Joy in Death
Philippians - Joy for the Journey • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 29:51
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Notes
Transcript
NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
I’m going to begin this morning with a quiz. Before I give you the question, I’m going to ask you to answer it honestly with the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t just give the “spiritual” answer or the one you think you should or the one you think I’m looking for. So with that in mind, go ahead and fill in the blank:
For to me, to live is _______________
For to me, to live is _______________
What word or phrase would you put in the blank?
If your name is Lebron James, the word is “basketball”.
If your name is Patrick Mahomes, it is “winning the Super Bowl”
If you’re a parent, it might be “my children”
For Donald Trump and Joe Biden, it is “winning the election”
For some of you kids it might be “playing video games” or “swimming” or “riding my bicycle”
For some of you adults it might be “making lots of money” or “owning a nice house” or “being successful in my job”
Obviously, there are endless possibilities here.
Tension
But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s just not possible to leave that blank empty. Even if you haven’t thought about it consciously, deep down inside there is something or someone that is the driving force in your life and which would fill in that blank.
And since we’re now in the third week of our sermon series, Joy for the Journey, you wouldn’t be surprised to find that the way you fill in that blank is going to determine whether or not you have joy.
Truth
We have been studying Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, a letter that Paul penned while being imprisoned in Rome awaiting his trial before Caesar. So far, we’ve learned how to have joy in our loneliness and how to have joy in our suffering. Today, we’ll explore the idea of how to have joy even in death. We’ll pick up where we left off last week in the second part of verse 18 in chapter 1:
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 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.
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
As has been true every week so far in this series, there is a lot to cover here, so we’re going to narrow down our focus to this big idea:
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
You’ll notice that the title of the sermon today is “Joy in Death”. But Paul makes it really clear here that the key to having joy in death is exactly the same key to having joy in life. We see that clearly in verse 20:
20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
Paul’s single focus here is to make sure that Christ is honored - whether that is through his life or through his death. If he lives, he will exalt Jesus by working with the Philippian Christians to help them grow in their faith. In that case his work would be fruitful for those disciples and for the gospel.
If he dies, he will exalt Jesus by worshiping Him face to face. That would be more fruitful for Paul personally. It is important to note here that Paul does not desire death for the purpose of escaping the trials and pressures of life. He is merely pointing out that for him that is a path that leads to even greater fellowship with Jesus and that will bring glory to God, too.
Paul is so unconcerned here with himself that he will choose to have joy whichever path God chooses for him. Paul is guided here by his desire to see Jesus glorified and his concern for others, not his own selfish desires. So he can experience joy whichever path God chooses for him.
So do you see why our big idea this morning is...
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
Application
This morning I’m going to take a slightly different approach to helping us apply that idea in our lives. I’m not really sure that I can tell you exactly how to make Christ large in your life. But what I can do is use this passage to help us identify what our lives will look like if we are doing that.
EVIDENCES THAT I AM MAKING CHRIST LARGE
EVIDENCES THAT I AM MAKING CHRIST LARGE
Jesus is at the center of every area of my life
Jesus is at the center of every area of my life
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a definition of “joy” with the kids during the “In the Bag” message that looked like this:
Jesus
Others
You
And that is still a great reminder of how to have joy in my life. But there is a similar, frequently taught hierarchy that I think can actually lead us away from joy rather than towards it. Perhaps many of you, like me, have been exposed to the idea that our priorities in life should look something like this:
Depending on who was doing the teaching the exact order might have been a little different, but the principle was the same. Put God first and then all the other areas of my life are to fall in somewhere under Him. While I think this kind of hierarchy may have some limited usefulness, one of the big problems is that it compartmentalizes the various areas of our lives and essentially divides them into the “sacred” and the “secular”.
What Paul did, and what we should do, too, is to put Jesus at the center of every single area of our lives. I find it’s helpful to picture my life as a wheel with Jesus as the hub and every area of my life as the spokes, something like this:
That is what Paul means when he writes, “For me to live is Christ...” As long as God grants him physical life on this earth, Paul is 100% focused on making sure that Jesus is at the heart of everything he does. If he has to make tents to pay the bills, he will do that with his whole heart, unto the Lord, if it serves to advance the gospel. If he’s in prison, he will use that situation to further the gospel by writing letters and influencing the entire Roman government as he shares the gospel with a Roman soldier chained to him. If he is freed, he will use his freedom to spread the gospel to new places.
