Your Place in The Race

Your Place in The Race

Philippians 3:12-16 

 

This morning we are going to turn to the book of Philippians chapter 3:12-16, where Paul gives the church at Philippi an athletic analogy using imagery from an athletic competition. The imagery and analogy was given by Paul to help them understand there is a race marked out for them to run, and an encouragement to come to his conclusion about that run.

Athletic analogies and illustrations that are given frequently in the New Testament and often come specifically from Paul. It is apparent that Paul believed there were some important realities that athletic competitions can give as we live out our lives for Christ.

He wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In 1 Corinthians 9:26(b), I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air, and in Ephesians 6:12(a), We do not wrestle against flesh and blood…The most common analogy, however, is associated with a foot race.

Regarding a race, Paul also wrote many things: in 1 Corinthians 24, 26(a), Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly…Philippians 2:16, I did not run or labor in vain. In Galatians 2:2, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Galatians 5:7, You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

We can understand the analogy, we understand running, perhaps even some things about running competitively and Paul consistently points the church to the fact that there is pursuit to chase down, there is a race for you and me to run spiritually. As we turn our attention to this well-known text, I want to center our focus on “your place in the race this morning.”

 

Philippians 3:12-15, Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well.

 

When Paul wrote “press on,” it is a word that can mean a couple of different things. It carries the idea of a pursuit, chasing something or someone down. Here, Paul points us to the pressing on toward, or running down of, the upward call of Jesus Christ. He was on the run for Christ, and it was that run, that race to which he had committed his life. In verse 13, we are encouraged to reach forward to what lies ahead. The word means to “stretch out toward,” “stretch oneself forward;” other translations read: “straining forward to what lies ahead.”

 

Illus. Strategy.

 

Though they will be used for illustration, I do not want to center our focus on physical raced, but rather on our spiritual race. As we look at the spiritual race, our run with, for and toward the call of Christ, I want to focus in on your place in the race. From Hebrews 12 we know there is a race marked out for you and me personally and this morning we will focus in on the importance of your start, your set focus, and the prize to strive for.

 

1. Don’t Settle on How You Started

 

Philippians 3:12, Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

 

• In verse 12, Paul displays a recognition of his status, and the importance of pressing on from that place.

 

• Verse 12 comes after a section of Scripture where Paul looked back on His life. He references how he started.

 

• He begins the chapter by noting people who put confidence in their flesh because of their resume. He continued, they put confidence in the flesh, but do not put confidence in the flesh… “if anyone thinks he had reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more reason.”

 

Philippians 3:5-6, Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

 

• But then Paul met Christ, and he started over.

 

Philippians 3:7-8, But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ…

 

• In verses 9 to 11, he acknowledged that he had been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ through faith in Him, he expressed his desire to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection and have continued fellowship with Him.

 

• When Paul wrote the book of Philippians, he had been running the race for Christ for thirty years.

 

• Many might look at him today and say, he’s set! 30 years running the race, the proper understanding of righteousness by faith, a focus on relationship, fellowship and a future with Christ in his life! He is set!

 

• But Paul was not settled on where he was set. “He is making it clear…I am not there yet.”

 

• Paul’s desire in his life was to pursue Christ, he knew that Jesus had taken hold of him, and he wanted to take hold of the reason Jesus took hold of him…He tells us here, he was not there yet!

 

• In Acts chapter 9, when Paul was on his way to persecute Christians and Jesus stopped him on his way saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” In Acts 22 Paul recounts how he responded, “who are you, Lord?” …he knew it was Jesus, then asked, “what shall I do, Lord?”

 

• The Lord told him to get up and go and he would be told what he must do. Here Paul says, “I am not there yet, I have not “arrived,” I have not grasped it.”

 

• Paul remembers that day, when Jesus took hold of his life, and Paul says I want to take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ.

 

Illus. Taken Hold of.

 

• The Lord saved him for a purpose, Paul wanted to pursue the fulness of the purpose, he was not going to settle.

 

• Paul had an impressive resume for the cause of Christ: He had planted churches around the world, he was spiritual, knowledgeable, and educated; he was fighting the good fight, had been beaten, bitten, blasted and bound up.

 

• Paul had given up many things, but what he received in Christ was so much better.

 

• The Philippian church may have looked at Paul and thought, there is nothing more for him to do, nowhere else for him to go, and Paul here says, “not so.”

 

• He was aware of the perfecting work the Lord would continue, and make sure the people know that the perfecting work would continue in them as well.

 

Philippians 1:6, I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (NASB 95’)

 

Illus. Settle.

 

1 Corinthian 15:9-10, I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain.

 

Illus. The Start.

 

1. Set Your Focus on What Lies Ahead

 

Philippians 3:13-14, Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

• If we are going to effectively reach forward and run the race marked out, we must look ahead, not behind.

 

• Paul wrote, in pursuit of the prize, it is critical first, to forget about what is behind.

 

• In our study of 2 Samuel we looked at biblical forgetting this last week. Just to refresh our memory, in the Bible, forget doesn’t mean to lose your memory, or that you are unable to recall something. Rather, to forget means that we do not act according to it, it doesn’t influence our present.

