So we're continuing now in our series in the book of Philippians. And we come to Philippians chapter one, verses 12 through 26. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter one. Beginning in verse 12. Hear now the word of the living God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. 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, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But 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, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, there's a famous speech given by the character Hamlet that begins with the line, to be or not to be, that is the question. And in this moment, Hammett is torn between the option of life and death. In his despair, he weighs the suffering of life against the fear of the unknown that comes with death. And this scene sums up the view of the struggle of life and the fear of what lies beyond death for an unbeliever. for someone who does not believe in Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, life can be a struggle to find meaning and a purpose in a world of suffering and uncertainty. And death leads to fear of the unknown. But our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul has a similar struggle with life and death, but this time, from a Christian perspective, from a perspective of divine joy and eternal hope. Paul considers whether he will live and continue on his mission for Jesus Christ, or if he will die and be with Christ. And in this passage, we will see that when you commit your life to Jesus Christ, that means both in your life and in your death, Jesus Christ is glorified. Our passage this morning follows the opening prayer that we studied last week, where Paul pours out his love for the Philippians and the joy he has remembering them, remembering his partnership with them for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said he had joy in the certainty that God would finish in them what he had started. He prayed for their love to increase in discernment of God's will so that they would be fully sanctified in the fruit of righteousness of Jesus Christ, all to the glory and praise of God. And now beginning in verse 12, Paul proceeds to give an update of his situation. They already know that Paul is in prison. But what they probably didn't know is that the advancement of the gospel through Paul hasn't stopped. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and salvation of Jesus Christ is continuing to spread, is continuing to transform the lives of people, even though Paul is in prison. He's not out preaching the gospel in the synagogues and in the streets, but in prison, It continues, Paul's updating them. Yes, I am in prison. Yes, it seems like my work for the gospel may have been stopped. I'm not planning any new churches. I'm not doing any of the missionary work I've been doing, but God continues to work even through his imprisonment. And it was known that the reason he was arrested and in prison, the reason he was going through all of this was because he refused to stop preaching the gospel. And he mentions the imperial guard, which was an elite unit of the Roman army. And they served as the personal guards for the emperor. And he said, even they knew that Paul was imprisoned for the gospel. Everyone knew this. And what an amazing witness this was. Paul was beaten and arrested for years awaiting to hear, waiting to have his hearing, his trial before the emperor. all for the sake of the gospel that everyone knew. And this served to encourage the other Christians. When they heard that Paul was willing to sacrifice his freedom and maybe even his life for the sake of the gospel, when they heard that God was using Paul even in his Roman imprisonment to advance the gospel, they became more confident. They were much more bold to speak the word of God without fear. Paul's not focused on the difficulty of his circumstances. He's focused on the advancement of the gospel. This is the goal for every Christian in your life. No matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, no matter how difficult or great your circumstances may be, focus on the advancement of the gospel. This is your call to serve God and his kingdom. And God is the one who advances his gospel. And he does so through his word and through his people. The gospel advances through the word of God being preached and proclaimed. The gospel advances through the love of God coming through his people. And your focus as a Christian should be on God himself changing the hearts and minds of people through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in the church here at Third, we as God people should be focused on this, the advancement of the gospel, focused on people coming to faith in Jesus Christ, on growing in faith, people who have already been saved. The advancement of the gospel is both people coming to salvation and people growing in the maturity of their faith. The gospel does both those things. Paul would first plant a church by preaching the gospel, but he would also revisit those same churches to revitalize them by the gospel. He would call them to repentance, to examine their hearts, to live lives for Jesus Christ, to commit themselves to living for God, to turn from their sin. