I Press On, Philippians, 3:12-14
Philippians 3:12-14 · Vern Peterman · Oct 5, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 34
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262259298153

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

If you haven't been here a while, we've finished Philippians, and we're in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, okay? Before we move into the Philippians chapter, or into the Philippians passage, I just wanted to bring one thing to your attention. Mike had announced last week that we're having these fall cleaning days, and there's a sign-up out in the lobby.

If you're able to pitch in, even if you're able to just stop by for an hour or so, that's Nancy's got, you know, a list of things to be done in each room, and she will be around during those times to direct people. So if you can pitch in and help out in that way, that'd be great. And see her if you need to, but otherwise, there's a sign up in the lobby, and we just want to get lots of hands on deck so we can make light work for everybody. Basically, it's available, you know, throughout the course of the day.

Pardon? Oh, hey, if you need to be here earlier, let her know and we'll accommodate it, okay? We don't want to turn anybody, you know, if your window is 2 a.m., hey, sign up for it, you know? We won't let that stop you. So anyway, thanks for the help in advance.

This Hebrews passage is there because it has good relevance to the passage we're looking at here this morning in Philippians. Philippians 3, 12-14. As I started looking at this and I started digging into the words behind it, I got kind of excited about it because Paul is really drawing on some neat things here. I think one of the things to look at, this has lots of cultural background in this little passage.

One of the things we've noticed as we've gone through the book of Philippians, he didn't just kind of say, yeah, I just want to write something to these people. He focused his words. Paul focused his words and chose them carefully by inspiration, of course, so that as he wrote to the people, the words that he communicated and conveyed to them had tremendous power. As they came across to the people, they read them and jumped out of the page. And so I think it's neat, as we look at this morning, I think you'll agree with me, what Paul writes here is hitting home right where they live, right where they are, right where they're thinking. One of the things he does is, as he writes, it makes it clear he understands the people at Philippi very well.

One of the things that he has done here in the last few weeks, actually, we've looked at some passages where he's used accounting terms, count, loss, gain, those kinds of terms, and he's measured things that way. Except for one word, what he does this time is he shifts into athletic terms for this passage. Some of them you'll recognize and you'll say, well, I can see that's athletic. How are some of the rest of them athletic? You'll see here in a minute. He uses an abundance of athletic terms in these three verses. Very specific, very clear athletic terms and combines them. Let's start by taking a look at one thing.

If you will recall, and boy, this is some real recalling, in the month of January, we went through the background of the city of Philippi. And one of the things we pointed out was that Philippi was on an east-west road that runs across this large peninsula called the Ignatian Way.

And remember, the Romans built these roads that were designed to last forever. The truth is, a lot of them still remain. They built enough roads, not this one entirely, but they built enough roads to go twice around the globe. That's how much they built all by hand, all with hard work and hard labor. This was one of those roads and it was very well built. There are portions of it that remain even to this day and are even used as a roadway to this day.

You can tell what they did. They dug down deep and built a solid foundation for the road and surfaced it with very solid stones. And this one that's over in the lower left corner here, I want to blow that up. One of the things we pointed out as we were studying this back in January. See these ruts? See those? Those are chariot wheel ruts. See that? See the grooves? These are chariot wheel ruts.

Why? They rode chariots on this road like crazy, all the time. A lot of it was for military purposes, a lot of it was for ferrying people, dignitaries sometimes, back and forth, getting orders and supplies back and forth. But they ran chariots on that road enough to wear grooves in it Another one of the reasons, however, is because they liked chariot racing. In fact, I understated that. No. They loved chariot racing.

They had no baseball. They had no football. You couldn't turn on ESPN. They had no hockey. But they had chariot racing. Yes. And so, this kind of illustrates it in a relief pattern. shown this chariot racer. Philippi was a Roman colony, and being Romans, they were very enthusiastic about chariot racing. There was one Roman author that even wrote that there were two things that were most important to Romans. Two, food and chariot racing.

