What is it that makes us pursue the prize? It is the expectation. It is the hope of the coming of Jesus Christ. who will change us to be like him. We have to keep that focus clear.
Mm. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Think of everything that God expects of you in the Christian life. For example, you need to learn God's Word, resist temptation.
Love others. Serve your church. Sacrifice for your family and tell others about Christ. It's an exciting, joyful life, the life God meant you to live, but it certainly takes commitment and hard work.
So, how do you keep going? How do you keep running this race of faith? Where do you find the strength to fight sin and endure trials? John MacArthur answers those questions today as he continues his practical series, Reaching for the Prize. If you have your Bible, turn to Philippians chapter 3 as John begins the lesson.
Philippians chapter 3. Verses 17 through 21. We're talking about pursuing the prize, pursuing the goal. Christ-likeness must be the pursuit of every believer. It is the single basic duty of every Christian.
We live, however. In a sort of non-committal time period. We live in what Sorokin called a sensate culture. That is a civilization that is much more concerned about pleasant emotions than it is about productive efforts. What is it that makes us pursue the prize?
It is the expectation. It is the hope of the coming of Jesus Christ who will change us to be like Him. We have to keep that focus clear. If you're going to pursue Christ's likeness with the passion with which Paul did it, you're going to have to get your focus out of this world and into the next.
So let's see if we can't help you do that. Look at verse 20. Our citizenship is in heaven. from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ.
So, what he's telling us is the Lord is in heaven and he's coming back. You remember in John 14, he said, I'm going away. And if I go, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2 and 3. I am the way, the truth, and the life passage.
So Jesus said, I'm going away. In my Father's house are many rooms. I'm going to prepare them for you. I'm going to come back. I'm going to get you.
I'm going to take you to be with me.
So we're waiting for Christ. We're not waiting for an event, we're waiting for a person. We're waiting for a person. If I know Jesus is coming, that's motivation. That's motivation.
I want to be ready when he comes. I want to be faithful when he comes. I want to show him that I've served him. But it not only is motivation, it's also an accountability point. It's not just sheer motivation of love and joy and desire for reward.
There's also a threat there, isn't there? Because I know that I don't want to face the Lord having lost what I have wrought, as it says in John's epistle. Look to yourselves that you lose not the things that you have wrought, but that you receive a full reward. I know it's going to be a time standing before the judgment seat of Christ. When the true assessment takes place.
And I am While not under condemnation, I certainly feel the threat. That some of the things I've done in my life are going to be burned up.
So, on the one hand, it's a positive motivation. On the other hand, it's kind of a negative threat. It's an accountability point that I have to face to the Lord. There is accountability there. That's why in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says, look.
We have to wait until the day when the secret things are revealed. Then shall every man. Have praise from God. God's going to open the secret things of your heart and find out what's worthy of praise. But thirdly, This hope in the coming of Christ is not only a motivation.
And a point of accountability, but it's our greatest security because it's a promise. If I go, Jesus said in John 14, I will what? Come again. That's a promise. Acts 1:11.
The same Jesus who was taken up from you shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. John chapter 6, verse 39. You can know this for sure. It's the Father's will that all that the Father gives him, he will raise up at the last day and will lose none of them. Read that, John 6:39, and following.
That's a promise. So as I look at the second coming of Christ and the promise of being with him, I have motivation, I have accountability, and I have security in that. It doesn't matter what happens in this world, and nothing is going to change that. Why? Because my inheritance.
is undefiled. Incorruptible and reserved in heaven for me, says Peter. Isn't that a great statement? 1 Peter 1, it's reserved for me. We need to live in the light of the second coming of Christ.
We need to live in the light of the return of Jesus Christ. We, in a sense, are not in heaven. Obviously. But in another sense, we live in the heavenlies. Ephesians 1.3, you've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.
What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? Ephesians 2.6. That we have entered into the heavenlies in Christ. What do you mean by that?
