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The Sermon for Sunday, October 4th, 2026, the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-19; Philippians 3:14-21; Matthew 21:33-44
The Text: Philippians 3:14-21
INTRODUCTION
The first half of the New York City Marathon is a party. You are swept along by 28,000 runners and the crowds lining the streets. You’re touring the ethnic neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens. You feel like you could run forever. At mile thirteen, you cross over into Manhattan and start heading north, away from the finish line. The crowds are thinner now. The party’s over.
At about mile 16 or 18, you hit the wall. You’re absolutely miserable. Physically and psychologically, you’re busted. I remember passing one of the first-aid stations, where runners were lying on cots — pale and gaunt, with IVs dripping into their arms. I thought, Those lucky dogs. At that point I began to despair. I imagined myself having to go home and tell everybody I didn’t finish. Why did I ever sign up for this race? What made me think I could do this?
That’s when it hit me: one way or another, I had to get to Central Park. I had no car, no money. I would have to get there on my own two feet. So I might as well keep running. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t think about the next six miles; just think about the next step. Gradually the miles will pass. And when you cross that finish line, it feels like glory — even when you’re in 10,044th place.
Some of you may be hitting the wall right now — feeling like you can’t go on, like you’ll never make it. Following Christ is harder than you ever imagined it would be, and you’re thinking about giving up — about doing something foolish. Don’t do it!
There’s no magic to endurance racing. It’s all about making it to the finish line.
— Bryan Wilkerson, “Endurance,” PreachingToday.com[1]
This sermon is about perseverance in the Christian way of life. St. Augustine of Hippo authored a treatise on the gift of perseverance, in which he wrote that when the saints pray to God that he will not lead them into temptation, but deliver them from temptation, they are in effect praying to persevere in holiness (Augustine: On the Gift of Perseverance, Chapter 9).
In our Epistle Lesson, St. Paul urges the Philippian Christians to follow his example of living the Christian life. In the preceding verses, he emphasizes that he has not yet reached perfection, but forgetting his past way of life, he reaches out to the things that lie ahead of him in the future (Philippians 3:12-13), for example, the resurrection from the dead.
The imagery he uses in this passage is that of an athlete running a race to receive the prize at the end of the race: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14, KJV). The “mark” is the goal of winning the race and receiving the victor’s crown or garland, and in the Christian race it is the prize of “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” which means the heavenly calling of God to live a virtuous life by the grace of Christ.
In this Christian way of life, though, we do not aim to compete with one another, or compare our progress to another’s, but to measure our own progress with respect to the character of our Lord Jesus Christ in his love and obedience to God the Father, and his love for all people.
Perseverance in godly living and obedience to Christ must be our goal, as St. Paul proceeds to say, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you” (Philippians 3:15, KJV). All who are mature Christians (KJV translates the Greek word with “perfect”) should have the same mindset of persevering in the godly life that should characterize the Christian way. St. Paul could confidently say that if his readers disagreed with his teaching in any point, God would reveal the truth to them.
In verse sixteen, the most reliable witnesses in the manuscript tradition simply have the words “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same.” They omit “rule, let us mind the same thing,” which the KJV includes, following most manuscripts. This teaching implies that we must not lose the progress we have already made in following Christ and living according to his will. We must not return to the sins and follies of the past. John Calvin, commenting on this verse, declares that as the Philippians had not yet learned the meaning of true perfection, they should imitate St. Paul in order to reach it, since in imitating him “all these virtues are included, pure zeal, fear of the Lord, modesty, self-renunciation, docility, love, and desire of concord.”[2]
St. Paul clarifies this teaching on Christian perseverance in godly living by exhorting the Philippians to be imitators together of his way of life and to take note of those Christians who conduct their lives as he does, setting a good example for others to follow (Philippians 3:17). This is an important goal, that of living always to please God and do his will.
In the very next verse, verse eighteen, St. Paul refers to many, of whom he has told them often before, and now tells them even weeping, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. If he had been referring to those outside the Christian faith who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, surely that would have been obvious! St. Paul weeps because these are those Christians who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, in plain contradiction of their heavenly call. Today even, we find some Christians living contrary to their call, even one or two bishops in the ACNA setting a bad example. What else does St. Paul say of those Christians who live as enemies of the cross of Christ? He boldly states that their end is destruction, that their god is their belly, that is, the satisfaction of their carnal desires, their pride is in their shame, and their minds are focused on earthly things (Philippians 3:19).
Instead of living as enemies of the cross, we must live as obedient soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Philippians were proud of their Roman citizenship, for their city of Philippi was a Roman colony founded by Augustus and had special privileges as a Roman colony. St. Paul then emphasizes that the citizenship (KJV translates the word as “conversation”) of Christians is in heaven, from which we expect our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ to come (Philippians 3:20). Since Christians are citizens of heaven, they must live according to God’s kingdom by doing God’s will on earth. This precludes all selfish goals and earthly minded desires since the cross of Christ is for us a symbol of self-denial and renunciation of selfishness. For our destiny is the transformation of our lowly bodies, so that we are given bodies that conform to Christ’s glorious body by the power of God who is able even to subject all things to himself.
CONCLUSION
The lesson we learn from all this is to persevere in the Christian way of life, imitating St. Paul and the Saints that lived holy lives pleasing to the Lord, not following bad examples of Christian leadership on earth, but making continual progress in finding out God’s will for us and living according to it. This we do by giving ourselves sufficient time every day to read the Bible, spend time in prayer with God, and share the Gospel with others by our example and ministry.
[1] p. 419, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.
[2] p. 280, Parker, T.H.L. (transl.): Calvin’s Commentaries on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965.