That gets the point across. We've brought it forward even to this day where Lew Wallace wrote this novel, Ben-Hur. And by the way, that was popular for decades. A very well-sold book and made into a movie. I think it got 12 Oscars or something in the year that it came out, 1959. And so even today, chariot races are kind of exciting. Well, the Romans, they just, boy, after we ate, let's race chariots, or watch the chariots race, or something of that sort. So anyway, they were real enthusiastic about their chariots.

Now there's one other possibility, and in truth I've got to tell you this, scholars argue over whether these verses refer to chariot racing or running in the Olympic events. They argue over that. I think the argument is almost a moot point, and the reason that I think so, the terms that Paul used in these passages, as we'll see, are terms that could apply equally well to chariot racing and to running in the Olympic races as well. If it's the Olympic races he's referring to, and personally, I think it's both, it's kind of like asking, you know, does the earth have day or night?

Well, yeah. Okay. But in this case, you'll notice here's Philippi and here's Mount Olympus. The Olympic events took place at the around Mount Olympus, they were not too far from it and quite likely that this was something that they were involved in as well.

Paul could very well have chosen the terms to fit both and said, hey, I want to appeal to a wide audience, whatever the sport you prefer, I want you to understand it so that it makes sense to you. Does that make sense? He would have wanted people regardless of what they were enthusiastic about, to be able to identify with the message that he was telling them. And I think that's his point here.

As we read through Philippians 3, 12-14, I've put it on the very upper part of the first page of your handout, and the reason is, we'll be looking back at it. One of the things that I'll do, because he repeats the use of some of these terms, some cases two and even three times, I want to make sure you can track with me. So if you need to underline some things or use that for notes, that's great. But I put that on there for that purpose.

And just if you're visiting with us here, this in the corner is to tell you what page we're on, okay? If I have a page number there, it's either the page, you know, side one or side two. If there is no page number, it's not on your handout. I could not figure out how to put the movie on your handout. Sorry. Okay.

Okay, one of the things to make clear is that Paul's presenting a time perspective here. One of the things that he puts forth here is, one, there's an orientation to the past, and what does he say? Forgetting what lies behind, I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Those are a couple of phrases that look to the past.

He has a present assessment that he makes. This is how things are now. He says, I have not already obtained it, or become perfect or laid hold of it. So he makes that present assessment. That's where things stand right now. In addition to the present assessment, he has an orientation to the present. This is what I'm doing right now in the present. Not only this is how I see it, not just the perspective, but this is where I stand. This is how I'm oriented to the present. See that?

And the fourth thing he does, he has an orientation to the future. He's looking ahead, and his future look, his future view, has this perspective. He says, I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Again, drawing on the past. Then finally, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus is his forward and future perspective.

Got those? So he has a time perspective in the past, in the present, and in the future. He's oriented, isn't he? Okay. You could put that in a kind of a time chart if that helps clarify it for you. What lies behind? Here he is in the present. That's here.

All the way back from the time he was born. Remember a few weeks ago when he said, boy, I've got these qualifications. I was Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was circumcised the eighth day. He went all the way back to his birth and upbringing, didn't he? And so he starts there. So what lies behind is there. He goes even to the point of, since I became a believer. And by the way, by the time he's writing this, how long had he been a believer? 30 years? Good guess? Okay, about 30 years. So now he's writing this here, what lies behind? As an unbeliever, as a believer, he says, that's all behind me.

Now, there's certainly things he wants to remember, and we won't forget those. But he's not counting on those things. He has a stance about the present and an assessment of the present. He has an approach to the present, an orientation of the present, and he has a future orientation. He's wanting to make those all clear to the people he's writing to. In the present, he makes that assessment.

I am not now perfect. And, he says, I right now continue to press on and reach forward. In the future, I look forward to laying hold. And we'll take a look at what that means in particular. And I'm looking for that upward call. That's his future orientation. So that timeline kind of gives us a good picture. Here's what he's laying out for them in these verses.

Now, in order that we understand these verses clearly, one of the things we're going to do is be looking at the words. We don't want to get lost in words, but we use them to unlock the meaning. We want to make sure we're getting the full significance. And believe me, there's a lot of significance in this passage, okay? And then one of the things to remember here is, remember, and we bring this up from time to time just so we keep it in view, there are three things we're looking for to understand the passage.

