Untitled Sermon (18)

Whether by life or by death

Philippians 1:20–30 HCSB

20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22 Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. 23 I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ —which is far better — 24 but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. 25 Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that, because of me, your confidence may grow in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. 27 Just one thing: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, working side by side for the faith that comes from the gospel, 28 not being frightened in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your deliverance —and this is from God. 29 For it has been given to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, 30 having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have.

It has been a week.

As I sat down to write this sermon I was moved.

Moved by the difficulties of this week but also the joys.

At this moment in our state, it seems like there are at least two illnesses that are sweeping through and just whipping people.

I watched this week as our group literally dropped like flies as people got ill.

Several in our midst had family members in the hospital this week.

In the middle of all that,

I saw this community gather round each other to support, check in , and to pray.

That strengthened me.

I called an older pastor here in Tucson to ask a question, and when he heard about Ransom he prayed for him in a way that brought tears to my eyes.

He prayed with the confidence of a man who knows his master.

As we linger in the text we are studying together today, let’s not JUST study it.

Let’s be instructed by it.

Let’s be formed by it.

Let’s be built up by it.

Let us not fall into the trap of studying the gospel as if it is a bug under a microscope.

God’s word is living and active.

Sharper than any two edged sword.

Hebrews 4:12 NIV

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

God is not an object to be studied and divided into neat systematic theologies, never to be known.

If I were to speak of my wife the way we speak of Christ, our relationship would be damaged.

Christ is living and present here with us through His Spirit.

And today we are talking about Him.

And His gospel.

The gospel of His Kingdom.

It’s a gospel that requires contention.

It’s a gospel that is not compatible with easy believism.

Nothing can be more challenging for our faith than challenges themselves.

BUT it is precisely these challenges that also CONFIRM for us that

A. The Spirit of God is living and active in this age,

and

B. That through our shared fellowship in this Spirit and gospel that our faith is strengthened.

So let’s dive in to this text and be strengthened by it as we sit under the instruction of the Spirit of God through His Word, together.

Last week Steve Nicholas took us through verse 20.

Wasn’t he great?

Today we will return to verse 20 again and then move on from there as the passage is all connected.

The section that we’re in today could be broken into two parts.

The first section is verse 20-26.

In this section Paul is considering the balance between life and death.

He is showing his beloved Philippian church a biblical model for thinking about life and death.

In the second section from 27-30,

Paul encourages the Philippian church to stand firm against trials by pressing into the gospel together.

He makes it pretty clear that there are correct and incorrect ways to go about our lives if the gospel is true, but he follows this up by confirming for them that not only their belief, but their suffering is a gift.

So let’s walk through that first section.

Philippians 1:20–21 HCSB

20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

Paul is neither a pessimist or an optimist.

He’s a gospelist.

Have you ever watched a Christian die?

It’s different.

Something happens in the heart, soul, and mind of a person who has been gripped by the truth of Christ crucified and resurrected.

There is a fundamental perspective shift on what death is.

I’m going to tell you about three different men from church history this morning, and how not only their lives, but also their deaths were transformed by the love of Christ.

I don’t tell you these stories to glorify them in such a way that we should prematurely seek death.

As we will clearly see, Paul sees life in this bidy in this age as having great worth.

But what we see in the lives of Christians from the past, is that for servants of Jesus, everything changes and is given value. Even our final moments on earth.

“As Polycarp was being taken into the arena, a voice came to him from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp and play the man!” No one saw who had spoken, but our brothers who were there heard the voice. When the crowd heard that Polycarp had been captured, there was an uproar. The Proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On hearing that he was, he tried to persuade him to apostatize, saying, “Have respect for your old age, swear by the fortune of Caesar. Repent, and say, ‘Down with the Atheists!’” Polycarp looked grimly at the wicked heathen multitude in the stadium, and gesturing towards them, he said, “Down with the Atheists!” “Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.” “86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?””

The gospel doesn’t remove the natural pain and difficulty of death,

but it gives and overarching perspective that transcends not just your life, but the ages.

