Gold medal Christianity. Let the games begin!
This week I had to help someone move 2 cubic metres of firewood into a shed.
It took about twenty minutes and I think I could do it faster.
With training I might be able to get the time down to ten minutes or perhaps seven is not out of the question.
I guess since people were first created there has been a tendency to do things better – quicker. There has also been a tendency to pit people against people in competition.
This practice has become highly sophisticated.
Nowhere is this more evident than in that great event called the Olympic Games.
In 2004, the Olympic Games are returning to their ancient birthplace and the city of their revival. Athletes from all nations will unite in Greece to engage in noble competition.
The Athens Olympic Games will combine history, culture and peace with sports and Olympism.
The people of Greece shall host unique Games on a human scale, inspiring the world to celebrate Olympic values.
Interestingly enough in New Testament times the whole concept of games – was alive and well.
When the Romans conquered Greece in the 2nd century BC they kept the games going.
The festival at Olympia was patronised by emperors, though Nero only won the chariot races and various musical and dramatic events by bribing the judges.
The 290th Olympics in AD 390 was the last.
It was with this background that the Apostle Paul saw some real comparisons with the Chrisitan life.
In fact I found six passages that follow this theme.
This morning I want to explore one particular passage 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 and ask the question – What does it teach me about how to be more effective as a Christian?
1CO 9:24 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. 25 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 to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 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..
The thing that motivates Paul is the thought of the prize.
Finishing the race well is his primary goal.
There is a famous bit of television footage of a New Zealand woman athlete finishing an Olympics 1500 metres race – she is only metres from the line when she trips.
As she stumbles forward all the major placings for the race – fly past her and she is left with nothing.
It is this stumbling before the line that Paul wants to avoid.
Paul says:-
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
Because the race is a kind of Parable in a way, we need to get a clear understaneding as to just what the prize is in the Christian race.
Clearly it is not a gold medal and peoples applause.
When an athlete wins an Olympic gold then they are praised by the crowd, a world wide television audience – the world media and of course their own nation.
What is it, what is the prize, that the Christian wins??
Well the bible is very clear.
In John chapter 3 and verse 16 we read about eternal life.
That in itself does not take on significant meaning unless we added a little bit of colour to the picture.
Do we understand what eternal life is like?
Lets splash a little colour on the page labelled eternal life!
If we read our bible carefully we can get a clear glimpse of something of what the Kingdom of heaven is like.
The following glimpses of heaven came from Christopher Hilling Sermon Central:-
IV. Heaven Will Be Restoration.
There will be a day, for those who live right and make it to Heaven, where the blinded eyes will see, the deaf ears will hear, the muted mouth will speak, the crippled feet will run, … it will be a place of restoration!
John Bradford (1510-1555), less than five months before his death, wrote of the glories of heaven he anticipated:
I am assured that though I want here, I have riches there; though I hunger here, I shall have fullness there; though I faint here, I shall be refreshed there; and though I be accounted here as a dead man, I shall there live in perpetual glory.
Heaven is the city promised to the captives whom Christ shall make free; it is the kingdom assured to them whom Christ shall crown; there is the light that shall never go out; there is the health that shall never be impaired; there is the glory that shall never be defaced; there is the life that shall taste no death; and there is the place that passes all the world’s imaginations.
There is the world that shall never decline; there is every want supplied freely without money; there is no danger, but happiness, and honor, and singing, and praise and thanksgiving unto the heavenly Jehovah, "to him that sits on the throne," "to the lamb" that here was led to the slaughter, that now "reigns" on High.
D. L. Moody gave a vivid description of Heaven when he wrote, "A city without pain, a city without sorrow, without sickness, without death. There is no darkness there. The Lamb is the light thereof. It needs no sun, it needs no moon. The paradise of Eden was as nothing compared with this one. The tempter came into Eden and triumphed, but in that city nothing that defileth shall ever enter. There will be no temper there. Think of a place where temptation cannot come. Think of a place where we will be free from sin; where pollution cannot enter, and where the righteous shall reign forever. Think of a city that is not built with hands, where the buildings do not grow old with time; a city whose inhabitants no census has numbered except the Book of Life, which is a heavenly directory. Think of a city through whose streets runs no tide of business, where no nodding hearses creep slowly with their burdens to the tomb; a city without griefs or graves, without sins or sorrows, without marriages or mournings, without births or burials; a city which glories in having Jesus for its king, angels for its guards, and whose citizens are saints!"
Heaven is a real place and Jesus says: I go to prepare a place for you.
As Christian, in the Pilgrim’s Progress drew near to the Heavenly City, he saw the gates opened to receive others. "I looked in after them," he says, "and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many who had crowns on their heads and palms in their hands and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were some that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying ’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!’ And after that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them."
Obviously we can only get in a message like this a glimpse of heaven.
But as the Christian gets a glimpse of the promises of God and their destination in christ then it makes their Christian walk more authentic – more of a champions run than a strugglers limp.
