Christ Is Our Life

We're about to start studying the book of Philippians if you want to find yourself, find your place there if you have a bible with you. But I'd like just to begin by taking a moment, positioning our hearts before God and trusting that he's going to speak to us.

So, Father, even as we're looking through our bibles and finding our places, God, we just want to say to you corporately that we need you. And we need to hear from you. God, I pray for every heart in this place, God, every heart that's in any place that’s under the sound of my voice, including my own heart. That you would put us in a place, God, of being able to understand what you want to say to us today. And that today would be an act and a demonstration of the power of your own Spirit, using your own Word. Pierce through our hearts and shape us into the image of Christ.

So, God, I pray that our hearts will be not given over to the temptation of distraction, not given over to the temptation of listening to other voices that are playing in our hearts and our minds but that today, God, we all together, we would hear your voice. We ask you to do this in Jesus' name, amen.

So I've had an inordinate number of conversations over the last number of months with people who have just expressed to me how scared they are about how our world is going. We talked about how nervous they are and of course I'm not much of a sky is falling kind of guy but I understand because everybody looks around the world and sees what's happening and it's almost like that's the coming attractions to what probably in the United States and Canada we're going to be seeing as now showing at some point in the not too distant future. And it feels a little bit overwhelming for us.

I don't have to belabor all of the events that we are watching unfold around our world specific to the Christian community and that are affecting those who are followers of Jesus Christ, right? I mean we could overwhelm ourselves with statistics and with stories but it's been so close to us and so clear to us and so in our face that it's hard to get away from it.

I mean in 2013 according to a Reuters news story that was quoting Open Doors Mission - there were more martyrs in 2013, those that died because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was double the number than it was the previous year. So the intensity of that continues to grow.

Today, as we sit here there are Iranian pastors who are in jail for preaching the gospel. There are Iranian American pastors that are in jail in Iran like Saeed Abedini who is still there, who is there for preaching the gospel. There are today, right now as we sit here pastors in Sudan - not only have there been numbers of people killed for their faith in Sudan but there are pastors today as we sit here who are in Sudan prisons because they preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. In North Korea the reports are there are between 50,000 and 70,0000 Christians that are in labor camps in North Korea today as we sit here in this place. We know that there were 21 Egyptians who were beheaded for all the world to see, Coptic Christians, because they were representative of people of the cross. That's why that happened to them. We've seen thousands that were killed in Syria and Pakistan. We have seen malls and schools targeted in some portions of Africa and specifically targeted based upon people who are Christians. We've seen that specifically in Kenya. So it's extraordinary.

We could continue to list and you probably have a number of others that come to your mind as well and you could continue to enlist them. The truth is these things are unjust, they're horrible, they're gruesome, and every other condemnatory word that we could use to describe them. But here's one word that we could not use to describe them: new. This isn't new. This has been going on for a long time.

When you go back in the history of the church, all the way to it's foundation when the Spirit of God came after the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension to the Father and then the sending of the Spirit of God at Pentecost and Peter stood up and began to preach a message in Jerusalem and people thought because it was early that he was drunk and they're like, what is going on here? But 3,000 responded and believed and were transformed and the church was born that day and a lot of things happened there and daily people were being added to the fellowship of believers in that context. But shortly after the birth of the church and it's subsequent growth, persecution ensued. And the persecution from that vantage point was actually from those of a Judaistic bent because they felt like this was kind of an abrogation of the responsibilities of Judaism because now they were putting their faith and trust in Jesus as Messiah and they weren't really buying that in terms of Judaistic culture.

And so there was some persecution that was going on - much of it led by one of the ring leaders named Rabbi Saul. And Saul was seeing to it that people were persecuted. The first Christian martyr that we read about in the scripture in Acts six and Acts seven is a guy named Stephen and overseeing that particular martyrdom was Rabbi Saul. And Saul was busy about persecuting the church because he was an avid follower of the law. He was a pharisee of pharisees. He studied under Gamaliel. He was a zealot and so he began seeing a persecution not only in imprisonment but also in that which led to death. And then the church that was there in Jerusalem began to be spread out all over the place because the persecution got pretty bad. The apostles were by in large many of them staying there at that time but then there was a dispersion of all these believers all over really kind of their known world which was Asia Minor.

