Press On
Notes
Transcript
Pray
Pray
Let me begin by describing two Christians. Mr Pressured’ and Mr Presuming’ — and it may be that you recognise yourself in one of them, or perhaps in both at different times.
Mr Pressured and Mr Presuming
Mr Pressured and Mr Presuming
Having read the first half of Phil 3 these 2 Christians have 2 different responses.
In Phil 3:10–11 Paul speaks of:
knowing Christ
knowing the power of his resurrection
even participation in his sufferings
becoming like him in his death
That language is intense.
Demanding.
Total.
Mr Pressured says:
“I don’t live like that.”
Paul has just said:
righteousness is settled
but knowing Christ is everything
and resurrection glory is the goal
Have I got this wrong?
Am I supposed to be further on in my walk with Christ?
Am I really a believer after all.
“I look at Paul’s hunger for Christ, his single-minded devotion, his willingness to suffer — and I realise how far short I fall.”
Mr Pressured reads
“No confidence in the flesh” (3:3)
“I want to know Christ” (3:10)
…and concludes:
“I must not really be there yet.”
If Mr Pressured is you, then
You are quietly burdened.
You love the gospel.
You trust Christ.
But beneath that trust there is a persistent thought you can’t quite silence:
“I should be further on by now.”
Am I really a Christian - if I don’t do this or that - or I keep doing that or this! - Do I really believe?
You hear sermons about holiness and feel helplessly exposed rather than rebuked and encouraged.
You read Scripture and see the gap between what is commanded and what is lived out in your life.
And slowly, subtly, Christian effort begins to feel like evidence against you before Christ,
rather than evidence that your effort is the actual fruit of Christ in your life.
What of Mr Presumption,
Well he really winds up Mr Pressured a treat.
He sounds far more relaxed than than Mr Pressured.
Mr Presumption reads:
v9 “I don’t need my own righteouness, I have a Righteousness not my own” (3:9)
“By faith I live”
…and he quietly perhaps subconsciously concludes:
“Then none of this pressing language can really be necessary.”
Grace is all i need, and I need nothing of myself.
Mr Presumption has likely
been walking with Christ for years.
He loves Christ
He knows all the right language,
He feels very settled.
If you’re more like Mr Presumption,
Then There is no crisis of assurance.
But neither is there much urgency, hunger, or expectation of change,
or at least change that that you have to do anything about.
- you’re happy with how you are, and Jesus can and will do the rest.
Now both these instinks should feel very understandable.
But together they raise a serious question:
What is the Christian life actually supposed to feel like?
Because one of these people feels crushed by effort,
and the other seems to have outgrown effort altogether.
And surely the gospel must speak to both.
And in reality, the problem is actually even deeper than we thought,
Although these two Mr Pressured and Mr Presumption feel like opposites, they are actually in the same danger.
They are both standing still.
The first has stalled because effort feels condemning.
The second has stalled because effort feels unnecessary.
Both think they are climbing a stair case.
The first looks at the steps behind and says I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get up those, and they look ahead, and it looks like the East Face of Mount Everest!
They attempt more steps but the condemnation and stress, and guilt means they feel like they can’t get their foot up enough for another step.
pause
Mr Presumption’s - well they have completely mistaken the staircase for an escalator and without realising stand still.
So now the question becomes unavoidable:
If salvation is by grace alone which we’ve seen in Philippians a plenty so far
, why does Paul talk so relentlessly about ‘pressing on’?
And if our effort in growth really matters, why does the Christian life still feel so unfinished — even for faithful believers? Should we be further on?
We need an answer that does not collapse into despair
and does not dissolve into being idle.
And that is exactly what Paul gives us.
Christians Are Not Yet Perfect
Christians Are Not Yet Perfect
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Paul breaks into the tension with a statement that is deliberately unsettling.
He openly denies that he has arrived at his goal.
A better translation given the context of chapter 3 is from the ESV.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect,
No perfection.
No completion.
No sense that the race is over.
