Sermon Cloud

February 1, 2009

Philippians 1:19-26 “To live is Christ, to die is gain” (Gospel-centered)

            What a great text to begin a new chapter in Redeemer’s life together!  Let’s set the stage.  This passage is way more than an abstract reality because life and death are realities for Paul on death row.  He sees his imprisonment and suffering there as something that’s been hard, but that God has used it to advance the gospel.

Believing something and simultaneously prepared not to receive it?

            Paul has pretty important request of God.  In fact, he’s expecting that God will answer his prayer for deliverance and uses phraseology from Job to underscore the seriousness of the situation.  Is the deliverance from jail or salvation after this life?   Hmm, tough to say. This passage isn’t clear, but the context lends itself to both.  There is a lot here about his confidence in Jesus to save Him eternally, but there’s also quite about Paul thinking that he will be released and be able to work their progress and joy in the faith. (25)  Since both ideas are all around the word deliverance, I am going to say that Paul intentionally left the term vague where it could go both ways.

            If this is the case, then Paul gives us an idea of how can pray in faith, but prepare ourselves for not getting it (at least the here and now part of his deliverance.)  He and others are asking God for continued fruitful ministry and they confidently expect that this will be the case.  That is a faith-filled prayer.  But this is where certain Christian groups go off the tracks.  Some would say that we shouldn’t even speak negative thoughts about things we are believing God for.  For example, my mom worked with a lady diagnosed cancer.  She attended a church of this sort and she believed God for healing.  Nothing wrong with that, by itself.  But when mom would ask her about it and how she was doing, she would refuse to even say the word cancer out loud or talk about what might happen if it continued to grow.  She was afraid to even say the word because that would not be acting in faith and that negative word could become reality. She didn’t seek any medical treatment to check the cancer’s status because that would be acting in unbelief.  I realize that this sort of thinking sounds spiritual, but it confuses some very basic principles: Namely, who is God and who is the human being.  Our desires for some sort of temporal deliverance don’t equal God’s desire to execute that thing.

            While he expected and prayed for and hoped for release from jail (and salvation!), he also prepared himself for the very real possibility that he wouldn’t be released and that he would be executed for his faith in Jesus.  What a great way to pray!  Let’s be bolder still in praying for help and healing and for things to change.  But let’s be prepared that Christ may call us to suffer instead of Him improving the situation.  That will help us remember who is God and who is not. 

To Live is Christ, to Die is Gain

            21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Simply, life would mean fruitful labor and death would mean being with Christ.

Paul prefers death because Jesus is just way better than living here on this earth.  This enjoyment of Jesus was the very reason that Jesus was sent to die on the cross for us!  Paul hopes for life so that he can continue to work for the Philippians progress of their faith.  This is the gospel’s advance (same Greek word) we talked about last week.

            While he prefers death, he is convinced that it would be more fruitful to stay and work for their faith’s progress.  He wants to see them grow in passion (joy) for Jesus.   There is so much at stake that he is willing to endure jail and other things in the future if it would mean that he could pass on something of the greatness of God.  This was his life’s task.  So let’s press some of Paul’s most memorable words that have assonance in the Greek to make sure they stand out:

1.  To live is Christ. If we are going to live, it’s going to be for Jesus.  We’ll learn to do our careers in a God-centered way.  We’ll learn to do relationships in a way that help us (and them) love Jesus.  We’ll not look at our life as a quest to accomplish and accumulate more, but to center ourselves more on Him and to enjoy Him more.  When you take a close look you’ll see how Godless most of our dreams and activities really are.  Just check out the blank stares when you ask someone what their sex life has to do with Jesus or how their summer plans were made in respect to Him.  We know Jesus has something to do with church and world peace or something, but we are still pretty foggy how he informs our studies, changes our relationships, etc.  I am not going to be able to give you a simple phrase to make it all better, but take a close look and see where if Jesus’ mind and passions are coming out in you.  Abraham Kuyper famously stated, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'. We have one life to live, lets live it well.  That’s why we give our members John Piper’s “Don’t Waste your Life.” We are a gospel-centered church because we are transformed by this message over and over again by God’s Spirit.  To live is Christ.