And so they started spreading out everywhere but Paul, or Saul at that time, wasn't done and he went after some more and he was headed to Damascus and in route there he really met the resurrected Jesus. Jesus showed up to him and said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul said, who are you, lord? And it was at that moment that scales came over his eyes and he was blinded and it was only in his blindness that now he gained spiritual sight. He recognized that the resurrected Jesus was who he said that he was and that now the one who was the persecutor was now the one who was going to be the proclaimer of the gospel that he used to persecute people for. And so he got up after having the scales lifted from his eyes after a few days and he began to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sometime after that, and it was a decent amount of time after that, he started traveling and where he was traveling, he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He traveled into Asia Minor - specifically into Macedonia and there in a town called Philippi he ran into a lady because he went to a stream or a river because he thought there would be some God fearers that would be there gathered to pray. This lady's name was Lydia. She wasn't originally from Philippi, she was from Thyatira but she was there and he ended up teaching them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They received Christ, they were transformed, and they actually began to host the first church in Philippi, in Lydia's house. Paul didn't stay for very long. He was there for a few days, began discipling them, teaching them the truth about God and they were meeting together and worshiping and learning. You can read about that in Acts chapter 16 if you wanted to go back and look at it.

But Paul was there for a very short time. Not without getting thrown in jail because when you start looking about the apostle Paul he seemed to be in trouble all the time. Everywhere he was he's preaching the gospel and he's getting thrown in jail. And he's in there with, he and Silas and he begins to sing, you know, and they're singing at midnight and it was jailhouse rock. So everything started opening up for them, right? And they got out miraculously but he didn't stay in Philippi long and he began to travel around to some other places and what he was doing in these other places is he was actually preaching the gospel, beginning some churches, some fellowships where people would gather to worship and be able to be on mission for God. But he was also pleading with the brothers and sisters who had been spread out in all these places to contribute to a gift that he could bring back to Jerusalem to help the persecuted brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. And remember, you know that Paul has a huge heart for this because this is the people that he himself was busy persecuting and now he is preaching the message that he used to persecute them for and so while he is out preaching the message he is also gathering a gift so that he can bring it back to Jerusalem to help those who are suffering. Well, Paul certainly does that.

He ultimately gathers that gift and upon gathering that gift he makes his way back to Jerusalem. When he gets to Jerusalem, as you can imagine, he is not warmly received. This is somebody who has now left what they call Judaism, even though he hadn't really left it, it was just now Judaism fulfilled in Messiah Jesus, but he had now come back into this context and now everything started breaking loose because not only were they accusing him of being someone who all over Asia Minor was preaching against Judaism but now they even accused him of something that he didn't do. He was traveling with a Gentile companion named Trophimus and so they said when Paul went to the temple, he brought Trophimus in where Gentiles are not supposed to go, only where Jews are supposed to go and that was a capital offense in those days, so there was a riot that breaks out with Paul at the center of it and Paul is getting beat to a pulp in the midst of it.

The Roman soldiers, because they were overseeing and still - Jerusalem was an occupied area of the Roman empire - the Roman soldiers come in and break all of this up and they grab Paul and get him out of there and like, what's going on? What's happening here? And Paul said I'm getting beat up, what do you think is happening here? Right? I've been preaching the gospel. And so he ends up appealing to them saying, hey, look, I'm actually a Roman citizen even though I am a Jew. And he addresses the crowd and all of that kind of stuff and so they take him away to stop the riot because they didn't want a whole lot of trouble there because that was part of their deal, is to keep the peace.

And so they take him away and they put him kind of sort of in captivity but they find out that he's a Roman citizen and then they're kind of nervous about that because you're not supposed to put a Roman citizen in jail or keep them in captivity and so it ends up that they say well, I don't know what we're going to do with you but we're going to hold you for a little while, because there was a riot going on. Well, as they're holding him they find out that there is a plot afoot to get Paul, steal him out and kill him. And so they say, well this isn't going to work. We're going to have to ship you somewhere else.

So they ship him to a place called Caesarea. There's two Caesareas. Caesarea Philippi which is north and Caesarea by the sea. This was Caesarea by the sea. And so they take him and they put him there and he stands before kind of the governor of that place, the Roman governor whose name was Felix. You can read about this later on in the book of Acts. And he stands before Felix and begins to plead his case and begins to share with him his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ but Felix doesn't let him go and keeps him in captivity - listen to this - for about two years. Roughly about two years. And so Paul was just kind of withering away, just in jail, in captivity for about two years.