We're going to look at the language elements, meanings of words, and how things are structured. We're going to look at the history, how things got to where they are. And we're going to look at the culture. So we're going to look at those three elements here this morning in order to understand the passage. but doing that will give us a much fuller and deeper and truer understanding of the passage.

The first things we want to look at are a pair of phrases that go together. He says, not that I have already obtained, already obtained it, or have already become perfect. So he's denying those things, right? He says, I haven't already obtained it, I haven't already become perfect. Let's take a look at those individually. Already obtained, or in the King James, the Greek that's Edelambano. Now, you know Edelambano. He's that Italian guy that lives down the street. It's already made acquisition or already taken possession.

Paul wanted to make it real clear to these believers in Philippi. They're looking at Paul, they're thinking, man, this guy comes here, he is a spiritual giant. I mean, he is there, right? And yet, what does he communicate here? I may be the guy you're looking at, but I want to tell you, I have not arrived. I haven't gotten there yet. I haven't already gained it. I am still growing. I've not reached a plateau. How about that? The Apostle Paul, still growing.

One of the things that he'd done is he'd set his human qualifications aside. Even though he'd put some things to the past, he was still wanting to make very clear that he himself was not finished, he was still in process. God was still working with him each and every day, including the very minutes he was writing this letter.

The next phrase that comes up there, this is Eddie's cousin. This one here, already become perfect. This communicates, it's not the idea that he's talking about moral perfection, but rather it talks about maturity. That's the key idea that he's getting across there. This is also in a perfect tense, this particular verb, and so he says, because this perfect tense has the idea of a completed past action with ongoing results in the future, he says, I have not reached a point of maturity as a completed past action. I'm not there yet. He's making it abundantly clear, and he even prefaces it Paul uses a little word in the front there, ede, which means already, and so he's almost saying, already, already, I'm just not there yet, you need to know that. Paul uses the passive voice, that's very interesting, and here's why.

It means that God, he acknowledges that God is the one doing the perfecting. If you have ever felt Boy, you know, I've really got to work on getting my life together and I've got to be really good so that God will be happy with me. Don't do that anymore. Because what is he saying? The perfecting is God's job. It's passive voice. The perfecting is God's job. God is the one who will be doing the maturity in your life. It's not mine to do. I get no brownie points for maturing. God's the one doing the maturing.

Here's a place we saw in just the previous passage we looked at. It says, "...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of the sufferings." And do you remember, this one here, being conformed was in the passive voice. That is, the conforming was not... the being conformed to the image of Christ was not Paul's doing, it's God's doing. That's the maturing process, being conformed. It is God who is the one who is carrying this out.

There's another cultural insight into this word here, and you do have this on your handout as well. In New Testament times, one of the things that was dotted all over the Roman Empire were these pagan mystery religions. The mystery religions' idea was that, you know, you had these kind of... Our religions, we've got this special little secret, and you've got to go through our initiations, and you go through all our little rigmarole, and after you're all done, when you get finally to the end, then they would say that you're perfected. And so what's Paul doing? He's heading that off right at the outset.

He says, we're not like the mystery religions that you've heard about or maybe even been involved with. He says, I may be the appointed apostle of the Gentiles, I'm not perfected. We're not carrying around another mystery religion here. We're heading this thing off. Right now, you need to know, I have not reached that point of perfection. We're not advertising another mystery religion. This is different. You need to understand that. You could put it this way, and this is an important perspective.

In recent centuries, there has been kind of a family of teachings, and this was presented in the church history class just a few weeks back by Josiah. There is this perspective among a lot of these different groups where you have this first work of grace where you have become a believer, you have faith in Christ. And at some later point, there's a subsequent event And different groups will say, well, that's a second work of grace, a point of total surrender. Another group will say we have to have the gift of tongues or something of that sort. And they'll look at some second event and at that point, then you reach a place of Christian perfection.

