Philippians 3:12-14
There’s a cycling coach who trains beginners on steep
mountain roads. The first thing he tells them is strange:
“Never look at your pedals.”
New riders always ask why.
He says, “Because if you stare at your feet, you’ll forget
where you’re going. You’ll wobble. You’ll lose balance.
You’ll panic. But if you keep your eyes on the road ahead,
your body will follow your focus.”
One day a rider ignored the advice. She kept glancing
down at her pedals, worried she wasn’t pushing hard
enough. She drifted, lost her line, and nearly crashed.
The coach pulled her aside and said, “Your legs know
what to do. Your past mistakes don’t matter. Your fear
doesn’t matter. What matters is where you’re looking.
Look ahead, and you’ll move ahead.”
From that day on, she kept her eyes fixed forward—and
she finished every climb stronger than before.
Today we are going to look at Philippians 3:12-14.
We are going to read Paul’s advice to the Philippian
church to press on toward spiritual maturity.
Philippians 3:12-14
Sermon in a sentence:
We must press on toward spiritual maturity in Christ and
allow and expect God to work in our lives every day.
In the first part of verse 12 Paul provides his,
Perspective on his Spiritual Health
Paul gives an honest assessment of his own spiritual
health.
He understands that our spiritual growth is a continuous
process. God is always at work in us making us more like
Him every day. It’s called progressive sanctification.
Not Obtained this – what is the “this” Paul writes about?
I think he is writing about verses 10-11.
Paul’s desire is to know Christ and His resurrection.
No matter how much you think you know Christ there is
still so much more to know. Paul understood that. And he
wanted the Philippian believers to understand it as well.
And Paul is not writing about having information about
Christ, but a deep personal relationship with Him.
Think of the sheep knowing the voice of the shepherd.
We can spend our entire Christian life seeking to know
Christ and never fully know Him. Paul understands it is a
continual process.
Not Perfect – Paul admits he is not perfect, but he knows
the author and perfecter of his faith – Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking to the founder and perfecter of
our faith…”
On earth we will never reach spiritual perfection because
we are living in these physical bodies which are sinful
from birth.
But we know that one day we will be joined together with
Christ in heaven.
He told His disciples that He was going to prepare a place
for them, that where He was they may also be.
In the second part of verse 12 Paul provides his;
Plan for Spiritual Growth
Paul not only gives his plan for spiritual growth, but the
purpose of it.
Pursue Christ – is the plan. He says he will press on to
make it his own. Paul knows that no one can make us
draw closer to Christ except for Christ. Our parents, our
children, our siblings, none of them can force us to draw
close to God.
We have to want it for ourselves. We get out of our
relationship what we invest in it. The more time we spend
building our relationship with Christ, the closer we will
get to Him.
The easier it will become to hear His voice and
understand what He is doing in our lives.
The purpose of his desire to pursue Christ is because
Christ made him His own.
Remember on that Damascus road when Jesus asked
Paul why he was persecuting Him?
The NASB and CSB translations are slightly better than
the ESV for this verse. Instead of make it my own or
made me his own, they use lay hold of or take hold of.
He is pursuing Christ because Christ pursued him.
Kent Hughes, in his commentary on Philippians, writes:
“Paul’s whole pursuit of Christ was Christ-originated,
Christ-motivated, and Christ-propelled.”
Jesus made Paul His own.
Jesus makes us His own too!
He wants a relationship with us.
How are you cultivating that relationship?
In verses 13-14, Paul displays his;
Passion for Spiritual Maturity
Paul mentions that he does one thing.
It kind of sounds like several, but the gist of it is that
He keeps his focus on knowing Christ.
Think of a runner who is running a race.
If you turn your head to see who is behind you, there is a
risk that you may fall or lose a step on those who are
focusing on what is ahead.
Paul says he forgets what is behind.
He doesn’t mean that he doesn’t remember what has
happened in the past.
Some people let their previous failures affect their
present or future.
Some people keep reliving their previous successes and
forget to allow God to continue working in their lives.
Paul means he doesn’t let what has happened in the past
affect what he is doing in the present or striving toward
in the future.
Paul was a persecutor of Christians. He could have let
that keep him from being who God wanted him to be.
Paul also was used mightily by God in the past, but he
didn’t relive those days over and over again. He allowed
God to continue working and he trusted God to do a new
work every day.
The Bible tells us that God doesn’t remember our sins.
That doesn’t mean that God forgets what we have done.
He knows everything.
He just doesn’t hold our past sins against us because of
what Christ has done.
Paul’s passion is to grow spiritually and to let God work in
incredible ways, greater than we could think of or
imagine.
He also wants the Philippians to experience that same
type of spiritual maturity.
Rather than forgetting the past, he strains toward what
lies ahead.
His focus is on the future.
The runner we talked about earlier is racing for an earthly
prize. In that day, it was a wreath made out of leaves.
In a matter of days it would be wilted and worthless.
The prize that Paul is striving towards is the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus.
For Paul the prize was knowing Christ and His
resurrection.
Paul wanted to continue growing in his relationship with
Christ.
He was willing to suffer for Him.
Is your passion for growing in Christ the same as Paul?
If not, pray and ask God to give you the desire to seek
Him with all of your heart.
APPLICATION
I want you to think back to Philippians 1:6.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in
you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
God is the one who began a good work in us.
He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
He wants a relationship with us.
Our response to the message this morning is;
Pursue Christ
Seek him with all of our heart and watch as He does
amazing things through us and for us.
We should not be worried about our past failures.
We should not dwell on what God has done before.
We should be allowing and expecting God to do a new
thing in our lives every day.