In this passage, we read that St Paul was facing the possibility of an imminent death. He knows that his life could soon end.
OR he could be released from prison to minister once again to his Gentile friends.
1:19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death.
• We note that the death Paul was talking about here was not the death due to the result of illness.
• Rather it was the possible death Paul faced because of persecution.
• But his words show he had the right attitude to death and the right attitude to life.
• What can we learn from his attitude?
(1) THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO LIFE (v.21) –
• What’s life all about? What’s the purpose of living? People have written many books on the subject.
• Paul gave his answer in one word, “Christ.” “For me to live is– Christ…”
• Paul had met the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus.
• From that moment Christ became the very centre of his existence.
• What is life meant to be?
(i) It is a relationship with a person called Jesus.
It is not just the truth about Jesus, but it is the person of Jesus Himself Who is meant to be our life.
He is meant to be the centre of every person’s life. We are meant to enthrone Him in our hearts, so that:-
• He becomes the focus of our thoughts.
• He becomes the object of our love.
• He becomes the subject of our conversation.
• He becomes our hope for the future and
• He becomes the meaning for our total existence. For me to live is Christ.
Later in Phil 3:10, Paul records his whole aim in living in this life. He is saying, “This is what life is all about. That I might know Jesus and might experience the power of His resurrection.”
One of the verses that brought me from unbelief to belief was that beautiful verse in Revelation 3:20, where the picture is given by St John of the Risen Christ standing at the door of our lives knocking. The Risen Jesus says to the individuals with that Church in Laodicea, and now to us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any person hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him,, and he with Me.”
In many ways, perhaps through good things or perhaps through sad things that have happened, the Risen Jesus has been knocking and trying to catch our attention.
What He wants is for us to open the door that He might come in; that He might begin to share His life with us.
Not only that, He comes in when we open the door. He promises that He will come in, and that He will sup with us and we with Him.
In other words we are beginning a life of never ending fellowship with Him.
That is what life is about, to know Him, and then to be open to receive the power of His resurrection.
(ii) It is a life of serving Jesus.
It is a life of living for Jesus in service to other people. In verse 23 Paul is saying that he would prefer to go through death, in order to be in the presence of Jesus, than to remain alive on earth. That was his real desire to depart and be with Christ because that would be far better.
But as he was writing these verses, he was not thinking of himself. He was thinking of other people as well. He was facing the possibility of imminent death. He saw that as a going home to Jesus.
There was that possibility, but also the possibility that he might live longer in this world. He really wanted the former that he might go to be with Jesus, but he was willing to choose the latter that he might continue on in this world.
Notice what he says in verse 22: that if he continued on with life in the flesh it would be fruitful labour in service for other people. Notice in verse 24 where it says, “To remain in the flesh (to remain in the body, to keep on living in this world) is more necessary on your account.”
He saw the possibility of an extension of life as a means of keeping on serving other people. “Better for that to happen than for me to go immediately to be in the presence of the Lord, because I have work to do for Him.”
In verse 25, He says, “I know, I am now convinced, that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and your joy in the faith.”
In other words, he saw the possibility of an extension of life as a means of keeping on serving other people.
Why do we want to be healed? Why do we want less pain and an extension of life in this world?
Is it that we might go out and pursue our own ends and our own pleasure. Or is it, like St Paul, to live for others in the service of Christ?
We need to ask God to heal us for His sake that we might do His will, for the rest of our lives, rather than asking Him to heal us that we can do our thing in this world, and turn our back on God.
So there’s something about the right attitude to life that we might enter into a right relationship with Jesus and that we might have a life in which we serve Him in serving other people.
(2) THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO DEATH
The same verse, 1:21, “To me, to live, is Christ and to die is gain”.
There is only one thing greater than knowing Jesus, and that is knowing Him more deeply, rejoicing in His presence and glory.
That’s why St Paul saw death as being a gain, the gain of a deeper relationship with the One Who was already his life. The gain of appropriating more and more of the unsearchable riches which are ours in Christ.
Notice the words he uses to describe death in this passage –
(i) In verse 21 he says it is”gain”, it is benefit, it is blessing, it is an advantage for that to happen. It means life without those restrictions that hamper our lives on earth.
