World Fellowship Sunday, January 24, 2016

ONE!

Today is World Fellowship Sunday! This is a day set aside by the Mennonite World Conference for all Mennonite churches to celebrate together our common faith in Christ.

            I am not entirely comfortable with this limitation. It reminds me of the old joke where a man dies, goes to heaven, and is given a tour of heaven. An angel or some other guide shows him various rooms where Pentecostals are singing ‘hallelujahs’ and Anglicans are reading the Common Book of prayers. But when they come to one room, the guide tells the man to tread quietly. Why? This room contains the Mennonites and they think they are the only ones here.

            I want to go a step farther then, and call attention to the global community of faith beyond the Mennonite circle. As a sub-writer for the new baptism book for the EMC, EMMC and CMC churches, I know that we share a common faith in Christ with a variety of church denominations throughout the world. This common faith is best expressed by the adherence of the majority of churches to the Apostles’ Creed (show slide).

I BELIEVE in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. 

Amen.

           

We share our faith in Christ with Christians throughout the world and we want to celebrate that this morning. As How Chuang Chua of Singapore writes, “The church is the worldwide people of God, the community of those who have been redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ. The church transcends ethnic, cultural, and racial lines, being comprised of all those who have repented of their sin and trusted in Christ alone for their salvation. The church is the single most important institution on earth, the organism through which God advances his kingdom.”[i]

            In an effort to encourage unity in the church at Philippi, Paul reminded the believers there of the doctrine and the practice of being One in Christ. These principles were applied to the local church, but they are a reminder to us as well of the elements that bind us as a church (KEMC) to the Global community of faith that calls Christ “Lord.”

1. The Faith that makes us One

a) The Unifying Marks of Christian Faith – If there was a problem with division in the Philippian church, the issues were trivial. But trivial matters can quickly become the wedges that divide us. Paul takes care to remind the local church of the theological foundations that make them a church in the first place.

            In our text there are four “if” clauses in verse one. While “if” usually implies uncertainty, here Paul means to say “If, as is certainly the case…” We might want to say “since” to clarify the meaning, as in “Since you have been encouraged from being united with Christ…” These four clauses are the basis for their unifying faith. Consider these clauses:

1) Sharing the Christ connection: Jesus calls on each of us to join Him in the walk of life. He calls us to faith in Him and to be united with Him in His death and resurrection. Since this is tremendous privilege and joy for you or me, we share a wonderful connection because of our faith in Christ.

2) Sharing the Love (God’s): If you know the love of God, you know the truest consolation of life. Through Christ we know the greatest comfort for our sorrows, the grief we feel over our sins and failures. Since you know this love, and I know this love that comforts, we agree that God’s love is consoling.

3) Sharing in the Spirit: Through faith in Christ I have received His Holy Spirit in my life. But to possess the Spirit is to know that part of the Spirit’s work is to draw me (the individual) into fellowship with God and other believers who love God (the church). If you or I experience the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, can we live any other way?

4) Sharing from the gut: “Tenderness” is the inner source of our emotions (the heart); “compassion” is the emotions reaching out towards the object of our tenderness. To have known the mercy and grace of Christ on the cross yet fail to express tenderness and compassion is a denial of saving truth. In the church we experience the mercy and grace of Christ through our interactions with each other.

            Now these four elements of faith were meant to draw the individuals in Philippi into oneness, whatever their disagreements over other matters might be. These elements are essential to the harmony of believers all over the world. Notice that Paul basically gave us the doctrine of salvation in its classical Trinitarian form as the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you meet a person from Bangladesh who agrees and accepts these clauses, you and that person are ONE in Christ.

            Jesus is the starting point of this shared faith. Jesus is central to our faith. Jesus is the lens through which we see God and understand the OT.

            It surprises and concerns me then that MWC resources for this Sunday downplayed the role of Christ. (show slide and explain). Missing from the Emmaus story is Jesus Himself. Those two disciples were not suddenly united through philosophy or debate, but by the living, breathing crucified Jesus, who explained the OT prophets to them.

