Standing Firm in High Winds


A Study of Philippians 3:12 – 4:1

When the tornado stuck Nashville this Spring, much of the damage came from trees being blown down. I know because a number of trees hit my daughter’s house, and they’re still trying to repair the damage. Maybe you suffered the same thing. I went onto the internet to see if there are any trees that will survive a tornado, and, of course, there aren’t, if they are squarely in the path of a twister. However, there is one kind of tree that almost always survives a hurricane. It’s the Cypress tree. They may lose a few dead limbs, but they almost always survive the storm because of their flexibility. They can bend with storm almost horizontal to the ground, and when the storm passes they bounce back and stand firm.

Well, as followers of Jesus Christ in this world, we’re facing some serious headwinds, but our job is to bend if necessary but not break. Our job is stand firm. And that’s the great overarching theme of the book of Philippians.

Today we’re continuing our study of the book of Philippians with an incredible passage that begins with Philippians 3:12 and continues through chapter 4 and verse 1. This is such a life-changing passage that I want to read it first and then unfold it line by line as it occurs. It gives us the three secrets to standing firm and surviving the hurricanes coming toward us.

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. 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 toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

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. 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.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior 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.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

Do you notice that last line?

Stand firm in the Lord. Now, go back to chapter 1, verse 27: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm….

I really believe this is the overarching theme of Philippians. If I had to give the book of Philippians a title, I would call it Standing Firm.

  • When skeptics question the intellectual credibility of Christianity, we need to stand firm.
  • When theological liberals try to water down and dilute our Christian convictions, we need to stand firm.
  • When political forces try to silence us and hinder our ability to remain true to our faith, as some are certainly trying to do, we need to stand firm.
  • And when Satan tries to tempt us and trouble us and defeat us, we need to stand firm.

Now, let’s analyze the paragraph we just read, because it contains three essential ingredients to standing firm.

Standing Firm Requires a Goal

First, standing firm in life requires a goal. Now, goals are very important. What would a basketball be without any goals? I was almost never able to hit the goal with the basketball—I did it a few times by accident—but I wasn’t a good basketball player. But I did know what the goal was and where the goal was. I could at least aim there. But what if those goals didn’t exist. It would be a useless game.

A lot of people don’t have any goals in life; but if you don’t know what your goals are, you’re just going to run back and forth, up and down the court, until the buzzer sounds.

Now, look what the apostle Paul said about his goal: 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. 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 toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal….

What was his goal? Well, that was last week’s message from the previous passage, but let’s review it quickly. Look at verse 10:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participating in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

What a verse! This tells us what our goal should be life, and there are clearly four parts of it.

First, to know Christ. The Amplified Version puts it like this: For my determined purpose is that I may know Him—that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.

I’ve loved that translation for years, because it really sums up the totality of our purpose and goal in life.

There’s a young man who lives in Texas. He’s an intellectual. He’s a thinker. I began following him on social media, and he started following me. One day to my surprise, he sent me message. He told me how much my books have encouraged him. I wrote back and told him how much his books have encouraged me. We’ve been sending each other messages for a couple of months, and I’ve watched some of his videos and he’s been watching my sermons. We’ve been getting to know each other. We have not yet met in person, and we’ve not even spoken on the phone. I think we will at the right time, but we are getting to know each other.

That’s the way it works with human beings. And that’s the way it works with Jesus too. We have not yet met Him face to face, but through salvation and prayer and Bible study and the Holy Spirit, we are progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.

Second, we want to be fueled by His resurrection power. Verse 10 says: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection….

Paul talked about this in Ephesians, chapter 1. We all know what it is to become tired and depleted. But the same power that raised Christ from the dead is constantly available to give us new strength for each day.

Third, we want some participation in His sufferings, even if we die in the process. Verse 10 again: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

The nation of India is the largest democracy in the world, but it’s becoming less democratic every single day as Hindu nationalism seems to be driving the government; and more and more Christians in India are facing persecution and death. And what can we say of Nigeria and other places on earth where Christians are literally living out Philippians 3:10?

But there’s another element—the coming resurrection.  That’s our goal too: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participating in His sufferings, become like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection of the dead.

So all that was the apostle Paul’s personal goal. He summed it up earlier in Philippians 1:21 when He said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” There it is in a nutshell. That’s our purpose. That’s our goal—to know Christ, His resurrection power, His sufferings, and to experience the coming resurrection.

Now back to verse 12: 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. 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 toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Notice that Paul circles back and repeats himself. He uses the word goal and the phrase press on twice. If you don’t do anything else in life, do this. Your goal is to know Christ and His suffering and His resurrection and His eternity.

That is our one thing, and we must forget what’s behind and press toward it. Dr. David Jeremiah was preaching on this verse the other day and he said that in every car he has ever driven, the windshield is much bigger than the review mirror. Some people go through life with their eyes on the rearview mirror, looking back at their accomplishments, or looking back on their failures, or looking back on the things that have afflicted them.

