To Live, to Die

We're going to be looking at a passage in Philippians, in Philippians chapter one. At the Redlands, we're working our way through the book of Philippians and we're just picking up some of the key phrases that Paul uses in this letter. Before we begin, just a quick, I guess, geography lesson, history lesson about this place that Paul is writing the letter to. So he's writing a letter to a church in the city of Philippi. Now Philippi was established in March by Philip of Macedon who was the father of Alexander the Great.

So Alexander the Great ends up conquering right through basically to India. As so he's a Greek who conquers that part of the world, but his father set up the city of Philippi in March. It's a prominent city. It's a colony of Rome. So Rome sees that as a major city and so about January, January, they move in there and they make that an outpost of Rome as a main, a main centre there. It's a city of commerce and trade.

There are silver mines, gold mines nearby. It's situated on a fertile plain. It's about 15 kilometres from the sea, so it's not actually on the sea but it's on a river. It's inland from the sea. It's a city of commerce and trade.

It's got the Ignatian Way, which is a Roman major road that runs through the city and so it's a city then that connects Europe to your left and Asia to your right and all the trade passes through Philippi. So you can see it's a city that is a crossroads, an incredibly important city and in that city, Paul establishes a church, the Philippian church, and it begins in Paul's second missionary journey around 50 AD. So this is the time that Paul is travelling through that part of the world, establishes a church there, begins at a time when he and Silas are doing this missionary journey. They're imprisoned in the city of Philippi. You can read about all of that in Acts 16.

Before their imprisonment, Lydia and her household become believers and are baptised. After their imprisonment, the jailer who holds them in prison and his family are baptised and you get an idea that from these humble beginnings in this thriving city, we have this church that grows, this church of Philippi, something that is pretty dear to Paul's heart. From this letter we have here, Paul writes to them about ten years later. So around 61, 62 AD, he writes this letter. He's in prison in Rome.

He writes a letter to encourage them and someone has described it as the greatest thank you letter ever. So that's the letter that he's writing there. And the opening verses which we looked at at Redlands the other week, it just really draws that out. In verse 3, he says, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership with the gospel."

And the challenge that we gave the Redlands Church, which I'll just leave with you here is, is that what you do? Every time you think about this church, every time you think about the people of this church, do you thank God for them? Do you thank God for the partnership you have as a church? That's how Paul opens his letter and then we'll pick up reading from verse 12, chapter one verse 12. "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

As a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard to everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It's true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love knowing that I'm put here for the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing they can stir up trouble for me while I'm here in chains.

But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this, rejoice. Yes. And I'll continue to rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what will I choose? I do not know.

I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it's more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me." So far our reading. So Paul starts his letter.

He starts his letter by thanking the church for their partnership in the gospel. But as you move on in the letter, you're struck by another key phrase. This key phrase, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." It's the key phrase, verse 21. The phrase then, you can really take that as really a summary of Paul's life.

He summarised. If he was to summarise his life, he would use that phrase. It's the core of his faith. It becomes part of the basis of his hope and the reason that he's doing this work, the reason for his existence is Christ. And he says, then even if I die, that's gain. And most people, if you see that verse, you can see it on a plaque someone might have on a wall or I've seen it on coffee cups.

If you go to Koran, you see this coffee cup and you think it's got that verse on there. And most people think, yeah, that's really cool. I want that to be the motto of my life. But in some ways, we need to, I guess, to put ourselves back in the context of when Paul actually writes this and makes this a summary of his life. Paul's in prison in the city of Rome, most likely facing death.

He's facing trial for certain. Most likely, he says, I'm likely to be executed for my faith in Christ. The reason why he says that, although he backs away from that a little bit as he goes through his letter, the reason that he thinks that is because the emperor at the time that he's there is the emperor Nero. And if you know anything about Nero, he's not a nice bloke. And Paul's got to stand before this emperor and give his defence for why he comes there in the first place, a charge of being a Christian.

