I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have
taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:10-14 NIVUK
We have worked our way through a great number of meditations on what the church is and what it means to be a part of it. We have come a very long way: from understanding firstly that we are all part of the Body, then how love is the lifeblood of this Body and how we deal with conflicts within the Body.
However, that would be a bit of a ‘downer’ to end on. And so I thought it would be better to end on meditations about what the church is destined to be.
The church is greater – far greater – than the sum of its parts. But it also needs each part to work. If anyone has experienced the aches and pains of advancing years, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
For a church to function well, each member of it should be pulling in the same direction.
By way of illustration, consider a rowing boat race.
Every year on the River Thames, the rowing teams from Oxford and Cambridge compete in a highly traditional rowing race. Let's say, for example, that Oxford sees the finishing line four miles away and decides, despite the effort and the pain it will take to get there, that every one of them will rowing their hardest to get to the line.
Now let’s say that the Cambridge team has a different idea. Let’s say that half of the Cambridge team want to row to the finishing like at Mortlake, and the others don’t: they want to row to Battersea and Chelsea, in completely the opposite direction, because they want to go for a walk in Battersea Park and visit all the posh houses in Kensington and Chelsea.
What will happen?
I would hope it’s completely obvious. The Oxford team will win easily. The Cambridge team will likely end up fighting each other.
Do you see my point?
If the church has no goal, if it has no finish line, if it has nothing to aim at, then it will slowly sink into the mire of self-interested squabbles. And when it does so, the reputation of the Gospel and the God who designed it will be completely trashed.
It is absolutely critical that we understand the church’s purpose and seek to fulfil it.
The church’s purpose is no different to our purpose. Our purpose, as Paul outlines here, is to be like Christ. The church’s purpose is to help us fulfil our purpose, as Paul states in Ephesians:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed to and fro by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:11-16 NIVUK
But understanding how this works is important, as it affects how we perceived both the church, other people and ourselves.
The church in Philippi was similar in some ways to the church in Corinth. It too was not a Jewish-background church. It too was situated outside of Israel, in Greece. It too was a Roman colony. There is no evidence of the extraordinary battles with immorality or division that blighted the church in Corinth. However, there were lower level battles with disunity and personality issues within the church, as evidenced by Paul’s pleading with them in Philippians 2:1-4 and 4:2.
The verses on which we are meditating show Paul sharing his heart and his drive to pull the Philippians out of their dreadfully divisive behaviour and put then back on track.
Paul uses three core truths of Christian growth here that are tremendously relevant for us as individuals and collectively as a church.
Firstly, he shares his purpose – which is to be like Christ:
I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11 NIVUK
When Paul talks about ‘knowing’ here, he isn't talking about knowing the answers to a test, or knowing how to go from one place to another. This is a different knowing altogether. This is a deep knowing, from first hand personal experience. In fact, so deep is it that Jews used this word as an idiom for sexual intercourse.
That is borne out by what follows.
Paul doesn’t want to just know about Jesus. Instead, he wants to live like Him, even if that means undergoing the same suffering and death. Paul does not flinch from that one bit – as his farewell to the Ephesian elders shows (Acts 20:17-24) not to mention his discussion with the prophet Agabus (Acts 21:10-14).
And let me tell you something: Paul’s faith absolutely cost him everything. He was martyred.
This raises a pretty serious question:
How serious are we about following Christ?
I recently read an article about fashionable New Yorkers who are quite happy to drink, take drugs, sleep around and then pose on social media outside churches and state how meaningful their Catholic faith is to them.
It can't be that meaningful if you’re prepared to treat its morality with such contempt.
But the question is: what about us?
It’s very easy to condemn plastic and superficial social media stars. But the reality is that we need to ask ourselves how seriously we take our faith. Are we giving God everything, with nothing held back?
Or are we like Ananias and Sapphira: we’d like the reputation of being good followers of Jesus Christ, but the reality is definitely another thing. If we are, we need to take heed: their little bargain with God did not end well (Acts 5:1-11).
Church is designed to be the place where people who are ‘all in’ for God find like-minded people, support and the encouragement to keep going.
So before we start to criticise others in our church, let me ask the question: how committed are we to following Jesus?
