Philippians Intro – To Live is Christ to Die is Gain

20-09-06 Philippians Intro – To Live is Christ to Die is Gain

HBI: working together in unity, joy and faith, Our lives are to be centred on Christ and our death will be but immense gain.

Þ Intro

- Sometimes things do not exactly go according to plan, or at least go according to the way we would like them to go.

- While working for the city of Saskatoon driving city bus one day, I decided to plan to pick something up on the way to work.

- My plans did not work out exactly the way that I wanted them to. I went on a different route to work then usual to go to the store I needed to be at.

- I went to get out of the car and on my way into the store I looked at the time and thought, oh shoot I don’t have time now, so I went back into my car and continued on to work.

- When driving city bus for the city it is important to remember that they give you 59 seconds after the time you are supposed to be at work to sign in or you lose your work for the day. If this happens you twiddle your thumbs all day waiting for them to hopefully call with more work, or just enjoy a day off.

- Well I got to the bus Garage and made my way to the dispatch window to sign in and noticed that I was 11 seconds past the 59 second window they give you.

- If I would have realized this, I would have run to the window.

- My plans changed for the day and it was very frustrating it meant I was out a day of work.

- This is minor in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes plans change in a major way. We try and plan our ways but then God speaks into our lives and directs our steps differently.

- We can either wine or complain when this happens, after all I do love complaining sometimes. Or we can remember that in this life we are to live our lives for Christ no matter the cost, no matter where He leads.

- Coming here our plans changed, though we still made it here. This is something we are going to be learning about for the next month or 2, what it means to live for Christ no matter where He calls or No Matter how it changes our plans.

- What does it mean to live a Christ centered life? How is it going to affect our day to day lives? How are we going to deal with the fact that we may not always get our way?

- Let us start to delve into what it means for us to Live in Christ for Christ. For to live is Christ and to die is but immense gain.

Þ Background

- The book of Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul and Timothy.

- Though the city of Philippi is in Greece it became a Roman military colony when the Romans took over in around 167 BC.

- The Roman leader Octavian was smart and populated Phillip I and the surrounding area with retired soldiers found something oh man so people would not cause as much trouble

- Philippi was on a very used trade route called the Via Egnatia that linked Italy with Asia Minor.

- Because of its location the city had a very mixed population though mainly Roman and Greek. The main language was Latin.

- Philippi was a deeply religious community, but not much for Christianity was there yet. There is a lot of worship of Roman gods which caused a bit of trouble now we can see as he read farther into the book.

- The passage that was read in Acts 16 tells us of the journey Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke took after a disagreement between a group of missionaries.

- Paul and his group were following the leading of the HS and had plans to go north into Asia minor and as they were travelling the HS forbid them to go there.

Acts 16:7 (ESV) 7 And when they had come up to Mysia (Moosea), they attempted to go into Bithynia (Bithoonea), but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

- How this worked I do not know, sometimes I think it would be nice for the HS to send us an email, or a text saying “Don’t go that way!” or “Do this thing!” it would life so much easier.

- They came from the south going north and were forbidden to go that way, so they turned to the east and started towards a different city when Paul received a vision.

Acts 16:9 (ESV) 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

- What would you do if you had a situation like this? You had all your plans set out and God decided to throw a wrench into them and take you somewhere else? I know some people do better with plan changes like this than others.

- This is why weneed to live lives that are centered on Jesus. We can not mess up God’s plans, but God was saying “I will do great things through you if you follow me”

- Well they obediently followed the calling of the Lord and headed to Macedonia. This was never in their plans.

- Whenever Paul went to a city, He usually sought out the local Jewish Synagogue and shared the gospel with the local Jewish people first and then went to the Gentiles.

- In the city of Philippi there was no Jewish Synagogue, but they did find a place of prayer just outside of the city where the met a lady who worshipped the God of Abraham.

- They led a lady to the Lord who shared the gospel with her family, and they all repented and believed.

- This lady's name was Lydia and she was extraordinarily rich. she sold purple dyed clothes which is awfully expensive to make. Nowadays she would have been a fashion icon.

- We can tell she was rich as well because she had a big house that she invited them all to come to and stay in

- They caused a bit of a ruckus by casting out a demon from a young girl which Resulted in them being stripped, beaten, and then thrown in jail them to be thrown in prison where they led a jailer and later His family to the Lord. This was the beginning of the church in Philippi.

