Pressing Toward The Prize

Introduction

Andrew Daniels, in his book, The Greatest Finish Fails in Sports History relates a number of stories of ball players and runners and athletes who celebrated victory too soon. One of the stories he tells about a 800-meter race at the 2014 Shanghai Diamond League meet, where an Algerian runner thought he had the race won. He stuck out his arms and stuck out his tongue before crossing the finish line, only to be beat out by a Kenyan runner. He tells another story in the 2015 University of Oregon meet, where an athlete there was involved in the 3,000 meter steeple chase. And as he came toward the finish of this, he urged the crowd there at Hayward Field to cheer him on. And ironically, he slowed down just enough to allow a University of Washington athlete to sprint to the finish line and beat him out of first place.

And then he tells a story in the 2018 European championships in Germany of an Israeli athlete who thought she had secured a silver medal in the 5,000 meters. She put her arms up in jubilation. She slowed down only to discover that she had one lap left to go. The loss of momentum ended up causing her to take fourth place in Ezra out of a podium position. He makes the point that show boating and being overconfident, losing focus, can spill spell disaster in running. As I read a number of these stories like that in his book, the thought crossed my mind. I wonder if the Apostle Paul ever witnessed that in the first century. Paul was in both Athens, where there’s a wonderful Colosseum. It’s been actually refurbished there, and you can visit it.

And of course, in Rome. And it’s very possible, maybe even probable, that the Apostle Paul may have visited some of the Olympic games in those cities. So I wonder if we ever saw that. And I wonder if we ever had that thought in mind when he pinned these words that our brother read just a minute ago. And as he pinned these words about pressing on and reaching forward to the things before and pressing on toward the goal. He pinned these words as an aged man of God. He was in a Roman prison. His life hung in the balance. He didn’t know how much longer he had to live. And yet he said, I pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I’m not letting up. I’m not slowing down. I’m sprinting toward the finish line. And so it’s this morning from this text that I want to talk to you about pressing toward the prize.

And uh, I’ve already had the privilege to share some thoughts in the Bible class period and to speak during the worship hour. And I want to thank Ralph for the kind words that he said. I I tell you what, after that kind of a buildup, I’m I’m excited to hear what I’ve got to say myself. I I hope it’s really good. But uh thank you, thank you, Ralph, for those kind words and for the opportunity to come, as he said that the past four years, my wife and I have been traveling, in fact, three of those years, we literally didn’t have a home and we’re traveling full time. And in fact, one of those trips actually took us to Athens, Greece. And I had an opportunity to uh run around the track.

Well, run is kind of a stretch, maybe at my point in life. But anyway, to go around the track, that very Coliseum where Paul, Paul could have seen it from the Acropolis when he was up on Mars Hill 970. He could have seen it that far. And he might have very well visited that Coliseum. And uh so we’ve had uh had a lot of good adventures the past uh past few years. But most of all, we’ve had wonderful opportunities to visit a lot of congregations and preach in a lot of places. And uh we’re thankful for that, and we’re thankful for the invitation here by your shepherds to come and to share the word and so. So I thought about what I could say, not knowing uh about life and time and eternity and how much longer any of us have.

And if I didn’t have another message, what would I want to say to you this morning? And I thought this is the message that I want to bring to encourage us to press forward toward the price. I appreciate all of you being here for the kind words you already suggested to us and for the number of you that uh have read my blog and have said kind words about the blog that I write. If you don’t know about that, just check it out. It’s on the sermon notes, and uh, I hope you’ll check out my blog sometime and read. Although I guess they put a lot in the bulletin here, right? And uh so you’re getting it that way. Well, let’s think about this relevant theme for a few minutes.

1. Pressing Toward the Prize: Focusing on Improvement

And I want to begin by just in an overview before we get into the specific words here that I want to look at of thinking about pressing toward the prize has to do with focusing on improvement. And when I you read these words of Paul, that Paul is speaking here about improvement. And if we’re going to improve, we’ve got to see the need. Paul talked about apprehending. The word apprehend here, in some versions, I think translate the word this way, is to lay hold on. And if I’m going to apprehend or lay hold on, I got to see the need to be able to do that. He uses the word mature or perfect here. And it speaks to the idea of being full grown. And Paul is saying, I haven’t reached ultimate perfection yet.