A great preacher of the nineteenth century said on his death bed, “I have taken a long look into eternity. Oh, if I could come back again, how different I would preach from what I preached before!”
The second thing we see to run the Christian race like a champion Gold medal runner is:-
Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
Once you get a vision of what you are aiming at then you live in a way that will takes you in the right direction.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
To go into strict training means that the Christians primary focus is Jesus christ and his purposes.
World and Olympic Chapmpion 800 and 1500 metre runner Peter Snell New Zealand’s athlete of the twentieth century says:-
Not until I retired did I appreciate the extent to which athletics had dominated my life. From the time I left school in 1958 I became involved in rigourous Lydiard type of athletic training. This regime continued until July, 1965, From the age of 18 to the age of 26, my life was geared almost exclusively to handling the demand of training.
For seven years, nothing was attempted before its possible effects on my athletic training had been considered. Generally, it would be right to say that if it did threaten to interfere with training, it probably wasn’t done.
There is more to training than merely allocating two hours a day to be spent on it. The whole life revolves around it. The concientious athlete had to moderate his approach to everything.
He goes on to say I wouldn’t know a great deal about living except as I know it as an athlete and that isn’t the normal average way of life. To me it means eaarly nights, early mornings, continued mental preparation to get out regardless of the conditions and go running, continuel concern tor training progress and performances.
Throughout my running career I was possessed of a great driving force towards my chosen goals.
That may seem a very long secular illustration but it demonstrates something of what Paul is saying when he says:-
Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
Many Christians today are wondering why they are not being effective in their Christian lives. I think it is because they give up too easily. You don’t need a fit body or even a brilliant mind to be a Great Christian – You do however, need to have a deep understanding of God’s purpose for your life.
Rick Warren in The purpose driven life says –
Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life!
Without a clear purpose, you will keep changing directions, jobs, relationships, churches, or other externals hoping each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart.
You think, Maybe this time it will be different, but it doesn’t solve your real problem – a lack of focus of purpose.
CSLewiw said, “ There are two kinds of people’ those who say to God “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “All right then, have it your way.”
Tragically, many people will have to endure eternity without God because they cose to live without him here on earth.
When you fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and you realise that life is just preparation for eternity, you will begin to live differently. You will start living in light of eternity, and that will colour how you handle every relationship, task and circumstance. Suddenly many activities, goals, and even problems that seem so important will appear trivial, petty, and unworthy of your attention. The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.
Paul says:- “Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.”
If you want to be recognisable gold medal Christian then you need to live as a Christian lives – close to the heart of the Father.
I met a man this week who was four days into a forty day prayer fast.
Prayer is important – this man told me that a friend of his recently did the same thing and said at the end of it knew what it meant to know the presence of God.
But you know what? - - I think a lot of that stuff, helpful though it is, is of small value unless our lives reflect the character of Jesus Christ.
Jesus once did have a huge fast out in the wilderness – But I want you to know that much of his ministry is spent with the outcasts the hurting the social and community lepers.
He cares for the sick and blind the deaf and mute – the oppressed and bereaved and in their midst he teaches about God.
If you want to go into strict spiritual training you might have to look at the backdrop of your life.
What is the background on the canvas of your life?
You see Paul’s profession was tentmaking – he earns his living making tents but when you think of his life tentmaking doesn’t feature that much – why because it was not the dominant feature – preaching and teaching the word of God is the feature – suffering for Christ is a feature but not tentmaking.
If you want to be a gold medal Christian your life will begin to feature the ministry and the character of Jesus Christ.
Your employment – your possesions – your achievements will fade into the background behind the character of Jesus Christ that will become increasingly evident in your life.
All of this begins in Christ.
Paradoxically, if we want to be busy for God we first need to learn to be still before God.
Twenty first century life tends to be lived on an escalator running on fast forward with our destination being in the opposite direction – the more we run the further away we seem from our destination which is the purposes of God.
The only way to get where we are going is to get off the Devil’s escalator and walk with God.
Every now and then we need to take time out to seek the Lord and his ways.
Urgent things will try and prevent that.
Richard Foster in his book the Celebration of Discipline (Chapter 2 – Hodder and Soughton 1980.) says: In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If we can keep engaged in “muchness” and “manyness,” he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C.G.Jung once remarked, “Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil.”
Somehow the Apostle Paul seemed to combine the concepts of
PS 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God;, with running the race.
Just as an athlete has times of rest and planning as well as times of running. So the Christian must have time with God, times of discovering His purposes for their lives then they put those purposes into their life.
I guess to be a gold medal Christian is to correctly focus your life on Christ and His purposes.
What we long to hear from God one day is:-
MT 25:23 "His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant!
When, then do you get your Christian Gold medal?
Not really in this life although this life will produce it’s rewards for walking with God as well as it’s costs but do remember these words from
ECC 9:11 I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
You cannot always expect justice on this earth but this morning I want to encourage you to be a gold medal performer in the Game of life. God will notice and applaud obedience. And then the Bible tells us that there is a victory dias in heaven for you.
LK 6:23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
