Invite you to get your Bibles and turn with me again to the book of Philippians. We'll pick up where we left off last time with verse 19, Philippians chapter one, verse 19. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. If I'm to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. So that in me, you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Let's pray. Father, as we do each week, we now come to your word together. We ask that you would now bless the preaching of your word. We ask that you would speak to us, speak to our hearts and to our minds. We pray that your spirit would imprint this word on our hearts and on our brains, that as we leave this place, we would be changed. And as we go out to live our lives, that we would be faithful witnesses to Christ and what he has done for us. So be here in this moment, we pray. Minister to us through your word, we ask in the name of Christ, amen. This portion of scripture in Philippians chapter one has been extremely rich for us. We have considered in the first part, the various reasons that we as Christians have for joy. And now we're finishing out chapter one, considering the various reasons that Paul has to lose his joy. For all the reasons that he gives them in the first part of chapter one, to be joyful, he gives them reasons perhaps that he might be excused in losing his joy as he is ministering the gospel on his missionary journeys and in his life. We've considered in verses 13 to 18 that he is resolved to have joy even in spite of his circumstances. You know that he's under house arrest, he is in Rome, he is awaiting his trial before Caesar, and he's under lock and key, he's been falsely imprisoned. And he says, I will rejoice even in this, for this has only served to advance the gospel. And then we saw that He has resolved to have joy even in spite of the people that are around Him, these true brothers and true preachers of the Gospel who preach out of envy and rivalry. And He says, even in spite of these people who seek to afflict Me in My imprisonment, I will rejoice. I want you to know, brothers, all of this is serving to advance the Gospel. And so I will rejoice. This morning in verse 19, we start to see Paul's joy in spite of his persecution. This particular portion has become one of my favorite portions of Paul's letters over the years. And I've really been excited to get to this portion of this letter. with you here on Sunday mornings. You know, it's difficult sometimes for us to really get into the mind of Paul when we consider some of the things that he says. You know, we kind of forget that this is written by a real man under real circumstances to real people in real churches back in the first century church. It's difficult to really wrap our mind around the enormous weight of what he is saying here in this passage without really understanding what he is going through as a minister of the Gospel. Of course, you know quite well that Paul suffered as a minister of the Gospel for the cause of Christ. You know well the passage in 2 Corinthians 11 where he outlines his various sufferings and trials for the sake of the Gospel and for the cause of Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he's talking about the resurrection of the dead and whether or not it's true, you know, that's where he takes on the position, look, if it's not true that the dead are not, if it's true that the dead are not raised, then we are still in our sins. And he goes on in 1 Corinthians 15. In verse 29 he says, otherwise what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why, if the dead are not raised, are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain? Humanly speaking, if I fought with beasts at Ephesus, if the dead are not raised, let's eat and drink. for tomorrow we die. You see what he's saying? If the dead are not raised, then why am I constantly in peril? I die every day, brothers. I'm in danger every hour. And if the dead are not raised, it's all for naught. Let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It's all in vain. It's all worthless. This is the life of Paul. A life that he says he dies to every single day. completely forsaking everything in this world and dying to self for the cause of Christ. And, of course, this brings about an immense amount of suffering and pain. This, of course, is in stark contrast to the Western exportation of the prosperity gospel into other parts of the world. You know, the prosperous West is the only place they could think of something as blasphemous as the prosperity gospel, the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. When you look through church history, it makes you wonder what a man like Joel Osteen would have said to the Christians in the Coliseum as the teeth of the lions were bearing down on their necks. Paul says his life is a life of suffering. Because the life of the Christian is a life of self-denial. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. That is the call of the Gospel. It is the demand of the Gospel. He who does not hate his father and his mother, yes, even his own life is not worthy to be my disciple. And Jesus had told them, Paul understood it quite well. When he was called to be a minister, he forsook everything. And it has brought an immense amount of suffering and heartache for this beloved apostle. And so in the midst of that kind of life, this dying everyday life, He outlines His resolve to rejoice in the midst of trials and tribulations, and in the midst of mistreatment even among His fellow brothers who preach Christ from envy and rivalry. And now He loops around to talk about His persecution. Even in the midst of His persecution, He will rejoice. In verses 19-21, we see a progression of argumentation. One part building upon another. In verse 19, we see the expectation that produces joy. Verse 19, we see the expectation that produces joy. It starts with 4. The end of verse 18 says, Yes, and I will