Till death do us part - Philippians 1:20-30
So, football has a few months off (as I write), the season concluding with 2 disappointing cup finals for England’s premier teams. Liverpool got knocked out of the Champions league at the last hurdle – the final against AC Milan. And Manchester United and Chelsea fought out possibly the dullest cup final on record, yet the first in the new Wembley – Chelsea finally winning.
Jose Mourinho was interviewed after the game and commented
“On Tuesday I said to the players “do you want to enjoy the game, or enjoy after the game? They replied that they wanted to enjoy after the game.”
So that is what they worked towards – diligent, structured sensible play that lacked flair, but won the game.
Often, that is what we think the Christian life is like – and in many ways it is. The way we play life now dictates whether we enjoy ourselves ‘after the game’.
As we have looked at this first chapter of Philippians, we have seen this principle to be true in Paul’s experience and certainly those of us who call ourselves Christians could say the same thing.
But that is only half the picture.
As well as there being a discontinuity between our lives now (sometimes hard and full of difficult) and the life that is to come after we die – ‘after the game’ there is also continuity. Philippians is famous for being the letter of joy – joy in the here and now as well as then. Just as our future is dependant upon ‘how we play the game’ now, so our experience now in some way reflects what we will experience after the game.
Let’s just repeat that – Just as our future with Christ is dependant upon a relationship with him now, so our experience of walking with him now in some way reflects what we will experience then.
Many Christians struggle with this, thinking that their experience now is not authentic. We watch other Christians, we hear them talk of their joy and their experiences – often intimate, sometimes ecstatic. They talk of what God is saying to them and doing through them. They seem settled - and we look at ourselves and think we must be missing something.
Lets get this straight - we are not in heaven yet, but we live as citizens of heaven. We are not face to face with Jesus yet – but we live lives with him every day. And this inevitably changes our now, as well as our future – whether we feel it or not.
Our Christian experience is not now what it will be - it will be better than it is now. But it is real now – despite suffering, needing to fight, sometimes struggling and feeling like we are clinging on with our finger tips. So don’t judge your own faith by what you see of others. All you see of them is what they show on the outside… could be as feeble and tired as you feel on the inside!
Background
So as we look at Philippians 1, Paul is in prison, probably in Rome. But he is not downhearted as we thought in ‘what really matters’. God is the Grand Chess-master and is using it to spread the gospel. So Paul writes to this community to encourage them to be driven by grace so that they have a deep and radical love for one another, are spreading the gospel together and are expecting to grow. And this they are to do whilst holding on to the fact that God is the one in charge – he is the one who will build his church.
For Paul himself, his life’s purpose is in the front of his mind - he looks forward to a trial before the Emperor with a very uncertain outcome!
1:20 – to honour Christ
Despite being a prisoner, he shows again that he lives with hope he tells us that he looks forward with eager expectation and it is a great picture.
Just imagine you are 15 (again!), and your film or sporting hero is visiting town. He/she is stunning; you have pictures of them all over your walls. But today is a good day you get to see them in person. The problem is, when you arrive outside the hotel they are going to stay in, the rest of town has arrived too and you are stuck right at the back of the crowd. You can’t see a thing.
So what do you do? Naturally, you stretch and strain, on tip-toes, neck stretched – reaching to be able to see them as they step put of the limo.
That is the image Paul paints when he speaks of living in eager expectation.
He tells us –
“eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honour Christ, whether I live or die.” v20
He is expecting two things - that he would never be ashamed of Christ and that his life would always honour Christ.
Paul is on tip-toes, stretching and straining, doing his best to make sure that when he looks forward he looks forward at a life that is never ashamed of Christ but always honours him.
Remember, for Paul this is a real issue – he is about to face the might and dubious justice of the Roman empire, and Roman emperor himself. How will he stand up to it, what will he say? Will he be Bold about Christ, or will he be ashamed to associate with him. Will he fudge some of the corners of his faith, telling only half the truth and missing out on some of the embarrassing bits, or will he stand firm and be bold.
And as he looks forward his view is striking - he expects that he will stand firm. His evidence for the bold judgement - he has previous form that gives him confidence. But what does it mean for his life to always honour Christ?
The word ‘honoured' again paints a very interesting word picture.
When I was about 11 I got a new piano teacher. Until that point I had been taught by a lady who was less than inspiring. I can remember crying in the lessons, I didn’t want to do it, but (thankfully) my mother had thicker skin than I did and made me persist. The lessons continued.
