August 22, 2010
Dr.
Ron Sumners
Philippians # 12
Obtaining the Prize
Philippians 3:10-14
Dog racing is a popular pastime and
gambling venue in the
A few years ago at a race track in
People are a lot like greyhounds. We are
all chasing something. We need some reason for living. What would happen to you
if your goal, your reason for running the race, suddenly disappeared? What if
you are chasing an illusion – something that is attractive but eventually will
prove to be of no lasting value? It is an important question for each of us to
face.
In Philippians 3, Paul describes how
what he was chasing as a rabbinical Jew – the status of moral perfection, the
honor of having confidence in personal purity. He concluded that it was nothing
but rubbish. It was nothing more than a burned out rabbit! That which he
pursued, which he thought was so important in his life, was overshadowed by
something else!
Throughout this passage Paul talks about
knowing Christ (verse 8), gaining Christ (verse 8), and being found in Christ
(verse 9). What does all this mean? It is easy to talk about knowing someone as
an acquaintance; of gaining something as a possession. But for Paul, the
pursuit is more than just a hobby; it is more than just a passing interest that
occupies a portion of time. It is an all-consuming drive to so resemble the One
who had given His life for Paul that his passion is to become like Christ!
The reason that Paul counts all his
efforts as garbage in light of the surpassing greatness of Christ is because
what Christ offers exceeds his own moral attainment. What Christ offers is
nothing less than resurrection power. The same energy which took Jesus’ dead
body and raised it up on the third day is the power that is available to those
who make Christ the pursuit of their lives.
That resurrection power that Paul sought
is available to you and me today! In Romans 6, Paul reminds us that in Jesus’
death on the cross we too have died to sin. What is more, just as Jesus rose
from the dead on the third day, we too are now raised. That resurrection power
is ours. We have died to an old way of life and have been resurrected as a new
creature in Christ! In Colossians 3:1 the assumption is that the power is now
given to us so that we can live in the way that God calls us to live.
What is the dead stuff in your life? I
could talk of material possessions, status, position; social standing and many
other things that have been our lifelong pursuit that we now realize are just
dead stuff that needs resurrection power!
Look at the anger in your life. How is
that going to be changed into forgiveness? Look at your insecurity. How is that
going to be turned into confidence? Look at your self-centeredness. How can
that be turned into generosity?
The answer for us is found where Paul
found the answer: in pursuing Christ! When Christ is your hope, your ambition;
the truth of the resurrection moves from being just a historical fact to
becoming the all-persuasive control of your life. Rather than your agenda being
a personal success, the real agenda of your life becomes looking to Christ for
everything.
This is a costly pursuit, but one which
Paul knows is far better than the pursuit of everything that he had chased for
so many years. We have to agree with Paul, but if we are honest, this is one of
those verses that we secretly wish were not in the Bible! We do not like the
idea of wanting to follow Jesus; that might include suffering.
What is more, the order seems all wrong.
Resurrection and then suffering seems to be inconsistent. Shouldn’t it be
Resurrection and then glory? It is far too easy to fall into the trap of
imagining that God empowers us to rise above suffering, to be transformed that
no evil can affect us. The health and wealth folks tell us that if we have
enough faith in Jesus we will never suffer and evil cannot affect us. But Paul
and all the New Testament is quite clear that suffering is a part of our life
if we follow Jesus.
The power of the Resurrection comes with
a cost. When you go into the world resembling Jesus, you might find His
sufferings enacted in your life. Jesus was mistreated; why would we be any
different. It’s like the old Spiritual says, “The world treats you mean Lord;
treats me mean too. But that’s how things are down here!” Suffering becomes the
garbage dump where all that which we pursued for our own record finds itself as
rubbish!
This is where many of us get tripped up
in the Christian life. We love the image of power, but we are not so keen on
suffering. So, when suffering comes, when we have considered the pursuit of
personal effort to be rubbish and look to Christ, and then suffering comes, we
imagine that Christ has tricked us. As much as we reject the “health and
wealth” theology, as much as we consider it foolish to think that God guarantees
us a perfect life if we just believe strong enough, we still fall into that
trap. We suffer and respond, “How could God do this to me; when I have tried to
serve Him?”
