April 7, 2024
The Imperishable Crown
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Last week we looked at the Road to Heaven from 1 Corinthians 15 and saw that we could find ourselves at a few different locations along the road that leads us to Heaven. The first place we could find ourselves is just hearing the Gospel. Then we move into listening to the Gospel and wrestling with its truth and implications in our lives. The next step we take along the road is putting our trust and faith in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Once we take that third step we are ushered into the last step immediately. That step takes us into salvation and adoption into the family of God. As we look at last week’s message, we get much more than just an eternity in heaven with God. When we are adopted into His family after putting our faith in Jesus Christ alone, we begin to read in Scripture the things that are promised to God’s children. Those promises are now for us who have made Jesus the Lord of their lives to claim. But once we experience Salvation through Jesus Christ alone, we are not just to sit back and wait for our eternal reward, rather let’s stay with the road analogy, and say that we are put on another road ― a road to sanctification. We have talked about this before, but just to remind those who might not have been with us at the time. Sanctification is the process in which we are made to look more like Jesus in our lives ― through our attitudes, thoughts, and actions. While Salvation had nothing to do with us, it’s by God’s grace alone that we are saved through faith alone. Sanctification requires effort on our part. Along this road to sanctification, there are 5 crowns that the Bible says that we can obtain along the way. I want to start a new series this week in which we will examine these crowns that we can obtain along our path to sanctification ― what they mean, why they are important, and what we are to do to obtain them. The first crown I want to talk about is the imperishable crown that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 9:24.
We are not to be just bystanders as Christians. - 1 Corinthians 9:24
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!
Corinth was the location of the second most popular sporting event of Paul's day ― The Isthmian Games, which were one of the four great Greek athletic festivals in the Roman Empire with the most popular being the Olympics. When Paul is speaking about this Imperishable Crown, he’s doing so in a context that everyone at the church would understand. It was that of a race. Paul sets the stage for obtaining this first crown by talking about the effort required to obtain it. In this illustration the main idea is not that just one Christian will win this crown, but the focus is on the effort that the participant puts forth to win the prize. That’s why Paul says, “Run to Win!” When talking about the Christian race on the road to sanctification. Great effort is required of us if we want to win the Imperishable Crown.
The Christian life was never promised to be easy. Think about when Jesus called His first disciples. He called them to leave everything they knew as fishermen and to leave their livelihoods. What did He promise in return? An easy life? A full bank account? No, the promise Jesus made was only to become fishers of men. What about when Jesus talked about what it took to be a follower of Christ in Matthew 16:24-26? “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you gain if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Taking up our crosses to be followers of Jesus is not an easy path. No one who heard Jesus speak would think being a follower of Jesus would be easy when He spoke of carrying a cross. Christian Apologist of yesteryear, G.K. Chesterton once said that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” That’s what Paul is saying here. We need to run our Christian race like we are trying to “win” and it’s going to be hard work, especially if we want to obtain the Imperishable Crown. Maybe you are thinking, wait a second, I didn’t sign up for anything hard when I became a Christian. Well to address this, let’s revisit Romans 10:9. It says in Romans 10:9 that we are to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts God raised Him from the dead, and when we do, we will be saved. If we say we are a Christian, then we have made Jesus Lord of our lives (confess means it is real in your life or it’s true). To make someone the Lord of your life means that you have surrendered your life to that person and it’s them you follow in all your ways. When we trust Jesus as our Savior, we are now following Him wherever we go ― that’s why we are called followers. Jesus has called all His children into work He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). It’s hard work and it’s something we must give our all each day, just like a runner trying to win a race.
Our steps need to be focused on the eternal in our walk with Christ. - 1 Corinthians 9:25
All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.
