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In the context of this passage we find the perspective of the Apostle Paul concerning several aspects about his relationship with the church at Philippi. Our perspective being how we think about and view something (we might say it’s our mind or mindset about something). In Philippians we discover what the mind of both Paul and Jesus were and what the mind of the church is to be in following their examples, with Paul himself following our ultimate example which is Christ.
In the first 20 verses of chapter 1 covering my last 2 sermons we discovered the close relationship Paul enjoyed with the Philippians as well as how his own current personal circumstances had served to advance the Gospel of Jesus. By the way, I can think of no better way to describe what the Christian Life is to be about than what Paul has done for us here in these opening verses. In summary, our life is to be consumed with the close fellowship of the local church and advancing the Gospel of Jesus.
So as we enter into today’s text we find Paul at a real crossroads in his life and ministry. What I mean by that is that he really doesn’t know what the future holds for him. In fact, all he does know is who does hold his future and that’s ultimately all we need to know. Basically he does not know if he’s gonna live or die y’all. The amazing beauty of it all is that he is caused to consider and weigh out 2 of the most important questions that he or any one of us can ever process. The 2 questions are; what is the meaning of life for a believer and the one very few wanna discuss, what is the meaning of death? I hope to let the text speak for itself so that we all may be encouraged today and challenged to have a Biblical perspective about our own life and death. Let’s begin shall we with
The Mind of Paul about Death
Christ will be honored in my body by death 20 For to me… to die is gain 21
i. With full courage
My desire is to depart and be with Christ
i. Why Paul? For that is far better!
ii. Part of verse 29 suffering for sake of Christ could be death
Ah, the dreaded subject of death, the great unknown! Believe I’m safe in saying that death is not a very highly ranked subject to talk about for most people. We just don’t wanna go there it seems at least until we have to. A light hearted story will show ya what I mean… One Sunday after a well-received sermon on Heaven a Pastor asked his congregation, everybody that’s ready to go to Heaven raise your hands, and they all did except 1 little boy. The Pastor noticed that the little boy didn’t raise his hand so he said to him, son, don’t you wanna go to Heaven? The boy said, sure I do preacher but I thought you was getting a bus load up for tonight! So, how should we think about death?
The foremost matter in Paul’s mind about his death is that Christ will be honored in his body by it. Now the root Greek word translated honored in the ESV means to exalt, extol, glorify, and magnify; to praise the greatness of, to make and declare great. See, Paul cannot control the physical circumstances he is in or how his life might possibly end but he can control how he faces whatever comes his way. He says in verse 20 that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body. Did you catch those 3 words now as always? Simply put, nothing changes about how Paul lives or dies. Now I’m using what Paul thinks about life and death to tell ya what these verses mean but actually there is something that is higher ranked here than those 2 points of discussion, which is that Jesus is to be exalted through life and death. It is crucial and of utmost importance to Paul that no matter what happens to him personally his faithful witness to Christ is maintained. Victory for Paul doesn’t depend on whether or not he’s acquitted or whether he lives or is executed. Victory for Paul is realized in that he rejoices over the fact that his own life circumstances and possibly even his execution will advance the Gospel and glorify God. Paul knows that God is in control and has already openly acknowledged and declared back in verse 6 the absolute Sovereignty of God in salvation where he said… He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That means that Paul recognizes that it is God alone who waved the green flag of salvation (He started it!) when he regenerated us, and thereby raised us up from our spiritually dead condition, and it will be God alone who waves the checkered flag of His work in our life. If we leave here today learning or being reminded of that fact alone then our time together has been well spent.
