Followers of Jesus not only live differently, they die differently.
Paul faced a dilemma: he found himself under a death sentence. It would not be a pretty death; it would be a public death at the hands of a cruel Roman Soldier. But he also entertained the possibility that he would be delivered from his sentence of death. It is astounding that he was “torn” by which he would rather experience–death or life. Paul’s passion was not rooted in a “death wish.” Paul’s passion was that Jesus be magnified in life or death. His passion to magnify Jesus at all cost resulted in joy inexpressible and full of glory.
We will open the Scriptures and peer into the heart of one of most audaciously fearless men of faith and discover that you and I can also posses and be possessed by that same spirit.
This will be good for our souls.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:49 — 34.2MB)
Downloads
Notes Transcript Video Audio iTunesGrace Fellowship Church
Buddy Hoffman
Series: Philippians: The “What Ifs” of Faith
October 6, 2013
Dying and Living Well
Philippians 1:18-30
If you’re here this morning and you don’t have a Bible with you, slip up your hand. I want to put a Bible in your hand. I’m going to be reading out of the ESV. It’s the one on the cart. We’re going through the book of Philippians. We have a fairly large section of Scripture we’re going to be looking at this morning, verses 18 down through 30, and there’s just so much that is really densely packed into this that you really want to pay attention. Take a few notes.
On your sheet, there are some basic notes, and then you might want to jot another few notes down with that also. Let’s read this Scripture first. In verse 18, he says, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18) Now that’s a break, and a new paragraph starts there.
Here’s what he says, “Yes, and I will rejoice…” (Philippians 1:18) Now do you remember that joy is different than happiness? Joy is different than happiness. Happiness depends on whether or not you have have allergies; joy is dependent on whether God is who he says he is and whether we can trust him or not and whether he will work these things out for his glory and our good. It’s a commitment he makes here. “I’m going to rejoice.”
In 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, 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 in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Philippians 1:19-20)
That’s a powerful statement there. “I’ve just absolutely come to that settled conclusion. I know this. That Christ is going to be magnified in my body whether by life or by death.” That word honored is that word magnified. You might even ask yourself the question, “How do you magnify God?” because God is all-powerful. God is omniscient. God is holy. I mean, how do you magnify God?
The simple answer to that, and this is very important… No one has seen God at any time except in Jesus. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Magnification is not just making things bigger; it’s bringing things closer. So when you and I in the way we deal with life and life circumstances, people see our lives and God is magnified. God is magnified in our lives by the way we look at things, by the way we react to things, by the way we proactively approach things. “That God will be honored in my body whether by life or death.”
I just love that about Paul. I’ve entitled this Dying and Living Well, because what’s happening here is Paul finds himself in the dilemma of a death sentence, and it’s not going to be a pretty death; it’s going to be a public death at the hands of a cruel Roman soldier. But in that potential reality he also entertains the possibility he’d be delivered from that death sentence. What’s astounding is what we read here, but it’s all hinged on that verse 21. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) Wow.
“For me to live, it’s going to be Christ. Christ is going to be magnified. I’m going to have a fruitful life. Things are going to happen, and it’s going to be absolutely amazing. But if I die, it’s going to be even better.” We, as believers, if we really believe what we say we believe, if our persuasion that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, we sorrow not as others who have no hope.
When those whom we love in Jesus Christ pass from this life into life after life, abundant life, life with Jesus, our reactions to that (and I know this is a little bit hard), should be rejoicing. That’s a little hard. You go, “Well, wait a minute. I’m going to miss that person. That person is important in my life.” Yes, I believe every bit of that is true, but I think sometimes the way we react to death and the death of those who are in Christ belies the fact that we really believe they go to be with Jesus.
If you knew you were going to go through that door and be with Jesus, would you stand at the edge of that door and go, “Oh no, this is the most terrible thing that could possibly happen. I just can’t imagine going through that door”? If you knew you were going to be reunited with those who had gone on to be with Jesus, would you just sit there on the edge of that door and go, “Oh, that’s just dreadful”?