To Nero, Christians are objects of amusement. You read the history of what Nero does with Christians and it's awful. They are objects of amusement. They are objects of torture. They were thrown out to fight lions and to fight each other in crowds of thousands of people who cheered on, particularly when Christians lost.

You read that they were crucified but they were also, once they were crucified, lit on fire to illuminate the night sky so that they could walk on the roads, so that they could have their entertainment in the Colosseum. This is Nero and this is the guy that Paul's up against when he comes to trial before Caesar. And so he writes his letter to the church and he says, this is what I believe. To live is Christ and yet even to die is gain. A man facing execution, a man facing death is the one who says this.

And we need to hold on to that as we understand what Paul is saying in these verses. "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." But for me to live, that's the challenge, isn't it? That's the challenge. How would you fill out that sentence?

How would you end it? "For me to live." You know, with the Olympics coming up, you would imagine that most of the people going to the Olympics would end that phrase, "For me to live is to go home with a gold medal." That would be their life's aim and the drive of their life. If you're a politician over the last month or so, you would say, "My aim in life is to win back my seat or to win the election."

That's the driving force. But what about if you're a parent? You might say, "For me to live is my children, to make sure that they're okay, that everything in life is right for them." If you're in high school, particularly getting near the end of high school, you say, "For me to live is to get an OP," whatever you're aiming for, OP one to work your way down. That's my aim.

Or for a uni student, "For me to live is to finish my course and to land that job, that dream job." You know, there's an incredible range of possibilities. It could be pleasure or possessions. It could be money or power. It could be uni or career.

It could be a range of things. It could be even winning the big game. How can you do that as a child when you've got this game coming up? I used to do that in my younger days playing soccer and you got this big game coming up and you would dream of being the one who scores the winning goal, of being the one who carries the team and sort of wins the day. But where do your dreams take you?

How would you fill out that phrase, "For me to live"? You could finish it with words like this, "For me to live is comfort." You know, I want a stress-free life. I want a life of freedom and ease. I don't want hassles or problems to come into my life.

It could be approval. I could be seeking approval. You know, I want affirmation from people. I want relationships that build me up and encourage me. I don't hate that idea of rejection.

"For me to live is approval." Or it might be control. "For me to live is control." I want certainty in life. I want standards.

I want discipline. I want to manage everything that happens around me. If I can do that, then that's life for me. Or it might be power. Power, you know, to win, to be successful at whatever you put your hand to, to be a person of influence that people look up to.

"For me, that is life, to have people trailing behind me." "For me, to live is..." We shouldn't miss the point here. "For me, to live is..." nobody leaves that sentence blank. Nobody finishes, nobody leaves it unfinished.

Everybody puts something there. Everybody has something that drives them. Everybody has something that becomes the aim and the purpose of their life. And so if you don't, as Paul does, if you don't put Christ there, what do you put there? How do you finish that sentence?

Because I think we live in a world that finishes the sentence in its own way. It says, "To live is self." It's all about me. And then if I want to finish it off, "For me to die is loss." It's the way the world would phrase it.

"For me to live is self and to die is loss." It's what the average person believes, that life is all about me. And if I die, then I've lost everything. But that's the complete opposite of what Paul is saying in these verses. So but if we live as if earth and the things that happen here is all that there is, if we live for only the things that we have here, money, popularity, pleasure, prestige, those things, we won't have enough.

We will never have enough in this life because these things aren't big enough. They're not permanent enough to carry us through whatever happens in our life, the ups and downs of life. And you know, today people want everything to be revolving around them. It's about me. It's about my needs, my desires, my wants.

It's about my hopes. It's about my dreams. And it even draws us in as believers. It draws us in as Christians. We still place ourselves in some ways at the centre of our world.

What happens then is, as Christians, we can even make Jesus a bit of an add-on in life. You know, we stay at the centre of our universe or our world and we ask that Jesus in some ways orbits around us. We say things like we don't actually say, but I think we work out this way sometimes. "I like Jesus. He's great.

