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Philippians 1:21-26, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 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. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
Fanny Crosby was 83 when she wrote, “I believe myself really in the prime of life.” She died 12 years later on February 12, 1915. The most amazing thing about Fanny, besides writing tons of gospel songs, is that when she was just six weeks old a doctor mistreated her eyes, and she became blind for the rest of her life. But like Paul, she saw God in her circumstances. She wrote, “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life.” She held no animosity toward the doctor nor God as she grew.
Fanny wrote several hymns about heaven. In the lyrics you’ll find her talking about seeing Jesus. “Oh the soul thrilling rapture when I view His blessed face” is in her song, My Savior First of All. In her song Saved by Grace the chorus reads:
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace;
The apostle Paul wasn’t blind, but he was in prison. And he was anxiously anticipating seeing his Savior face to face. In fact, as he wrote to the Philippians in verse 23, he expressed his dilemma. He wanted to go to be with Jesus, which he says is very much better, but he also wanted to remain so he could further serve his Lord and have more fruitful labor. The King James says, “I’m in a strait betwixt two.” He reminds us of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as he talks to himself, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Or me at a new restaurant trying to decide what to order, a choice of much lesser importance. Paul concludes in verse 25, “I know that I will remain!” And he did remain. He was later released from prison around AD 63 and he visited some of the churches in Asia and Greece (probably Philippi). But then was arrested again, brought back to Rome, imprisoned a second time, and beheaded outside the city. In 2 Timothy 4:6 during his second imprisonment he wrote, “The time of my departure has come.”
Since Paul was convinced at this time he would remain in the flesh (his body), I’ve entitled this message, “Why We’re Still Here.” I’m dividing it into two parts: Paul’s preference to be with Christ and Paul’s purpose to progress in faith. Then we’ll conclude with how we can progress with joy in our faith.
PAUL’S PREFERENCE – TO DEPART AND BE WITH CHRIST.
Philippians 1:21-23, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 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. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
Paul declared unhesitatingly in verse 21 “to die is gain.” Verse 23 describes his desire to depart and to “be with Christ.” That’s why death is gain. He adds, “that is very much better.” There is no purgatory, no soul sleep, but instantly “with Christ.” Second Corinthians 5:8 says, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
Jonathan Edwards has a great message entitled, “Heaven, a World of Love.” Everything in heaven is pure love. Love flows from God like light from the sun with warmth and brightness. Along with being welcomed into heaven by every Christian friend who preceded us – Christian fathers, mothers, wife, children – we will fully know God has loved us from all eternity and that He still loves us and will continue to love us forever. We shall see our loving Savior and Lord and be filled forever with His pure and holy love. Love is always a sweet principle, and especially divine love flowing from the triune God to all God’s people.
God’s love is something of what Paul is talking about when he says to die and be with Christ is very much better. How beautiful and lovely Christ will be to every one of us who knows Him as our Savior, who loved us, went to that cross to die for us, and rose again to give us eternal life. Before He left this earth to be with His Father in heaven, He made this marvelous promise, “I’m going to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, you may be also” (John 14:1-3). Paul urges us to anticipate Christ’s coming. God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we should not lose hope about those who have died. Not only are believers who died with Christ, but Christ is going to come back into the earth’s atmosphere and take with Him all believers, dead and alive. He will take all believers who have died and those who are alive on earth to meet Him in the air with glorified bodies like His, and we shall always be with the Lord. That’s called the rapture and is the next event on God’s prophetic timetable. What hope we have!
I mentioned this last week, but I want to remind us again that for the unbeliever, those without Christ, death is not “very much better.” Sadly, some think by suicide they can escape the trials and sufferings of this world. Unbelievers are deceived into thinking death is a place of rest, free from all suffering, a better place. But based on the authority of God’s Word, this simply is not the case for unbelievers. There are only two final destinations, heaven with Christ or hell separated from God’s goodness forever. Jonathan Edwards wrote, “Everything in hell is hateful…. There is no person or thing to be seen there that is amiable or lovely; nothing that is pure, or holy, or pleasant, but everything abominable and odious.” Hell is not a world of love with your friends.
