Apprehended By Christ For Christ!; Phil. 3:12

Delivered during the Evenfall; Sunday Evening Worship, 9/1/2024. Paul's desire to be "found in Christ", to live in the "power of His resurrection", and to attain his own spiritual resurrection from his previous "deadness", continues in this evening's verse as his thoughts just seem to roll into each other. He first reveals that he knows he has not reached perfection, and indeed never will in this life; so for the rest of his time on earth he will "press on" towards the finish mark and the accomplishment of his purpose. In the meantime, in a beautifully worded sentence, he vows to continue to "lay hold of" the reason he was "laid hold of" by Christ. We will unravel that somewhat enigmatic statement focusing on the underlying word that the King James Version translates as "apprehend". After carefully defining that and other words in the sentence we will strive to answer three questions stemming from the text: "What does it mean for Christ to 'apprehend' us?"; "What is the purpose for which we are 'apprehended'?"; and "What obligation does this put on the true disciple?". Ultimately we will find that the answer lies in the same place that our redemption, sanctification, righteousness, atonement, forgiveness, restoration and resurrection lies-- like everything else, it is "in Christ".