I want some of Jesus. I want some Christianity. I want some of church, but I'm gonna stay here at the centre of my life. And Jesus, you just orbit around me and I'll see you every time you come around, but it's still about me." It's not what Jesus wants from His people.

It's not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, "For me, I put Christ at the centre and in many ways I orbit around Christ." Paul doesn't say to live is self or to live is comfort or approval or power. He says to live is Christ. Paul knew that Christ is greater than all the things the world can try and offer us and draw us into.

Christ is greater than the comfort the world offers because Jesus Christ, God knows all about you. He knows what's going on in your life. He knows the struggles. He knows the good times, the bad times. And so you can't do any better than go to Jesus Christ for comfort.

Well, if you want approval, Christ is the one who knows you at your worst, who sees you at your worst, and yet He stands in your place, dies in your place, and brings you before God so that you have approval before God. Or control. Jesus Christ is the one who holds the whole world in His hands. We sing that as a song with kids. And, you know, we sing that song, but do we believe the words of that song?

That He's got the whole world, which includes us, in His hands. Go to Him, the one who has control, the one who we know has all things will be under His feet. And power, Jesus Christ is the one who says He will never leave you or forsake you. Cling to Him. So when we read a phrase like "To live is Christ," we need to really grasp hold of what that means. What is Paul saying?

It's not just I'm a Christian and I have Christ as an add-on in my life, but it's central to my life. It drives me. One commentator, F.B. Meyer, puts it this way, summarising what it is that Christ does. He says, "Christ is the essence of our life. He's the model of our life, the aim of our life, the solace of our life, and the reward of our life."

You get this idea that He's everything. And think of the prepositions you can put with that then. We live in Christ. You can pick these verses up in scripture. We live in Christ, for Christ, by Christ, through Christ, from Christ.

He's the beginning and the end. He's everything, the alpha and the omega and everything in between. And Paul says, "He's the one that I look to. He's the one that I cling to." From the time of his conversion, everything he did, everything he was working towards, everything he aimed at was to make sure that Christ was known.

That Christ was known in his life, but also Christ is known to the people around him. It's his singular aim. You know, to live for Christ is about the proclamation of the gospel. If we were to say that to live for Christ means that I'm speaking the message of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says.

He says, "I wanna know Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He brought the message of Jesus Christ wherever he went, whether that was before kings or soldiers or statesmen, whether it's before Jews or Gentiles, and even here in prison, he says that the whole prison guard know that he's a Christian. The whole prison guard, the people that are guarding him, know about Jesus Christ. So even in prison, he wants Christ to be known. To live for Christ means that we imitate the example of Christ.

You know, everything that Jesus said and did, His example. That's what Paul does and Paul then wants to follow Jesus that way. He wants to be like Jesus. In Corinthians, he writes, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." Is that what people, you would be comfortable to say to people around you?

"Follow me as I follow the example of Christ." Or would you step back from that because you sort of go, "Follow Christ, and I'll help you to see what Christ is doing, but don't necessarily follow me because I haven't got it all together." And we won't, but we need to understand what's our drive, what's our motivation. To live for Christ means that we pursue a knowledge of Christ. We want to know Jesus Christ more and more.

It's what Paul writes in Philippians. He says, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." He just wanted to know more and more and more about Jesus Christ. "For me to live is to know more about Him." For me to live means that I'm willing to give up anything that prevents me from having Christ.

It's Paul's testimony again in chapter three. "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him." That's his testimony, willing to give up anything to know and to hold Christ.

To live is Christ means that Jesus is our focus, our goal, our desire. He's the centre of our minds. You know, we read that in Mark earlier. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." It's about the centre, having met the centre, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

And you know, if you don't know Jesus Christ, then in many ways you don't know life. You don't know what it is to live if you don't know Christ, and that's the challenge. If you don't know Jesus Christ, look to Him, come to Him, follow the example of others, listen to the words of others, come to know who Jesus Christ is. Because there's nothing more important that keeps us in this life and that takes us into the next phase, which Paul is able to say, "To die is..." He's able to say, "To die is gain."

