To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain — Phil 1.21-26

Good morning. What a blessing it is to study God's Word with you today.

My name is Pastor Simon, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

Here at DMC, our focus is to make disciples of Christ as we study the Word of God together.

A few years ago, on one tide, I got a whole bunch of king salmon in my net.

As every year is lately, the snag point beach was really muddy.

My friend Joel was up above at the seawall ready to pull fish up over the seawall

in the brailler bag and my family was there with him.

I was down on the beach picking fish from the net.

Well, there was a particularly large king that had tangled himself up in the

net in the water just past the waterline and it was still alive.

Remember I told you that it was very muddy, right?

So there I was wrestling with this fish that was trying its best to get out,

and I was attempting to slide the web over his gills and out of its mouth when

the thing bit me, and he bit me hard.

When the king bit me, I lost my balance. I couldn't turn because one foot was stuck in the mud.

I teetered for a moment and then fell into the water.

One whole side of me got completely drenched i came up spluttering and spitting water out of my mouth.

Meanwhile, my friend Joel was up on the seawall laughing his head off and heckling

me while my family was killing themselves with laughter.

At least they could have been sympathetic to my plight, but no,

they took great joy at my discomfort.

My point with using this story is to illustrate the question,

why do we who set net beaches for subsistence continually slog in mud year after year?

Because we get value out of fishing on those muddy beaches.

We can catch a lot of fish. Our hard labor produces great fruit.

And as Christians, we work hard for the Lord because He is our greatest value and He is our life.

And through Him, we produce great fruit. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we have this opportunity to hear from

You, to be able to learn from Your Holy Spirit,

through your Word, by your Word. Lord, thank you.

You are our God, and you are our King, and may you teach us today and grant

us and fill us with your Holy Spirit so that we can understand what your Word

is teaching us and apply it to our lives.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Recently here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have started a preaching series

on Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Last week, God, through Paul, taught the Philippians and us that God uses our

circumstances to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, Christians are called to rejoice when the gospel is preached,

even when believers preach the gospel out of wrong motives.

Lastly, our earnest hope and expectation in life is for Christ to be magnified

or glorified in us and through us.

And today we're going to continue on in Paul's letter to the Philippians.

In Philippians 1, verse 21-26, where Paul wrote, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21–26

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 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.

The first point that I would like to bring to your attention today is that as

Christians, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

In Philippians 1, verse 21, Paul began this section, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

Before we can understand the meaning of this passage, we need to look at the

understanding of two words.

The first word is to live, which meant live in the flesh in contrast to the heavenly life.

Here Paul was referring to his physical life. The second word I want you to

see in this verse is the word gain, which meant profit or of something advantageous.

Thus, Paul was communicating to the Philippians that for him,

the entire focus of his life was Christ.

His identity was completely wrapped up in Jesus.

Every aspect of his living, Paul viewed through the lens of Christ being his

Lord, Master, and Savior.

Paul also explained that to die was gain or advantageous for him because he

would be able to abide and live in the very presence of his beloved Lord Jesus.

Have you ever been parted, maybe from a job or other circumstance,

from your loved ones whom you so wanted to be with, but you were also doing

something worthwhile and important that you were required to do?

I felt that way when I went up to Bethel, Alaska, to teach seminary for two

weeks and had to leave my wife Abigail and the kids.

The teaching ministry was definitely worthwhile, yet I also wanted to be with my family.

And this pull that Paul was talking about, this internal struggle is what Paul was dealing with.

What can we as Christ followers today learn from these verses?

We can learn that we are to understand the greatest value in both life and death is Christ.

Why did Paul view dying as gain?

Dying was gain to Paul only as much as it was the entrance to spending eternity

with his beloved Lord Jesus.

It's not that we're to see torture and imprisonment and death as advantageous

for us in and of themselves.

Rather, and please listen to this, death is the vehicle in which we enter everlasting

life with our wonderful and gracious Master, Christ Jesus. That is the greatest gain.

As the writer of Hebrews 12, verses 1-2 wrote, Therefore, since we have so great

Hebrews 12:1–2

a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us,

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on

Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. And this is what I want you to see.

Who for the what?

For the joy set before him endured

the cross despising shame and has sat down

at the right hand of the throne of god you see

for jesus death was not the game his father

was for his for us as christians christ is to be everything he is to be our

life he is to be our gain gain is connected to our happiness to our good the

problem is is that we as humans have a distorted understanding of what is good

and what true happiness is.