We are to do the same:
In my marriage, I will choose to love my spouse by putting his or her needs ahead of my own because I know the Bible teaches that my marriage is supposed to be an illustration of the relationship between Jesus and His body, the church.
In my job, I will work with all my heart, as working for the Lord, because that will bring glory to God and be an effective testimony to my boss and my fellow employees.
In my finances, I will be a good steward, knowing that everything I have belongs to God and that He has entrusted it to my care.
In my school, I will respect my teachers and do my very best because that brings glory to God and serves as a good witness to others.
In my community I will be a good citizen. I will submit to, respect and pray for government officials whether I agree with them or not, because that is good for my community and it brings glory to God. This idea leads us directly to the next evidence that I am making Christ large...
My primary citizenship is the kingdom of God
My primary citizenship is the kingdom of God
If you are using the ESV translation, as I am, you will see a footnote in verse 27 that indicates that the phrase “let your manner of life be worthy” could be translated “behave as citizen worthy”. In Greek, the phrase “let your manner of life” is actually just one Greek verb that literally means “to live as a citizen of”.
“...let your manner of life be worthy...” =
(Greek politeuomai)
“to live as a citizen of” =
“...behave as a citizen worthy...”
We get our English word “politics” from that Greek word. Paul is going to address this idea further in chapter 3, but for now what I want to point out is that Paul recognizes that every disciple of Jesus has dual citizenship. Paul was a citizen of Rome, which is why he ended up imprisoned in Rome in the first place. But he was also a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and that took priority in his life.
That does not mean, as we have talked about frequently, that Paul was not a good Roman citizen. He consistently commanded Christians to obey and respect and pray for the Roman government officials even though they were persecuting both his fellow Jews and his brothers and sisters in Christ. But when it came to how he was going to live his life personally, he had determined that his citizenship in the kingdom of God and the principles associated with that kingdom would take priority. And one of the overriding principles of that kingdom leads us to the next evidence that I am making Christ large:
I am more focused the welfare of others than on my rights
I am more focused the welfare of others than on my rights
We are going to dig much deeper into this idea in chapter 2 when Paul writes about how Jesus demonstrated this principle when He set aside His rights to receive worship and glory by becoming a man and dying on the cross for our sins.
Paul had a long history of putting others ahead of his own rights. He willingly gave up his right to be supported by the churches he served and made tents to provide for his physical needs. We don’t have time to read it this morning, but if you want to get a better insight into Paul’s thinking in this matter, read 1 Corinthians 9. That entire chapter is Paul’s treatise on how he willingly gave up his rights for the benefit of the gospel and ultimately for the good of those who would respond positively to it.
Unfortunately, it seems that Satan has used the COVID pandemic to create a lot of division in the body of Christ. I guess we shouldn’t really be surprised that there are varying opinions out there about how the church ought to respond. I get that. But what has been really disappointing to me is how some of those responses have been overly focused on claiming personal rights rather than on what is best for others.
Just because we have a right to do something as individuals or as a church body doesn’t mean that we should. Not surprisingly, Paul addresses that idea in his first letter to the church in Corinth, where one of the major problems was that members of the church were focusing on their personal rights:
23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
As citizens of the kingdom of heaven, our first thought should always be “What is profitable for the kingdom?” and secondly “What is in the best interest of others?” As I’ve stated before I still haven’t found even one place in the Bible that calls on us to demand our rights.
Much of what we’ve covered so far is a bit theoretical. So I’d like to close by suggesting one thing we all can do to make this very practical:
HOW TO MAKE THIS PRACTICAL
HOW TO MAKE THIS PRACTICAL
Develop a personal mission statement
Develop a personal mission statement
I have no doubt what Paul’s personal mission statement was.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
I think that Paul evaluated everything he did in life based on that idea.
