Arrival: A Relentless Growth (Phil. 3:12-21)

Calvin and Hobbes was a popular comic strip in the 1990’s. It featured a young and mischievous boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger named Hobbes.  One of the things Calvin and Hobbes most enjoyed doing together was playing “Calvinball.”[1] Unlike games such as basketball and football, Calvinball had no permanent rules. The rules changed every time you played. And the game had no logical way of keeping score. There was no rationale way to determine who won a match of Calvinball.

In one popular strip Calvin yells out “Olly-Wolly Polliwoggy Ump-Bump-Fiz” while grabbing Hobbes’ flag. “Ha!” Calvin says. “I stole your flag.” Hobbes objects: “But I hit you with the Calvin Ball. You have to put the flag back and sing the ‘I’m Very sorry’ Song.” Calvin responds, “I don’t have to sing the song. I was in the ‘No Song Zone’.” “No you weren’t,” Hobbes states. “I touched the opposite pole, so the ‘No Song Zone’ is now a ‘Song Zone’.” Calvin retorts, “I didn’t see you touch the opposite pole. You have to declare it.” Hobbes explains: “I declared it oppositely by not declaring it. Start singing.” Calvin begins to sing the “I’m Very Sorry” song and Hobbes joins in. Once the song is over Calvin exclaims, “I’m free! I get free passage to wicket five.” “No,” says Hobbes. “That’s what we did last time, remember?” “Oh yea. Hmm” Calvin ponders. Finally Calvin concludes, “Ok, the new rule is we have to jump everywhere until someone finds the bonus box.” “That’s good!” says Hobbes. As they hop away, Calvin says, “The only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can’t play it the same way twice.” And Hobbes reminds Calvin, “The score is still Q to 12.”

Calvinball is a absurd game. No permanent rules. No way to really know how to score or how to win. Most of us would be terribly frustrated with Calvinball. We want a win that easy to define.

In Phil. 3 Paul takes up this issue of a “win” when it comes to our spiritual lives.  How do we know what the “win” is in faith? That’s important because different religions, different churches and different Christians have different ideas about what the “win.” Some religions say the “win” is inner peace. Others say the “win” is victory in the holy war. Some churches say the “win” is being well known in the community. Other churches say the “win” is victory in some political arena. Some Christians say the “win” is attending church services regularly. Other Christians say the “win” is reading the Bible regularly.

Does faith have a clearly defined “win”? Or is faith a little like Calvinball—the win just depends on what you feel passionate about on any particular day?

Phil. 3 is one of those places where the Bible stops and gives us a clear image regarding the “win.” Here’s how Paul describes it:⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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.” (Phil. 3:7-11 ESV)

Paul is saying a lot in this text. Let’s focus on two phrases. These two phrases summarize a lot about the win. First, the goal, Paul writes, is to “know Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8,10). He uses that phrase twice. That’s the finish line. We know we’ve arrived when we “know Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul broadens this when he also says the goal of the spiritual life is to “share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (3:10). That’s also the finish line. We know we’ve arrived when we “share in Jesus’ sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Here are other ways to phrase this. Our faith-race is ended when we finally experience deep intimacy with Jesus and deep imitation of Jesus. The gold-medal in faith is this: to be fully in love with Jesus and to fully live like Jesus. We’ve hit the mark when our hearts beat passionately for Jesus and our hands serve passionately with Jesus. That’s the win. To know Christ Jesus our Lord. To share in his sufferings.

Now at Highland we’ve been talking about something we call the “7 Practices”. We are urging every Highlander to engage in these 7 practices. But these practices are not the win. These 7 practices are a means to that win. They are steps that help us know Christ Jesus our Lord and share in his sufferings.

Notice what Paul writes immediately after defining this win: “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.” (Phil. 3:12-14 ESV). 

Paul declares he is not “perfect”. There’s still work to do.   Paul has not “laid hold of” this goal (the meaning of “made it my own” (3:13)). Paul still doesn’t know Christ Jesus his Lord the way he wants to. He still doesn’t share in the sufferings of Jesus the way he wishes. 

And if Paul was still in progress, so are we. It’s important for every church and every Christian to adopt this spirit of humility. Would you repeat this out loud? “I have not already obtained this; I am not already perfect; I have not made it my own.” We’re all in progress. We’re all still running toward that finish line.

Yet as important as it is to admit we’ve not arrived, it’s also important to not get overwhelmed by our failures. Listen again to this line: “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.” (Phil. 3:12-14 ESV).

As I’ve run with people along this race, I’ve noticed that many struggle with the same issue. When they fall and fail people get down and discouraged. They get engrossed in how many times they lost their temper that month, how many mornings they didn’t pray that week, or how many people they didn’t serve that day. All they can see are the failures. All they can see are their sins. And this discourages them.

