Living in Christ

We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christchurch.

This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christchurch.

Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org.

A reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi,

together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace garden to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord,

and dare all the more proclaim the gospel without fear.

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

The latter is due so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

But what does it matter?

The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached, and because of this I rejoice.

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage,

so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.

Yet what shall I choose?

I do not know.

I am torn between the two.

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,

but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain,

and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,

so that through my being with you, again, your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence,

I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit,

striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you so much, Cordelia.

That was wonderful.

And Juliana, thank you so much.

Well, good morning.

We've been kind of over the past few weeks

just working our way up into this letter to the church in Philippi,

and it's a letter of friendship.

It's a letter of deep love and affection.

And I want us to be remembering who's writing this letter.

We looked a few weeks ago in Acts chapter 9,

Acts 9 · chapter mention

and we saw how this man Saul of Tarsus was transformed into Paul the Apostle,

this man who had been adamantly opposed to Jesus.

He was persecuting the people of Jesus.

He had his own encounter with the resurrected Lord, with Jesus himself.

And that utterly changed and redirected his life.

He began immediately to tell people that Jesus is the Son of God,

Jesus is Israel's Messiah, and the world's true Lord.

That was around 33 A.D., just a couple of years after the crucifixion

and resurrection of Jesus.

And then I want us to remember, too, who's reading this letter.

And we looked at this a few weeks ago as well.

Acts chapter 16, God calls the Apostle Paul to go to northern Greece,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

to the city in Philippi.

And we saw there were three amazing stories of transformation there

where Lydia encountered gospel truth, and she was transformed.

And that slave girl encountered gospel power, and she, too, was transformed.

And then the jailer, he encountered gospel life through Paul and Silas,

and he was transformed.

And many of their friends and their family, they all together, they repented,

they believed, they were baptized,

they became the first converts and the first members of that church

that met in the house of Lydia there in Philippi.

And that was around the year 46, 47, 48, I don't know, somewhere in there.

49 A.D., yeah, that's right.

So I just want to pause to think about this.

To marvel at the grace of God in the lives of these people.

Without the grace of God, without the power of God for salvation

and for transformation, the Apostle Paul would never be writing and sending this letter.

There would be no members in this church plant in Philippi receiving and reading this letter.

And none of us would be here today considering the contents of this letter.

But because of the power of the gospel and because of the grace of the gospel

that came to each and every one of those people and each and every one of us

from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit,

here they are as a result of God's grace living in peace.

They're living in shalom.

That's why Paul says grace and peace to you because God's grace

has enabled them to live at peace with God and in peace with one another.

And this grace and this peace creates an amazing bond of fellowship and friendship.

In fact, I think we have a slide, if we can pull that slide up,

that just sort of illustrates a little bit of this three-way bond

where Paul is reminding them that, look, none of us is here apart from God's grace.

And none of our relationships are merely horizontal and merely social.

All of our relationships have been elevated because of the gospel.

We're united with Jesus.

We share friendship in Christ.

We're partners together now in the gospel.

There's something totally different about the relationships that we have with each other.

And then Paul goes on and he writes this letter to them.

And what does Paul want to say to his friends in this new church plant,

to Lydia and the slave girl and the jailer,

and all the people that through them heard about the grace and peace of God and Jesus Christ?

What does he want to say to the elders and the deacons and the members of this fledgling church?

Well, he says to them, and we heard a little bit of this last week,

he says,

my dearly beloved friends in Christ,

my partners in the gospel.

I thank God for you constantly.

I pray for you.

I love you with the affection of Jesus Christ himself.

And you're my joy.

You're my crown.

And there's some things that God has put on my heart for you.

And I want to think about three things today.

I put it in the form of three questions,

where Paul is basically asking this church in Philippi,

how do you respond to adversity?

What are you living and dying for?

And how do you get power to live a life worthy of the gospel?

So how do you respond to adversity?

What are you living and dying for?

