Good News: The Gospel Is a Rewarding Pursuit
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Philippians 3:12-16
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 forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward 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.
Most NFL quarterbacks retire before the age of 40. Most of them would like to continue playing in the games and chasing after championships. But the preparation for the season gets a lot tougher because of the toll an NFL season takes on the body. By that age, most quarterbacks have accomplished what they are going to accomplish, so they like to hang up the cleats and ride off into the sunset. But not Tom Brady. Now if you watch football at all, you either love Tom Brady or you hate him. But this season at 43 years old, the oldest player in the NFL right now, he is showing that even at his age he still has what it takes to compete at a high level. Now Tom has already had what many consider the greatest NFL career ever. 6 Super Bowl championships, 8 Super Bowl appearances, and his name sits near the top of every passing record in the books. So why does he keep playing? Why go through all of that hard work and preparation when people already consider him to be the greatest? There’s no doubt that Brady will relentlessly pursue another NFL Championship. When asked which Super Bowl ring was his favorite his response was the next one. But at the same time, it seems the Brady’s perspective has changed to more than just winning another title. After losing his final game with the Patriots last year, Brady said, “”Every one of us strived to do their best, we spent ourselves to a worthy cause, and prepared to fail while daring greatly. And for that, we’ve been rewarded with something that the scoreboard won’t show — the satisfaction of knowing we gave everything to each other in pursuit of a common goal. In both life and football, failure is inevitable. You don’t always win. You can, however, learn from that failure, pick yourself up with great enthusiasm, and place yourself in the arena again. And that’s right where you will find me.” You see Brady’s new attitude is that that the prize is not necessarily in the championship, but it’s in the effort, it’s in the pursuit of greatness.
And in our passage this morning, Paul has adopted a similar mindset when it comes to his walk with God. Last week, talked about how in Paul’s eyes, knowing Jesus was worth losing everything in this world. Paul placed ultimate value on having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In verses 10 and 11, Paul tells us that his greatest desire is to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, to share and his sufferings and become like Him in His death, and eventually attain the resurrection from the dead where he will finally be like Christ.
Now when we get down to our text, Paul is going to be talking about the lifelong journey that his is taking to know Christ more deeply. Paul knows that he is not going to know Christ perfectly until his life is over, but while he is living, he is going to be pursuing knowing Christ more and more each day.
And each of us as believers should be on the same pursuit, on that same mission to know Christ more intimately. Your spiritual journey is not over when you choose to follow Christ. That’s when the journey begins. The rest of your life God will be constantly convicting you of sin and reshaping you into His image. As we dig into His word, we will begin to know more of what God expects from our lives, and we will be responsible to live according to His commands. This Spiritual pursuit of knowing God, is not easy. In this passage Paul uses words like press which means a vigorous pursuit It was often used to describe a sprinter running a race. Picture in your mind a runner that really pumping his arms and widening his stride as he is accelerating towards the finish line. and he also talks about straining which is giving utmost energy and effort. So this journey of knowing Christ in deeper way is not something that is easy. But I have some good news. The gospel is a rewarding pursuit
This morning we are going to study how the gospel can impact our pursuit of a better relationship with Christ, and my prayer is that we will all be motivated to pursue knowing Christ with a greater passion as a result of this message.
Transition: First, I want you to notice Paul’s humble heart
Humble Heart
Humble Heart
In verse 12 Paul starts out by saying Philippians 3:12
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.
The this that Paul is referring to is what he spoke of back in verses 11 where he talks about receiving his glorified body when he is resurrected. He’s not yet at that resurrected state. He isn’t perfect and completely mirroring the image of Christ. Now this is the apostle Paul. In the eyes of the Philippian church and probably in our eyes too, we would consider him a spiritual giant. Someone who had a closer walk with God than maybe another other man that lived. But Paul wants the church to know that even though he was an apostle and church planter that had endured countless hardships for the sake of the gospel, he had not yet arrived in his spiritual life. He wasn’t perfect. He still needed to grow. There were still areas of his life where he needed greater knowledge and surrender to Jesus. He even repeats this thought again in verse Philippians 3:13 where he says, “ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.”
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
Paul had been humbled by the gospel. Remember before his conversion, Paul was a proud man with an impressive list of pedigree and accomplishments that culminated by saying that in the law, he was blameless. At that time, he thought that he had arrived spiritually. But once Paul met Jesus, the gospel had a humbling effect on him, and he realized that he wasn’t all that. Even though he was good at keeping all the external rules, God still had work to do in his heart.
Have you ever been tasked with training someone to do something, but they thought they already knew how to do it? It’s the worst. Like you are trying to teach them, but that aren’t teachable because they already have it figured out. Any time you try to correct them or give them a suggestion it’s always a. O yeah, I know. I know. I do it this way because…and they give you the reason why they did it wrong to still make it seem like their right. It’s impossible to train someone who doesn’t have a humble and teachable spirit.