If you sway towards feeling you’ve not made enough progress this is a huge reassurance.
If the apostle Paul can say this honestly,
then the feeling of being unfinished cannot automatically mean spiritual failure.
But Paul does not stop there.
In the same verse, he speaks of pressing on — active, determined, purposeful movement.
knowing that he has not yet ‘arrived’,
he determines that he is personally responsible to press on.
The same Paul who, in verse 9, reminded us that we cannot by our efforts obtain the righteousness which is from God,
is now determined to make every effort to live the righteous life.
He says, I press on. The word is vigorous—‘I pursue’, ‘I persecute even’—as vigorous as the action with which once he persecuted the church.
Why?
Because Christ Jesus has already taken hold of him.
This is the theological hinge of the entire passage.
Paul does not say:
Christ will take hold of me if I persevere
or Christ might accept me if I improve
He says Christ has already taken hold of him.
He is running hard after Christ with his whole heart to receive Christ,
because Christ has already received him.
God’s grace is the source and goal of the human pursuit.
And now everything flips.
Rather than our imperfection and failure
demoralising us,
stopping us,
Pressuring us,
casuing us to doubt our faith
and stop moving forward,
For Paul - this imperfection -
not having obtained this end goal - in fact motivates him,
becasue he knows what he pursues is already won for him by Christ Jesus!
And he wants more of that!
Christian effort is no longer about securing acceptance - which is what mr Pressured worries about.
It is about living out a reality already secured.
The Grace of Jesus does not oppose ‘effort from us’ - as Mr Presumption thinks
Grace only opposes us thinking we are earning our reward.
And when that order is clear, the whole Christian life suddenly makes sense.
Both the guilt ridden defeated Christian,
and the no need to do anything Christian,
should read this and go
WOW!
Thank you Jesus - how I will now strive to be what you have already won for me.
So what does pressing on look like if it’s not pressure and guilt, or presumption and idelenss.
Christians Press On
Christians Press On
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
With the gospel order established, Paul now fills out what this pressing on involves.
In v13, he repeats again, that he has not yet ‘taken hold of the goal - he is not perfected’.
This repetition is deliberate.
Paul will not allow us to think Christian maturity is, or looks like, perfection.
No, the mature know they are not perfect - they have not attained their goal
But, the mature do do something.
He introduces a striking simplicity: “one thing I do.”
If you are unsure how to live the Christian life - here is the one thing to do!
The news headlines,
Your relational joys or tirals,
Your work todo list,
the cleaning jobs stacking up,
the dinner to cook,
the kids lives to co-ordinate,
They all come second - there is one thing to do as a Christian..
end of 13
But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Paul describes this focused one thing in two movements.
First, forgetting what lies behind.
This is not a call to erase memory or deny God’s past grace.
It is a refusal to let the past define the present.
Past failures can immobilise us with shame
- this is the Christian we were describing earlier.
But equally, Past successes can lull us into complacency.
I’m quite good at both of these - and not in a good way
- it’s easy to look fondly on times when you have felt you’ve made real spiritual progress
and it stops us making progress now.
If only I could muster that feeling, or commitment again.
Forget that says Paul.
Or …….
You can look back at recent failures in faith - that sin, or that lack of any momentum,
or that indifference to Jesus this week.
Again - forget it. It’s now behind.
Both are to stand on the stair case looking back wards.
Turn around. This is what repentance actually is.
Turning around, repenting of sin ior pride in the past
and in Christ now moving on - turning.
Forget what is behind!
And instead the second movement is to be
straining toward what lies ahead.
The language is athletic, intentional, effortful.
But the effort is not aimless.
Paul names the goal clearly: the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This is not vague moral improvement.
It is full conformity to Christ — resurrection life, glory, completion.
So pressing on is not anxious striving.
It is certain hope-filled pursuit.
It’s more of a ‘I can’t wait to be with Jesus in glory’ pressing on.