And how do you get power to live a life worthy of the gospel?

First of all, how do you respond to adversity?

Paul has received a report of his friends,

these brothers and sisters in Christ,

in the church in Philippi,

and he hears that they're going through significant adversity,

very difficult challenges.

And Paul says,

well, let me show you how I respond to adversity.

Let me provide you an example and provide you a model

for how I engage with my own challenges.

And hopefully you remember back,

you remember how Paul and Silas

were thrown in that prison in Philippi?

You remember that?

Just nod your head.

And then you remember what they were doing

when they were in that prison at midnight?

How they were praying to God

and they were singing hymns to God?

Well, Paul is actually in prison quite a lot.

So he's not just in that prison in Philippi.

There's another slide.

We're not sure if he's in prison now in Ephesus

on his third missionary journey

or maybe he's in Rome after his third missionary journey.

But he's sitting again in a prison cell

and he's again praying to God

and he's again singing to God at midnight.

But now this time in his new prison cell,

he's writing this letter,

which is his happiest letter.

In fact, the words rejoice and joy

occur about 13 times in this letter.

And it's clear that he wants his friends in Christ,

in Philippi,

he wants them to share in his joy.

He wants them to rejoice with him.

In fact, later on in Philippians 3.17,

Paul says,

follow my example, brothers and sisters.

You have us as a model.

And he says in Philippians 4.9,

he says,

what you've learned and received from me,

what you've heard from me and seen in me,

I want you to put that into practice.

He's saying,

look, I want to set you an example of joy.

Joy in the midst of adversity.

And here's how you see it in verse 12.

He says,

now I want you to know,

brothers and sisters,

that what has happened to me

has actually served to advance the gospel.

It's actually served to advance the gospel.

What is Paul's highest priority

and his greatest concern

in the midst of his adversity?

What is the source of his joy

in the midst of all of his many challenges?

It's the gospel.

Right?

He sees all of life

through the lens of the gospel.

He doesn't write to them and say,

I want you to know

that what has happened to me is awful.

And this prison that I'm in is terrible.

And the treatment that I'm receiving

from these Roman soldiers is miserable.

And I don't have enough food.

I don't have enough clothing.

I don't have enough shelter

to adequately meet my needs.

Paul's not focused on his comfort

or his discomfort.

He's not focused on his happiness

or his unhappiness.

He's not talking about whether or not

he's well-fed or hungry

or in plenty or in want

or in constraints

or in freedom.

What matters to Paul

is the gospel.

This message that God has come in the flesh

to die on the cross

to atone for our sins

and that he's been raised to life

to destroy death.

He cares about that message

of God's good news

and whether or not that message

is advancing

or retreating.

Is that message

progressing

or regressing?

Is that message moving forward

or is it moving backward?

Paul says,

the gospel is the thing

that gives me joy

in the midst of my adversity

and what I really care about

is to see the message

of Jesus advancing.

Now what is Paul saying here

about the sovereignty of God?

Paul is a student of Scripture

and Paul I think

would be reminding us

to go back to Genesis,

the first book of the Bible,

back to Genesis chapter 50,

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

back to that story

of Jacob's son Joseph.

Remember how he was thrown

into prison?

Remember how he experienced

incredible adversity

and challenges?

And what does Joseph say

about his own adversity?

He says,

you intended evil against me

but God intended it for good

to accomplish

what is now being done

the saving of many lives.

It's an amazing statement

where Joseph says

that in God's sovereignty,

God's intentions transcend

and they overrule

human intentions.

And I'm sure that's

what's on Paul's mind

in the midst

of his own imprisonment.

And I'm sure Paul

is also thinking about

Jesus himself.

He's thinking about

the worst thing

that ever happened

in human history, right?

When human beings

crucified the son of God.

God and how God

and his sovereignty

turned that worst thing

into the best thing.

That God took an act

of human rebellion

and he turned it

into an act of divine grace.

And God took death

and he turned it

into life.

You meant it for evil

against me

but God meant it

for good.

And the Apostle Paul,

I think here in his prison cell,

is applying the story

of Joseph

and the story of Jesus

and the whole story

of the Bible

to his own life.

Right?

He says,

I want you to know

what's happened to me

has actually served

to advance the gospel.

See, here's Paul

as the main architect

of the greatest movement,

the greatest faith,

the greatest religion

in the history of the world.

His intellectual gifts,

his leadership gifts

are such that he could go

into any major metropolitan,

sophisticated city

in the Greco-Roman world

and he could publicly

debate people

and after a while

there would be

so many converts

in his wake

that he could leave

a new church there

and he did that

all over the Mediterranean world.

But here is Paul now

and he's facing

a terrible trial

in the midst of,

right in the very middle

of his career.

He's only had a few years

to plant churches

and now here he is,

he's chained

to Roman soldiers

night and day,

right, he can't sleep

or go to the bathroom

in privacy.

He's in a demeaning,

demoralizing,

dehumanizing situation.

For a traveling apostle

to be put in prisons

like a concert pianist

having his hands

tied behind his back,

right,

and he's not only

in prison,

he's facing

possible execution,

he's in danger

of his life

being snuffed out

within days

or within weeks.

It's the greatest defeat

he's ever experienced

and conventional wisdom

would tell Paul

and would tell us

that if you take

the greatest spokesman

for the gospel,

the greatest church planter

who ever lived

and you take him

out of the game,

he would be

massively discouraged

and the Christian movement

would come

to a screeching halt.

But I think Paul would say,

yeah, but you're forgetting

about our sovereign God.

Right?

Remember the God

who turned

Joseph's terrible situation

into salvation

for Israel

and food for the whole world.

Remember the God

who turned

Jesus' crucifixion

into salvation

and took the dead corpse

of Jesus

and turned it

into a resurrected body

and hoped for the whole world.

That same God,

Paul says,

that same God

can take everything

that looks wrong

in my life,

prison,

chains,

everything that looks

like a major difficulty

and a major defeat

and he can turn it

into an opportunity

for the gospel.

Do you all believe that?

That he can take

horrible, horrible things

and he can turn them

into good

so that the gospel

is actually advancing.

And what he says

in verse 13,

he says,

as a result,

it has become clear

throughout the whole palace guard

and to everyone else

that I am in chains

for Christ.

And because of my chains,

now most of the brothers

and sisters in this city

have become confident

in the Lord

and they dare all the more

to proclaim the gospel

without fear.

You see,

Paul never planned

a mission to the palace guard.

He never planned

to have a mission

to this force

of elite soldiers.

But now,

he has a captive audience

all day,

every day

for the gospel.

He's sharing the gospel

with army rangers

and navy seals

all day,

every day.

Six times a day.

They come in

on four hour rotations,

one chained on his right

and one chained

on his left.

And one by one,

they're getting converted

and transformed

by the gospel.

And then when the Christians

in this city

hear that these hardened

Roman soldiers

are having their hearts

softened

to Jesus,

the Christians

in that city,

they start to grow

in their own confidence

in the Lord,

that the Lord is here,

the Lord is present,

the Lord is powerfully

at work.

And they start

to overcome

their own fears

and they begin

to find fresh courage

to invite their friends

and neighbors

and coworkers

to listen to them

around their tables

and to ask them,

what do you believe?

You know?

What do you think

about life and death

and what's the meaning

of everything?

And they begin

to share with them

the good news

about Jesus.

What's amazing

is if you turn

to the end of this letter

in Philippians chapter 4

Philippians 4:22

verse 22,

Paul says that

all of God's people

here send you greetings

especially those

who belong

to Caesar's household.

Do you know

what that means?

That means

that the good news

of the Lord Jesus

because of Paul's chains

and because of his

imprisonment,

the good news

of the Lord Jesus

is advancing

all the way

into Lord Caesar's

household,

into the very

upper echelons

of the Roman Empire.

that the message

of God's kingdom

is advancing

into the heart

of Rome's kingdom.

