Sermon Tone Analysis

! I.        /Phil 3:10/

!! A.  The 1st part of the AMP translation says, “[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], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers]…”*[1]*

!! B.

Not only did Paul want to know Christ more deeply, more strongly, and more clearly, but Paul in the same way wanted to know the power outflowing from His resurrection.

!!! 1.   Paul wanted to know “The power which brought Christ forth from the dead, which now operates in every believer since they have been ‘raised with Christ”’ (Col.

3:1).

!!!! a)      Paul says in (Col 2:12) that /“We were buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”/*[2]*

!!!! b)     It was by the power of God that we were raised from the dead when we were spiritually dead.

!!!!! (1)  (ROM 8:11) tells us that it is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead also dwells in you.

!!!!! (2)   It is the same Spirit and the same power.

!!!! c)      /(Acts 1:8)/ Says that /But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;/*[3]*

!!!!! (1)  (1 John 4:4) says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”*[4]*

!!! 2.   Paul already had this power and this anointing, but there was something else about this power that he wanted to know.

!!!! a)      /(1Cor 6:14)/ Says, /“And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.”/*[5]*

!!!! b)     Paul wanted to know and to experience the power of God that raised Christ from the dead.

!!! 3.   It was an awesome display of God’s power when Christ was raised from the dead.

(At that time we were raised from the dead and every demon and fallen angel and Satan himself fought against this).

!! C.  Paul says that “I want to know this power.”

!!! 1.   Paul says in /(Phil 3:10)/ that /“I want to know the power of His resurrection.”/

!!!! a)      It literally means in the Greek, “I want to know by experience the power of His resurrection.”

!!!! b)     Paul was already born again, he had already experienced the power of Christ’s resurrection

!!! 2.   /“Power”/ /dynamis/,/ /also used in Acts 1:8; *[6]*

!!!! a)      It is the miracle working power of God, and Paul wanted to see and to know this power, But it wasn’t appointed to them.

!!!! b)     For this great power is going to take place in the last days which we now live.

!!!! c)      The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to see the power of God like never before.

!!!! d)     Miracles are going to start happening in you home, in your work place, in the market place.

!

II.

/Finally at the end of verse /10d /paul says, //“and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] 11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].12

Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own./

*/13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,/*

*/14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward./*

*/15 So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also./*

*/   16 Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that.

AMP /*

!

III.

There are 2 things (from Verses 13 & 14) that I want you to notice about this passage Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi.

!! A.  1st Paul said, “Forgetting those things which are behind,”

!! B.  And the 2nd thing he said was “Reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

!!! 1.   Before you can go on with God, you must forget about the past.

!!!! a)      Paul, who once was Saul of Tarsus, had to forget about his past as a persecutor of Christians in order to minister effectively.

!!!!! (1)   Just a little side thought about that but not only did Paul have to forgive himself, but the Christian world had to forgive him.

!!! 2.   Let's look at something that Paul wrote about himself to Timothy.

!!!! a)    /1TIM 1:11-16 /

!!!! b)     Paul had to forgive himself before he can step out and do what the Lord wanted Him to do.

But also, from these Verses we see that the Lord also forgive Paul and counted him faithful and put him in the ministry.

!!! 3.   The Word of God tells us that Paul or Saul was present at the stoning of Stephen.

!!!! a)      Stephen was appointed one of the seven to oversee the daily ministration of the people.

Really, he was one of the 1st deacons of the Church.

!!!! b)   /Acts 6:1-13/

!!!!! (1)   Most definitely, this was a man of God.

!!! 4.   In (ACTS 7) we find that Stephen was stoned and Saul was there.

!!!! a)    /ACTS 7:58/

!!!!! (1)   But not only was Saul there, he was also consenting to it.

!!!! b)   /ACTS 8:1/

!! C.

Even in this same chapter, we can see some more things about Paul that the HS inspires Luke to write.

!!! 1.   /ACTS 8:3/

!!! 2.   /ACTS 9:1-2/

!

IV.    Thank God for the Mercy of God.

!! A.  I don't think that we understand fully the Mercy of God.

!!! 1.   Look at /GEN 18:20-32/

!!!! a)      Look at the Mercy of the Lord.

He would not destroy the most wicked city for the sake of ten righteous.

!!!!! (1)   I believe that if Abraham would have asked the Lord to spare the city for 1 righteous.

The Lord would have said, “If 1 shall be found there, I will not destroy it for one's sake.”

!!!! b)     But if you know the story God did destroy the city.

!!!!! (1)   Abraham stopped at 10, because he thought that there must be at least 10 righteous in Sodom.

!!!!! (2)   But he was mistaken; there was only 4 righteous in all of the city.

!!!! c)      But God's mercy was still great.

!!!!! (1)  GEN 19:1, Look at what the angel said in V 12-13.

!!!!! (2)  Go down to V 15-16, 24-26

!!!!! (3)   God would have saved the city for only 10 righteous, but only 4 were found so the city was destroyed.

But God in Him great mercy saved the righteous from destruction.

!! B.  Look at DEUT 4:31

!!! 1.

Even though there will be a great destruction on this earth during the tribulation, God will not forsake you, He will not destroy you, and He will not forget His covenant that He has with you.

!!! 2.   /EXO 20:6/

!!!! a)      Some translations add the word “generations” here.

And it could mean that but I also see from the Word of God that many unrighteous are going to reap benefits because of the righteous.

*C.* *Thank God for His Mercy*.

His *mercy* is *far greater* then we ever thought.

*1.*

*If God had mercy on Paul* then he *surly* will *have mercy on us* when we blow it.

*a.* *Don't beat yourself over the head **for your recent or past **failures*.

*2.*

*That's one of the things that Paul was talking about* when he said, *“Forgetting those things which are behind & I press toward the mark.*”

                                  a *Paul had to learn to forget* *to be an effective minister*.

*b.*

*If we want a successful Christian life* *and~/or ministry* we *have to learn this lesson*: *Forgetting those things which are behind.*

*III.*

You *could* even *look at this in another way*.

*A.*

Paul said,* “Forget those things which are behind.”*

*1.*

*Before Paul became a Christian **he was very success man*.

*a.*

Paul was a *Jew*, a *Pharisee*, from the *tribe of Benjamin*.

He was *also a **Roman*.

*i.*

*The main way for someone to become a Roman* is to *buy their citizenship **or* be *born a citizen*.

*ii.*

*To buy a citizenship* *cost a great deal of money*.

*iii.*

*Paul* was *born a Roman*, so *apparently* his *parents* were *very wealthy*.

*2.*

*When* *Paul made* that *statement*, *“Forgetting those things that are behind.”*