philippians chapter 3.
I got a note from my oldest son this past week. Colin said that he is now running ultra marathons, 35 miles at a time. Wow.
And it took me back in memory to where Kathy and I used to watch cross-country meets as he was learning to run. Part of his learning to run was also kind of getting out of being a sickly and asthmatic child and his confidence was growing as he was learning to finish races. And as his confidence would grow, we noticed that a certain habit began to take over in his racing. It was this, when he could see the finish line, I mean, it was just unquestionable that he was going to finish the race in order just to make sure that he had expended all his energy to just absolutely press on. He would make sure he kind of cleared the path in front of him by letting out one gigantic roar for about the last 50 yards. Well people would just part in front of him and he could just, with all the energy left, go forward.
When he knew the goal was within his grasp, he could expend absolutely everything toward that goal. And that's what the Apostle Paul is reminding us of here, as he takes the image of a race and encourages us to press on because Christ has held on to us. Let's stand as we honor God's Word. Remember the Apostle Paul is saying his great goal is to know Christ and the power of his resurrected life. What will that require? Verse 12, Paul says, "Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining to what lies ahead, I press on toward the prize. The goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise,
God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained."
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us such clear vision of your hold upon us, eyes for the prize that is ours by your doing and not ours, that we would take delight in expending all energy for the purpose of our Savior, that we would recognize in that there is nothing left to lose, that we have everything to give, that for your sake we would be inspired by the work of your Son to live for Him. Help us to press into that reality for Christ, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.
In the year that I was born, Roger Bannister was the first recorded human to break the four-minute mile. A lot of you in this room will remember that fact, but what almost nobody recalls is that only two months later, John Landy broke Roger Bannister's record, decimating that record by almost two seconds, shattering the record that had only been two months old. Well, that set up the head-to-head match of Landy and Bannister. In that same year, in a race that was making world headlines, Bannister and Landy went head-to-head against each other in the mile.
It was clear through most of the race that Landy was going to win.
He was ahead, doing great. Within yards of finishing the race in the lead, however, one thought began to plague John Landy.
Where's Roger?
And within yards of the finish line, John Landy looked back and Bannister passed him.
Landy later said in an interview with Time Magazine, "If I had not looked back, I would have won."
The Apostle Paul is saying something much similar in this very passage.
Press on toward the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. But before any of that, forgetting what is behind, press on toward the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, when the Apostle Paul says that, you and I are inspired that the Apostle Paul could say, "I'm forgetting what is behind and I am pressing forward for the purpose of God's calling in Christ Jesus."
But we have to think just a little bit and then recall, is Paul asking me to do that? I mean, it's a lot easier to be a spectator on Paul's life than to be a participant in the race. After all, if you ask me to press on into an upward calling, I immediately begin to think of my lack of focus on that calling, my faults, my stumbles, my frailties. How in the world can I, like the Apostle Paul, press on into an upward calling in Christ Jesus? The Apostle Paul's instructions are actually pretty plain. What do we do to press on into the reality of the resurrected life of Christ Jesus in which sin is forgiven, Christ's power is filling in us, and we are living for Him with reward and fulfillment in ways that we never knew before Christ was in our lives? How do we press on?
Well, number one, don't claim that you've already arrived.
I mean, after all, that's verse 12. Paul himself says, "Not that I have already obtained this, the reality of the resurrected life in Christ Jesus and all its fullness, not that I've already obtained this, or am already perfect." Now don't you just love it that an Apostle says that?
That an Apostle says, "I haven't arrived yet.
I'm not perfect."
I mean, because after all what you recognize is the essence of the Christian life is just starting out by saying, "I'm not perfect. I recognize there are flaws and faults in my life that require God to do something in my behalf. It's the beginning of the Christian walk. It is this gospel humility. I recognize the good news is that God has provided for me, but He had to do that because
I'm not perfect.
There are things in my life that are not right. It's the Thanksgiving season. One of the things that Kathy and I give thanks for each of the seasons that we have been with you is that we're elders, leaders in this church as we were coming just to explore who were saying not only these words, but much more. We're not perfect.
As a matter of fact, we would recognize that much of the existence of our church in recent decades has been living on pride, prestige. Look at us, our power, our ability, our building.
And we recognize the way we want to minister is not by what's true of us, by what's true of the Savior. And therefore we have to confess in humility before one another and before the world that we require the work of Jesus Christ. Would you come, not because of our prestige, would you come because we need somebody to help us know the gospel again and you have to know that when they said that I said, "I need people because I need to know the gospel again." It is so easy for each one of us to look over our own lives and our own path and somehow say we are deserving of the grace of God. But the Christian life that is in the reality of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is saying, "I am not able to live by my strength, my power, my goodness, but by what Jesus Christ has done, I depend upon Him, His renewal. And having confessed my life's imperfection, I then begin to affirm my heart's direction."