I’m not where I want to be. And I find that amazing. Here is the Apostle Paul, a man probably up in his 60s, a man that has made three missionary tours. He’s now made the voyage to Rome. He’s written more letters than any other Bible writer. And yet he said, I’m not there yet. I’m still working, I’m still growing, I’m still learning, I’m still pressing on. Paul saw that need. And I suggest that all of us as well need to see that need. But to be able to do that, we must examine ourselves. He wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5 to examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Now, if you don’t see any need to improve, you’re probably not going to examine yourself.

But if you see a need to improve and to look at yourself honestly as the Lord sees you, and you look into the mirror of God’s word, you can see where you are in his eyes. If we fail to examine ourselves, ladies and gentlemen, we become easy prey for the devil and for him to creep in in some way and to lead us astray. But then a third thing is I must believe that I can improve. I must believe that I can do better. I must believe that I can reach out and that I can grow and that I can mature and I can be more conform to the image of Christ tomorrow than I am today. And so Paul was said, I haven’t already attained.

I haven’t apprehended yet. I’m still working and growing and learning.

I discipline my body and bring into subjection, lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. And so there, Paul is not giving lip service to this, but Paul is really speaking of the idea of growing.

2. I Forget the Things Which Are Behind

To do something larger, which he knows he was meant and made to do. They’re ought to be beating at the door of our soul more to be able to accomplish more and to do more and to be more and to be more conform to the image of Christ and less to the things of the world. And so that leads us to end of how to do that. And how was it that Paul was accomplishing this goal? Well, the first thing that I want to notice in this text is he said that I forget the past. You know, there are some things that are better forgotten. And Paul said, I forget the things which are behind. And so when I read that, I sat down and I got inside myself a little bit.

And I thought, I wonder what Paul had in mind. Now we don’t know for sure because he didn’t tell us, but I thought about some things that Paul might have had in mind. One of the things is past sins. You know, Paul was a persecutor of the church. In Acts chapter 8, we read about that. And in Acts chapter 9. And they put men and women into prison. In fact, in Acts chapter 7, he consented to the death of Stephen and held the coats of though that stoned this martyr to death. And so when Paul says, I forget the things that are behind, I mean, you think about that persecution. In one place, the Timothy talks about being the chief to sinners. And it might have been easy for Paul to have dwelt on that and to have wallowed around in that and to have allowed himself not to accomplish what the Lord wanted him to accomplish.

But Paul said, I put that behind me. And in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Ladies and gentlemen, there are some things that are just better forgotten. We can’t live in the past. We can learn from the past, but we don’t need to live in the past because we can’t change the past. We can profit from it, but we can’t change it. But we can control our attitude toward it. I’ve run into situations sometimes through the years with people that are being hindered in their Christian race because they’re worrying about mistakes they’ve made. They’re worried about something that they did when they were a young person, or maybe something had happened before they became a Christian, or maybe after they became a Christian and they fell away for a little while.

And I’ve had people relate to me some egregious things that they have done in their lives. And they allow themselves to be hampered and hindered from accomplishing God’s work because they’re living in the past. Forget the past. Put behind you past sins. Well, Paul could be thinking about past injuries by brethren. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 16, he talks about his first defense, that no one stood with him. He said, All have forsaken me. And you think about that. Here’s the great apostle Paul, and the people have fled. People are worried that they too might be uh tagged with Paul as being a Christian, and they might be persecuted in some way. And Paul could have fumed and fussed about that and criticized those brethren and worried about how they treated them.