Felix's turn as governor ends and then Festus comes in. And Festus comes in and Paul stands before Festus. He's got a new shot. He shares the gospel with him and King Agrippa who'd come over as the Jewish king. He had come over as well to hear his case. Paul finally pleads to him and says, hey, you should let me go. I haven't done anything wrong. And they kinda say, you know what? He hasn't really done anything wrong and he wants to speak to Caesar anyway so maybe we just take him out of here and we send him on to Rome. And then he can get his hearing whenever he gets his hearing. So they ship him to Rome.

By the way, knowing that it's Paul, he got shipwrecked on the way to Rome. Right? Nothing's ever easy in this guy's life in terms of what he's doing.

And so all of that happens and then he finally makes it to Rome and he's under house arrest in Rome. And when you're under house arrest - he is a Roman citizen, he has his citizenship in Rome - so he's under house arrest which means he lives freely in his own little dwelling but he has a guard that's with him that is chained to him in his dwelling.

But it is in that context where Paul is now under house arrest in Rome that he writes the letter to Philippi. And that' were we find ourselves today and that's why I wanted to give you some background and some context. He writes this letter having been through persecution that first he began issuing and then became a recipient of and now he finds himself through much travail in a Roman guarded imprisonment and this is where he writes the book of Philippians.

Now, he writes Philippians as a friendship letter because this is a church that he helped to found and that he hoped to return to but now he wants to write them a friendship letter. A friendship letter is simply a, in the ancient world there were kind of styles of letter writing and a friendship letter was kind of a style and Paul's style in Philippians fits that ancient friendship letter style. So what you do is you greet them and you thank them and those kinds of things. You give them an update on your affairs and you talk to them about their affairs. That's kind of how this letter unfolds. But really kind of what precipitated the writing of this letter was that the church in Philippi, when they heard about Paul being under house arrest in Rome, it was an interesting thing because this was kind of a test case.

You see in Rome, right at this point when Paul was jailed, it wasn't a capital offense for him to have been preaching the gospel. In other words he wouldn't be sentenced to die yet. That wasn't part of the law yet. But, there was more and more intensity of persecution and the government or the empire was not looking upon this very favorably and they knew that Paul was probably going to be a test case as to whether or not he was going to be executed or whether he was going to be released. Well the church in Philippi, who identified with Paul because he founded the church there and brought the gospel to them, they sent an emissary named Epaphroditus and Epaphroditus came bringing them a gift - bringing Paul a gift to help meet his needs, to help him in his time. This was just them caring for him. So, as a result of that, he is going to send a letter back with Epaphroditus to the church at Philippi so that they can hear about how Paul's doing and all those kinds of things.

Now what's interesting is that Paul begins the letter by offering some thanks. Thanks to them for their care and thanks for every remembrance that he has and then he offers a prayer in print where he begins to pray for them in print so that they can see what he was praying but then in the middle of chapter one he gives us a summary statement of what he wants them to understand about his scenario. And here is it: Philippians one, verse twenty-one. Paul says For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. This is what Paul says. To live is Christ and to die is gain. You see here's what Paul wanted them to know: he wanted them to know that in the midst of this situation Christ is my life. I want you to know in Philippi as I'm writing to you, I know you're seeing what all is going on, what's happening and you're nervous about what's going to happen and we don't really know how this thing is going to play out. I'm kind of a test case but here's what I want you to know. Let me summarize it for you. Christ is my life. Ladies and gentlemen I think for us, what the Holy Spirit would want to teach us through the life of the apostle Paul's witness this day is simply this: Christ is our life.

If you need to walk out at any point - and I hope you don't because it's distracting to people - but if you need to walk out, here's what you know the message is today: Christ is our life. When I've dismissed everybody today and you go and you run into somebody and they say oh, were you at church today? Yeah. What was the message about? Here's real simple: Christ is our life. That is the message today.

Now I'm going to hang some meat on this skeleton. But that is the message for us today. That if you let that penetrate your soul, you will have got what I believe the Spirit of God wants to speak to each of our hearts this day. Christ is our life. And in fact Paul began to unpack this and say Christ is our life regardless of a bunch of things. In fact, Christ is our life regardless of the situation. That's how this letter kind of begins. He wants them to know that Christ is our life regardless of the situation. Look in verse number twelve in fact. It says this. Paul says now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.  As a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. Isn't this incredible?