You know, you hear something like that and you wonder, "How can death be a gain to anyone?" But you know we have to face the reality that everyone in this room, everyone here will one day die unless Jesus comes back before them. But everyone here will die. Everyone in the community around us will die. You're facing that now with the funeral that you have here on Friday.

You're facing the reality of death. But most people fear death. Most people don't like to talk about death. They don't like to talk about dying. They make jokes of it, but it's real.

Trying to pretend that it doesn't happen, but it happens to each and every person. Death comes. So we have to wrestle with what Paul says. We have to wrestle with what we think about death and dying. People generally think that if you die, you lose everything.

You lose everything that you are holding on to in this world. You lose control and power. You lose possessions. In a sense, you lose everything. So they generally say if you don't achieve the goals that you set out for living, then you may as well die because life is about achieving the goals here.

You know, and you see that when Olympians crash and burn because they've got nothing else but the drive to win a medal. When that's gone, then there's nothing left. But Paul says, "That's not true for me." He said, "For me, death is gain. Things, for me, in a long lot of ways get better."

But no one is able to view death that way unless they first live for Christ. You can't view death as a gain if you're not living for Christ because without Christ, death is our enemy. Death is the enemy of man. It's real. We can't hide from it.

We can't avoid it. We can't escape it. But if we have Christ with us, Paul says it's gain. Those without Jesus Christ, having never having surrendered obedience to the gospel, never striving to live for Him, put Him at the centre, then death can be a terrifying thought. But we, as believers, don't have to view death this way, which is what makes the funeral service for a believer a time of thanksgiving because death isn't the end. We need to view death as God views it.

This is how God views it in Psalm 116, "Precious. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." You know, the world may view death as a terrible enemy, but God views it as a precious thing for those who are right with Him, those who are righteous. And the only way to be right before God is through Jesus Christ, is through living for Him. So without Jesus Christ, death is fearful.

It's terrible. And it's something you live in constant fear of. But we have Jesus who has conquered death for us. He came. He suffered.

He died. He rose again so that we are free from the fear of death. For Christians, death is gain not loss because through the death of Jesus, we're made right with God, rescued from that. In verse 23, Paul says, "I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far." You know, how many people can say that?

"I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far." But if you define your life through Christ, then you can say that because you're gonna be with Christ, which is better by far. More of the good. In a sermon on this about 150 years ago, I think it was, Alexander McLaren says this when he's talking about death. He says, "We lose everything we don't need.

We lose the world. We lose this broken body. We lose fear of the devil. We lose our trials, our troubles, our tears, our fears, our weaknesses. They're all gone.

They're all done away with. And he says we keep everything that matters. We keep our personality. We keep our identity. We keep our relationship with Christ.

We keep our knowledge of all that is good. And he says, but we gain. We gain what we never had before. We gain heaven. We gain saints worshipping with the saints and the angels.

We gain being in the presence of God forever. We gain being with Jesus Christ for eternity." That's why Paul says death is gain. That's why every Christian in a sense is invincible because we're not defeated by death. We're not defined by death because we're going to live forever in the presence of Jesus worshipping God.

Many years ago, was an American evangelist, John Rice, and he would do evangelistic preaching through the states of America. And at one time, was in this small town just outside of Dallas in Texas, and he's preaching against sin and he's challenging the bootleggers of that time. So it was during the time of prohibition. So what was that? The 1930s I suppose, somewhere around there.

So it's not quite 150 years, not even 100 years ago, is it? So it's around there, but he's preaching against these guys that are bringing illegal liquor into this small town and so the powers that be try and silence him. They don't want him to say this and so they sent a message to him and the message was "Stop preaching or we'll kill you." That's a pretty blunt message, isn't it? "Stop preaching or we'll kill you."

