This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 23, 1991.
About this sermon
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” When Paul seems to speak of himself in Philippians 1, he is speaking of Christ, so closely are the apostle and his Lord joined. Because Christ has risen, Paul does not fear death; his deepest desire is to depart and be with Christ, yet he stays on for the Philippians’ sake. Christ has also delivered him from the fear of failure. Every believer united to the risen Christ shares that freedom, and missionaries most of all need it.
Sermon transcript
Chapter 1, beginning at verse 12. Hear the word of God. But I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Some, indeed, preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live, In the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I should choose, I know not. For I am in a strait betwixt two. Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance. and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
Pray with me now. Our God, make your church strong. Revive in us your work. Our Father, may our hearts be alive with your Spirit. May we stir up our zeal for the things of our God. O Lord, may this day be a delight to us. May this assembling be especially precious. May your ways, your words, be a treasure for our heart that we might delight in them. And Father, make us glad in view of your saving mercy and your work of redemption made plain in Christ. Oh Lord, we would love you and we would confess our love for you this morning as we worship here and also as we hear your word to the end that we would obey you and serve you with diligence. In Jesus name, amen.
I have a confession to make this morning. You may not consider it a very serious confession, but I do acknowledge that I have a very hard time listening to missionary newsletters. And maybe you have the same problem. Maybe you had a difficult time identifying with the missionary, paying attention to all the facts and features that are being described.
I’m not especially disturbed with myself because of an impatience with regard to the chronicle format. I do enjoy hearing about the events in the missionary’s lives, and about the events on the field. I am interested in the people that they are involved with, and I am interested in the developments that have taken place in the family of the missionary since the last time they wrote. But still, I must confess, I don’t like missionary newsletters. Now, it’s not that in these missionary newsletters we don’t have a sincere effort made by the missionary to communicate to us some vital scriptural or doctrinal truth. And I appreciate that.
Trying to relate the Bible to things that are taking place on the field or in the life of the mission or in the life of the missionary. I think my problem is this. There is an inadvertent failure on the part of many missionaries to communicate themselves. Now, you may be a bit confused. You may be saying to yourself, hold on a minute. Why, I remember my grade school writing classes where the teacher told us to sit down and compose a letter. I remember being marked down for using the personal pronoun, I, too much. Remember that. It usually isn’t a fault in letter writing to avoid speaking about oneself. extensively and needlessly, but still I say that there is this inadvertent failure on the part of the missionaries to communicate themselves.
And I say this in light of what we have set before us in the Apostle Paul. Here is the missionary par excellence. If anyone would be training us as to what a missionary newsletter or report should look like, it should be the Apostle Paul. And yet the Apostle Paul doesn’t hesitate to speak very directly, very deliberately about himself.
In fact, we can say there is a communication of the self of the Apostle’s self when he writes. It’s just not a matter of ink on a page. It’s as if the man himself was being put down on the page or conveyed by the communication, by the letter. There is an earnestness here. a directness. There is an engagement here that takes us beyond the ordinary missionary newsletter or report.
A powerful communication of the person who’s writing, so that you are engaged with them. Paul then, the master missionary, communicates himself when he goes about communicating. And I will say this, though some have contradicted it, I will say this, that there is nothing self-centered, nothing egotistical about the man. I say this with confidence because there is that certainty that if it worked in the Apostle, and the clear eye sees it, there is that certainty that if it worked in him to reveal himself as one upon whom the revelation of God is having full impact. Here is not only the missionary par excellence. Here is the Christian extraordinaire. The Apostle is communicating himself, and as he is, he is at work revealing himself.
But as he is revealing himself, opening himself up to his readers, he is exhibiting precisely what impact the revelation of God has had upon him. Now, as we make our way through this little labyrinth, it is well for us to keep in mind precisely the nature and the content of that revelation which has made its impact upon the Apostle. And that he never loses sight of. If we are going to consider, then, the Apostle’s concentration upon himself, we will have to gain a grip on that which has focused his attention primarily, and that is the objective revelation that has made such impact upon him.