Listen to this: Paul has actually been in captivity between when he got captured in Jerusalem, Caesarea, and how this would actually play out in Rome - four years. Four years he's in captivity and do you know what he writes when he writes this letter? He doesn't write a letter of complaint! He actually says, you know what? This is working out really well. It's working out well because it is advancing the gospel and it is causing everybody who sees what's going on that are brothers and sisters in Christ, they are now emboldened in their faith to share the gospel as well. You know what he's saying? Christ is our life regardless of the situation you find yourself in.

I mean if our DirectTV goes out for like 24 hours, we're all messed up, right? Paul's been four years in captivity and here's what he has to say about it: this is working out good. This is working out good because Christ is being exalted. Christ is being magnified. My brothers and sisters in Christ are being emboldened because they see that I am having the opportunity for the advancement of the gospel even in my chains. And do you know what he says in there? He says it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard that this is the case. Now you've got to understand who the palace guard is. This isn't just anyone. These are like the, these are kind of the Ninjas of Cero of Caesar, you know. Nero came later. I was going to say Caesar and Nero at the same time and it came out Cero. You ever done that? It's just terrible, right? Um, Nero wasn't quite yet but he was coming. Um, or maybe he was in power. I can't remember my dates exactly so I just went into a rabbit hole that I shouldn't have gone into. Nonetheless.

So Caesar. These are like Caesar's special attachments, special bodyguard, right? That's what the palace guard is. They are specially trained. They are paid double from what the other soldiers are paid and they have the responsibility for guarding Caesar, wherever Caesar is so there's a lot of them. They have outposts all over the place and if there are any prisoners who are looking for an audience with Caesar to ultimately appeal their case, which Paul was doing, they are specially assigned to those prisoners so that they can guard them. And how they guarded them was they would be chained to them.

So Paul is in his own dwelling as a Roman citizen he has that sort of freedom but he's under house arrest which means he can have visitors, he can write, he can do stuff like that, but he has to be chained to one of the palace guard. Think about that. Remember what we know from history, Paul was a really diminutive dude. He was. And in fact history actually tells us some about the features of Paul - not the best looking cat that's ever walked the face of the earth. A small dude, right? And now he's chained to one of these stud-dog Roman guys. And who do you think has the power here? You got Mr. I have been face to face with the resurrected Son of God. I've been shipwrecked, bit by scorpions, and they didn't hurt me. I've been beat almost to death, left to die, but God didn't let me die. I've seen a vision of heaven itself. What do you got for me? What you got for me? You're chained to me. You're going to be hearing the gospel like you have never heard the gospel in your entire life. I know I might be four foot nothin', weigh ninety-two cents. I might be ugly as all day long. I might be looking up at you half the time when I'm talking but you're going to get some of this. I'm going to talk to you about Jesus. I'm going to preach Jesus to you and you know he did. And by the way, these guys would rotate by day. Oh, another guy. What's happening? How are you? What did you do to get here? Thank you for asking! I'm about to tell you! Do you think that these guys went away unaffected? Absolutely not. Did some of them probably come to faith? They probably did. We know that the whole of the palace guard - which, by the way, was spread out all over the place - heard of what Paul was doing for the sake of the gospel and why he was in chains for Christ.

That's why, by the way, when Paul ends his letter in chapter four, listen to how he says this when he closes it out. Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. Paul says, hey, Christ is my life regardless of the situation. This thing's working out just fine. Because I am now having the privilege to let this situation be used for the advancement of the gospel and for all of my brothers and sisters who are seeing it they are emboldened to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is working out just fine.

How many of us can say that? How many of us can say that Christ is our life to the extent that in every situation we find ourselves in we're willing to yield that situation to the glory of God and let him use us in that situation for the advancement of the gospel? So you've got a tough job? You might. Are you complaining about it? Paul was in jail for four years. He didn't complain. He said this is working out good. I'm able to advance the gospel. You're in a tough job. Are you willing to let God use that? You lost your job. Are you willing to let God use that? That relationship that you were in - that dating relationship got terminated. You got dumped. Are you going to let God use that? The application that you put into that college that you wanted to go to got rejected. Are you going to let God use that? Your health's not cooperating. Are you going to let God use that?