And the same holds true for our relationship with Christ. We have to be humble and allow God to change us. Guess what? Sometimes there are going to be things in Scripture that you might now agree with. Who is right you or God’s Word? There may be sometimes that another believer will come to you and point out something in their life that is not consistent with God’s Word. How will you take that correction? You see if we are going to grow in our relationship with Christ and get our lives in line with God’s Word, we have to have a humble heart. In order to receive Christ, we had to admit that we were sinners in need of God’s grace. Well the only thing that has changed is now you are a sinner who has received God’s grace. But you are still a sinner that needs to grow in likeness to God. None of us are perfect, including the pastor preaching to you this morning. Far from it. God still has work to do one me too. But I believe that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete. But I have to have a humble heart if I am going to grow in relationship and likeness to Jesus, and the same holds true for all us that are followers of Christ.
Transition: Most of us can probably identify with Paul’s statement that we are not perfect. But Paul didn’t not use I’m not perfect as an excuse to live a stagnant, complacent Christian life. He used it as motivation to continually pursue Christ. Notice his
Gospel Motivation
Gospel Motivation
Continuing in verse Philippians 3:12 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.
Paul doesn’t say, “I’m not perfect. Nobody is perfect.” O well, I guess I’ll keep doing the same things and living the same way. No! Paul says I’m not perfect, I still have areas of improvement, and so I’m going to go on chasing perfection. I’m going to be better tomorrow than I am today. Each moment of my life I want to be increasingly looking more like Jesus. And Paul tells us why he is pursuing this deep knowledge of and relationship with Jesus. He says that he wants to make it his own because Jesus had made Paul his own.
You see Paul understood that on the road to Damascus, Jesus had laid hold on his life and took it as his own. Paul had been redeemed. He had been purchased by God through the gospel.
You see when Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross it was for Paul. And it was for you and me as well. Before we receive Christ, we are slaves to sin. It is our nature. Even if you are a good person, your heart is prone to turn against God. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus purchased the right to make you His own. If we will submit ourselves to Jesus as Savior and Lord. If through faith we will accept the free gift of salvation, Jesus will purchase you out of that slavery of sin, and adopt you into His family. You are no longer a slave, You are a son! You are a daughter of the one true King. Through the gospel, Jesus has made us that are followers of Him, His own.
Jesus’s relentlessly pursued after us. He endured the suffering and shame of the cross, so that you could have a personal relationship with God. And like Paul, if Jesus has made you His own through the shedding of his blood, it should drive us. It should motivate us to give a relentless effort in our relationship with Him.
Just because we know that our sins are forgiven as a Christian, it doesn’t give us a license to sin. After talking about how we can receive salvation through Christ’s sacrifice in Romans 5, Paul writes this in Romans 6:1 -2
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Because Jesus has paid the ultimate price for your sins. Because we have been justified though his blood and saved from wrath though Him. Because all of our sins past present and future have been pardoned through Jesus. Does that mean that we can just keep living in sin? The way Paul says it here, should we continue sinning so God’s grace should abound? It’s the attitude of, “Well Jesus died for my sins and I’m forgiven? Wooohooo I guess I can do whatever I want to and just ask for forgiveness later. God will be gracious towards me right?” Paul says by no means should we have have this type of attitude. He goes on to explain how when we choose to follow Jesus, we take part in his death. There is part of us, the desire to sin and live in rebellion to God, our sinful nature. That has been put to death. And like Christ, after His resurrection, we should be raised to walk in newness of life. The fact that our sins can be forgiven through Christ is not a license to sin, but a empowerment to live in freedom following after Jesus.
We have established over the last several weeks that we are not saved by doing good works. Even if you could keep all of God’s commands it would not save you. Salvation only comes through placing our faith in the work of Jesus’s death and resurrection. But the Bible does say things like this. John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If we truly love God, we are going to seek to do the things that God commands us to do. Not out of obligation or duty, but out of a heart of love that wants to please the one we are in a relationship with.
You see in any relationship, there are expectations. Many of you have a spouse or significant other in your life. And this is true in friendships as well. There are certain things that you expect from a person that you have a relationship with. If your friend always talked bad about you behind your back, would you think that friend really loved you? If your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend was always going out on dates with another man or woman, don’t you think that might hurt your relationship? You see you don’t expect your friend to talk bad about you. You don’t expect your husband or wife to take someone else out on dates. And if those things were happening, it would cause a major fracture in your relationship. It would be very hard to take that person serious when they said that they loved you.
The same is true with God. In His Word, he lays out expectations that he has for those that He has a relationship with. If we truly love God, we are going to seek to meet up to those expectations to show God that we are serious when we say that we love Him. We should be seeking a deeper relationship with Christ because he sought after us out of His love, and He purchased us with His blood. The gospel is what should motivate us to pursue Christ.
