Northside Church - Sydney
DNA of the Christian Life – Week 4: Discontented
I want to bring the reading to us tonight from Philippians chapter 3 verses 12 to 15. If you've got your Bible or your iPad or your iPhone, if you haven't, just follow on with the screen. Here it is verse 12. "I do not claim," says Paul. And by the way, we need to bear in mind that this man was writing this letter from a Roman prison. And so, it's believed this could well be the last letter he ever wrote. So it's filled with passion. He says, "I do not claim that I've already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I've already won it. The one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead." And so, I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you. And, you know, as I was preparing for this message tonight and going through these verses and just reflecting on them, one verse seemed to just leap from the page. And it's verse 13, it sounds like Kirsty's favorite. One thing I do is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. And I suddenly realized this puts Paul in a very special category among biblical characters. This puts him in a very special category because he's not only got a specific forward focus, but he's actually prepared to state it and to state it unequivocally that he's forward thinking, he's forgetting the past. Now, this is amazing because this statement is a powerful testimony to God's grace and healing and forgiveness in this man's life because there were many things, if you know his story, and I'm sure many of you do, there were many things that he could have felt very ashamed about. He could have been caught up in his past life. He prior to being caught Paul, he was known as Saul, he was a high ranking official in the Jewish church, and he was absolutely hell-bent on the destruction of this new Christian movement. He was absolutely committed to stamping it out. And if you read carefully the testimony of Scripture in the book of Acts, it's clear that he may have even had blood on his hands having actually been responsible of the directly or indirectly for the death of Christians. This is the number one preacher of the Christian faith of the first century, actually prior to his conversion had actually been involved in possibly murderous activity against Christians. So for him to say that forgetting what is behind me, it's a great testimony to the forgiveness and the grace of God, many dark things in his past, but he was clearly maintaining this forward focus. Now, here's the thing, throughout the Bible, the idea of looking back was problematic for a lot of people. Then if you realize that, looking back was problematic for a lot of people. And I want to just run you through a few by way of revision. The children of Israel for start, Exodus 16, they're really up against it in the Sinai Desert, and everything's going wrong, they're hungry, they're tired, they're thirsty, and the thought goes around the camp, you know what, we would have been better to stay back in Egypt. God has performed these miracles, the seers parted, they've been able to miraculously escape Egypt, and here they are, whinging and whining, maybe it would have been better back where we've come from. It was a huge example of disobedience and lack of faith. One of the most famous looking back, problematical situations is Lot's wife. As recorded in Genesis 19, God is about to oversee the destruction of the city of Sodom. It has just gone way beyond the pale, and the judgment's been pronounced on this city, and Lot and his wife have been, and his family have been found faithful, and they've been given a pathway of escape by God on one condition that nobody looked back. God is a God of newness, and he's saying quite emphatically to Lot, don't look back, just don't make sure none of your family looked back. This is all about the future. Your past life is over, that city is finished, it's no more. And unfortunately for whatever reason Lot's wife looked back, and of course that famous incident which he's turned into a pillar of salt. And I noticed on Google there's a site somewhere over there in the Middle East where we can actually kind of try to recreate this in some kind of a statue form. What about the rich young ruler, Mark chapter 10 verses 17 and following. Jesus says to this man, because he knows he's got a problem. Jesus knows this man has one thing in his life that will keep him from experiencing the fullness of life that was available to him in Jesus Christ, and Jesus said, sell all you have, give it to the poor. It's not prescriptive, doesn't mean everybody has to do that, but for this man it was important. And Jesus having looked at this man and seen his godliness in every other way, just loved him and thought he would make an incredible addition to the kingdom, but the man looked back figuratively, looked back at his bank balance, looked back at what he had to lose. And he made the choice, eternal life, and what he had accumulated in this world he chose the latter. He looked back, fatal, terribly sad. What about the would-be followers of Jesus? Luke chapter 9 verses 57 to 62, let me read this to you, this is a credible, what are many incidents like this when Jesus was calling people to be followers of his. Luke chapter 9 verse 57, let me refresh your memory on this one. Okay, Luke chapter 9 verse 57, here it is. As they went on their way, a man said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lie down and rest. He said to another man, follow me, but the man said, oh sir, let me go back and bury my father. Jesus answered, let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Someone else said, I'll follow you, but first let me go and say farewell to my family. Jesus said to him, anyone who starts to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use to the kingdom of God. Now guys, that seems harsh, but we've got to understand the nature of ancient biblical literature. When the guy said I'm going back to bury my father, that would have meant that my dad's getting on, I don't know how long he's got to go, might have one year, two years, five years. I'd rather kind of hang around until that phase of my life is over. The guy who wants to go back and