This is why I say that Paul is not a pessimist or and optimist.

If he was a pessimist, his perspective on death would be one of avoidance.

That death could only bring about bad things.

He’s not an optimist either who is just looking for silver linings in everything and is refusing to acknowledge that bad things hurt.

We’ve all met people like that, and they’re not the type who you want around when things get hard.

And the reason is that for both the ever optimist and the ever pessimist, what you will hear from them is lies.

The ever pessimist may reach out to you in your grief and your suffering and say something like,

“All I know is that the god I worship would never let this happen.”

As if God needs the approval of our dumb friends to do as he pleases.

On the other hand, the optimist will reach out to you in your suffering and grief and offer you some neo-platonic nonsense about heaven gaining an angel or telling you to cheer up because God is in control.

Paul has a fundamentally different view that doesn’t involve falling into despair on one side, or into a “hear no evil, see no evil” attitude on the other that doesn’t acknowledge pain.

Paul charts a course right through the middle with one of the most quotable lines in all of scripture.

“To live is Christ, to die is gain.”

The reason why Paul is able to say this comes from two things.

A rich doctrine of creation

A rich doctrine of the resurrection

What do I mean by those things?

Paul’s statement that to live is Christ stems from his rich doctrine of creation. What that means that he does not view this earth as a scrap pile that God is just waiting to throw in the trash.

And he believes that it is populated by people who are made in God’s image who have been given the twin missions of cultivating the earth, and making disciples of those who populate it.

So for Paul, life is full of purpose.

Life on earth in this age is a life that is ruled by a king named Christ who has defeated death, bound Satan, and who is ruling with all authority on heaven and earth, issuing the twin missions of dominion and discipleship.

To live is Christ!

Death on earth (for the believer) is to die a death that our elder brother underwent before us.

This death is simply the planting of a seed.

A seed that blooms in resurrection life and is harvested by a master gardener who doesn’t let anything that is his slip from his grasp.

To die is gain!

This principle has propelled countless Christians to resolute trust in Christ even in their dying.

J Gresham Machen is the next person I want to tell you about today.

Lived a difficult life in defense of the authority and sufficiency of scripture.

Today, if you think about the word fundamentalist, you might think about a brand of Christianity defined by legalism and lacking grace.

In the early 1900’s, the word fundamentalist meant something completely different.

This described those in the Presbyterian church who were fighting to protect truths like the inerrancy of scripture, the resurrection of Christ, and the existence of miracles in the Bible.

The people who were opposing were him were coming from a position of theological liberalism that was trying to subject scripture to the scientific method and the principles of the enlightenment.

Barred from communion in his own church.

Started the OPC.

He died one year later in 1937.

His last known words were a telegram he sent to his friend, the theologian John Murray.

“I am thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”

Even in his death, what Machen was interested in was Christ.

The active obedience of Christ refers to the righteousness that Christ gives to his church in the place of their worthless deeds.

This is the way we see Paul talking as he nears his death.

He’s been serving Christ for decades now and as he sees his death day approaching, he won’t stop talking about Christ and the richness of knowing him.

I loved what Steve speculated last week, that on the day Paul was beheaded, that he finished his morning prayer with Jesus by saying, “we’ll continue this conversation in person in a bit.”

The reason why I’ve been telling these stories of the deaths of Christians, is for the very same reason that Paul now exhorts his beloved Philippians to stand firm.

SECTION 2:

Resolute christian faith is a confirmation of the gospel.

To the destruction of the enemy of God, and to the salvation of the believer.

Paul wraps up this long introduction to this letter by saying:

“Just one thing, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

The wording for “live” that Paul is using is calling to mind the rank and status of Roman citizenship and the following obligations and duties. “Politeuesthe”

These people understood that well.

Paul is calling them to adopt and live out their kingdom citizenship.

Rank and obligation.

And he offers them an encouragement.

That when they live out the truths of the gospel, then they will be standing firm in one spirit, with one soul.

Contending side by side for the faith of the gospel.

Why is this important?

Because they have opponents.

Don’t be deceived.