Paul moves from his purpose to his position – where he is now:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14 NIVUK
Paul is longing to be like Christ, but he admits – and twice – that he is not there yet. He has not been made perfect. He has not achieved what he wants to believe.
And that is just so powerful. And liberating.
Paul confesses here – twice – that a revered leader of the church is not perfect.
If even he isn’t, what about us?
The people who live around us often have big expectations of us as soon as they realise we are Christians. And, to a certain extent, they are justified in that belief. After all, we're naming ourselves after Christ. We are taking His name. I’d be really concerned if they didn't expect better of us!
But often we feel huge pressure: as if we’re ordinary people and others around us expect us to be like the Pope is supposed to be: infallible.
And we’re not.
John wrote these words to first century Christians:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:5-10 NIVUK
There is tremendous spiritual realism in these words. In short, they say that we shouldn’t sin, but we will, and when we do, we should confess and repent to be forgiven.
That doesn’t mean that we deliberately set out to sin because we know we will be forgiven. Paul is tough on this in another letter (Romans 6:1-4).
What it does mean is that we should have realistic expectations of people: both ourselves and others. We are aware that we are not perfect. We are aware that others are not perfect. We need to leave room for mistakes so that we can all grow.
But this reality should be like salt on our tongue when we are thirsty. These failings and sins should make us long for the day when we will be made perfect and no longer battle with our own sinful nature.
And that’s what Paul looks at next, when he examines the prize:
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 NIVUK
And what is this prize?
To complete his calling. To live like Jesus and to call others to do this same. The prize is to be with Jesus forever in Heaven, accompanied by those whose lives you touched and led to Him.
There is no greater prize.
In fact, Paul is clear about just how great it is.
As a Jew, Paul was immensely proud of his pedigree – and no wonder. He was a very highly educated and very highly zealous Pharisee (Philippians 3:1-6).
He was a powerful man: both respected and feared.
He was so powerful that he could get letters from the High Priest empowering him to persecute Christians outside the borders of Israel (Acts 9:1-2). He was so feared that his reputation reached Damascus, seemingly around the time he did (Acts 9:13-14).
Yet even this counts as nothing to Paul (Philippians 3:7-8). In fact, as worse than nothing. Verse 8 calls them ‘garbage’. The Greek word used is even more evocative. It basically means ‘things thrown to the dogs’ – such as household waste or even excrement. In other words, things that are so unclean that you throw them to be eaten by an unclean animal.
Paul isn’t despising his heritage here. We must understand that. It’s clear from elsewhere (such as Romans 10 and 11) that he values his Jewish background. However, his point is that the prize that we have in Jesus Christ is infinitely more valuable.
And this is what he wants the Philippines – and us – to see. The prize of knowing Jesus and being like Him and with Him is infinitely more valuable than any toy or trifle or triviality in this world.
To believe this and put that faith into action is the highest form of worship there is. It’s truly worshipping in spirit and truth.
Church, you see, is not and never has been, a building. Church is a group of people who are very clear in their purpose – they want to be like Christ, no matter the cost. They are very clear on their position – they know they aren't there yet. They know they aren't perfect, and neither are the people around them in church. They know what the prize is, and how it’s infinitely more valuable than anything else they could have in this world.
Think for a second what would happen to your church if this principle were to be fully applied.
Would there not be a complete change in how we see other people and how we see ourselves?
Would there not be a dramatic drop on gossip and back-stabbing and cliques?
Would there not be a ceasing of pathetic fights over ‘hobby horse’ issues that are more or less irrelevant?
Would there not be a clearer focus and purpose about everything we do?
Would our churches not simply be much better places to be?
But this is one of those subjects where the change to make this happen doesn’t start with petitions or motions or business meetings. It certainly doesn't start with finger-pointing accusations or recriminations.
No, it starts when we model this change, and encourage others to do the same.
It starts when we stop trying to persuade others to be better, and simply become better ourselves.
It starts when we realise that our primary responsibility before God is to change ourselves, not other people.
It starts when we hear the call of God and simply obey it.
We will spend the next few weeks looking at the Endgame for the church. But the church can only get there when each and every member is focused on achieving it.
Including you and I.
Questions
What difference does it make when a divided church like the one in Philippi has a clear goal and sets out to achieve it?
Why does Paul consider everything he had before as ‘garbage’?
Are you living the kind of life Paul outlines here? Is this your attitude?
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