Pressing On

Scripture

Philippians 3:11–16 KJV 1900

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 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. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Overview

My sermon this evening will focus in on Philippians 3:13–14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Yet any discussion of these verses seems like it must begin a bit before those verses. So lets do a quick overview of this whole passage, then hopefully dig with more clarity into the two verses I want to focus on.

Verse 11 I read here simply to add context. In verse 12 when Paul talks of not having yet attained he is speaking of the not yet having recieved the resurrection of the dead, primarily and only because he had not yet died physically, so he could not yet have experienced the physical resurrection of the dead. So later when he talks of not yet having apprehended this is one of the things he is referring to. The next part of the verse; Either were already perfect. Not that hard to understand until you get to verse 15 and read, Let us, as many as be perfect. Or until you remember that we are called to go on unto perfection, and we are commanded to be perfect. Paul tells people to go on unto perfection, he claims to be perfect, and he says that he is not perfect. So lets slow down and put it together.

These two words are the same Greek root word, with a different suffix. They are accurately translated as perfect, but the different suffix adds a different connotation.

We might say of someone who lived a long time ago that they lived a perfect life, yet someone who is still alive cannot yet have lived a perfect life, even if they are currently living a perfect life because it is not done yet. When Paul says he is not perfect he is saying he has not yet completed the life that God has asked him to live, not that he is currently in opposition to God. When he says, as many as be perfect, he is referring to all those who are currently living with their hearts wholly surrendered to God.

Perfect can mean beyond possibility of improvement, or it can mean to be exactly as something aught to be. Paul also may be alluding to the idea that he is not without flaw, or without the ability to be improved in his life, but later he shows that he is living exactly as God desires that he does. It is still possible for Him to grow spiritually and in character, though he is in another sense perfect, for he is doing exactly as he ought to do. His heart is fully surrendered to God and yet he is still capable of growth in Christlikeness.

Let me put it another way. If I brought a balloon up here with me and started to blow into it until it expanded would it be full of air? Yes of course, it is full, but it can still become larger. It never becomes more full, it simply grows in capacity. It is entirely full even at a small size and yet is capable of being so much more. Our capacity to become more like Christ is never ended here in this life. We are always capable of becoming better people and better Christians. At no point do we make it! At no point have we reached a point of becoming beyond improvement or as a balloon beyond expansion. Yet we can be completely filled with the Spirit and cleansed of every impurity. So in one sense we can be perfect, exactly as God asks that we be, we can be full of the Holy Spirit and entirely cleansed of all impurity. And in another sense we are never beyond God’s ability to improve us and make us better and more like our great example. In fact if we ever think that we are beyond the possibility of improvement, it is clear and evident that we are not full of the Holy Spirit. In one sense it is necessary to realize that we are imperfect to be perfect in Christ.

Paul in verse 13, which I will go into in greater detail later says that he has not yet apprehended. Again speaking of the perfection that of the glorified state which we receive in heaven. Now I just threw another term out there and I want explain it quickly. We speak often of Salvation. That is repenting of our sins, turning from them, and being justified by God through His work on the cross and beginning to walk in the light. We speak of sanctification, by this we mean that second work of grace whereby the heart is cleansed from the nature of sin and filled with the Holy Spirit for we have a twofold sin problem. There is the problem of the sinful things that we have done. This problem is taken care of in Salvation. Jesus casts our sins into the sea of his forgetfulness and remembers them against us no more. Yet there remains the problem of the nature of sin that we each have inherited from our fathers, but don’t blame them. When Adam chose to eat the fruit in the garden death was the result. Eternal spiritual death for every single one of his descendants. That’s everyone. We have a problem, but God has a solution. So we commit sin, but God forgives. We still have the sinful nature that Satan corrupted back in the garden. We do not need forgiveness for this because it is not a choice that we made. Yet this problem will inevitably ruin us spiritually if we all this nature to continue to exist. Yet we can do nothing to resolve this problem. God can. As we begin to walk with God He will bring to light things that displease Him and eventually we will come to another crisis experience where we realize that the corruption runs deep and that we are powerless to solve the problem. At that point we turn ourselves over to God fully and allow Him to work. This is illustrated by C. S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia, who may not have even believed in the theology of holiness, by I think it is Edwin who becomes a dragon because of his greed and pride. When he tries to clean himself he finds that he cannot rid himself of this dragon skin. Every layer he peels off reveals another layer, deeper and deeper it goes. Aslan has to step in and help. He believes that Aslan is killing him and yet he must surrender and let Aslan work or this dragon skill will surely kill him. He lets Aslan work and finds his life once again by placing it entirely in the hands of Aslan. This is the same for us. We find our lives by placing them entirely in the hands of God.