            Not all Mennonites agree on the central tenets of our faith. So let us not celebrate our oneness with Mennonites, but with Christians (and not the political types either, i.e. Trump).

b) Complementing Faith with Action – Paul was not content with rehearsing doctrinal commonalities; he wanted this faith to unify them visibly, “then make my joy complete…” These elements of faith were to unify the church in three ways:

1) Thinking the One way: Paul wanted the individuals of the church to have one mind. This does not mean that we see every matter exactly the same. Nor does it mean we set aside essential truths for the sake of unity. Instead, we must train our minds and hearts toward Christian love so that we seek the highest good of one another. We are allowed to disagree; we are allowed to think differently and to confront error. But we do so with this one mind, a mind inclined to love. We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

2) Possessing the same love: Love is not so much an emotion as it is an attitude. Paul begs for this love to be the same as that of Christ Jesus expressed in His taking on human flesh to be with us. His incarnation was meant for this sole purpose: to be with us and to show us God. And this attitude found its fullest expression on the cross (2:6-8).

3) Moving the same way: Unity is not automatic; it must be cultivated and nurtured. We learn unity through the rough and ready ride of living and worshiping together. Riding a horse is not as simple as climbing into a saddle. To be one with the horse takes experience and time. To be one in spirit with other believers, I must deliberately set my mind on being one with those who truly know Christ, even if I don’t agree with them on everything. But we learn to share a common purpose: “being minded on the one thing.” That one thing is the faith of the gospel, the corporate witness of the body of Christ. When we love each other visibly, we testify to that Oneness.

2. Deliberate Gestures of Oneness

a) Reversing our self-estimate – Working towards a global perspective of the church requires a re-working of our mindset regarding our flavor of faith. I grew up in the milieu of the EMC and a father who trumpeted the impression that “we had it right.” If we were “right” that made others “wrong.” Others would include Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists, and even the Mennonite Brethren (according to Dad). This sense of elitism is not unique to old EMCers; everyone feels their church is the right church to some degree. Why else would they go and worship there?

            There are qualities of the Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective of faith I do feel are good (see list).

–     1) A high view of the Bible

–     2) The centrality of Christ

–     3) Emphasis on the NT church

–     4) The believers’ church

–     5) Adult Believer’s Baptism

–     6) Importance of discipleship

–     7) The mission/missional emphasis

–     8) The life of peace

            Appreciating the One Church, the Global church of Christ, however, means reversing this self-estimate. The world’s way of resolving conflicts is to teach you to stand up for your rights, to be assertive, to negotiate, and to have proper self-esteem. The problem is the world’s way does not deal with the root problem, which is pride or self. In contrast to the world’s way, Paul teaches that Christians must do nothing from selfishness or vain conceit (empty self-importance).

            Considering others as better than yourself is not only biblical, it is also healthier than self-focus. Dr. Karl Menninger was once asked, “If someone felt a nervous breakdown coming on, what would you suggest that he do?” “If you feel a nervous breakdown coming on, I would urge you to find somebody else with a problem—a serious one—and get involved with that individual, helping him solve his problem.” In helping that person with their problem, you may find that your own problem lessens. You’re not thinking internally. You’re not letting things gnaw at your gut. You’re no longer disturbed about yourself because you’re not thinking about yourself. You’re thinking about others.

            Living on the defense when it comes to other churches can have the same effect. If we truly see something in other denominations that troubles us, we need to pray for them. I would suggest adding a church to your daily prayer requests anyways, be it next door or in another country (or both).

b) Taking an interest in others – We are naturally self-centered. We see what is before us and scarcely consider the world around us. We’re so selfish that we’re like fish in the water who don’t know they’re wet. A new husband went up to a ticket counter and bought only one ticket. When his new bride pointed it out, he made a quick comeback saying, “You’re right dear, I’d forgotten myself completely.”

            What I think is important to me would also be something that is important to someone else. So that’s a starting point. What we are concerned about for our church will be a concern for churches around the world.

            John defined love in his first epistle this way: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:16-17). We can apply this to the global church as well. Whether Burma needs bunk-beds or Guadalajara needs teaching materials, our love for these brothers and sisters compels us to act and send — our love for Christ compels us!

           

Today is World Fellowship Sunday.

How can we take an abstract idea and make it real?

            One way is to go and visit a church in another country. David Platt in his book Radical shares the importance of this one act. He writes:

            I remember when I was first preparing to go to Sudan, a nation impoverished by years of civil war.  The trip was going to cost me around three thousand dollars.  It wasn't easy to travel into Sudan since they were still at war, and we would have to charter a plane and spend a few extra days to make that happen. I remember one dear lady in the church coming up to me and asking, "Why don't you just send the three thousand dollars to the people in Sudan? Wouldn't that be a better use of money than your spending a week and a half with them? Think of how far that money would go."

            I wrestled with that question. Was I wasting these funds in order to go when I could simply give the money instead? Should I even be going? I continued wrestling with that question until I got to Sudan.  There I had a conversation with Andrew that shed some light on the question.

