To Live is Christ

Okay, so we're in Philippians, and I'll read from 18 through 24. We've covered 18 through 20 already. Paul says, what then only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, or Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or in death. And then our verses today is 21 through 24. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

But if I'm to live, in on in the flesh this will mean fruitful labor for me and i do not know which to choose but i am hard pressed in both directions having the desire to part and be with christ for that is much better yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake Roger and Bob covered that Christ was being preached by people, two groups, one with boldness and with good hearts. and the other to cause Paul some problems, right? Two groups were preaching Christ, but he was rejoicing, even in the fact that Christ was being preached either way. So he was an optimist there, even though... Some people were trying to just put them away in jail or to death for good. Okay, verse 21, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. I thought about this verse so much I can't even spit it out now. So it's a big verse, right? It's got big ramifications for the Christian life.

To live is an infinitive. When you say to live and to die, to die, that's another infinitive. And it's in the present voice, present tense, active voice. You could say to be living in the present is Christ. And I think Wiest brings that out. in his commentary, is, as we, for review, as we all know, or it could be new to people who are streaming in in the future on the internet, is as a status quo essence verb. It's a statement of reality, right, for Paul. It's very simple, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So I was working through this. To live is a status quo essence of my being. I came to this, let me get to the next bullet point for more amplification. My status quo essence of being is a person.

Does that fit with everyone? Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. So it's saying my reality is a person. And so we get to, we often say this as proof of this aphorism that we have for me to live as Christ, to die as gain, and that is let me get down to here, that the Christian life, oh, there it is, the Christian life is that person. And that's proof that this is true.

It's a big aspiration for all of us, but I think God wants us to pursue that goal. And even Paul, as I can show you here, was pressing on towards the goal, and he wasn't there yet. In Philippians, we'll get to this, in Philippians chapter three, verses 10 through 14, he says, that I might know him, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now, not that I have already attained or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." And he goes on to say, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, But one thing I do know, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So that's the goal he's going for. And that should be our goal too. And I thought that's a nice summary to live as Christ. And it looks like you're still with me on the end. I'm still there. Yep, I'm still live. OK. You look like a marionette there.

And now I'm going to go into why is this so? Why is it to be so, to live as Christ? And here's proofs from Paul's own perspective that we get from his other epistles. And it's a mission statement for us, isn't it? It's a mission to have and in business you have a mission statement and then you have strategies to accomplish the mission statement and i thought of that kind of that business. that business discipline.

And so the strategy could be Galatians 2.20.

I've been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So two things, Christ, I live by faith. And then Christ lives actually, in reality, lives in me. So you can see how it's really possible to live, to be in the living is Christ, as he says in verse 21, even though it sounds impossible.

And then more for him, we'll get to this in Philippians 3, 7 through 8. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. And this lesson this morning is going to be a lot of scripture verses from Paul, just because he says so much about it to prove this thing out, to live his Christ. So I'm just using his words. In that way, it was sort of easy to put together, but I wanted to kind of do an exhaustive study of all what he said that would be related to to live is Christ.

Life here is to live. Life is used here in john's gospel eternal life is how john puts it it's zoe and in the uh i think it's the strongs or the there's from blue letter bible zoe is the uh one of the meanings is the absolute fullness of life both essential and ethical which belongs to god so it's the it's It's the life that deity gives, that God gives, and through him, both to the hupostatic word and to Christ, the Lagos is the word. So it's full life. It's much more than just living, breathing, being conscious here on the earth. It's this divine It's a divine sparked life, the fullness of life.

Well, Andrew, I think we often say that, you know, that life is that's really life. We have a life here, but real life is his life. So it's his life. Yeah. His life. It's real life. Yeah. Oh, yes. Good. Exactly my next point here. The source of all Zoe life is Christ himself, right? Right.

John 1, 4, in him was life, and the life was light of men. So he owns this life. This life is from him. And he says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So you can say, I am the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me. John 17.3, this is eternal life, that they might know you, one, the only true God, and Christ Jesus, whom you have sent. So eternal life is knowing Christ Jesus. And it dovetails really into our verse 21 here in Philippians.