Well, we are not in the place called heaven, but we are experiencing heavenly life. We have the life of God within us. We are under the rule of the heavenly king. We live by the rules of the heavenly kingdom, the word of God, the standards of righteousness. You see, we share the heavenlies.
We are ruled by heaven's king. We live for heaven's cause. We obey heaven's laws. We are to lay up our treasure in heaven. We are blessed in the heavenly dimension, the spiritual dimension of our new life in Christ.
So we're tasting the heavenlies. This is what the hymn writer called a foretaste of glory divine. We are a new order of person. living in a new community, experiencing a new fellowship. that will be full-blown.
in the place called heaven.
So Paul says, look. You belong in heaven. That's your place. You're going to be there forever. Right now, we're looking for the Savior.
What's our attitude? Notice it, verse 20: eagerly waiting. Eagerly. Waiting. This wonderful verb is the same one.
that we find used throughout the New Testament to refer to the Second Coming. It indicates an eager anticipation with patience. That's the best way for me to sum it up. An eager anticipation with patience. With patience.
And as I said, is commonly used in those passages which refer. to waiting for the second coming. Where is heaven? People always ask, where is heaven? Let me tell you what the Bible says.
The Bible says heaven is up.
Okay, up. That's all it says. Come up here. Revelation 4.1. You say, how far up?
Way up. Far up. How far?
Well. It's called the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12.2. You say, how long does it take to get there? You ready for this? Jesus said to the thief on the cross: Today you'll be with me in paradise.
All we know about it, it's up, it's far, and we get there fast. The Bible says absent from the body Present with the Lord. Far better to depart and be with Christ. Marvelous. That'll tell you a little bit about what happens after death, if nothing else, about the speed with which you move.
What is heaven like?
Well, you can look at Ezekiel chapter 1. Read Ezekiel 1. That's an Old Testament description of heaven. Don't read it now. And when you're done reading it, you'll scratch your head and say, What did I just read?
I don't understand it. And that's because you can't comprehend its beauty. It's just colors and wheels and lights and. It's fabulous. Then turn to Revelation 21 and 22.
You'll get a little more. Careful. perspective on what heaven is like. Read Revelation 21:22. You'll read about jewels and light and gold and angels and temples and the presence of God.
You'll read about the absence of tears and death and crying and sorrow and pain. You'll read everything's perfect, and the redeemed of all the ages and history are there. The holy angels are there.
So that's heaven. It's got a capital city called the New Jerusalem that has 12 great pearls that are its 12 gates. Its cubicle. It's incredible. Heaven is absolutely indescribable.
It's everything that the scripture can describe, and infinitely beyond our mind's grasp. But that's our place. And that's where our Savior is, and that is the place from which he comes.
So we eagerly wait. We're waiting for him. In our eagerness to wait, We are motivated to be like him. We have a sense of accountability and we have a sense of security because we know he's coming, because he always keeps his promise.
So we intensely wait, apek dekamai. We wait with eagerness and intensity and yet with patience. For his coming. It's not an event. Look at the end of verse 20.
The Lord Jesus Christ, we wait for a person. That's the prize. Beloved, the goal we pursue all our life is to be like Christ, the prize we get. It is to be like him when we see him.
Now let's go to verse 21. Why are we waiting for Christ? Why do we want him to come? Listen to this. Because he will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory.
That's why. Why are we waiting for it? Because we want to be transformed. Because we're groaning for the redemption of this body. We'd like to get rid of the sinful flesh.
We want to be like Christ, perfect. And again, if you don't want to be, then you like your imperfection. And if you like your imperfection, the way it is, is because you like your sin. That's how warped our thinking can get. He will make us like himself.
He will transform. the body of our humble state. That's our unredeemed flesh. You see, we've already been made a new creation in the inner man. But the inner man is incarcerated in unredeemed flesh.
We're a prisoner locked in unredeemed flesh, and that's not just... epidermis and tissue, that's The mind of the flesh and the flesh Lusts, it's deeper than just tissue. There is a humanness, an unredeemed humanness. In which this new creation dwells. And the new creation longs to be liberated.