Verse 22: “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire…” What he’s describing here in this word desire is a yearning. “My passion.” We’ll look at this word in a minute. “…is to depart…” (Philippians 1:22-23) “My choice, if I’m given the opportunity to make the choice is to depart.” “…and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Philippians 1:23)
How many of you really believe that? Amen? I know that’s kind of a hard thing to come to grips with, but I’m going to tell you something. Being with Jesus is better than being here. Can you imagine being in a world where nobody ever uses the word cancer? You go, “Have you heard of cancer?” They go, “Well, we don’t have that here.” Where there is constant fellowship with God.
“But to remain in the flesh…” Notice what he said. “…is more necessary on your account.” (Philippians 1:24) Now if you’re following the outline there, there is…
1. Paul’s quandary. This is verses 19-24. It’s a quandary of being torn whether to go be with Jesus or to stay here. In verse 25, you move on to this…
2. Paul’s concession. He says, “Convinced of this, I know…” The word that is used there, that phrase, is after a lot of thought about this, I’ve come to the persuasion “…that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith…” (Philippians 1:25) “I’m convinced that I’m going to stay, but it’s not for me; it’s for you.” “…so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” (Philippians 1:26)
Beginning in verse 27, Paul speaks of this kingdom life mindset. In verse 27, he says, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel…” Again, I’m reading out of the ESV. That phrase gospel of Christ is the word euaggelion, kingdom citizens. That we should live in a way that we live up to our kingdom citizenship, that it’s reflected in the choices we make, that we live and look like kingdom citizens.
“…so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit…” (Philippians 1:27) What you find are the results. If you decide you are going to live that life in a kingdom mindset, reflecting a kingdom mindset, your lifestyle and your choices are going to be different than somebody else’s.
How many of you have traveled outside the United States? How many of you have noticed it’s different? Now I know this is very parochial of me, but I love the USA. I do. I’ve had the opportunity to travel a pretty good bit, but I love coming back to America. I know this is going to be even worse, but I like coming back to the South. This is not prejudice. I married a girl from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, so I’m not prejudiced. They just don’t have as good a food as we do.
I’m kidding around here, but I really want to make a point. Do you understand that as a citizen of the kingdom we have a different set of responsibilities because we reflect the King to the rest of the world? One of the things you find when you travel is that oftentimes people in other countries don’t like America. Has anybody else found that out? If you’ve gone to France, you know that’s true. The French just don’t like us that much. They like to take our money. Now I know there is some Frenchman here who’s going to tell me different, but you’re wrong.
Now there are some places that like us a lot, and it’s a nice thing to be liked a lot. But part of the reason we are not liked often is because we are ugly Americans. I don’t mean physically, although some of us have that problem too. But we want and demand to be served like we have come to expect in the United States. Sometimes we are rude, and we reflect badly upon our nation.
Now here is what we are called to do. We are to reflect well upon our King and our kingdom. People are to look at us and go, “If that’s what it means to be a Christian, if that’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus, boy, I like the sound of that. I like that.” I have some friends from Norway. Jody and I stayed with them for a week, I preached there, and we did a seminar there.
I’d never met anybody from Norway. Does anybody know anybody from Norway? Man, they are nice people. I’m telling you; they are nice people. It’s no wonder they haven’t won a lot of wars. They are just too nice. Every time I think about Norway, I think about that they used to be Vikings, and they traded in all their boats for bikes.
Everywhere you go (and I hate to say this), there are white people on bikes. I grew up in the South, and I like a little more color in my life. I’m sorry. But I was there about three days, and I said to the guy, “Where are the other people? What’s going on in this country?” But they are really, really nice people.
If you are a follower of Jesus, people should look at you, and they should go, “Well, I’ve met some of those Jesus followers, and they’re kind, and they’re kind to each other, and they’re good parents.” We have this responsibility as citizens to reflect the King well.
3. Paul’s kingdom mindsets. If you’re looking at those notes, you’ll see we’re to stand firm, and we’re to stand together, and we’re to embrace faith and reject fear, and we’re to trust the King, and then the last one there is we’re to suffer well.
Now let’s go back for just a few minutes and talk about Paul’s quandary, because that’s an interesting thing. He says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” To live is Christ and to die is gain. I don’t know if you heard this or not, but Chuck Smith died this week…on Thursday, I think.
Did you hear about that? Does everybody know? Chuck Smith started Calvary Chapel. If you’ve ever been to a Calvary Chapel or you grew up in a Calvary Chapel… There are actually a couple of thousand or more Calvary Chapels all over the United States. He died. He was 86 years old.
