this one thing

Phil. 3: 12-14

How many times in your life have you heard yourself saying something to the effect…”boy, if I could just have one thing in life, I would like….”  Or maybe it might be “boy, if I could just do one thing in life, I would…”  And this morning, I would ask you to finish the sentence in your own mind.  If you were granted just one wish, you  could name just one thing and it would come to pass,  what would it be?

Now chances are, you actually ended up with two things you wanted.  One was probably the first thing that came to mind, and the second was something that you thought might be the answer that I was looking for.  But I would suggest that the first answer might give more clues about what you feel is really important in life than perhaps the second answer.

I heard a man say once "Just do one thing right in your life and you'll be way ahead of most people."  Having a singular purpose can be a good thing.  My mother used to say I had a one track mind.  The problem was,  it was going in the wrong direction.  But according to the Apostle Paul, there was one thing that he was focused on above all others.  And he tells us this as an example to all those that have been born again, that there is one thing that should be our driving ambition in life.

Last week, we looked at the preceding verses 8-11, and we looked at one thing I know, this week we’re looking at one thing I do.  The one thing I know is the driving impetus for the one thing I do.   And the one thing I know refers to knowing Jesus Christ in an intimate, personal way.  Not just knowing the facts about Him, but having received Him as our Savior, we know Him personally, and that knowledge becomes the catalyst for the rest of my life.

One thing I know refers to the surpassing value of that relationship with Christ.  Compared to all that the world has to offer, nothing compares with knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior.  He is the source of real life, He is the light in the darkness, He is the truth and the only way to the Father.  And we can know the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe personally.  He knows our names.  He knows our thoughts.  He knows us to the point of numbering the hairs on our head.  And in spite of all our shortcomings, He loves us to the point of dying for us.

And in verse 9, one thing I know means that I am found in Him as righteous, not by my works, but by the grace of God which was lavished upon me through faith in Christ.  I hope that is clear to each of you folks here today.  No matter what you have done, no matter how far you have fallen, absolute righteousness can be yours simply through faith in what Christ did for us on the cross.  You don’t have to work for it, you don’t have to clean yourself up first.  You simply come in faith to Jesus as your Savior and ask Him for forgiveness, trusting that He is able to provide it, because He paid the penalty for your sins, and as a result of that faith the Bible promises that God will credit you with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  He transfers your sins to Jesus, and Jesus righteousness to you.  I hope that you all have made that transaction by faith.

Then in verse 10, one thing I know means that once you have made that transaction by faith, the exchange of my sins for His righteousness, then we will know the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.  That means that I know that once I was blind but now I see.  Once I was dead in my sins and now I am made alive in Christ.  That’s what it means to know the power of the resurrection.  It’s the power of a new life.   The resurrection symbolizes a new life in Christ, and the fellowship of His sufferings symbolizes taking up our cross and following Christ – dying to the flesh even as Christ suffered and died in the flesh for sin.

And then in vs. 11, one thing I know is the promise of the resurrection from the dead.  The real hope of Christianity is not necessarily a better life now.  That may or may not happen as a result of becoming a Christian,  but the real hope is the promise of life beyond the grave.  No matter how great of a life you might think you can have right here, the truth is by the time you get it together, it’s already coming to an end.  Life is short.  But it was never meant to be this way.  Life the way God created it was eternal.  In the beginning there was no death. God created life.  Sin brought forth death. Rom. 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  But because God never stopped loving us, He came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus, and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, that we that believe in Him would be saved from death unto life. 

Now this outward body of mine continues to die. But Rom. 8:10 says that “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”  One day, unless Christ comes back first, they are going to bury this body in the grave.  And I believe that Jesus taught us in the story of Lazarus and the rich man that our spirits will be alive and at rest in Paradise. 

But 1 Thessalonians gives us the promise of the resurrection of the dead. 1Thess. 4:13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” The resurrection is the goal line.

So that’s what Paul is talking about when he says, this one thing I know.  He knows Christ - all that Christ represents,  the promises of righteousness and resurrection that are true because of Christ.  And then Paul says, knowing this, this one thing I do.  The knowledge of Christ is so critical, so important, so life changing, that I am willing to focus all my energy, all my passion, all my resources on just one thing.  Now what is it that Paul says is the one thing we are to do, now that we know Christ?

Look at vs. 12, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 

What are we to do?  What was Paul doing now that He had this saving knowledge of Christ, this intimate personal, relationship with Jesus, the Son of God?  The answer is that he pressed on.  He says “I press on” twice, in verses 12 and 14.  And though he doesn’t use those exact words, he describes the idea a third time in verse 13 by saying he is  “reaching forward”.  It’s the same idea as pressing on.