But instead he said not to lay this into their charge. You know, that reminds me of the words of Jesus on the cross. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Or the words of Stephen when he was stoned to death in Acts 7. And so Paul, in the same vein says, I’m not going to worry about that. We read in the 2 Corinthians letter about those that misrepresented Paul and the Judaizing teachers. They accused Paul for preaching for money. They accused Paul for preaching for what he could get out of it. They accused Paul for being bold when he wrote, but his bodily presence was weak. They made all kinds of accusations. But Paul didn’t pay me attention to that and worry about that and let that hold him back.

He said, I forget the things which are behind. I don’t know what no one has told me about any problem here. So as far as I know, you guys don’t have a single problem in the world in this church. The elders just had the easiest job in the world here at Bumby because there’s no problems. As far as I know, no one has told me. But I have been places and preached places where there’s problems. You know, brother, oh brother Shrigley used to say that uh Jesus said, We’re two or three are gathered together, I’ll be in the midst. He said, What I’ve learned is where two or three are gathered together, you’re going to have a problem. And that’s about right sometimes. I was at a congregation one time where there were two brothers that got on the outs with each other, and I don’t know all the details of what caused it, but wouldn’t speak to each other.

And they were members of the same congregation. One sat on this side of the auditorium, and the other sat on the other side of the auditorium. And it hit me one day before I got up to preach, that the one of the men was leading the singing. And then when we had the Lord’s Supper, the other man that he wouldn’t speak to, and he wouldn’t speak to him, either one of them speak to each other. He was leading the talk at the Lord’s Supper. And I thought the irony of that, that here are two brothers that can’t get along that won’t even speak to one another, and they’re leading us this morning of worship. I don’t know how widely known that was, but a few of us knew about it, and I don’t know if they ever got that straightened up or not.

Don’t let something like that get in the way of your relationship with the Lord and your relationship with your church family and a brother in Christ. There are some things you just need to put behind you. Forget past injuries by brethren. And then we could talk about past persecution. Now no one likes to be persecuted. I’m sure Paul didn’t take joy in being persecuted, but he sure had his share, didn’t he? And so we can read about the times that Paul was in prison, the times that he was beaten with stripes. He talks about in Corinthians being beaten with rods. We talked we read about the times in Acts where he was stoned and carried out of the city and left for dead. All those kind of things.

Persecution because of preaching Christ. And if then that wasn’t enough, while he wrote this very letter, there were those in Rome that he said in chapter one of Philippians were preaching Christ, not because they were doing it with the right motivation, but they were trying to cause Paul more problems. Because they thought the more they preached Christ, the more it would draw attention to who Paul was, and it would get him in bigger trouble. Isn’t that amazing? You know what Paul said? He said, I rejoice in preaching Christ. They may be doing it for the wrong motive, but I’m just glad they’re preaching Christ. And Paul, in fact, said that he he gloried in the 2nd Corinthians letter, and his persecutions and distresses and tumults and all these things.

And he said, When these things happened to me, even the physical thorn in the flesh that he had to deal with, he says, the devil threw this out, but then he trying to weaken me, but I’ve allowed it to make me stronger. And so forget the past. But the other thing I thought about was the past victories. Paul at this point in his life had a lot of successes spiritually, hadn’t he? As I mentioned a moment ago, he had made the three missionary journeys. You’ve read those, haven’t you in the book of Acts? I mean, when you read that, the churches that were established, the elders that were ordained at every city, the young preachers that he mentored along the way, the influence that he had throughout the brotherhood, throughout the expanse of the Roman Empire, and then the letters that he wrote.

3. Reaching Forward to the Things Which Are Ahead

I mean, Paul is the most prominent uh letter writer that we have in the New Testament. Paul could have been sitting in a Roman prison thinking, well, it’s all over. They’re going to behead me or execute me or throw me to the lions. There’s nothing else I can do. And think about the good old days. I’m the great apostle Paul. Look at what I’ve accomplished. Look at the victories and successes I had. But Paul wasn’t thinking like that. He’s putting that behind. He said, I’m pressing on. I’m still working, I’m still growing, I’m still learning, I’m still trying to make a difference. I forget the things which are behind. But then the second thing here he says, that I’m reaching forward to the things which are ahead.