To pursue Christ Paul had a humble heart, gospel motivation, and third there was
Forgetting and Moving Forward
Forgetting and Moving Forward
Philippians 3:13
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
Sometimes google can give you some good info. So I googled why do runners slow down when they look backwards in a race. I learned that when a runner turns their head around, anatomically, they have taken their body out of a natural running motion. Turning the head makes the stride twisted and off balance physically making one slower. But also, there is the mental aspect. If someone is looking behind themselves in a race, it’s usually because they think that someone is catching up with them. As one article put it, the athlete is no longer running to win, but they are running not to lose.
And here, as Paul pursues Christ, he wants to run to win. He wants the prize of knowing Christ fully. So he says that he must forget what lies behind him. Paul has to dismiss some things from the past if he is going to move forward in his pursuit of God. I believe that Paul is referring to both the positives and negatives of his past.
Obviously Paul had accomplished many great things in the name of Christ. But he did not use his past victories as a reason for slowing down his pursuit of Christ. If you have been used by God in some way, you should be thankful for things that God has allowed you to do through His strength. We should give testimonies and praise to God for the great things that we have seen Him do in our lives. But don’t use those things as an excuse to live complacent today. I think there are far too many Christians who are living in their “glory days”. They are constantly reminiscing about how much they used to read their Bible, or how much time they used to pray, how God used to use them to make disciples. But those days have long gone. Ask yourself this, has there ever been a time in your life when you were pursuing Christ more passionately than you are right now? Don’t let past victories lull you into relaxation. Pursue Christ passionately.
But not only does Paul forget past success, he also forgets past failure. Every Christian fails God at some point. As soon as I said that, you probably began to list the times in your life when you failed God. But if we are constantly looking back at times when we have failed God, it can slow down our pursuit of God today. Forget it and move on. Now when we say forget it, that doesn’t mean that we need to ignore it. We must deal with our sin. We need to get things right with God. We need to come before Him and confess that sin and plead for His mercy and forgiveness. And if necessary, we also need to get things right with other people who we may have harmed through our sin. So we need to deal with our sin. But once we have dealt with it, we need to forget it, move on, and take the steps to never find ourselves in that sin again as we pursue Christ. Satan is the accuser, and he will try to bring up your past failures to keep you from moving forward. He wants you to think that you are damaged goods that could never be used by God. At those moments is when we really need to run to God and remind ourselves that through the gospel you have been freed and forgiven through Christ and keep on pursuing Him. The gospel is so powerful that it overcomes our failures.
We live in a culture that constantly wants to bring up someone’s past. People are constantly trying to dig up dirt from somebody’s past to discredit what they are doing right now. People don’t want to leave others room for growth and development. But I want to assure you, God is not that way with us. Sure, your past, good or bad affects your life. But it does not have to determine your future. You may have made mistakes, you may have had a tumultuous childhood, you may have been through the pain of experiencing the consequences of your sin. But those things don’t have to determine your future. And likewise, if you grew up in a Christian home, and have lived most of your life following Jesus, it does not assure that in the future it will always be that way. Good or bad, success or failure - we need to forget what is behind us and what Paul says and strain forward to what’s ahead. Work hard, give your very best energy and effort to continually pursue after Christ.
Transition:On this gospel pursuit Paul had a humble heart, a gospel motivation, he had to forget and move forward, and next, he had to
Press for the Prize
Press for the Prize
Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul says the one thing that he is going to do, his singular focus, his ultimate mission is to press on to strive toward, to relentlessly pursue his goal and obtain his prize. Paul’s goal as we’ve been talking about all morning is complete knowledge of Jesus Christ. It’s to live in perfect accordance with God’s character. So what’s the prize that Paul will get when he reaches his goal? What is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus? This is another reference to our glorification. This is the final removal of sin from the life of those that are found in Christ. Those that have passed away will be resurrected and those that are alive will be raptured out of this world. Our bodies will be changed, we will no longer be burdened by the pains of this world, and we’ll be able to spend all of eternity worshipping our Lord. This is the culmination of the gospel. That’s what Paul is looking forward to. And it’s consistent with what he has been saying throughout the book. Like when he said Philippians 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
and just a few verses earlier Paul said Philippians 3:11
that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul’s greatest desire, his greatest prize is to finally be with Jesus and to be like Jesus. This prize is not something that we receive because we gave a good effort, but it’s a reward that all those that have chosen to follow after Christ will receive.
Of course one cannot receive a prize until he has finished the race. Paul knows that he is not going to achieve perfection in this lifetime. But his determination is to sprint to the finish. He is going to give an all out effort to be as much like Christ as he can while he lives. He is going to seek to live out the gospel until the gospel is completed in him when his life is over and he is with Jesus. This was the one thing that Paul pressed for. To be closer to Jesus.
