Past, Present, Future or Future, Present, Past

Introduction

Philippians 3:5–14 ESV

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 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.

We are now two days into 2022. The analysis and discussion of 2021 will be as it is every year. Pundits and talking heads will tell us what the top stories were, what the year meant, where we should be going this year based on last year.

Just as an example, the top news stories for each month in 2021 according to CBS news were:

January - President Biden’s inauguration and the protest at the Capitol

February - Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord

March - The Suez Canal was blocked.

April - Derek Chauvin found guilty.

May - Space X successfully sent a man into space and safely brought him home.

June - The Florida condo collapse.

July - The delayed Summer Olympics.

August - The withdrawal from Afghanistan.

September - Passage of the Texas Heartbeat Act.

October - The WHO approves the first malaria vaccine.

November - The Atlanta Braves win the World Series.

December - Massive tornado outbreak in the Midwest and the approval of two pills to fight COVID.

Whereas Christianity Today’s top 20 stories for 2021 were:

The Ravi Zacharias scandal.

Carman, the singer and showman, died.

Mars Hill former pastor Mark Driscoll continues his old ways.

The 50 countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus.

Beth Moore leaves the SBC.

Three bioethical questions about the COVID vaccinations.

A Washington DC mega-church hit with an attempted takeover and lawsuit.

Why I voted for the atheist president of Harvard’s Chaplain group.

Bethlehem Baptist leaders clash over ‘coddling’ and ‘cancel culture’.

How could all the prophets be wrong about Trump?

We worship with the Magi, not MAGA

Canadian pastor jailed over COVID-19 violations was released

Failed Trump prophecies offer a lesson in humility

Charles Stanley: not selling CBD

What is Christian nationalism?

What Christian aid workers want you to know about Afghanistan

How Josh Duggar shifted homeschooler’s sense of security

Francis Chan returns from Hong Kong after visa rejected

The splintering of the Evangelical soul

The Christian peacemaker who left a trail of trauma

You can go online or turn on the TV and find all kinds of different reviews of 2021. Depending on your political leanings, your religious affiliation, secular affiliations, business, news shows, subscriptions, etc. you can find support for your overall view of 2021, both positive and negative. It won’t be any surprise that all of these different views of the year have varying opinions of what was positive and what was negative. Quite often one group will cite an event as positive while another group will consider the same event negative.

Our personal lives are no different. While the events of our lives may not make the national or world news we will look back and take stock of the positive and negatives happenings throughout the year. And we will have differing ideas of what was positive and what was negative. Our plans for this year are more than likely based on what happened last year and how we perceived those events affected us.

Yet, while we go through these exercises, discuss and dissect them with others, maybe even get into heated arguments about them, I think we all tend to lose sight of what is most important.

Background

Our passage starts with a well-known autobiography. Philippians 3:5-6 “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”

In the context of the letter to the Philippians this section is warning those believers against the teaching of the Judaizers who were teaching that to be a true Christian you first had to follow the Law of Moses. Paul, and the other apostles, fought against this teaching fiercely.

As a means of showing his credentials Paul states that as far as the Law was concerned he was unsurpassed in his knowledge and action. If ever there was a Jew’s Jew it was Paul. He not only scrupulously studied the law and followed it’s commands he relentlessly persecuted the perceived heretics - Christians.

And yet, once he met Christ, he considered everything he was prior to be nothing. It wasn’t worth saving but only worth throwing on the garbage heap. It was Paul’s way of saying Christ is everything and nothing we have or do or are is anything outside of Christ. Philippians 3:7-11 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Then Paul goes on to tell us that he, and we, have not yet attained the full promise of God. We live in what theologians call the “already but not yet.” I have heard it said this way - “We were saved from sin’s penalty, we are being saved from sin’s power, we will be saved from sin’s presence.” Philippians 3:12-14 “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.

This is where I think many of us get tripped up. Paul tells us to “…forget what lies behind...” Is he telling us to totally forget the past? That the past has no use or meaning in our life? Are we only to live for today? No, what Paul is telling us is that we need to change our perspective on the past. Our point of view can no longer be that the past defines our present and future. Quite the opposite - our future should define our present and change our view of the past. The Bible Exposition Commentary states it like this, “We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning of the past.”

Forgetting What is Behind

So let’s talk about our view of the past. The Bible teaches that there are two main ways to remember the past. One way leads to blessing, the other to destruction. How often we choose unwisely.

The remembrance that leads to destruction is the path of nostalgia. Nostalgia is an interesting word. It is a compound of two Greek words algos - pain, grief, distress and nostos - homecoming. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary nostalgia is 1 : the state of being homesick : homesickness or 2 : a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition

In the 1700s and 1800s it was considered a disease.

We look to the past and remember some golden time when nothing was as bad as it is now and long to return to that time. This is how the Israelites acted in the wilderness when life got impossibly difficult.

Psalm 78:11–20 ESV

They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”

Numbers 11:4–5 ESV

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

Did you catch that? The fish cost NOTHING. Nothing but their freedom, their baby sons, their ability to worship the Lord Almighty, their lives. But, the fish was free!

The problem with this type of nostalgia is that it denies the power of God to work in our lives now and in the future. It says that no matter how good the future promises are there is a past that is more secure and happier. It is a form of idolatry that says we know when we have it good and that what God promises is meaningless. It is looking to the past with rose colored glasses while declaring the present and future to be totally bleak and irredeemable. This is the world of the Judaizers that Paul was fighting - the world where the past, and only the past, defines the present and the future.