Paul says, "I'm not perfect, but I press on to make what Christ is offering my own. And the reason I do that is the affirming of my heart's motivation." Why would I do that? It's the beautiful wording at the end of verse 12, "Because Christ Jesus has made me His own." I press on. Why do you do that?
Because Christ has made me His own. I'm not perfect. I'm not deserving this. But Christ has made me His own. He's done something beyond me, apart from me, more than I deserve. He made me His own. I didn't make Christ my own. He made me His own. It's the great statement of humility before one another, before the world, that Christ had to do something in our behalf. But what comes of that is marvelous, wonderful, thanksgiving. Why do I press on?
Because Christ has made me His own.
In Boskamp, the farmer author that I introduced to you last week in her new book called "The Broken Way," talks about the power of thanksgiving, not just as food on a holiday, but as the fuel of the Christian life. She talks about the thanksgiving as gratitude, reflecting on what it means that Jesus has made me His own.
As a teen, she writes that she was bullied in public school to the point of being suicidal
and confesses that about that time she began to cut herself.
She wrote, "I tried to cut my way through the hurt, down to the very core of things.
After all, who doesn't know what it's like to smile and say, I'm just fine when you're not and in fact you're almost fainting with pain?"
Then writes the 43-year-old mother of seven, best-selling author now, "I sometimes still struggle with wanting to cut.
There are still days I have to preach the gospel to myself so loudly to remind myself about a broken woman touching the intimate communion of the cross, to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings, to become like Him in His death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead, to press into this reality that my life in the existence of what has happened to me or what I do leave me wanting to know, is there a God? Is there a reality? Nothing but just my own crippled brokenness and to say, but Christ has made me His own. He knew all of that. He knows all of that. And to preach that gospel to our own hearts again and again and say, He knew the worst about me. He knows the brokenness that even continues down. And He has made me His own.
She writes, "Most people seek gratitude as Pollyannish, oh, you're grateful for your life, for your beautiful home, for your farm.
But grace to me," she says, "is more like an electric shock. You have been given all of this beauty in the light of your brokenness.
If any of you," she says, "have ever been moved by the grace of God, you recognize how gratitude is the movement behind the Christian life. It is ultimately our thanksgiving that is not just holiday, not just a big meal. It is ultimately the driving force of the Christian life. God has made me His own through Jesus Christ.
I knew the hurt. I knew the harm of my own sin, my own weakness.
Jesus made me His own."
This is the great mystery of gospel obedience. Most people think that what fuels and forces obedience is either fear or gain. The reason that we will obey is because we fear the ogre in the sky is going to get us, and so we'll walk the straight and narrow.
Or we desire that the great vending machine in the sky would somehow get our obedience nickels and will do exactly what we want to feed us with the things that we want in life.
But instead, the great motivation of the Christian life, Christ Himself said when He taught us the first and the greatest commandment, which is what? That you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. What is going to make you press into loving the Lord your God with all heart and soul and mind and strength? The apostle John taught us we love because he first loved us.
It is that desire to respond in gratitude and thanksgiving for the great benefit of God that has been given to us by His Son that makes us want to press on in the reality of who God is and what He has done. But how do you do that? I mean, how do you face your faults, your weakness, your sin, the things that you know are part of your life and still press on? The apostle is so clear. He says it's just one thing, really just one thing required to press on into the reality of the resurrected life that you desire. Verse 13, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on to the goal." What is the one thing?
It is to focus by forgetting.
Forgetting what is behind, I press on toward the high calling of the upward call of God. Forgetting what is behind, the power of that. We witness just in the last World Series, if you think about it. I mean, think of David Ross, 39 years old. He's in the seventh game of the World Series. He knows it's going to be the last game of his career. And he is put in in the fifth inning as a catcher for defensive purposes.
The first batter behind whom he catches hits a little dribbler over home plate.
Ross rushes forward, picks it up, and throws it away, resulting in that batter getting to first base. Next batter, ball bounces from the pitcher in the dirt, hits Ross in the face mass, goes a different direction. The next batter gets on base. By the end of that inning, both of those batters will have scored. It is, it is devastation. I mean, if you think about it, Ross, this is the last game of my career. This is the seventh game of the World Series.
And by my own error, two men are on, two men have scored, giving of course the other team the chance back in the game.
But you may remember what happened in the next half inning.