In every situation Christ is our life. That's what Paul is teaching us. He's our life in every situation and when I watch people who are walking through hardship or when they watch me walk through hardship, when we do that with one another, not only are we declaring to the world that Christ is our life, but our brothers and sisters who are watching it are saying I am emboldened for the sake of the gospel because I know that Christ is their life. That is what Paul is helping teach us by the power of his own, of God's own Spirit. So Christ is our life regardless of the situation that we're in.

But Christ is our life regardless of the opposition that we face. Listen to how Paul frames this as he keeps unpacking at the beginning of this letter. He says in verse fifteen it's true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. You realize how astounding that is? Paul says as long as Jesus is proclaimed and as long as Jesus is exalted I don't really care what happens to me. I'm not overly concerned about what's going on with me.

Now here's the thing. Paul was already feeling some opposition from the empire itself, right? He'd been getting the runaround since he got captured and he would end up four years in the runaround from the empire. But he's not only facing opposition from the empire, he's facing opposition from within the family of God. Because some of these believers now who had come to faith in Jesus in Rome, some of them were a little immature. Some of them were a little selfish. It happens sometimes. Here's probably how this went. Some of them started preaching the gospel and they were maybe doing so out of, as Paul said, out of envy and jealousy. Why? Because all the stories that people were telling, they were telling about what Jesus was doing through his apostle. Jesus was doing something extraordinary and Paul was bringing the message of the gospel to these places. But some of them maybe had the idea of: Paul, I'm better looking and taller than he is. I can do some of the same stuff. So they go out and they preach the gospel and maybe they see and have the reward of seeing some people come to faith in Jesus Christ but maybe then the Romans come and they say, hey, hey, hey, hey. And they want to crack down on them. And what they say is, hey, hey - you'll have to take that up with our movement leader. Paul. You know, the one you've got under house arrest. So they're creating trouble for Paul and really kind of exercising their fleshly glory at the same time. Paul says, yeah, it's true. There are some people that are doing that. There's other people that are just preaching Christ because they love Jesus and they know that I'm here to defend the gospel and so yeah, we've got both of it going on.

And you know how Paul responds to it? What does it matter? That's how he responds. What does it matter? As long as Jesus is being preached, lives are being changed, I don't care. I don't care what that means for me. I don't care if they're trying to bring trouble on me. It does't matter. Why? Because Christ is my life regardless of the opposition. It doesn't matter to me. What does it matter? Now, I wonder how many of us can say the same? Who can actually say that Christ is so our lives. Regardless of the opposition. It's one thing ladies and gentlemen when the opposition is the opposition. So let's just say for instance that um, you know the empire in this sense, which would be government in our sense, right? Right? The empire decides they want to start taking away our freedoms as believers in Jesus. Let's just say that happens. All right? If that were to happen we have a response, at that point we have to decide, o.k. what are we going to do? What's that look like? All those kinds of things.

It's one thing when the opposition is the opposition and maybe the empire starts to rage against you and try to take away your freedoms. That's one thing. Will Christ still be your life in the midst of that? The second question is what happens when it's from the family of God? Can Christ still be your life in the midst of that?

You know, let's say, for instance that you've got a friend who you've been trying to share Christ with for ten years. I mean, ten years you've been praying for him, you know all the time. Weekly you've been lifting him up. Your heart breaks for him. You've cried tears for them. You've shared with them. You've tried to help them. You've done everything you know to do. Ten years you've been investing in them. And then out of nowhere somebody shows up in their life like right, shows up in their life, is a believer and like first conversation in they lead that person to Jesus. You've been praying for them for ten years and all that kind of stuff. First conversation in. And by the way - when this person starts sharing their story now, this new believer that you've been praying for for ten years - when they start sharing their story about how they came to know Jesus Christ, you're never mentioned. They're talking about their new friend who came and showed up and shared the gospel with them. No mention of you've been sweating for them for ten years. You've been investing in them for ten years. You've been praying for them and sharing the gospel with them and sacrificing for them for ten years. Now it's all about their new friend who came and shared this message with them and they've been changed and they're transformed. Man, they're going gang-busters.