say goodbye, he's not sort of like, Jesus is not saying no, don't, don't wait for anybody. I mean, it's look, I want to go back, settle things down, I've got a few things happening, maybe a year, maybe two. I'll give you a call. Jesus, don't call me, I'll call you. You know, that kind of thing, you know? And Jesus sort of hitting that and emphasizing the urgency of the mission, you know, this is now, this is future, this is forward. And these guys just didn't, these ones mentioned in this, in Luke 9, just, just didn't sort of get it. And this all emphasizes just how crucial this looking forward is. What about the guys on the Emmaus Road, it's a story we'll look at around Easter time? A couple of guys have seen Jesus, these are disciples, they've seen Jesus dying across their hearts are heavy for them, it's all over. And there's a whole experience of just looking back, looking back to what could have been, looking back. Did Jesus really say, what did he say about the future? Guys, we're struggling, but their hearts were broken. And then Jesus joins them on the road, it's an amazing conversation. As he explains, the greatest Bible study ever known as Jesus explains from the Scriptures why he needed to come, why he needed to suffer, why he needed to die. What about this one which I really love? This is the Peter when he says I'm going fishing. It's recorded in John chapter 21 verse 3. What's happened is that Jesus has appeared, he's been raised, he's appeared once to the disciples, it's that Thomas incident, let me check your wounds, Lord and so on. And then Jesus disappears again, there's no sight of him. And the disciples are wondering, did that really happen, was that a ghost? Did we really see him again? And so a mood of uncertainty falls over the group. And Peter's the one who says, you know what, I can't take this, I can't take this uncertain anymore. I'm going fishing, it's what I know best. This is all over, this Jesus thing, I don't know but I'm going fishing. And the other say, if you read the passage of John 21, yeah look, we'll come with you. And then of course Jesus has his best and most exciting appearance yet in store for them because that night they try to catch some fish nothings there and the next morning they see Jesus on the shore and he invites them to throw the net over and they take a load of fish they can't handle and that begins the new encounter that he has with them, appearing them for their future ministry. Look guys, in all of these cases looking back was either a sign of disobedience or it was a sign of lack of trust, lack of faith, the absence of vision, it was an unwillingness to take Jesus or to take God seriously. That's the common theme with all of these instances of looking back. So here's Paul, one thing I do is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. You know if there's one thing, if there's one thing that distinguishes Christianity from other religions, it's the emphasis it places on the future. Not just you know, pie in the sky when we die, I'm not just talking about eternal life although that's the ultimate, that's the climax, but we don't just live here on this earth with nothing to do until we get there heaven. It's not that sort of future emphasis, no, no, no, it's about future outcomes. Future possibilities, future results, kingdom outcomes, that's what this future emphasis is all about. I mean even some of the words that are key words in Christianity denote the idea of the future. You think about them, renewal, transformation, vision, conversion itself, repentance. These are words that just by their very nature relate to the future. So many religions look back. So many religions look back, I come from a country, France, which is just reeks of Roman and French history and a lot of that's religious history and so many religions look back on the past to a person who once lived, they can point you to a grave site or a tomb, to an image of wood or stone or metal. They can refer you to a series of complex traditions and qualifying procedures before you can enter their particular faith and so on. Christianity looks forward, there's no grave, there's no tomb, there's no ritual, there's no qualification process. We don't check on your past before you can sign up to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He takes care of that through his death on the cross through the grace that he offers, Isaiah 43, 19, God was talking to the disillusioned children of Israel during the exile and he says, "Behold, I'm doing a new thing with God at all about newness." But you know guys, despite the emphasis on the future, looking back, looking back is an ongoing source of temptation for all of us. You know that? It really is. It might be looking back, kidding ourselves, we're doing better spiritually than we are because we're kind of trying to recall a time when we were doing pretty good and we're living off that past experience when that camp or that retreat, that yeah, I was really on fire then, that's how I was, maybe that's how I am now and deep down, that's not how you are now. We can kind of trade on past memories to substitute for present reality. Sometimes, you know, hankering for the past life, sometimes we can reach a point of vulnerability at Christian life where, you know, "Was my past life that bad?" You know, kind of miss those friends, kind of miss that, you know, I'm not doing so well spiritually and maybe that's, I need to give that another try and I know some people do that usually with pretty sad results, that's a form of hankering for the past or punishing ourselves over sins which God has forgiven, forgotten, gone, but we punish ourselves mercilessly. He's forgiven, we can't forgive ourselves. That's a dangerous form of looking back but I know afflicts a lot of people and if that's you tonight then you need ministry, you need help talk to somebody about that, maybe raise that topic during our ministry time in just a short while. Whereas, you know, looking forward requires faith, requires courage, requires resolve. Looking forward requires faith, courage and resolve. This is the DNA of the Christian life. This is stepping out in faith. This is submitting to the will of God. This is to see change