Well, we need to occasionally glance in the rearview mirror in gratitude or confession, but our primary focus is on the road ahead, on what’s coming next. Everything we’ve experienced thus far in life is simply preparing us for the next steps of productivity and usefulness.

And notice that last phrase. I had never noticed it before, until I prepared this message: God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. We have a higher calling than others. That’s the direction in which we’re headed—heavenward, upward, onward, skyward, Christ-ward.

Standing Firm Requires a Model

Now, if we’re going to stand firm, it also helps to have model, someone who has done all this before. And so look at verses 15 and following:

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. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

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. 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.

We have to remember that the Philippians had very little if any New Testament Scripture. It’s possible they had some copies of some of Paul’s earlier writings, but the New Testament was in the process of being written. They had come out of a very pagan, Roman, Macedonian environment, so what did a Christian even look like?

Well, in chapter 2, Paul gave three examples—Christ, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. And in chapter 3, he offers himself as a model. He said, in effect, if you want to know how to live this new life in Christ, than look at me and use me for a model.

Other people will lead you astray. Look at the way he described them in verse 18:

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.

There have never been so many enemies of the cross of Christ. I read with interest this week a study done by George Barna and the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University. They found that 98 percent of American adults who have a socialist political worldview are opposed to and reject a biblical worldview. And the number of such people is growing.

Barna said, “Recent reports based on the study have indicated that most adults have discarded the notions of a Bible-based moral code, a shared Christian faith, or the value of human life; dismissed the reliability of the Bible or salvation based on faith in Christ alone; and rejected the ideas that success in life is based on obedience to God, or that the central purpose of life is about knowing, loving, and serving God.”

I can’t believe I read that quote while preparing this message. The apostle Paul said, in effect, the central purpose in life is about knowing, loving, and serving God.

Barna went on to say, “The current political upheaval in the United States is a consequence of a constantly changing, person-centered philosophy of life–i.e., worldview—that is fighting for pre-eminence in the nation’s economic, political, religious, educational, and familial spheres.”

Sounds like the days of the Philippians. Paul said, “Our purpose is to know, love, and serve God, even in suffering, looking heavenward to the resurrection. But the rest of society are enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies! Their destiny is destruction.

They aren’t going heavenward, but hellward. Their God is their stomach. They live for their pleasure and appetites. And their glory is in their shame. They are proud of the things of which they should be ashamed.

Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” If we’re going to stand firm in these days, we need that model.

Standing Firm Requires a Passport

And finally, standing firm requires a passport, a promise. We have to have a future hope promised by Jesus Christ. So look at verses 20 and 21:

But our citizenship is in heaven.

We are not citizens of earth on the way to heaven; we’re citizens of heaven traveling through this earth. Right now, we have dual citizenship. We’re most of all citizens of heaven, but we also carry an American passport, or a French passport, or a Chinese passport—whatever nation it is for you. But that passport expires forever the moment you die or the moment Christ returns. Your heavenly passport and citizenship has no expiration date. And so…

And we eagerly await a Savior 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.

Jesus Christ has the power to bring everything under His control. Notice that. He has the power to bring everything—everything—under His control. One day He will do it. In fact, He’s doing it now and one day He will finish it.

And here is one application of that power. He will use it to transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

Now in the Gospel of John, we have two resurrections. First, there is the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11. Jesus went to the village of Bethany where His friend had died, and He went to the cemetery, and He called out: “Lazarus! Come forth!” And Lazarus returned to life and came hobbling out of the grave.

But ten chapters later, it was Jesus Christ who was the grave, and on Easter Sunday God the Father called, “Jesus! Come forth!” And Jesus rose bodily from the grave.

But there is an essential difference between the risen body of Lazarus and the resurrected body of Jesus.

  • Lazarus came hobbling out still wrapped in his graveclothes and had to be cut out of them.
  • Jesus passed right out of His grave clothes and left them deflated on the slab. His body passed right through them.
  • Lazarus, though alive, was still trapped inside the tomb until someone rolled away the stone and let him out.
  • Jesus passed right through the stone walls of the tomb, and the angels only opened it to let the disciples look inside.
  • Lazarus eventually grew sick and died all over again, and was wrapped in graveclothes, and was buried all over again, and his decayed body is somewhere in the dust of that tomb.
  • Jesus arose, never again to face illness or death. In fact, His resurrection body is incapable of dying. The Bible says it is imperishable.
  • The resuscitation of Lazarus created a sensation, but it didn’t start a movement.
  • The resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed the world forever and has populated eternity.
  • The reviving of Lazarus did nothing for you and me except show us the power of Him who accomplished it.
  • The resurrection of Jesus Christ did everything for you and me because of the power of Him who accomplished it.

When Jesus rose from the dead, His body was essentially, fundamentally, existentially the same, but it was essentially, fundamentally, existentially different. It was now glorified, ageless, deathless, supercharged, and equipped for eternity.

And that is the pattern of our own resurrection bodies. They will be like His glorious body.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we always be with the Lord.

In Jesus Christ we have a goal; we have a model; and we have a promise, yes, and more than a promise—a guarantee and a Savior who has secured it.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how we stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!