All In: Grow in Christ | Philippians 3:12–4:1

Lao Tzu, a renowned Chinese philosopher, once said, “A journey of a thousand li, or steps, starts beneath one’s feet” and later John F. Kennedy would famously update the statement in a speech saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Many of us desire to know Christ. We like him. But problem is a desire to know Christ is not the completion of the Christian life but the initiation of it. Many unfortunately view salvation as an event but it’s more than that, it’s a journey.

Paul wants to know God, but he recognizes this truth: Knowing God is not a destination, it's a journey.

The fact is, truly knowing God is a process of becoming more and more like Jesus; of GROWING in him. This process is known as sanctification.

Walter Hansen agrees:

The Letter to the Philippians C. Pressing on toward the Goal (3:12–14)

Paul knows that his passionate intention to know Christ does not in itself make him perfect. His decision to consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ was only the beginning of a daily discipline to press on toward the goal. The authenticity of faith in Christ cannot be measured only by the intensity of one’s initial decision to receive Christ. Receiving Christ is a lifetime adventure.

Salvation is not an event. There is an event, but there is also a now, not yet sense to it. It’s completed in Christ but incomplete until Christ completes it at the end of time.

Salvation involves 3 steps:

Justification - KNOWING CHRIST

Becoming one with Christ is just part of the process. We want people to desire to worship, to desire to come and see what Jesus is doing, but that’s only part of the process, not its completion.

Sanctification - GROWING IN CHRIST

Being transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ, to reflect his nature, to reflect his desire, to be like him in character and in nature are the desire of every true believer this side of glory.

Glorification - GOING WITH CHRIST

Being finally translated into our perfect form by the Holy Spirit at the resurrection of the dead, our job is to help others be saved so they can be glorified too! Going in the power of the Holy Spirit for the gospel of Christ.

Paul is saying he hasn't been glorified - I am not already perfect, but that he is being perfected and is "pressing on" to make that perfection in Christ his own.

So how do we GROW in Christ like Paul? How do we like Paul “press on?”

I see five steps, five attitudes that Paul notes as being essential for us to “press on”.

STEP 1: FOCUS ON (v. 13) - Growing with Christ require that I have a central focus

Philippians 3:13 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Paul starts by saying he hasn’t acheived perfection. The word for perfection in the Greek is teteleomai and it means “to bring completeness, wholeness.” Pau understood that he wasn’t perfect, but he also understood that the only way to achieve it is to be perfectly focused on it.

The word also has the connotation of maturity. Paul is calling us to spiritual maturity, to be perfected by God.

We must focus on what we want to become.

2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

In this Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to focus.

Spiritual discipline and spiritual discipleship begins with focus. To grow in Christ we must focus on Christ and what he’s called us to become. That’s why Paul says that he “forgets what is passed” and then he...

STEP 2: PRESS ON (v. 14) - Discipleship is Hard work…DO THE WORK

Philippians 3:14 ESV

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Pressing on has the idea of intensely run after something. It’s a word that mean to zealously follow, to fervently move towards. Many of us seek God like I sought an A in Chemistry hoping tha through osmosis, i.e. sleeping on my textbook and not actually studying it, I would receive the knowledge necessary to grow.

But the Christian walk is just that, a walk. It requires effort. As Christians we are to seek after God. To follow after him.

You cannot grow in Christ unless you strive after Christ.

Hebrews 12:14 ESV

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Holiness, discipleship is a pursuit of holiness. It doesn’t just happen. Daily disciplines like prayer, bible study, waiting, fasting, community, accountability are all necessary for spiritual growth.

And then we must:

STEP 3: HOLD ON (v. 16) - Discipleship is a lifelong process that must be lived.

Philippians 3:16 ESV

Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

The Christian life has its ups and downs. For many of us we can look back to a time when we may have been more passionate for God then we are now.

Why? No one stays passionate for God without holding on. Part of the Christian life is holding on to the "progress we have already made."

We all tend towards entropy. Entropy is the natural order of the universe, all things, given enough time will gradually decline into disorder and into death. At it’s core entropy means that on the much grander scale of the universe, energy is becoming more evenly distributed and this will eventually bring about the death of everything. Not just everyone, but everything.

Left to our own devices, we wear out. Like a pot on a stove will eventually cool unless the burner is turned on, so in the Christian life our love for Christ will wane and die if we do not stoke the fires of our hearts.

We must press on toward Christ to counteract the entropy of sin in our lives.

How often have I met people who at one time were passionate for God. Recently I met a woman who confessed at one time she was a youth minister at her church and taught the glories of God to the students in her care, but now she was an agnostic, fallen away from the faith.

I’ve seen it over and over. I’ve experienced it in my own life and among my family. Life will suck the joy of Christ out of our lives if we do not daily seek him, if we do not strive after him.

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 144: Diligence

According to the Associated Press, on December 14, 1996, a 763-foot grain freighter, the Bright Field, was heading down the Mississippi at New Orleans, Louisiana, when it lost control, veered toward the shore, and crashed into a riverside shopping mall. At the time the Riverwalk Mall was crowded with some 1,000 shoppers, and 116 people were injured. The impact of the freighter demolished parts of the wharf, which is the site of two hundred shops and restaurants as well as the adjoining Hilton Hotel.

The ship had lost control at the stretch in the Mississippi that is considered the most dangerous to navigate. After investigating the accident for a year, the Coast Guard reported that the freighter had lost control because the engine had shut down. The engine had shut down because of low oil pressure. The oil pressure was low because of a clogged oil filter. And the oil filter was clogged because the ship’s crew had failed to maintain the engine properly.

Furthermore, this failure was not out of character. According to the lead Coast Guard investigator, the ship’s owner and crew had failed to test the ship’s equipment and to repair long-standing engine problems.

Sudden disasters frequently have a long history behind them.

But we cannot do it alone.

STEP 4: CONNECT TO (v. 17) - Discipleship is not a SOLO project.

Philippians 3:17 ESV

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

Paul gives us the next key to discipleship and it’s this: We need each other. Paul encouraged them to “imitate me”.

Here’s the truth. Regardless of how our culture pushes us to “abandon the church” or encourages us to be solo Christians we can’t do it alone.

I believe nothing has been more damaging to Christians in our world today then the solo Christian movement in the church today. We need each other.

STEP 5: LOOK TO (V. 20-21) - Discipleship's end goal is Christ's glorification of us.

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Ultimately if we’re going to make it to maturity it’s going to be because we have our eye on the prize: Maturity in Christ. That’s the ultimate Goal for every Christian. But it’s also a goal that will only be achieved when Christ comes and releases us from the bondage of sin. So our duty, our calling is to long for, and strive towards that day.

Paul will say this later in Philippians 4:8

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Paul’s encouragement is this: quit focusing on the sin around you. Quit looking at your failure and the failures of others. Quit bathing in the hurts of the past - realize who you are in Christ and who you will be:

You are a redeemed, restored, renewed and loved child of the King.

So what do we do until that day when Christ becomes fully known to us? We seek to grow in him each day.

Your life needs to be lived as if each day, each moment is an opportunity to take a step towards God. Will you take that first step into growing in Christ today?