- Sometime later the church heard that Paul was in prison and sent one of their own, Epaphroditus, to bring Paul a gift and to bring back news of his health.

- Epaphroditus got sick along the way and so Paul wrote a letter to them for him to bring back. Hence, we get the book of Philippians and how the church started.

- The church cared greatly for Paul and for each other and out of this we get the main theme of the book.

Þ Theme

- Paul would go to cities and plant churches. After being called by Jesus in a miraculous way after leading a life of persecuting Christians this is what Paul devoted his life to, the spreading of the message of Jesus.

- Philippi was the only place in the NT where Paul was not trying to correct or modify behaviour. In the book of Philippians Paul is speaking to a mature church. In this book we get a little glimpse of what it means to be a mature man or a mature woman in Christ.

- Whether you are brand new to the faith, or have grown up in the church from the time you were born, the book of Philippians is an excellent book that explains to us what it means to be a mature follower of Christ.

- If you look at Paul's letters lot some tell us “stop doing this, quit doing that, you need to change your life in this way”. But the book of Philippians does not do this.

- This letter invites us into the advance of the gospel, the good news about Christ and the Spirit. It points us to Christ, both for now and forever. "to live is Christ; to die is gain"

- What I see as the main idea running through the book is this: Let us together live a Christ Centered life so we can spread the joy of the gospel with those around us.

- People may differ on what the main idea is running through the book but what I see it all boiling down to is living a Christ centered life, To learn what it means when Paul says “To live is Christ”.

Þ So What?

- 3 ideas we are going to be following through Philippians for the next month or two. To live is Christ, Joy and Unity.

- I was doing some thinking about this and as I have said what I see it starting from is Living in Christ. When we do this the other two will follow.

- So what does it mean when it says “to live is Christ and to die is Gain?”. Some of you may have study bibles, or bibles with cross references in the column somewhere. How many of you know how to use this?

- Look up verse 21 in the Cross-Reference explorer, what does it tell you? It should say Galatians 2:20 and maybe a few other verses. To do this sometimes will help us to shed light on the meaning behind the verse or to broaden our understanding of it.

- Galatians 2:20 (ESV) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

- This should help understand what the words “to live is Christ” means for us. It means that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

- This should be true for us as followers of Jesus because He died for sin so that we may live for Him and in Him.

- I know that there are many people that claim to be Living for Christ they may even go through all the correct motions as if they are living for Christ.

- But unfortunately, they have never been crucified with Christ. that means they have never taking that step to have a relationship with him, they have never given their lives to him, they have never completely forsaken this life of flesh and given it over to Jesus.

- You see I have learned that it is not enough to just “pray the prayer”. That is a misconception that people have.

- The bible says that those who are followers of Jesus will show by the way that they live their lives that they are followers of Jesus. By the fruit that comes out of their lives they will show that Jesus is inside of them.

- To live is Christ, is to live for Christ, to give our lives over to His Lordship, to follow Him with all that we are into His joy and His suffering.

- To live is Christ, means that our lives are going to be Christ Centered. That is the phrase I will likely be using after this, living a Christ centered life.

- If living is Christ, then dying is Gain. We do not have to fear death, we do not have to worry. Because if our lives are truly centered on Christ then we know that Jesus has a place prepared for us so that where He is there we may be also.

- That is why Paul says that He would rather go to be with Jesus, Dying is but immense gain for those that have their lives centered on Jesus.

- But as a friend told me once, if you are still here on earth, if you are not dead, then you are not done yet. God still has a job for you here.

- This is what we will be going through, what exactly is it going to look like to have our lives centered on Christ. The joy and unity that should come from that.

- To have our lives centered on anything else will not do. Warren Wiersbe put it well in His book on Philippians.

- Philippians 1:21 becomes a valuable test of our lives. "For to me to live is__________ and to die is____________" Fill in the blanks yourself.

- "For to me to live is money and to die is to leave it all behind."

- "For to me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten."

- "For to me to live is power and to die is to lose it all."

- No, we must echo Paul's convictions if we are going to have joy despite circumstances, and if we are going to share in the furtherance of the Gospel. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!"[1]

[1] Bible Exposition Commentary - Be Joyful (Philippians).