 

• When God forgets our sins, He doesn’t act towards us according to them.

 

• For example, in Jeremiah 31:34, the Lord declared, “I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.” Isaiah 43:25, “I am the one who wipes out your wrongdoings for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

 

• This does not mean that the Lord has a bad memory or is not aware. Rather, it means that He does not deal with us according to our past, in the present. The Lord does not act according to our sins; they have been forgiven.

 

• In that same chapter of Isaiah 43, where the Lord says I will no longer remember your sins, there is instruction to His people…

 

Isaiah 43:18-19, “Do not call to mind the former things, or consider things of the past. Behold, I am going to do something new, now it will spring up; will you not be aware of it?

 

• Paul says here, forget about the past, in other words, don’t act according to it.

 

Illus. Look forward!

 

• Not only did Paul write about forgetting the past, but he also pointed us forward.

 

• The past can get in the way of the prize; the writer of Hebrews gives us some additional insights into what gets in the way of us running the race well in this life.

 

Hebrews 12:1-2(a), Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…

 

• We are told “let us also” lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin that easily entangles.

 

• The acknowledgement is that there are certainly encumbrances, other translations say things that hinder, or every weight that slows us down.

 

• Those three make up the definition of the Greek word here, “ogkas”: A burden or weight.

 

• This would have meant something to those who understood racing in the ancient world. Racers in that day would often run without clothing, get in the best shape possible, removing all excess weight possible so that they could run unencumbered.

 

• Here we are being implored to throw off every weight, if something is a spiritual encumbrance, I am to throw it off.

 

• The next thing we are to lay to the side is the sin which so easily entangles us.

 

• The word entangles us is an interesting word in Greek as well, euparistatos, which depicts a skillful surrounding.

 

• In order to run the race, we have to lay aside the sin which so easily entangles.

 

• There are times in the race we run that we might get tangled up, and we must be aware if that is where we are because we must rid ourselves of obstacles and entanglements.

 

Galatians 5:7, You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

 

• Paul had a past. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, and some of it was ugly.

 

• Some would have been impressed by his past, others would have been appalled by it. Either way, he says, forget about it!

 

• Vs. 13(b), Reaching forward to what lies ahead.

 

• “Reaching forward” is one Greek word. It means to “stretch out towards,” to “stretch oneself forward” or to “stretch oneself upon.”

 

Illus. What if.

 

2 Corinthians 11:23-28

 

• Paul was reaching to what was ahead, his attention and intention were there.

 

• Strive Toward the Prize of the Upward Call

 

Philippians 3:14, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

• Speaking of prizes…In Paul’s day…they had the isthmian games, the Olympics and the Pythian games…

 

• For the Isthmian games…the victors prize was a dry wild celery wreath, or pine wreath in Paul’s day…

 

• In the Olympics in Paul’s day, they got a perishable wreath, a laurel wreath or crown.

 

• The idea of press means, to exert oneself. Paul was pressing for the prize of upward call in Christ Jesus.

 

• In verses 12 and 14, we read Paul write “I press on.”

 

• And it is interesting because the same word used in those places for “press on” is used earlier in Philippians 3:6, where Paul says he was a persecutor of the church. The word for “persecutor,” is the word for “pressing.”

 

• In other words, the energy and intensity that he had put into persecuting, when he turned to Christ, he put into pressing on for Christ. The zeal, passion, and focus of his life shifted, from pressing on a people, to pressing into a person and the calling for Him.

 

• Paul was pressing for the prize of upward call in Christ Jesus.

 

1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the game’s exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

 

• Paul found a prize in knowing his life’s purpose, and a recognize the prize of eternal life in the upward, or heavenward call.

 

• And in verses 15 to 16, Paul points out that this upward call and the orientation toward heaven, is not just for him, but is given for us all, and something we do, and pursue together.

 

Philippians 3:15-16, Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well; however, let’s keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

 

• Paul is broadening the scope from the picture of his personal race to the reality that they are all included in the running.

 

• Notice he wrote, “all who are,” “let us,” and again “let us,” “we.”

 

• He says that mature believers are to share in the race, to share his view, and press on toward the goal.

 

• He said, if you have a different attitude, the Lord will reveal this to you.

 

• “Different attitude” is two Greek words that can mean to “think differently,” to be of a “different opinion,” to hold a “different view,” or have a “different understanding” from what Paul had details out.

 

• Some believe Paul was talking about those who thought they could become perfect in the flesh, others however, believe Paul is referring to followers of Christ who had stopped reaching forward for Christ. To those who had gotten off the racetrack and become apathetic to the call, to those who were looking on from the sidelines.

 

• In both cases, Paul was speaking to those who were not recognizing their need to pursue the prize and run the race in this life.

 

Illus. Sidelines.

 

Illus. Endurance.

 

2 Timothy 4:7-8, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

 

Philippians 3:12-16

12Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well; 16however, let’s keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.