Part 09

A Church With Vitality: Philippians 3:12-4:1

Do you spend your life, living for the future

Maybe you always find yourself living for the next life stage

That degree / a teenager / an adult.

I remember once having a conversation with a friend about this. He said isn’t it amazing how we just end up wishing our lives away. Always looking forward to the next stage / And we end up missing out on the current stage that we’re at.

As Christians we live in a bit of a tension.

We sometimes talk about the now and not yet. / We’re part of God’s kingdom and there are benefits that we can enjoy / But the best part is yet to come /At the moment we still experience suffering / But we look forward to a day when there will be no more suffering.

And Paul addresses this issue of living in this tension here in Philippians / There’s a current life that we need to live / It’s a current life that has value / It’s a life that we need to make the most of / Which is why Paul can say, “for me to live is Christ” / If he lives he needs to make the most of his life for Christ.

So Paul continues in this section to look at the importance of what is to come in the light of this life now.

Remember last week we looked at placing confidence in the flesh vs placing confidence in Christ / And how that confidence is expressed / a desire to know Christ / being willing to suffer / we get to know him through suffering for him.

So where we pick up today from verse 12, Paul is still in the middle of that thought.

12 -14: Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, 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, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize  for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul knows he hasn’t arrived yet / that he isn’t perfect / although the end is in sight, he still has to live on this earth/ in this fallen world / where he’s going to struggle with sin / face temptations and have to flee from them / So he says: “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.”

But here’s how I live in this tension.

Halfway through verse 13 into verse 14: This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. (14) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul is using athletic language here / When you see a runner in a race, at the Olympics, that runner doesn’t stop to see what’s going on behind them / They keep their eyes on the prize.

Paul is saying here that we must remain focussed / There’s a simplicity in what we’re doing.

When a runner is running a race, anything other than the finish line and the prize at the end of the finish line is a distraction / It’ll keep you from the prize / 2008 Olympics medallist, Caroline Burckle. was interviewed once and asked: what pep talks and words of wisdom have helped her to be so successful / And she said that she prefers the pep talks that are short, sweet and simple / She said “when things were broken down too much for me, I tended to overthink, and thus underperform.” / Here’s a pep talk that is short, sweet and simple.

But one thing I do: / This is my focus: / 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.

My focus is on the things on eternity / I’m forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.

Remember earlier on in the chapter how Paul had given all his credentials / Circumcised on the 8^th day etc / Remember how he said all of that means nothing. Useless / garbage / a great pile of dung.

He’s saying I’m leaving all of that behind / there are things he could cling to put his hope instead of Christ / But he wasn’t going to do that / His confidence is in Jesus and his eyes are on the prize. / Straining toward what is ahead / Pressing on toward the goal to win the prize / The prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As Christians we can make the mistake of relying on our past and not looking forward / We’ve done some useful things in the past, but currently aren’t doing too much / There’s no evidence now of straining towards what is ahead.

We often talk like we’re not forgetting what is behind / How good my Christian life used to be / but there is no evidence of us now straining toward what is ahead.

if you’re straining toward what is ahead you’d still be just as passionate about evangelism / It’s great that you’ve done all those things in the past, but if you’ve hung up your boots because you think you’ve arrived, then you’re not straining towards what is ahead.

Are you straining toward what is ahead NOW! / Are you still as fired up about sharing the gospel as you used to be / Do you still want to spend time with God like you used to? / Can you say with Paul, “I want to know Christ” / To know the power of His resurrection / And participation in his sufferings / Becoming like him in his death.

Or does that feel like a phase you went through at some point in your life.

I want to jump to chapter 4 vs 1 because I think it helps us understand a little bit more in terms of the big picture what Paul is talking about in this section / Chapter 4 verse 1 starts with a therefore / ie referring to what has come before.

Philippians 4vs1: 1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

He’s asking them to stand firm. In the original Greek the word there for stand firm is ‘stayko’ which means: To stand firm / To persevere and persist / To keep one’s standing / To not give up.

This isn’t the first time that Paul has used this word in Philippians, in chapter 1 vs 27. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, 5 striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.

There he is saying to them you must stand firm together in the gospel / persevere / persist in the gospel / keep your standing / You mustn’t give up.