What is the status of an unbeliever? This world is the best they will have. Here you have the love of a spouse, parents, friends, the beauty of God’s creation. Here you have temporary fulfillment, achievements, hopefully a good marriage, precious children. Unlike for Paul, who looked forward to being with Christ, the lost person faces judgment and eternal torment after death. Never dull the edge of that truth. A lost person dies and immediately goes to hell with no second chance. Hell is a temporary holding place of fiery torment for lost people. As that rich man in hell said, “I am in agony in this flame” (Luke 16:24). People without Christ will be that place of fiery torment until the end of the Millennium, a time when Christ will rule as King here on earth. After Christ’s 1,000-year reign, God will raise every unbeliever from the dead to face eternal judgment at the Great White Throne Judgment , whether they were cremated or their bodies returned to dust in a coffin, or they were lost at sea or eaten by a shark.
Revelation 20:15-20 tells us exactly what will happen at the Great White Throne Judgment. Christ will be sitting on that great white throne. That’s all there is. Earth and heaven fled away and there is Christ the Judge on His great white throne. Then a huge multitude made up of every unbeliever from the beginning of time will be resurrected and judged one by one according to their works. The sea, death, and Hades all gave up the dead in them. All these people are lost. They all entered the wide gate that leads to destruction. The book of life is opened, but their names will not be found in it. Can you imagine that? No hope. Then each of these lost people will face their second death. This entire multitude of rebellious humanity will be thrown into the lake of fire, forever separated from God, a place of darkness, misery, suffering, torment, and anguish, forever with no end ever to come (Rev.14:11).
Now contrast that with heaven being a world of love flowing from the heart of God, from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! And with Paul who desires to depart and be with Christ! No wonder Paul said, “Today is the day of salvation. Now is the time” (2 Cor. 6:1-2). That word “depart” (analusai) in verse 23 is used of a ship raising anchor and leaving the harbor or soldiers breaking camp and heading out. You’ll leave behind your body of death and then at the rapture get a brand new one built to last for eternity, perfectly righteous, just like Christ’s! You’ll have no more sin to fight, no more temptations, no more pain or suffering, free from sin and Satan. Paul says, “I’d far rather depart, strike camp, raise my anchor, and go to be with Christ.”
R. C. Sproul wrote, “The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he is saved and will live forever with Christ.” Do you have that joy? Are you ready to go? A teacher was telling her young class about all the beauties of heaven and being with Jesus and then said, “Raise your right hand if you want to go to heaven.” Every hand shot up immediately except one. “Why don’t you want to go to heaven, Johnny?” “Well,” he replied, “Mom just baked an apple pie for dinner.” There are some heavenly things here on earth, like a mother’s love.
PAUL’S PURPOSE – OUR PROGRESS AND JOY IN THE FAITH.
Philippians 1:24-26, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
Paul has been persuaded or convinced that God is going to let him here in his flesh – his earth suit – because God isn’t finished with him yet. Have you ever thought of that? God’s going to leave you here in this world, in your body because He still has something for you to do. Paul spends a whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 teaching us about the coming resurrection of the body, “that we shall not all sleep, but we’ll all be changed” like the nursery motto.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53, Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But then he adds at the end, as certainly as God has our future in His hands through Christ, he charges us.
1 Corinthians 15:58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
God leaves us here on this earth for a definite purpose, not just to laze around and waste our time, but to work, to serve, to be a blessing to others, to love and encourage and help one another draw near to God. Paul says, ”I’m convinced I’m staying because it is more necessary for your sake!” Paul knew these young believers in Philippi were struggling in their Christian lives, like all God’s people do. There is always false teaching pushing in. There were enemies of the cross in Philippians 3:l8-19. There were two ladies not getting along in chapter 4. Under the typical trials and suffering there was anxiety, and they needed Paul’s mature wisdom and counsel. So, Paul has concluded he’s going to remain “for their sake.” That’s why we are all here – “for your sake.” Not for self-indulgence or just living for ourselves, but we are here for one another to love one another, encourage one another, build up one another, restore one another, care for one another, and through love serve one another. We are here to magnify Christ and be a blessing to one another! That’s why Paul is sticking around. This is why we’re still here.