That's why it's called the glorious liberation of the children of God in Romans 8. We want to be set free. Paul called it the body of this death. From which he longed to be liberated.
So we're waiting for that redemption. And he will transform the body of our humble state. And you say, when does this happen?
Well, listen carefully. If you die now, or anytime before Christ comes for his own, Your body goes into the grave. Your spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5, absent from the body, present with the Lord. Philippians 1 says, far better to depart and be with Christ.
So when you die, your spirit goes immediately to be with Christ. And you go fast, as I said. Into heaven. You become one of the spirits of just men made perfect. Heaven is now occupied by spirits made perfect.
They're waiting for their bodies. The bodies are awaiting the coming of Christ. The Bible says when he comes for his church, the dead in Christ do what? Rise first, and the ones that are alive, they'll just go up and be transformed on the way because we haven't died if we're alive at that time. But the bodies are going to be resurrected in the future.
Then later on, the Old Testament saints' bodies will be resurrected.
So even the spirits of just men now made perfect in heaven are waiting their bodies. And they have to have a body because they are designed by God for functions in service and worship throughout eternity that are best expressed through a glorified body as well as a glorified spirit. Yeah. People say, well, what happens when you die here? Your spirit goes immediately be with the Lord.
But your body has to be changed. When Jesus comes, it says in verse 21: we're waiting for him, he will transform the body.
Now you say, well, mine might not be any, but a pile of dust. That's fine. He'll still transform it. That word transform metas schematidzo. Have you ever seen a schematic?
We get the word from that. A schematic is simply the internal design of something. And what it says here is God is going to re-schematic us. He's going to totally transform us. It's a new scheme.
It's refashioning, redesigning. We will be given a whole new body adapted to an eternal holy heaven. Say, what will it be like? Look at Christ after his resurrection. He ate?
He talked, he walked, he also appeared and disappeared. He also flew through space from earth to heaven. Look at what Christ was like after the resurrection. He was recognizable. He was identifiable.
And yet he was transcendent. All of that, perfect, holy. Glory. adapted to the new environment. Our new body is described in some detail in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
You can get out your Bible and read, and you'll find yourself thrilled. As you see, some of the things that are true, we are corruptible, we will be raised incorruptible. We are sinful, we will be raised perfect, holy. And when our spirits are in glory, they're not yet complete until that body comes. And the combination of the two suits us for service forever.
So, what will we be like in heaven? We will have a perfect soul, or a perfect spirit, a perfect inner part, and a perfect form, a perfect outer part, the combination of which will perfectly manifest. The glory of God. There will be the elimination of all the sin that remained in us. There will be the elimination of everything that inhibited us from doing exactly what God wanted.
There will be perfect freedom from all evil. Get this, there will be no sin, no sorrow, no pain, no disappointment, no doubt, no fear, no temptation, no weakness, no failure, no hate, no anger, no quarrel, no more prayer, no more repentance, no more confession, perfect pleasure, perfect knowledge, perfect comfort, perfect love, perfect joy. You say, I like it better here. No, you don't. That's how warped our thinking gets.
So That's what we wait for. You say we'll be transformed into what? into conformity with the body of His glory. That's absolutely unbelievable. First John 3:2 says, We'll be like him.
for we'll see him as he is. You know, it would be enough if God just saved us from hell. It would be enough if God just saved us from hell and more than enough if He gave us heaven. It would be enough if he just saved us from hell, and more than enough if he gave us heaven. But beyond that, he makes us like his son, and he does it all by grace.
And we don't deserve any of it. What magnanimity, what generosity, We will be conformed, sum morphos, made in a similar form with Christ, our morphos. will be like Christ. That word conformity there, sum morphos. Is the same word used in Romans 8:29, where Paul says that God's goal in saving us was to make us.
conformed to the image of his Son. One in form with his son. Morphé, we get the word English word morph. We talk about an endomorph, an ectomorph, a mesomorph, different forms. We will be in the form of Christ.