And people are hearing

this message

that Jesus is actually

the new emperor

and he's taken

the throne of this world

to be the king.

He's the one

who's going to bring

grace to this world

and peace

to this world.

He's the one

to whom every knee

is going to bow

and every tongue

is going to confess

that he in fact

is the Lord.

None of this

was part of the plan.

No one

formed a committee

for how to reach

these elite soldiers.

No one created

a playbook

for how to reach

the upper echelons

of the empire.

But this was God's

sovereign plan.

That both inside

the prison

and outside

in the city,

the gospel

would be advancing

and Paul says

this is the reason

I have joy.

This is the reason

you too

should be rejoicing.

So friends,

my question for you

is,

is this how you

interpret your life

and your circumstances?

Is this how you

interpret your adversities

and your challenges?

Paul's setting for us

a Christian example

for how to do that.

Do you have

a strong belief

and a robust confidence

in the way

that God works out

His purposes

through your hardships?

Do you believe

that God can use

the worst things

that happen to you?

Imprisonment,

unemployment,

sickness,

injury,

cancer,

challenges with your kids,

the loss of a loved one?

For Paul,

most likely,

and we do know

that he ends up

experiencing martyrdom

in just a few years?

Do you believe

that any of these

can be God's

sovereign means

for advancing

the good news

of Jesus Christ?

How is God

arranging

and orchestrating

your current circumstances

so that the gospel

might be advanced?

how is God

using adversity

to grow you

and your confidence

in the Lord

and give you

a more fearless

courage

that you might

take that message

of Jesus forward

among those

who do not yet

currently believe it?

Paul says

that's the thing

that any healthy church,

any living church

ought to be concerned

about

in the midst

of their adversities.

Okay,

so that's question

number one.

How do you respond

to adversity?

Are you with me?

Second question is

what are you living

and dying for?

He wants this church

in Philippi

to think about

the question

what are you living

for and dying for?

Paul's heart

for them

is that they would

learn the secret

of the Christian life,

the secret

of Christian ministry,

and that they would

come to imitate

his overriding ambition,

that they would come

to follow

the example

of what makes

him tick,

the model

of what motivates

him.

And Paul's arguing

that everybody's

living for something.

And so he wants

them to think about

what are you living

for and what

are you dying

for?

If you had to

fill in the blank

of this sentence,

to me,

to live

is blank,

blank,

and for me

to die

is blank.

How do you

fill in those

blanks?

Now,

Paul says,

for me,

in verse 21,

he says,

for me to live

is Christ,

and to die

is gain

because I get

Christ.

Now,

after Paul

was beaten

in Philippi,

after he was

thrown in prison,

after he was

asked to leave

that city,

do you know

what Paul did?

Did he just

give up?

No,

Paul went on

to the next

city,

and then he

went on

to the next

city,

which was

Athens,

and he went

to the birthplace

of Greek

philosophy,

the birthplace

of Greek

art and

literature

and science

and democracy,

and we're

told that he

began to

debate there

the Epicurean

and Stoic

philosophers

about their

many gods

and their

many different

approaches

to life

and death.

And you

can imagine

him engaging

with the

different life

systems and

thought systems

there in

Athens,

and like

Socrates,

like Plato,

like Aristotle,

Paul comes

in and he

asks questions

and he says,

well,

what's your

definition of

life?

What's the

thing that

makes life

life for

you?

What's your

bottom line?

What's your

most important

thing that if

you say,

if I have

this,

then I'm

really living,

then I'm

truly alive.

No matter

what you take

away from

me,

I'm really

alive.

And Paul

begins to

engage in

the different

alternative

philosophies of

life and death

there in Athens.

And I think he

probably said

something like

this,

for you

Epicureans,

to live is

pleasure.

Right?

To live is

to have fun.

Yeah,

I've got a

good job and

I work hard and

I make a lot

of money,

but really I'm

living for

recreation.

