St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church

Sermon by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

March 25, 2007 Lent 5 Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward to goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

1984 seems like a long time ago—doesn’t it? Ronald Reagan was President. People were reading George Orwell’s 1949 book entitled 1984! The United States Embassy in Beirut was bombed by terrorists! The first heart and liver transplant were performed on a patient just 6 years old—back in 1984. In 1984 a man named William—did unspeakable things to a young lady at a college party. He gave her something pale green to drink. Then—when the drugs started to take effect—he attacked her. 23 years—23 years later William confessed to his victim—sort of. He said he was pretty much troubled and bothered by what he did. Come to think about it—he doesn’t remember it nearly as bad as his victim did. In a plea bargain—pleading guilty to a much lesser charge—William got sentenced to 10 years in prison. No—wait—most of that was suspended. William got 18 months—that is 540 days for his horrible attack! If we do something wrong God’s Word says—repent! Admit your guilt—admit your responsibility for what you did that was wrong! Then—be willing to accept whatever painful consequences there might be! Realize there is nothing you can do to really pay for your sins. Accept whatever earthly punishment you deserve—without working loopholes! Realize what Jesus suffered on the cross for all your sins and mistakes! It is in the warm forgiving light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross—by the power of the Gospel—through the means of grace—that we:

Press On Toward the Goal of Heaven

1. Forget what’s behind

2. Strain toward what’s ahead

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on—is part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to believers in the city of Philippi. Philippians is called a captivity letter. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon—these four letters are called the captivity letters. Paul is under house arrest—literally in chains—in the city of Rome. How did this happen? Remember Paul was preaching the Gospel by the Temple. Acts chapter 21. Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him…The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar… At first the Roman commander said to Paul, “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?” No! Paul is a Roman citizen. As such he can appeal to Caesar—to the Supreme Court—to have his case heard. It was while he was in chains in Rome—the first time—that Paul wrote these letters.

Philippi used to be called Krenides. Krenides means “fountains”. Philip II—the father of Alexander the Great—Philip II of Macedonia made his kingdom bigger. He took over Krenides and changed the name—named the city after himself—named the place Philippi. Philippi was by gold mines. That worked out pretty well—dig gold out of the hills—and use it to finance your army! 200 years after Philip the Romans took over Philippi. The gold had run out and the city was pretty much abandoned. But God’s plan was about to change everything. Philippi was the site of the battle—where Brutus and Cassius—who had led the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar—were defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Octavian later became Caesar Augustus. Remember that? And it came to pass in those days--that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed! Luke 2:1 Soon after the battle—Philippi was made a Roman colony and Mark Antony settled some of his veterans there. Philippi became a place where people were very proud of their citizenship from Rome. Paul told them, “Our citizenship is in heaven!” How wondrous is that?

This Sunday before Palm Sunday God’s Word encourages us—watch out for every threat to your Gospel joy! Be careful that you don’t think you are going to Heaven because you deserve it! Paul puts it very plainly. If anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in his behavior—I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless! Faultless! Do you know what that means? Faultless? Paul did the right thing. He kept the commandments. He didn’t eat anything ceremonially unclean. All those taste not, touch not, handle not rules—he kept them all. He gave offerings of 10% of everything! He fasted all the time—prayed all the time—did the right thing—all the time. Did that earn him points with God? Not at all. Paul said—Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ… Paul understood now we are saved by grace alone—not by being good! Good is never good enough. Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect!” Matthew 5:48

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, I was watching the news the other day—when they said—part of the problem with people who go to church and claim to be so religious—is the fact they don’t know much about what they claim to believe. Oh, I thought—that’s not true. Our people know God’s Word—they do! They asked people on the street—do you go to church? Sure I do! Then tell me some of the commandments. You don’t need to say all of them all in the right order—although that shouldn’t be too hard. But just tell me some commandments—any commandments—one commandment—one! Again and again they say—Thou shalt not…thou shalt not…thou shalt not… I know it’s something you aren’t supposed to do. Thou shalt not…I forget. Oh, wait a minute—envy? You aren’t supposed to envy? Is that one of them? How pitiful is that? How those people gave this world an opportunity to mock God. If we are people of God—people who claim the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God—then will we not read and study it? Are terrorists stopping whatever they are doing to unroll their rug and pray 5 times a day? Are they more faithful to their holy book than we are to the truth of the Gospel? Again—if the last time we studies the 10 commandments was when we were 13 years old—how long ago was that? Too long!