When Paul speaks of athletes being disciplined, he is not speaking of just any athlete he is speaking of elite athletes, who are on another level. We will address this allusion shortly. The focus of this verse is on the award that is won at the end of the race. The athletes of the Isthmian games that occurred there in the city of Corinth would be rewarded a laurel of pine for their victories. Paul makes the point that as hard as those awards are to win, those trophies would soon fade away after time. Therefore, instead of focusing on things that are temporary in this life Paul is saying as we run our race, we need to focus on the things that will not fade away ― to focus on the things that are eternal. Ephesians 4:1-3 tells us that “Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”. What exactly does it look like to focus on the things that are above? Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19-20 “19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal”. Jesus is saying focus on the things that you can take with you, and that is other people. How do we invest our time and efforts in this life? We need to ask ourselves ― are we investing in things that have eternal significance or are we investing in things that might be here today and gone tomorrow? Paul says to win the Imperishable Crown we need to be focused on the eternal in every part of our lives.
Our steps need to be determined in our walk with Christ. - 1 Corinthians 9:26
So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadow boxing.
When we are watching a race, it would be odd for a runner, who is trying to win, to stop mid race or even start running backwards at any point before the race is over. If we ever saw this, we would think something was wrong. The same thing is true in our Christian race as well. Every step we talk about in our Christian life needs to be moving us closer to God. If not, like Paul, says we are just spinning our wheels or shadow boxing ― there is something wrong. Sure it might look impressive, but is it really doing anything? No, not at all. Therefore Paul is telling us we need to examine ourselves all throughout the race. We need to examine EVERY step we take and judge if our actions are moving us closer to Jesus. Some of those are very plain and easy for us to identify because they cause us to stop moving toward Jesus or they might even be moving us away from Jesus. Those are not the only steps that Paul is telling us to watch here. Remember how we mentioned before that Paul was talking about elite athletes when He was addressing the church with this metaphor? That comes into play in this verse because as an Elite athlete, there can still be some things that are good. However you still need to deny yourself to move forward at an elite level. As a matter-of-fact Paul states in the next chapter of this letter in 1 Corinthians 10:23 “You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial”. There are things we have freedom to do in our Christian walk that will not be beneficial to move us closer to Jesus at an elite level, or maybe there are things that will not help others do the same. There might be some things that could be considered good but might not need to be in our lives for a season to help our walk with Christ. It is hard to deny ourselves, but it’s exactly what Jesus called His followers to do ― to deny themselves. That’s what Paul is speaking of as he encourages us to press forward to obtain the Imperishable Crown.
Our steps need to be disciplined in our walk with Christ. - 1 Corinthians 9:27
I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I might be disqualified.
So how can we make sure we put forward the effort that is needed to win the race? How can we make sure we are focused on eternal things and not on things that will fade away? How can we make sure that we are running with purpose in every step along the way? The answer to all three is the same and it’s how Paul closes out this chapter ― it’s with discipline. Discipline is the key to obtaining the Imperishable Crown. It’s doing something that might not be fun, but it is required for a desired outcome. It’s self-control and it’s one of the fruits of the spirit. It’s present in all believers’ lives but can only grow when we cultivate it. So why do we need to apply discipline or self-control in our lives? Paul says it’s so we can share the Gospel with others. When we act like the world, very few people will believe us when it comes to the Gospel because we look just like them. When we work hard at our walk with Christ, when we focus on the things that matter in eternity and when we are intentional with everything, we do. make sure it is bringing us closer to God through obedience to His Word. However, doing it with self-control, people start to see Christ in us because we are acting more like Christ and less like them.
Therefore what are these things we need to have self-control over? I don’t know. Well, I don’t know about you. I know for me. I know the things in my life that are good but are not making me more and more into the likeness of Jesus. I know the things that bring a pride that should not be there, I know the thoughts that bring about feelings of entitlement that can sometimes affect us all, I know my weaknesses and my struggles ― the things I must exercise self-discipline with. My struggles are not your struggles. We all have our own. This morning we need to pray. Pray for God to show us the things we need to control in our lives to help us get closer to Him and become more like Jesus. We need to pray for the strength to run the race like we want to win it, even on the days we feel like we want to quit. We need to pray for eyes that look toward those things that can never fade away. We need to pray for proper discernment when it comes to us judging every step we take. We need to pray for God to show us what areas in our lives that we need to exhibit self-control in. We can run this race and store treasures in Heaven.