2.  To die is gain.  The biggest barrier we have to believing this is some of the jargon that we speak about death already.  Regardless of the deceased person’s standing with God (do they believe in Jesus to be right with God or do they trust in their own goodness?), we say, “They are in a better place.”  But what would make it so?  What will be good about it?  And what has been good enough from their life that would merit their place in it?  And what will take way the evil things that all of us have done?  Everyone being in a “better place” does sound fair, but it doesn’t ring just. 

On this point, I recently read a blog by Al Mohler that hit a very good point about Americans and our misplaced understanding of fairness.  He says that American Christians are having an increasingly difficult time accepting that some people don’t get the same chance to go to heaven as others and are rejecting the idea that some will go to hell.  Where does this come from? Not from an understanding of the main attraction of heaven (Jesus) and how lame of a place it would be for someone that doesn’t love Him.  Instead it’s from a culturally embedded idea of fairness that everyone should get the same sort of treatment.  We confuse justice and fairness, Mohler adds.  I think he’s right.  God never one time in the Bible promises to be fair.  He does promise to be just.  This relates to Paul’s confession that to die is gain because if death can be considered gain, it is only Christ that makes it so.  He will be that good.  How can we access this goodness? Only by faith.  It’s not fair, but it is just since only the sinless Son of God could make atonement for us and faith connects us to His work.

Is that how we view the end of our lives?  It’s hard to imagine it in such a young church.  Even our aged veterans are like 50!  We still have some life to live.  But it is passing like a blur for me.  In some ways, this circles back as we consider our death and this causes us to consider our lives for Jesus.  There is a reason that the greats like Jonathan Edwards would daily meditate on their death.  It causes us to think about how valuable He really is and how great heaven will be because we gain Him in a very full way.  This is why we are a gospel-centered church.  The gospel means that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we gain full restoration of our formerly lost relationship with God and we become a new community in Him.    Considering our deaths and looking at them through a Jesus’ centered lens, will remind us that He alone is valuable our souls will finally be complete there.  Not wishful thinking of “better places.”  Jesus.

Working for the progress of the gospel-what do we do with this?

1.Realize that we kid ourselves about how much we see Christ as gain in this life or in death.  This is unbelievably subtle and our hidden objects of worship even shift over the course of our time.  I remember when I was a sophomore in high school some scary eschamaniac guy preached at a church and showed on charts and graphs how Jesus was coming back the next year.  I was bummed.  I hadn’t got to drive, seriously make out with a girl, or play varsity football/baseball.  He was a goof, but it’s hard to deny that those 3 things were more desirable at that time than being with Jesus.

Now I’m more likely to be confused if Jesus is better than accomplishing goals here at Redeemer, my kids’ academic and sports successes, or really great fly fishing and mountaineering.  I bet in 30 years it will probably be consumed with hoping that I have enough money to take care of myself and wife in our golden years, our grandkids’ academic and sports successes, and really great fly fishing. Is He better? Our lives say something like “sorta.”  Our confusion at this very fundamental point explains a lot of our missional ambivalence and lack of concern for each other’s progress in the faith.

2. Correction: We look at our lives and our deaths with gospel-centered glasses.  We want our lives to be centered on Jesus and His gospel and in some ways we look forward to the day when our life is over because we gain Jesus.  Its all for Him.  I want to urge you to land where Paul landed on this.  That you would look anxiously for the day when you could be united by sight with Jesus, but in the mean time that we would commit to the gospel’s progress in each other and in the world around us.  Remind yourself that the accomplishment of every goal you’ve got will leave you empty. Fulfilled dreams are quickly replaced with new ones.  Remind yourself that Jesus alone can satisfy.

What would happen if we did?  Would it change the intensity of our gatherings here?  Would it change how we would interact with people new to Redeemer?  Would it change the complexion of our Redeemer groups? Would it change the way we open our homes to people around us?  Would it change the way we would spend our time and money?  Would it change how we would view our golden, retirement years?  Let’s apply our souls to the enjoyment of Jesus in this life and in our deaths.  As long as we are alive, God let this enjoyment of Jesus in life and death spill out onto others so that their faith and joy would progress as well.