Okay? This verse doesn't square real well with that. What this says instead is, no, once a person becomes a believer, there is then a maturing process going on a little at a time. Paul says, I'm not there yet. If Paul says, I'm not there yet, you and I aren't going to be there yet either. Not while we're here. That's an important thing to recognize. You may run into Christians who will say, boy, you've got to have this or that happen. Well, Paul's saying, even he didn't have this or that happen. Whatever it is, whatever they come to you and say, you've got to have this, Paul said, that didn't do it or isn't going to do it. Now, there's another term that Paul uses three times, okay? Lay hold or laid hold, depending on the verb tense, but the word is the same one.

And it's interesting. I mean, he's using this three times here in just a couple of verses. He's making a point. It's real clear. The word there is katalambano. Now, I need to tell you, that's Eddie Lambano's sister, okay? And if you know what's good for you, you won't mess with it. No, let's get down here. Cata lumbano, okay?

This is an intensive form of this same word lumbano that we looked at before. And this cata lumbano is a prefix, and that word changes the character of it. And what it means is the idea of seizing upon or taking down a prize. If you won, they'd say, boy, you took it down. Cata lumbano, okay? When you grab the prize.

That's this term, okay? So this is an athletic term. And so when he would use this, they would say, boy, I know exactly what Paul's talking about, okay? That's this word. Now, there's another word that he uses twice here, and it's translated into English, I press on. So he uses it in verse 12, and then again in verse 14. And again, another athletic term. and this is the term there. It was used in athletic events and the idea is that you're going to just keep on continuing.

There's no time to relax. One of the exciting things, you know, and I initially showed that little clip of the Ben Hur chariot race, there wasn't any time where they kind of sat back and, okay, let's take a rest and kind of look at what we did. They just don't do that. The idea is you continue to move with focus and concentration upon the finish. In the middle of a race, there was neither time nor opportunity to let up. The only real option was to press on and continue without any hesitation or let up in forward progress.

I want to tell you a little story. When I was in high school, I ran track. Yes, I used to be able to run. And anyway, my track coach, his name was Larry Johnson, and when he was in high school, he'd run these longer distances, you know, where they'd run several laps. Anyhow, Larry Johnson, he said when he was in high school, he told the story of one of the things that happened to him.

He got quite a ways ahead on one run, so he noticed that he was quite a ways ahead, so he turned around and ran backwards the last half lap. And he said when he got in, he won. He said his coach was really mad. He said, you never do that in a race, even if you think you're way ahead. He said, first of all, you didn't get the good time as you could have gotten.

He says, but you don't look back and you don't do those little pauses to spin around. So he didn't do that again. So what you see, here's an Olympic track event, these guys are right towards the finish line, that's not time to stop and sip a cup of tea and say, boy, I did pretty good that first lap. You just don't do that. That's what he means with this idea that you press on.

As believers, It doesn't mean that we simply run ourselves ragged, but what it means is as believers, there isn't a time to say, you know, I think I'll take a flash vacation. I think I'll just kind of have a little sinful nature time. Or, I tell you what I'll do, I've done a lot of good things for the Lord, so I just want to kind of sit back and take a look at it for a while and admire it. Or, you know, I'm really humble and so I'll wear my humility award, you know. Any time you do something where you're kind of backing off from this thing and say, hey, I'm going to take a break, that's what he's talking about. I press on. A Christian vacation isn't a time for taking a vacation from being a Christian.

That's what he's pointing out here. He uses another word, this lay and hold, here as he uses it three times, He uses some terms there, and this heiress isn't catching air, okay? The point there where he says he uses an active, the first point where he says that I may lay hold of, it's an active voice, it means that's me doing the laying hold of, okay?

The second one, you notice the second one here, laid hold? Laid hold of by Christ. Now that is interesting. Remember, what does this word laid hold of mean? This is taking down a prize, isn't it? So here he is, he's saying, I have been taken down as a prize by Christ. How about that? Christ considers you a prize. And He ran a race, if you will, and you're the winnings. How about that?

The other thing is it's indicative mood, which is also a statement of fact. It's a statement of fact. And then the last one, he says, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. This is the perfect tense again. It's not a completed action. And then finally, it's active. It's him doing the laying hold. The idea is I have not reached that point yet. Not happened. Another key word here, forgetting. Epilanthanomai, and the omai is what you say after you've said epilanthano. And all it means, strangely enough, is forget. That's all it means. It's just as simple as that.