            Andrew was sharing with me about his life in Sudan over the last twenty years. He had known war since he was born, and he described facets of the suffering and persecution his people had been through.  He told me about the various groups, most of them secular or government organizations, who had brought supplies to them during that time, and he expressed thanks for the generosity of so many people.

            But then he looked at me and asked, "Even in light of all these things that people have given us, do you want to know how you can tell who a true brother is?"  I leaned forward and asked, "How?" 

            He responded, "A true brother comes to be with you in your time of need."  Then he looked me in the eye and said, "David, you are a true brother. Thank you for coming to be with us."[ii]

            Sending money is important. Going to be with our brothers and sisters is Christ-like. Jesus did not send money; Jesus came to be with us.

            You sent Sharon and me to Mexico to see church planting in action. We see things differently now. We now have a connection with Dallas and Tara and the rest that we did not have before. We have met a family that was saved through this ministry and now we have a connection.

            In two months and a bit we will send our youth to the same place, to Guadalajara. It is a lot of money to send them. But you are giving an incredible gift to these youth – you are showing them the global church. The Church is bigger than Kleefeld and they need to see that; GDL needs to see that too. And when all is said and done and this world comes to a close, we will all see that we who believe in Jesus Christ are ONE!

                                                AMEN

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[i] How Chuang Chua, The Importance of the Global Church, (article), ESVBible.org

[ii] David Platt, Radical (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2010), 197-198.

Baptism Sunday

OUR LIFE IN CHRIST

A small group of men and women huddled in a second floor room wondering what to do. They realized that the church they were part of was not fully obedient to Scripture and they needed to break away. But how? One man suddenly stood up and went to the leader of the group and said “Baptize me!” Somewhat stunned, the leader baptized the man who in turn baptized others in the group. This was the beginning of the Anabaptist movement in Switzerland on January 21, 1525, the first time in about a thousand years that adults were baptized upon their faith in Christ.

            I believe they were poured rather than immersed. Do you know how I know? It was January 21^st. Otherwise they would have had to chip a hole in the ice and jump in quickly.

            One key theological point that separated this baptism from infant baptism was that baptism does not save you. What I mean is — and I know you know this too — the application of water to the head or body does not in itself wash away your sins or make you right with God. Baptism is not necessary for salvation. We are saved from the penalty of our sin when we profess to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died for our sins.

            But, as one preacher put it, if you are saved, what in the world would prevent you from publicly identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the act of baptism? Especially considering that Jesus was crucified publicly for you. He goes on to say, and I would agree, I would not say, "You're not saved if you haven't been baptized." I would ask, however, "If you're refusing to be baptized, are you sure you're saved?" Baptism is obedience to the command of Christ and it indicates that we have identified our life with the life and death of Jesus Christ.

            In the letter to the Colossians we read about what that life in Christ means for the person who has been (past tense) baptized. (Colossians 2:8-15)

1. In Christ we are complete

This morning you will hear two testimonies. I described them as sharp and to the point. They are an excellent example of two people declaring that they want to follow Christ. You will also hear these two guys admit that they have not made it yet. And I would add, “good,” because none of us has reached perfection. We are incomplete.

            Before talking about the benefits of being in Christ, Paul writes of the fullness of Christ. He says, “For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body,” (9 NLT). This is a wonderful place to start because the focus is on Jesus. And who is Jesus? In a word, God. But this revelation is far too profound to leave it there.

            Jesus, the man, embodies all that God is: He is the “I AM,” the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Great Shepherd of Ps. 23, the agent of Creation, the Immortal and Eternal One, the Great and Sovereign Lord…the indescribably immense and awesome God is fully found in the man, Jesus Christ. This is amazing stuff.

            Now what comes next should blow our minds. “…and you are complete through your union with Christ” (10a NLT). Many of us feel that something is missing in our persons. We feel incomplete or lacking. We may even feel that something is wrong with us. When it comes to the Law of Moses or the standards of the Gospel, we feel that we come up short. Graydon Penner will say he feels incomplete; so does Darryl Klassen. We are not all that we should be.

            However, in Christ, we are made complete. Whatever we lack, wherever we feel inadequate, whatever shortcoming we have in morality or perfection, is made up by the person of Christ. He completes us. Yes, we strive to be holy and godly and good disciples…we strain toward the prize. But when we fall short, and we will, Christ makes up the difference. All the fullness of God is found in Christ; and all that is Christ is found in you and me. In Christ we are complete.