Now, Paul admits his errors. He’s admitted that he’s not perfect. But he doesn’t keep his focus on his errors. His eyes remain glued instead on the end, the goal. Paul keeps his eyes on the end not on the errors. And he urges us to do the same. We are to keep our eyes on the end not the errors. When Paul fails to know Christ Jesus his Lord or share in the sufferings of Christ, he puts that mistake in the past and keeps his focus on the goal. He forgets what is behind—the failures—and keeps straining and pressing on toward the goal.

Some of you need to do that this morning. You’ve come here not with pride that says “I’ve already arrived at this goal.” You come with despair that says, “I’ll never arrive at this goal.” You dragged yourself here this morning knowing that you loved The Walking Dead, Downton Abbey, the Olympics, alcohol, drugs, friends, school, your career, or your finances way more than you loved Jesus last week. You showed up here grieved because you know you’ve done a terrible job of imitating Jesus in your office, in your classroom, or in your living room. And before we go any further, here’s what you need to do: forget. You need to forget what lies behind.

Would you say this out loud with me? “I forget what lies behind.” Forget the impurity. Forget the anger. Forget the insensitivity. Forget what lies behind. Let’s refocus on the goal ahead of us: knowing Christ Jesus our Lord and sharing in his sufferings.

   The final issue Paul points to in this text is what it takes to arrive at this goal. We need to admit our failures. We need to not let those failures overwhelm us. But, finally, Paul writes, we need to run as hard as we possibly can toward this goal. Listen once more to his language: “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.” (Phil. 3:12-14 ESV).

     Paul’s words “press on” and “strain forward” come from the world of running.  These words were used to in the ancient world to describe running. Not strolling. But running. Every muscle of the body exerting itself forward. Arms pumping furiously. Legs flying passionately. Heart pounding. Breath coming in gasps. That’s how Paul describes his approach to racing toward this win. Every day, Paul is saying, he’ on the track. Training. Pushing himself. Relentlessly working for this goal of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord and sharing in his sufferings.

New Testament scholar Tim Woodroof lives and writes in Nashville. In a commentary on Philippians Woodroof imagines Epaphroditus reading Paul’s letter to the Philippians. You’ll remember Epaphroditus. He was sent by the church in Philippi to carry gifts to Paul who was imprisoned in Rome. He then returned to Philippi. And it’s very likely that he read Paul’s letter out loud to the church one Sunday in Philippi. Woodroof imagines Epaphroditus getting to this point in Paul’s letter and telling a story about running.[2]

“When I was a boy, I wanted to compete in the Games. I listened to the stories of the great champions and attended the processions when the athletes paraded through Philippi. I imagined myself on the fields of Olympus being honored by the judges and cheered by the crowds. Every night, I put myself to sleep thinking about wearing the victor’s wreath…I wanted to run the great marathon…I discovered early on that I was fast on my feet. My friends and I used to mark off a course through the streets of Philippi and race each other. I always won… But I got cocky about it–as boys sometimes do. And after each race, I would crow about winning the marathon one day and being the most famous runner in all of Greece…There was a carpenter on my street who heard me boasting. I guess he heard me more than once, because one day, he came into the street and took me by the ear. He said, ‘Young man, you can boast about being faster than your buddies, and I reckon that’s the truth… But I’m sick of hearing you sound off about winning the marathon when you ain’t never run more than a mile in your whole life.’ And then he turned me around and pointed to Mount Pangaion and said, ‘See that mountain? When you can run all the way there without stopping, then I’ll build a little platform out in front of my shop and you can step up on it and crow to your heart’s content, and I’ll be glad to listen…’ I decided right then I’d show him. The very next morning, I took off running for the mountain. I ran through the streets of Philippi and out beyond the walls and through those fields to the west…It was easy. Until I hit the hills just beyond. I started sweating. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I couldn’t catch my breath so I slowed down–just a little. My side started to hurt, and I slowed down a little more. By this time, my feet were aching. They started to bleed… I ran up another hill with my legs cramping and knotted, but I kept running. When I got to the top of that hill, I expected to see Mount Pangaion right in front of me. I thought I was almost there. But the mountain hadn’t moved at all. It seemed just as far away as when I started. I stood there looking at it for the longest time, thinking about how easy it is to run fast and how hard it is to run long. And then I turned around and walked home…I think that was the day I decided to be a potter instead.”

We can imagine Epaphroditus sharing that story with the Philippians as he shares Paul’s words here about pressing on and straining forward. Running sounds romantic and perhaps it even sounds easy. It’s certainly easy to boast about how you might run or could run. But in actuality running is very hard work and there’s little that’s romantic about it.