I think when Paul says ‘therefore’ at the beginning of Chapter 4, he’s referring to everything he’s said so far in Philippians / So in chapter 1 he says “I want you to stand firm together for the gospel” and this is how you do it:

there needs to be unity and humility / Take on the attitude of Christ Jesus / Work out your salvation with fear and trembling / Without groaning or complaining / Don’t put your confidence in the flesh / Don’t put your confidence in your own righteousness / But put your confidence in Jesus / That confidence is expressed by a desire to know Christ / And a desire to share in his sufferings / And keep your eyes on the prize / Press on towards the goal / Strain towards what is ahead.

Prominent Christians who have ‘lost their faith’ or fallen away / For some or other reason they don’t believe anymore / They can’t make sense of Christianity / Maybe scientific reasons / a few weeks ago, I mentioned a particular prominent pastor / this past week my newsfeed, which obviously contains a number of Christian subscriptions had news of a prominent worship leader / musician who is now ‘leaving the faith’ / Not only famous people / prominent people / Maybe you have friends or you know people who have left the faith / often we’re left wondering why.

And often we think why? / When did this person cross that line to say I don’t believe this anymore.

Well, here’s why: / They didn’t stand firm / persist / keep their eyes on the prize / At some point they stopped pressing on towards the goal / straining towards what is ahead / humbling themselves / working out their salvation with fear and trembling / they put their confidence in themselves.

Don’t fall into that trap /  Don’t let it be said of you that you didn’t stand firm / very sad when we see it happening in a church that you’ve been involved in.

When I was a teenager, it was always exciting in our youth group, when we saw other teenagers being saved / But our youth pastor would say to us “Time will tell”

Graham (our youth pastor) had been involved in youth ministry long enough to know that not everybody stands firm.

I had a friend who many years ago worked for the Student YMCA at the Cape Tech which is now CPUT / They got a phone call one day from student in the res./ She had been to a concert / A Christian singer had come from overseas / He did that thing at the end of the concert if anyone wants to accept Jesus you can come to this part of the auditorium and we’ll pray for you / So this girl that had called the student YMCA had been to the concert and went forward for prayer and was wanting to know more / So a lady from the YMCA went to go and visit her / explained that being a Christian means taking up your cross, and you’ll have to face suffering / and she said that she didn’t realize that’s what it means to be a Christian / She didn’t see the goal / the prize to which God has called his people heavenward / She only saw it in the light of her current struggle / This could mean losing friends / losing out on fun / not living my life the way that I want to.

If you’re not pressing on towards the goal you’re going to see things that way.

In chapter 3 verse 15 Paul says this is the view of a mature Christian.

And then Paul gives some very practical advice here in chapter 3 from verse 16:

• Only let us live up to what we have already attained / In other words we are Christians, God’s people, made right through Christ, let’s live up to that.

 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, l and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,  21who, 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.

What Paul is saying here is that you need to follow those who model this mature view / Follow those who stand firm / Follow those who are straining towards what is ahead / Follow those who don’t put their confidence in the flesh / And Paul says,  I am an example of that, so follow me.

He’s not saying ‘look how brilliant I am’, so follow me. In fact he’s doing the opposite / He’s saying look how brilliant Jesus is / My hope and my confidence is in him / My eyes are focused on the prize.

And whatever you do, don’t follow the example of the enemies of the cross / Their god is their stomach / ie. they live for their own desires / Their glory is in their shame / They’re proud of things they should be ashamed of / Their mind is set on earthly things / They’re not pressing on towards the goal  /straining towards what is ahead / They’re living for now / We need to be careful who we follow / Just because someone’s on TV doesn’t mean they’re the right people to follow.

Follow those who point you to eternity / who are straining towards what is ahead.

Conclusion:

So as we live this life / Let’s keep pressing on towards the goal / straining towards what is ahead / stand firm /  persist

Don’t believe the lie that says you can be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good / The more heavenly minded you are, the more useful you’ll be here on earth for God’s kingdom.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind  and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press ona toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Home Group Questions:

Read Philippians 3:12-4:1

1. Read chapter 1 vs 27 and 4 vs 1 what do they both ask the Philippians to do?
2. What things can you remember from chapter 2 vs 1 – 3 vs 11 that Paul has instructed the Philippians to help them to stand firm?
3. In verse 15, Paul says: “all of us who are mature, should take such a view of things”, what view is he referring to? (can be found in verses 12-14)
4. Who should we follow, and why?
5. Who shouldn’t we follow and why?
6. How can we help one another stand firm?