Running the Race
Historic One Year Lectionary Epistles • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Children’s Message
Children’s Message
Intro
Intro
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1. Striving like Olympians & Winning (9:24-27)
1. Striving like Olympians & Winning (9:24-27)
Run to win the prize! (9:24)
Exercise self-control like every athlete
in all things
They do it for a perishable wreath (doesn’t last but they still are disciplined to work for it)
We do it for an imperishable one! (a much better prize!)
Run towards the goal! (9:26a “So I do not run aimlessly”)
Run with purpose! (9:26b “I do not box as one beating the air.)
Could mean training (air-boxing which doesn’t accomplish anything except for exercise) or someone who swings without skill or aiming (which isn’t effective).
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
lit. “But I give myself a black eye and enslave it/make it a servant…”
Don’t disqualify yourself
Not training
Not competing to win
Trying for the wrong prize (giving in to temptation or idolatry)
Cheating or even accidentally breaking the rules (sinning by what you do or by what you leave undone or even from not caring to know the rules)
Not running towards the finish (Not fixing your eyes on Jesus and the Promised Land of eternal life).
*Even a teacher and Apostle like Paul could be disqualified!
**Paul describes here how he, like an athlete or Olympian, trains his body, mind, soul with dedication, hard work, sweating, striving with all of his might, pushing himself to the best of his ability, competing to win and get the prize, fixing his eyes on the finish line and resisting the temptation to give up or coast through life, to indulge himself on temporary pleasures, or to try another path that would lead him away from eternal life.
He has already been saved by grace (not by good works) and was freely granted eternal life, but that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t work.
To turn aside into sin or unbelief would disqualify him and it would disqualify you too.
Why work so hard?
For ourselvelves…
To teach ourselves to resist temptation, choosing to deny ourselves short term pleasures that don’t compare to our eternal reward.
If we live to please ourselves, we are not living to please our Savior and Judge, Jesus. This is idolatry.
If we live for the pleasures of this world, we will not get to enjoy the immeasurably more delightful pleasures of the Promised Land.
For others…
We train and sweat and build up our strength to be able to protect and help our neighbor.
Paul’s example in his life.
Willing to be a tentmaker-missionary
Willing to be beaten, cast out, shipwrecked, and imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel that AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WOULD BE SAVED!
Examples:
Like firefighters in their training competitions, soldiers going to boot camp, police training and getting fit to be able to serve and protect.
Like Leif
(and the Art of Manliness training “I want to know that I’m strong enough to carry someone out of a burning home to safety”)
- carrying heavy weights around as long as you can so that if you ever had to carry someone a long distance to help you could save them.
This is the Christian life. It is hard, self-denying, it is selfless, it is compelled by the love of Christ, trusting the Promises of God, and focused on the getting to eternal life, bringing as many with us as we can!
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
2. or being disqualified like most Israelites (10:1-5)
2. or being disqualified like most Israelites (10:1-5)
The threat is real for all of you. (10:1a “For I do not want you to be unaware…”)
All believers are True Israelites. The Church = Israel.
He says to mostly Gentile believers, “Brothers” and “our fathers”
All of you who believe in Jesus are also Israelites. We are now exhorted to look back at our family history and learn from our forefathers.
Our fathers were ALL were (
…under the cloud
protected and guided by God’s presence in the pillar of fire at night and the cloud by day.
…and all passed through the sea
God had come to set His people free from slavery in Egypt, and after defeating all the gods of Egypt He parted the Red sea, leading His people through it on dry sea-bed safely to the other side before drowning hard-hearted Pharaoh and his army in the Sea.
…and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea
baptized
Paul introduces baptism language (which is interesting!)
It reveals that the Red Sea crossing and God clothing them with the cloud were a picture of God’s greater spiritual salvation by means of baptism in which He redeems us, and guides and protects us with His very presence.
into Moses
trusting the one God was using as a Mediator and Messenger.
Moses was a type of Christ.
Typology- a picture of something greater to come. The greater is always later!
Shadow/foreshadow of the real thing
…and all ate the same spiritual food
the same food as the Corinthians now eat in the Lord’s Supper
manna was a type/foreshadowing of the bread of the Lord’s Supper and spiritual eating of the bread from heaven, the Word of God
God had miraculously fed them from above with His gracious, life-giving food
…and all drank the same spiritual drink
the same drink as the Corinthians now drink in the Lord’s Supper
the water God gave in the wilderness was a type/foreshadowing of the wine of the Lord’s Supper we drink, spiritually drinking the blood of Christ and receiving forgiveness from God.
For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
God poured forth live-saving water from a rock in the wilderness. God even calls Himself “The Rock” that helped them.
4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
10 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. 14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
Now Paul says that it was Jesus who was the Rock who saved and sustained them!
BUT… even though they had ALL been given these gracious gifts…
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
When they took a census of the fighting age men there were 603,550 of them. Only 2 entered the promised land. As for the rest of them, the Concordia Commentary says, “their corpses were strewn all over the wilderness.”
Quote by Chemnitz
Though they had all been redeemed by God’s grace and had experienced His miraculous provision for them, most of them stopped trusting in God and His promises, they took their eyes off the promised land, they grumbled and doubted, they longed to go back and live in Egypt, they fell into temptation and sin and so they fell in the wilderness and never finished the race. This could happen to you.
