Philippians 1:12-26 "To Die is Gain"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us

that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the

Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do

what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,

checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us

questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things

that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Just bow our heads in prayer, please, at this time.

Father, we give you thanks and praise that you love us, that you are our Father in Heaven who cares for us,

that this is your world, and that when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,

we become your children by adoption and grace. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit will lead,

bring your word and the gospel home deep into our hearts, so that your word and your gospel may form us,

so that we may live lives in this world that are confident and joyful, with our confidence and joy

in Christ. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

Thank you.

So, actually, just before, just as part of my beginning, once again, we've been going through

the book of Philippians. Last week was the first sermon. We have bought these ESV scripture journals

for people in the congregation. It gives a nice print, nice paper, a nice print on one side of the page

is the text. On the other side of the page, it's blank for you to make your own notes, comments,

questions, prayers. They are there in a box. You can sort of ignore me and go get one,

or you can wait till after the service. But I will be using this and preaching. It's the Bible,

and it's on page eight. But before we turn there, a more proper introduction to the sermon.

I think I shared last week that, oh, I didn't start my timer. That's not a good idea. I might preach

for five hours. No, just joking. I mentioned last week that the book of Philippians has,

from very early on in my Christian life, been one of my favorite books in the Bible. And some of you

know that the book of Philippians is a source of many quotes. In fact, you might once, as you go

through it, if you weren't familiar with this before, by the end of Philippians, you'll say,

oh, that's why I saw that on that Christian mug, or on that Christian t-shirt, or something like that.

And they're often very good quotes for people, for Christians, who have terrible attitudes.

Now, before you raise your eyes and roll your eyes and go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

terrible, you know, bad attitudes and all of that. By the way, rolling your eyes at the idea of good

attitudes is a bad attitude. Because the fact of the matter is, is that some Christians have

absolutely crappy attitudes. And part of the problem for Christians with crappy attitudes is

we mistake our crappy attitudes for a sign of wisdom, or realism, or insight. We aren't like those

other blind, easily led, gullible Christians. We see the world as it really is, and we tell ourselves

this story. But the fact of the matter is, we have crappy attitudes. Now, I'm saying that because you are

looking at, for many years, exhibit A of a Christian with an absolutely crappy attitude. And in fact, it was

only when I was in my mid-30s. I'd been ordained at that time about seven years. And there was things in

my life that the wheels started to come off my life. And the reason the wheels were coming off, I mean,

on the outward sign, my life was quite success as a Christian, the church was growing, all of that type

of stuff. But I had a whole pile of junk in my life. And as I was forced to deal with it, in God's

grace, I was forced to deal with it. And one of the things that started to really hit me was the fact

that I had a terrible attitude about a whole pile of things. I mean, there's other things as well. I

didn't recognize anxiety. I didn't recognize stress. I dealt with that. Those are other sermon

illustrations. But all of this came home to me in a very powerful way. I'm not naturally a mystical guy,

but I do have occasionally mystical types experiences. And I was in my parish in Eganville,

and I looked after four little churches. And I was driving from where I lived in Eganville to

Killaloo to do an event. And by this point in time, I'm spending a... I was a year or more into

trying to deal with the junk in my life. And one of the things that was junky in my life was having

a terrible attitude. And I'm driving along, and I'm praying, and I'm asking God to, you know, to work

in my life. And it's almost like I got... I mean, I was driving a car. So it's not that God just

froze my hand to the wheel, because then I would have gone off the curves and into the trees. But it was

as if God almost had me in his grip. And he, for a moment, helped me to see myself as I was.

And as he brought me to see myself as I was, as I'm driving, it brought me to tears.

Because I realized that the way I thought about myself and my ministry and the churches that I was

serving is that I thought to myself that in 10, 20 years, the churches that I was serving would be

smaller, weaker, just all bad... just smaller and weaker. I myself personally would be faithful,

but the churches that I served was right then, and the churches I would come to serve, they would be

smaller and weaker. And it was as if God shone a flashlight in my heart. And I realized that's how I

thought. That was my attitude. And as he did that, I realized that could not possibly be his attitude for

the churches that I served in. That could not possibly be God's hope for that church or this church.

His hope for you isn't that this church will get smaller and smaller and smaller and weaker and weaker

and weaker while I stay faithful. That's not... that is not how God wants to form my heart or your heart.

Now, I mention this because this is a bad attitude that's directly attacked or dealt with or confronted

in the book that we're about the passage that we're going to look at today. So I invite you to turn in

your Bibles to Philippians chapter 1. We're going to be looking at verses 12 to 26. If you're using these

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

little booklets, it's page 8. And I encourage you to bring your own Bibles. It's good to make notes.

It's good to check to see that I'm not, you know, playing fast and loose with the text or anything

like that. I want to handle the word well. And last week we looked at it. We're going to go through all

the way through the book of Philippians. Just 108 verses. Short, but very powerful. And excuse me,

this was written while Paul was under house arrest. And house arrest isn't as easy as it is here in

Canada. Paul was shackled in chains. He always had several Roman guards with him. And those guards

were changed every four hours to keep them fresh. And Paul was in chains and he wasn't guilty of

anything that deserved this. He's been in imprisonment either in house arrest or actually in jails or military

barracks for two and a half years or three years or something like that. He has people who want to

kill him and he's innocent. And that's his situation. And it's while he is in Rome waiting to be tried by

Nero that he writes this letter somewhere in the years 60 to 62. And here's what he says next. It begins

at verse 12. I want you to know brothers and sisters. And by the way, here throughout the book

of Philippians, whenever you see the word brothers, you should add the word sisters. The original word

in the original language is referring to both brothers and sisters. It's older English where

the masculine can apply for both, but you should read it brothers and sisters. I want you to know,

brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me, remember I just told you what's all happened to him?

And he says this, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

Okay? Like I can just tell you, I haven't read church growth books in a few years,

but I can tell you this, nobody says in a church growth book, if you want to grow the church,

get arrested. Okay? Like that has never been, I've never seen that in an article. Maybe I should be the

first one to write it. I don't know. It never says, if you want to have the gospel grow, get arrested.

But anyway, he says, what is really, has served to advance the gospel, verse 13, so that it has become

known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. In

other words, he viewed the jail as a mission field, almost as if Nero is going to stick me with a couple

of soldiers, changing them every four hours for two years, they're going to hear about Jesus.

I mean, that's sort of the attitude that he took to it. Like, how kind of Nero to send people to me

every day that I can tell about Jesus. I mean, that's sort of his attitude, right? By the way,

you can see how this isn't a good attitude, by the way, to have, isn't it? You can see that,

but we'll keep going, because we're getting to the nub in a moment. And most of the brothers and

sisters, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the

word, that is to tell people about Jesus, without fear. Some, and this all just sounds very almost

hallmarky, like the sort of thing that a John Maxwell would say, or a Tony Robbins would say,

but now it takes a very, very, a bit of a darker turn. Listen to what he does in verse 15.

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. Now just pause. That word envy is, in the original

language, you could almost translate it more literally in English as hateful envy, an envy which

is closely connected to hatred. And that's why they're doing it. And rivalry isn't just sort of

something like, you know, Leafs and Sens fans joshing each other. It's, it's factionalism, it's tribalism,

it's pursuing your own tribal or family good at the same time that you're trying to keep the other,

other people down. It's a, it's a very, very bad thing. So he says, some indeed preach Christ

with these terrible reasons from envy, hatred, hate, hateful envy and rivalry, but others from

goodwill. The latter, that's the ones who do it for goodwill, do it out of love, knowing that I am put

here for the defense of the gospel. And by the way, that word goodwill is a very, it's a good, good word,

but I want to bring out a nuance with it about what it means. It means that you do it out of a spirit

of love and benevolence. So why do I tell, bear witness to Jesus at the coffee shops that I go to

and when I meet other people? It's because I love those people. And I really believe that if they gave

their life to Christ, it would not only be better for their eternal destiny, but it would be better

for their day-to-day life as Christ becomes the Savior and Lord of their life. I like, I really,

that should be the attitude that you tell other people about Jesus. Not so you win arguments,

not so people will think you're clever, not, you know, not because it's like, yeah, not for any of

those, or not so you can, I don't know, say to people, you talk to more people than others, like,

no, no, no, no, no. The spirit that you do that in is a spirit of benevolence and love. That's the

proper thing. You love these people. You want the best for them. And you have come to know Christ,

and to know Christ, you know that Christ is the best for them.

Verse 17, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition. In other words, a self-centered

ambition. Not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me, cause him grief in my chains. The words

imprisonment there throughout this text literally are, while I'm in my chains. What then, verse 8,

13. Now, here's the shocking thing. Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,

Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Now, this is, this is a sort of an odd conclusion,

isn't it? If we think about it at first, when you're just reading it, like, you think to yourself,

is, has Paul been taking some type of drug? Like, is he on Valium? Or I don't know what the latest

drugs are to improve your mood. You know, has he been smoking one of those substances, or chewing

them that you can buy here in Canada to mellow you out? Is that what's going on? Is he just like a guy

with his head in the sand? Or is he, you know, some of you know what I mean. I hear this as a term of

derision, painted smile Christians. They have a painted smile, big beaming smile, but underneath

that, they don't actually love you. They don't actually care about you. They're not actually very

good people. They've just painted a smile on their face. Is that what's going on here with Paul? So he

has all these people causing him affliction, doing, telling people about Christ for terrible reasons,

and he ends by saying this odd thing, Christ is proclaimed and that I rejoice. So what's going on?

It's not that he's on drugs. It's not that he's a painted smile Christian. I mean, far from it. Good

grief. He's writing this with chains on his hands, and a Roman soldier close by, maybe two or three or

four. That's how he's doing it. The opposite of a painted smile Christian. What's going on? Well,

last week, some of you might remember that I talked about how significant verse six is. I'll just read

it to you again. It's not going to be on the screen, maybe, but in verse six, Paul says,

and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, or bring it to

perfection at the day of Jesus Christ. And I talked about how one of the things which is just so

beautiful about that is that it's saying that when you give your life to Christ, and you enter into

him, and he enters into you, he begins to work in your life. And the work that he does will bring you

to glory. It's not because I'm very competent. It's not because I'm always a wonderful Christian.

It's not because I never sin. It's not because I never struggle with shame or terrible attitudes.

It's not because of anything like that. It's because Christ himself, through the Holy Spirit,

actually begins a work in you, and he will keep that work going in you until you see Jesus face to

face and are like him. My confidence is in Christ's work in me, not in my work for Christ.

And that's what your confidence should be as well. And so one of the things which is so beautiful about

the Christian faith is it's really the Christian faith, which of course is the Old and the New

Testaments for us, so our Jewish friends share in this to a considerable extent, that it's really

granted to the world the importance of every human being. Every human being is important and precious.

That's a Christian discovery. It's a Christian message that every human being has worth and value

and integrity. And from that, the importance of the individual has come, the doctrine of individualism.

And individualism isn't necessarily, in fact, there's many things which are bad about individualism,

because it's not just that we human beings are particular people, but we also need other people.

And Christianity keeps this balance between the importance of the individual, the person,

and the group, whether that group is the family, whether it's the local church, whether it's the nation,

that other larger group is also very, very important. And so this same promise that God has made to you

and me as particular people, that the work that he has begun in you and me, he will bring it to perfection,

that same promise applies not just to us as individuals, but in a slightly different form to the work of the local church.

God is bringing the gospel to more people.

And that is his work. It's not because Church of the Messiah is spectacular, wonderful, brilliant, rich, talented,

beautiful, funny, cute, any of those things, as much as some of those things describe us.

It's God who's advancing the gospel. If you could put up the first point,

here's how the text is trying to get at it, that God draws straight with the crooked lines we humans draw.

Right? Paul has just, God draws straight with the crooked lines that we humans draw.

I'm trying to get a bit of a poetic way to express this truth,

because Paul's very frank about the fact that there's terrible things going on behind the sharing of the gospel.

And it's part of another way to express this profound truth that first comes in Genesis 50,

and you can go back and read it later on, and it's all the way through the Bible,

and it helps us to understand the sovereignty of God,

that God is our Father in heaven, and we are his children by adoption and grace,

and he is in control. And so, I can't go into all of it, but there's a story of Joseph and his brothers,

and his brothers hate him, and so they, when he comes to visit them when they're out in the wilderness,

they take him and they're going to kill him because they hate him so much.

These ten brothers hate their brother Joseph.

And then they decide, well, why kill him when we can sell him as a slave to slave traders

and still get rid of him and have extra money in our pocket?

So that's what they do. They sell Joseph into slavery.

And then if you go ahead and read the chapters in Genesis just before this,

there's all the terrible things that happened to Joseph,

and by the end of it, though, God ends up working through events

so that Joseph becomes very powerful in the land of Egypt

and is going to save Egypt from a famine

and ends up saving his family from death.

And so after he saved them from death by famine

and their father dies, they come to Joseph and say,

by the way, before our dad died, he said,

don't get revenge on us.

And this is the very powerful part in Genesis 50.

Joseph calls them on it.

He said, no, he didn't.

Our dad didn't say that to you, and I'm sure they must have just,

because he's like the second most powerful person in Egypt.

He can just do that, and soldiers can come and kill them.

And in Egyptian culture at that time, that would be fine.

The second powerful people wants to kill irritating people.

You just kill irritating people.

No big deal.

But he says, you meant it for ill,

what you did to me.

You meant it for evil,

but God used it for good.

You meant it for evil,

but God used it for good.

God draws straight with the crooked lines that we draw.

So the text is not saying,

this is one of the things which is so wonderful then about this text,

is that God is at work in spreading the gospel.

There are more Christians today in the world than there was a year ago.

There might not be more Christians in Ottawa,

but there are more Christians in the world.

And God will use us.

There's no guarantee that our church will get bigger.

I mean, it might just very well be that God has these weird plans for us.

That we'll stay a relatively small church,

and we die and go to heaven because Christ hasn't returned yet.

And we discover that because we support Samir in his work

and pray for Samir in his work amongst the Afghan people,

that God uses Samir to bring some young Afghan person to Christ

who becomes the Wesley of all Persian-speaking people of the world.

I mean, I don't know.

Maybe that's going to be it, right?

Maybe right now our prayer support

and sometimes financial support for Korgala Ministries,

that one of those young orphaned boys becomes a Christian

and he becomes the Wesley or the Billy Graham of Africa

and impacts the rest of the world

as missionaries from Africa come to Canada

to bring the gospel back to us.

God is advancing the gospel.

That's this profound thing.

That's the bracketing of it.

You know, this is serving to advance the gospel.

I'm just praising God.

That's how the whole thing is framed.

If you look at 12 and how it ends at 18,

God, that's the message.

That's the good news.

God draws straight with crooked lines,

the crooked lines we humans draw.

And if you put up the second point, Claire,

that would be very helpful.

And that leads to a very important attitude prayer for us,

an attitude prayer for you and me.

Lord, please mold us and use us as you advance the gospel

in Ottawa, Gatineau, in Canada, and throughout the world.

You see, when you understand this,

it's why we say, you know,

we haven't been doing much in evangelism.

It's time to repent.

And it's worth it.

It's worth it to repent.

It's worth it to pray for people.

It's worth it to pray that God will give you an opportunity

to bear witness to Jesus.

Why?

Not because you're good at sales.

Not because you're the world's most brilliant apologist.

Not because you're the most holy person

who's ever lived on the planet.

You are none of those things.

I am none of those things.

But because God is at work,

and that's what makes it worth taking the trial,

the pray and to try.

Lord, please mold us.

Please mold me.

And please use us.

Please use me as you advance the gospel

in Ottawa, Gatineau, in Canada, and throughout the world.

Now, I'm about to do a faux pas in Canada.

In Canada, you are not allowed to ask this question.

Have you thought very much about the fact that you're dying?

Like, did you wake up this morning and think to yourself,

I am one day closer to my death?

Have you thought about that?

That's a faux pas in Canada.

You can't say that in a party.

I mean, maybe you could as a bit of a joke,

and they'll think, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

But they say, no, no, no, I'm actually serious.

I'd really like to talk to you.

Have you actually thought about the fact that you're going to die?

And by the way, if you're at a party,

and you want to be by yourself,

that's a good thing to say, by the way.

In Canada, it will mean that people will leave you alone

if you want some quiet time.

If you want to spend less time with your family

at the next family gathering,

just say, by the way,

have each of you thought very much about the fact

that you're dying?

You're one day closer to death?

So I'm about to do a faux pas,

but it's one of those things where the gospel

is really, really powerful

and really, really helpful.

You'll notice that, you know,

the text has said that the gospel is going forth.

Well, what is the gospel, first of all?

The gospel is true news from God.

It's not good advice, not good rituals,

not good therapies, not even good attitudes.

It's true good news from God about Jesus,

and it comes with power from God to change you.

That's what the gospel is.

Romans 1, 16 to 17,

I'm not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for salvation

to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and then to the pagan.

That's what the gospel is.

It's good news about Jesus,

that comes to you from God,

and because it comes from God,

it is a power that transforms you

and changes you.

And it's in light of this

that we understand that we as Christians

can think a little bit about the fact

that we will die,

and the people around us will die.

In fact, it is a challenge to every system of thought.

You have your boutique spirituality,

you have your apatheism,

you have your atheism,

you have your skepticism.

Have you thought about the fact that you will die?

How does that measure up?

How does your materialism,

your consumerism,

measure up to the fact that you will die?

You will lose everything.

Everything.

Well, 18 to 26 is,

you'll see in a moment why I'm asking this question,

not just to have clickbait or anything like that,

but look at how it continues.

So 18 begins with,

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.

And it's interesting,

because the rejoicing is both going backwards

to the fact that God is advancing the gospel,

and therefore we can be involved in meaningful labor

and meaningful change,

and it's also rejoicing forward,

because it's a message about union with Christ

and about death.

And then verse 19,

for I know that through your prayers

and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

this will turn out for my deliverance.

Now just pause.

This isn't an attitude that you can take

just by itself.

Paul has a particular promise

that he will be delivered from death this time.

Read 2 Timothy for the balance

when he knows that the second time

and final time he's in prison in Rome,

he will not leave to go free again.

He will be martyred.

So that's not the attitude.

But it's a particular thing in this case

that he knows, however, from the Spirit,

and it ends up being true.

Verse 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.

And that word honored can also be translated

as magnified.

People will honor Christ.

They'll have a higher opinion of him.

They'll want to know more about him,

that Christ will be honored or magnified

in my body,

whether by life or by death.

And here is the famous,

one of the famous quotes in the book of Philippians.

Verse 21,

For to me, to live is Christ,

and to die is gain.

To live is Christ,

to die,

life is Christ,

death is gain.

To live is Christ,

to die is gain.

That is not how Canadians think about death.

We'll come back to it,

but let's keep going.

For to me, to live is Christ,

and to die is gain.

If you're going to get a tattoo,

that's a good one to get.

If you're 25,

you won't be embarrassed with it at 90.

Not like most tattoos that most people have.

I'm not dissing you.

It's just, I mean,

have you really thought about the fact

you might live for 60 years

before you get that tattoo?

But that's a whole other topic of conversation.

One of the reasons I don't have tattoos

is I wouldn't want to have the same hairstyle

for the rest of my life.

But that's a whole other topic of conversation as well.

For to me, to live is Christ,

and to die is gain.

If I am to live,

verse 22,

in the flesh,

that is, in the body,

that means fruitful labor for me.

In other words,

work that will bear fruit.

Yet which shall I choose,

which I shall,

but yet which I shall choose,

I cannot tell.

I am hard-pressed between the two.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ,

for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh,

the body,

is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this,

I know that I will remain,

that is, living,

and continue with you all,

not for himself,

but for your progress

and joy in the faith,

so that in me

you may have ample cause

to glory in Christ Jesus

because of my coming to you again.

the excitement we get

from answered prayer.

And that's how he views it.

So, what's going on here

in this text?

To life is Christ,

death is gain.

And why is it that he seems

to almost talk

as if he's considering suicide?

And some people would say to me,

well, George,

and have said to me,

George,

if what you're saying

is so true about

what it means to be in Christ,

like, why wouldn't you kill yourself?

If that's,

if death is just going to mean

you're going to have

a glorified body

and be with God

in the new heaven and earth forever,

like, why wouldn't you

just kill yourself?

And people have asked me that

and I probably have often

not given very, very wise

and helpful answers.

But it's not,

he's actually not considering it.

It's a,

you can check the commentaries.

It's a rhetorical device

that's used back then

to get people thinking.

Uh,

but,

well,

it's still

a shocking thing.

Life is Christ,

death is gain.

I mean,

most people in Canada

will say that

when you die,

you go to a better place,

but they don't really believe it.

I don't think anybody

believes it

when they say it.

I think it's just

one of those hallmark words

that you just say

to another person.

But it's not what you believe.

And you have no ground

to believe it.

The fact is that

death feels unnatural.

It feels like a judgment.

It's something which is,

we're afraid of.

It's something that

we will do all sorts of things

to try to avoid.

It seems unnatural.

And most of the religions

of the world

aren't very helpful with it.

Even those more popular religions

in North America

that people will choose

over Christianity,

like karma.

Karma is not

a hopeful thing.

I mean,

the fact that you die

and you might come back,

I mean,

maybe you'll come back

as somebody famous

and important,

but more likely

you'll come back

as some animal

or even a bug.

And it's

millions and millions

and millions

and millions of years

of going through

the pain of death

and pain of death

only to be reborn

and only knowing

that you're going to go

through the pain of death

and pain of death.

It is not a hopeful idea,

but a depressing idea

that you are trapped.

You are like a hamster

on a little cage

just running

and running

and running,

but you never stop

and leave the cage.

You're just always

caught in a treadmill.

So why is it

that Paul says,

life is Christ,

death is gain?

One of the commentaries

that I read

is a very good one

by George Guthrie,

and he shares the story

that he was told

by a co-worker.

And this co-worker's dad

was a business guy,

but he was a very

devout Christian.

And when he was

in his 80s,

he got diagnosed

with cancer

that was probably

inoperable.

And he only lived

about six months

after the diagnosis came.

And one day,

this fellow

was driving his dad

to go get scanned.

And as he picked

his dad up afterwards

and was driving him home,

he asked his dad

what he was thinking

about

when he was in

that big device

scanning him.

And this is what

his dad said.

What did I say

over and over?

Every molecule

that makes me me

belongs to Christ.

Every molecule

in my body

belongs to Christ.

That's what he said

over and over

and over again

while he was in

that device

scanning him

to see how bad

the cancer was.

Every molecule

in my body

belongs to Christ.

If you could put up

the third point,

that would be

very helpful.

What's going on here

is this very,

very beautiful

doctrine of union

with Christ,

which I talked

about last week

and I'll talk

about a little bit

more today.

Every molecule,

if you are in Jesus,

every molecule

in your body,

every part

of your soul,

your yesterday,

today,

and forever

is in union

with Christ.

Your sexuality,

your time,

your mind,

your creativity,

every part

of what makes

you you

is in union

with Christ.

There is not

a molecule

in your body

that is not

in union

with Christ.

You know,

I don't think

we can ever

believe this

too much.

It's both

very, very

helpful

when we look

at other people

people.

You know,

maybe we have

a child

who's profoundly

handicapped.

Maybe we have

a man

or a woman

in our congregation

who is quite

mentally disabled,

but we know

they've come to Christ.

We pray that they

come to Christ

and to look at them

and to say,

you know,

every single part

of who they are

is in union

with Christ.

For you and me

as we age

and in the

hour

as we approach

our dying,

everything in my

past

and my present

and my future,

everything that

makes me me

in my soul

and my body

is in union

with Christ

with nothing

left over.

In fact,

you see,

what salvation

really is

is

that when I put

my faith and trust

in Christ,

or I come to realize

that I put my faith

and trust in Christ,

and I talked about this

a little bit last week,

I won't belabor it,

you can go back

and listen,

he really enters

into me

and I really

enter into him

and now I really

am in union

with him

and that's part

of what makes

the whole death

upon the cross

and everything

so unbelievably

precious and beautiful.

It means with

that union of Christ,

the sin

and the shame

and the wrong

things I've done

and the good things

I should have did

but didn't do

and not doing that

and whatever punishment

is deserved of that,

that comes into him,

his life

and he takes that

into himself

and all of the things

which he did

which were good

and beautiful

and all of his destiny

comes into me

and just as

Jesus was conceived

and begins life

as a zygote,

what he has done

for me

and my union with him

goes right back

to that zygote stage

for both of us

and he is in heaven

and that comes right

into me as well

and that's what happens

when I put my faith

in Christ

when you do too.

From the time

you were a zygote

till you die,

you are in union

with him

from the time

he was a zygote

until he dies

and he is now in glory

and you are in union

with him

and so the moment

of my death,

the moment of your death

brother and sister

if you are in Christ

is the moment

that your eyes

will open

and you will not

necessarily feel it

but you are

bearing

an eternal

weight of glory

that has transformed you

an eternal

weight of glory

is now you.