I'm really on enemy territory here, I can tell.
What happened? What did he do?
Home run. Now you have to know, he walks to the plate. He has just been guilty of the errors that have let the other team back in the game. But he has to forget that. And forgetting what's behind, he says, "This is what I got to do. I got to press into this moment." And of course there was wonderful reward in that, but you have to know how difficult that must have been to do, to say, "I'll just rest on my career laurels and hopefully I'll forget the errors or I'll just let the errors themselves so press in, I can't play." He's got to forget, he's got to move forward.
Now while the example is fun, you and I know how absolutely hard it is to do. And the Apostle Paul has told us how hard it is in this very passage. Forgetting what is behind? Well what is behind? I mean after all there are some pretty great accomplishments of the Apostle Paul back there. If you look at verse 5 of this same chapter, he says of himself, "I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal persecuting the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. I was blameless as much as people could observe my religion, if that's what we're going to estimate. But I've got to actually forget my accomplishments as well. I've got to say I haven't arrived. I actually have to acknowledge my imperfections in order to be able to press into the reality of who Christ is and what He has done on my behalf."
What would that look like in our lives? I've got to forget the past even if it looks good.
I'm not going to claim that I'm a believer, that I have reality in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ because of my baptism, because of my great Sunday school record, because of my great giving record, because of anything in me, which for most of us in this culture is just kind of saying my basic being a good person-ness. You know, I'm basically a good person. I'm not perfect, but I'm not like those people over there, or like those people over there, or voted as I didn't want, or you know, and we define ourselves by our goodness.
And the Apostle Paul is like, "No, listen, if you want to press into the reality of Christ to share in the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, dying to self so that you're actually living in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ, it's His life in you now. It's living for and with and in Him. To do that, you have to put behind you even your own good person-ness as your claim upon God.
But that's not all that you have to forget.
Right there in verse 6 with that line of commendations was that little phrase, "As for zeal, persecuting the church."
When Paul wrote those words, do you think he still heard the screams in his dreams?
As he talked about what it meant to be a child of God, did he think of the chains he had put on mother's wrists to take them away from their children?
Forgetting what is behind means you are also identifying past failures as well as past accomplishments and saying, "These do not stop me from the reality of Christ, that He has done something, that His blood washed a man by sin. That would be my judgment. That would be what God would rightly hold against me, my faults and sins, my weaknesses. But I'm forgetting what is behind because Christ Jesus has made me His own. And in that reality, I am now going to live. It is, it is, I confess, difficult for us to so enter the reality of Jesus Christ that we really can forget.
Last week we celebrated the veterans of our congregation and nation.
But that led to conversations through the week of some veterans who have trouble forgetting.
I think in my own family of one who says, "I cannot believe what I myself did in uniform. I cannot forget."
But the reality of the gospel is that you have permission to forget.
Forgetting what is behind, I press on.
Recognizing if I can't forget, I'm in essence saying the blood of Jesus is not enough. If I cannot forget, I'm in essence saying the gospel is not real. That part of affirming, the pressing on that is needed is to forget.
And that can be awful, but it is a grace.
Because I'm thinking about my oldest son this day, I think of a time that he and I were on a mission trip in Mexico.
And when we were on that mission trip, there was a man traveling with us who began to observe our relationship. And one evening he just took us aside and said to my son and to me, "I need to understand something about your relationship because I don't have it with my children and I don't know how to get it."
He said, "When I was growing up, my father, in order to have an affair with a neighbor,
intentionally drove my mother into insanity.
My childhood was so horrible, the only memories I have are an occasional fleeting thought of my parents fighting outside my bedroom door.
I have few memories and the ones that I do are terrible."
And he said, "Because I do not have memory of my childhood, I do not know how to raise my children."
He said, "Some months ago I talked to my mother and I said to my mother, "Why is it that I have no memories of my childhood?"
And he said, "My own mother said, "Remembering is a grace, but forgetting is also a grace."
It can be a huge grace. You cannot be a parent without remembering certain things that bring you shame and upset. You cannot be somebody who fights for your nation and at times wonder if everything that was done was right. You cannot be successful in a career and sometimes look back over and say, "How could I possibly have done that?"
What is taken to Christ and put down at the foot of the cross is dead to you now. If you have truly confessed it, it is gone separated as far as the east is from the west. And part of my honoring of my Savior, part of believing in the efficiency and effectiveness of the blood of Christ is to actually believe, "I have permission to forget." No, I am commanded to forget. It does not hold me back. I press on because I know my memories are sometimes the German Shepherd that is after my heart grabbing at me, fighting, clawing to get my soul again. And I say, "No, I am called to forget. This is what God enables me to do, not by my goodness, not by my being basically a good person. Actually, by saying, "God in Christ Jesus has made me His own." And I honor that by saying, "Forgetting what is behind, I press forward into the reality that He desires of me. It is my command, but it's my privilege at the very same moment."