Christianity is not an opposition-less faith.

If we live out the faith of the gospel than there will be opposition.

But the contending for the faith is done by the means of self giving love.

If the Christians in the early church picked up swords to kill those who opposed them, their witness would have been destroyed.

I saw a tweet yesterday that read like this:

“Maybe our witness is something that occurs naturally as we seek to live in accordance with the word of God and not something that we have to cultivate and protect.”

To that I would say, of course our witness occurs naturally.

But it’s also something we have to cultivate and protect.

And I’ll say that based simply off this passage alone.

The Spirit of God, through the apostle Paul is telling us here today that by our standing together for the sake of the gospel, as we endure suffering of various kinds, that the watching world is witnessed to.

phil 1:29 “29 because to you has been graciously granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on behalf of him,”

Belief AND suffering given as a gift in Christ.

How can suffering be a gift?

Content of the gospel should dictate this.

If the gospel is merely intellectual ascent, who cares what you believe?

Unfortunately in America we have often made the gospel a mere intellectual ascent.

An idea that we simply agree with in our minds and then we’re good.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is comprehensive in scope. It’s effects are cosmic.

And it’s consequences are final.

So for those who believe this gospel of the kingdom, it affects everything they do.

This was happening in the Philippian church and so they were being met with opposition.

But the church was also growing.

When a community is changed by the gospel, two things happen.

Paul elsewhere talks about Christ being a cornerstone.

You can either build on it, or break your legs on it.

So, for people being presented with a cornerstone, let’s consider the final story from church history.

“Elliot and Fleming arrived in Ecuador on February 21, 1952, with the purpose of evangelizing Ecuador's Quechua Indians. They first stayed in Quito, and then moved to the jungle. They took up residence at the Shandia mission station. On October 8, 1953, he married fellow Wheaton alumna and missionary Elisabeth Howard. The wedding was a simple civil ceremony held in Quito. Ed and Marilou McCully were the witnesses. The couple then took a brief honeymoon to Panama and Costa Rica, then returned to Ecuador. Their only child, Valerie, was born February 27, 1955. While working with Quechua Indians, Elliot began preparing to reach the Huaorani.[citation needed]

Elliot and his group ( Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and their pilot, Nate Saint) made contact from their Piper PA-14 airplane with the Huaorani using a loudspeaker and a basket to pass down gifts. After several months, the men decided to build a base a short distance from the Amerindian village, along the Curaray River. There they were approached one time by a small group of Huaorani and even gave an airplane ride to one curious Huaorani whom they called "George" (his real name was Naenkiwi). Encouraged by these friendly encounters, they began plans to visit the Huaorani. Their plans were preempted by the arrival of a larger group of about 10 Huaorani warriors, who killed Elliot and his four companions on January 8, 1956. Jim Elliot was the first of the five missionaries killed when he and Peter Fleming were greeting two of those attackers. Elliot's body was found downstream, along with those of the other men. Ed McCully's body was found even farther downstream.”

Jim Elliot once said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

He really believed this.

But he wasn’t recklessly careening towards death either.

In Jim, we have a modern day example of what Paul meant by “to live is Christ, to die is gain.”

Jim’s diary was found after he died.

This entry was written as they waited for the natives to come meet them.

The last words he wrote:

I walked out to the hill just now. It is exalting, delicious, to stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree with the wind tugging at your coattail and the heavens hailing your heart, to gaze and glory and give oneself again to God—what more could a man ask? Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth! I care not if I never raise my voice again for him, if only I may love him, please him. Perhaps in mercy he shall give me a host of children [i.e., converts] that I may lead them through the vast star fields to explore his delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see him, touch his garments, and smile into his eyes—ah then, not stars nor children shall matter, only himself. O Jesus, Master and Centre and End of all, how long before that glory is yours which has so long awaited you? Now there is no thought of you among men; then there shall be thought for nothing else. Now other men are praised; then none shall care for any other’s merits. Hasten, hasten, Glory of Heaven, take your crown, subdue your kingdom, enthrall your creatures.