Why doesn't

Paul commit suicide?

Just very,

very briefly.

Here's a bit

of a hack

about reading

the book of Philippians

is that

I'm going to read

this text right now.

I'm just going to read

it from a

different translation

because the ESV

gives very technical stuff

but really

everything in the book

of Philippians

is to be understood

in the light

of Philippians

Philippians 2:6–11

chapter 2

verses 6 to 11

the so-called

Christ hymn

or Christ creed.

Everything in the book

of Philippians

is centered

or is reflected

or is seen

in light of this

and I'm going to look

at this,

we're all going to look

at this next week

but for now

I'll just read it

in a simpler translation

and here's what it said.

It says,

you know,

that we're to be,

because remember

I just said

we're in union

with Christ

and it talks about

Christ who though

he existed

in the very nature

as God

did not consider

regard equality

with God

as something

to be grasped

but he emptied

himself

by taking on

the form

of a slave

and by looking

like other human beings

and by sharing

in human nature

he humbled himself

by becoming

obedient

to God the Father

to the point

of death

even the shameful

death upon the cross

and as a result

God exalted him

and gave him

the name

that is above

every name

that at the name

of Jesus

every knee

will bow

in heaven

and on earth

and under the earth

and every tongue

confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord

to the glory

of God

the Father

Amen

You are united

to Christ

You

that

Philippians 2

6-11

is what you are

united with

in Christ

and that gives me

to my fourth point

very briefly

if you could put it up

Claire

you did not make

the story of Jesus Christ

or the Bible

but God

is using them

to make you

I get this from

Rich Mullins

I know

my buddy

John O'Hare

is a big

Rich Mullins fan

if you do not know

Rich Mullins

make a note

Google it

go on Spotify

absolutely brilliant

Christian musician

who died in 1997

in a car accident

way too young

and a hymn

that he wrote

or a song

that he wrote

in 1993

was called

The Creed

and the lines

go something like this

he goes through

the whole

Apostles Creed

sung very beautifully

and he says

the chorus is

I did not make it

it is making me

and I believe

what I believe

is what makes me

what I am

I did not make it

no it is making me

it is the very truth

of God

and not

the invention

of any man

and he gets that

perfectly

he gets that perfectly

he nails it

you did not make

the story of Jesus Christ

you did not make

the Bible

I did not make it

but God

uses the Bible

God uses

the story of Christ

to make me

and if

that is the case

and if in fact

it truly is

that the moment

I die

is the moment

I wake up

and I realize

that I have

a resurrected body

that there is

an eternal weight

of glory

upon what had

before been

frail human flesh

and why would I

not do that

was how can I

possibly do that

if I am in union

with Christ

and the whole

story of Christ

is emptying himself

for others

that is the story

that starts to make you

and make us

that should be our prayer

that is why we have

church on Sundays

and tell what the Bible

is saying

it's why we have

the Lord's Supper

and remember the words

of Jesus

it's why we have

small groups

and scripture memorization

is that the story

of Jesus

will become

the story

by which we live

it's the story

upon which we stand

it is the story

by which we look

at the world

it is the story

by which we look

at ourselves

it is the story

by which we look

at others

it is the story

by which we look

at our sexuality

our identity

our money

everything

invite you to stand

let's bow our heads in prayer

father thank you so much for your word thank you for this profound truth may you burn it on our

hearts that given that when we put our life in christ our lives in christ's hands we enter into

union with him and now we can say life is christ death is gain

father we are not worthy of such a gift we give you thanks and praise that your love for us is so

great so deep so high so wide so pure so good so just so kind so merciful so thorough so unfailing

that you do this in our lives so father we ask that the story of christ the gospel and the bible

that that would form us and make us and make us more and more and more and that you would mold us

and and form us so that you will use people unworthy as we are to tell others about jesus

as you bring more and more people to a faith in jesus father we know that when we pray this we're

praying what you would have us pray these aren't father bold prayers they're humble prayers father

make us humble enough to pray these humble prayers that sound like boldness and we ask all these things

in the name of jesus your son and our savior and all god's people said amen we'll be

pray these έ