Paul is using the image here of a runner that is running a race as a metaphor for the Christian life.  One thing I do, he says, is I’m going to press on in this race.  I’m going to focus all my strength and all my energy on this one thing, running this race.  The one thing that I know from the previous verses is that this salvation that I am called to is of a surpassing value.  Nothing else in the world compares to it.  Nothing in this world can compare to the glories that God has prepared for us in the next world.  Paul had seen such things, by the way.  In 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about being caught up into the third heaven and seeing things he wasn’t allowed to talk about.  But he did say in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man cannot even comprehend the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.  And so Paul knows that there is a prize in this race which is greater than anything this world could possibly offer.  It’s worth all of my focus. It’s worth every sacrifice.  And so that one thing I know becomes my impetus, my zeal, my passion for this one thing I do – pressing on in this race I am running.

Now there are certain elements to this pressing on that bear our consideration.  The first one is found in the phrase in vs. 12, “Not that I have already obtained it…”  what is it referring to?  Well, back up a verse.  It’s obviously referring to the resurrection of the dead.  Now that’s such an obvious answer that at first you  might think that it couldn’t be right.  He must be talking about something else, because obviously if he is alive to write this letter he couldn’t be dead enough to be resurrected.  But what he is alluding to here is explained by the rest of the statement, “or have already become perfect.” 

And that word perfect causes a lot of people even more problems.  Because they think of perfection as somehow we are supposed to  become perfect people, without sin, without problems, everything about us is perfect.  But that isn’t the correct understanding of the word.  The word in the Greek is teleioō (te-lā-o'-ō) which means to complete, to accomplish, finish, to bring to an end.  So what we can understand from that then is that Paul is saying there is still an element to his knowing Christ, to his salvation, that is yet to be accomplished, that hasn’t been completed yet.  And that completion will be accomplished at the resurrection.

That completion which comes through the resurrection is talked about in Romans 8:22.  “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

Listen folks, I love this life as much as any of you do.  But I also know that the whole creation, this whole world is under the curse of sin.  Death is a part of this world.  We try to hide from it.  We may try to mask it.  We may even try to glamorize it.  But the sad truth is that this world is broken.  People get sick and die.  Things break and grow old.  What joy we have is short lived.  By the time we finally acquire enough money and the right toys and enough wisdom to actually really enjoy life the whole ride is over.  And death swallows up all our accomplishments.

But knowing Christ gives us hope.  We have the promise of eternal life.  We have the promise that one day God will set all things aright.  God will punish evil and reward good.  God will bring about justice.  And God will do away with death forever. 1Cor. 15:26            “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

Skip down a few verses after that to 1Cor. 15:51 and it says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"   That is the completion, that is the perfection that Paul is talking about, when we receive our glorified body, when we our sin nature is taken away, and we become like Jesus, when we see Him face to face, and when we are seated on thrones with Christ.

This is what we were laid hold of for by Christ Jesus in verse 12.  This is why Jesus came to earth, to give us eternal life, that we might have real, abundant life, everlasting life, a life free from sin and the death that comes from sin.  This is why Jesus laid hold of me and I trust He has laid hold of you.  I love that expression, don’t you?  Laid hold of.  It sounds like the kind of  back woods, southern redneck expression I grew up around.  “Be still boy, or I’m a gonna lay hold of you!”  Sounds like something my dad would have said.  But what I really like about it is Paul says in verse 13 that  “I haven’t laid hold of it yet”, but Christ has laid hold of me.  And that is the sum of my assurance of salvation right there. 

Like the illustration I’ve used so many times.  (repetition is the key to learning)  When my children were little I said to them “Hold my hand when we cross the road.”  And I wanted them to learn to listen and obey and to trust me.  But their assurance of safety wasn’t dependent upon them holding onto my hand.  Their assurance of safety was in the fact that I was holding onto them.  I had them in my hand.  I laid hold of them.  And Christ has laid  hold of me and He isn’t letting me go.  John 10:28 Jesus said, “Nothing can snatch them out of my hand.”  I like that.

Now there is another element of the one thing I do.  And Paul says it’s forgetting what lies behind.  And this is so important folks.   Listen, God has saved you from your past.  God has delivered you from your past.  You need to get over your past and get on with the future. Churches are full of people who are holding all kinds of grudges, bitterness, baggage and junk from the past and they're paralyzed by it. The recollection of what you were in your former unconverted state shouldn't paralyze you and it shouldn't discourage you. Disappointments and temptations of the past must not depress you. If you’ve fallen or stumbled, you need to get up and brush yourself off and get on with the race. Paul says you shouldn’t be looking backward, but looking forward and pressing onward.