By ourselves, we as humans do not understand what will really make us happy.

And yet we are designed by God to seek our pleasure and our happiness in God

by being fully satisfied in Him.

For example, we are pleased by our food because we receive some satisfaction from it.

We hunt because it gives something to us and we gain from it.

How then can you and I be satisfied in death or other hardships in life when

all of our fleshly, physical senses tell us that this is bad?

The answer is by having more of Christ in us, more of Christ than ourselves.

As Christ becomes larger in our interior life, we take on his thinking,

we take on his perspective.

What pleases Christ will please us.

What is gained for Christ becomes our gain and our good.

We will find our happiness and joy in the love of Christ Christ,

and Him being pleased with us.

And as Christ, in Matthew 25, verse 21 said in His parable, Well done,

Matthew 25:21

good and faithful slave.

You are faithful to few things. I will put you in charge of many.

And here it is, enter into the joy of your master.

The second main truth that I want to point out to you is that as Christians,

we are to be fruitful in our work for Christ.

Before we came to Dillingham, Abigail and I were living on Multnomah Biblical

Seminary's campus in Portland.

Abigail had planted a small garden in the front of the townhouse,

and in that garden against the townhouse was a cherry tomato plant that Abigail watered and nursed.

And there was a sprinkler that was right underneath of it.

And she kept on tying it up as it got larger until finally the plant was 14

feet high and covered with tomatoes.

Abigail's efforts certainly bore fruit. And I share this concept of hard work

bearing fruit with you because Paul wanted to live physically in his life so

that he could bear fruitful labor for Christ.

Paul went on in Philippians 1, verse 22.

Philippians 1:22

But if I am to live on in this flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me,

and I do not know which to choose.

Paul had an emotional dilemma that he was struggling with. We're going to look

at the initial part of his dilemma first.

On the one hand, Paul wanted to live on and help the churches that he had planted.

In this case, the Philippians grow in Christ.

Paul's situation reminds me of snow shoveling. We all understand something of

snow shoveling here in Dillingham, don't we?

Maybe not this winter because it was so cold, but generally we do.

Just imagine that after a large dump of snow that you've been clearing with

a snow shovel or a scoop, and you've been shoveling for a while, and you're tired.

And when you look over, you see that there's more that you have to do.

You want to give up since the end is in sight, but you cannot because there's still more to do.

So you finish the shoveling, and then just as you finish, the snowplow comes

by, and your pile is higher than it was in the first place.

I believe that this is what it was like for Paul. He could see the end in sight,

far off, and he desperately longed to be with his Lord and friend Jesus.

Yet Paul knew that he had more work that the Lord had for him to do.

And not only did the Lord have more work for Paul to do, but that work would be fruitful.

The word that Paul used for fruitful meant outcome, fruit, or the consequences

of some effort or action,

meaning that Paul was confident that if the Lord let him live on,

then the Lord would make the outcome or consequence of Paul's hard work at making his disciples.

Fruitful for the Lord.

The way that we can apply this verse to us who are in Christ is that for the

time that we have left on this earth, we are to work hard for the Lord,

confidently trusting that the Lord will bring much fruit out of our gospel work.

One of the things I like about Dillingham is that most people here work very

hard at their jobs, long hours, overtime, and many have multiple jobs.

You are good, hardworking people.

But we need to ask ourselves a question. How much?

Time do we as Christians put into laboring for Jesus Christ?

Not only laboring for Christ, but trusting and believing that Christ will bear

much fruit through our gospel work.

One of the things I love about Paul is that he was so convinced that God would

not only accomplish His divine purposes, but that God would work through Paul.

Another question that we must ask ourselves is how much confidence in Christ

and in His work in us and through us do we have?

We, you and I, are called to faithfully labor for Christ and be confident that

Christ will work through us.

And this leads us to the next major truth in our Philippians passage,

where Paul taught the Philippians and us as well that as Christians,

we are to remain and serve God on earth while longing to be with Christ.

In a sense, as your pastor, I'm like your spiritual father placed by God.

Nothing would delight me more to

see this church grow more in the faith of Christ and to love one another.

And when you, my church family, are joyfully serving the Lord together, I am joyful.