How about Colossians 1, 16, 17, for by him, Christ, all things, and you can include life in all things, were created. He created life, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, or rulers, or authorities, and all those things are living beings, aren't they? And all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Boy, that's big, isn't it? Yes.

So it makes perfect sense what Paul is saying here in verse 21. Or how about this, Colossians 1, 3, and 4, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is our life, it says it right there, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. So Paul has just said so much about this in other, he doesn't unpack it here, but he says so much about it in other letters. Um, so how can this, uh, for, to me, for, to me to live as Christ, how, how can we accomplish that? And I thought of this verse and I should have referenced it. It's, um, the word that's John one. Anyone have the 14? 14, OK, thanks. Yeah, I forgot to put it down.

And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And that word beheld is theaomai, as you can see there. And this one for this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds fear. The sun and leaves in him will have eternal life. And I myself will raise him on the last day so to.

Two words, one word, theoreo or theomai, kind of different tenses of the same word. It's to be a spectator of, to look at attentively. Theoreo is to take a view of, to survey, to consider with the mind, to find out by seeing, to contemplate, So, and my dad made a big point of this word a lot.

I was going to mention that, Andrew, that just came to mind too. Yeah, and especially when he taught, I think you were in the, you and Vani were in the audience when he was at Bellevue Bible Chapel, right? Yeah. Going through the identification truce and he was telling you about this is what word do you get when you think of fiorau, right? What word comes in our English? Fiorau is theater. Theater, yeah, and he would say theater, theater. So you're theatering the Lord Jesus Christ. And it makes sense.

You're like in a movie when you go to, and my dad never went to movies. I don't know how he got that. But when you, it's true, when you go to a movie and you sit there for two and a half, three hours, In the early afternoon, and then you come out and it's kind of dark. And you're like, whoa, it's dark. And where am I? And where am I? Okay, this is town. Where did I park?

And you're all, especially when I watch things like a James Bond film. I am James Bond, right? You theater it so much that you're changed. You're changed for a little while until you get your sense again. And that's this theater in your theater, which is, And in blue letter Bibles, it's often used in conjunction with public shows, public games and sacrifices. So there it is, yeah, from Thayer's. So you can get to live as Christ by beholding him directly, as those two verses say.

And then certainly through 2 Corinthians 3.18, right? But there is a different word. It's for beholding. It's, oh, I had it. Does anyone, it's, oh, I'll get it. It's right on the tip of my tongue, but it's a different word, but it means beholding in a mirror, and it has that, so it's an indirect way. It's not harpazzo, it's, it's, ow, cataprizo is what it is.

Cataprizo is beholding in 2 Corinthians 3.18.

Or further you can get there or accomplish it by knowing that you've been from Romans 6 been baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection and are free from the flesh to live in the spirit and live with him directly in the here and now. And that's what we've just covered in Romans 6.

So we're learning all about that there. So those are some I guess some strategies, I guess we could put it, to get to this verse. Okay, we've covered to live as Christ, and now let's move on to die as gain. And I'm gonna, I think I have, I'm using up eight slides this morning just for this statement, this aphorism, for this maxim. Yeah. Yeah, right. We'll see. We'll see what he says. So, so I asked the same question. Why is this so? Or how can this be so to Dai's game? And this is really quite easy. And gain means advantage, or even lucre is what it is.

1 Thessalonians 4.14, for we believe that Christ died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, fallen asleep in Jesus. And that's a gain, isn't it? He's going to bring us with him. Another gain, for we know that if the earthly tent, which is our bodies, this earthly tent of our house is torn down. I'm kind of butchering that, but you get the idea. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Second Corinthians 5.1. And boy, that's a gain, isn't it? Here's another one. For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. 2 Corinthians 5, 2. So we gain by no more groaning in our future. We have that for us in the heavenlies. And when we have our new bodies, that's going to be a gain.

More on this, more of this theme of dying is gain. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan." It's just a lot of groaning here, isn't it? Being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by Zoe life, by life.

And that's a gain. Now, He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 2 Corinthians 5, 4 through 5. So I'm just really kind of eating up the 2 Corinthians chapter 5 passage here. Here's more of it, because there's so much there.

Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. That's a minus, that's not a gain. For if we walk by faith, not by sight, for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. And that's the gain, that's the positive end of that. That's Second Corinthians 5, 6 through 8. I think I have more gains, but I'll get through these gains. There's so many.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. That's Revelations 14, 13. And here's some more. from, I'm just gonna move this, here's from the first Corinthians 15, which he talks about the resurrected body, another game. But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He's the first fruits of those who are asleep. So I say he is our first fruits of our resurrection as well. And after that, those who are Christ's at his coming. from verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 15.

So we are his, and we are especially his after we die, aren't we? Because he has to take us and give us his life to have this eternal life, this Zoe. So it's all in his hands. I hope he has a good secret service team to keep him alive, because if he goes down, we're all going to be, we're all going to be, we have no hope then. But of course, he doesn't need that. He is life itself.

Here's the game, there are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars. For stars differ from star, for star differs from star in glory. So, he's making the comparison, so is also the resurrection of the dead.

It is sown a perishable body, but is raised in an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body from 1 Corinthians 15, 40 through 44. And you see those very big gains, the resurrection of the dead. We are raised in glory. We are going to be raised in power with a spiritual body.

And that's something to look forward to. And going through the study, I thought, wow, I think I want to die. This sounds wonderful. It sounds pretty good. What am I doing here? I want to go and have this. And you can say, blessed are they who die in the Lord. Here's a big gain, and I won't read it all, but just the highlighted part from verses 54 through 57, but death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? So the sting goes away. The victory of death is conquered. And we get the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a gain. Andrew?

Your father used to say when you're going through something really hard, well, what is the worst that could happen to you? Remember that? You could die. And so, yeah, I remember saying that. Yeah, I remember saying that. What's the worst that can happen to you?

Oh, and it's, let's see, it's funny. I listened to JD McCulley's, because he taught on this verse, right? So he said, You know, it's wonderful to die, and it's gain. But what we are, I loved how he said that, what we're all afraid of, we're not afraid of dying. I know, I know. We know these verses. He said, but we're, we're not afraid of the flight.

We're afraid of the boarding process. To die, right? So yeah, the boarding process. Maybe spending. Yeah. It'll be worse than DIA. Right. So you think when you go to the airport and the security lines and then you have to take off your belt and your shoes and then your flight is delayed and then it's crowded. Right.

And oh, and I was at the airport and I left Gene at the Game said, you know, hold watch my suitcase. I'm run to the restroom. So I ran to the restroom and Then I got out of there. I said, oh I left my coat a hanging in the stall so I There's someone in there. So I 15 minutes, right? This is this is the bad part about This is the boarding car. This is the path It's life, right? Now, the flight is wonderful, once you sit down.

So this guy comes out, and I said, oh, did I leave a coat in there? And he goes, no. And the hook was there. But he had a bunched up coat in his back, under his arm, which was black. And it was my same coat. So I said, well, I had a coat just like what's under your arm. And he goes, do you want me to prove it to you? I said, yeah. So he pulls out this coat, and it's a different coat. But it's the same coat.

So I was accusing this guy of stealing my coat. So it was the worst experience in the world. And I don't know if it was sin or what, but I would accuse This guy was stealing my coat. I've done worse than that. I've accused poor Cheryl of taking my sunglasses. One time, anyway. I've done worse than one of my sisters. Andrew, what happened to your coat?

Well, I said, okay, well, I think maybe the guy put it in his bath, so I'll just, oh, I like that coat. So I went back to Jean and Oh, there's my code is sitting on my chair. So that's exactly what I did. Yeah, that was that's it. And he did exactly what I did with with sunglasses. I accused my sunglasses and they were in the car anyway. So I've been there done that.

Oh, my goodness. Boy, I hate when that happens. It's hard. It's hard. And then I was probably prejudiced because this guy had tattoos. And I thought any guy who has tattoos is a criminal. So I think I sinned big time there. Well, you proved we have a fallen nature, Andrew. And we're going to be talking about that in the next service. Oh, good. We'll make mistakes. Excellent. Yes, we do. So here's Andrew. Yeah. I have a question. Yeah.