Some of us are guilty of looking backwards at the past like Lot’s wife.  She looked back with longing at the exceedingly sinful city of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And God turned her into a pillar of salt.  Some of you are looking backwards like the Israelites looked back at Egypt after God delivered them from slavery.  You may have once been a slave of alcohol, you may once have been a slave of drugs, you may once have been a slave of sex or any number of other things that you once were enslaved to.  And you have been looking backwards at some of those things and thinking, “You know, I had a lot of fun back then.  I kind of miss some of my old friends.  I miss some of the old ways.”  The Israelites said, “we miss the leeks and garlic and vegetables that we had in Egypt.”  What fools!  They were willing to swap their future and their freedom for a pot of food.

I pray that none of you are so foolish today that you find yourself looking backwards at what you are supposed to be running away from.  We are in a race folks.  We are running for an inestimable prize.  Don’t be distracted by the baubles, by the pretty lights and dazzling colors of the world.  Keep your eyes fixed on the goal.

1Cor 9:24 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

I like that phrase in vs. 13 back in our text again, where Paul says forgetting those things behind, I’m now reaching forward to what lies ahead.  This word for reaching forward is “ep-ek-tā'-no-mī”.  It means to stretch out towards, or to stretch oneself forward.  Have you ever seen that happen in a race?  I did once.  In high school we had this guy on our team named Dicky Stratton.  He was a pretty normal looking kid.  But he was a good athlete.  But the secret to Dicky’s strength wasn’t in his height or his fitness or even his ability, but in his heart.  He had the ability to be able to call upon some inner reserve and do extraordinary things.  I remember one time we had a track meet.  And there was this relay race of like four guys where they handed off the baton to the other guy.  And I remember that they put Dicky as the last guy to get the baton. And in the beginning, our team wasn’t doing all that well.  I think we were in third place as the race got underway.  Finally, they got to the last leg and our guy handed off the baton to Dicky.  And we all started cheering him on from the stands, chanting “Stratton! Stratton! Stratton!”  And about halfway into that last lap, suddenly something changed in Dicky.  He seemed to stretch out.  His stride lengthened, and his whole body changed as he put everything he had into that last leg.  It was like he changed into high gear and just moved out.  And one by one he passed up the other competitors and Dicky came first across the finish line.  He was totally spent.  We were going wild in the stands and Dicky could bearly stand up. 

Dicky ran with his heart.  He ran beyond his ability by reaching deep down inside himself and finding some sort of reserve.  Listen folks.  If you know the one thing, that is you know Christ Jesus as your personal Savior, then God promises you that He will provide the power within you to do the one thing He requires of us;  to run the race, to press on.  He will give you that inner resource to stretch forward beyond your normal capability so that you might reach the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus.  Listen to   Hebrews 12:1  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So the one thing I do is to press on to the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  I’m going to discard every hindrance, every sin, every weight, every distraction and run with patience the race that is set before me. The race by the way is a marathon, not a sprint.  It takes patience, endurance, steadfastness.  Secondly, the race takes a continued focus. There are a lot of people who are like the guy who jumped on his horse and rode off madly in all directions, expending a lot of energy and a lot of fury and a lot of action,  but no real  progress.  They are like some people that I have known and still know in ministry that haven’t grown in the Lord hardly at all in the ten years or so I have known them.  They say they know the one thing that I know, but they haven’t done the one thing that we are called to do.  They haven’t pursued the upward call of Christ.  They are way too concerned with the  cheap pleasures and tawdry promises of this world than they are with the surpassing value of the future that God has prepared for those that love Him. 

So I will leave you this morning with a couple of questions.  Have you been laid hold of yet by Christ?  This is first and foremost the most important question of your life.  Do you know Him with a personal, intimate knowledge?  Can you say with Paul, this one thing I know, I know the power of a new life in Christ.   I know that I have a righteousness which comes from God on the basis of what Christ has done for me. 

And secondly,  if you know Him, then what are you doing?  What are you doing with your life?  This one thing I do.  What are you known for doing?  If you were to die today, what would they say at your funeral was the one thing that characterized your life?  What is the one thing that you do above all others?  I pray that the one thing I do is to run the race that is set before me, not looking behind, or being distracted, but stretching forward, reaching out for the prize and that I will be found being faithful when Jesus comes back and the trumpet sounds and calls me home.  And I pray that I may find that you will be running right along side of me.  Racing for the finish line.  To finish well, to finish strong.  This one thing I do.  This one thing we do.  Let’s run this race together, encouraging one another, helping one another, but most of all, fixing our eyes on the prize of the upward call of Christ.  It could be any day now.  I want to be found running with all my might when that day comes.  Let’s pray.