That’s what Paul is saying here about the win of the Christian faith.  Getting to truly know Jesus and getting to the point where you share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death sounds romantic and perhaps it sounds fairly easy. But in actuality it’s very hard work and there’s little romantic about it.

The word “marathon” comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger.[3] The legend states that Pheidippides was sent from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in battle. It is said that Pheidippides ran the entire distance without stopping. He burst into the assembly at Athens, exclaiming “We w?n!”  He then collapsed. And died. 

This is the kind of effort Paul is describing. Pressing on. Straining forward. Running for all he’s got.  Running until there’s nothing left to give. Paul says that’s the kind of effort he puts into knowing Christ Jesus his Lord and sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.

And Paul is challenging us to make the same effort. He writes, “join in imitating me”(Phil. 3:17). Paul’s urging us to consider the effort we put into our spiritual growth.  Do we invest as much time in spiritual formation as we do in fishing and hunting? Do we spend as much time in spiritual training as we spend at the gym? Are we working as hard to climb the ladder to spiritual maturity as we are climbing the corporate ladder to “success?” Do we focus as intently on this goal as we do on the goal of raising our family or the goal of having a winning season?

The truth is that many of us put more effort into binge-watching the latest TV series than we do into chasing our life’s true win–and then we wonder why we can’t seem to make any progress with our character, why our spiritual life seems shallow, and why our lives don’t seem to have much adventure. We invest more energy in our recreation than in our formation–and then we complain about how God seems so far away and this spiritual thing just doesn’t seem to be working. We so often want what’s quick and easy. We expect to be able to know Christ Jesus our Lord deeply and share in his sufferings passionately after just one weekend with Beth Moore, or one simulcast with David Platt, or one podcast with Andy Stanley.

But if we want to reach the goal of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord and becoming like him in his death, it’s going to demand top priority every day. And it’s going to take relentless effort every day. It’s going to require more time, energy and resources than anything in life. Paul is urging us to spend more effort on our formation than on our recreation, occupation or relations. He’s urging us to be a Pheidippides and to give this race everything we have. To expend ourselves to the very last breath in an effort to know Jesus better and serve like him better. He asking you to wake up every morning and put on your spiritual running shoes and do whatever you must to know Jesus better that day and to become more of a sacrificial servant that day. He’s asking you to spend more time in prayer and Bible study than you do on Instagram, Facebook and Minecraft. He’s begging you to devote more of your heart to service and ministry than you do to scrapbooking or woodworking.  He’s challenging you to dedicate more of your heart to worship and silence than you do to your pets or your hobbies.

     And this is one of the reasons why our Overflow campaign is so beneficial. Overflow is the name of the capital campaign which will allow us to expand our ministry space and to multiply our ministry in this community. And Overflow hits us in one of the most difficult areas—our wallets. It’s a call for each of us to give sacrificially over 3 years; to collectively give $1.5 million in pledges. Overflow is a call for us each to give up some purchases, plans, vacations, hobbies and habits for 3 years in order to carve out funds for ministry expansion. And that’s hard. That’s sacrifice. That’s effort. We need each of you to give deeply to Overflow and to bring your sacrificial pledge in two weeks. But deep giving is something that shapes us. It helps us to know Jesus better. It helps us become more like Jesus. It’s a critical part of this ongoing relentless effort Paul describes here.

But why? Why would anyone devote this much energy to this? It’s not because this is about getting to heaven. Paul’s not telling us to work hard so that we can be sure we’ll get to heaven. That’s already been taken care of. Jesus already did all that work. We don’t make this extreme effort because we are trying to get to heaven. We make this extreme effort, ultimately, because we are in love with Jesus and his way of life.

Remember what Paul wrote: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8) Paul’s found that there’s nothing in the world like really knowing Christ Jesus and really becoming like Christ Jesus. In fact, as I said in an earlier message, everything else is like trash compared to the treasure of knowing Christ Jesus and becoming like Christ Jesus.

     Some of you have glimpsed that treasure. There’ve been a handful of moments in your life when Christ seemed so real, so close and so fulfilling. You’ve not just loved him. You’ve been in love with him. And there have been a few moments in your life when you’ve seen with great clarity how Jesus’ way of life, the way of service and selflessness and suffering, is the best way of life.

     And that’s the goal. The goal is to fall in love with Jesus. To be enamored by him.  And to then spend as much energy and resources as you can getting to know him better and learning to live like him better.

     As you came in you received a racing bib. There’s a place on the lower right hand corner for you to write down a step you can take this week, this month, or this year to relentlessly get to know Jesus better and serve like him better. Take time this week to write that down and pray about it. Make a commitment today to no longer give this faith thing a half-hearted effort. Give it your wholehearted effort. Because Jesus gave you his.