|
This is a text reader for the article below:
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Sunday 10/27/24
Title: The Finish Line
Message Video Player
Message Audio Player:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:21:26 — 152.0MB)
The Finish Line
Ok, in our lessons on the Gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, given to us we have addressed the SINGLE objective of this relationship and its two expressions.
The single objective is the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.
The two expressions of this are internal and external.
When the Spirit of God moved WITHIN us at the new birth, His inward work of conforming us to Jesus’ image began. This can be referred to as the inward work of the Kingdom of God. The ongoing realization of the reign of Jesus within our lives.
The Holy Spirit reveals, leads and guides us into all truth – the personification of which is Jesus Himself Who claimed to be, “The way, the truth and the life. The ONLY means by which one may come to the Father.” So conformity to Christ is the way leading to intimacy with the Father. As we submit to the inward rule of Jesus, we are being made ready for the eternal rule of the Father in the eternal Kingdom.
Then when the Holy Spirit comes UPON a believer, it is to empower them for the external WORK of the Kingdom. As our lives are transformed into the image of Jesus, we become living testimonies of His rule and reign.
Our transformation makes us lights in the world, makes us salt evoking thirst for living water in a world that is out of touch with their spiritual dehydration, we are cities on a hill for the lost to flee to for safety, we are a fragrance of Christ to the world.
Jesus is the One Who the Spirit of God reveals to us. This is so that we will be conformed into the image of Jesus AS HE IS REVEALED to us.
This transformation takes place AS CHRIST IS REVEALED TO US.
Last week we recapped the various heart responses to the indwelling Spirit of God which facilitate and cooperate with the Spirit’s inward work of transforming us.
They were…
- Loving God completely with all that we are
- This includes loving our siblings in Christ
- Respecting and revering Him
- Acknowledging Him in ALL OUR WAYS
- Treasuring His words within our hearts – which is to store up His words, valuing them above other things and making them the center most focus of our attention and lives.
Actually we have spent a number of weeks on this last point and much more could be said about that but we will attempt to build upon what we have covered rather than rehashing it once more.
The last two things we touched on from last week were that Jesus Himself IS our goal. He is our prize and that to obtain it, we will have to forsake everything – suffer the loss of all things. The parable teachings of Jesus tell of people who upon finding the kingdom of God which is represented as treasure and a costly pearl – sold ALL THAT THEY HAD to obtain it. He also answered the question of a young wealthy man regarding reaching the finish line. The answer was to sell all he had and come follow Him. Jesus taught that this begins with such simple things as what we eat and what we wear. That such can fill someone with darkness.
But the end of our studies thus far led us to Jesus Himself as the prize!
We mean this in both a literal and an existential way.
Existentially – we mean that our immediate goal is to be transformed into His likeness.
Literally – Jesus Himself is the end of our race. He is the prize.
This is just like what God told Abram,
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” – Genesis 15.
We call God a personal God and our interactions with Him relational not religious, but these words do not even begin to capture the half of it.
From the beginning, God has desired us for His Own. He has gone on record in scripture as saying He wants to live in us, abide in us, dwell in us, walk in and with us. That His eternal habitation will be with those who have loved and been faithful to Him – for so He has desired it.
We are the focal point of His desire. We are His treasure and as near irreverent as it sounds, we are His prize and the reward for His labor.
Souls are the harvest at the end of the age.
Recently, and I don’t exactly know why, though I have a few guesses – I have had mental visions of eternity.
When I say “visions” I do not mean literal visions given by the Spirit of God – though I cannot rule out that possibility – I just mean mental awarenesses and thoughts regarding the nature of eternity with Him that I had never conceptualized before.
I can describe it, but I cannot convey the experience. It would be like attempting to explain colors to a blind person.
In these thoughts I see Jesus. I interact with Him, just like I would a person in this life. Only my awareness of Him, my knowing of Him and His knowing of me is absolute.
It is the kind of penetrating knowledge which would make most people start searching frantically for a fig leaf. Yet somehow I am perfectly comfortable in it. It is something I have experienced in small fragments of metal whiffs which if I were fully exposed to it right now in the flesh it would no doubt overwhelm me and elicit an altogether different response than in my mental experiences.
I’m not remotely sure how God is pulling it off to be honest.
For some reason my natural, fallen human tendency to run for cover is suppressed and replaced with a sense of settled belonging. As if all my life this was all I had ever known.
