Yew Year, 2018
Philippians 3. 7-14
Like many of us on the first Sunday of 2018, Paul is taking stock of his life. He uses this image of “checking your account” in verses 7-8: Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” (v. 7-8) Paul has something to say to us at the beginning of a new year… Gain is advantage; it is profit. Loss is a bad bargain; something that cost me too much. Paul is asking whether he was quids in, before he started following Jesus.
Paul had a lot of things going for him in his “old life”. He considered himself pretty good, pretty respectable. He had a strong pedigree as a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, properly circumcised on the eighth day; he was proud to be part of the “bible-believing” Pharisee movement, and always kept the rules, the Old Testament law. He was so enthusiastic about the Law that he persecuted anyone who followed Jesus. And he thought that all of that was on the credit side of his account. It was all money in the bank.
That was him: his heritage, his own choices. But one day, he had met Jesus. He was literally knocked off his horse, blinded by the light of God in Christ. But he got up again a new man. And from that day he counted everything else – including all that Jewish national heritage and lawkeeping, his reputation, his prosperity – as loss, a bad investment, in comparison with the high privilege, the crowning glory, the massive bonus, of knowing Jesus, being forgiven instead of trying to please God. Once he had Jesus he counted everything else as garbage. The Greek word – only used here in the NT – means “Stuff that is thrown to the dogs”. That doesn’t mean leftovers from Sunday dinner that go in the dog’s bowl. It means the filthiest, smelliest waste – including excrement – that was thrown into the street or taken to some midden, where the slavering, mangy strays would pick over it. For Jews, dogs were unclean, and Jews often referred to non-Jewish people as dogs. In the early churches there were people about who were saying that to follow Jesus you needed to keep the law, be circumcised, join the Jewish community. But Paul says these people were the real dogs (verse 2) and that all his law keeping was waste, only fit for the dogs.
What a transformation; all that good stuff, all that stuff I used to be proud of, all that achievement – it was rubbish, worthless, stinking, disease ridden filth. And so is everything attractive, fun, good – compared to knowing Jesus. That’s the real gain: knowing Jesus, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him is his death. Jesus, as Paul has already pointed out (Phil 2. 1ff) did not even grasp at and hold onto his equality with God but humbled himself, and became obedient to death. I hope we will have Easter Baptisms again this year. But when someone is baptised, they are becoming “like Jesus in his death”. I invite you to be baptised: but that means I invite you to a funeral – your own! The deal, the package that Paul has invested everything in is – the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. The fellowship of His Sufferings is not part of the cost – it is part of the profit. I’m trading my sorrows. Sometimes though we don't know what our sorrows are.
Jeff Evans is a pastor in Wigan, but as a young man he was a football hooligan. Eventually he settled down and got married, and when his wife was expecting their first child, he began looking for God. His wife, Jill, was a nurse and gave him her Nurse’s New Testament to read. He started at Matthew 1. When he got to the sermon on the mount, he began to cry as God’s Word challenged him. He read right through the Gospel and the whole New Testament. He says “There was a problem inside: I was a sinner...I knew I had done wrong… so when Jill went to bed...I went downstairs. I got down on my knees and I wept and I wept. I confessed every sin I could think of: it took me three nights to do it. After three days I got up a new man. I knew I’d been forgiven. I knew Jesus had wiped away my sin, I got up so happy, I was dancing round the room.” Turning to Jesus is letting go of your old life and letting God be in charge. The coming of Jesus in to our lives is a complete turn-around.
Everything gets laid down as a sacrifice. Even the good things. Was equality with God a good thing, or a bad thing for Jesus? Undoubtedly a good thing. It was his possession; claiming it was not robbery. Yet he emptied himself and became obedient to death. I believe in healing. I believe in joy, and power, and effective outreach. I want the power of the resurrection, but you can’t have the power of the resurrection without the fellowship of his sufferings.
We need to see what is on the “Loss” side of our account. Our hurt feelings, our hatreds. Our Criticisms. Our Resentments. Our Prejudices. Our pride, our Identity; whatever we have that makes us think we are better than anyone else. Our rights. Our prosperity. Our Priorities. Our reputation.
At the beginning of a New year, it’s a good time to check the balance on your God account. What do you consider gain? Is it really gain or is it loss? How important is knowing Jesus to you? Are there things you need to let go of in order to be richer.
But despite the gain of knowing Jesus, Paul still says “I’m not complete; I have not yet fully grabbed hold of this.” It must be some investment. Paul hasn’t yet reaped all the profit from it. Paul really believes that every believer has been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (Eph 1. 3) and been filled to the brim (Col 2. 10); and he prays they may keep being filled to the brim (Eph 3. 19, Phil 1. 11). And there is always more to come. So, says Paul, I press on towards the goal...” So the metaphor shifts from the accounts office, to the running track: from Lloyds Bank to Meadowbank (Edinburgh's commonwealth games ground)
Paul says “Forgetting what is behind – the good things, the bad things – I am pursuing that finishing-tape. Like Haile Gebrselassie or Paula Radcliffe, not looking over their shoulder, but eyes straight forward. Totally focussed. The writer to the Hebrews says “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Focussed on the finishing line. Throwing off everything that hinders. (Don’t tell anyone, but classical Greek athletes ran naked!)
We do that, for the “upward calling”. In the Greek games, the winner as called to “Come up!” to the podium where there as a wee speech congratulating his family, then he was crowned with laurel leaves. We press on in a disciplined way with God, because we are constantly works in progress. Nothing in this life is worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. The time is coming when ‘earth to heaven and heaven to earth shall answer, “at last the Saviour, Saviour of he world is King”’. When there will be open borders between Heaven and earth. When God’s Kingdom shall come on earth as in Heaven. Our destiny is not to be sitting on a cloud, playing a harp for all eternity. As Adrian Plass says, what do we feel like when we have sung “Shine Jesus Shine” for the millionth time? We are called for eternity, in new bodies and in the closest fellowship with Jesus, to reign on earth. And with our eyes focussed on that day, we lay aside the things that hold us back.
For Christian Blogger Sarah Bessey “Throwing off everything that hinders” meant giving up drinking, when she realised that for her an occasional glass of really good wine was becoming two or three glasses of pretty average wine every night…God was calling her, she says, ‘Not to moderation, not to legalism, not to “counting drinks” or “accountability” or reasonableness. No. I was under no illusions, this would be a full scale surrender, a laying down my preferences and rights to embrace what just might be something better.’ I’m not saying drinking is wrong. It was wrong for her because it was beginning to control of her life. For her, wine was extra weight that slowed her down.
For some of us, new year resolutions are a short-term thing: here are a couple of quotes from Twitter:
My New Years Resolution this year is to finally throw away those three empty Dominos Pizza boxes sitting in the bottom of my fridge. This was my resolution last year, too, but 2018 feels like a year for change.
My New Years resolution is everything I said my New Years resolution was last year and the year before that I still haven’t done.
How can we steps with Jesus that have a lasting impact in our lives?
By checking our God balance. Finding out what is really gain and what is really loss in our lives. Getting our priorities in line with those of the Kingdom. And then by lightening the weight, clearing out the rubbish, setting our eyes on the goal, and living the life of the coming kingdom, here and now. Counting all things as loss compared to knowing Jesus. Forgetting what is behind. Throwing off everything that hinders us. Running the Race with perseverance and with our eyes on the goal.
© Gilmour Lilly January 2018
