Philippians 3:12-21 What's So Great About Sports?

I have a confession to make. I don’t really like sports. I do not describe baseball or football or basketball by listing off my favorite player’s stats. Instead, I describe all these pastimes with one word… “Sports.”

Jonathan is currently a Master of Divinity student at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and wants to become an ordained pastor upon graduation. Till then, this blog is in honor of his Dad, the real Pastor Romig. Please do not preach this sermon, but feel free to quote it using proper attribution (aff link). 

I recently went to a Boston Red-Sox baseball game. I sat in some costly seats, ate a bratwurst, and watched the game. I had a pretty good time but I didn’t really care when the Boston Red-Sox lost.

The reason I don’t care so much about sports is I don’t understand the purpose of sports. Is the goal of sports to score goals? Seems rather repetitive to me.

But this lack of purpose appears in other areas as well. Is the goal of life to live life? Seems rather repetitive to me. Is the goal of being godly to be godly? Seems rather repetitive to me. Is the goal of Christianity to be a Christian? Seems rather repetitive to me.

What should our goal be? If you believe in Christ, what goal should you have? What is the goal of our faith? If the goal of our faith is to have faith that seems rather worthless. But if God calls us to a higher goal in our faith, then maybe it’s not. Let’s see what God’s goal for believers is in today’s passage. Please read Philippians 3:12-21.

Our passage talks about striving for a goal. But what exactly is this goal? Is there anything distinct about it? And how should we respond to it?

God gives us the goal of perfection (Philippians 3:12-14).

First, we must recognize we are not yet perfect (3:12a).

All throughout Scripture perfection is used to describe Christ in heaven. It also describes the current spiritual state of all who believe in Christ. Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering [Jesus] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” When we believe in Christ we receive his imputed righteousness. He lived the perfect life we could never live so that when God judges us he doesn’t judge us on our merit but on the merit Christ has given to us through the cross.

Although all who believe in Christ are spiritually perfect in the sight of God our actions in this life still reflect our imperfect humanity (Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22, Col 3:9). We have many ways to grow in this life as God “sanctifies” us. So in verse 14 when Paul calls us to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” he is calling us to seek two things. First, we are to seek eternal perfection with Christ in heaven. Second, we are to seek to live our lives in a way that reflects that perfection. We can do none of this without first recognizing we are imperfect.

We have to recognize our personal depravity. Perfection begins by recognizing imperfection.

Second, we must realize that only God can make us perfect (3:12).

Paul writes in 3:12 that he has not yet been “perfected.” Notice how Paul writes in the passive tense. He writes this way because he realizes he is not responsible for his perfection. Paul does not grasp or create perfection for himself. God is the one who is responsible for any perfection Paul receives.

In our recognition of personal imperfection we have to realize God is the only one who can give us spiritual perfection. He gives this blessing to those who follow Christ. When we follow Christ, although we still make mistakes, we can trust that God is making us more holy (sanctification) and will one day bring us into perfection. This is why Christ has laid hold of us (3:12b). He lays hold of us so we might lay hold of those good works he has for us (3:12a).

Third, we must respond by striving for perfection (3:12b-16).

In 3:13-14 Paul writes, “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ.” Paul has a goal and the prize is gaining Christ in every way. It’s living like him now and being glorified like him in eternity. Paul calls us to continually forget the earthly and strain for the heavenly. We are not to kick back and relax because we know we’re getting into heaven. We are to live more and more in the presence of a new reality. We are to respond to spiritual perfection by striving to live for God now.

I recently went to the Olympics. I went to the Crossfit Olympics over by our town’s high school track field. Crossfit is a workout system like P90X but instead of doing it home alone you go to a gym and workout with a group and a trainer. Both my dad and my brother Nathanael do Crossfit and my brother was competing.

As part of his workout routine Nathanael had to push a wheelbarrow filled with 135 pounds of weight around the track one complete time. As he did this he stopped at various stages to do 35 kettle bell swings, 35 squats, 35 full push-ups, and 35 burpees. After watching Nathanael race around the track I came to several conclusions.

First, when I saw how ripped my brother was, I recognized how un-ripped I am.

Second, I realized that if I ever wanted to get as ripped as him I’d probably have to workout more and maybe even have a trainer help me get ripped.

Finally, I responded by working out harder on my own.

God gives us the goal of essentially “getting ripped” spiritually. He calls us to strive to live for him. We won’t realize perfection until eternity but we are to live in light of it today. Don’t just sit there and let other people get ripped spiritually. Start working out and start striving for God. God gives us the goal of perfection.

So we can see that we are not yet perfect. But we should strive for perfection anyways. And it’s really God working that perfection in us. How are we to seek this goal?

We are to seek the goal of perfection as a team (Philippians 3:15-19)

Teamwork means we play on an imperfect team (3:15-16). The Apostle Paul is about to call the Philippians to unity. In 3:15 Paul says, “Therefore let us, as many as are mature.” Another way of translating “mature” is “perfect”(3:15). Do you think Paul wrote this letter to Philippi because everyone was perfect? No. The Apostle Paul is using genuine first century sarcasm here.

In Philippians 3:16 Paul calls the believers to “be of the same mind.” Before they can all get on the same page they have to recognize they are imperfect. Sometimes it takes someone correcting us to realize we’re not yet perfect. Realizing we’re not perfect actual makes us stronger. We learn to rely on others and their strengths where we are weak. And we give our strengths where others lack.