You won’t read in the New York Times or the Washington Post or the Atlanta Constitution or even the Los Angeles papers or San Diego papers, except maybe down in the obituaries, anything about Chuck Smith. But let me tell you something. When Chuck Smith took his last breath and walked through the gates of glory, there were literally hundreds of thousands of people who were there ready to shake his hand. Do you know why?
It’s a very interesting story. Chuck was a pastor, and he had like a hundred sermons. Every time he would go through a couple of years, he would go through all his sermons, and he would have to move on to another church because he used up all his sermons.
So one day he is driving down the road, and he listens to the radio, and he hears a guy on the radio named J. Vernon McGee. Does anybody remember J. Vernon McGee? You’re telling your age…although they still broadcast. “He being dead yet speaketh.” He literally would just go through the Bible every five years. Do you remember what he used to call it? The good ol’ “gospel bus.” He would just go through the Bible every five years.
Chuck started listening to J. Vernon. He goes, “If I just taught the Bible, I wouldn’t have to move around from church to church. I could just start in Genesis, and I could preach through the Bible, and every five or six years start over and then just keep preaching through the Bible over and over.”
So this church called him down in Costa Mesa, California, and they were about to go under. He said, “Well, I have this idea. I don’t know how well it’ll work, but I’d like to try this out of just teaching through the Bible.” So he started down there in Costa Mesa. It was back in 1965. It was back when some of you had hair. It was in the days of the hippies. We haven’t seen hippies for awhile. They kind of grew up and traded their peace signs for Mercedes.
But Chuck’s wife started hearing about these lost kids, and she said to Chuck, “I keep hearing about these kids who don’t know Jesus, and they’re taking drugs, and they’re lost. I want us to reach them.” Chuck goes, “Look, I’m trying to teach through the Bible.” She said, “I heard they hang out down at this pier. Would you take me down to where the pier is and let’s just pray for them?” He goes, “That could be dangerous. They’re like long-haired, drug-crazed hippie people.”
But all of us who are married know your wife wins. So he drove her down, and they would sit there, and do you know what she would do? She would just cry, and she would pray, and she would say, “God, these kids need you. These kids need you. They’re lost. They need to be re-parented. They need you.” Then she would go back to the church and she would say to people, “If you know of a hippie, tell them I will fix them supper.”
So hippies started showing up at the house to eat supper. Chuck said he would get up in the morning to go to the office and there would be hippies just like lying all over the floor of the living room. He would say to his wife, “Honey, are you crazy? They could kill us or rob us. You can’t just let people into the house.” She goes, “Oh, but Chuck, they need Jesus. They need Jesus.”
Do you know what happened? Because they were loved, they started coming to church. They had built this nice building, and he was proud of it. They had nice carpet on the floors. They had pews. It was nice. These dirty hippies would come in with no shirt on and no shoes on. People would go, “You can’t go to church with no shirt and no shoes.”
He said they got into this big argument in a board meeting. By this time, Chuck had started to like them. They said, “We have to make some rules around here about who can come into this church. They at least need a shirt and shoes. They’re ruining our carpet. The oil from their feet is just ruining our carpet.” Chuck said, “Let’s just tear the carpet out.”
The church started to love these kids who nobody else loved. Do you know what happened? These kids started to come to faith. They started saying, “This is a lot fun. I like this stuff.” God started calling some of them to preach. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Greg Laurie. Greg Laurie pastors a church of about 16,000. You could just start naming off…
Did anybody ever hear Bob Coy down in Ft. Lauderdale? Boy Coy is one of the funniest guys you’ve ever met. Bob Coy ran strip clubs in Las Vegas, and he was drug addicted and was spending money like crazy. One of his friends invited him out to Costa Mesa, and he just came crashing into the kingdom.
Let me just tell you something. Here’s what I want to communicate to you. The world may look at the apostle Paul’s death… I’m going to tell you something. They didn’t run any headlines in the Roman newspapers when they cut Paul’s head off, but Paul’s investment in the kingdom of God changed the world. I love what Chuck said (actually tweeted it). He said, “Someday you’re going to read in the papers that Chuck Smith has died. That’s bad reporting. The truth is Chuck Smith will just have moved.” Amen?
