PRESSING ON TOWARD MATURITY
Phil 3:10-14
Back in college, I had the privilege of meeting a man who had served as a missionary in Iran for 42 years… Dr. William Miller. He had spoken at Urbana and had come to our campus as part of a follow-up conference. That chance meeting turned into a good friendship… we would write one another letters, once in a while I would visit him, and he would call from time to time asking if I would be his chaperon at his speaking engagements. He needed a chaperon b/c he was 96 years old... I’d help him get to the platform, catch him if he fell (or his teeth fell out).
I don’t know if I’ve ever met a man who seemed to know Jesus more intimately than he did. His lived his life with Jesus like life should be lived… in intimate fellowship. Sadly, he died the year Joyce and I got married… though I’m thankful that he was able to meet her. I was also able to tell him that we would be moving to Tajikistan, which is a Persian Speaking country. He just gripped my hand and smiled. A month later I was at his memorial service… a number of Iranians came to his memorial service… many of the most faithful pastors were led to the Lord through his ministry.
But you know, Dr. Miller didn’t come to that place of maturity and intimacy with the Father just because of his having been a believer for over 95 years. He got that way b/c he worked at it. He was purposeful about knowing Jesus more… I believe it was the single goal in his life. I remember once when a group of my friends decided to rent a few cottages at a retreat center. We asked Dr. Miller if he’d come up to speak with us over the weekend. On Saturday night, we were all hanging out in the lobby, when Dr. Miller came out and encouraged us to go to sleep… he said that getting lots of rest on Saturday night should be considered part of our Sunday morning worship to the Lord! Everything centered around Jesus!
Last time, I mentioned the movie City Slickers… where Billy Crystal asked Curley what the meaning of life was. He pointed his finger up. “Your finger is the meaning of life?” “No, one thing. One thing is the meaning of life.” Crystal asks, “What is that one thing?” “That is for you to find out.”
That “one thing” in Dr. Miller’s life was to know Jesus… a passion so perfectly reflected in Philippians 3:10-14 where Paul writes… “I want to know Christ… and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, becoming like Him in His death.” He then says, “not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have 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 of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
In this passage, we’re exposed once again to Paul’s one great passion… to know Jesus… to know Him ever more deeply and intimately. Paul says, “I haven’t even begun to press out the full dimensions of knowing Jesus! I want to know Him more! I don’t want know more about Him… I want to know Him! Perhaps many of you may have experienced this in your Christian lives… where after a bit of time, you’ve realized that while you’ve been seeking out the things of God… you haven’t sought God himself… where you may be reading books about God, going to church to hear about God, teaching about God at home, even serving God in various ways… but your heart is after God Himself… to know Him more. It’s an easy trap to fall into… so how about we make a deal that from now on we will be a people that values knowing him far more than knowing about him. Let’s be a church that has Psalm 27:4 as its hearts cry… “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in His temple.” What was that one thing David lived for? Same as Dr. Miller, same as Paul… to dwell in the house of His God... to rest in His Father’s presence.
But the Bible doesn’t simply tell us what the goal is (to know Him)… it tells us what needs to be in place in order for us to get there. You see, there are common principles or values that you will see every growing Christian following. I’m not talking about “5 steps to maturity”, “10 steps to holiness”… but those values at work in the lives of maturing believers. We can find four of these values or principles in Paul’s passage here in 3:10-14.
We’ve already seen the first principle in vs 10. “that I may know Christ”. That is, for us to grow in maturity and intimacy in Christ, we need to start with a deep desire to know Jesus more intimately… to make Him that one thing our lives are centered around. Some of you might have immediately responded, “that’s fine… but how do I get that? That’s a good question... and I will preach next time on that question alone. Fact is, it really isn’t something you can must up for yourself… ultimately, it comes from God. But, for now, as you are perhaps hungering to hunger after Him, let me tell you where to start. That is, with Paul’s statement in vs. 13, “one thing I do”. Ask God to make Him that one thing in your life… express verbally to God the cry in your heart to know Him more intimately as you purpose to abide in His presence… bottom-line, rather than look to your own willpower to get you back on track, simply ask God for help… who is the source of our strength.