The second way of remembering the past is to remember how God has worked in the past and how that makes his promises for the future sure and unchangeable. The same Israelites that wanted free fish and slavery were the ones that also said in Psalm 143:5 “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.” And Psalm 42:1-5

Psalm 42:1–5 ESV

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

We are not that different. Paul tells us to forget what lies behind. Not to forget what God has done in the past. Not to forget his mighty works, wonders, and signs. Not to forget the work of Jesus in his ministry, death, burial, and resurrection. But, rather, to forget our lives prior to knowing Christ. To know that God’s promises are real and true and therefore the meaning we assign to the past should be based on what we know about our future in Christ and not our past in the clutches of sin.

This is the remembrance of Isaiah 43:16-21

Isaiah 43:16–21 ESV

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Just as a newborn baby has no recollection of what was before they were born, so we do not need to remember who and what we were before being reborn as a child of God. We simply remember who has saved us and what He has done in our past.

To change the meaning of our past we can apply what is said in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Remember the things of God. If you want to look back on 2021 look for God’s working in your life throughout the year.

Living for What is Now

Once Paul leaves the past in the dust he comes to life now. He uses an athletic metaphor of “…straining forward to what lies ahead, pressing on towards the goal...”

We need to realize that just as our view of the past forever changes because of our future, our view of the present is also forever changed. We are not who we were and we can no longer live as if that past defines us today. This does not mean we strive in our own might to win the prize nor can we sit on our salvation and expect God to do it all.

Paul says God is calling us to a life of work. Not work to achieve salvation but work because we have been saved. As we are being conformed to the image a Christ we have things to do while the Spirit works in us to allow God to work through us. We are not magically transformed into the image of Christ. Again, this is part of the already/not yet.

We are in a process that will not be completed until the final resurrection. But it is a process that requires action on our part. Action that is totally dependent on the power of the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

Luke 9:61-62 “Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.””

As we exercise faith, as we look for opportunities to show God’s love and mercy, as we pray, as we remember who God is and what he has done for us, we become more and more transformed into the likeness of Jesus our Savior.

Pressing on for What is Coming

Our daily straining and reaching for the goal also conditions us to press on, to persevere, and gain the prize. The prize of “…the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Our promise is that of eternal life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a renewed Heaven and Earth. But that prize comes only after a lifetime of pressing on. It is also a lifetime of suffering. As Paul says earlier in the passage Philippians 3:10 “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”

I think one of the reasons the Bible so often uses marriage as a metaphor of our relationship with God and Christ is because marriage is the second most difficult thing you will ever undertake on Earth. The process of two becoming one is not a Disney “happily ever after” movie. It is blood and sweat and tears and joy and anger and love and hard, hard work for a long time. But all of that leads to rewards that are like no other.

The reason I say marriage is the second hardest is because a relationship with Jesus is the hardest. If trying to become one out of two of the same is tough, trying to become transformed into the likeness of the perfect Son of God is exponentially tougher. That is why Paul tells us to persevere. The rewards of our promised resurrection are so much greater than the pain and suffering we endure here there is no comparison. Not that there is not joy in the Lord and laughter and happiness and contentment. But, just as Christ suffered for us, so we will suffer for him.

Romans 8:18-25 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-26 “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. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.”

Therefore, we press on knowing that our future is guaranteed and we are free to do the works of God without shrinking back.

Conclusion

There is a modern example in the lives of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, founders of Voice of the Martyrs. While we do not have the time to go into depth about their story, their lives are examples of what Paul says in this passage. Richard and Sabina were Romanian Jews who married in 1936. He was a successful stockbroker, among other things, and they lived a wealthy life. Anyone looking at their life would have envied their success and wealth. Because of poor health Richard went to a small town in the mountains to recover. He was saved while he was there and later became an Anglican Pastor. Sabina resisted for a long while but she was also saved.

They completely turned their backs on their former lives. Because of their faith and dedication to Christ they were both imprisoned and tortured. Richard spent 14 years in prison under the Nazi’s and the Russian Communists. Sabina spent four years in prison. Neither recanted their faith nor lost hope. In the 1960’s they were ransomed from Romania and settled in the United States where they started Voice of the Martyrs which gives aid to persecuted Christians around the world.

Both Paul and the Wurmbrand’s testify to the truth of our passage today. So in the coming year, if you still long for the good old days, ask God to help you to change your perspective. Our present and future are not defined by our past. When you are tempted to long for some golden age in the past ask God to bring to your mind the times he has worked in your past. When you are tempted to believe that what you are today is only the product of what you were before meeting Christ, ask God to remind you of your salvation and the changes he has made in you. When you are tempted to feel dread and fear for the future, look to the Bible and read about the times God was faithful in the past and know that faithfulness is with us today and will be with us forever.

If you are here and you have not come to the salvation available in Jesus Christ today is the day to accept that salvation. God’s faithfulness in the past, his sustaining help in the present, and his assurance of the future only has meaning for those who have been reconciled to him through the blood of Jesus. Without that relationship your present and future can only be defined by your past. If you are ready to make that decision you can contact the deacons at Marcelina or you can let me know after the service. You too can know the joy that our past is dead, our present is alive to Christ, our future is guaranteed by God.