A while back, I used to be in a guitar group where we would play for each other, and there's an old gospel tune called Goodbye World Goodbye. And right after I would play that, one of the guys piped up and said, why are you so interested in suicide. It's interesting how the unbeliever can take the Word of God and have absolutely no idea what it means. And the opposite of for me to live as Christ and to die as gay, if you are not living for Christ, then your death is in game.

Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Oh, yeah. That's excellent. Yeah. And my mom, when I was a kid, she used to, and this is kind of fatalistic, but she always used to go around the house and sing this song, Stop the world, I want to get off. And so, but now I see it. That's a good thing, right? But as a kid, you're like, oh, I don't want to get off the earth.

So anyway, I didn't understand these verses back then. So ultimate gain is, we will be like him. For we will see him just as he is, from 1 John 3, 2. That's the ultimate verse of this. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. But we know that when he appears, we will be like him. We shall see him as he is. Okay, 22 here we are moving right along.

Andrew, can I jump in just for a 2nd? Yeah, sure. So I always looked at that verse for me to live and to die as gain both. I don't know if you say positionally and conditionally, but I also look at it like, we enjoy the benefits of death now. Like, you know, Paul says, I die daily. And dying to the world, dying to our old man exposes us to more and more of the life of Christ and the knowledge and just abiding with Christ. So I look at it like everything you just said is ultimately where it's all going, but we can also enjoy that process of death as we live our Christian lives right now. Yeah, and that's, you know, that's good point, Jimmy, I was gonna cover that, that it can be mean to positionally. But I would, so I'm just dealing with it physically this morning.

But yeah, you could why you could do a whole nother lesson on dying daily and dying to the old man and death. Um, to die is gain from the power of the old man. Yeah. But then I'd have too many slides and you guys, that's true. So that's a whole, that's a whole nother, uh, kind of ball of wax, isn't it? But it's certainly a good one.

Um, So on to verse 22, 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. So after this great aphorism or maxim, to live as Christ, to die of gain, he takes us back to the earthly scene. And what was before was a wonderful heavenly scene. We are now back on Earth, and he's back with them. If we review Paul's circumstance, he was in prison, very likely in Rome, possibly chained to a Praetorian guard. night and day, squalid conditions, darkness, little food. So he doesn't know which way to go. It's hereo. And you can get the word vote. He doesn't know which way to vote on this, this to live on or, or to die, because that's game.

All the benefits of dying is positive. But I like what J.D. McCauley and Vern Peterman said, notice that you don't hear Paul complaining about his circumstance in the least. He is content in this prison, in this house arrest that he's under. And they do a nice job of sort of unpacking that. And you think of what fruitful labor means for Paul.

It's, you know, he planted churches, He had ministries to Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Colossae, the churches in Galatia, Athens, Berea, Derbe, Lystra, Laodicea. He did three missionary journeys, defense of the gospel throughout Southern Europe and Greece, things like that. likely he wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, et cetera, et cetera, right? So we know what his fruitful labor is when you read the acts or the letters. And then amidst all these hardships he had, think of that from 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 28, he was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked. He had dangers from rivers, dangers from bandits. dangers from fellow Jews, dangers from Gentiles, snakes, his thorn in the flesh.

He was just like, yeah. So he's saying, do I want to leave this world and go away, because that's my fruitful labor, and that's true. So he doesn't know which way to choose, and as he says in verse 23, he's hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. So this hard pressed in both directions. Notice that, and Again, J.D. McCulley did a good job of it. Both directions are positive, right? It's a positive versus a positive.

So his desire to stay on in the flesh will benefit his spiritual children and continue fruitful work. And then his desire to be taken home and be with the Lord, that's a positive. So both positives. So he's not stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's more like he's stuck, as I came up with this, between a sapphire and a diamond. Two good things. Two very good things is what he's saying.

But Andrew, in prison, he was protected and he could further the gospel. They couldn't kill him in prison and harass him. He was basically protected by the guards. Yeah, he was protected from the Jews and the people on the outside who wanted to kill him. And yeah, I think the Roman law would say if the guards killed him, then they would be. brought the trial, yeah.

