Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
August 12, 1984
Press and Forget
Philippians 3:12-14
Every four years I become interested in athletics. There's something about the Olympics that makes me think about putting on my green day-glo sneakers and racing around a track. The Olympics make me think about it but they have yet to make me do it. The only person who could ever make me run was my physical education teacher in college. They called it an aerobics program and I was required to jog four times a week. Since I had to do it I was determined to be good at it. Day after day I pushed myself to the limits of physical endurance. Toward the end of the program I decided to see if I could attain my personal goal.
Early in the evening I suited up and headed for the track. Fortunately, it was empty. I pressed the stop-watch and began to run. After one lap my breath was short but soon I got my second wind. Two laps - three laps. By now the perspiration was streaming down my face. My legs pounded the pavement. I imagined thousand of spectators wildly cheering me on. The television cameras zoomed in and as I burst across the finish line I pressed the stopwatch. I had done it - I had run a mile in seven minutes, 59 seconds. By just shaving off another 255 seconds, I would have cleaned up in the Montreal games.
The Olympics have always been a great spectacle. The original games were held in Greece where Philippi is located and where Paul spent much of his Christian ministry. Even back then the Olympics were big business. Athletes could win the equivalent of millions of dollars. Paul himself may have made a few bucks by producing canvas tents and booths for the spectators in Corinth.
Paul must have enjoyed the games because one of his favorite illustrations is the athlete and the race. Sometimes it becomes an illustration of Christian discipline. Turn to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. Reading from the NIV:
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
This was written almost two thousand years ago, yet it seems as up-to-date as the races and events we will watch this afternoon. Both preparing for a race and preparing for Christian service still require personal discipline.
Here in Philippians, Paul uses the theme in a different way. He is stressing the tension in the Christian life, in that we are earth people and heaven people at the same time. In verse 12 he says:
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect but I follow after."
"Follow after" is the same word used in verse 6 for persecuting. In both places it literally means to "pursue relentlessly." In the past Paul chased Christians, now he chases Christ.
There have always been Christians who think salvation is an open-and-shut case. You accept Christ and the race is over. You've arrived. These are the kind of Christians who never have any problems, smile all the time and hum "Victory in Jesus" to themselves. Their problem is that they think they have to be this way or they lose their salvation. The Bible doesn't teach this. God's Word says that becoming a Christian is a one-time event but growing as a Christian is a continuous progress. As the bumper sticker puts it - "I'm Not Perfect - Just Forgiven."
In the last part of the verse he gives his goal - "if that I may apprehend (that means to grasp or take hold) that which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." Jesus grabbed a hold of Paul at his conversion. Paul's aim is to gain just as firm a grip on Jesus. This had not happened yet. Paul stresses in verse 13:
"Brethren, I count myself not to have apprehended but one thing I do..."
That one thing is found down in verse 14:
"I press toward the mark."
Paul is dealing with two extremes in today's passage. We've mentioned the first extreme - believers who think they can have no problems but have to be perfect. Here he deals with the other extreme - Christians who say, "I'm not perfect and in this life I'll never be perfect... so why waste time trying." Paul does not condone complacency - he calls for action.
The "one thing" he does has two aspects - forgetting and pressing. Christians must forget those things which are behind. In other words, don't look over your shoulder. The Lord was good to me this week. I only got to watch a little of the Olympics but I caught a classic illustration of this point. The race was the 110 meter high hurdles. The favorite to win was an American named Greg Foster. ABC even did one of those three-minute television biographies on him. The gun went off and the runners charged toward the hurdles. Greg Foster, though obviously nervous, ran well and kept the lead, but just as he vaulted the last hurdle he turned his head ever so slightly to see where everyone else was. That move cost him only hundreds of a second but Greg Foster lost the race to another American, Tom Jefferson. According to the television commentators, it was all because he looked behind.
Christians look back at different things. Some, like Paul, have great achievements to dwell on. The Philadelphia Temple Church once had this problem. Its greatest pastor was Rev. Russell Conwell, who founded the seminary I went to. Conwell was a great motivator. His church began dozens of ministries in Philadelphia, started a school and saw many of its young people go into full-time Christian service. This was in the 1880s. Ninety years later they were still looking back to their past but not much was happening in the present. When a new pastor came in the 1970s he gathered the deacons in their conference room and shared some ideas he had for the church. The deacons squirmed and fidgeted. Finally, one of them pointed to a large portrait of Conwell and said, "I don't think Pastor Conwell would want us to move so quickly." The new pastor got up, went over to the picture and flipped it backwards. "Pastor Conwell is gone," he said, "let's look to the future."
Past successes can hold us back. So can past failures and tragedies. Some people are so conscious of past sins and burdened by quilt that they are totally useless in the present. If you are ridden with guilt you don't really understand salvation. To be saved is to be cleared before the court of God. All is forgiven, all charges are dropped and you the defendant are as pure as the driven snow in the eyes of the judge. To believe that God has forgiven you and yet not forgive yourself is to put yourself in a position superior to God. If he has forgiven you, you'd better forgive yourself and forget those things which are behind. There's nothing wrong with reflecting on the past. Just don't dwell on the past till you're of no use in the present. Paul says forget the past. He also says press on in the present. The expression "reaching forth" in verse 13 refers to the stance of a sprinter. They thrust their bodies forward so they can get the greatest possible momentum.
As in any race, we are pressing on toward a goal. The King James Version calls it a mark because back then the end of a race was not a line on the street but a marked pole on the side. When we reach that mark we gain a prize. In the ancient Olympics the prize was a laurel wreath. Today it is a gold medal. Paul does not tell us what the prize for Christians is but we receive it when we stand in heaven. The prize could be the praise Christ gives his servants or the crown of life spoken of in 1 Corinthians 9, or it could even be Christ himself.
The "high calling" of God is his call to come up to be with him in heaven. Are you following that calling?
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Typed on October 30, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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