And he just sends this message back and he says, "Go and tell them you can't threaten me with heaven. I'll..." "Kill you. Oh yeah, but you can't threaten me with heaven." How great a response is that? Could you make a response like that?

Because that's what Paul would say. "You can't threaten me with heaven because my life is based on Jesus Christ. You can beat me. You can throw me in prison. You can take my money.

You can even take my life, but things will get better for me." Paul, we shouldn't grab out this idea that Paul has a death wish, that he's just can't wait to die because he goes on and says to the people, you know, that I wanna be here. I want to stay with you so that I can continue ministry. I want to stay here so that I can continue fellowship with you. I want to stay here so that I can watch you guys grow and develop in your faith.

That's why it's what he says in verses 22 to 26. He was willing to stay, wanted to stay, if it was gonna make a difference in the lives of other people. He's not afraid of death, but he said, "If I'm here, it's because I wanna make a difference in the lives of people around me. If I die, it's gain for me. But if I stay here, it's gain for you because I've got this example. I've got this teaching that I want to bring to you."

So how do you stop a man like that? You can't, can you? And the account of his imprisonment in Philippi when he established the church is an example of that. You know, they bring him before the judge. They beat him.

They lock him up in stocks in the centre of the prison. And what does he do there? He sings praises to God. He sings praises to God. You can't stop a man like that.

But what stops you? What holds you back? How do you view life? In Lewis Carroll's book, Alice in Wonderland, Alice is wandering through the bush or through the forest, and she meets the Cheshire Cat who's sitting in a tree and she says to the cat, "Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here? Which way ought I to go from here?"

And the cat replies, "Well, that depends a good deal on where you want to go." And she says, "I don't much care where." That was Alice's response. And the cat says, "Well, it doesn't matter which way you go because you're sure to get somewhere, whichever way you go. Only you need to walk long enough."

So it's a challenge to us, isn't it? Which way do you wanna go? Where do you want to get to from here? What sets your direction in life? And what sets your direction in life is answering that question, "For me to live is..."

That'll tell you the direction you're going. "For me to live, is it money, success, happiness, pleasure, fun, good times, family, self?" If that is the direction you're going, then death is a loss, not a gain. But if you can evaluate your life and put in there what Paul puts in there, "For me to live is Christ," then you can also say with confidence, "And to die is gain. To die is gain."

But you can't say "To die is gain" unless you can first say "For me to live is Christ." And so we're always coming back to Jesus. We're always coming back to Him as the centre. If you're afraid to die, perhaps it's because you haven't put Christ there. Because when it's all said and done, there's only two ways of life.

You can say "To live is Christ and to die is gain," or you can say "To live is self and to die is loss." The question is, which is it for you? Let's pray together. Lord, we thank You for the apostle Paul. We thank You for his life, for his testimony.

We thank You for his courage. We thank You for his writings and how he's able to continue to put Christ, to put You at the centre of his life despite his circumstances. That he can write from prison, facing trial, facing the emperor Nero, to say even here in prison, I can preach Christ. Even here in prison, I can say to people, follow me as I follow Jesus. Even here in prison serves the gospel.

But we thank You that he could say that. We thank You that he could challenge us with that summary of his life to live is Christ and to die is gain. And, Lord, as we evaluate our lives, as we answer the question of what we put there, may we be drawn to Jesus Christ. May we have that desire to know Him more and more, the desire to put Him first, the desire to have our lives revolve around Him and not us. And, Lord, then we can face whatever happens in life with confidence, with hope.

And, Lord, we just pray particularly at this time for families who are grieving. We know that this church will be gathering together to remember a life, but a life lived for You, a life where someone could say, "For me to live is Christ." And, Lord, may we take comfort in knowing that for him, he has gained. He's gained more than he has lost.

And, Lord, may that be our confidence and our hope. Lord, we wanna live for Jesus Christ. We wanna know Him as our Lord, as our Saviour, as our Redeemer. And in His name, we pray. Amen.