But here it is in the present tense in the middle voice, which means that Paul is saying he is right now constantly forgetting what lies behind. He is not saying, Boy, I was a good Pharisee. Man, have I been a phenomenal apostle. Well, I've written a whole lot more letters than those other guys. People are going to remember this for years. Isn't it great?

See, none of that counts to him, does it? He's not concerned about that. If he were to put notches on the chains that he's got between him and the Praetorian guard, he'd be able to put lots of notches on it. But that's not what he's doing. He says, that doesn't count. I'm not sitting back and resting on what I've done, forgetting what lies behind. He is not letting either his progress or the lack of him distract him from what's going on now, from what is important in his current and future perspective.

Now, in order to get the full idea across, because we brought out a few things that are athletic terms, There's a family of athletic terms here, and what I want to do is kind of summarize them here. And you've got this also on page two of your handout. And we'll go into a little more detail, and you can feel free to take notes on that if it's helpful. But here's the part where you can track with me.

Both runners and chariot racers would reach forward, okay, at pectenomai in their races. They would look steadily at and aim towards the post on the finish line. The Greek word for that post, skapos, is the one Paul uses that is translated here, goal. Isn't that amazing? The winner of the race would be given the upward call, the anoklesis, the invitation to come to the judges' stand to receive his prize. The prize, brabeion, would be a laurel wreath crown, a stephanos, except in the Olympics where it would be a palm branch, phoenix.

Here's an example, here's a runner, and what do you see? They start out of the blocks, and what do they do? They're way forward, and as they run, even though they get up to kind of a higher stature, they're still reaching forward. And that pose is how the coach wants them to get started, and why they have the starting blocks to begin with. That forward reach is basic to the stance and structure of that runner. Or even look at this ancient carving we looked at before. What's the posture of that guy on the chariot?

Reaching forward. That's the word that both the runners and the chariot drivers would use. Epictenomai. Reaching forward. Toward the goal. They would have a post which would be at the finish line. And so the idea is the runner would focus on that post, hopefully not run into it, but focus on that post.

And it's interesting, the word for that goal, skopop, is related to skopane, which means to look. He would constantly look. Sounds like our word beholding, doesn't it? Constantly beholding that goal. That's key. Fixing his eye on it. And they would keep telling the runners or the chariot racers, fix your eye on that post. Fix your eye. Fix your eye. And so that's the exact term that Paul uses here. Toward the goal for the prize.

Now, typically the prize was this Stephanos, this laurel wreath crown. And here's one from an old carving. And in the Olympics, they would use a palm branch. Interestingly enough, the Stephanos crown was the crown that was offered to believers in the book of Revelation as it was written to the church in the second and third chapters of Revelation. Remember that when we studied it? That also, by the way, is the same crown that in chapter four is described as being on the elders' heads. And the palm branches are mentioned of those who came out of the tribulation, and we're in the heavenlies at that point in time.

So here he uses this description of the prize. And by the way, that was the physical thing. They also, in some events, would announce the father's name. How about that? They would announce the father's name. Does that have spiritual significance? Of the winner. And they would do other things that would honour the local people in the city where he was from. where he was a citizen. And pretty soon we're going to talk about, he's going to bring up the fact that you're heavenly citizens.

So that fits with this. The Upward Call. The term Upward Call was the term for the public invitation from the field official. To be in a contest was agonizumai. So the field official in that athletic contest, agonosetes, was the field judge. And so that field judge would give you the upward call to come and receive your prize at the judge's bench. Then they would have some different name for the Olympic Games there, Hellenodikai. And sometimes even if it were in Rome or something of that sort, even the emperor would be the one to give the upward call and he would give the upward call to come even to himself.

That's the word picture that Paul is using here. Isn't it powerful? It's potent. He's not done. In the Olympics, what they would do, since they're running up Mount Olympus here that you see, the people who would be lining the path up Mount Olympus would cheer on the runners, and that would be referred to as the upward call. Isn't that something? Cheer on the runner?