I am aware of His God-ness and my creatureness, and yet it no longer represents the vast chasm between us it used to.
I am aware of a oneness with Him that in itself is a creative miracle – for how can something created become indistinctly one with its Creator and yet, still be distinctly the created? It defies logic!
It’s like trying to grasp the Trinity itself or that the Godhead never had a beginning. It is the kind of thing which you know you don’t presently have a hope of understanding.
At any rate – in the moments this happens I have an understanding and an awareness of our future in Him which make Him literally our great reward in ways I never anticipated before.
Historically I have harbored a type of rational / irrational fear of eternity. I’m confident of my eternity with Him, what I was not confident of was an ability to enjoy it.
I call it both rational and irrational because in the human mind, my fear makes sense, but in light of Who God is – it makes no sense at all.
Closeness, intimacy, vulnerability have always made me uneasy. Not in the passive sense of being known – I tend to be transparent with people and would be more so if it would not be so off putting to most. So it isn’t regarding some shame which makes me wish I was known a little less completely. It has more to do with my inability to desire an ongoing exchange between me and another – or in this case thousands of others.
The thought of eternal intimacy with God, His children and every other heavenly creature often evoked in me a desire to find some corner of the universe to go hang out in – isolated and alone for vast amounts of time.
I harbored the fear that after I had experienced all there was to experience, see everything there was to see a few hundred times, have every conversation one COULD have – I’d get implacably bored and just wish to end my existence.
My only means of countering this was knowing that clearly God was somehow immune to this feeling. That They are able to not only cope with it and but exist in unending joy in that reality. So I’ve made the decision to trust that I would be empowered to do the same – even though I could not imagine it.
Now however, I can actually grasp that potential with a modicum of understanding.
You see what makes life worth living here on earth is the unknown, discovery, intrigue, mystery and the awareness that time to discover these is limited.
In eternity we will have none of that.
We will know as completely as we are known – from day one.
What I did not anticipate was that these commodities we value so much in our earthly temporal existence are like childish emotions which will be replaced by mature ones.
It’s like God so created this earthly life so as to prepare us for eternity with Him. That all we experience here are the juvenile emotions and attitudes of a spiritual teenager who has not yet breached into adulthood.
Peace, settled knowing, calm but powerful and unending delight in what IS known is part of our future.
It really is beyond being able to describe – but I believe it to be a gift God has given me as a type of reward for making the decision to trust Him regarding my eternity. Not my salvation, but in trusting Him with my eternity – that I will not eventually long for non-existence which is impossible.
This may all fail to be the example I want it to be to aid you in grasping God as our finish line and eternal reward, but I’m trying. I imagine I am not alone in this foreboding but I do imagine I am a member of an exceedingly small group who think of such things to the point of genuine concern over them.
All of this to say – God is our prize. And this is true in alarming and surprising ways that will never end!
Paul assured us that everything we go through in this life, in order to hold tightly to God -serving Him in reverence and faithfulness will be so rewarded that once we can see the end from the beginning, what we went through that seemed SO COSTLY at the time, will seem embarrassingly trivial by comparison.
I want to introduce the scriptures we are going to think through today by reading the lyrics of another song.
It is from an underappreciated and ultra talented Christian artist named Steve Taylor. The song is taken from his epic album entitled “Squint” so called due only to a single use of the word in the lyrics of the song I am going to read you which appropriately fitting for our teaching today is called “The Finish Line”.
I believe most people do not like Steve’s writing because it is a little cerebral as is the composition of the music itself. But with an extensive vocabulary, a well versed grasp of history, entertainment, religion, psychology and politics Steve Taylor conveys much in very confined statements with every song.
In the song “The Finish Line” he begins from a spectator’s view of a young man who comes to Christ with hope and an awareness that the journey will be difficult.
The observer sees his efforts and is initially encouraged at his determination.
As the boy becomes a man, and the journey to the finish line becomes riddled with oppositions and difficulties – there is a brief interval during which his allegiance and to a lesser degree the solidity of his belief falters. The man becomes cynical and the observer takes notes.