It is assumed In this missionary report of his, verses 12 through 26, it is spoken of as the gospel. He tells these Philippians that there are those in Rome who are preaching out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. That gospel has content. Paul speaks about this revelation objectively when he says in verse 18 that he is glad he was rejoicing, in fact, because whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. As to the content of that gospel, the content of that preaching that is in view. You can look at other portions of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, especially verses 5 through 11 of the second chapter, where you have a description of that gospel.
God’s eternal Son making himself a servant coming in the likeness of human flesh, being found in the appearance as a man, humbling himself and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Yet God has highly exalted him and raised him up and bestowed upon him a name which is above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Well, there is the content of this gospel, this gospel which in fact is now making progress in Rome itself.
Paul tells us in the twelfth verse of that first chapter that even the things that are taking place to him presently are working out for the further progress of that gospel which he is set to defend. The content then of that revelation is assumed, and that content focuses in Jesus Christ, in fact, what God has done in and through the person of Jesus Christ. But now we move across the room from the objective to the subjective consideration. And as Paul then speaks of himself, as he opens himself up, as he engages in something of a self-revelation, Paul there, no less than in the objective point of focus and concentration, sets before us Jesus Christ. His language about himself, then, is conditioned by his relationship to this Christ, who stands objectively at the center of the gospel that he proclaims. Paul tells us that he is bound to this Christ. In verse 13, the language is quite explicit.
He says, so that my imprisonment, or my bonds in Christ. The New American Standard Version translates it a bit improperly there, adding a few words. It says, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known. Well, take out the words, the cause of. and read it as the authorized version has put it, as the King James, so that my bonds in Christ had become well known.
It is not just that he is bound in chains in Rome, but that he is bound to Christ, that he is in union with Christ. And it is this union with Christ, then, that is coming to expression even as Paul speaks of himself and back quite deliberately. Paul will speak more and more as he progresses through this missionary report about this relationship that he sustains with Christ. He tells us with confidence, for instance, in verse 20, that Christ will be magnified or exalted in his body, whether in life or in death. In verse 21, that incomparable of all passages from Paul, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. this union with Christ coming to expression even as he speaks of himself, directing our attention to Christ and the value Christ is for those who are united to him. In verse 23 he tells us of his supreme desire. His personal desire is to depart and to be with Christ.
And so thorough is this intermingling, if you will, of the Apostle and Christ, that when we come to verse 26, we hear Paul using language that is strangely reminiscent. For there, Paul talks about his second coming. I’m going to come to the Philippians. I’m going to come to you again.
So thoroughly is this mix between Apostle and Christ. that Paul is now discerning the Christ in him, the Christ who is at work through him, the Christ that he is endeavoring to project for the benefit and value of others. For me, or for to me, to live is Christ. Not only does Paul then communicate Christ when he preaches Christ, Not only does Paul communicate Christ when he lives for Christ, but he communicates Christ by living. By the act of living itself, he communicates Christ. He cannot separate one breath that he draws from Christ. He cannot distance one moment of his life from Christ.
Now, as you think about this, it is very well for you to take note of the salutary effect focus of Paul’s personal appropriation of Christ, Paul’s union with Christ as it pertains now to this letter and these saints to whom he writes. Do you realize what has happened? And here the objective gospel is going to flow into those subjective categories in a way that is utterly mysterious. The objective accomplishment of God will be determinative for the subjective response of the people, and they will glory all the more because they see precisely what is in you, what has transpired in and through Jesus Christ. Paul is a man who is completely unintimidated by death. Paul is completely fearless when it comes to death.
Why? Why? Do you know your own fears? Do you still tremble a bit? I’ve been shaken this week. The call Monday night about Betty Cornett’s passing. The trauma that involved Roger Ramsey, a friend of mine, his wife Carol this week. The fact that on my way to the hospital, entering Presbyterian Hospital yesterday morning, I heard shrieks. And I looked near the door and there was a man, prostrate, on the pavement, his wife on her knees beside him, screaming at him, Why? Why did you try it?