Now look at verse 21. The standout verse of this passage says, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Wow, what a statement that is! If we summarize the message of these verses then we do it with this 1 verse. Let me begin by dealing with the 3 words For to me. Sometimes it’s ok to emphasize how you feel about an objective truth of scripture and right here is a great example where Paul says For to me. Now, in case you don’t follow what I’m hitting at I’ll be clearer. I cringe when I hear someone say, this is what that verse means to me. Why do I cringe? Because nobody has the right to interpret scripture based on how they feel about it or the material it deals with. A large part of what’s wrong in the church world lies right here. I’m not saying that scripture cannot touch us personally or deal with us differently and individually. By the way, isn’t that an amazing attribute of the nature of God’s Holy Word? It can convict some of sin while building up others at the same time. Where we go wrong is not letting the original intent and meaning rule the day. Here’s some advice then I’m back on point. Never let your experiences be the main thing in interpreting scripture but always allow scripture to interpret your experiences. Scripture meaning doesn’t change for you and me but it will change you and me. Paul is not changing anything by what he says but he is showing us the focus of his life and death.
Now Paul doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him but his resolve about life and death is clear. How about you today? Are you settled when it comes to the real focus of your own life and death? Feels a little different when we take this personal don’t it? But let the text reassure ya and build ya up this morning because this is what the Gospel of Jesus does y’all! It prepares us both to live well for the Lord and die even better. Somebody once said that we’re not truly ready to live until we are prepared to die and I agree. We spend so much time and energy on the temporary cares and concerns of this life that we don’t think much about dying. Yet what we gather from Paul is that he is a man ready to die and yet prepared to live. In a very real sense whether Paul continues to live or is executed, because of Christ he’s a winner either way! Now it’s important for us to recognize right here how we should think and speak of death, and that we should really never talk about a believer’s death as a loss because Paul doesn’t and scripture doesn’t. Psalm 116:15 says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Amen. Too often death is viewed as not only the end of life but the end of existence. Don’t you believe it for a minute! Death for the Christian is only the temporary doorway into our eternal reward and Paul highlights that here by calling death gain and being united with Jesus! Church, To die in Christ is gain! (Say it with me x2) Death is so much of a glorious promotion that as Paul weighs out what may happen to him he’s basically saying, I’m torn between the 2, that is, I don’t know what to choose (vs. 23). It’s as though Paul is somehow suspended between Heaven and Earth kinda stuck in the middle of living and dying. He feels and sees the real purpose of his earthly life while at the same time he longs for his eternal life after death with Christ. But if he could choose life or death he’d choose to die because to depart and be with Christ is far better! When we say at a believer’s death that they are better off it’s not only true but it’s an understatement. So, what we believe and say about death is important for several reasons including opportunities in life to discuss and share the Gospel of Jesus. Now, is the truth of the Bible ever challenged or misrepresented in our day? It sure is; Hollywood movies and personal stories of NDE’s will always be around and try to depict God and Heaven but just don’t allow yourself to be influenced ultimately by what’s not infallible. The Apostle Paul himself writes about his own experience in 2 Corinthians 12:2-6 where he was caught up to the 3rd heaven, also referred to as paradise, and he heard things he described only as visions and revelations of the Lord that he specifically said cannot be told and which man may not utter. So, if a man such as Paul who was chosen by God to write a large portion of our NT couldn’t speak about it, then you’ve gotta be a writer of scripture before I take seriously what you claim to be an NDE or an I died and came back scenario. That’s sound scriptural advice for all of us today.
Now what do we do with a text like this? Well, while there’s no direct commands in this text, we always make indirect application because Paul refers to himself as an example of the church in different places and we know from Romans 15:4 as Matthew recently pointed out that the whole of scripture is written for our instruction. That said, we must be careful not to create an indirect imperative that just isn’t there.
The key take away here then is to view death as an enormous promotion that a believer essentially invests all of their life into. Paul didn’t fear death even though his future life was uncertain. He only resolved to honor Christ in his body through his life and his death. And as we’re going to see next week he was just as prepared to continue living for Christ as he was prepared to die. We know that Paul will be released from this imprisonment by we also know that there will come another Roman imprisonment where tradition says he is executed and even then his words to Timothy resound with a glorious resolve when he said…
The Gospel of Jesus is good enough to live by and it will be good enough to die by as well.