2. In Christ our old life is buried

Through our faith in Jesus as the Son of God who died for our sins, we are united to His person. Paul had said “…you are complete through your union with Christ.” That union is represented by the ritual of baptism.

            Paul describes three actions that occurred when you came to put your faith in Christ. First, when you came to Christ you were circumcised in the heart. Paul carefully tells his readers that this is not the circumcision done with hands. That was an outward symbol that set a people apart, but was never lived up to in reality. Circumcision is a purposely crude metaphor for cutting away the flesh. In the spiritual sense, Christ cuts away the flesh from our lives so that we are cleansed, purified, made right with God. When Paul talks of “flesh” he does not mean our physical bodies, but rather the sinful nature. Christ rips out the sinful nature from our lives. We still struggle with sin, yes, but its power is neutralized so that it can’t condemn us or kill us.

            Second, through baptism we buried with Christ. We identify with Christ’s death, the death he died on the cross, when we are baptized. We are buried with him as though dead ourselves. Then sin says, “Where did Austin go? Oh, he’s dead. Guess I can’t touch him now.” As Christ identified with us by becoming a man and dying, we identify with him through public baptism.

            Third, we are raised to life by the power of God – the same power that raised Christ from the dead – that power is at work in us (see Eph. 1:18ff).

            These three facts related to our faith are represented by the water of baptism. In Christ our old life is buried as if we were dead. The stark reality of this comes to me through the death of both my parents – I can no longer visit with them or share life with them – they are in so different a place that they no longer exist in this realm. That starkness illustrates the separation of our lives from the life of sin.

3. In Christ we are free

Now, we believe in the doctrine of free will, that we choose to believe in Christ. I strongly believe in this doctrine. Yet there is a sense in which I in myself was powerless to come to God. I was helpless and weak and unable to reach out to God and cry “save me.” This is where God rescued me; He rescued us.

            “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ” (13 NIV), Paul says. So, in this sense, God came to you – you did not go to Him – and thus we can say “God saved you.” We can do nothing to save ourselves, not even reach out to God, unless God comes to us. But when He does come (here’s the paradox) we can still say “no” to Him.

            Through baptism, we declare that we said “yes” to God through Christ. And then we can claim this poignant little phrase “He forgave us all our sins.” Isn’t that the sweetest sound in our ears? Can you imagine hearing anything better?

            I had a misunderstanding with a brother (not from KEMC) this week. Texting is terrible for meaningful and clear communication. I had a sleepless night because of this thing. The next morning I went to him and talked face-to-face and we worked it all out. That is the beauty of two people who love Jesus wanting to restore the peace of Christ in our relationship. Nothing felt better than that. It was a small piece of that great truth: “He forgave us all our sins.”

            God nailed the charge that was against us, the indictment of our sins, to the cross of Christ. Whatever offenses we committed, God nailed to the cross. The worst things we have done, our moral failures, our careless words and actions, and even our most deliberate offenses, are nailed to the cross.

            And I love how this piece ends: God disarmed the powers and authorities – those voices in your head that accuse you of being worthless and imperfect and undesirable – God shamed them, God humiliated them, God made a public spectacle of them on the cross of Christ. I just love that so much. The powers that want to put you back in chains to sin are broken. In Christ we are free.

As I meditated on the celebration of baptism and the water we will apply to these two young men, to Austin and Graydon, my thoughts turned to those that are not baptized. I began to see your faces, the faces of all the parents whose sons and daughters have not chosen Christ and been baptized. There were so many in my mind’s eye it was astonishing and heartbreaking.

            I thought to myself, what if those parents would stand up and lift a hand to God pleading for their child. Just standing there quietly pleading. I can make no promises that those children would come to the Lord, that is not for me to promise. But I would also be remiss to keep that opportunity from you to stand and cry out to God “save my child!” Should we not pray together as a church for such a marvelous act of God.

            And if you are not baptized but you love the Lord Jesus, could I not appeal to you to take this step of obedience? Christ hung on the cross for us; can we not bear a short testimony and a bit of water for Him?

            Our life in Christ is a life of completeness; In Christ we are free. Let’s celebrate that this morning in the water of baptism.

                                                            AMEN

New Year's Day

PRESSING ON: 2016

Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet? Go ahead and take a moment; write down the first thing that comes to mind; don’t hesitate or think about it too long. “I resolve to ____________ in 2016.”