This second crisis where we are cleansed and filled with the Spirit of God which we call sanctification allows growth as a Christian to truly begin. It is not our end goal, and so while as many as are cleansed and filled and therefore are in the one sense perfect, and Paul claims to be later in the passage, at no point on this earth are the effects of the fall fully reversed. Errors in judgement, errors even in character, and mistakes of action still exist so in another sense though we are as we ought to be as long as we are obeying God we are not in that other sense perfect.

So what is glorification? This is just the term that we use to describe how we will be in heaven. I don’t want you to get hung up on terminology, so if you don’t like the terms just ignore them, but it is impossible to preach clearly without using certain terminologies.

So Paul has not yet apprehended the glorified state, but when we look further in the passage, he says let us walk or live according to what we have already attained. If you notice in verse 15 he says, 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. This is what is referred to as walking in the light. We never become beyond improvement, chastisement, or instruction. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. So as we walk in obedience to God, even if we have been made perfect in the sense of being cleansed from all sin and filled with God’s Holy Spirit we still have much to work on. As we stay in the light of God’s leading he will correct and guide.

Paul says, let this mind be in you. This introduction has been just as long as many of my sermons, but I truthfully have not yet begun my outline. So what mind is Paul talking about?

Well let me give you my title and outline for tonight.

My title this evening is Pressing On

I want to talk this evening first about What Paul has not yet apprehended and then about what he has apprehended.

Secondly I want to talk about Forgetting What is behind

Thirdly I want to talk about Pressing On

So let’s get started!

What has not yet been apprehended

Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:

The introduction and context hopefully answers the question of what Paul means when he says he has not yet apprehended. He has not yet apprehended or recieved or gained that glorified state that we will exist in in heaven. Why do we need a term for this and what is it talking about? Isn’t the whole work of God in our lives a re-creation of sorts into what we were originally intended to be? Yes indeed, and yet at no point in this life do we cease to feel pain, both physically and emotionally. I am sure that with this frigid weather, with the snow, with the sudden warm and cold snaps, with shoveling, I am confident that many of us are feeling the effects of the fall in these days. Pain and aches are the norm for many, myself included. It is simply something we deal with as long as live on this earth. Sickness too has afflicted so many of us from Thanksgiving all the way through New Years, so many of us have been struck down with a very rude illness. Truthfully it has been an unpleasant illness, not that any are pleasant but this one seems especially resilient and effective in making people miserable. Yet much more serious than aches and pains and sickness of the body is the pain of the spirit. I think especially this evening of Pat Brubaker. Her son Reuben has apprehended that eternal reward, but he has left this earth with no warning and before his own mother. I cannot imagine the pain that this must leave her in. A pain much more severe than any physical ailment.

These things are results of the fall. God created us to live forever, to work without pain, to live without illness. We were never meant to face the death of loved ones. These things will never be faced again in heaven. That is what we mean when we speak of being glorified. How our bodies will be in heaven.

Paul had not yet apprehended that, Nor have we.

What has been apprehended

Yet some things have been apprehended or can be here on this earth. Paul had apprehended the full message of the gospel both in knowledge and in life. Paul had already been made perfect here in this life. He had been forgiven for his sins. On the road to Damascus he had been cast to the ground and faced with the evil deeds that he had done, and he was faced with Jesus. And his response was to recognize that Jesus was Lord. He asked, “What will you have me do?” and then moved on in obedience to Christ. 3 days later God worked a miracle on Him again. Giving him his sight and most probably cleansing not only the outward ailment that God had stricken him with but also the inward nature of sin that had come from the fall. Paul had appended to this much and so can we. Paul also had apprehended the true gospel in knowledge. We learn from his letters that Paul after his conversion spent 3 years being taught by God Himself in Arabia before returning to Jerusalem and being welcomed by the apostles and Barnabas.

It is unlikely that such a privilege would be afforded to any of us. Yet Paul communicated what he had learned in letters that we have. We too have access to this knowledge! We also have access to this same teacher that taught Paul. God is not silent. In fact, He says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally! I hesitate to even illustrate this point because I do not want to claim any of my thoughts or words as God’s and yet God specially ministered to me in this way in preparation for one sermon. I felt, and as we know our perceptions and feelings are prone to mistake so I reserve the right to be incorrect. Yet I felt that God put the idea of the fear of God on my heart. I spent 2 weeks studying what the Bible taught about the topic and I didn’t feel that I had enough of a grasp of it to try and preach it, but I also felt that God was asking to preach it. It seemed to me that God brought the verse that I just referenced to my mind and told me to begin to write, even though I was still confused. As I sat at my computer typing I found that it became more and more clear and as I reached the conclusion of my sermon the whole topic opened up before me and God had granted me understanding. We still have the same teacher that taught Paul. We can apprehend that which Paul has apprehended. We can receive forgiveness for sins no matter what they be, we can receive cleansing for the nature of sin, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and we can receive the teaching and the guidance of God.