Having told us what his passion is, to know Christ, Paul also reminds us in vs 12 that he hasn’t gotten there yet. He says, “not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect (the word perfect here means mature)”. Now when Paul says, “not that I have already attained it”, don’t make the mistake of thinking that he’s referring to his salvation. That would contradict the very heart of Paul’s message throughout the New Testament.
So, what hasn’t he attained? He’s saying that even now, after some 30 years as a believer, he still hasn’t grasped the full reality of who Christ is. While He knows Jesus… He is struck by how much more there is to know. And when Paul says that he presses on in order to lay hold of that for which he was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus, he is saying that not only is it His aim to know Jesus, but it is Jesus’ aim to be known and to see us grow in maturity in Him. That is a powerful truth for Paul… because while he loved, he didn’t love like Jesus. While he had compassion, he didn’t have compassion like Jesus (peace & joy, power). Knowing that God was at work in His life to make him more like Jesus was an important reality for Paul.
You see, God also has a passion… to look down and see thousands in Morris County looking like Jesus… people who resemble Jesus. In Romans 8:29, Paul wrote, “for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…” It always struck me how some looked to John the Baptist and asked, “is this the Messiah?” Man, I hope that in my life someone might look at my life and mistake me for Jesus. Can you image thousands or believers living like Jesus in Morris County? Going to a restaurant and having the waitress treat you as if he/she were Jesus? If the auto repairman treated you like Jesus would? Its funny, b/c 63% of the population say that have some relationship with Jesus. Does 63% of us in the US look like Jesus? Do 63% of us in the church look like Jesus? God wants us to know Jesus… and to look like Him.
A second value that needs to be in place in order to grow in Christ is that we must not only possess a hunger to know Him more, but there must be a willingness to exert ourselves to know Him and to be more like Him. I don’t think I’ve ever met a growing Christian who hasn’t set out, as his or her goal, to grow in Christ. When Joyce and I went through pre-marital counseling, we were told over and over again that marriage is something you have to work at. Simply being married isn’t enough… you need to want a healthy, growing relationship with your spouse… you need to understand what a good marriage looks like… you need to make the time to communicate with one another, build one another up, romance one another.
In the same way, being a Christian isn’t enough in itself to create maturity and growth in our relationship with God. Rather, we need to press on to know Him more intimately than the day before. With God’s help, this goal will begin the control the multitude of choices we make each and every day… what we listen to or watch on TV, how we will choose to speak about others, What you give your time and money to? CS Lewis once wrote, “each time we make a choice, we become different in a central part of our being from what we were before.”
We see this willingness in Paul to exert himself not only in vs.12 where Paul speaks of “pressing on”, but also in vs 13 where he speaks of “reaching forward”, “straining ahead”, and again, “pressing on”. The Greek word for “pressing on” literally means, “follow after” and is really a hunting term. While I’m no hunter, I don’t think a deer is just going to walk into my house nor do I think that if I simply open my window a pheasant will fly into my house, set the oven temp, and prance himself into the oven. To catch something, you must set out to get it… and so Paul encourages us to exert ourselves to attain to the goal of our faith… deeper intimacy with Jesus. Paul’s language here, that he “presses on” toward the prize, is again reminiscent of David, where in Psalm 63:8 he writes, “My soul follows hard after Thee.” **I believe that in years to come we’ll be a people and a church known for its hunger for the presence of God… following hard after Jesus.**
One of the Tajik leaders in the north of Tajikistan is a man named Shukrullo. Prior to his knowing Christ, he was known in his area for being one of the most hot-tempered, abrasive guys around. He was a contractor… and didn’t have much patience for the builders who worked for him. Then one day, he had a major stroke, which left him unable to speak and walk. The doctors told him that he would probably not walk or speak normally again. My friends went to see him, as he was a relative of one of our believers. They prayed for him and he was healed. Everyone was amazed. He accepted Christ… and followed hard after Jesus ever since. Its funny… when you use that expression “follow hard after Jesus”, many people translate that as “I need to do more”. But Shukrullo got it… that it was the very person of Jesus He would pursue. It was amazing to see His character conformed more and more into the image of Jesus. Soon his daughter came to Christ… and her wedding, which took place last year, was the first marriage of two Tajik believers… ever. I can tell you about all the things Shukrullo has done for the kingdom. But his lasting legacy is his heart to know Jesus… his passion for the Father’s presence.