And I think he would, you know, he says fruitful labor for him is getting out of prison and continuing in his journeys. But I think this is, I think his prison stints were very fruitful because he was sitting there and God got him to sit down and write, write, write. So we want to have the written word if he wanted if God didn't sequester him in prison, right?

All he could do is write these, what we have. I mean, look what we had when he was going through to die again, all that wonderful stuff. That's all from his letters. And not only was he a testimony to that whole region, but he was a testimony to everyone for the next 2,000 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, look, good point. Look, here we're sitting, sitting here. And you're in Denver, and I'm here in Telluride, and we're discussing the very thing that he's hard-pressed from 2,000 years ago. Yeah.

So he says, the King James Version is, I am the straight betwixt the two. I like that. And this hard-pressed is, It's a troubled mind, but he's not in dire straits about it. It's two wonderful straits for him. Hard-pressed is Suneko. Hold on a second. Okay, I'm back. Hard-pressed is Suneko.

And it has the shade of being in a mental pickle, is that word in Greek. So, Verne Peterman has made the note that the Roman streets were very narrow. They were narrow streets with high walls on each side. So, that's what he could be getting this straight from this Suneco. Um, and so he has the desire. Um, he says later in the verse 23, he has the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better. And I've, um, I've highlighted the very much better. You can see it's a, it's a triple. It's a triple positives. You see the triple positive in that. Um, and that comes through in the Greek too. Um, so.

The desire he has to leave the scene is epithumeo, and it's a craving, or it's a lust for, right? Same word as our word for lust there. To depart, that's the word onoluo. It's to unloose as you would threads, and it can mean to strike camp. or pull up the tent stakes and to break camp. So isn't that interesting? And that's to depart, a euphemism for dying, of course.

So if we compare that to 2 Corinthians 5, 4, where we've been earlier in the study this morning, he says, for indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened. if you think about pulling up your tent stakes and leaving Camp Earth, right, for your heavenly home, that's what he's desiring to do here, but that's very much better. And considering that what was Paul's occupation Tent maker, isn't that interesting how he uses all these examples as pulling tent stakes and he's a tent maker. So that's really cool.

Verse 24, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. And I got the impression here that Paul, do you get the impression these verses that his tone is questioning whether this imprisonment is going to be the end for him. Do you see that his kind of language, his tone is that way? He doesn't know if he's going to be spared.

Right. That's a good point. Yeah. But he is spared, and he has one more imprisonment to go. But it seems like he's thinking that this could be it. And in 2 Timothy, that's his last letter. And you can see how in 2 Timothy, he really knows. He says he's being poured out as a drink offering.

And the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only me, but those who have also loved his appearing, 2 Timothy chapter 4, 6 through 8. So there's a gain, too. One more gain is you have this future crown of righteousness. waiting for you.

So, and there he really knows that it's the end. To remain on in the flesh is epimeno, is to abide in the flesh. That's a good thing for him. And I said, wait, wait a minute. What? You see that? You don't want to abide in the flesh, do you? No. No, actually, we're talking. You're getting things ready for the next service. OK, good. But what he's saying is there's the flesh, and there's the flesh. And it's just using the bodily flesh there. And it's not the mind, the mindset flesh.

So it's necessary that I stay at camp here in my tent and tent among you guys for now, for that's very much better for your sake. And what's necessary for the Philippians? He says it's necessary for their sake. And I would say it's for their growth, right? That they may grow in the grace of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I would say is the necessary part. And if you guys have any thoughts about what is the necessary part as to why he should stay here and continuing his fruitful labor, shout it out.

But we'll be in there. Wasn't Paul convinced that he was going to remain in the flesh? Because if you look at verses 25 and 26, he seems convinced of this. Yeah, right. And you're exactly right, Bob. And I think that's next week's lesson, right? But that's a good prelude to next week's lesson. He finds out that, in fact, he knows he's staying. But we'll see that. OK. I'm a little over. A lot over.

I'll close out in prayer very quickly. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for just this lesson. We thank you for the marvelous truth about to live is Christ, to die is gain. We just thank you that we can study your word and understand your thoughts. We ask it in our Savior's name. Amen.