Let's look through this passage. This is what we call the expanded and explained section. You have it on the back side of your handout. And I want to go through, and this is just to make sure that we get the full impact, because we've looked at lots of parts and pieces. We want to tie that together and make sure it makes sense to you.

So he writes starting in verse 12. And this is expanded, by the way, so this isn't just exactly what he says, but it's to understand it. Just so you don't misunderstand me, he's trying to correct what could be a misunderstanding, I want you to know that I have not even at this point already taken possession by my own actions of total knowledge of Christ, because that's what he's talked about, knowing Christ, or of conformity with him. He says, I'm not there yet. Nor have I already been made completely spiritually mature by being conformed to his image by God's own doing. but I am right now continuing to press on without hesitation or let up in order that I will take down as a prize that for which I also was taken down as a prize by Christ Jesus at the time when He pursued me as a prize." How about that? Verse 13, brethren in Christ, that is those having a spiritual relationship with one another because of relationship with Him. Not just a name He's throwing out. It's spiritually substantial and significant.

I do not make a judgment regarding myself based on careful consideration as having already taken down the prize. I am constantly in the process of forgetting what lies in the past, and I am continually reaching forward to what lies ahead in the future. I am right now continuing to press on without hesitation or let-up, looking with constant attention toward the person of Christ for the prize of the upward call of God in the heavenlies. when this life is completed and at His declaration, which upward call to me as the victor I have by reason of my being in Christ Jesus, which will bring me to a place of being rewarded by Christ and being fully conformed to Him, only at that victorious moment will my condition be permanently conformed to the position I already have in Christ." See that?

His perspective, He is looking for that point of upward call, and he says, when that happens, then I'll be perfected, not until then. Until then, I'm still growing. Paul, the apostle, the author of, what, 13 letters in the New Testament, he says, I'm still growing. I've been a believer for three decades, written a bunch of letters, told the gospel to a bunch of churches, taught the church at Ephesus night and day, with tears, he said, in Acts 20, for three years. but I'm still growing. I'm still maturing.

Isn't that neat? Isn't that wonderful? Okay. Let's take a look at this diagram here because I think it's got some key points for us. One key point here is what lies behind. There are a lot of Christians who will get wrapped up in either trying to keep score of how they did in the past or, the flip side of that, worry that they didn't make it in the past. Have you ever been in a spot where, you know, somebody sits there and tries, you know, pointing to this or that in your past, or try to dig up the past to fix the present? He says, that's not what counts. He says, certainly we want to remember what Christ has done, but I'm not sitting here keeping score of what I did.

This is not perfect. Right now, recognizing I am still growing. I am still in the process of being perfected. My current outlook is that I press on. My current outlook is that I reach forward. And I'm looking forward to that day when I will lay hold, take down that prize. I am reaching forward. I have a forward look. I am looking for that time when I receive the upward call. That's his time perspective.

Isn't that a marvelous one? Isn't it neat? I just think the Lord has spoken through Paul so tremendously here, using pictures that they would understand. And once we examine it, it really makes perfect sense to us too. Once we understand what exactly he was saying and the words that he chose. He chose words that would fit very well with what they understood. And I think in our enthusiasm for various kinds of sports, we can see those and understand those well too. given the insights here, how marvelous it is, how marvelous it is to be able to rest and the Lord is still in the process of perfecting me.

It's not my job. It's not mine to do. How about that? And to be able to look at this and say, you know, as long as I'm here on planet Earth, I have not yet been perfected, but I'm looking forward to that upward call, that time when I get called to the judges table, not for ah-ah-ah, but for here's your reward. That's why the last chapter of Revelation has in it, behold I am coming quickly and I have my reward with me. Isn't that neat?

Let's praise the Lord. Lord, we do praise You. As we look at this verse, what a marvelous thing that as we look to the future that we can forget what lies behind us. Lord, in terms of keeping score or even holding us back, whether positive or negative, nothing should distract us from the progress we're now making and for the upward call that we're looking towards. Thank you for that. Thank you that each day we can behold you, gaze upon you, and look upon you. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name, Amen.