Then when, with renewed effort, the man takes back up the struggle and through many bruises reaches the finish line, the observer cheers. It really is a great song and goes like this…
Once upon an average morn
An average boy was born for the second time
Prone upon the altar there
He whispered up the prayer he’d kept hid inside
The vision came
He saw the odds
A hundred little gods on a gilded wheel
“These will vie to take your place, but Father
by Your grace I will never kneel”
And I saw you, upright and proud
And I saw you wave to the crowd
And I saw you laughing out loud at the Philistines
And I saw you brush away rocks
And I saw you pull up your socks
And I saw you out of the blocks
For the finish line
Darkness falls
The devil stirs
And as your vision blurs you start stumbling
The heart is weak
The will is gone
And every strong conviction comes tumbling down
Malice rains
the acid guile is sucking at your shoes while the mud is fresh
It floods the trail
It bleeds you dry
As every little god buys its pound of flesh
And I saw you licking your wounds
And I saw you weave your cocoons
And I saw you changing your tunes for the party line
And I saw you welsh on old debts
I saw you and your comrades bum cigarettes
and you hemmed and you hawed
and you hedged all your bets
waiting for a sign
Let’s wash our hands as we throw little fits
Let’s all wash our hands as we curse hypocrites
We’re locked in the washroom turning old tricks
deaf and joyless and full of it
The vision came
he saw the odds
a hundred little gods on a gilded wheel
“These have tried to take Your place, but Father
By Your grace I will never kneel
I will never kneel…”
Off in the distance
bloodied but wise
as you squint with the light of the truth in your eyes
And I saw you – both hands were raised
And I saw your lips move in praise
And I saw you steady your gaze for the finish line
Every idol like dust, a word scattered them all
and I rose to my feet when you scaled the last wall
And I gasped when I saw you fall in His arms
at the finish line!
That so aptly and succinctly captures the journeys of all of us to some degree or another that it is nearly tangible.
So let’s read a few statements from our New Testament authors which are intended to steady our gaze for the finish line. These are in perfect step with the inward work of the Holy Spirit Who alone empowers us to reach the finish line of Christ in us which IS the empowering of our testimony before the world.
Philippians 1:1-30,
“(1) From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.
(2) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
(3) I thank my God every time I remember you. (4) I always pray with joy in my every prayer for all of you (5) because of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. (6) For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (7) For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God’s grace together with me.”
“(8) For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (9) And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight (10) so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
(12) I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel: (13) The whole imperial guard and everyone else knows that I am in prison for the sake of Christ, (14) and most of the brothers and sisters, having confidence in the Lord because of my imprisonment, now more than ever dare to speak the word fearlessly.
(15) Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.
(16) The latter do so from love because they know that I am placed here for the defense of the gospel.
(17) The former proclaim Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, because they think they can cause trouble for me in my imprisonment.
(18) What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, (19) for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
(20) My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die.
(21) For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.
(22) Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: (23) I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, (24) but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body. (25) And since I am sure of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for the sake of your progress and joy in the faith, (26) so that what you can be proud of may increase because of me in Christ Jesus, when I come back to you.
(27) Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that – whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent – I should hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, (28) and by not being intimidated in any way by your opponents.
This is a sign of their destruction, but of your salvation – a sign which is from God.
(29) For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ BUT ALSO TO SUFFER FOR HIM, (30) since you are encountering the same conflict that you saw me face and now hear that I am facing.”
Romans 8:1-39,
“(1) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (2) For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
(3) For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (4) so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
(5) For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.
(6) For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, (7) because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.
(8) Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
(9) YOU, HOWEVER, ARE NOT IN THE FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF INDEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES IN YOU.
Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to Him.
(10) But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.
(11) Moreover if the Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the One Who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through His Spirit Who lives in you.
(12) So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (13) (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
(14) For all who are habitually led by the Spirit of God are the mature children of God.
(15) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by Whom we cry, “Abba, Father.”
(16) The Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. (17) And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) – IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM SO WE MAY ALSO BE GLORIFIED WITH HIM.
(18) For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. (19) For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the mature sons of God.
(20) For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God Who subjected it – in hope (21) that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
(22) For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. (23) Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
(24) For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? (25) But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
(26) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. (27) And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will. (28) And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose, (29) because those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
(30) And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
(31) What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
(32) Indeed, He Who did not spare His Own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
(33) Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God Who justifies. (34) Who is the one who will condemn?
Christ is the One Who died (and more than that, hHe was raised), Who is at the right hand of God, and Who also is interceding for us.
(35) Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
(36) As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
(37) No, in all these things we have complete victory through Him Who loved us!
(38) For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, (39) nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Blessings!