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind… Forget what’s behind—the painful sinful past. This is not easily done! Especially when the hurt is deep and the wound is painful and the scar is huge! Like the man named Charles—on Monday, October 2, 2006—killed five girls—aged 7 to 13 in their one roomed Amish grade school. The parents and relatives of those little girls—forgave the man who murdered them—and showed forgiveness and love to his widow. Have people said and done things that hurt our feelings? I’m sure they have. Have people done worse yet—and hurt our children or our spouse? I’m sure they have. Have people done what was hurtful and wrong—and didn’t even know they did? I’m sure they have! I’m sure I have gone around corners without my blinker on. I have made mistakes again and again. I have lost papers and misplaced notes and messages. I have been too long returning e-mails. I have said the wrong thing 10,000 times! That’s why we need Jesus’ forgiveness every moment of every day. We can’t hold grudges. We can’t keep picking the scab off painful hurts we suffered in the past—without getting spiritual cancer! Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant? In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will teat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:34,35

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward to goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Straining toward what is ahead. That’s effort—to work out your faith with a powerful sense of urgency. Straining toward what is ahead. That is much more than a casual interest in Jesus! It is more than—it’s nice to think about Jesus at Christmas time when the little children sing, “Away in a manger”—and there’s the Christmas tree and tradition and family. Then to think about Jesus on Easter when there’s lilies and a new dress—a new silk tie—and breakfast made by girl pioneers and sunbeams. Jesus is much more than baptisms and confirmations and weddings and funerals. Jesus’ forgiving love has to do with Monday morning getting up out of bed—to go to school—to go to work—to take care of babies and make a house into a home—a place of forgiving love. Jesus has everything to do with making marriages strong and love between a husband and wife to be safe. Jesus has everything to do with being ready to die at any time—in any way! Two young men in their early twenties are going to Florida for spring break—when two semi tires jump the median and crash through the windshield of their van. Two young men die. A survivor said if they had been one second faster or one second slower—this never would have happened—but they were in just the right place at the right moment for the wheels to cause the fatal harm! Three little girls in their home—alone—when a terrible fire starts. Again—another moment or two and they would be outside in their jammies—instead of having smoke and soot in their lungs. Again—a man is driving his pickup truck—flying down the highway—traffic all around. He’s kind of paying attention—kind of not—not quite realizing all the orange and red lights are making a wave toward him—as all of a sudden everyone is hitting the brakes. He hits his brakes, too—but not soon enough. To avoid slamming into the cars all stopped in front of him—he wrenches the wheel toward the shoulder. There on the shoulder is a car that is stalled—with the teenage passengers standing all around. And the truck driver runs over them and kills them! You don’t think standing on the shoulder—way back from the highway—waiting for the tow-truck or someone to bring you a gallon of gas will cost you your life—do you? We need to live our lives with a passion and urgency that comes from the fact time might be exceedingly short!

I press on toward to goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. When we die—there are only two possible outcomes—heaven or hell. It’s hard to explain how horrible hell must be. I was in line at a gas station the other day—when the man ahead of me told the worker lady where he worked—it was hotter than eternal destruction. The lady laughed and said she had been in eternal destruction. The man said—without missing a beat—eternal destruction was where he was living right now. He picked up his cigarettes and out the door he went. It all happened so fast. I thought—I should have said something to someone whose life was so painful and horrible he thought he was living in hell—because nothing in this world is as horrible as hell. We need to watch out for the people we know—the people we love—that none of them are living their lives so far from the Word of God and Jesus’ forgiving love—that they think they are living in hell now or ever!

I press on toward to goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. To be in Heaven—what can we compare it to? Jesus said it will be like a forever wedding feast. The Guinness Book of World Records says the biggest buffet—made up of different dishes to choose from was held by the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. They had 510 different dishes at the buffet. That’s hard to imagine. I mean—how many different kinds of pasta salads could you make? How many different kinds of Jell-O? How many different kinds of potatoes—different kinds of meat balls—different kinds of spaghetti and lasagna? There was an attempt to surpass that in Amish Country with 600 dishes at Holmes County—with 3,000 diners—3,000 people asking their little children—do you want some of this? Try this! You will like this! Try just a little! If the Amish in Ohio set a new record—then the people in Vegas plan to do better, still! Jesus said—what shall we compare the Kingdom of Heaven to? It will be like the most wondrous wedding banquet! The best that anyone can do in this world—must pale to insignificance—compared to what we will find in Heaven. In heaven Jesus will make everything new! Forget what’s behind—strain toward what’s ahead. Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz