Title: Christ Exalted in Life & Death
Scripture: Philippians 1:18-26
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, this morning I want to begin by considering an important question, perhaps the most important question, and that is, how do you live your life for Christ? And to this we might add, what does it look like for Christ to be honored, magnified, and glorified in our lives? Because certainly we might see how this could happen when things are going well, when you're spiritually strong, when you're joyful, when you're content, when you're happy. But what about when you're struggling, or when you're suffering, or sick, or in sin? What about in death? The Bible teaches that for those who belong to Christ, in other words, those who are in Christ, He can be both exalted in life and in death. Out of all the places where this truth is expressed, there is probably no greater sentiment uttered than Philippians 121, where Paul declares, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
Both mysterious and profound, this verse cuts to the heart of the Christian life. And in looking at this verse in particular, we're going to examine the thoughts and conditions around the phrase as we encounter what I'm titling, Christ Exalted in Life and Death. And so, if you have not already turned there, please turn to Philippians chapter 1 in your copy of Scripture, Philippians chapter 1. We remember in the context of Philippians 1 here that the Apostle Paul is imprisoned in Rome.
He's awaiting trial that could either result in his exoneration and freedom, or his execution. In a very real way, he's in the fight of his life. And while he's in prison, he expresses great joy because, as he says in verse 12, that even while he's imprisoned, he says, my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.
Because not only is the cause of Christ advancing through the ranks of the praetorian guard, the guard that is watching over him every step he takes, but also throughout the entire Roman government. And the Christians in Rome are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear. And yet, he adds, some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, from selfish motives, while others do it out of love and from pure motives.
But it makes no difference to Paul, verse 18, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Paul's only real concern is for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And ultimately, that was the reason he was on trial, essentially for upsetting the Jewish leaders, for daring to say that Christ, not Caesar, is Lord, and for declaring that there is no other way of salvation than through the cross of Jesus Christ.
And yet, all of this very well may cost him his life. But the question is, well, how did Paul respond to this? Is he worried and anxious? Is he sad and distraught? Far from it. He's rejoicing.
And so, we pick it up in Philippians 1, 18. We're going to read the second half of verse 18 down to verse 26. Again, we're continuing Paul's thought where he talks about rejoicing that Christ has proclaimed.
He says, yes, I will rejoice, verse 19, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose.
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
And so admittedly, this is hard to break up the letter. If you were to take a letter that you wrote to a friend and try to dice it up and exegete a letter, it is difficult because we're used to reading things in a full discourse, a full thinking of having our thoughts lined up together. We don't chop up our brain patterns.
And so we are jumping into the middle of Paul's thought here as he's expressing these things to the church, but there is a decided shift, there's a noticeable shift from Paul's thinking in verses 12 through 18, and then verses 19 through 26. And verse 18 seems to be kind of a hinge on which the argument is beginning to turn. In verses 12 through 18, Paul is articulating how his imprisonment has already affected the progress of the gospel.
The gospel is already going forward, and these are the different ways. It's through the praetorian guard, it's through the preaching of the church, it's going forward. It has already affected the gospel.
But in verses 19 to 26, he expresses his confidence on the outcome of his trial, whether good or bad, that will continue to advance the gospel and bring glory to Christ. And so up to this point, it's what the gospel has already been doing, and then from this point on, it's what the gospel will continue to do. And so twice in verse 18, Paul states, I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.
You see the two different tenses here, I rejoice at what the gospel's already been doing, I will rejoice at what it will do moving forward. And while it simply could be for emphasis where he says, I rejoice and I will rejoice, that could just be Paul being emphatic about his rejoicing. He's rejoicing in the preaching of the gospel, but there have been many who've seen this second expression of him rejoicing as belonging to what he will say moving forward, starting in verse 19, that he intends to rejoice because of what he anticipates is going to happen through all of this.
After all, joy in the midst of trial is a recurring theme in this letter. We see it over and over and over again. But he says again in verse 19, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
He's expressing a confident assurance. He says, I know that this will turn out well for me, but specifically he points to for my deliverance. Now, this is interesting because this word translated deliverance in the Greek is sotirion.
Sotiria is salvation. When we talk about the doctrine of salvation, we call that sotiriology. It's from sotirion, and it generally refers to salvation, the saving grace of the Lord.
But it can also be used in some context to speak about preservation or safety or even vindication. You can use it in many different ways. And on the surface, it seems as though Paul believes that he's going to be exonerated and delivered out of his trial.
It certainly seems that way. And in this way, his confidence is resting on two things. His confidence is resting first, he says, through your prayers.
He's telling the church, the church in Philippi, he knows that they're praying for him. They're praying for him to be vindicated in the courts. They're praying for him to be saved and not be executed.
They're praying for him to be released. And so he says, I know that you're praying for me, and it's through your prayers, I know that I'm going to be delivered. But secondly, he also believes he's going to be delivered through the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Now, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we're talking about the Holy Spirit who dwells within him and who dwells within all believers and binds him to Jesus Christ. To be very clear, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is not the one who indwells believers. We know that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, but the Spirit of God is the one who dwells in believers.
And yet, many times we see the Holy Spirit called the Spirit of Christ because they're inextricably linked, they're united. And so for the believer to have the Holy Spirit of God, it is as if Jesus is taking up residence within our hearts, again, because the Spirit is the one binding us to Christ. When someone, when a believer will say, when Paul says that we're in Christ, it's through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And so in this way, the Spirit of God is helping him to remain faithful as he his defense, as he gives answers, and ultimately it's going to be the Spirit of God who will cause him to be set free. However, there's another layer, potential layer here to this verse. Some have seen other things going on inside of this verse.
New Testament scholar Gordon Fee believes that Paul is actually employing a sentiment that's used by Job in his reply to Zophar, his supposed friend in Job 13, 16. Remember, Job is also in the trial of his life. He's not arrested and sitting in prison, but he's in his own personal prison, right? He is sorrowful, he's in deep distress, he's lost his family, he's lost his wealth, he's lost his health, he's lost everything except for the Lord.
He's in deep distress, and Zophar, again, one of his so-called friends, accuses him of transgression. Job is claiming to be innocent. I didn't do anything wrong to warrant all these things that are happening, but all of his friends don't believe him.
Well, you must have done something wrong, otherwise God wouldn't be punishing you. But Job makes his defense before his friend Zophar, and ultimately he's appealing to God as the righteous judge, and Job says, "'Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before Him.
This also will be my salvation, for a godless man may not come before His presence.'" So, in the same way that Job is arguing a defense against Zophar, saying, "'Listen, I know I'm standing righteously before God because a godless man would not come in God's presence. I'm not transgressing against the Lord, and I know that because of this, the Lord will deliver me and I'll be saved through this trial.'" Because regardless of what happens on earth, Job is confident that he will be vindicated in the court of heaven. And Paul may be saying a similar thing, that even whatever happens, whether I live, whether I die, whatever happens, God is the judge.
God will vindicate me. All of this will result in my ultimate salvation. He does believe he's going to be exonerated, but even if he doesn't, he will be saved.
He will be delivered by the Lord. In fact, he says something very similar in 2 Timothy 4.18. He says, "'The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and He will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom.'" God will save me. He will redeem me.
He will vindicate me. He will deliver me. But again, this is confirmed to him through the prayers of the church and through the provision of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
And along with that, he notes, look at verse 20, he says, "'All of this is according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body.'" And here's that hitch there, whether by life or by death. Again, he's confident in God's vindication. He's also maintaining this earnest expectation and hope that he's going to be able to give a good testimony before the Roman officials.
He's going to be able to stand up, proclaim the gospel, proclaim the goodness of God, talk about who Jesus Christ is. He hasn't done anything wrong, otherwise the last three governors would have nailed them to the wall for it, but they keep on passing the buck because he hasn't done anything wrong. And he says that he will tell the truth and he will do so with all boldness and proclaim the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
And even if they slander him or if they falsely accuse him, he says, I'm not going to be put to shame in anything. Friends, people might lie about you. In fact, they probably will.
Some of you have already been lied about many times in your life. But ultimately, if you have a clean conscience before the Lord, you won't be put to shame in anything. That's what Paul's saying.
I've done nothing wrong. He's not saying he's sinless, but in terms of accusation, in terms of trial, in terms of crimes for which he can be punished earthly, he says, I haven't transgressed. I haven't broken any laws.
I won't be ashamed. After all, he was unashamed of the gospel, Romans 116. And so, as long as he kept his witness intact, he says, he would not be put to shame in anything else.
In fact, quite the contrary, Christ would be exalted. He would be exalted. Peter speaks of a very similar thing in his letter to the Christians who are suffering persecution.
Just listen to what Peter says here very similarly. In 1 Peter 4, 14, he says, if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed. You're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
And then he says this, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a troublesome meddler. So, don't sin, don't break laws, don't commit crimes, because if you do that, you can't claim Christian persecution, because if they unleash fury on you, it's deserved. He says, don't suffer this way, don't kill, don't be a thief, don't be an evildoer, don't even be a troublesome meddler, don't cause problems.
If there was internet back in Paul's day or Peter's day, he'd say, don't troll people on the internet, don't be a troublesome meddler. He says in verse 16, but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. If you're suffering for Christ, you are blessed, you have no need to be ashamed, and the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
That's essentially what Paul says, Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body. The Greek word here for exalted means to make great, to extol, to magnify, to make much of. And so, as Paul made his defense, he would tell of the greatness of Christ, how He has provided salvation for the world through the cross, how He earned our forgiveness for sins, how He offers eternal life to those who would turn away from sins and trust in Him.
And so, regardless of whether or not they accepted His defense and let Him live or executed Him, it doesn't matter to Paul. He says, whether they believe me, whether they listen to me and let me go, whether they think I'm lying and they kill me, Christ will be exalted, whether in life or death. But Paul wasn't worried about the outcome.
He really wasn't. I mean, you read his letters, you read the prison epistles, you read Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, those are the prison epistles. You read those, he's not worried about his life.
He's not worried about persecution and suffering. He says elsewhere in Romans 14, 8, if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Ever think about that? Whether you're in this life or whether you go on to the next life, if you belong to Christ, you are His forever. It doesn't matter what anybody does to you. That's a very liberating thing.
If you don't care what people do to you in Christ, then you just live your life as a Christian. And so, if you are living for Christ, you're not ashamed when opposition comes. I remember a couple years ago during the COVID lockdown, when Pastor James Coates, who was a pastor in Canada, James Coates was jailed by the Canadian government for keeping his church open during COVID.
They tried to do all the restrictions, they tried to do the dance, but in the end, they refused to shutter the doors of their church, even though it was unreasonable. And so, he kept the church open, they put him in jail, and even though they couldn't get him on anything, all the charges were ultimately dropped. The Canadian government tried to make an example of James Coates, and they tried to embarrass him in front of the whole world.
But instead, he was vindicated. All the churches around the world were emboldened. Christ was glorified and exalted, and the gospel continued to progress, because even while he was imprisoned, Grace Life Church continued to meet in secret.
They had secret meetings, and they began to grow exponentially. That church is larger, more people have gotten saved since his imprisonment than from before. But the Apostle Paul was convinced, whether by life or by death, that Jesus Christ would be exalted.
And this was leading him to this maxim in verse 21. I know all of you know this verse, or if you're new in the faith, you'll probably learn this one very quickly. We put this one on t-shirts, on bumper stickers, it's on everybody's social media pages.
This is one of those verses that just does not leave the conscious mind, because Paul says in verse 21, for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Again, one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, a Christian catchphrase. And the question is, well, did Paul ever intend this to be a catchphrase for the Christian life? I actually believe he did.
I think he did. Because here's the thing, as catchy as it is in English, it's even more so in Greek, because in the Greek construction, he uses both alliteration and assonance, which is the vowel repetition. The word for Christ in Greek is christos, the word for gain is kerdos.
So, it might restate it this way, to live, christos, to die, kerdos. That's the way that Paul intended this. And what is he referring to? Notice that he says, he's personifying, he says, this is for to me.
He says, for to me, it's this way. He's speaking autobiographically. And then he says, regarding how I see and live my life, he says, to live is Christ.
What does this mean? What does it mean to live is Christ? Well, for starters, we have to understand what it means to live. What does it mean to live? What comprises your life? Ever thought about that before? I had some time to ponder this week. What is the essence of life as we know it? Not just biological, as my heart beating or the impulses in my brain firing, that's not just it.
But in essence, it's this. Your life is what you think. Your life is what your desires of your heart are.
It is what you say. It's the things you do. It's the relationships that you cultivate.
Ultimately, it's the legacy that you leave. Now, there is certainly much more that you could add to that, but to live is certainly not less than that. Furthermore, all of your life is bound up in who you are within the confines of a human body over the course of a definite span of time.
You only have a certain number of days allotted to you in this life. And try as we might to extend our lives, well, this will put this many years on your life. You don't know how many years you have.
Only the Lord does. And he has already foreordained your days, your breaths. And so your life is confined to that space of time within the confines of your body, what exists as who you are.
And so for Paul, his life was completely bound up in his union with Christ. Everything. He was infatuated with Christ.
Well, how so? Flip over to Philippians chapter 3. We're going to get there in a few weeks, but Philippians 3, he talks about this very thing. Philippians 3, he's talking about those who boast in the flesh, and he says, I can boast in my flesh. I could boast in the things I've done on earth.
But ultimately, he goes, that doesn't really matter. What I've done outwardly doesn't really matter to life. But then he says, verse 7, Philippians 3, 7, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I count them as but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul says, everything else in my life.
And the thing is, when Paul says, I've counted all things as loss, I've given up everything, for Paul, he wasn't over-exaggerating. He lost his position in the Sanhedrin. He lost his affinity to the Jewish people in general.
At a certain point, they just kicked him out. He shook off the dust from his feet, he went to the Gentiles. It probably cost him family relationships.
It probably cost him friendships. It cost him wealth. In addition to that, it also cost him beatings.
He was whipped, shipwrecked, beated. He was beaten, stoned. I mean, this man went through a lot.
He says, I've lost everything. But he says, ultimately, that's not really all that important because I've gained Christ. And even though he's gained Christ spiritually, he says, I'm wrapped up.
I want to know him. I want to understand him. I want to serve him.
He says a very similar thing in Galatians 2.20. If you don't have Galatians 2.20 committed to memory, that's one of those verses I would encourage you to know. Where Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
He says, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He says, that's how I see my life. My life isn't even my life anymore.
The Paul that everybody used to know, the Paul that I was, the Paul that I hated of myself in terms of my flesh, he goes, that life is gone. My life exists for Christ. I don't know where he stops and I begin.
That's how Paul saw himself. Every day of his life, Paul thought about Christ. He thought about his word.
He just meditated on scripture day in and day out. He applied it to his life. He prayed to Christ.
He communed with him. Every day he spoke about Christ. You couldn't talk to Paul without him talking about the Lord Jesus, the praetorian guard.
You know they got an earful daily. You know they did. Everybody around him, it was all about Christ.
His whole ministry was for Christ. Even when he was tent making, Paul didn't become an apostle immediately. It was 14 years between the time of his conversion and the time he was called.
14 years he was doing other things and yet he just could not stop thinking about Christ and talking about Christ. Even his suffering, he endured the scars in his body. He says, I wear the brand marks of Christ on my body.
I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ afflictions on my body. In other words, what does he mean by that? Every time I'm whipped, they intended that to be for Christ and I was the one who was whipped. That's not to take away or denigrate the sufferings of Christ.
He's simply saying the only reason they're whipping me is because I'm for Jesus. I'm his representative here on earth. They hate me because they hate him and Jesus said that was going to happen.
All of this was for the cause of Christ and so while Paul was alive, he was living for Christ. Paul was saying my whole life to live for me is Christ. Let me ask you, is that how you see your life? And I don't mean that to be a poke in the eye.
I'm encouraging you and I'm speaking also to myself. How do we see our lives? Are our lives wrapped up in our possessions, our attainments, our financial goals, our occupational professional goals? Are we living for vacations? Are we living for financial freedom? Are we living only for our kids and only for our families? That's the be-all end-all of it. Is it only for good deeds to be thought well of by other people, reputation? Why do you exist? I would commend to you to start considering and praying through what does it mean, oh Lord, for me to live for you, to live as Christ? And then he adds something to that.
It is not just to live as Christ. He adds another thing here. He says to die is gain, kerdos in the Greek.
It means profit, possibly even reward. There's a monetary sense of this word. But what does it mean to die is gain? Does Paul have a death wish? Is it that Paul hates his life and just he is suicidal somehow? He does not have a death wish, I promise you that.
Read his letters. He doesn't have a death wish. Rather, he has an eternal life wish.
He's so fixated on what life is going to be like once he's free from this life and into the next. He's forward thinking all the time. The decisions he makes for today are ultimately eternal decisions because he knows that when he does finally die, whenever that day is, he's going to pass into glory and he is going to see Christ face to face.
In heaven, all of life will be with Christ. It will be without the threat of sin, without evil, without sickness, without frailty, without sadness, without lack. I mean, can you imagine a life without any of those things? In glory, the feeble body is gone.
In glory, the sinful nature is gone. Hallelujah. In glory, persecution is gone.
Suffering is gone. Trials are gone. Wickedness is gone.
All that remains in glory is the loveliness of Christ. That's what our heart wants, isn't it? I want to see him face to face. And Paul says, I want to be with him.
Our life with him will become fuller, sweeter, happier, and eternal. And so for every believer, we will gain a greater life in Christ on the day we die. Our loved ones and friends will be crying in the pews on the day that we die, but we will be rejoicing in glory.
We're going to be receiving gain, reward in heaven with Christ. Now, at this point, Paul had already lived a hard life. We don't know exactly how old he was.
He was probably in his early to mid-50s, but he had done more in 20 years than most people do in 50. He was a busy, busy guy. He could have gone home to glory at that moment, and he would have glorified God with his life.
Nobody would have looked at Paul in 57 AD and been like, yeah, that was a waste. They would have been like, oh, praise the Lord, Paul, for your faithfulness. He would have gained a reward.
And yet, even when he's pondering that thought, to live is Christ, but oh, to die is gain. To die is reward. I want to go home.
And yet, as he's thinking about that, he remembers the mission. Verse 22, he says, but if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which one to choose. This is a curious statement, because in his mind, he's already focused on heavenly gain, but then he comes back to earth a little bit.
He says, if I'm to live on in the flesh, it's going to mean fruitful labor for me. Now, it's interesting because he doesn't know, he doesn't use the word body. It's not the Greek word soma.
He doesn't say, if I live on and keep on going in the body. He says in verse 22, he's to live on in the flesh, sarx. It's a different word.
Now, in the New Testament context, the word sarx or flesh generally represents the sinfulness of humanity, but here it can also refer to frailty and weakness and the limitations of the human condition, no doubt exacerbated by the sinful nature. But there's a sense of the weakness of the flesh. There's a sense of the limitation, the brokenness.
It's almost as if Paul is saying, listen, if I'm going to hobble along in this broken, flawed, sinful body, at least I'll be able to be productive for the Lord. I feel that every day. I'm like, oh Lord, I could have so much more energy, so much more time.
Don't you ever feel like that? Like the day just goes by and you're like, what did I do? If I only got more sleep or have this or felt more energy or didn't have this pain or whatever it was, I could do more. But Paul says, listen, if I'm to labor on in the flesh, at least I can be fruitful. It will mean fruitful labor for me.
He would still be able to preach. He would still be able to disciple. He would still love people.
He would still write. And I want you to think about this. If Paul had died then, we would not have the pastoral epistles.
I'll tell you, the pastoral epistles have saved my life. I go back to the pastorals all the time. I love the book of Titus.
Those of you who know, I love the book of Titus. We just spent six months in 1 Timothy. Wasn't it fruitful for us? We would not have that if Paul had died.
And so we are the benefactors or the beneficiaries, I should say, of this fruitful labor that Paul was undergoing, this longer period of fruitful labor. But then he kind of sits there and thinks about it. He says, I don't know which one to choose, whether to set my heart on going home or whether I want to set my heart on being here.
Now, you might read this word choose and say, well, is Paul saying he actually has a choice in whether he lives or dies? He doesn't. He has no choice. He's not going to commit suicide, but he has no determination.
There's no choice for him to make about life or death. But this word in the Greek, hereiomai, can also refer to preference or vote, something that you take for yourself. In other words, essentially what Paul is saying is, I don't know which one to set my heart on.
I don't know which one to vote for. You see that? He's not claiming ultimate ability to know what's going to happen to him. He essentially says, I'm not sure.
I don't know which is better for me to focus on. Verse 23, but I am hard-pressed from both directions. He's really struggling with this.
Having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. I would love to see the Lord right now. I would love to see Him, to hold Him in my arms, to behold His glorious face, to be free from the shackles of my sinful body, my mind, my heart, my desires.
I would love to be home because that's so much better. But verse 24, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. It's better for me if I go home, but it's better for you, Paul says, if I stay.
He says, so I'm kind of in the middle here. I don't know. He says, I'm hard-pressed.
Some translations use the word torn. I'm torn between the two because the deep desire is to depart and be with Christ. And you have to remember too in your mind, Paul has already encountered the risen Christ.
Not very many people did. Five hundred or so people saw Jesus post-resurrection. Paul was one of them.
Paul sees Jesus on the Damascus road, but he doesn't see Him, little Jesus meek and mild. He doesn't see Jesus in the flesh, smiling, happy, fellowshipping with Him. How does Paul encounter Jesus? Bright, shining, blinding light that knocks Him off His horse, blinds Him, and then he yells at Him, Saul, Saul, why are You persecuting me? Who are You, Lord? I didn't know I was persecuting You.
And so, his encounter was terrifying. But then a couple days later, the scales fall off his eyes, he can see again, and now the world around him looks a lot different. Now he's a Christian.
Now he's serving the Lord that he once blasphemed. Now he's ministering to the church he once tried to destroy. And so now, you've got to think about this.
If you're Paul, you're thinking, I wish I wasn't an unbeliever when I would have seen Him on the Damascus road. I wish I could have seen Him with those eyes, not the ones I had. And yet that's not what happened.
And so the next time Paul sees Christ, it's not going to be as judge, as interrogator, he's going to see Him as Savior, as Lord, as friend. But this is the world that Paul now lives in. He's in a world now where Christ is his Lord, He is his King.
He spent more than two decades as a bondservant, as an apostle of Christ, and yet Ephesians 3.1, Paul calls himself a prisoner, the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Again, his whole life and his whole purpose were swallowed up in Christ. And all the while he longed to see Him, Paul says to be with Christ would be so much better, very much better.
And his expectation, contrary to those who hold to the errant doctrine of soul sleep, Paul says as soon as he's left the earth, he would immediately be with Christ. He says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5.8, he says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He says, as soon as I go, instant Jesus.
I'll depart and be with Him. That's far better than being imprisoned on earth. And yet Paul's pastoral heart is still there.
When he considers these Philippian believers, and you've seen already through the last couple of verses, he has such a heart for these people. He loves these people so much. And he doesn't just pray for some of them, he prays for all of them.
He loves all of them with the loveliness of Christ. He adores this church. And so when he considers the Philippians, he concedes.
Verse 24, to remain unto the flesh is more necessary for your sake. And so while on earth Paul is going to minister to them, it's more necessary for them. On some level, they need him.
Well, how do we think about this? How is the remaining of the apostle Paul and other apostles necessary for the church? Well, we know about this even in our own day. In our own day, we even see God raising up Christian leaders. They teach the church on a large scale.
They stand for truth. They oppose false doctrine. By their very presence on earth, they give courage to the body of Christ.
And I know you know who I'm talking about. These are the kinds of leaders who are, to borrow the language from Galatians 2.9, these are pillars. In the early church, those pillars were the apostles.
But in every generation of the body of Christ, every generation of the church throughout the course of history, God has specifically raised up some individuals to stand. Now, it doesn't mean that these individuals are better than any other Christian, any other pastor, any other leader, but He does seem to appoint certain people, certain men to stand as pillars. And while they remain in that spot, they're gifts to the church, and when they're gone, we feel they're lost, don't we? Even in our time, it is hard to measure the impact of ministries of men like R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer, John MacArthur.
When John MacArthur died, I wept like a baby. It was like my own grandfather died because we feel it. Now, again, we don't know these men personally, but we do look to certain individuals.
Every church looks to their leaders, but don't we feel the sense of that? In fact, I still feel a loss. And yet, here's what's remarkable about all of this is that God is faithful. He continues to raise up leaders in every generation.
This, again, was true of Paul, Peter, James, and John. It's true of every age. God always has leaders who can guide and direct and encourage the church.
I remember hearing one pastor talk about the year 2000 when James Montgomery Boyce passed away. He died of cancer, and they said the day he died, well, who's going to watch out for us now that James Boyce is gone? The man who said that was R.C. Sproul. R.C., you're one of those men who will watch out, be a watchman on the wall, so to speak.
And so, I think there is something of a sense of that with Paul right here. He knows who he is. He knows he's called as an apostle.
He goes, as long as I'm here, it's actually really helpful for you. It's necessary for you. Paul knows this, and so he remains.
Now, again, he's facing the possibility of dying, but he offers a comfort to them. Verse 25 and 26, he says, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. Paul's personally convinced, and he maintains here that he knew that he would remain and would continue.
He says the same thing to them in chapter 2, verse 24. I'm going to come back and see you guys again. Now, again, he doesn't know in terms of how everything's going.
Some people believe that maybe God revealed the future to him supernaturally. Others have said that this is based on an assumption that Paul has because he thinks that the court trial's going well. It seems like it's going in his favor, but we don't really know why and how he knows.
But he's convinced that he's going to continue. He says, for the sake of the church's progress and joy in the faith. As Paul ministered to them, they would continue to make spiritual progress.
They would grow. They would increase in learning. He would continue to preach to them.
They would be trained. They would grow by his efforts. And in that, they would also experience joy.
They would have joy as he ministered the truth to them. How so? Verse 26 again. He says, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
This Greek word translated proud confidence refers to having grounds for boasting or for glorying. There's a foundation of why you can boast. Now, generally, we think that boasting is a bad thing, and generally speaking, yes, it is.
When we're talking about boasting about ourselves, it is a bad thing. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 131, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. So, we're allowed to boast as long as we're boasting in the Lord.
And so, whatever confidence or boasting that they have, at least in terms of their connection to Paul, it's actually being directed toward Christ. When they see the fruitfulness of Paul's ministry, they're boasting, yes, in the fruitfulness of the ministry, but ultimately they're looking past Paul. He says, your proud confidence is in me, but it's actually through Jesus.
In other words, when Paul would be exonerated and freed, he planned to return to Philippi. And I want you to picture this now. Paul's freed in Rome.
He journeys back. He walks in the door of the assembly in Philippi. Are they going to sit on their hands and say, oh, good to see you, Paul? They're going to freak out.
They're going to be excited. They've been praying for him for the last couple of years. They were worried that he had died.