In verse 25 he gives us his clear purpose: “for your progress and joy in the faith.” And this should also be our purpose. It’s the faith, the entire body of truth God has given us in the Scriptures. And Paul says, “I want to be used by God to help you make progress and to grow spiritually. Then as you grow, you’ll be manifesting more joy in the faith.” Every believer should be making progress, going forward, learning and applying more of God’s truth and rejoicing in it. The effect of good teaching and progressing in the faith is a life radiating more joy.
AREAS OF PROGRESS FOR JOY IN THE FAITH.
I want to conclude by reminding us of some of the great truths of the faith. God wants us to progress in knowing these truths and find the joy Paul wanted all God’s people to know. Let’s briefly look at nine of these truths.
- God is the living God who existed from all eternity in three persons, self-existent and sovereign over all. Or as a young man in the 1600s named George Gillespie prayed while those godly men were working on the Westminster Shorter Catechism and looking for a satisfactory answer to the fourth question, “What is God?” Gillespie prayed, “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchanging in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
- God has revealed Himself in our 66 books of the Bible that are God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, and sufficient for all our spiritual needs. Our mission is to teach and preach and study this Word and learn to apply it to our lives so we can grow or make joyful progress in the faith. Jeremiah said, “Your words became to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jer. 15:16).
- God created the entire universe in six literal days out of nothing, ex nihilo, as Genesis 1 teaches. That means we reject the Satanic lies of evolution, that everything came from nothing and slowly evolved to the point where we are today. John 1:3 says all things were made by Him, Jesus Christ, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
- God created male and female human beings in His own image as Genesis 1:27 teaches. If you are a male, you can’t become a female and vice versa. Satan says you can create your own identity, choose what gender you want to be, and be your own god. Thankfully, we have a president-elect who has enough sense to know men are men and women are women. But we keep pounding away on this because our culture has swallowed the poisoned Kool-Aid of transgenderism as if it’s normal.
- God designed marriage for companionship and reproduction between a man and a woman and only between a man and a woman. We are not God and do not have the right to define marriage however we like. And we’re not free to murder the babies that result from that reproductive process.
- We believe in original sin and that everyone is born under the curse of sin as stated in Genesis 3. We are all guilty in Adam and totally depraved of any God-pleasing goodness. “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). Jesus Christ, the second Adam, came into the world to redeem sinners back to God. He lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death for sinners.
- We believe in the universal flood that destroyed all human beings on earth except those eight in the ark. Satan, atheists, and liberal scholars deny a universal flood, but we believe it because Genesis teaches it and Jesus Himself believed it. Matthew 24:38-39, “The flood came and took them all away.”
- God promised a Savior in Genesis 3 to smash the head of the serpent through the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12. And after two thousand years He brought His Son into this world through a miraculous conception and virgin birth to live as a human with us. His Son lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death in the place of sinners, rose from the dead three days later. He then ascended up to heaven with the promise that He would come again, first to rapture the church and then to return to earth to defeat the armies of the anti-Christ and become King for 1000-years on this earth. At the end of the 1,000 years He will sit on the Great White Throne and judge all unbelievers to the lake of fire and take all His people into an eternity of glorious love, joy, and beauty.
- We believe there is only one way to God, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. No other religion will bring you to heaven. God sovereignly saves whom He will through the gospel of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The ministry of our church teaches and encourages this barebones skeleton of non-negotiable truths so we can all make spiritual progress and find joy in the faith. There are many, many more truths that bring fulness of joy.
So why are you still here? God isn’t finished with you yet. He has some form of ministry for every one of His people as long as you’re here on earth. And that ministry includes raising a family for the Lord, supporting a family as a faithful worker, leading Bible studies, encouraging others, praying for one another, giving the gospel to those around us, and pursuing godly goals of all sorts. Make it your goal to live for Christ in all you do. Remember, your labor is not in vain in the Lord.