I'm living to

play hard on

the weekends.

I'm living to

pursue my

hobbies and

experiences,

to get good

food and to

do more travel.

for me to

live is to

be happy.

And he

says,

for you

Stoics,

for you to

live is to

be strong.

For you to

live is to

be in control.

It's to be a

good and an

upright moral

person.

To have

courage and to

have grit and

resilience in the

face of all the

hard facts of life,

to just brace your

shoulders and have a

stiff upper lip and

to have an iron

will and to

refuse to be

defeated.

These are the

dominant definitions

here in Athens of

what it means to be

truly alive.

And I think you

can probably look

around and see in

the Bay Area these

definitions, these

ancient definitions

are still very much

the things that

people are living

their lives by here

in the Bay Area.

Or other people may

say, you know,

for me to live is my

work and my career.

For me to live is

romance and sex.

For me to live is my

family and my

precious children.

For me to live is my

money and my stock

portfolio and my

401k.

For me to live is to

be kind and to try to

leave the world a

better place.

For me to live is to

invest myself in

politics and power.

But what does Paul,

the greatest theologian,

say?

He says, you know,

why do I exist?

Why am I on planet

earth?

What is the meaning

and the purpose of

my life?

What gets me up in

the morning?

He says, for me to

live is Christ.

And for me to die is

gain because I get

Christ.

And everything else

is secondary.

Everything else is

subsidiary to that.

Paul would say this

is the only definition

of life.

The one bottom line

that most important

thing that will stand

up to all the

tragedies of life that

every single one of

us are going to face.

Even our own death.

That when you lose

all of your loves and

when you lose your

very life, you

yourself, if you have

this definition of

life, you yourself

will not collapse.

Do you realize how

radical this is, what

Paul is saying?

He said, look at it

again, verse 21.

For me to live is

Christ and to die is

gain.

And if I am to go on

living in this body,

this will mean fruitful

labor for me.

Yet what shall I

choose?

I do not know.

I'm torn between the

two.

I desire to depart and

be with Christ, which is

better by far.

But it is more

necessary for you that I

remain in the body.

Convinced of this, I know

that I will remain and I

will continue with all of

you for your progress and

joy in the faith so that

through my being with you,

again, your boasting in

Jesus Christ will abound

on account of me.

Paul's awaiting the

verdict from the

imperial tribunal.

He's awaiting this

decision whether or not

he's going to live or

whether or not he's going

to be beheaded.

And Paul says, you know

what?

I'm good either way.

Why?

Because if God's plan for

me is to live, then I get

to be a laborer in God's

vineyard.

And I get to go out and

sow seeds of the message

of Jesus and I get to reap

a harvest of gospel fruit

and I get to make disciples

and I get to help those

disciples make progress and

joy in their faith.

And I get to help people

more and more come to learn

what it means to boast and

nothing else but Jesus

Christ.

But if God's plan for me is

to be executed and to lose

my head, well to die is

gain because I've trusted

in Christ and the passion

and the goal of my life

since the day that Christ

Jesus apprehended me and

took hold of me is to see

Christ, not by faith but

by sight.

To die means to depart and

to be immediately, directly

and consciously with Jesus,

to be finally and fully

in his presence.

And this is the secret of

Paul's life.

It's the secret of the

Christian life.

And here's the logic.

Paul says because of the

empty tomb, because of the

resurrection of Jesus on

Easter Sunday in the past,

and because of that coming

resurrection of all who died

trusting in Jesus that's

coming in the future,

death is no longer a loss,

it's gain.

Death leads to victory.

Death leads to triumph.

Death leads to being with

Christ as you await your

resurrection body that will

enable you to live in the new

world that God is going to put

right and remake completely.

And so Paul says because of that

past resurrection of Jesus and

that future resurrection of the

dead, he says I have confidence,

I have assurance that no matter

what happens to me in the

tribunal of Lord Caesar, I know

where I stand in the tribunal of

Lord Christ.