Unbelievable.
So, when we die, we are instantly a perfected spirit. When Christ comes, the bodies are raised, and we are made instantly in the perfect form of Christ. As a perfect holy instrument, for service, worship, and praise. With never an evil impulse. Never an errant movement.
with a mind full of the pure light of God's truth. A brain Of undiluted love, undiluted joy, undiluted peace, undiluted goodness, emotions in perfect expression at their fullest and yet in perfect balance. We ought to long for that. With all our hearts. You say, are you sure he can do it?
Yeah, look at the end of verse 21. He's going to do it by the exertion of the power that he has, even to subject all things to himself. That's another way of saying It's such a huge statement. You could preach months on that whole thing of the plan of God to subject the universe to his authority. But he's going to use the same power that he has to subject the whole universe to himself.
If he can subject the entire universe under his sovereign control, then he can certainly raise your body. That's the point. The word subject means to arrange in order, rank, or to manage. He has the power to order the universe. He has the power to line it all up.
He has the power to manage it. Listen, our Lord had the power to create the world. He has the power to providentially control the world. He has the power to miraculously overrule natural law. He has the power to give life.
He has the power to take life. He has the power to save. He has the power to subdue. He certainly has the power to raise from the dead. And if you have any question about it, look what he did for himself.
It's the same power by which he subjects the whole universe. Read 1 Corinthians 15, 24 to 27, and read how Christ will take the whole universe over and make all his enemies his footstool. And he will make everything in the universe subject to himself. And then, having taken the universe captive, he will then offer it up to God and it will resolve in the fullness of the Trinity. and redemptive history will have run its course.
When he recaptures the whole fallen universe. and gives it back to God. He has the power to make us like Christ. That's the promise part.
So, in this hope that we have in the coming of Christ, there's motivation, there's accountability, and there's promise. Where's your focus? Where's your focus? I hope it's on heaven. I hope you're not so distracted that you've missed it.
I want to close by sharing with you a little story that really moved my heart. It's a story of a man who really lived. His name is Focus, P-H-O-C-A-S. He lived in the fourth century. He has been revered through the years as a real Precious saint of God, Lived in Asia Minor.
He lived in the city of Sinope. And he had a little cottage outside the city gate. in which he grew a garden. The whole story of the man is recorded by one of the ancient bishops and somehow has found its way down through history. The story goes something like this: Travelers passed his door almost all hours of the day and night as they went in and out of the city gate.
And by the holy ingenuity of love, he stopped as many of them as possible. Were they not weary? Let them rest themselves, sitting in his well-tended garden. Were they in need of a friendly word, he would speak it to them in the dear Master's name. But then quite suddenly one day, life was all changed for Phocas.
Orders went out from Emperor Diocletian that the Christians must be put to death. When the persecutors entered Sinope, they were under orders to find a man by the name of Phocas and kill him. About to enter the city one hot afternoon, they passed in front of the old man's cottage and garden. By the gate. In his innocence, he treated them as though they were his warmest friends, begging them to pause a while and rest themselves.
They consented.
So warm and gracious was the hospitality they received that when their host invited them to stay the night and go on their way refreshed the next day, they agreed to do so. And what is your business? said Focus unsuspectingly. And then they told him that they would answer his question if he would regard it as a secret.
Well, it was obvious to them by now that he was a man to be trusted. Who were they? Why, they were the soldiers of Rome searching for a certain Phocas who was a Christian. And please, if their kind host knew him, would he be so good as to help them identify him? After all, he was a dangerous follower of this Jesus about whom the Christians talked, and he must be executed immediately.
Well, I know him well. said Focus quietly. And by the way, he's quite near. Let's attend to it in the morning. His guests having retired, Focus sat thinking.
Escape? That would be easy. He had only to leave under cover of darkness and at daybreak he could be at least 20 miles away and he knew fellow Christians who would give him hospitality by hiding him and when the persecution had passed he could reappear and once again cultivate his little garden. The decision to flee into safety or stay unto death was apparently made without struggle or delay. We can only imagine what he was thinking.
