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University SDA Church- East Lansing

David Shin

Not Arriving, Striving

Let's bow our heads as we pray this morning.

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath, first Sabbath of the new year, 2014.

And As we look back and reflect on 2013, we thank you for the blessings as well as the challenges.

We don't know what the future holds, but we recognize that we have nothing to fear for the future except we shall forget how you have led us in the past.

So bless us this morning as we open your word, as we reflect, as we look forward, as we ponder our present, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would hide me behind the cross.

For we ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

We are 14 years, we're going into our 14th year into the new millennium.

And this is the first Sabbath of the new year.

It's a natural time, especially in January, that individuals reflect.

But somehow in January, millions of people around the world reflect on the previous year and look forward to the new year.

And it's an interesting place that we have between the future and the past that we ponder our present.

And many individuals do what they call New Year's resolutions.

How many of you did some New Year's resolutions for the New Year?

This is a common practice that individuals have done.

And even in the Christian experience, we have the same reality.

We have what God has for us in the future, and in between these 2 realities, we have the present.

So, this morning, with that in mind, I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to our Scripture reading, if you have not already, Philippians Chapter 3, 1350 in the pew Bible that is in front of you there, 1350, Philippians chapter 3, here Paul ponders the past, he looks into the future and looks at what he is to be doing in the present Philippians chapter 3 and Let's start in verse 1.

We'll read all the way up until verse 8 1350 in your pew Bible finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord for to me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

And he goes on and lists all the things that he can be confident in the flesh regarding himself.

Circumcised, the eighth day, the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning righteousness, which is in the law, blameless." Here, Paul has just gone through his resume of all the things that he has done that he can claim to being righteous.

In verse 7 he says, but what things were gained to me, these things I counted, what does it say in your Bible?

I counted loss for Christ, yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." I'd like to highlight a couple verses in here.

He says, yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

In verse 9 he goes on by saying, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

The righteousness that we have is not within ourselves, it is what Luther calls an alien righteousness which is outside of ourselves and nothing we can do can earn our salvation.

Nothing you can do can merit your eternal life.

Nothing you can do can cause you to earn salvation in regards to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And we can connect afterwards, Catherine, if you don't mind.

And here he talks about this concept of righteousness by faith.

A righteousness that is not derived from ourselves, but a righteousness that comes only from Christ.

Nothing that we can ever do can inherit our eternal life.

He then goes on in the next verse, a few verses there, in verse 12 and 13.

Let's read on before I highlight this verse.

In verse 10, that I may know him and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may hold on that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold onto me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but 1 thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead." So here Paul talks about his past.

He says, forgetting the things which are behind.

The next part, He talks about the future, forgetting that which lies behind and reaching forward to that which lies ahead.

So here Paul is between 2 realities, between the past and the future, and he says we must forget those things which are behind.

Now looking back on 2013, I don't want you to raise your hands, but how many of you have some things that you've done that you are not proud of?

How many of you did some things that you'd rather not everyone in this congregation to know?

How many of you had to ask forgiveness in 2013?

Well, The beauty of the gospel is that we can forget what God has forgiven.

God has buried them in the depths of the sea.

I think of that 1 dream that Martin Luther had where the devil was going through the whole litany of all the things that he had done.

At the bottom of the scroll, he was holding his hand, and it was a list of all the things that Martin Luther had done.

Martin Luther was overwhelmed with a sense of his guilt, and finally he said, look, I want to see the bottom of the scroll.

The devil would not let him see anything.

He said, In the name of Jesus, let me see the bottom of the scroll.

And he removed his hand and he said, forgiven and forgotten by the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is the beauty of the gospel, that we can forget what God has done by forgiving us for our sins.

And he says, reach forward to what lies ahead.

This is the reality, that as Christians we live between the past and the future in the present.

And here is Paul's attitude when he talks about the future.

Not that I have already attained or am already perfected.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.

Just as a parenthetical note here, when we talk about perfection, the Bible does not talk about perfection in terms of a point.

I heard of 1 individual that said, I haven't sinned in 2 years.

Well, that person just lost their track record because pride is a sin as well.

You know, the closer we come to Jesus, the more sinful we'll appear.

So even Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament, look at this passage, he says, look, I haven't attained.

He says, I'm not there yet, but look at the attitude of Paul between the past and the future.

His attitude in the present are these words, forgetting what lies behind, what is highlighted there on the screen?

It says, reaching forward to what lies ahead and I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore as many as are perfect have this attitude.

So even though God has taken care of our past, He secured our future, in the present, Paul says that we are to press, we are to reach.

In the Greek, this is a term that is used for straining and stretching.

And it seems like a contradiction because if there's nothing that we can do to inherit salvation, if there's nothing we can do to earn or merit salvation, then why does Paul use this verb in the Greek of straining and stretching in the present?

There's 1 illustration that I see in the Bible.

And here in Michigan, we are well known for our berries and our grapes.

And this may be an illustration that is familiar to some of us.

He talks about the vine and the branches.

He says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

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Not Arriving, Striving

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