            One thing I resolve to do in 2016 is lose ten pounds. I would like to feel less snug in the waist of my pants. Now, to be honest, this is my annual resolution.

            When Sharon and I got married, I weighed 120 pounds. In our first year of marriage I gained twenty pounds — that’s what contentment does to a guy. And over the years my contentment has grown. So I resolve to continue to grow in contentment with my wonderful wife but to do so without the weight gain.

            As many of you know, New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken (not that I will cease to grow in love with my wife, but that I will not lose the ten pounds). For some reason we don’t take resolutions seriously. These “goals” are loosely made, kind of like “wishing well” wishes. We don’t really feel the gravity of these commitments.

            If you have made a resolution for 2016, I sincerely hope that you achieve it.

            As followers of Jesus there is one goal I hope we will all resolve to attain. Paul expresses it simply in his letter to the Philippians:  I want to know Christ. Paul’s intensity in this desire is such that he says he considers everything worthless compared to knowing Jesus. Let us resolve together then, to make 2016 a year in which we strive to know our Lord Jesus better than we ever have, to grow in relationship with Him and be like Him.          

            How will you achieve that goal as a personal resolution? To grow in your relationship with Christ you have to forget what is behind you while grasping all that God has set before you. This is the essence of our text in Philippians 3:10-16.

1. Forgetting what is behind…

a) What was behind Paul? As Paul looked ahead to his goal of knowing Christ better, he realized that there were things he needed to leave behind. “Forgetting what is behind…” he said. What was behind Paul that needed to be forgotten?

            As I considered the letter to the Philippians as a whole, I saw three things that Paul hints at which would hinder growing in relationship to Jesus.

Bitterness: Paul could have been bitter about his circumstances. We can surmise from chapter one that Paul was in chains and in prison. If that was not cause for disappointment, Paul shares that some people were taking advantage of his imprisonment to advance their own agendas with the gospel. Some were even trying to discredit Paul as a preacher of the gospel. They pointed to his imprisonment as evidence of his powerlessness.

            Paul does not succumb to bitterness. Instead, he focused on what God could do through his imprisonment. Read 1:15-18. His attitude towards this situation was to forget himself and exult in the advance of the kingdom through any means.

Ambition: Closely related to the issue of bitterness is our ambition. When we have an aim in life that so consumes us we resent anything and anyone that gets in our way. Paul could have seen his imprisonment and those taking advantage of his chains as an obstacle to his plans. However, in a laid-back, whatever-happens-kind-of-way, Paul rests in God’s plans and puts his own plans on the shelf. Thus he can rein in his ambitions and focus on others. Read 2:3-4.

Pride: We will be disappointed many times in 2016 if we let our pride overcome us. Pride in who we are, what we have done, or what group we belong to, are not sin per se. But when we think those things make us immune to trouble, we might say “I don’t deserve this.” Paul had a pedigree that he could have been proud of and depended on in his life. In regards to his relationship with God, he could have rested in the illusion of his being a perfect Jew (read 3:4b-6). Paul could have said, “I don’t deserve this” in response to his chains, to his suffering for Jesus. He didn’t though; he put his pride behind him and counted it loss in comparison to knowing Jesus better through the circumstances he was now in, even the hardship of prison.

            Can we relate? Bitterness, ambition, and pride — goals left unaccomplished, disappointments, illness, personal wrongs, tragedy, or simple failures — will cloud 2016 before it has begun. “Forgetting what is behind…”

b) What do you need to leave behind? You need to move on from the past. Leave the past in the past. The picture in “forgetting what is behind” is of a runner who does not look back over his shoulder. His eyes are fixed on the goal. If he made mistakes earlier in the race, he doesn’t kick himself by replaying them or go back to re-run that part. He leaves the past behind and keeps moving toward the finish line.

            Just to be clear, it can be helpful to reflect on what happened in the past to understand the present and where growth needs to take place. Biblically, self-examination is taught, and evaluating the good and bad in our past can help us to grow. But there needs to be balance.

            Paul means that we should not be controlled by our past. Consider the analogy of the car’s rear-view mirror. You don’t drive by looking in the mirror. You drive by looking ahead through the windshield. Now and then you take occasional quick glances in your mirror to use the information to make decisions about how to drive. But if you gaze too long in the mirror you will probably crash because you are not paying attention to the present. In life, we can take glances backwards, but the past must stay in the past, and we must accept God’s grace for our sins and mistakes and move on with His strength.[i]

            MPIC tells drivers that if you stare at the telephone pole you will probably hit the pole. Look where you want to go. Paul aimed at a specific goal and he went there.

