Press On! (Read Psalm 84 & Philippians 3: 1-14)
My good friend Steve said, “Now you’re a Christian (Markie), you can put your feet up. You’ve got your ticket to heaven. You’ve made it!” I knew what he meant, but in many ways he was so wrong… “He is no pilgrim who sits down as rooted to the place!” (Spurgeon)The Psalmist tells us that blessed are those who set their hearts on pilgrimage. (Psalm 84:7).
Pilgrims are called to press on, to move forward. “The path may change but the destination is still the same” is a quote from a recent BBC Sunday Worship programme. The Christian pilgrimage is like that. We face surprises and valleys… But Pilgrims endure the journey (with all its highs and lows) because they knew not only that they were going to meet with God, but because they knew that God went with them along the way.
The Apostle Paul too is a pilgrim; and his “first avowed intent” (his greatest desire/ ambition) now is to know God (in Christ) more and more: “All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life…” (Verse 11, GNB) What of you? What do you most want? What’s your first avowed intent?
Some people are zealous for money, success and fame and will go to any lengths – legal or otherwise – to get their heart’s desire. And once they get it they want more and more. Paul says they’re enemies of the cross, they “are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires; they’re proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of the things that belong to this world.” (Phil 3: 18-19)
Paul had all of those worldly things (and more) and knows now that they can never really satisfy. All that Paul accomplished (Phil 3: 1-9) before really knowing God in Christ he now counted absolute rubbish when compared to the “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord for whose sake I lost all things.” He has no confidence in these things now…in the things he “lost”…
But Paul is never blasé. “I’m not saying that I’ve got it all together, that I have it made. But I’m well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out to me. Friends, don’t get me wrong. By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us forward – to Jesus. I’m off and running and I’m not turning back…” (EP MSG)
As a runner takes the right course she banishes all thoughts of her past failures, and she strains every muscle in an effort of great concentration on reaching her goal; her one and only concern is to win the race. Paul speaks of the spiritual journey and the finish line is Jesus, the prize is to be like Jesus... But - “It is difficult to go forward if you are always looking backwards!” (or sideways – ask Harold Abraham, the UK Olympic sprinter!) Keep your eyes on the prize, as the saying goes… It will hinder your (pilgrim’s) progress if you keep looking over your shoulder and in so doing take your eyes off the finishing line. We’re told these things because they are a real danger for some of us. Paul says we should be forever “forgetting” (present tense) what is behind. (This does not mean we should forget God’s mercies or forget to learn from our past mistakes).
Some people are so pre-occupied with the past – some with past successes: looking back on the halcyon days of the church, saddened (and impeded) because things will never be the same again, that the best is already gone. So, why bother?
This is a real danger (especially) as we become older – the dangers of coasting, maybe complacency…It was a danger that Jesus pointed out to his (would-be) followers when he said: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 9:62)
What God gave yesterday will not suffice for today's demands. The Lord's provision is "new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23).
Famous football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was interviewed... about the progress of Manchester United in the Premier League, 12 points ahead of their nearest rivals. He was pleased with the victory his team had just won but said (as he had said many times before) that there was no room for complacency. United were only as good as their next game and all of their concentration had to be on what faced them next. We can gain a lot from listening to sound advice, whatever its source! Forget your past successes.
And then (tragically) there are those who find it so hard to let go of past sin and failure. They live with a deep unhappiness that seems etched into their faces. They have lost sight of the simple and beautiful truth that all Abraham had to do was to believe God and that it was this that set him right with God! God cut a covenant with Abram and Abraham walked one-step-at-a-time in “faith”.
If we have confessed and renounced our sin, God has forgiven it and forgotten it (1 John 1:9, and compare Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 44:22; Micah 7:19 and Hebrews 10:17). If God has forgotten our sins we must do the same, otherwise the memory of them will hinder us. Paul’s sins were probably even greater than his successes. He had “a past” (blasphemer, persecutor and accomplice to murder) but God called him to move on past all that, to a life-long pilgrimage, to “the upward call of God in Christ.”
And we must forget the sins and the failures of others. This needs to be said, because we so easily remember the shortcomings of other people. How blind we are to our own sins! If we have been wronged, we must forgive and we must forget. Do not say, "I can't!" You can! You should...
Press on! ISAIAH 43: 18 – forget the former things; do not dwell upon the past; see I am doing a new thing.
Forget and press on - Forget and press on, says Paul, twice. You messed up yesterday! Don’t dwell on the past – Press on! Grow in the knowledge and grace of God by looking straight ahead. Press on! Plod on, if you must!! Keep focused on the goal, look upon the one who Himself is the very personification of perseverance:
“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb. 12: 1-3)
Stand firm in the Lord, says Paul: How do we do this? You can’t do that in your own puny power. Our Church (even in its current virtual state) is not a collection of disconnected individuals. The church is a spiritual body and the body is called to Press On. We are called to press on together in the Spirit of God Who comforts us with the truth that there is more to life for us - by realizing we’re already citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20) who eagerly anticipate a prize (Jesus Christ) far greater than any award or accolade won by Olympians, actors or billionaires who (if without Christ) are spiritual bankrupts!
The prospect of heaven will be more than enough to keep us both standing firm and keeping going, confident that He who began a good work will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ!
We are still the church! We have been forced by corona-circumstances to do a new thing, in a sense. But we are still His church - Pressing on in worship; Pressing on in Prayer; Pressing on in Mission… 25 years after his Damascus Road encounter with the Risen Christ Paul still (sitting isolated in his prison chains) wants the people to know that his travelling days are far from over, even though he’s confined to a prison cell. The best is yet to come…
Paul won’t - rest on laurels: so, we won’t be so satisfied with our own achievements that we make no effort to improve, to go on. Like the athlete who refuses to take his/her eye off the finishing line, let us go forward as we Press On together to perfection.
What a great calling that is! “How happy are those whose strength comes from you, who are eager to make pilgrimage to Mount Zion…” They grow stronger as they go. They will see the God of gods…Don’t forget to remember it! GB MFR