For some of us, ladies and gentlemen, Christ is not enough in that scenario. We still need the glory. And we will be embittered as a result of it. Paul is saying even if it happens in that kind of scenario Christ is still my life regardless of the opposition and he said it doesn't matter. What does it matter to me as long as Christ is being preached. As long as Christ is being exalted. I don't care at this point. I just want to see Jesus made much of. Can we say that? I know the truth is this happens sometimes in the family of God. Sometimes it happens church to church. At that level, right? I mean, you know, it's possible that maybe, maybe one church looks at another church and says, well, you, you don't have anything to do with them. They just draw big crowds over there because they've just watered down everything. It's all mamby pamby, nothing. They don't really talk about, they don't talk about sin. They don't talk about repentance. They don't talk about the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of our sins. They don't talk about the resurrection. They don't talk about hell, they don't address any social issues that ever come up in the preaching and how we should address those as believers in Jesus Christ. So you've just got to stay away from that place ....unintelligible....

Now, I'm not saying I'm familiar with that ever having been said. That I was so easily able to repeat that verbatim. But here's the thing. If someone is saying that, say about our church, or somebody is saying that about somebody else's church, or whatever, at the end of the day if in those people's church Christ is being preached, lives are being changed, whatever. What does it matter? We just need Jesus. We just need Jesus.

So, regardless of the situation and regardless of the opposition, Christ is our life. But he's also our life regardless of the outcome. You see, I want you to look with me, kind of continuing on in verse eighteen and following on it says this: yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. Remember that phrase - will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

You see here's the thing: Paul actually didn't know 100% whether or not he was going to be executed or whether he was going to be let go. He didn't know for sure. Now he says, I think it's all going to turn out for my deliverance. This is going to turn out for my deliverance. But do you know what he's doing there? Listen - if you have some background of who Paul is and what Paul does, Paul is alluding to the Hebrew scriptures all the time. In here, he's actually quoting Job. Isn't that an interesting comparison, by the way? Job, who really didn't do anything to deserve everything that was happening to him, Paul, who just was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, he wasn't like beating people up or doing anything and now all of this stuff is happening to him? And Paul taps into Job.

Listen to what Job says in Job chapter 13. “Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him! Listen carefully to what I say; let my words ring in your ears. Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die. He's quoting from Job here because he's identifying a little bit with Job but he's also quoting from the Psalmist David when he said this in Psalm 35. Vindicate me in your righteousness, Lord my God; do not let them gloat over me. Do not let them think, “Aha, just what we wanted!” or say, “We have swallowed him up.” May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace. May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.” My tongue will proclaim your righteousness, your praises all day long.

You see here's what Paul's doing. Paul's saying I believe that I'm going to be vindicated. I believe that I am going to be delivered. Just like the psalmist, just like Job I believe this is going to happen. But I also am saying I want Jesus to be exalted whether in my life or whether in my death, which says I'm not exactly sure how this is going to play out even though I think that I'm going to be vindicated, that I think that I'm going to be delivered.

Now it's interesting when he says that because he then says his key summary statement right after saying that. He says here's the thing. I want him to be exalted whether in my life or whether in my death and then he says for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now this is a shock probably to their system. Listen carefully. This is probably a shock to their system. Because what an unbeliever would say in that context is this: to live is gain and to die is loss.

Some of you that are in here right now, you may have never come to a place where you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and so you're mantra would be to live is gain and to die is loss. So for you this is kind of all you got. So find every experience you can find, do everything that you can do, drink in everything that you can drink in because you're only going around once. This is what you've got and this is it. That's what an unbelieving world would operate under. To live is gain and to die is loss. But you know what? Most of the Christian world lives under is a variation of that that sounds significantly better and it would be this: To live is gain and to die is Christ. This is how most people operate in their paradigm. To live is gain and to die is Christ. And here's how that sets up. It sets up by saying Christ really doesn't have a tremendous amout to do with the life I'm leading now but it sure is good to know that he's given me some insurance on the back end. Because to live is gain and to die is Christ.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray whatever that formula prayer is that they told me to pray so that I can kind of hold against my life that I'm living that I do whatever I want to do right now but I've got this insurance plan and it's fantastic. Paul doesn't say that.