and transformation. This is to deepen our faith, looking to the future to grow in Christ, to develop a vision of what's possible, to develop a holy discontent which is one of the topics that you'll be tackling in the study group this week, those of you who involved in our connection groups in a fantastic study that Sam has prepared, don't miss it. One thing I do is to forget what is behind me says Paul and reach toward that which is ahead. Guys, I don't know where you are tonight, are you one who's sort of tending to look back or you one who having embraced Jesus Christ, putting all your emphasis on, on, for, he's taking care of the past and look, it's natural to look back. I'm not saying to Jess when I look back on great memories and great, of course, but if your past is an inhibiting factor to your future progress to Jesus Christ and you need to get like Paul, one thing I do, forgetting what is behind me, I know that you'll take one story from France as I close tonight. I love history and I went to, we actually drove four and a half thousand kilometres. After four days in Paris we picked up a little Citroen and we took that little baby four and a half thousand miles or kilometres rather all around France going to some amazing places and we went to a city called Nim, it's built N-I-M-E-S. Nim is famous for a number of things. One thing I couldn't, you history buffs will probably know this, but one thing I couldn't get over in France was the influence of the Romans, not surprising I guess because Italy's the country next door, but tremendous influence by the Romans, particularly in the southern region. Nim's claim to fame is this, we can pop that up, Kim, this is, they have the best preserved Roman amphitheater in the world. You know there are 400 of these theatres around the ancient world, I didn't know that. Many of them in total disarray and ruin, and of course there's a one in Rome, and that's I think one of the largest, if not the largest, but this is the best preserved, you look at those walls and that's full 360, everything in place, despite the ravages of time, built in 70 AD, the apostle Paul would have been alive when that was built. Many of the disciples would still be ministering when that was built, only 40 years after the resurrection of our Lord. And there's the arena where, and that would seat 24,000 people. And so we went to this, I've wanted to visit this for years, it actually is the hometown of one of our members here at Northside, just another amazing Northside story, Valerie Forestier, who's one of our morning attendants, she was born in this town. So I had the headphones on and we're doing the tour thing, you know, and they're going into great detail about what happened in this arena. Today, by the way, it's a centre of bullfighting, among other things, concert but big bullfighting centre, I'm really sorry I missed that, but that's another season. But they're going into great detail as to how just decadent and shocking the Romans had become when this thing was flourishing. And it was enough to like turn your stomach really, the kind of activities that have happened in this arena. And they were talking about the gladiatorial fights and talking about how they would, you know, during the lunch break, they'd bring in prisoners sentenced to death and they would just figure out all kinds of ways to kill those prisoners, either get them to kill themselves or throw them to wild animals or get the gladiators just to run the sword through a couple of hundred at a time, just mind-blowing barbaric stuff. And then the commentary kind of turned in a way that just, I was sitting up about three quarters of the way up and it said, and then of course, there's what happened to Christians in this arena, and whoa, they had my attention, they said, in this arena, thousands of Christians were put to death, they were hurt in here, they were thrown to wild animals, they were cut down by gladiators, in some cases they were forced to kill each other, and then the remaining ones would be killed off, it just, but then the, it's purely secular, purely secular commentary said nothing the Romans could do here or anywhere else could stop the growth of this newfound Christian church, nothing. And then we're not to say how that it was through the Christians and ultimately through the conversion of Emperor Constantine that all of this was shut down and all of the temples were turned into churches, just amazing stuff. And I sat there almost in a very emotional moment just thinking, the obvious is my faith strong enough, could I've done that? And what was it about the Christian faith that enabled those people to summon the faith and courage, when all they had to do was just say, you know, Hal Caesar, don't really mean any joking, like, and you would have been free, like that would have been okay. What was it that made those people refuse to announce their faith in Jesus? What was it about the freshness, the newness, and you look around and you see the decadent temples and the idle worship, the worship of Caesar and that, where was that getting anybody, nowhere, that was taking nobody into a future of freedom from sin and freedom from guilt, either in this life and certainly nothing about the life in the future. These people, these men and women of the first, second, third centuries were gripped by an overwhelming sense of the newness of the gospel, to the point where they were prepared in saying one thing I do is to press on to that which God has called me to even in the face of death. It was probably one of the great highlights of the entire trip. I don't know, none of us would know if we could face death for our faith until we put to that challenge. Guys, what this does say to me is that this business of Jesus, this is real, this is shaped history. People have and are today dying for their faith, because it didn't take me long to let my thoughts run from this arena to places like Nigeria and Pakistan and the Sudan and places today where this kind of thing in a different form, but the reality of death for Christians is still taking place. Wow, are you looking forward or are you looking back? Have you embraced Jesus Christ? Are you fair at income? Are you on board? need to be.