Forgetting what is behind

Forgetting the former vice

The next phrase I want to highlight is this, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind.” So many wonderful messages have been preached on this text and we know it well. Forgetting those things which are behind. We are not longer tied to the past us. When we become Christians we are given new life. Paul certainly had to forget what was behind for him to be able to live each moment. We see that Paul did occasionally refer back to what had been. He calls himself at one point the chiefest of sinners. He did not mean when he said that that he currently was more wicked than anyone else, but that in his life he had been wicked to a degree hard to equal. Paul surely was stuck with the vivid memory of stones raining upon Stephen until Stephen was dead. Paul was in a real way responsible for that death. He surely remembered the screams of family members as he dragged their loved ones off to prison, perhaps to be executed for believing in Jesus. Paul had been the fiercest opponent of the early Christian church. He was the chief persecutor of those who followed Jesus. By the authority of the chief priest Paul hunted down and hauled away Christians. That’s what he was going to Damascus for. Paul was gifted with new life by Jesus Christ and was able to live as though he had not been the fiercest opponent to Christianity. In fact he became its greatest missionary!

What is it that had you chained? God calls us to forget the former vices, the former iniquities. He calls us to forget who we were and press on in the reality of who we now are through Jesus Christ!

Forgetting the former virtue

Yet we are called not only to forget the former vice, but also we must forget our former virtue. Do we rest on our laurels? Do we sit and think that we have done enough for God. Perhaps the greatest preacher other than Jesus to ever preach, St. John Chrysostom puts it this way. “NOTHING so renders our real excellences vain and puffs them away, as to be remembering the good deeds we have done; for this produces two evils, it both renders us remiss, and raises us to haughtiness.” If we wish to grow in virtue, if we wish to become more like our great example, we cannot put our focus on the transformation that God has already wrought in us. We must be reminded that though we have apprehended certain things, we have not yet apprehended our heavenly home or our glorified bodies. We have not become beyond the possibility of God improving us. The greatest saint cannot compare himself to the vilest sinner and think that he is good enough, he must strive to become more, to become better. To continue to grow in grace. It is a part of being perfect to realize that we are not perfect. It a part of being exactly like God wants us to be and like we should be to realize that we still have room to improve and grow.

Pressing On

Pressing On to further virtue and Christlikeness

This leads us into our theme for this evening. Pressing on! Forgetting the former vices, forgetting likewise the former virtues let us press on to further virtue and Christlikeness. The next phrase in our passage is “and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus.” On this thought Chrysostom adds “For what made him reach forward unto the things which are before, was his forgetting the things that are behind. He then, who thinks that all is accomplished, and that nothing is wanting to him for the perfecting of virtue, may cease running, as having apprehended all. But he who thinks that he is still distant from the goal, will never cease running. This then we should always consider, even though we have wrought ten thousand good deeds; for if Paul, after ten thousand deaths, after so many dangers, considered this, how much more should we? For I fainted not, saith he, although I availed not, after running so much; nor did I despair, but I still run, I still strive.” “Thus too we should act, we should forget our successes, and throw them behind us. For the runner reckons not up how many circuits he hath finished, but how many are left. We too should reckon up, not how far we are advanced in virtue, but how much remains for us. For what doth that which is finished profit us, when that which is deficient is not added?” We can never allow ourselves to become complacent in our lives, to be satisfied with how much we have accomplished, but we must continue to press on.

Pressing on to our Eternal Home

Yet we do not press on for any purpose here on this earth. Yes we seek to imitate Christ, yet Paul said I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. This thing, this prize he had not yet apprehended. He had not yet attained. What is that thing? That is the resurrection of the dead that we began our message this evening talking about. We must press on for we have not yet attained either. We have not yet died, we are not yet in glory and so eternal life in one sense is not yet ours! It is promised to us, and that promise is sure, but we have not yet recieved. Though victory is sure, it is only by finishing the race that we receive it. If we cease in our striving, if we stop short we will not receive our eternal home, our glorified body, our prize of the high calling of God. We do not yet hold in our hands that prize. Chrysostom again describes for us that prize “And what is this prize? No palm branch; but what? The kingdom of heaven, everlasting rest, glory together with Christ, the inheritance, brotherhood, ten thousand good things, which it is impossible to name. It is impossible to describe the beauty of that prize; he who hath it alone knoweth it, and he who is about to receive it. It is not of gold, it is not set with jewels, it is far more precious”

So I close tonight with this. Press On! Forgetting what is behind. The chains of yesterday no longer bind you if you are in Christ. But likewise the righteousness of yesterday does not qualify you for this prize if you now turn from it.

Ezekiel 18:21-28 puts this truth plainly.

Ezekiel 18:21–28 KJV 1900

But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Forgetting what is behind, whether of vice or virtue, press on today in righteousness and live for tomorrow knowing that prize is sure to those who finish the race.

Chrysostom has one further bit of advice for us tonight. “Never attempt slippery things, and thou wilt not fall:”