Title: Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
Text: Phil 3:8-14 Pew Bible Pg. #1018 NKJV
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
All anybody needs to know about prizes is that Mozart never won one.
Henry Mitchel in Washington Post, Reader's Digest, May 1980.
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
Many of you might be familiar with the prizes that consume the lives of we who are consumers. It may be American Idol and the talent that God has bestowed upon some with the desire to become famous and rich because of it.
Or, it may be the prize of a Lottery win that takes the cares and trials of this world and removes them with the knowledge that with these winnings I can take care of all my troubles.
For some it is the prize of love and the hope of marriage and a happily-ever-after of wedded bliss or the prize of that new job or promotion that will now make a better life possible. But in our epistle for today the Apostle Paul has a different take on what is the hope and prize for his life.
He begins:
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Paul was one who lived and loved life. But, after his conversion on the Damascus road, the focus of his life was different:
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:2)
As we can see, Paul had been changed. His change took the focus off the things of this world … for he says: For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and placed them at the foot of the cross.
Paul Kretzmann, in his commentary on the bible, expounds it in this way as to the change of the Apostles Paul’s life:
“Formerly Paul had held it to be of great gain to be high in the councils of the Pharisees and to have honor before men.”
But now he considers …
“ All these external advantages of which the apostle might have boasted with much greater right than his opponents, the entire class of things which, including anything and everything, as ground of reliance other than Christ, he now disregards: But what was to me gain, this I hold, for the sake of Christ, a detriment.”
Paul Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible, NT vol. II CPH St. Louis 1923, Pg 309
… a detriment?
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
So, Paul was not looking to be the next American Idol … Jewish Idol … Christian Idol or looking towards any Idol for that matter. When you think of an Idol it is and remains that in which you place you highest trust.
So, the hope of wealth, while not bad in and of itself, can lead you away from Christ. Or, the focus on the things of this world … if I only had a better job, house, car or you name whatever can be a focus of life, can and does pull us away from the cross and what Jesus won for us.
The interesting reality is that, the prize that we should focus on and that which we hope to attain is a prize that we cannot win and is a prize that has been won for us. It is a prize that has been truly won and then is given to you.
Paul continues to explain his hope:
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Fellow member, Sandy Krueger, went to be with the Lord last Sunday evening. I was home and at around 6:30 and received a call from her husband Bill from St. Joseph’s that she was in distress and having emergency surgery. I reached the hospital around 7:15 and was able to pray with the family and we received the new of her passing around 20 minutes later.
Well, you can imagine the shock that overcame them. Saturday she had had a great day with Bill and had a visit from a family friend until about 10:30 in the evening.
Sunday, however what developed was a different story which led to an ambulance call, ride to the hospital, getting Sandy stabilized and finally the realization that there was a need to move quickly and emergency surgery if there was hope to save her life.
Unfortunately, even though the hospital used all the talents at its disposal, and the advances in medical science and techniques available to them, Sandy passed away from her loved ones and this life.
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
What the Apostle Paul states and what Sandy Krueger knew for a fact is that:
… forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
I had an opportunity to bring the Lord’s Supper to Sandy over the last few months in her home. And found a wonderful lady who loved life, her children and especially her grand children. She was as she told me, “So blessed.”
And though Sandy had a lot of health issues she looked at the blessings of her life. One of those blessings was her faith in Christ and the prize that was won for her at the cross. The prize of her salvation; given and shed by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of, not just her sins, but the sins of the whole world, paid the price and won the prize for Sandy and for each one of us. It is the prize that we could never win but is given to each of us by faith in Christ’s finished work.
Tomorrow we will say good bye to Sandy and the grief that will fill all of us who knew her with loss and sorrow will one day be replaced with the joy of reunion in heaven. God will wipe away every tear of sorrow and in that day replace them with tears of joy as we together rejoice in Heaven with our resurrected Lord who has come to conquer sin, death and the power of the Devil for you and for me.
In Christ, death is for we who cling to the blessed hope of reunion in Heaven one day, only a time apart.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
So we who remain live in this blessed hope.
The Apostle Paul states and I paraphrase:
12 Not that we have already obtained this or are already perfect, but we … you and I … press on to make Heaven our own, because we have the blessed assurance that Christ Jesus has made you and me his own.
This is the joy that we await during Lent and Holy Week and the resurrection to life.
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
Though Mozart never won a prize and may be you won’t either, however, the greatest prize of all, eternal life, has been won for you and you who are in Christ, have been given it now and will celebrate that blessed victory won over sin, death and the Devil now and forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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