2. Straining toward what is ahead

a) With an honest self-estimate – Some of Paul’s critics might have misunderstood his words and thought that Paul was saying he had made it to Christian perfection. By the time of the writing of this letter, Paul had been a believer for 25 years. There is no doubt that he was one of the keenest disciples of Christ that ever lived. His theological understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection continues to impact us all. But even he confessed that he was still in the process of knowing Christ better.

            Paul admits this in v. 12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.” What he means to say is, “I have not yet come to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death in a complete and total way.”

            This is an important lesson for us all. We must never be satisfied with where we are at in our Christian walk. I am not talking about beating yourself up for not being spiritual enough. I am pleading for an insatiable hunger for more of what Jesus wants to show us. The Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a lifelong marathon. If you think, “I don’t need to grow anymore” and stop running the race, you will miss out on the prize waiting at the finish line.

            You need to be honest with yourself — I need to be honest with myself too — we have not finished growing in Christ. For all the education I have received, one thing becomes clearer all the time: I really don’t know anything. So we keep going.

b) With singular focus – If we are to grow in Christ we must strain toward what is ahead. Paul says it this way: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (13-14).

            The Greek says literally “One thing! Forgetting what is behind…” (the “I do” was added). Paul’s “one thing” implies focused concentration and effort. Like a runner in the races, he sets aside distractions and works at keeping his mind on the goal of knowing Christ and becoming more like Him. An Olympic athlete is not a person of many interests whose own sport is a side hobby. With diligence, the Olympic athlete gets up early and sets his mind to winning the gold medal. Everything else takes second place to this aim.

            This singular focus is fuelled by a powerful motivation. Paul says, “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (12b). The word “take hold” is intense; it means to apprehend or seize something after a pursuit. If a policeman chased a thief and caught up to him, he would seize the thief tightly to keep him from getting away. Paul says that the reason he runs the race is because Christ chased him down, seized him, and put him in the race. Think of where Paul was headed in life. He was a persecutor of Christians until Christ chased him down on the road to Damascus and seized his heart.

            As Christ Jesus takes hold of you and meets the deepest need of your soul, it makes you want to grab on to Him too. That’s what Paul did. That’s what we ought to do. I want to lay hold of Jesus and not let go. I want to go where He goes and do what He would do. I want to know Him and be like Him. Isn’t that what you want?

            And so we press on to win the prize; we strain with all our strength to reach the arm across the finish line. We press on because if we think we have arrived at a comfortable place in our spiritual walk we are mistaken. We are not satisfied; we want more of Christ. If we think we have arrived, it probably means that we’ve got just enough of Jesus to satisfy some spiritual responsibility but not so much of Him that it threatens the way we live.

            No we want the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. The prize: The Lord’s “well done”; the crown of righteousness; to see His face. Oh, you know I can’t describe it. For “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

What is your goal for 2016?

            Mine is the same every year: A closer relationship with Jesus Christ.

            How will we achieve such a goal?

            Dr. Howard Hendricks tells about an elderly Christian woman he knew who would come into a social gathering, where everyone was chatting about nothing significant, and say, “Tell me, Howie, what are the five best books you’ve read this past year?” She was not satisfied with idle talk; she wanted to go deep. And through this she grew. Even though she was up in years, she was actively growing in the Lord. When she died in her nineties, her daughter discovered on her desk that the night before she died in her sleep, she had written out her personal goals for the next five years. Like Paul in prison facing his own death, she wanted to be growing.

            I think there is a lesson in this story we can follow. Paul talks about it too in verse 16. We fix our eyes on Jesus, yes, but we can also find examples around us who spur us on. We see models of Jesus, people who love the Lord that we can imitate. Paul says, “Let us live up to what we have already attained” and “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice” (4:9). We can learn from each other what it means to know Christ. He reveals Himself a little bit in each one of us who believe and follow Him. We are His body, therefore we resemble Him. Find those qualities that you feel you are lacking in someone else and learn from that person.

            And of course, do not forget the Word of God. Ultimately, all we know of Christ is found in the gospels. If you read five minutes a day in the Word, read ten. If you pray ten minutes a day, find room for twenty. Not as an arbitrary goal but as a means of knowing Christ better.

            Forget what is behind – forget the failures and sins of the past; they are covered by grace – and strain toward what is ahead. Press on towards the prize of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord.

                                                            AMEN

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[i] Story from Steven Cole’s sermon The Christian Growth Process