This is all a part of what it means to
know Christ and be in Him. We trust His death as sufficient for our sins, as
His life is credited to our account. And all of this looks forward to, at some
point in time, the resurrection of the dead.
Paul is not “wishy-washy” about this in
verse 11. He does not know how or when but he knows that he will attain the
goal of resurrection. The word “attain” means to arrive at the end of a
journey, and represents the figure of a pilgrimage.
Your career will never satisfy. Your
love will never satisfy. Your diet will never satisfy. You are wired to seek
after glory for yourself, never realizing that it is unattainable apart from a
relationship with Jesus Christ.
We are like little children playing in
the mud making mud pies. Our parents come and tell us that we are going to the
beach. We say, “No!” We are having too much fun in the mud! God calls us to
something so much greater and wonderful than what we possess and have given our
lives to, but we prefer the mud puddle!
The Judiasers that Paul warned the
Philippians about may have fed a lie to the folks: telling them that they had
to obey the Mosaic Law in order to be a Christian. But Paul is clear; he has
not reached the goal and cannot by means of the Law. Although he is a new
creation, although he is in Christ, he has a long way to go. The Christian life
is a process. Glorification does not come for us until death.
We have to understand that while we are
“in Christ” and have His righteousness, we all still need to grow; we need to
press on. Are you able to see that you have not yet obtained and still need to
press on toward the goal, the mark, of the high calling of God? Are you
dissatisfied with where you are? Don’t give up; continue to look in faith to
Christ for Him to make you what He commands you to be!
In verse 12 we see that great
relationship to which we are called: We must press on. It sounds like an effort
that we have to conjure up ourselves. But notice the rest: “Take hold of that
for which Christ took hold of me.” Paul knows he has not arrived, but he is
pursuing a goal.
During the 1984 Olympics, Greg Foster
was the favorite to win the 110 meter hurdles. ABC almost assured the world
that he would win. He burst out into the lead. Toward the finish line he turned
his head ever so slightly to get a glimpse of his competition. It was a big mistake.
The move cost him a few hundredths of a second and he lost the race.
Paul knows that our lives are a race, a
race in which we must keep our focus on what is important. Too often, we, like
Greg Foster, glance back to see where we have been or maybe to long for the
past. In that moment we lose our step in the race. For that reason, he makes it
clear what governs his life. “Forgetting what is behind and looking forward I
press toward the goal of the high calling of God!”
For most of us the past holds many good
memories. We remember special events and special people. Memories are wonderful
when they bring back the good times in our life. But there is a dark side. The
past can be a prison. It is possible for the past to put us in bondage. There
are memories of times of failure. These can cause us to consider ourselves
failures. We wear the chains of failures and sins that we have never forgiven
ourselves for, even though God may have forgiven us!
How often in your life, when things did not
turn out right, do you replay the tape of those events and say, “I failed. I am
a failure!” Children get do-overs in their games. Golfers get “mulligans.” Even
“Word Perfect” has an “Undo” button. But you and I cannot go back to high
school or years ago and undo that act of foolishness; that harsh word; that
lie; that insult that set our life in a wrong direction. We don’t get do-overs;
but we can get forgiveness!
But even good memories can blind us, as
memories of past successes and attainments may detain us from more wonderful
accomplishments and the highest Prize. You all know the 40 year old who still
lives the glory of his high school football days. It seems that his life ended
the day he walked off the field his senior year. Trusting Christ in the past
never gives you the license to forget Him today.
William Sloan Cauthen said once, “The
church is full of people who are seeking that which they have already found and
want to become what they already are!”
Instead of looking to the past, we are
to be stretching toward the future; the finish line.
The effort in the Christian life is not
your righteousness, but Christ’s! We must not miss this; the race of the
Christian life, the pursuit to which God calls us, and the effort where we must
put forth everything that is within us is this: renounce your own self-effort
and look to Christ.
If you think it is far too simplistic or
too easy; that means you probably haven’t tried it.
Like those dogs going around the track
in a meaningless race, you and I often chase mechanical rabbits, thinking they
are real. But when they blow up in our faces, we are unable to finish the race.
What are you chasing this week; to earn
a few more dollars to increase your security? Maybe you are trying to be noticed by the
right people or person. If what you are pursuing is not of eternal value, if it
is not the prize of the high calling of God, it might just blow up in your
face!