Press on for the Gospel!

Context to what we are reading

Paul has just finished explaining how important it was to him to be more like Christ. He has explained in the first part of the chapter that He understands better than anyone what it means to be a Jew but he is explaining to the church that he has counted everything as rubbish in accordance with Christ.

Now there is an important theological concept that I need us to understand before I get to our main passage today, and that is what Paul means in verses 10-11 when he says that we are to become like Christ in his death SO THAT by any means possible he may attain the resurrection of the dead.

Paul is explaining that salvation for the Christian is choosing death to sin. We are conformed to Jesus through his death on the cross as we choose death to sin and our self. And in turn, we may be like Christ in his resurrection by resurrecting to a new life in the spirit.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets get in to our passage today.

V. 12-14

Paul begins by making it clear that he has not attained and is not perfect. Which should make it clear to us that we also have not attained. But even still, even though we are not perfect and sinful, Christ makes us HIS OWN. there is power in that. he chooses us even in our imperfection. So we press on! How do we do that?

When I hear to “press on” for something, it implies that there is a struggle involved. When I lift weights and I need to PRESS them up, they sure aren’t going up on their own. I have to strain to get them up. It is similar here where pressing on for Christ is going to be a struggle, and it is going to take some effort. But how?

Well he first tells us to forget what lies behind us. lets look at Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

This tells us that when we accept Christ that we should be transformed for Him. which implies things are changing about us. If we are the same person that we were before Christ, how exactly are you forgetting what lies behind you or transforming at all? So after we are changed, Paul then tells us that we will be straining forward to what lies ahead. Now I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound easy. and lets look at other scriptures as well.

Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”

As you can see, scripture makes it clear that it will be a fight for him. So why do this? why fight in such a way and struggle and strain and press on?

The Prize of The Upward Call of God in Christ Jesus

Because he is worth it! He has redeemed you. and look at what Paul says right after this, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of Jesus Christ. Established earlier in the chapter, the reward is Joining Jesus in resurrection! in being restored, and being in His grace forever! look at this verse.

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

1 Peter 5:10 “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

V. 14-16

As you can see I included verse 14 again because I want to illustrate that this passage blends together in an amazing way. And focus in on the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This is the attitude to have as we strain for Christ. This is the mindset to have when you are challenged by the world as you walk in Him.

This is the sign of maturity. This is the sign of understanding the reality of Christ. Now I mentioned earlier that this message will be for anyone who has ever thought that they just don’t “feel Christ” in their lives or that they are having trouble “experiencing Him”. if anyone is still waiting on the answer and feel like I haven’t answered it already, hopefully I do here. Maturity in Christ is realizing that He is already with you. That He is transforming you. That He is working in you. Just because you don’t have the same emotional connection that you might have had in the past or because you feel like He is more distant now. I can promise you that He is not the one who has gotten farther away. He is still there, waiting. But it takes OBEDIENCE to His gospel to see growth in our faith. I love the music, You guys can see that I am quite a passionate preacher. But following Christ is so much more than the emotion we show. Maturity in Christ will show that it is through being disciplined to His word and obeying His commands that we are able to get closer to him. That we can get closer to attaining. There are no magic songs, magic sermons, perfect words to all of a sudden make you closer to Christ again. How we get closer to him is by listening to what Paul says in verse 16. Hold true to what you have attained. Hold fast to the things we have learned about the faith and practice them! pressing on towards the gospel through disciplining ourselves in prayer, reading, meditating, witnessing, fasting, worshipping, and the other multitudes of ways that the scriptures show us. We should study in day after day. Pray without ceasing and be dedicated to the gospel. It is more than emotion. It is more than catching fire for Jesus. This is a lifestyle that is requires us to strain forward but is so worth it so that He may be glorified.

V. 17-21

Lets read these verses one more time to see how Paul closes out this chapter. We see that Paul first tells the church join in imitating him. Now that may seem a little ego driven, but i can promise you it is not. As he follows it up by telling them to keep their eyes on others or join them who walk for Christ. Paul can say this with confidence because he is living what he is preaching and also because he knew the principles he was giving in this book were true and good. He is encouraging them to be examples for one another and to walk with each other as they press on together for the gospel. And I challenge you church to do the same thing. lets walk together and join each other in imitating the scriptures.

Doing this will allow us to not only become more like Christ, but also be able to guide others away from false teaching and towards the truth. Now I don’t know how much you keep up with the state of our world or even our churches, but there is a lot of false teaching about Christ going on. There are groups that do not believe that He is God, groups that believe that you can live however you want as long as you show love to others, groups that believe that hell doesn’t exist, groups that do not believe that Christ actually resurrected, groups that preach that as long as you give enough money to the church God will bless you with good fortune. Now everything I just stated is heresy and not at all biblical, but my question is, are you obedient enough to the gospel that you can recognize these false teachings around you? Are you able to call out this false teaching and point those around us to the truth instead? We must be examples of Christ because we cannot trust the world to show our loved ones who Christ is.

And my final point to bring up is one of joy, one of encouragement, and one of truth. Paul ends this chapter by giving us a powerful statement that our citizenship is in heaven! And not only that, but that we will indeed be transformed. Our lowly body will be transformed to be like his glorious body. How can he do this, because He has the power to subject all things to Himself. This is affirming that Christ is indeed God!

look at Psalm 8:3–8 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”

This son of man, this glorious king Jesus Christ, Our Lord and our God has told us that if we press on, if we strain towards the goal, if we fight for Him, he will make us like Him! This is the gospel and this is the heart of why it is so worth following Him. Amen.