And so if you’re going to forget what’s behind you, then you need to reach forward to what is ahead of you. He said, forgetting those things are behind and reaching forward to the things ahead. Some of you have your Bibles open, may have a version that uses the word straining forward. Anybody see that in the version they’re looking at where it says straining forward instead of reaching? This is a word. It’s a great big long Greek word. I can’t even try to pronounce it. But Mr. Barclay, in his analysis of this Greek word in his Bible study series, says it was a word that was used of runners. And so in this analogy here of pressing toward the prize or running the Christian race, this word, reaching forward or straining or stretching forward, was a word that Barclay used that pictured the runner as he was coming toward the finish line.

Now we’ve all seen that happening. We have the Olympic games or other games that are on a race. And it didn’t have to be a hundred meters. I mean, sometimes even the longer races, the 1500 meter, the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meters, that you’ll have two or three runners come around that final turn. And what happens when they make that final turn down the track and they’re coming toward the finish line? Well, their bodies are angled forward, their arms are pumping the air, their legs are stretched out, and they’re running, as we would say, flat out to the finish line. In fact, sometimes it’s a photo finish, you can hardly tell who won, as they strain and reach forward to that tape, unlike the examples we gave a while ago from Daniel’s book.

That’s the word you said. All of that’s in that one word? Yeah. That’s the word that was used of the runner coming to the finish line. And so, spiritually speaking, that’s what the apostle Paul is saying. He said, I am straining, I am reaching, I am stretching, I’m going hard for the tape. I got my eyes on the goal. When I ran cross-country in high school, just a few short years ago. Well, it wouldn’t meant to be a joke. My uh my cross-country coach, Carl Short always told us, he said, Boys, he said, don’t run to the finish line, run through the finish line. Don’t run to the tape, run through the tape. That’s what this word is. That you’re you’re giving it everything you’ve got.

And some of you that have participated in that sport in years gone by or have run in races know what I’m talking about. That’s the word that is used here. And that’s the word he’s talking about spiritually, this idea of straining toward the goal. And that’s what we need to be doing, brethren. That we need to be straining and stretching and reaching forth toward the goal. We need to reach out. Let me just bullet some ways that I think that we need to be reaching out and stretching out toward. We need to be reaching forward to the lost in our communities. In James chapter 5 and verse 20, James says, Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

We all have friends and neighbors and relatives and loved ones and work associates and all of that, of people that don’t know Jesus, that haven’t obeyed the gospel. Are we reaching out? Are we streaming forward toward those that are lost in sin and trying to help them to see Jesus? We need to reach out to erring brethren. In almost every congregation, I’m sure, and this would be no exception. There are those that at one time were faithful members at Bumbi. That they were here over service. And something is through the years have happened and they’ve fallen by the wayside. Maybe it happened, maybe it’s a moral problem, or maybe it’s a problem of indifference or worldliness, or who knows what it is. Sometimes we scratch our head and we can’t figure out why it is.

Maybe we need to go back and look at some of those folks and think about who they are and where they are and reach out to the erring. Reach out to those that have become unfaithful. Not to forget about them, but to see if we can restore them again. In Jude 22, he said, be merciful to those who are down and snatch others from the fire and save them, and to others show mercy mixed with a fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. There may be some even among you right now that you see slipping away. Don’t let them slip away. Don’t let them give up and quit. Try to snatch them from the fire. Reach out to them and seek to bring them back into the fold of safety.

We need to reach out to the lost in our community. We need to reach to erring brethren, but we also need to reach to those among us that are weak. There are always going to be those that faith is not as strong. Maybe they’re new Christians. Or maybe they have just had more than their share of problems and challenges in living the Christian life, and it’s been difficult for them to grow in grace and knowledge. We need, as Paul said, to receive those that are weak in the faith. And not to disputes over doubtful things, but to be able to help them and encourage them and to build them up and to bring them out to reach out to them. And then we need to reach out to the edification of the body of Christ, to the building up of the Lord’s church.