So, we’ve seen in Paul his heart to 1 know Jesus more intimately, and 2 a willingness to exert himself. And now, he’s letting us in on a third principle, which must have been a major issue for him. He says, “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.” That hunger to know him and the willingness to do what it takes wasn’t enough. Maybe he’s revealing a little of his life in sharing this… that his initial inability to forgive himself for the suffering he inflicted on so many believers prior to his conversion became a major hindrance to his moving forward in Christ. I really believe this was a major reason why God called Paul to Arabia for three years after his Damascus Road conversion… so that he could come to grips with the past and move on toward the goal Christ had called Him to.
In the same way, we have to understand that in order for us to mature in our faith, we need to, as Paul writes, forget what is past and keep our focus on that one thing… to know Him more. I should say, the word “to forget” in the Bible doesn’t refer to memories being erased from our minds like we’d erase information from a disk. Rather, to forget means “no longer to be influenced by or affected by.” When God promises, “and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more” (Heb 10:17), He isn’t suggesting that He will suddenly have a memory lapse. What God is saying is that he will no longer hold their sin against them… that our sin can no longer affect our standing with Him or influence His attitude toward us. So what Paul is saying, is that to mature in Christ, the power things we’ve done or those things done to us need to be broken. And that starts as we forgive… ourselves or those who have hurt us.
Is there anyone you still hold resentment toward… anyone whom you haven’t forgiven? Perhaps today is the day you choose to break the power over the past. When I thought of this, I couldn’t help but think about my grandmother. As a young girl of 8 years old she watched her mother and father brutally murdered during the Armenian genocide in Turkey. In fact, she was shot herself. She forgave them for that. In fact, when I first went to Turkey about 13 years ago, she was prouder than anyone… knowing that I would be sharing the Gospel of Peace. I think of a Korean man I heard speak at a conference. During the Korean war, and American soldier shot this man’s wife and children during a very chaotic attack against his village. Needless to say, he was devastated. About 20 years after the war, this Korean man traveled to the US to find the man who had killed his family. Never forgetting his name, he found the man. And he began sharing the message of the Jesus… explaining why he was able to forgive him for what he had done. The man, that day, accepted Jesus… and these two men are friends today. My grandmother, this Korean man, found in Christ, the ability to break the power of the past.
Yet I see so many people today so completely stuck or even crippled in their relationship with God b/c they don’t feel they can let go of their past. We’ve all done things we’re ashamed of… some here have had abortions, have been promiscuous, hurt the people you love… it is time you received the forgiveness purchased for you on the cross. Jesus already bore the wrath of that sin so you wouldn’t have to. He wants you to move on, but you can’t move forward if you keep hanging on to what is behind. Is this easy? Of course not. Not only do we have to come to grips with what we’ve done, but also we need to accept what has been done to us.
Several months ago I mentioned a Tajik man, Kenjiboi. He was another leader in the church in Penjikent… but b/c of many threats against him; he turned on the church and hurt a lot of people. To be honest, I wasn’t so worried about the fallout from his actions… though they would be somewhat significant. I just wanted him to deal with what he had done and receive our forgiveness and the Lord’s forgiveness. But he couldn’t. He was so ashamed that he disappeared for months. He still hasn’t recovered from that.
If you’ve been holding on to the past… it’s time to accept the hurts and losses of our pasts in such a way as they no longer influence or control us… where they no longer have power in our lives. For some, this might take a while. The effects of an abusive father, alcoholic mother, or being abandoned by someone close to you, for example, can, at the very least, create deep wounds in us. Yet, we cannot move forward if we don’t begin to leave the past behind us.