(ii) In verse 23 he says that to die is “to depart”, and the word he uses is a very graphic word. (Some thoughts from William Barclay).
It is used to describe the unmooring of a ship. It has been moored, and now it is unloosed, set free from bondage, that it might go on a greater journey.
(Death is the means by which we are freed from all the limitations of this earthly existence.)
Or the word is used of breaking up camp, as people get ready to go on their way.
(It is the means by which we begin the greatest adventure of all, entering into the fulness of life with Christ. )
Or it is used of solving a problem, and thus coming to know the answer.
(It is the means by which all our questions will be answered in His presence. We will know as we see Him.)
It is also used by Jesus in the parable where He talks about the master returning home.
(In entering into the presence of the Lord Himself; we are coming home to the Master, to the Saviour.)
(iii) In verse 23, “to depart” means to be “with Christ” through death.
What a very beautiful way to describe life after death for the Christian. “With Christ”, as St Paul says elsewhere is “to be at home with the Lord”.
So death means that we are going to be “with Christ”. In 1 Thess 5:10 it says that “Jesus died for us, so that, whether we wake or whether we sleep”, ( whether we are alive when Jesus comes, or whether we have already departed), we will live with Him as Christians.
And so why – why be afraid of death?
• For the Christian, the best is always yet to be.
• In this life we can know more and more of the unsearchable riches that are ours in Christ.
• We can experience more and more of His resurrection power even in healing.
• And yes – the life that is to come after death – even that is to our advantage.
• Death is departure, but it is also arrival in the presence of God.
(3). LIFE OR DEATH?
(i). It’s OK to die. That may sound strange to say in a healing service, but “It is OK to die.”
• Death can be seen to be the ultimate healing in this world.
• All other healing is temporary, for this world only and never perfectly complete.
• What we as a ministry want to happen is that you live life to the full in relationship with Christ, so that you can say from the depth of your hearts, “To me to live is Christ.”
• Until you can say that you’re going nowhere. You’ve missed out on what life is all about.
• You’re outside God’s purpose for you.
(ii). We don’t want you to die prematurely (from a human point of view).
• We want you to reach your full potential in life, to do the things that God has planned from all eternity for you to do for Him.
• That’s why we will keep hanging in there with you when medical science says you have little or no chance of getting better.
• We want God to have the last say about your life, not fellow humans.
• We will keep praying for you until you’re sure He wants to take you home according to His timetable, not anyone else’s.
I don’t think we can say with certainty, “to die is gain”, unless we can first say, “To me to live is Christ”.
• Do you want to have the same experience that Christians have enjoyed throughout the ages as they opened their hearts and lives to Him?
• The experience of knowing that Christ by His Spirit has come to live within them and made them new creatures in Himself.
• You too can ask Him to come into your life. You can ask Him to fill every part of your life with His life.
• You can ask Him to touch your life with His power, and to bring you the blessing and healing you need.
• You can ask Him to fill your heart with His love, so that you may experience His love for you and in you and through you.
• That’s what it means to say, “For me to live is Christ.”
Jesus stands at the door of our lives and says to us, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me.”
• If you are conscious that Jesus has been knocking at the door of your life, wanting to enter, then now is the time to ask Him into your life.
• You can do it in a prayer such as this one.
“Dear Lord Jesus. I thank You that You died on the cross to take away my sins, so that I might be forgiven.
I thank You that You are the Risen Saviour, alive from the dead, and that You have been knocking on the door of my life wanting to come in.
I now open the door of my heart and invite You to come into my life to be my Saviour from sin.
I invite You into every area of my life, to be the Lord and Master of every part.
I offer You all I am and all I have.
Touch my life in every area with Your healing power so that I can be healed to live for You for the rest of my life.
I thank You for hearing my prayer and for coming into my life.
I thank You for the healing and blessing I have in You.
Fill me with the fullness of Your life so that I can say from the depths of my being, “For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain.”
I ask these things in Your precious name of Jesus. AMEN
[The above sermon is based on a sermon I preached in June 2005 at a Healing service at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, when I was the Leader of the Healing Ministry there.]
