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“Press
On!”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Philippians 3:4b-14
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in
Christ Jesus.”
One of my favorite professors in seminary was John Knox Chamblin.
He had gone to school at Wheaton College in Chicago; done
graduate work in New Testament Greek studies at Cambridge University in
England, and had a Th.D. from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.
VA., which is a Presbyterian Seminary.
I remember in class, one day, when he shared with us, that the
one person who had the most influence in his life was the Apostle Paul.
Dr. Chamblin said that St. Paul was his greatest teacher, his
truest counselor, his real pastor.
When Professor Chamblin needed help in every aspect of his life,
he turned to St. Paul’s teachings within the New Testament.
Many aspects of church history have been inspired by St. Paul’s New
Testament writings, especially The Letter of Paul to the Romans.
St. Augustine was converted from philosophical agnosticism to
Christianity through the book of Romans.
Martin Luther, the father of the protestant reformation came to
understand justification by faith from Paul’s writings in Romans.
And the greatest theologian in the church for the past 500 years,
Karl Barth, was also regenerated in his understanding of the Christian
faith by Romans.
The apostle Paul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus, where he was
actually passionately involved in persecuting the brand new church of
Jesus Christ, is one of the most amazing stories in the Bible.
He was on his way, when a light from heaven surrounded him.
He fell to the ground and then he heard a voice speaking to him,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” The voice came from
Jesus. Christ interacted
with Paul. The Paul stayed
blind for three days. Then
he was brought back to see by a disciple of Jesus named Ananias.
Paul was converted to faith in Christ.
After some contemplative time in the Egypt area, Paul then
returned to the Middle East region and spent a number of decades in
ministry and took about five missionary trips from Israel to what we
know today as Turkey, Greece, and Italy, where he started many churches
and later wrote 16 books of the New Testament.
Today we are being blessed with one of the greatest confessions made by
him, one of the greatest Christians in the history of the church.
His confession is very profound and yet, at the same time, very
simple. If I were to reword
his message as if he were literally confessing his sin to God, it might
very well sound something like this: “Dear Lord, I confess that
through my life I have had many things that were more important to me
than knowing Jesus Christ. Please,
forgive me, and help me into making knowing you the most important
passion of my heart, my mind, and my actions.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”
One of the faithful areas of our interest here in our church, I hope, is
in growing in what it is to know Christ.
We are being encouraged by the Apostle Paul to “press on” in
coming to know Christ. One of the scholars I read this weak, John Calvin, admitted
that coming to know Christ deeply is difficult.
I could sit at my dinning room table and talk to you about people I
know. I could tell you about my wife Caroline, our children, our
family, my friends, colleagues I work with.
I’m not meaning gossip; I’m referring to describing positive,
life building attributes about my loved ones.
I think it’s worth asking ourselves, “Could I sit down at the
table and talk about my knowing Jesus Christ and His knowing me, and our
relationship; who he is in my life?”
Yes, Calvin referred to knowing Christ as difficult.
And we probably don’t imagine ourselves sitting at the table
talking to easily about our knowing Christ.
But, these two things should not discourage us, or make us feel
guilt in coming to know Christ at a deeper and more personal level.
Paul encourages us, in sharing the truth that what God considers true
righteousness in our lives has to do with faith.
Righteousness from God is based on faith, and we are found in
Christ because of the very faith of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and He is the most faithful
person in our lives. He
believes in God the Father, through the Holy Spirit. He believes in
himself as the Son of God. And
He believes in you.
Yes, we are to believe in Jesus Christ, but our faith is rooted and
grounded in his faith. Pressing
on in knowing Christ is moving forward in knowing how faithful Christ is
to us in our lives.
During this season of Lent, where we are preparing ourselves, in our
hearts, hoping to experience Christ through a real encounter in His
resurrection, we have mentioned repentance, which starts with changing
our minds over certain things. Here
is an aspect of repentance: let’s look for Christ’s faith in our
lives. And let our faith in
Christ come as a response to His faith toward us.
One of my favorite preachers for many years has been Tony Campolo.
He is the Associate Pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in
Philadelphia. In coming to
know God, he spoke of coming to know and meet Jesus Christ in suffering
people. The Apostle Paul
wrote, “I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by
becoming like him in his death, …”
“If you look deeply into the eyes of suffering people, you will
have this eerie awareness that the same Jesus that died on the cross is
staring back at you.”
He tells this story: “I was walking down the street in Philadelphia
and a bum came towards me. I
mean a dirty, filthy guy. He
was covered with soot from head to toe.
You couldn’t believe how messed up he was.
He had this huge beard and there was rotten food stuck in the
beard. As he approached me,
he held out a cup of McDonald’s coffee and said, “Hey mister, want
some of my coffee?”
Campolo tells how he said no, walked past the man, but then thought to
himself, as he passed him, that he was not doing the right thing in
trying to ignore him. So, he turned around, walked back to him, and asked him,
“Why did you offer me coffee?”
The man said, “Because the coffee was especially delicious
today and I think that when God gives you something good, you ought to
share it with people.”
Then Tony Campolo asked him, “Can I give you anything?”
The man thought for a second and then said, “Yeah, … there is
something you can give me. You
can give me a hug.”
Yes, we come to know Christ in prayer, in silent meditations, and in
Bible reading. Yet, one of
the most wonderful ways we can press on in coming to know Christ is to
see Christ’s faith in us by reaching out to suffering people.
Let us pray…
Amen
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