It’s difficult to play on a basketball team where one player hogs the ball. The ball hog thinks they’re good but they’re usually not good enough.

If you’re in college, maybe your class has a “that guy.” “That guy” loves to challenge the teacher almost daily. Instead of listening to the teacher’s lecture the class listens to “that guy’s” lecture.

Small group experts teach small group leaders to watch out for “high verbals.” “High verbals” are not those people who talk but those people who talk too much. They just want to talk and talk and not let anyone else get a word in. When we serve Christ are any of us ball hogs, or that guy, or high verbals?

Maybe we’re good at spotting other people’s imperfection but not our own. When we seek to live for Christ we must recognize people aren’t perfect. Most importantly we have to recognize we aren’t perfect.

Teamwork works best when we model the best player (3:17). Paul commands the Philippians to “join in following my example” and “note those who walk so”(3:17). This is the only time in our passage Paul commands the Philippians to do anything. He commands them to become “fellow imitators” or to become like him. He commands them to “observe” or “watch carefully” those who walk uprightly.

So many people are visual learners. Paul is calling the Philippians to visually learn what it means to seek perfection. Do you want to be a strong Christian man or woman? Then find a strong Christian man or woman and learn from him or her. Do you want to be a faithful husband or wife? Then find a faithful husband or wife you can watch and learn from. Do you want to understand what the Bible means? Then find someone who knows their Bible and do what they do. Teamwork works best when we model the best player.

There are only two teams to play for (3:18-19). Philippians 3:18 is the only recording in the entire Bible of Paul crying. He cries for those who “are the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

The Judaizers were a religious group who were fighting against God’s grace. They wanted people to do works and obey various Jewish standards to be saved. 3:19 says, “Whose God is their belly.” Instead of glorying in God and his good work they glorified in their food laws. They wouldn’t eat unclean animals and only ate kosher foods.

The text also says, “Whose glory is in their shame.” The Judaizers were proudly telling the gentile believers to get circumcised. Even in today’s culture circumcision isn’t something we love telling people about. But they took pride in it and it’s wrong, “[they] set their mind on earthly things.” The result of this is “Destruction.”

Unfortunately, we either play for Christ and his eternity. Or we play for Satan and his eternity (3:18-19). There is no bench. Everyone must play. Will we play for eternal perfection? Or will we play for eternal destruction? We are to seek the goal of perfection as a team.

We see we are to seek this perfection with fellow believers in Christ. And that God gives us this goal of perfection. But if perfection’s goal is perfection, then that seems rather repetitive. What is the goal of perfection?

The goal of perfection is eternity (Philippians 3:20-21).

We seek perfection because we are already citizens of perfection. Our Thursday night college-aged small group is going through the Discipleship Explored study series of Philippians. The devotional illustrates this heavenly citizenship in a way I really like.

Imagine that for some reason we don’t want to live in America anymore. Let’s say we’ve decided to move to France. We’ve already received our citizenship we just have to wait seven months to move.

In the mean time we’re not going to spend our time focusing on American culture and what it means to be an American. We’re not going to invest in a large home or purchase a Ford. We’re not going to join the local baseball year-round league.

We are going to spend most of our time studying France, the culture, the location, the people, the politics, and everything about where we’re about to go. And we’ll spend lots of days sharing our excitement with others about how cool it will be when we move to France.

Christianity is the same way. Believers seek to live for Christ because we are already citizens of Christ’s city. We live for our “citizenship in heaven” and we “eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”(3:20).We seek to mirror our eternal perfection today because we’re heading home fast.

Eternal perfection is on its way (3:21). God promises that he “will transform our lowly bodies so that we may be conformed to [Christ’s] glorious body.” Perfection is a gift of God and this gift is coming soon. Our text’s last line says, “according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” God is the one who will give us this gift. He has the power to transform us. And that transformation is coming soon. The goal of perfection is eternity.

I have another confession to make. I’m not totally indifferent about all sports. I like the Olympics (the real Olympics).

When I say Olympics you probably think of the bronze, silver, and gold medals. Or maybe you think of the five-ringed Olympic logo. Or maybe you think about the 2012 summer Olympics in London. And when I say best Olympic swimmer I bet you think “Michael Phelps.”

Michael Phelps swam in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics. To train for the Olympics Michael Phelps trained six hours each day for six days a week.” In this routine he swam about 50 miles each week. He worked out so much he made headlines for eating and burning 12,000 calories a day. Michael Phelps strived for perfection and we are to do the same. God calls us to play hard for the perfect goal of eternity.

God is the one who will one day grant this eternal perfection by his grace. But he calls us to work continually for it today as we seek to serve him. Michael Phelps entered the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the goal of winning 8 gold medals—the most gold medals ever won in a single Olympics. God gives us a much higher goal than a bunch of gold medals. God calls us to play hard for the perfect goal of eternity.

Michael Phelps achieved his 8 gold medals. People are going to remember that for a long time. But God calls us to something that will last much longer. God calls us to play hard for the perfect goal of eternity.

One day we will see Christ in glory as he means us to see him. And we won’t be standing on the podium. We’ll be placing our gold medals at the feet of our king. We will be transformed and with Jesus. And that will be enough. God calls us to play hard for the perfect goal of eternity.

Photo By: Shalawesome