And then I got a new teacher - Chris Green arrived. He was in his 30’s, drove a motorbike and loved music more than anything. I thought he was cool. Suddenly, my love for music changed completely. As I was taught by him it was as though music itself had come to life and grown from something I had to do, to something I loved, felt and wanted to be better at. My love and appreciation for music grew because of his love and appreciation for music. Music was writ large in the life of Chris Green. He “honoured” music.
That is what Paul is wanting, even expecting of his life. He wants his life to honour or exalt Christ. When people see Paul he wants them to see Jesus Christ writ large He wants people to love and appreciate Christ more because of what they see in him. Literally – he wants Christ to be enlarged in his body.
You know how we speak of some people having a huge personality – well, Paul wants Jesus Christ to have a huge personality in him.
This is what it means to exalt Christ, to honour him. Much more than singing songs about him, getting involved in a ministry to serve him – it is being little people in whom Jesus Christ is large.
If you had to write your own eulogy, what would you want to write? How about this; Pete Chilvers was someone who was not ashamed to follow and trust Jesus Christ, and someone who made Jesus Christ seem larger and more important than anything else. That would suit me.
But it is tough isn’t it. For those of us who would call ourselves Christians, it can be very difficult. People don’t always like what they see. They don’t want to be confronted with the person of Jesus – and they put up barriers to us, or think less of us as a result. It might be a next door neighbour, a member of the family, a work colleague in the same department as you or a friend from school or college.
And it can certainly make us feel less than bold with them about our faith?
I was recently talking with a lady in her 60’s. She had been giving her neighbour down the road Sunday lunch every week for years. Whenever she saw him he told her that church was something that “Filled a couple of hours for her”. Not harsh words, but enough to stop her being bold and not speaking of Jesus to him. And she wanted to do something about it. What gives you the boldness to stand up and be counted? How about the fact that you have done it before. That’s what happened with Paul. But for that, you need to have done it before.
So – here is the challenge. The next time that person says something to you, respond gently and sensitively by telling them the truth. I have been to church because it is the most important thing in my week!
1:21-26 – Whether living or dying
But then Paul goes on.
“For to me, living is for Christ and dying is even better” v21
Or in a different translation – “to live is Christ, to die is gain”
Gain of what? – well, Christ, his treasure.
If Paul makes it through the trial before the emperor with his life then he has years of serving Christ ahead. If he doesn’t then he has an eternity with Christ ahead.
At this point, Paul lets us in on the conversation inside his head. He lets us know his thought processes.
In v21-26 we discover that he is caught in 2 minds. For him, being with Christ would be much better than staying in his current physical body. But for his friends the Philippians, he was better alive. And Paul knew his Father – God. Whilst there was still work for him to do he was confident that he would live.
The (theoretical) question for Paul was this - To know Christ or to know and represent Christ? He was not in a desperate struggle to hold on to the things of this life.
His overarching desire was that he make Christ big – whether in his fruitful service in life, or in fruitful service in death. And let’s be encouraged– the same can be true for us. Let us be people who exalt, honour and are filled with the person of Christ. The sooner we start, the more others will benefit whilst we are still around!
But what does this life that makes the presence of Christ real and writ large in us look like in practice?
In v27-30 we see it means three things.
It will mean living as a united community.
Paul says – if you are living a life that is worthy of the good news then you will be “standing side by side, fighting for the good news.” (v27) Standing side by side.
Paul tackles this issue of unity much more in the rest of the letter because there is a problem in Philippi but in brief, what is it?
he tells us in 4:2 –
“And now I want to plead with those two women, Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.”
A manner worthy of the good news means standing side by side, not hand to throat and Paul sees the problem as so important that he names the people involved.
And it is not an uncommon problem. If Paul were writing to us he would probably say something similar to……you? Me?
We get the point! We are to be a community of grace that is united in Spirit. Have we got disagreements? Well, deal with them or put them away. Don’t fight each other when you should be fighting the enemy.
Living as a fighting community
And fighting the enemy is another way of living a life worthy of the good news – but not fighting internally, but externally.
We shouldn’t go looking for battles – that is not gracious but nasty and bitter, but where people are being suppressed and oppressed we are to fight for the weak and those who can’t fight for themselves. Where the truth is under attack, we fight for the truth. Where unity is under attack, we fight for unity.
For Paul, this was real opposition. He let God deal with the consequences in his own life – justice, but he was willing when required to fight for Christ.
So often history has been marred by people claiming to fight for Christ – but showing no evidence of such worthy motives. Let’s be different as we stand for the gospel.
And lastly, living a life that is writ large with Christ will mean living a life of Suffering. Suffering for the good news (v29)
These are striking, chilling and honouring words – it is a privilege to suffer in the service of our Christ.
And why a privilege? Remember – for me to live is Christ, but to die is GAIN!