rejoice for... I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. I said that that phrase, yes and I will rejoice, is sort of the capstone of this entire paragraph, this entire section of this letter. Everything before it builds to that and everything after it springs from it, flows from it. The resolve to rejoice. And what does he rejoice for? He knows that he will be delivered. He knows that it will turn out for his deliverance. That, by the way, is a quotation out of the Old Testament in the book of Job. It's an obscure reference. Job 13, verse 16, he says, "...this will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before Him." The word translated as deliverance in the ESV is the word for salvation. Everywhere else in the ESV it's translated as salvation except for here where they change it because he's not talking necessarily about eternal salvation as he usually uses the word for. In fact, he uses it, the same Greek word, in this letter, in that way. In Philippians 1.28 he says, "...not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation." And that from God. And in chapter 2, verse 12, he says, "...therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation." With fear and trembling, it's the same word. It means eternal salvation. But here he's talking about something different. He's talking about being delivered out of this suffering. He says that this salvation from this trial will happen. And it will happen, very specifically, it will happen through something and because of something. It will happen through the prayers of the saints in Philippi. And it will happen through the help of the Spirit. I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my salvation. Now those are two things that we considered as we talked about our reasons for joy, aren't they? One reason for joy that we looked at was the joy of partnership, which included prayer for each other. Another one is the joy of our sanctification, which involves the work and the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. He says this, by the way, under the impression and under the assumption that He knows that they are going to pray for Him. I know that through your prayers, this will turn out for my deliverance. I know that you're praying for me. And I know that because of that, God's Spirit, the Spirit of Christ will work in me and it will work out for my deliverance. It's a sobering reminder that God works through the Spirit according to the prayers of His saints. Prayer makes things happen. Prayer works. Look how he connects it in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8. We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. So, same sort of context. He's under affliction. We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again." And then he says in verse 11, you also must help us by prayer. so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." That's the expectation that Paul has here. They will pray for him. And as they pray for him, the power of the Spirit of Christ will work in him and everything that is happening will turn out for his deliverance. That's his expectation. that produces joy. In fact, that's what he calls it. He calls it his expectation in verse 20, doesn't he? As it is my eager expectation and hope. My eager expectation. My long for expectation. I'm ready for this. I'm eager for this. I'm waiting for this. I'm joyful for this. So we see that his expectation produces and sustains the joy in his heart. Secondly, we see that his expectation produces steadfastness in life. First, it produces joy. Secondly, it produces and leads to steadfastness. And this should really come as no surprise that Paul sees his persecution as producing steadfastness within his heart. James chapter 1 verse 2 tells us, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces what? Steadfastness. and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." The trials and the tribulations that come our way, the trials of various kinds, of all stripes, of all colors is what that word means, that various kinds, trials of a myriad of colors and types. All of these trials that come to us are a testing of our faith that produces steadfastness. So James says, count it joy when you see them, for they are perfecting you. In Romans 5, 3 to 5, Paul said, not only that, almost the same thing that James says, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. and character produces hope and hope will not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. James says it, count it all joy. Paul says it, we rejoice in our sufferings because they are working to complete us in our sanctification. The same man who wrote Romans 5, 3-5, is the same man now who is showing us what that life looks like practically, to be rejoicing in your suffering because it produces endurance. The same man who wrote Romans 5, wrote Philippians 1. And the same man who wrote Romans 8. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It's the same man who wrote Philippians 1 who said, in the midst of my circumstances and in the midst of my detractors and the people who seek to afflict me in my imprisonment and in the midst of my persecution, I will rejoice. This is the same guy. He not only preaches the message, he lives the message that he preaches. Now what does he expect and hope? He said, it is my eager expectation and hope that what? I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body. That's a mouthful. He will not be ashamed. What's there to be ashamed about for Paul? Why should he be ashamed? what he should be or what the enemy is attempting to shame him over and cause him to be ashamed of is the message of the gospel. That's the attack. You remember in Romans 1 where he had said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God. There is something inherent in the message of the gospel that can cause believers to feel ashamed of it? Why else are we so slow to share the