Text: Phil 3:8-14 Pew Bible Pg.1018
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 eternal life!
Many of you might be familiar with the prizes that consume the lives of we who are consumers. It might be the TV show - The Voice - and the talent that God has bestowed upon some with the singing talent and the prospect of becoming rich and famous 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 myself!”
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 contestant on The Voice … or looking towards any fame and recognition for that matter. When you think of fame and recognition it becomes 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 but, is a prize that has been won for us. It is a prize that has been truly won and then is given to you, as a gift!
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.
Knowing Christ by faith is the prize of eternal life!
What the Apostle Paul states 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 have had an opportunity to bring the Lord’s Supper to shut-ins over the last few years who were preparing to meet the Lord. And many would tell me they felt “So blessed,” for all that the Lord had given them in this life.
And though health issues now dominated the better part of their life. One of those blessings was the faith in Christ and the prize that was won for them at the cross.
The prize of salvation; given and shed by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of, not just their sins, but the sins of the whole world, is the prize that we could never win … but is given freely to us by faith in Christ’s finished work.
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 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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