Blog No.557 posted on Tuesday 01 October 2024
holbeck 
557. FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST. TO DIE IS GAIN. Philippians 1:19-26.
In this passage, we read that St Paul was facing the possibility of an imminent death. He knows that his life could soon end.
OR he could be released from prison to minister once again to his Gentile friends.
1:19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death.
• We note that the death Paul was talking about here was not the death due to the result of illness.
• Rather it was the possible death Paul faced because of persecution.
• But his words show he had the right attitude to death and the right attitude to life.
• What can we learn from his attitude?
(1) THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO LIFE (v.21) –
• What’s life all about? What’s the purpose of living? People have written many books on the subject.
• Paul gave his answer in one word, “Christ.” “For me to live is– Christ…”
• Paul had met the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus.
• From that moment Christ became the very centre of his existence.
• What is life meant to be?
(i) It is a relationship with a person called Jesus.
It is not just the truth about Jesus, but it is the person of Jesus Himself Who is meant to be our life.
He is meant to be the centre of every person’s life. We are meant to enthrone Him in our hearts, so that:-
• He becomes the focus of our thoughts.
• He becomes the object of our love.
• He becomes the subject of our conversation.
• He becomes our hope for the future and
• He becomes the meaning for our total existence. For me to live is Christ.
Later in Phil 3:10, Paul records his whole aim in living in this life. He is saying, “This is what life is all about. That I might know Jesus and might experience the power of His resurrection.”
One of the verses that brought me from unbelief to belief was that beautiful verse in Revelation 3:20, where the picture is given by St John of the Risen Christ standing at the door of our lives knocking. The Risen Jesus says to the individuals with that Church in Laodicea, and now to us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any person hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him,, and he with Me.”
In many ways, perhaps through good things or perhaps through sad things that have happened, the Risen Jesus has been knocking and trying to catch our attention.
What He wants is for us to open the door that He might come in; that He might begin to share His life with us.
Not only that, He comes in when we open the door. He promises that He will come in, and that He will sup with us and we with Him.
In other words we are beginning a life of never ending fellowship with Him.
That is what life is about, to know Him, and then to be open to receive the power of His resurrection.
(ii) It is a life of serving Jesus.
It is a life of living for Jesus in service to other people. In verse 23 Paul is saying that he would prefer to go through death, in order to be in the presence of Jesus, than to remain alive on earth. That was his real desire to depart and be with Christ because that would be far better.
But as he was writing these verses, he was not thinking of himself. He was thinking of other people as well. He was facing the possibility of imminent death. He saw that as a going home to Jesus.
There was that possibility, but also the possibility that he might live longer in this world. He really wanted the former that he might go to be with Jesus, but he was willing to choose the latter that he might continue on in this world.
Notice what he says in verse 22: that if he continued on with life in the flesh it would be fruitful labour in service for other people. Notice in verse 24 where it says, “To remain in the flesh (to remain in the body, to keep on living in this world) is more necessary on your account.”
He saw the possibility of an extension of life as a means of keeping on serving other people. “Better for that to happen than for me to go immediately to be in the presence of the Lord, because I have work to do for Him.”
In verse 25, He says, “I know, I am now convinced, that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and your joy in the faith.”
In other words, he saw the possibility of an extension of life as a means of keeping on serving other people.
Why do we want to be healed? Why do we want less pain and an extension of life in this world?
Is it that we might go out and pursue our own ends and our own pleasure. Or is it, like St Paul, to live for others in the service of Christ?
We need to ask God to heal us for His sake that we might do His will, for the rest of our lives, rather than asking Him to heal us that we can do our thing in this world, and turn our back on God.
So there’s something about the right attitude to life that we might enter into a right relationship with Jesus and that we might have a life in which we serve Him in serving other people.
(2) THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO DEATH
The same verse, 1:21, “To me, to live, is Christ and to die is gain”.
There is only one thing greater than knowing Jesus, and that is knowing Him more deeply, rejoicing in His presence and glory.
That’s why St Paul saw death as being a gain, the gain of a deeper relationship with the One Who was already his life. The gain of appropriating more and more of the unsearchable riches which are ours in Christ.
Notice the words he uses to describe death in this passage –
(i) In verse 21 he says it is”gain”, it is benefit, it is blessing, it is an advantage for that to happen. It means life without those restrictions that hamper our lives on earth.