Several years ago I developed my own personal mission statement. It is something I wished I had done much earlier in life because it might have saved me from doing some things that really didn’t have much impact for the kingdom of God. They weren’t necessarily bad things - they just weren’t God’s best. Here is my personal mission statement:
To shepherd God’s people through the effective preaching and teaching God’s Word in order to equip them to know, love and serve Jesus.
I have found that statement has been helpful in two important ways:
It is a great tool to use in helping me decide whether or not to devote time, energy and material resources to some activity or project.
It has also helped me to make sure that I keep Jesus at the center of every area of my life. I use it to remind me of my ultimate goal and to think about how each area of my life can contribute to it.
I know what some of you are probably thinking right now - Pat, that is going to take all the fun out of life. All I can say is for me, it has done just the opposite. It does not by any means prevent me from doing things I enjoy. Let me give you a couple examples:
I have officiated high school sports for the last couple of decades. I do that because I enjoy it and because I make a little extra spending money. But because of my personal mission statement, every time I get ready to officiate a match or a game, I pray and ask God to help me be a good witness for Him and to conduct myself in a way that will bring Him glory.
Mary and I enjoy taking a vacation each summer and taking some time off if we can other times of the year. And since we’ve done our best to be faithful stewards with our finances, we’ve been able to do that without going into debt or putting undue strain on our finances. Those times serve to help me accomplish my personal mission in a number of ways, including making sure that I work on developing my relationship with Mary and providing me with some time to be relaxed and refreshed so I can be more effective in my ministry.
That statement that has become increasingly important as I consider how much longer I will continue to be a full time pastor. Because of that mission statement, that is not a decision that I fret over a lot because I know that whether or not I do it as a full time vocational pastor, I’m going to continue to preach and teach God’s Word in some capacity as long as I’m physically able because that is my mission. How I carry out that mission will change at some point, but the mission won’t.
I’m reminder here of something the great British preacher George Whitefield once wrote:
We are immortal until our work on earth is done.
So as long as God grants me life here on earth I will do my best to carry out that mission He has given me.
Your mission will probably be much different than mine. While I don’t have time this morning to give you a lot of detailed guidance on developing your own personal mission statement, here are a few suggestions on how to get started:
Be patient. Don’t try to rush the process.
Pray and ask God to reveal your personal earthly purpose.
Search the Bible for passages that give a sense of God’s purpose for your life. Pick themes that are big enough to last a lifetime.
Prepare a draft of your personal mission statement.
Let it “simmer” for a while. Prayerfully refine your statement.
Write it down somewhere you will see it often and revisit it periodically to consider if God is leading you to change it.
Build your life on it.
If that is a process that you’d like to go through, but you need some further help, please let me know. I would love to help you however I can.
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
Joy in death (and in life) comes when I make Christ large and make myself small
Inspiration
As we close I want to go back to the statement I asked you to completes at the beginning of this message:
For to me, to live is _______________
For to me, to live is _______________
If you completed that statement with anything other than “Christ”, then you will not be able to finish the sentence the way Paul did and say “to die is gain”.
If you filled in that blank with “wealth”, then dying is loss because you can’t take it with you.
If you filled in that blank with “success” then dying is loss because that success, whatever it might look like, won’t last.
If you filled in that blank with “fame”, then dying is loss because fame is fleeting.
And if you try to put “Christ plus anything else” in that blank, dying is loss, too.
If you put anything other than “Christ alone” in that blank, yo will never be able to say “to die is gain” and you will never find genuine lasting joy, either in life or in death.
But just imagine what would happen if everyone joining us here this morning were to honestly fill in that blank with “Christ”. Think of what a tremendous influence we could have in our homes and our schools and our workplaces and our neighborhoods and in our communities. Imagine what we could do for the gospel if we made Jesus the center of every area of our lives. Imagine the kind of glory Jesus would receive if we quit living primarily for this world and instead lived primarily for the kingdom of God. Imagine how many lives we could make better if we quit focusing on our rights and focused instead on what is best for others.
When we make Jesus large and ourselves small like that, then we will experience unimaginable joy in both life and death and we’ll take some others along for the ride with us.