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and the gospel is the power of God for growth in holiness. And so focus on the advancement of the gospel in your life and in the church. And this means focus on the proclamation of Christ. Paul mentions, starting in verse 15, that some men are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, and others are preaching Christ from goodwill. The preachers of goodwill do so out of love, knowing that Paul is in prison for defending the gospel. But those who preach from envy and rivalry proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely. They actually want to harm Paul even more than he already is. And so what does all of this mean? Paul says, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. The proclamation of Christ is the proclamation of his gospel, that Jesus Christ died for sinners, that in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins is offered to all who repent and believe. Although Paul is suffering in prison and some of the preachers do so out of evil motives, Paul's rejoicing because he is focused on the proclamation of the gospel. Now motives do matter, but they are second to the content of the message. There are many preachers and churches today who water down their message in order to attract people. They don't preach about sin. They don't preach about the need for a savior. They don't preach the gospel, the good news of salvation. They don't say anything that might put someone off who's not a Christian. It's a complete opposite of what Paul's rejoicing over. If the motives of a preacher or a church are good, but the message is devoid of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there's no reason to rejoice. Donald Barnhouse, he was the former pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Center City once spoke of what it would look like if Satan really took control of Philadelphia. He said all the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would all say, yes, sir, and no, ma'am, and the churches would be full every Sunday where Christ was not preached. Our mission as a church is the advancement of the gospel. It's not to gather as many people as we can by not preaching Christ to them. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is the power of God for sanctification. The gospel is the means by which God advances his kingdom. So your focus as a Christian, our focus as a church is to preach Christ and to advance the kingdom of God. by bringing sinners to salvation and by increasing the image of Christ in believers. And this is done by preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and living lives transformed by that same gospel. And when your focus is on the advancement of the gospel and the preaching of Christ, then you can rejoice in Christ. Paul not only rejoices in Christ being proclaimed, but he says he will rejoice in that he knows that the prayers of the Philippians will be answered and that his situation will turn out for his deliverance. Now, scholars have debated exactly what Paul means by deliverance here. Does it mean he will be delivered from prison, released from prison? Or does it mean he'll be delivered in his ultimate salvation from the wrath of God? I believe he is referring to both. He goes on later saying, verse 25, that he is convinced that he will remain on earth and continue with the Philippian church, continue in his work for the gospel with them. He's convinced that he will be acquitted in his upcoming trial with Caesar. But the words turn out for my deliverance in the Greek are actually word for word from Job 13. where Job is arguing his case before God, speaking about being vindicated before the judgment of God. Paul is saying that whether he is acquitted and released from prison or whether he is executed by the Roman government, either way, he is delivered. He will either be delivered from the judgment of Caesar and freed, or he will be executed by Caesar and delivered from the judgment of God. And knowing that, He is in a win-win situation because of Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus Christ, he can rejoice in this circumstance. He rejoices that through no good deed of his own, but completely by the work of Jesus Christ, he cannot lose. Either way, he is delivered. When you understand this, when you understand that your life is about God's plan of redemption in the world, when you understand that God can use whatever situation you are in for his purposes, when you understand that live or die, you are in the hands of God because of Jesus Christ. You can rejoice. There's a joy in the Lord when your fate rests in Jesus Christ. Your circumstances become secondary because Jesus Christ becomes primary. When you've been changed by God and committed yourself to Jesus Christ, both your life and your death become about Christ. This is what Paul says in verse 20. that it's his eager expectation and his hope that he will not be ashamed. But with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in his body, whether by life or by death. And knowing this brings joy that goes beyond his circumstances. When your joy comes only from your circumstances, you're at the whims of this broken world. Your joy is fleeting because everything in this world is temporary. But when your joy is Christ, then your joy is eternal. Live or die, you can rejoice. Then Paul summarizes what it means to be a Christian in his short but profound statement in verse 21. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. The first half of this statement, Paul is saying that to live is Christ. It means that his whole life is Jesus Christ. Christianity is Jesus Christ. The Christian life is all about Jesus. The whole of your life is Jesus Christ is the first part of being a Christian. And first you have faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ, the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, is a saving grace. It's the grace of God whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel. To have faith in Jesus Christ is to recognize your complete inability on your own to save yourself. To have faith in Jesus Christ is to solely trust in Him and His work on your behalf. Faith in Jesus Christ is to know that you are a sinner who only deserves from God His punishment, but through His grace, through His love for you, God sent his son to live a perfectly righteous life and die a sacrificial death on the cross in your place. That through this, you can be saved. The life of a Christian needs faith in Jesus Christ. But the life of a Christian also means union with Christ. Through faith, you