I know that is who I am in him,
it’s what he has made me - so what else am I going to do with my time now!
becasue I’m not there yet — becasue Christ has not returned to complete what he has already won on the cross,
I’m going to press on, strain.
Let’s Go, Let’s go, let’s go to Jesus.
The one thing we need to do as Christains?
Forget what is behind and pursue, press on to be what is certain.
What joy that Prize will be, as Paul call it.
When Christ returns or we die in the flesh, and attain what Jesus has won for us on the cross!
Fight for that, run the race.
Forget your past - Look at Jesus.
When we will have our every thought,
action and desire aligned to the wonderous glory and will of our Almighty God
- as we spend eternity enjoying our saviour God and king - the Lord Jesus!
How good he is - press on - forget the wins and failures - press on - For Jesus is and has won everything.
As we look up the staircase, those steps are no longer impossible obstacles - because we see ourselevs already stood at the top with Jesus!
We are there! - and yet we are not. So we must not be idle or presumptuous either.
Press on!
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
The mature Christian thinks like all this says Paul.
Maturity is not thinking you have arrived.
It is understanding you have not — and are therefore pressing on.
Maturity is not fewer struggles.
It is clearer gospel thinking about those struggles.
Don’t feel overwhelmed by pressure, see the overwhelming love of Jesus.
It is true for me as an apostle says Paul,
and it is true for every believer.
Paul also acknowledges disagreement and immaturity within the church.
Growth is gradual.
We are not all at the same place on our maturity and journey.
But v16 is another encouragement that ‘pressing on’ is going to be relative to us as individuals and even church communities.
Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
It’s a slightly odd phrasing, but what he means is,
your maturity and understanding and growth is not measured against Paul, or anyone else, but against what you have so far attained.
If you are seeking obedience to God as you press on - we may disagree but pressing on as best we understand God’s word is what matters.
‘don’t give up based on other people’
rather ‘let us live up to what we have already attained’
or again the ESV
Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
And as you press on - v17, follow the example of the apostles, and those you see to be doing likewise
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
This can sound uncomfortable to modern ears, but it is deeply biblical.
God never intended the Christian life to be lived in isolation.
He uses embodied examples — ordinary believers walking faithfully
— to keep others moving forward.
These examples are not to be our heros, that is Jesus’ role
But imitating Godly people.
It is one of God’s ordinary means of perseverance.
Look to older saints who faithfully press on towards the goal - and talk to them, watch them, imitate them.
Otherwise, you will find yourself copying those who do not press on,
and who are in fact dragging you back to the world:
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
The tone shifts sharply here, and we must feel the weight of it.
The people he describes are close enough to the church to cause confusion,
yet far enough from the cross to be spiritually dangerous.
They are enemies of the cross of Christ
— not necessarily by denial, but by the shape of their lives.
How do you spot them and avoid their example?
Well Paul exposes their orientation:
their destiny - is destruction
their desires - fulfilment
their values - their own glory
their mindset - on the earth.
Everything is pulled toward the present world.
This is what happens when pressing on stops.
Standing still does not remain neutral.
It drifts earthward - and there are plenty to help you in that direction.
But, and so…
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Against that sobering picture, Paul lifts our eyes again.
He reminds believers of their true identity.
Citizenship is not something we are waiting to receive.
It is something we already possess.
That identity reshapes how we live now.
We belong elsewhere.
We answer to another King.
We live by another set of values.
we are waiting — , for a Saviour.
who will bring bodily resurrection.
Completion to the pressing on we pursue.
Salvation is not complete until creation itself is renewed.
But the certainty of that hope rests on Christ’s sovereign power.
The One who rules all things will finish His saving work in us.
The Christ who took hold of us
will never let go.
So,
The Christian life is neither despairing effort nor settled complacency.
It is secure pressing on.
To Mr Pressured:
Your unfinished state is not evidence of failure, but of life
To Mr Presuming:
Grace never leaves us unchanged.
If Christ has taken hold of you, He is leading you forward - - press on, you’re secure.
Pray