Out into his garden, Phocas went and began digging in the middle of the night. Was there any earthly thing he loved better than this little plot of ground, the odor of the humus, the feel of the soil, the miracle of fertility? What were his thoughts as he went on digging?
Well, there was still time to run away. But the Savior didn't run. He didn't run from Gethsemane and he didn't run from Calvary. Or perhaps he thought of his fellow Christians to whom he might go for rest. Would not his coming endanger them?
And as for these executioners that now were soundly sleeping under his roof, they were after all only men who were carrying out orders. And if they failed to find their man, their own lives, likely as not, would be taken and they would die in their sins. Deeper and deeper focus dug. Before dawn he was done. And there it was.
His own grave. Morning came, and with it the waking of the executioners. I am focused, he said calmly. And we have it on the word of the Christian bishop who recorded the story that the men stood motionless. in astonishment.
They couldn't believe it. And when they did believe it, they obviously were reluctant to perform an execution without mercy on a man who had shown them nothing but mercy. But it was A duty. He reminded them. that they were required to perform.
And he was not bitter at them. Besides, Death did not terrify him. His heart was filled with hope of heaven. Toward them he bore nothing but the love of Christ. And moments later, it was all over.
The sword had done its work. and the body of Christ's love-mastered man lay in the stillness of death in the garden. He loved So dearly. The hope of heaven. Removes fear.
I hope we can live a little more like that and a little less the way we are prone to live in pursuing the prize. You're listening to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Thanks for tuning in today. John's current series is titled Reaching for the Prize. And now as we bring this study to a close, perhaps you're a bit weary of the race.
The prize is out there in front, but your energy is waning and the pursuit has lost some luster. John had some encouragement for people in that situation. Let's hear what he had to say. It's helpful for us today. I say, be not weary in well-doing, because you'll reap if you faint not.
So, when you think you can't go any longer, press on because there may not be an immediate earthly reward. but there will be a heavenly reward. We have to live in the light of that. We have to live in the light of the final verdict on our life and ministry being in the hands of God. It's a small thing.
Paul says, what you think of me or what I think of myself. But the one who will judge me is the Lord. And then shall every man have praise from God. You know, anybody can keep going when it's easy. The ranks thin out a little bit when you have to keep going when it's hard.
But therein lies the greatest blessing and the greatest reward.
So understand that you've got to look beyond instant gratification. You've got to look beyond some immediate satisfaction. And isn't that the whole point of Philippians 3? That the prize is Christ's likeness in the future when we see Him and we're like Him because we see Him as He is.
So realize that even when you can't see any earthly gain, when you can't see any immediate earthly reward, all of this is piling up. Your eternal reward, your eternal joy, and defining your eternal service to the Lord. That's right, friend. And John's study called Reaching for the Prize will remind you of all the reasons you have to fight sin, to love the Lord, and to grow in godliness. It could be especially helpful if you're discouraged right now and wondering if the Christian life is really worth all the effort.
to download Reaching for the Prize and to listen to these lessons once again at your own pace, get in touch today. You can visit our website gty.org. There you'll download all four lessons from reaching for the prize free of charge in MP3 format. And our website is also where to go for the transcripts of those sermons. They're free to download as well.
So get the MP3s and the transcripts for these lessons when you visit gty.org. And while you're at the website, take advantage of the thousands of other free resources available there, including multiple daily devotionals and hundreds of articles on the Grace TU blog. And also keep in mind John's commentary on Philippians. Our current study comes from Philippians. The commentary dives deep into each verse, unpacking profound insights from the book, that are truly life-changing.
The Philippians commentary costs $19 and shipping is free. To order, visit gty.org or call us at 80055 GRACE.
Now for the entire Grace TU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace TU Television Sundays on DirecTV Channel 378. And then be back tomorrow as John MacArthur answers the question: if heaven is guaranteed for Christians, Why does it matter how you live until then? It's another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