are spiritually united to Christ. When the Holy Spirit brings you to a new spiritual life, he spiritually unites you to Christ. It's through your spiritual union with Christ that all the benefits of Jesus Christ come to you. Through your spiritual union with Christ, you have fellowship with him, in his grace, in his sufferings, in his death, in his resurrection, and in his glory. And because all believers in Jesus Christ are united to him spiritually, therefore we are all united to each other in love. Through our common spiritual union with Christ, we have communion with each other in each other's gifts, in each other's graces. We are called to love each other and work for the mutual good inwardly and outwardly of each other. Your life as a Christian is Jesus Christ because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. This means you are following him. shaping your life after him. You are being changed by him. You are committed to his mission for the kingdom of God. Your life is for Christ. When you come to faith, you commit yourself to him and he becomes your life. You live to advance his mission for the kingdom of God through the spreading of the gospel. This is all what Paul means for me to live is Christ. But he also says to die is gain. Now, this part is true only if the first part is true. It's popular today to think that everyone goes to heaven or everyone goes to a better place. But if you can't say that to live is Christ, then you can't say that to die is gain. This is why Hamlet struggled with death so much. Death for an unbeliever is punishment. If you die without Christ, you die in your sins. But if you do have faith in Jesus Christ, if you have been spiritually united to him through faith, you've committed your life to him, then to die is gain. Because in death, you immediately go into glory, into the presence of Christ. For the believer in Jesus Christ, death is the greatest glory they can experience. It's not that we are to desire death and hate life, but because to live is Christ. This is why Paul wrestles with this fate. He said, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. That is, he cannot tell whether he prefers to live or die. He's hard-pressed between the two. He goes on to say, my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on their account, on the account of the philispians. Remaining in this life is a positive because of all that you gain in Jesus Christ. But all the positives of this life are amplified in the life to come without any of the downsides from evil and sin, without any of the effects of sin. When you enter into glory, your whole existence will be far better in ways we can't understand. You will have uninterrupted joy, awaiting the future resurrection to be reunited with your glorified, resurrected body. So no matter what, you can glory in Jesus Christ. Paul is convinced that he will be freed from prison, that he will continue in this life to continue his work for the gospel and his work with the Philippians. The reason Paul will live is because the churches need him. This tells us something. The reason God has you here on earth living is so that you will be useful to him and his kingdom. It may be to show the kindness, gentleness, and love of Christ to others. It may be to support the efforts of the church, the advancement of the gospel. You live for the glory of Christ and God sustains you to that end. You're here for a purpose, and that purpose is that Jesus Christ will be glorified. And Paul says the Philippian church have ample reason then to glory in Christ because Paul believes he will return to them. Paul knows that they will glory in Christ if he returns, but the truth is they can glory in Christ if he dies as well. As Paul puts it, either way, if he lives or dies, Christ is honored in his body. Christ is exalted regardless of what happens to Paul. Christ is glorified in Paul's life and he is glorified in his death. And this statement to live is Christ and to die is gain means that no matter what, Christ is glorified. In any circumstances in your life, Jesus Christ is glorified because you live for him. Living for Jesus Christ, committing your life to him, glorifies him. And you can glory in Jesus Christ because he died for your sins. You can glory in Jesus Christ because he called you out of darkness into light. And you can glory in Jesus Christ because he calls you to a life of living for him. He calls you to leave behind the emptiness of living in sin, the emptiness of living for yourself and living for this present world. No matter how much earthly glory you could possibly gain in this life. It pales in comparison to the infinite heavenly glory of Jesus Christ. And because Jesus Christ has laid his life down for you, he gives you a new spiritual life. He enables you to live for him and glory in him. When your life is about Jesus Christ, then it's all to his glory. Whether you live or die, Jesus Christ is glorified. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, knowing that we are empty handed, knowing that everything this world has to offer is nothing. But Lord, in your love for us, you sent your son to bring us into glory. to bring us out of darkness, to bring us out of the emptiness of living for ourselves, living for our own glory, living for money and fame and status in the world, that we may live for you. So Lord, we ask for your spirit to continue to embolden us, that you would be with us in our trials and our struggles, that we would focus on the advancement of your gospel. That we would focus on your son and what he has done and the changes that you are bringing about in our lives. That we can show the love of Christ to the world. That we can show that no matter what our circumstances, like the Apostle Paul, that Jesus Christ will be glorified. And we know that in our lives and in our death, Jesus Christ will be glorified and all to his glory. It's in his glorious name we pray. Amen.