How do we do all that?
How do we forget?
I know it's easy to say because we remember the words of our history, but we keep our eyes on the prize that the apostle wants us to recognize, not looking back, but actually straining forward. The end of verse 13, "One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead." The word in the Greek is actually one stretching by laying out as a runner at the end of the race who's actually just forward leaning, expending it all in the forward direction, not what is behind.
Some of you may remember in the last Olympics when Shawn A. Miller, the Bahamian runner, was actually behind in the last steps of the 400 meter and finally just threw herself forward. I mean, without regard for life or limb, just absolutely laid herself out and won the race, leaving it all because she was so focused on the prize that what was behind, in fact, even what the consequences might be of pressing forward, were not concerned anymore. It was that absolute focus on what she believed was the goal. What is our goal?
We will strain forward and we actually believe that we have an upward call. Verse 14, Paul says, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
I know it's hard for us, but the reason that I press on and the way in which I press on is to actually believe that this earth is not my boundary, that a child of God who is pressing on to the purposes of the resurrected Lord is not limited by this world's time and material essence, that I am on eternal business, that my life has a cause beyond just my pleasure, my gain, what's going to happen in this moment, that I have an upward call.
If you believe that, then you can be a mother changing diapers and say, "This is an eternal soul that I am taking care of."
You can be a business person and believe that by my integrity and at times by my sacrifice for the sake of others, that I am responsible for eternal things that the rest of the world only sees profit and loss. And I actually believe that I have an upward call, that I'm responsible to heaven and this, that eternal things are being done through what I do. And if you don't have that upward sense of call, the world will boundary your Christian experience.
New York City pastor Tim Keller writes it this way, "There have been many times that I have seen people make professions of faith that seemed quite heartfelt, but when faced with serious consequences by identifying with Christ, they did not want to maintain their identity.
Consequences like missing the opportunity for a new sexual partner or some major professional setback.
They bailed on their Christian commitment because they were boundaried by the things of earth.
I believed I was going to become a Christian for my sake, for my world, for the things that are happening right now. But what if you believe that you are a Christian for an upward calling, that there's a heavenly purpose in what you are doing, that it may be that you're a camera person and you are taking pictures right now that will go out to thousands. And that's wonderful. But what if you believe that on your deathbed, for the nurse who cares for you or the estranged child who visits you, you still in those moments have an upward calling, that their eternal purposes for God, that He has given you by a calling beyond the boundaries of this world.
If you believe that, then the wording at the end of verse 14 is absolutely essential. I press on the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
It's not just believing that I have an upward call, it's the belief that I have an anointed call. I am in Christ Jesus.
We need to remind ourselves from time to time that those words, Christ Jesus, are very specific. Christ is not Jesus' first name, okay? It is His title, right? He is the Christ. He is the anointed one. He is the Messiah, sit by God for an eternal purpose. And if you are in Christ Jesus, that phrase that appears 20 times in this one small epistle of Paul, he is saying that if you are in Christ Jesus, His anointing is your anointing. His purpose is that you have an upward call, but you are in Christ Jesus. His resurrected power is working through you. He has eternal purposes that He is still bringing about in and through your life. You believe profoundly if you have an upward call that you are doing God's work, but if you are anointed, you believe God is in the work.
And that's what I have to believe, that if I'm going to share in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ and believe that in that death of self, I am pressing on into the resurrection reality of Jesus Christ, Him working beyond time and space, beyond material and earthly, if I'm really pressing into that reality, I have to believe that God is at work in this, that I'm not on my own, that as much as the world may see just existential material things that I actually believe that God is at work spiritually and eternally through my life because I am in Christ Jesus. So I don't merely have an upward calling, I have an anointed calling. Now that's hard. I confess it's hard and even the Apostle Paul will confess it's hard. And that is why he says in verse 15, "Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you." Now there is a Thanksgiving prayer.
God revealed to me the reality of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ in which I live so that I actually believe that whether I'm at school, whether I'm at work, whether I'm in a family, whether other people see or don't see, I have an upward calling and I am anointed for that eternal purpose and that you have placed me, whether in family, in occupation, wherever it is, that you have placed me for that eternal calling. And my now believing that is actually going to be hard, but I'm going to pray, "God, you would reveal that to me." I mean that means Thanksgiving, if I could actually see that prayer being revealed, would not just be about food, it would be about fuel. I'm so thankful that God has made me my own, made me His own. And not only am I thankful that Christ has made me His own, but He's given me this calling and now I begin to see my world that way. I'm not just going through hard times and that's the end of the story. I'm not just struggling and that's all there is. I'm not just weak and I'm on my own.