Hey Christians, there is no room for us to live passive Christian lives just waiting for Christ to return. Each day we need to be asking God how we can know Him better than we did the day before. We need to be constantly seeking areas of our lives that we need align more fully with God’s Word. We need to practice spiritual disciplines like prayer, and meditating on God’s Word, attending church where we will hear God’s Word taught and preached. We must always be None of us are going to be perfect here on this earth, but we all should be pressing toward that mark. So when Jesus comes we can stand before Him knowing that we gave our very best to know Him throughout our lives.
In verse Philippians 3:15 Paul addresses those that are mature in the faith. He says,
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Much like chapter 2 when Paul says let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, Paul here is trying encourage the church, especially those who had matured in their faith, to change their mind. Although they had reached a level of spiritual maturity, they like Paul needed to be continually pursuing after Christ and looking forward to the day when they will be perfected and the gospel would be completed in their lives. They didn’t need to have an attitude that said they have already arrived, like they were already living in perfection. Paul even says, if you think that you are living in perfection, if you think that you don’t have any areas in which you need to grow in Christ, God will reveal them to you. Here’s is the bottom line though that I want you to get this morning.
The mark of spiritual maturity is continual growth in the gospel.
The mark of spiritual maturity is continual growth in the gospel.
In verse Philippians 3:16 Paul says
Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Again, Paul is referring to the gospel. That phrase hold true is military term. It has the idea of being in proper battle formation. Paul says we need to be in line with what we have already attained. That is the truth of the gospel. You see we as Christians grow when dig deeper into the gospel. We often treat the gospel as if it is the ABC’s of Christianity. Yeah we know Jesus, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, rose again three days later. Yeah, heard that story before. It’s nothing new. But the gospel is not just the ABC’s it’s the A though Z, it’s the 0 to infinity, it’s the algebra, the trigonometry, the quantum physics of God’s Word. The greater understanding that we have of the gospel and all of it’s implications, the more we will know Christ and His character, the more we will understand how the entire story of the Bible points towards Christ. We will gain some understanding on how our current world fits in the grand scheme of God’s plan. Like we dig into the gospel, it will teach us everything we need to know in order to grow in Christ. You can’t passionately pursue God without the gospel. It is the foundation for everything in God’s Word, and it ultimately reveals to us God’s character. As the Bible tells us in Colossians 2:6
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
It was through the gospel that we received Christ, and it is through the gospel that we will learn to walk in Him. Now is not the time to hang it up and retire. Now is the time to dig deeper and intensify our pursuit of Christ. Strive for excellence. Hold true to what you have already attained. Don’t feel like you have outgrown the gospel. Start to live out the gospel. God will reward your gospel pursuit when you finally meet Him, and you will be changed into His image.
The mark of spiritual maturity is continual growth in the gospel.
The mark of spiritual maturity is continual growth in the gospel.
Have you reached a point of stagnation in your Christian life? Are you still struggling with the same sins that you struggled with years ago? Have you stopped striving and pressing toward Christ, and have instead relaxed and just started coasting. I want to encourage you this morning, if you are a follower of Christ to sprint to the finish. One day soon you will meet Jesus and be changed into perfection, but until then, chase after perfection. Seek to be more like Christ each day.
Let me challenge you with this. What is one thing in your life that you could change to enhance the way that you pursue after Christ. From a positive perspective, maybe there are some things that you could put into your life that you aren’t doing right now. Perhaps it’s your daily time of prayer and Bible reading, maybe it’s being consistently in church. Perhaps you spend your time driving to work today listening to a Christian podcast or Christian music. Something that will get your mind off of the things of this world and set your eyes on Christ. Is there one thing that you could add into your life that could help you in your passionate pursuit of Christ.
From a negative perspective, it may be some sin, or it even could be something that is not sinful that you have turned into an idol and pursue with greater vigour than you pursue Christ. Hebrews 12:1-2 says
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
So think, is there one thing that I can add in or is there one thing that I need to get rid of that will add vitality into my spiritual life. I encourage you to start there this week.
Maybe you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus. Maybe you know about Jesus, but you have never given your life to Christ and chosen to follow after Him. We said that throughout this message that believers will be resurrected and receive and changed body and will live eternity in perfection. But perhaps you are listening this morning and you don’t know what would happen to you if your life on earth was to end. You aren’t sure that you would spend your eternity after this life with Jesus.
Jesus is calling you this morning. Don’t ignore the call. Jesus died for your sins because He wanted to make you His own. We must choose to turn from our sin and turn away from trying to be a good person to make it to heaven, and we must place our faith in Jesus death and resurrection and choose to follow Him.