They were worried he was imprisoned. And so, now he's going to come back, and they're going to rejoice when they see him, and they're going to boast in Christ. They're going to boast in Christ.
Why would they boast in Christ at Paul's return? Because I believe it would further prove that the Lord Jesus is more powerful to sustain and deliver His servants than the most powerful human government was to oppose Him. Because at that point, it's Paul versus Caesar, but it's actually not Paul at all, is it? It's Christ versus Caesar, and Caesar doesn't stand a chance. And so, as soon as they see Paul, they're going to say, Christ wins.
And they'll rejoice, and they'll boast because Christ delivers His people. That deliverance would prove it. And yet, whether in life or in death, Paul says, Christ will be exalted.
Even if I don't come back to you, Christ will be exalted in my life. And so, again, what about you? How do you evaluate your life? Your thoughts, your desires? Are your desires Christ's word? What about your speech, your deeds, your actions? Are you living for Christ? Is Jesus Christ exalted in your life? Jesus Himself in Matthew 16.25 says, whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. We work so hard to build our lives, don't we? We want to build this sort of cushioned, protected, free life of ease here.
But Jesus says, if you live for yourself, you're going to suffer a loss in the end. But then He says, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If you reorient your life and you build it on Him, He says, it's then that you'll truly find what your life is.
And then to you, your testimony will be to live is Christ. But we also know that those who have found their life in Christ, who have confessed their sins, who've turned away from them, those who have believed on Jesus for salvation, who trust in His saving work on the cross, who hope in His resurrection, when you finish your life, you will depart and be with Christ. And because of the sacrifice that He has made for you, and based on His righteousness alone, you will gain your ultimate heavenly reward.
And yet we recognize it is not enough to say you believe only to turn around and live for yourself. A lot of people do that. Are you a Christian? Yeah, I'm a Christian.
I go to church. Well, what is your life like? Well, I kind of do my own thing. Me and God are good.
People say that to me every now and then. Me and God are good. Really? Based on what? Based on what? If the next word out of your mouth is not Jesus Christ, then you and God are not good.
Because after all, the demons believe He exists and they shudder because they don't belong to Him. But we, we belong to Him. We might say with Paul, we have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And the life that we're supposed to be living here, in the flesh, we are to live by faith in the Son of God. Why? Because He loved you and He gave Himself for you.
How will you live your life today? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we are confronted, we are faced with very challenging words, words that cut to the core. Because Lord, when we really examine ourselves, honestly, none of us can say that truly, genuinely, that every aspect of our life belongs to Christ.
Because our sinful nature hijacks us. We have desires that are not Godward. We are still trapped.
Like Paul says in Romans 7, the things that I want to do, I don't seem to do. I do the very thing I hate. I'm wretched.
And yet, Lord, the desire of Paul's heart and the desire of our hearts genuinely is to be with you. We long for you, Lord. We long to see you.
We long to be known by you. The meditation of our heart, if we're honest, is that we long to know you in the fellowship of your sufferings, to be conformed even to your death, that we might attain the resurrection of the dead. Even though we're not there yet, we want to be resurrected with you.
And so, Lord, would you please be merciful and help us? Lord, we need your help to surrender more and more of our lives every day to your Lordship. We want to get to the end of our life before we see you and be able to say, to live for me is Christ. Lord, be merciful and help us.
And Lord, I pray if there's anyone here who that is not true for them. Maybe they have never believed in Jesus for eternal life. Maybe they've just gone to church for years and it's meant nothing to them.
Maybe they're here and they're at the end of their rope, Lord. You know where people are. I pray that you would break their heart wide open, that they would see their desperate need for forgiveness of sins, that you would alleviate their burdens, that you would remove the guilt and the shame and the punishment of sin and give them eternal life.
It is not by our deeds. It is by faith alone in Christ. So, Lord, would you deliver? Would you exonerate them? Would you save them today? We thank you that we do know you.
Thank you that we have you by the ministry of the spirit. Thank you that we are in you. We pray all these things in Jesus.
Amen.