Another part of “forgetting the past” not only includes letting go of our past hurts or failures, but our past successes. Reflecting too much on the good stuff we’ve done will typically make us proud or it will make us complacent (let someone else do it this time… I’ve already done it) so we end up waiting on the side of the road waiting for everyone else to supposedly catch up to us.) Don’t get me wrong; it is ok to give yourself some recognition… for making some good choices, for example. We simply have to be careful not to allow our attention to be taken away from Jesus. We all should live with a healthy dissatisfaction with re to what we have done and where are. Had Paul compared himself to others, he would have been tempted to be proud and perhaps would have let up a bit in his ministry. But Paul recognizes two times in this passage that he is, by no means, perfect (meaning mature). The growing, maturing Christian honestly evaluates himself relative to Christ and strives to know Him more.
The fourth value Paul gives us in this passage is to keep our eyes on the goal. We see this in verse 14 where he writes, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” In this verse we can see just how focused Paul is on the ultimate prize of the faith… standing in the presence of His Savior for eternity. The reality of this future prize deeply affects how Paul lives his life in the present. In a way, for Paul, time flows from the future into the present rather than the other way around. Can you imagine being at a Yankees game and the Yanks were being slaughtered by the Red Sox? The idea can be pretty frightening! But what if you knew with absolute certainty that one way or another, at the end of the 9th inning, the Yankees would win hands down? For certain, those innings where they were playing poorly or where they were getting beaten… wouldn’t bother you so much… as long as you kept the outcome in mind.
The imagery here of “pressing on toward the goal to win the prize…” is of a marathon runner in the Greek games whose eyes are fixed on the goal, straining toward what is ahead, so that he pays no attention to (forgetting) what is behind. Again, keep in mind that the prize Paul is pressing on toward isn’t his salvation… Paul is already deeply secure in that. At the ancient Olympic games, the winner of the marathon would have a wreath placed around his neck. But the prize Paul strains to win is more of Jesus himself… and ultimately, the final realization of knowing Him as we fellowship with Him in perfect relationship and intimacy for eternity in heaven.
This is what Paul would so gladly die to gain… this is what life is about… and for Paul, no other prize… no amount of wealth or position of power could have any true meaning for him.
Sadly, Paul’s passionate focus on this prize is lost in the western church today. As a church here in Morris County and as individuals, we need to be oriented toward the future. Fact is, we live in a day and in an area where so few people have any future hope to look forward to. The net result of this is that people do everything they can to hold on to the present. That’s why you can walk into Barnes and Noble and find dozens of books on how to stay young, how to get rid of wrinkles, even how to live forever. Paul finds life meaningful b/c while he lives “one day at a time”, he does so in light of a certain future.
These four values aren’t vital simply to us as individuals, but for us as a church. With all our hearts, we will purpose to be a church who approaches life and ministry in Christ in light of the prize of knowing Him. Hebrews 11:6 says that He is a “rewarder of those who seek Him.” The only reward we ask of Him as a church is for more of Him. We want to know Christ… and we want to make Him known. I’m not going to pastor here simply by pointing the way in this… rather, I’m going for it… purposing in my life to make Jesus that one thing… to know Him more intimately than the day before... and I invite you to go for it with me. As a church, we’re going to stay clear of the “cult of the comfortable”… with the comfortable pastor, our comfortable church building, our comfortable circle of friends… and we will press on to know Him more… and to make the Gospel of Peace more accessible and relevant to the people of this region than ever before.
1 The passion to know Christ; 2 The willingness to press on to know Him more intimately;
3 Forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward that one thing; and 4 Keeping our eyes on the goal. When these four things need are in place, we will really begin to grow and mature in Christ. Yet, in all of this, Paul doesn’t allow us to forget one crucial thing. Again, in vs 14, he writes, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” That from the very beginning, it was God who called him… God who took the initiative with him… with us. “I have loved you with an everlasting love”, Jeremiah writes. “And I have drawn you in loving kindness.” It has always been God at work drawing us into His presence... into greater maturity. So even when we win the prize, we can only thank the love & mercy of the Father, who was, through our lives, strengthening us, equipping us, loving us.