Here's what Paul says: To live is Christ and to die - listen - is more Christ. That's what he's saying. To live is Christ and to die is more of Christ. Paul was so consumed with Jesus being his life that he was actually unconcerned about how his trial was going to finalize. Could you imagine? If we're in jail for that length of time, all we're obsessing on is how's this going to go? Is it going to go this way? Is it going to go that way? Paul is saying I am so consumed with Jesus being my life that I'm actually unconcerned about how this thing plays out. In fact if I were given a choice as to how it plays out, without being sick and thinking that he's trying to somehow end his own life, but if he's saying hey, if they're going to execute me or if I'm going to remain, I'm not sure which I'd choose because for me to live is Christ and to die is more of Christ.

In fact listen to how he states that when you begin looking in verse number twenty-two he says this: If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

Wow! Please don't miss this. I need to land this plane but I don't want you to miss this. There's an incredible lesson in what Paul just said here. An incredible lesson. Listen to this. Our longing for Christ should result in likeness to Christ. I'm going to explain that in just a second. Don't miss it. Our longing for Christ should result in likeness to Christ. You see here's what happens sometimes in our day and age. We're scared in the world we live in. We're nervous. And so as a result of that we long for Christ. I just want to go, man, just come! I just want to be with you!

It's a scary world that we live in. Man, I might need to move somewhere. It's coming here, man, it's coming here. I got to check out. I'm going to move to Canada. But it's coming to Canada. So I'm moving to Switzerland. Nothing comes to Switzerland. It's all neutral. And pretty. I'm moving there. So you're going to bolt. Listen. Our longing for Christ should result in likeness to Christ. Let me explain. Paul's longing is to be with Christ. In fact he says it this way: It would be better by far to be with him. But the choice that he makes if he were given the choice is to stay. Why? Because he knows Christ is his life and the life that Christ now lives in him is not just for him. It is for them. You see sometimes we get selfish in what we consider our longings for Christ and that is, Oh, Jesus, get me out of here. Oh, Jesus, I don't want to go through any of that. Oh, Jesus, rescue me. When Jesus says you have my life living in you and it is not just for you. It is for them.

So Paul did exactly what Jesus did because it was Jesus' life living in him. Paul ran into the world instead of running away from it. That is what we understand the gospel to teach us. That Jesus himself went into a world that was sick and dying instead of running away from it. And Paul did the same. You know why? Because Christ lived in him.

Our longing for Christ should result in likeness to Christ. You see Christ is our life and that's what the world needs to see in and through us. I know the world is scary. I know it. But when we're scared, Christ is our life. When we're brave, Christ is our life. When we're weak, Christ is our life. When we are strong, Christ is our life. When things are going good, Christ is our life. When things are going bad, Christ is our life. Christ is our life regardless of the situation, regardless of the opposition and regardless of the outcome because he himself is the way, the truth, and the life. Christ is our life.

Bow with me for prayer if you would. Before we leave, if you've never come to a place where you've turned from your sin and stopped trying to be your own savior and you've recognized, maybe even today, that this Jesus that we're talking about is sinless, is the Son of God, went to a cross, died in your place, satisfied the justice of God, rose from the dead, lives right now, is strong to save, can transform your life now and can transform your life forever. If you've never come to a place of yielding yourself to that, then when we dismiss in just a moment and I pray for us and say amen, would you have courage enough to come by the fireside room in our Atrium. You'll see it clearly marked. There's some pastors and some other friends in there who'd love to talk to you for just a minute about what it means for Christ to be your life, to forgive you of sin, to change you now and change you for good. If you've never come to that place there's no bigger decision that you'll make in your life. So I encourage you to come find us.

And Father for all of us maybe who've from time to time looked around the world and maybe been freaked out or scared to death. What we fail to remember sometimes is it's not new. This kind of struggle and persecution and unjust violence of people who follow after you, it's not new. And we will not be immune. But we must recognize that you are our life. And sometimes it's easy for us to forget it because we have first world problems and we loose our perspective about what's really important and what really are problems and we get bombarded and tempted by all kinds of silly nothingness instead of realizing that you are our life in every situation through every opposition and regardless of the outcome because what the world needs to see is your life in us. Not only does the world need to see the reality of a true authentic Christ life, but our brothers and sisters need to see it too because they are then emboldened and encouraged as they walk with you and they show the world the life of Christ in them.

So Father, would you write this on our hearts: Christ is our life. And I pray by the power of your Spirit you would apply that to every listening heart in ways that only you can and we would submit ourselves to you shaping us into the image of Jesus. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you folks. Have a great week.