Paul Irvin - Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Wednesday Bible Study featuring Paul Irvin.

Transcript:

Philippians chapter three. This happens to be the only place at least in the New King James Version where that word is translated from the Greek as goal. Philippians three. Yes.

And we'll go ahead and read verses one through 16 and then have some comments on this. So be thinking about goals as we're reading this and what some of your goals might be.

"Finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord. For 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 might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I moreso. Circumcised the eighth day, of 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 the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."

So there are Paul's bonafide days a comb or his resume for his free salvation, accomplishments,

"but what things were gained to me all those things, these things I have counted loss for Christ. But in deed I also 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 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."

And of course, that is a summary, one verse summary of the book of Romans as we went over on Sunday.

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also lay hold of me. Brethren, I do not come—I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,"

And here's our key verse: "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us as many as are mature have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind."

Now, I've already rehearsed for many of you a recent experience that I had, a running experience. A race, actually. And just for those who don't know, I'll just give you the brief synopsis here.

So my son signed me up for this race, with a bunch of lawyers and their staff and families and everything. A charity race. At Eight o'clock in the morning on Saturday. A 5-K, 3.1 miles. Got to watch that ".1" by the way, that's a big part of it! Anyway.

So I knew this was coming up. So beginning at the beginning of this year, I began training. Sort of. I mean, I was, I've never been a runner. The last experience I had in this type of thing, I was noted for crawling off into the bushes. So anyway, I knew that I needed to—if I was going to do this, I should train. And so I did. And I actually ran some 5-K's in my practice, and I never got below 32 and a half minutes, which is still pretty good for a guy that doesn't run, and an old guy besides!

So I got this idea in my head that I should be able to beat 30 minutes, so that was my goal for this race. And through it might be considered somewhat of a miracle, I actually beat that goal! I know that it was some something under 30, it had a 29! And I'm not really concerned with the seconds; where I just needed to make it was 30! So 58, it might have been, that's okay! Actually, I think it was a little lower and that's okay.

Anyway, so that got me thinking about goals and the importance of goals in our lives. We of course, have many goals: financial goals, career goals, health goals, weight loss goals, exercise goals, every, you know, we have to have goals, right? Because otherwise, we wouldn't advance in whatever we're trying to do! I was gonna go through a whole list of this, other things, you know that sports guys might, you know, there's goal lines, field goals, short handed goals, golden goals! Anyway, forget that!

It's important young people, that you have goals. And those of us who are even a little older, it's important we have goals as well.

So here—I did emphasize the definite article in verse 14 for a reason, because it seems that Paul has a singular goal in mind in verse 14. So, what do you think that is?

I mean, I'm going to take a position that it's something, and it's probably not going to be something that might come to your all's minds right off, but: what is his goal that he is pressing towards? He's striving, right?

Okay. Okay, good. That's good. Any other thought? Yeah, john, you have some thought?

To what? "The prize?" What is the prize?

What is the reward?

And what is that?

Okay, I'm gonna get—I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you what I think it is!

If you look back to the effective look at the beginning of this chapter, I think there's a clue here, it says finally, my brethren. Rejoice in the Lord. And then in verse three, he says, rejoice in Christ Jesus, I'm going to take the position this evening that the goal that Paul is pressing towards is nothing less than joy!

Let me give you some evidence for that other than just what I just read. If you go to First Peter, for instance, and I'm going to read this out of the New Living, you'll see that Peter has this in mind. Same kind of a thought. Just a couple of verses here.

In verse eight, you… Peter says, "You love him," (that's the Lord Jesus Christ.) "Even though you have never seen him though you do not see him, you trust him and even now, you're happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls."

And actually, I don't have a New English Translation. But the New English Translation says in verse nine, "Because you are attaining the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls, even now, you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy."

Philippians of course is known as the Epistle of joy. And rightly so because of the exhortations that Paul gives throughout the epistle and the demonstration of joy in his life even under difficult circumstances.

So, these things that are preceding this, like, "counting all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord," and that he may "know him and the power of his resurrection" are all steps towards that ultimate goal of joy. Chapter four, verse one, two gives us this idea: "Therefore my beloved and longed-for Brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord beloved." And then of course, that well known exhortation in verse four, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice." So Paul considered the believers there and Philpi, his joy and crown, his reward and his joy.

So that reminded me of something in Hebrews, chapter 12 verse two, very well known verse to us. Somebody else had joy that was set before him as a goal to —you can look at it that way. And that was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Who for the joy that was set before him. If we use Paul's thinking about the believers in Philipi, and we think of that in terms of what the joy was for the Lord that was set before him, perhaps that joy was us. All believers—all that would come to a saving knowledge of Him, through his work on the cross. Through his enduring the cross. So the joy that was set before him was us.

Yes, John. Okay. With joy. Yeah, very good. That's right.

And the, the Lord told us that told the disciples in the upper room discourse that He, what He was teaching to them, the words that he was speaking to them, were given to them so that His joy "might remain in them," and your joy might be full.

So kind of a roundabout way. But I think it fits: that what we are, what, I mean certainly you could substitute other things in there, but it just seems to make sense in terms of Paul's attitude here.

What he is striving for, ultimately, is the joy of the Lord. The Lord is his joy. You know, You'd say, well, he's, he's pressing towards the prize and the prize is Christ. Well, that's right, but for what purpose? And the purpose is so that Christ might have joy in us, and we might have our joy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there is a... Oh, let's just look at we got a couple of minutes, maybe.

Colossians chapter one also has this where Paul and I got to go back to the New Living thing here again. Because as I said, in the New King James "goal" was only used in that one time, but here it's used again, Colossians, the end of Colossians chapter one.

Paul says, "so everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us. For we went to present them to God perfect in their relationship to Christ."

And again, looking at the New English Translation, it says "Toward this goal." New Living says "I work very hard at this that is towards this goal as I depend on Christ's mighty power that works in me. I want you to know how much I have agonized for you for the church at Laodicea, and for many other friends who have never known me personally, my goal is that they will be encouraged and knit together by the strong ties of love."

Now, I will tell you something, because I just recently had this experience, and that is: when you meet or beat your goal, it's an exhilarating—it's a joyful experience! And, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of work up to that point. It's not particularly joyful. When you're actually doing the run. Some people might be, but you hardly ever see smiling runners out there. You know, just if they are, there's, you know, you got to wonder about their…whatever. But anyway, the actual striving is work, but the reward is great!

And the exhillerating thing of meeting your goal. And so here's the ending word of exhortation. Although there's effort in our upward call, it is interesting also in the juxtaposition of what the Lord in the Kenosis passage in chapter two and Paul's own autobiographical story in chapter three, who is both, you know, the Lord had his downward steps, and then his his upward steps to Glory. And Paul could say that in his prior life, it was all loss.

That's about as low as you can get to consider that everything that he had accomplished was just fit for the garbage, or in some versions, frankly, for the toilet. And yet he has in mind, an upward goal. And so, for us, there will be effort in our upward goal of being joyful. But let's put in the effort. Let's do the training.

And not only to be joyful ourselves, but then we can bring joy to others, as well.

So thank you for your time and attention and participation.