And as I put the picture together, the man had been brought by an ambulance and he had tried to walk into the hospital in his own power and he collapsed in a cardiac arrest at the door. Now these things can shake you, but I want you to grab hold now of the attitude and the mindset of this man who is writing. He is completely unintimidated by death. He is not afraid of death.
Why? Because Christ has been raised. Is Christ dead? You answer me. Is Christ dead? If He is not, then you cannot fear. The Old Testament saints were afraid. There lived before the coming of Christ. Oh, it’s not in the Old Testament that we don’t have marvelous affirmations of the coming resurrection and the promise of the resurrection of Christ.
We have Psalm 16. When thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.” What a glorious affirmation. We have Psalm 23. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But we also have Psalm 6. Is there any remembrance of thee in the grave? We also have Psalm 88. Is there any praise of thee? Can those who go and are no more? We have the cry, the desperate cry of King Hezekiah when he was told that his days were numbered by the prophet.
He turned his face to the wall and he wept because there was that nagging uncertainty short of the resurrection of Christ. And ambiguity overlaid the entirety of the Old Testament revelation. It was not resolved until Christ came and was raised himself. Paul was an Old Testament Jew at one time. He knew the ambiguity of that Old Testament hope, even though he confessed the resurrection. He was a Pharisee. He believed in the resurrection. But now it’s as if he never believed in it before, in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What confidence is his? No! Christ will be magnified in my body. The dissolution of this body will not have a last word in my body, whether by life or by death. and I am absolutely certain of it, why I have seen the risen Christ. Now do you believe it? You step out the door today, you’re hit by a car right out there, you’re killed instantly. What happens? The way to live is Christ. To die is gain. You don’t have to be afraid. Don’t be afraid.
Now this is not the only thing that’s at work in the Apostle. As he’s in vital union with Christ, yes, triumph over the fear of death, he’s no longer intimidated by it, it’s a new day! With the resurrection of Christ, even for this old Jew. But likewise, Paul has been delivered from the fear of failure. Boy, what welcome news that is! Paul has been delivered from the fear of failure.
Here, listen to it in verse 20, “…according to my earnest expectation and hope that I shall be put to shame in nothing.” That is, in the end, I will not fail, I will not be embarrassed, But my end is success.” Now, in the Old Testament, there was torment with regard to this particular subject. For you have the psalmists repeatedly crying out to God, Oh, let me not be put to shame!
But here Paul says, I will not be put to shame! on the basis of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the accomplishment of redemption, these things being at the center of that gospel that Paul proclaims. Well, as when Paul speaks about himself, You’re confident, are you not, that this man is not self-centered, nor is he egotistical, but in opening up himself, here is a means also by which he might then communicate Christ, whom he serves. And how wonderful this communication, because it ends up being then a communication of the self, of the apostle, and that after the very similitude of God’s communication to us. For how did God communicate to us?
By just sending us letters? Paper on ink? Or words engraved in stone? No, He sent Himself. His communication is the communication of Himself. So the next time you go to write a letter, Think about it. Even there, think about Christ. Well, marvelous stuff. And my wish and prayer is that missionaries that I love would take a lesson from the Apostle Paul and open up themselves a bit more and reveal to us just how much Christ is at work in them and how much they are bound to him.
And that will certainly be medicine to our souls, won’t it? As we hear missionaries who in their letters tell us they’re not afraid of death and neither are they afraid of failure. O Lord, strengthen us now by your Word with your Spirit. Set well before us the visions of glory and the certainty of everlasting life. Set well in our purview the risen Christ whom we serve. that One who is bound to us and we to Him. May it be that as we live, this One to whom we are bound is coming to expression in us, and that, Lord, clearly, effectively.
We ask for our missionaries. Bless them, Father, with the Spirit of Your Word. Encourage them in all of their labors. And may they, then, Lord, be encouraged by your word to open up and show us clearly and unmistakably how they, in their extreme circumstances, are not afraid of death, nor fearful of failing, because Christ has died and has been risen again. We pray this through Christ, our reigning Lord. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.