(ii) In verse 23 he says that to die is “to depart”, and the word he uses is a very graphic word. (Some thoughts from William Barclay).
It is used to describe the unmooring of a ship. It has been moored, and now it is unloosed, set free from bondage, that it might go on a greater journey.
(Death is the means by which we are freed from all the limitations of this earthly existence.)
Or the word is used of breaking up camp, as people get ready to go on their way.
(It is the means by which we begin the greatest adventure of all, entering into the fulness of life with Christ. )
Or it is used of solving a problem, and thus coming to know the answer.
(It is the means by which all our questions will be answered in His presence. We will know as we see Him.)
It is also used by Jesus in the parable where He talks about the master returning home.
(In entering into the presence of the Lord Himself; we are coming home to the Master, to the Saviour.)
(iii) In verse 23, “to depart” means to be “with Christ” through death.
What a very beautiful way to describe life after death for the Christian. “With Christ”, as St Paul says elsewhere is “to be at home with the Lord”.
So death means that we are going to be “with Christ”. In 1 Thess 5:10 it says that “Jesus died for us, so that, whether we wake or whether we sleep”, ( whether we are alive when Jesus comes, or whether we have already departed), we will live with Him as Christians.
And so why – why be afraid of death?
• For the Christian, the best is always yet to be.
• In this life we can know more and more of the unsearchable riches that are ours in Christ.
• We can experience more and more of His resurrection power even in healing.
• And yes – the life that is to come after death – even that is to our advantage.
• Death is departure, but it is also arrival in the presence of God.
(3). LIFE OR DEATH?
(i). It’s OK to die. That may sound strange to say in a healing service, but “It is OK to die.”
• Death can be seen to be the ultimate healing in this world.
• All other healing is temporary, for this world only and never perfectly complete.
• What we as a ministry want to happen is that you live life to the full in relationship with Christ, so that you can say from the depth of your hearts, “To me to live is Christ.”
• Until you can say that you’re going nowhere. You’ve missed out on what life is all about.
• You’re outside God’s purpose for you.
(ii). We don’t want you to die prematurely (from a human point of view).
• We want you to reach your full potential in life, to do the things that God has planned from all eternity for you to do for Him.
• That’s why we will keep hanging in there with you when medical science says you have little or no chance of getting better.
• We want God to have the last say about your life, not fellow humans.
• We will keep praying for you until you’re sure He wants to take you home according to His timetable, not anyone else’s.
I don’t think we can say with certainty, “to die is gain”, unless we can first say, “To me to live is Christ”.
• Do you want to have the same experience that Christians have enjoyed throughout the ages as they opened their hearts and lives to Him?
• The experience of knowing that Christ by His Spirit has come to live within them and made them new creatures in Himself.
• You too can ask Him to come into your life. You can ask Him to fill every part of your life with His life.
• You can ask Him to touch your life with His power, and to bring you the blessing and healing you need.
• You can ask Him to fill your heart with His love, so that you may experience His love for you and in you and through you.
• That’s what it means to say, “For me to live is Christ.”
Jesus stands at the door of our lives and says to us, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me.”
• If you are conscious that Jesus has been knocking at the door of your life, wanting to enter, then now is the time to ask Him into your life.
• You can do it in a prayer such as this one.
“Dear Lord Jesus. I thank You that You died on the cross to take away my sins, so that I might be forgiven.
I thank You that You are the Risen Saviour, alive from the dead, and that You have been knocking on the door of my life wanting to come in.
I now open the door of my heart and invite You to come into my life to be my Saviour from sin.
I invite You into every area of my life, to be the Lord and Master of every part.
I offer You all I am and all I have.
Touch my life in every area with Your healing power so that I can be healed to live for You for the rest of my life.
I thank You for hearing my prayer and for coming into my life.
I thank You for the healing and blessing I have in You.
Fill me with the fullness of Your life so that I can say from the depths of my being, “For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain.”
I ask these things in Your precious name of Jesus. AMEN
[The above sermon is based on a sermon I preached in June 2005 at a Healing service at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, when I was the Leader of the Healing Ministry there.]
Blog No.557 posted on Tuesday 01 October 2024
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About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.