Right?

No matter what happens to me in the

courts of Rome, I know where I

stand in the court of God.

God, I'm going to be delivered,

I'm going to be justified by

grace.

And therefore, I can say for me to

live as Christ and to die is

absolute gain.

Friends, can you imagine what kind

of revival, what kind of spiritual

awakening would happen here in the

Bay Area if ordinary everyday

Christians just embrace this one

focus and the singular passion?

It's very easy to say it with our

lips, but it's actually in our

priorities very difficult to live

it out because we can say for me

to live as Christ plus work plus

leisure plus wealth accumulation

plus relationships.

And how easy it is for that plus

factor, for that secondary thing to

become our primary passion.

But notice what Paul does here with

his personal preferences.

He says, you know, I'm going to take

my personal preference, which is to

depart and to be with Christ, which

is way better for me individually, and

I'm going to submit my personal

preference and desire to something

greater than myself, which is the

corporate and collective needs of

Christ's church and Christ's mission.

And what if more Christians in the

Bay Area were to reorder our

preferences, reorder our desires,

reorder our loves in such a way that

we're not living for self-gratification,

but we're living for the fruitful labor

of advancing and progressing in the

gospel.

Paul is in fact showing us and

embodying to us a life that's not

looking to our own interests, but

looking out to the interests of

others.

He's giving us a model.

He's giving us an example of valuing

others above our own personal

preferences.

Against his own personal desires, he

puts the needs of the gospel and the

needs of other people first.

To depart and to be with Christ, that's

emphatically better, Paul says.

That is by far the best.

There is no question about that for me,

Paul says, but it's more necessary for

you that I remain and that I live.

And it's more necessary for your

progress and your joy in the faith so

that your boasting in Jesus will abound

more and more.

And that's why I want to live.

To live is to go on laboring for Christ

and the praise of Christ.

And to die is to go on living that much

more in union with the resurrected

Christ.

Christ.

And because Christ is a singular focus

and the singular passion of my life,

whether I'm released or whether I'm

executed, whether I live or whether I die,

Paul says, I win.

I win because I get more of Christ.

Christ.

What would happen to your marriage if you

live like that?

Or what would happen to your children and

your family?

What would happen to our church?

What would happen to your workplace?

What would happen to our communities if all

of us filled in the blank and we said, for me,

to live is Christ and to die is gain because

it's more of Christ?

Christ, that's my definition.

That's my bottom line.

That's what I'm living for.

That's what I'm dying for.

All right.

I'm out of time.

But hopefully you now know, how do I respond

to adversity?

By seeing all of my life through the lens

of the gospel and drawing all my joy from

the gospel itself.

What am I living for and what am I dying

for?

I'm dying for nothing other than Christ.

And I'm living for nothing other than

Christ.

And finally, how do you get the power to

live this way?

Well, Paul says it very simply in verse

19.

He says, I know that through your prayers

and through God's provision of the spirit

of Christ, what has happened to me will

turn out for my deliverance.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no

way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage

so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my

body whether by life or by death.

Paul says, the thing that I need you to pray for me

and the thing that I'm praying for you is that we would

all, no matter what our circumstances,

no matter what we're going through, we would exalt

Christ, we would glorify Christ, we would magnify Christ.

And the only way we're going to have the power to do that

is if God, our Heavenly Father, fills us with the spirit of

His Son, Jesus, so that we live with that same power of

Jesus and that same courage of Jesus and that same life of

Jesus.

And so, friends, I want us to think about what do we pray

for each other?

What should I be praying for you?

What should you be praying for me?

What should we be praying for each other?

Oh, Father, fill us with the spirit of Your Son, Jesus,

that we might live for Jesus and die for Jesus,

that no matter what we're doing, we might seek to exalt Christ

and glorify Christ and magnify Christ.

Without Your Spirit, we cannot do that.

But with Your Spirit, we can do all things.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Amen.