And this makes ministry worthwhile to me, to see you progress in the spiritual

life and serve God in joy.

This was definitely a major motive for Paul to desire and to live for his churches,

who were his spiritual children.

Paul in Philippians 1, verse 23 to 26 taught, But I am hard-pressed from both

Philippians 1:23–26

directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is 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,

I want you to see that Paul made a distinction between being set free to do

ministry amongst the churches and his desire to be with Jesus.

Paul viewed being set free for the ministry as something that was necessary

for the progress and joy in the faith of the Philippian church.

The Philippians were proud of Paul and his bold proclamation of the gospel.

I believe that the Philippians' confidence in Paul served to grow Paul's love for the Philippians.

You see, Paul delighted in seeing the spiritual progress of his spiritual children

and seeing their joy and their faith in Christ.

However, and this is essential as well, Paul also believed that.

Going to be in the presence of Almighty God, Jesus Christ, was not just necessary,

but also very much better.

For Paul dying and being with Jesus was of the highest value.

Paul lived his life every single day, regardless of being in prison or not,

with the goal of eternity with Jesus in mind.

Paul was hard-pressed, yes, But his focus was always on Christ and not on himself.

There are two ways that we as Christ believers can learn from verses 23 to 26.

First off, we are to delight in the spiritual progress of our church family in Christ.

However, to do this, we, you and I, must be involved in making new disciples

for Christ and be involved in the lives of our church family so that God's delight

in the spiritual growth of His people can grow in us.

It is this delight in seeing the spiritual progress of other believers,

especially in our local church family, that grows our joy and our desire to

serve Christ here on earth.

Secondly, Jesus Christ must be our greatest treasure so that we long to be with Him in heaven.

This is the area that all of us as saints who also live in our fallen bodies

struggle with each in different ways.

And what I mean by this is that as descendants of Adam and Eve,

we were all tainted by original sin.

And as a result, our desire for God has been corrupted and seeded with self-love prompted by Satan.

Now our self-focus will come out and.

Each in different ways. But it's always there, constantly tempting us to put

ourselves as the central focus of our lives.

Yet again, we have been designed for God, for Him to be our greatest treasure.

We are to seek after Him with every aspect of our being. And I want to encourage

you to make God your treasure.

And to do that, you must seek Him.

The best place to seek God through prayer is in His living and active Word of

God, the Bible, where God Himself speaks to us, leading us to Him with His very words.

So seek Christ in His Word, in prayer, and you will find Him,

and He will become more and more your treasure.

What have we learned from God through the Apostle Paul today?

There are four principles that I want to remind you of. Firstly,

we are to believe and trust that our greatest value in both life and death has to be Christ alone.

Secondly, we are to work hard for the Lord, confidently trusting that the Lord

will bring much fruit out of our gospel work.

And thirdly, we are to delight in the spiritual progress of the disciples of

Christ we are making and in our church family in Christ so that we desire to

be with them, serving and loving them.

And lastly, Jesus Christ must be our greatest treasure so that we long to be with Him in heaven.

I want to remind you of what Paul wrote in Philippians 4, verses 11-13.

Philippians 4:11–13

Not that I speak from want, for I learn to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in abundance.

And in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going

hungry, both having abundance and suffering need. And here it is, verse 13.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. You see,

it is tempting in this verse to focus on I can do all things and on the strengthens me part.

And yet Paul emphasized the him who strengthens me, Jesus Christ.

It was staying in the abiding relationship with Christ that was the reason that

Paul could work so hard at making disciples amid such hard and dangerous opposition.

Knowing and remaining in the love of Christ was the reason why Paul could love

Christ so much that he longed with the very fabric of his being to be with Christ in heaven.

I encourage all of us, including myself, to abide in Christ,

and our attitude will grow to be like Christ and like Paul's. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and your truth.

We thank you that you have loved us so much that you've sent your son,

Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us, to be the blood sacrifice,

to pay our debt so that we can,

could be forgiven, that we can have life with you, that we can have this abiding

relationship with you and one day be in heaven with you forever.

We're so looking forward to that. I pray that you would grow our desire for

Christ to be our all in all, to be our treasure and our love.

May you grow our longing for heaven because you are there.

Help us to that end, work in us to that end. In your gracious Son's name,

Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with this blessing from Romans 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and may the Lord bless you all.