Now what kind of life do you want to live? I’m not saying you have to go be a preacher or you can’t invest your life well and leverage your life for the kingdom in the business world, in the education world, in the arts world. Nothing of the sort. But if all you are doing is living for you, I can tell you for certain you’re going to come up to a place in life that you’re going to find life was empty and futile. I had rather die than live a life that is not fruitful.
Paul said, “I know I’m going to stay, and the reason I know that is because God wants more fruit.” God wants it. God wants more fruit. I’m trying to think of his name who died down in the jungles of Ecuador…Jim Elliot. Do you remember what he said? “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” He is no fool.
So as you look through there, you find Paul’s quandary. It’s an interesting word he uses when he says, “My departure is at hand.” It’s a word they would’ve recognized immediately because it’s the word the farmer used when at the end of the day he was going to unyoke the oxen. Paul looked at his life and he said, “It’s coming up to that time. I’m going to be unyoked.”
It’s the word that was used of the prisoner and the guard when they would unleash the fetters. It was the word that was used of the soldier who had been at war for a long time and they would tell them to pull up the stakes of the tent because they were headed home. It was the word that was used of the sailor when they were out, going from harbor to harbor, and then it came time to head back to that harbor called home. They would say, “Let’s head for that harbor called home.”
Now let me just say this to you. Death for the believer has no fear. The death for the believer holds no fear. This is his conviction and this is his confession. He says, “I know I’m going to be here because there’s going to be more fruit.”
Wouldn’t you like to look back 20 years from now and be part of a movement that captured the next generation for Jesus? I’m just going to tell you something. If that doesn’t grab your heart, you don’t have the heart of God. I don’t even have one word for you except repent. Repent. Change your mind.
God has called us to go after the next generation. Do you understand we are in a generation where some statistics say that less than 6 percent of high school kids today even regard church as an option of going to church? Six percent. Do you understand what that means? That means 10 years from now, we’re looking at Europe, where people don’t go to church. We need to embrace this opportunity for fruit.
Now the third thing is Paul’s kingdom life mindset. That is a focus. He says we should focus on this kingdom living. What does kingdom living look like? First, it’s to stand firm in the Spirit. You and I can’t stand firm in the flesh. The only way we’re going to stand firm is in the Spirit.
The second thing he says there is that with one mind we strive side by side for the faith. What he’s describing there is not that we all are like clones of one another. He’s going to go into that we have the mind of Christ. God uses our different gifts, abilities, skills, anointing, all of those kinds of things, but we are not at war with one another; we’re at war with Satan. We’re at war with the powers of darkness.
As a church, we need to make certain we don’t have turf issues. As a church with other churches, it should be our heart that we should pray for the Methodist church and the Baptist church down the street and the Presbyterian church down the street the same way we pray for our own church. We are in this together. We need to fight side by side. Not against one another; with one another.
The third thing there he says, “Embrace faith and reject fear.” It’s an interesting phrase he uses there. In verse 28, he says, “…and not frightened in anything by your opponents.” (Philippians 1:28) Not frightened. Do you know what he’s saying there? He’s saying, “Listen, don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry that Satan is out there and we have this horrendous foe in front of us.”
Let me tell you something. We have God on our side! Would you like to be on the other side? Good heavens! We have God and all the resources God brings. Do you know what he says? Don’t live as if you don’t.
When I was in the hospital, and I have no idea why (I do have a bit of an idea why; I want to be transparent with you), I think for about 10 hours I laughed. I got the giggles. Does anybody ever get the giggles? Does anybody ever just get the giggles and you can’t get rid of the giggles? Now getting the giggles when they’ve cut you open isn’t actually the best idea you could have.
But I was sitting there, and I was thinking about my situation, because I still had major hurdles to overcome and they weren’t sure that was going to happen. I started thinking about, “What if I die?” and it made me laugh. I thought, “That would be incredible. I would go and be with Jesus.” I started laughing about it.
Jody said, “Why are you laughing?” I said, “I don’t think I want to tell you,” because Jody took it a little personally that I was kind of happy about dying. Not that I wanted to leave her or the family or you wonderful people who never give me any hard time. But, man, I just started laughing. Jody went over and she shut the door to the hospital room, and she went out and apologized to these dear ladies and men who were taking care of me, and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Maybe it’s medication. I don’t know.”