In Romans 14 and verse 19, he said, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and a mutual edification. Are we doing that? Are we making every effort to do the things that make for peace in our church families that seek to build up and to edify and to encourage one another? We need to reach out to our own personal growth, our own personal development, as we’ve already alluded to earlier. And so Paul would write to the Thessalonians, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting. Because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. Is your love and your faith abounding and growing and developing and become greater and fuller and richer, richer and deeper as the years have gone by, we need to reach out.

We need to reach out to the potential that is in the body of Christ. I just think in so many places and in the past four years, we probably visited now over 50 congregations, and many are doing wonderful. And yet I look at some and I just think they haven’t reached our potential yet. There’s so much more they could be doing. The resources they have and the abilities they have and the skills and the talents and the opportunities are there. We need to work harder to reach our potential. To the Ephesians, Paul said, now and to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

4. I Press On

Amen. That’s a powerful passage, folks. He’s saying here that God is able to work in us and accomplish things greater than we can even imagine, than we can even think, or that we can even ask. You can’t think too big of thoughts for God. You can’t ask of him two great two greater things. He will do exceeding abundant above all that we think or ask. We need to see our potential in Christ. But then the third thing in that text, he says it twice, I need to press on. Paul said, I press.

An aged man of God in a Roman prison, pressing on. We need to hear that today. We need to press on.

And it very simply says this press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. And so we need to press. And so I say to you this morning, have you got a problem? Press on. Have you had a setback in your life? Press on. Have you lost a loved one? Press on. Do you feel discouraged or disrupt? Press on. Have you experienced difficulties? Press on. Have you got a tough temptation that Satan is tempting you with? Press on. Are you fighting physical ailments of the flesh?

Conclusion

Press on. Have you come this morning with a heavy heart? Press on. Is your mind anxious? Press on. Is your conscience hurting? Press on. Don’t give up and don’t give in and don’t give out. Press on. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what it means to press toward the prize. Just a moment, we’re going to sing a song of encouragement and invitation. If you have not obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ, I’m sure you’ve heard Ken and others in this pulpit other kins and others. Talk about what that means to have faith in Christ, to repent of your sins, confess allegiance to Him, and to be baptized for the mission of sins. That’s the way you enter the race. You know, you can’t go up to the Boston Marathon and just start running and get a prize.

You got to register. You got to enter the race. And that’s what it is the Christian race. You’ve got to register. You’ve got to enter the race and start running according to the rules. And it may be that you’re here this morning and you’ve fallen off of the track. You’ve stopped. You’ve sit down. You become derelict in your duty in some way. You’ve got you’ve allowed something to distract your attention from the Christian race. You need to get back on the track. You got brothers and sisters here that will help you along the way. They’ll run with you. They will encourage you. You need to press toward the prize. I close with this story that comes from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. A runner from Tanzania named John Stephen Akari was running the marathon.

About midway through this 26-mile, 26.1 mile race, Akari stumbled and he fell. He severely injured his knee and his ankle. But he got up and he kept on running. Hours after an Ethiopian runner had won the race, Akari limped in to Olympic Stadium. There were only just a few hundred spectators left that were milling around this stadium. But the news media had picked up on the fact that there was still a runner out on the course. And so the news media came in with their cameras and reporters and everything. And there came Akari limping into Olympic Stadium. And as he came in, and you you remember how that is as you come through that tunnel, you come into the stadium, and then you come on the track.

The spectators began to cheer this courageous Tanzanian. And there he was, bloodied and bruised and bandaged, grimacing every step of the way. And he completed the final lap of the race. Hours after everyone else had finished. Later, a reporter came up to Akari and asked him, why? Why did you continue to run after you have been injured so severely? And here’s what he said.

They sent me to finish a race. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lord has put us here not just to begin the race, but to finish the race.

Spiritually speaking, you gotta stretch and press forward and reach forward with everything that is in you and run through the finish line and press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I pray that you will. And if we can help you and do that, would you come as we stand in while we sing?