No, I am an anointed person for the call of God for heavenly purposes. And when I believe that, it changes every perspective that I have. It even changed the perspective of the Apostle Paul. He says, "God will reveal that to you," verse 16, "only let us hold true to what we have attained." Now, I hope you recognize that's the bookend of an earlier phrase that the Apostle used at the end of an earlier verse. Remember what he said in verse 11? He says, "I want to know Christ," that was verse 10. Verse 11, "that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead." That's what I want. I want to arrive at an understanding of who Christ is.
But now he says by the time he gets to verse 16, "Hold fast, hold true to what we have attained."
As though he's already acknowledging that he has arrived, that there is this reality of the claim of God upon him so firm, so real, that it's replacing the reality of what he hopes will be with what is already true. I have attained. How did I attain anything?
Christ made me his own.
It wasn't what I did. It's what he did. And that is now so powerful that it becomes the reality into which I press at the same moment that is pulling me forward. He has made me his own. I've already attained all that he intends because of his work, not because of mine. So we serve the heaven that's already secured. We hold fast to the one who holds us fast. We press on to please the one who is already pleasured by our lives.
Hearing the worst about us, saying, "You're mine."
Christ has made you his own. If you know that, you can press on forgetting what is behind you and moving forward to the one who already claims you, knowing because he's there, because he claims me. I don't have to take my eyes off of that. I don't have to worry about these other things.
Christ is my own. He's pleased with me. I'm going after him.
The difference it makes, a lot of us learned in that movie "Cherites of Fire," when Eric Little, remember, in the 1924 Olympics, ran the race that was not his own, the 400-meter.
And in that 400-meter race, he won even though he'd not trained for it. And the reason he was not training for it is he's supposed to run other races, but the meets to qualify happened on Sunday.
And so in those heats, he did not run.
Made a lot of fame for himself winning the race that he did not train for.
But the mark of what made him do it, what pressed him on against insurmountable odds was actually something revealed much earlier in the movie. Do you remember he had a sister who was upset with him for all his racing interest? She thought he should be giving all his energies to training for the mission field.
And at some point, he said to her these words, "God made me fast.
And when I run, I feel his pleasure."
The evidence of that happened much earlier in the movie. It was when there was a duel meet between Scotland and France, and Little running in what was at that point the race he wanted to run.
Tripped almost coming out of the box.
A 440, and before he got started all, he was 20 yards behind.
But believing that God was pleased with him, that there was pleasure in running fast in the heart of God himself, he just with total abandon ran for all he was worth. Won that race and became known as the Flying Scotsman. But it was the attitude that he kept as he moved through life, not just the Olympics, but the mission field, the Japanese internment camp, giving everything, giving food and care and everything for the sake of others because he said, "I've got nothing to lose here.
God has made me his own. In Christ Jesus I am secure. As I live out my upward calling, he is pleased with me, not because I'm perfect, but because he's made me his own.
And in that reality he lived as can you and I, not because we're perfect, not because we've already arrived, but because in Christ Jesus God takes pleasure in us. And we have an upward calling, knowing that he has called us to eternal things for eternal purposes in every place, in every occupation that we are. And for that reason I am anointed for the purposes of God, living for him and leaving it all in the field, pressing on, pressing on with all energy. I've got nothing to lose.
There's my goal. He loves me. He holds me. But for me is the crown of glory, so that like the Apostle Paul I can say one day I have finished the course, fought the good fight. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which God, the righteous judge, shall award. And not for me only, but for all those who love Christ and his appearing. Isn't that beautiful?
Henceforth there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness, because of what you have done. No!
Because you love Christ and his appearing. Because you know in his appearing is the reward, not for what you have done, but for what Christ has done in you. He has made you his own.
Praise God. Press on. Forgetting what is behind.
Press on. You have an upward and eternal calling and an anointing of God to do what he calls you to do, because he has made you his own.
Father, would you work your will and ways into us?
It's so easy to be inspired by another and to be a spectator on the gospel.
But what you have told us by the good news is that Christ has made us his own.
His suffering paying the penalty for our sin. His resurrection giving us now power in us by his Spirit to live in eternal ways so convince us again that we would not focus either on our goodness or our flaws.
But forgetting what is behind would press on into the upward calling that you have given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. So grant us the thanksgiving that gives us fuel for the fight. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.