The lady goes, “It’s not medication. We’ve never had anybody do that before. But don’t shut the door. All we ever hear are people moaning, and hearing somebody laugh is all making us laugh.” So they started bringing in the big guns. Mike Williams comes in there, and he gives me the deacon talk. “Buddy, you need to stop laughing because you could break your chest open.”
Now Mike and I go way back. So Mike gets the giggles, and he leaves, and he tells Jody, “I don’t know what to tell him. I don’t know what to say to him. You know how he is.” Do you know what? Let me just tell you something. As believers, we have no business being intimidated by Satan and the forces of darkness.
Do you know who I ran into the other day at the Waffle House? I actually put it on my Facebook. Shaq. I’m going to tell you something: He’s big. He is way, way big. Like, he is a mutant, but he is the nicest guy. He was sitting at the counter. I walked over and introduced myself and invited him to church. He lives around here somewhere, so if any of you know where he is, go get him and bring him to church. We’ll have to up the doors a little bit.
Can you imagine a bunch of tiny people going over to Shaq and saying, “We’re going to throw you out of here”? Now he’s really a tender, kind of easy going guy. He was talking to me. He said, “How’s your heart?” He was patting me on the chest. I said, “Don’t touch me.” But listen, the forces of darkness are nothing. Do you understand that? There’s going to come a day in the book of Revelation that one angel from heaven is going to take Satan and wrap a chain around him and throw him in the bottomless pit.
And listen, the Bible says so clearly, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” I hear people talk about demon possession all the time. Let me tell you something. They don’t own anything. They may be squatters, but they don’t own anything. They just don’t. We, as believers, we, as representatives of the King of Kings (I want to say of the most powerful person, but he’s not; he’s God!)…
When Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Go therefore and make disciples,” he wasn’t saying, “I hope things work out for you. Work really hard and things will kind of work out for you.” Do you know what he was saying? “The Holy Spirit is going to go in you and before you and behind you, and I’m going to do miracles, and I’m going to do things in your life that when people hear about them they wouldn’t even believe them.”
How many of you want to live that kind of life? Yeah. That’s the kind of life we’re called to. We are citizens. I remember I was with my mom. We’d gone to Israel. She’d taken a team over there, and I was helping her with it. We were standing in line, and this dear, sweet girl was coming to America. She had gotten a scholarship to The Julliard School. She was a dancer. She was like a ballerina. She was amazing.
We’re talking as we’re going through the passport line. She said, “What’s it like over here?” I said, “Let me just tell you something. People aren’t always nice, but where you’re coming from and where you’re going to, if you become a citizen of the United States, you have this thing called the Bill of Rights.” Of course, that was before. (I really didn’t mean to say that. Yeah, I did.)
We’re citizens of heaven. There’s nothing this world can do to us that can destroy us. There’s nothing this world can do that can destroy his work. We have this amazing confidence. So he says, “Strive side by side for the faith.” He says, “Embrace faith and reject fear. Trust the King.” The final thing he says (and this is important because it’s not easy), “Suffer well,” because in this world God does not promise us we will not suffer, but if we are going to suffer, let us suffer for the kingdom and let us do it for Jesus. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for you. Thank you for what an amazing God you are. Thank you for the amazing privilege of serving you. Lord, that you would let us represent you is more than we can possibly think or imagine. Lord, I don’t have any question in my mind there are people who are here that their marriages are really suffering, that maybe they’re going through job situations or health situations, or their children are not doing well and not following you.
Lord, we want to be the kind of people who fear not asking you to do the miraculous. So, Lord, this morning, if there are those here who’ve never come into the kingdom, they’re their own little kings, they’re running their own little lives, and this morning they just need to repent and come into the kingdom and receive that gracious gift of eternal life, but not just eternal life, but the kingdom itself, Lord, I pray this morning they’ll just come forward.
There’ll be some people on either side of the platform to pray with you. There’s Communion for you to take. We’ll receive the offering. But let’s take a moment or so, a few moments, and just reflect back worship unto him who deserves our worship.
There are those who go and jump around at a ball game and they have no passion for you and your gloriousness. Lord, help us not to be enthralled with that which is really not that enthralling. Help us not to be bored with that which is captivating and amazing, which is you and your kingdom. In your name, we pray, amen.