Gospel? Why else are we so timid to mention the Gospel? When we have opportunities, when we have conversations, when we are talking to friends or co-workers or relatives or neighbors or whatever, why is it that we always find some excuse not to share the Gospel? Perhaps because, in a very real sense, we are ashamed of the Gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. And here he says, it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, because through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus, this will turn out for my deliverance. I will not be ashamed. Paul had reasons to perhaps feel ashamed. He had the circumstances that we've looked at. He's got this persecution that we've looked at. He's got the false arrest. He's got the imprisonment. He's got these brothers who preach causing him affliction. He's got all of these different factors that are working together in the potential attempt to shame him into silence. That's the way the enemy will work, throwing everything at us in order to shame us into silence. And Paul says, no, I will not be ashamed. I expect that the Spirit will keep me from being ashamed and will keep me courageous. Full courage, he says. I will not be ashamed, but with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body. And this is how we know, by the way, that what he is in danger of being shamed about is the Gospel. Because the word translated as full courage means to be bold or courageous or confident in speech. That's the way it's used all over the New Testament. Here's a few examples in Acts 2.29. We read, brothers, I may say to you with full confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and this too is with us to this day. Acts chapter 4 verse 13, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. What boldness? The boldness that they were willing to speak even in the midst of much affliction. They perceived that they were uneducated, common men. They were astonished. They recognized they had been with Jesus. In Ephesians 6.19 it says, "...also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel." That's the kind of courage Paul is expecting here. I will not be ashamed, but with full courage to preach the gospel." His expectation has not only produced joy, it has produced a stalwart, unmoving, unshifting steadfastness to continue to proclaim the message of the gospel even when he is in much affliction because of that message. You know, it's not like he's in affliction for some other reason. And in the midst of that, he still is courageous to proclaim the Gospel. He's in affliction because he proclaims the Gospel. And even in that affliction, and even for that reason, he still is courageous to proclaim the Gospel. So his expectation produces joy, which leads to steadfastness, and finally it ends with God's glory. It ends with God's glory. How is He going to preach this message? I won't be ashamed, but with full courage, what? Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. Now this is where this entire passage gets really crazy. Because the point that Paul's making here is that through the prayers of the saints and through the power of the Spirit of Christ, this will turn out for His deliverance. We just saw that. So if that's the case, why does he mention death? Because when we pray in the midst of our circumstances and in the midst of our trials and in the midst of our tribulations, if we were in Paul's position, what would we be asking for? We would be asking for God to get us out of here. I'm not praying for death. I'm praying for you to get me out of this mess. Pray for God to do some of the stuff like He did in Philippi back in the book of Acts. You know, miraculous earthquakes and suddenly all the prisoners are free and so forth and so on. Do something big. Do something marvelous. Do something wonderful. Do something miraculous. Get me out of this. Work everything that I can get out of this situation. I don't like my trial. And I want you to save me out of it. That's how many would pray. But Paul is a strange man. He doesn't see things that way. Paul interprets the world, and he sees the world through a God-centered lens. That's why he says the strange things that he says, and that's why he says the strange things that he says here. What is Paul's deliverance? When Paul says that he expects to be delivered, what does it look like? What does he mean when he says that? So here's what I think he means from this text. When Paul says that he expects to be delivered, what he means is, I expect that as you Philippians pray for me, and as the Spirit of God works within me, He will deliver me from the threat of shame and empower me with boldness so that whether I live or whether I die, I will continue to honor Christ." That's the way he looked at his deliverance. For Paul, this is what it meant to be delivered. It meant that no matter what happens, the Spirit of God will keep him from renouncing or denying or forsaking the name of Christ and the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. That is what Paul understood it meant for him to be delivered in the midst of his affliction. When he says, I'm expecting to be delivered, it doesn't mean I'm expecting at some point between now and the day I die, I'm getting out of this imprisonment. That is not what he intends. That is not what he's thinking. Remember, he sees in his affliction the work of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. Now, even the whole Imperial Guard knows why I'm here. You maybe even get the impression Paul really doesn't want to leave his imprisonment. But when he talks about his deliverance, he means that the Spirit of God will keep him from forsaking Christ. I expect that whether in life or in death, I will honor Christ. I will honor Christ in my living, and I will honor Christ in my dying. That is what Paul understood his deliverance to be. I just read that passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Zero back in on verse 9 real quick. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. What does that mean? It means that they understand that God is the one who delivered them from deadly peril, and they understand that Because of the connection, God who raises the dead, He will deliver us. Even if we eventually do die for the sake of Christ, we know He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. Even whether He delivers us from our trial in this life, or whether our trial in this life ends in our death, God will deliver us, because we belong to Him. That's how he caps it off in Philippians 1. Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. It doesn't matter which happens to him in this cause. He knows that Christ will be honored. That's his point. What is it that undergirds and upholds this supreme confidence in Christ? How can this man, Paul, say this kind of thing? Verse 21, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. This is a wonderful capstone statement, and they insert the verbs there so it can make a little bit of sense in the English, but there's no verbs in the Greek. No, literally, it's for to me, to live, Christ, to die, gain. And we do that sometimes for emphasis. Either way, if God in His sovereign plan allows him to live, he will continue to live for Christ. And if God in His sovereign plan allows him to die, then it will be gained, for he will finally have Christ and be in His presence. To live is Christ. To die is gain. Both of those understandings are spelled out for us further in the rest of the New Testament, but even in just this letter alone. To live is Christ. Look at Philippians 3, 6-11. to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." That is a mouthful. that says he lives his life for Christ. And he counts everything that he once counted as gain as loss, rubbish, scubalon, dung, refuse. That's what it means to live for Christ. And what does it mean that dying is gain? Verse 22, Philippians 1. If I'm to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I'm hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. That's how you live like dying is gain. You face death. You face the possibility of death every day. Some of it's a little more obvious than others. but you stare down the barrel of death and you say, gain. For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Dying is gain for the Christian, for we get Christ. We will see Him like He is. when we see Him face to face and we will be like Him. That's the testimony of a man who lives to Christ and meets his death well. Paul does not fear death. He's confident in the Lord in spite of his persecution. Jesus taught us this. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, the Beatitudes, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice, be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And I don't think it's a coincidence that immediately after that, he says, you're the salt of the earth. And you're the light of the world. If you want to be salty, if you want to be bright in this world of darkness, what causes that is being joyful in Christ, even in the midst of suffering and trial and tribulation and heartache and pain. If we are going to rock the world with our witnesses, it will be by meeting the suffering of this life, which is coming. with an unshakable joy in Christ. That's what the world's waiting to see. Everyone outside of Christ is ultimately looking for Christ. They are searching for something to satisfy their hearts and their souls. And what are we showing of Him? Do we come across to the world as if Jesus is just, you know, a nice add-on to life? Or maybe a means to some other end, like in the prosperity gospel. You know, that's the bottom line problem with it, among other things, but it makes Jesus a means to some other end. You come to Jesus and you get wealthy. You come to Jesus and you get healthy. You come to Jesus and you get prosperous. And in the end, their God is not Christ, their God is their money. their power, their cars, their houses. How do we live? Do we live like Paul, counting everything as rubbish in order that we might gain Christ? Do we live like Jesus is just an add-on? Or do we live and move in such a way that makes it plain to the watching world that Jesus is everything to us? Paul lived like that in a situation in which he said he dies every day. Paul faced death every single day of his missionary travels. He makes that explicitly clear. He is constantly in danger. But no matter what happened to him, he rejoiced because he had Christ. And he faced down death every day and triumphed over it because he considered it to be gain. This is a wonderful answer to life. So many stay so troubled about life and death. You know, what if I die? When will it happen? There are two possibilities for today, for each and every one of us. Either we will live through it, or we will die in it. And guess what? Paul here says to the Christian, it doesn't really matter which one happens. To live is Christ. To die is gain. So as long as you're living, live for Christ. And live with a resolution in your own mind, in your own soul, in your own heart, that dying is gain. Let's pray. Father, we pray that You would make us this kind of people. We think about our own tendencies at self-preservation. We think about our own tendency talk ourselves into and out of things that maybe we should or should not. We think rationally. We think logically. We weigh pros and cons. We think about our lives. We look back on so many missed opportunities. We pray that You would help us to be the kind of people who live for Christ, who live like dying is gain. Help us to be strong and courageous. We see the darkness of this world getting darker, even around us where we live. So we pray that you would help us to be bold, be a prophetic voice, calling our neighbors to the glory of the Gospel. In all this we ask, in the name of Christ, Amen.