Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
May 27, 1984
Living and Dying
Philippians 1:19-26
During this week the Unites States will be celebrating Memorial Day. Across the street in our little cemetery you will see flags on many of the graves, especially those who fought in the Civil War. When I think of Memorial Day I think of the American cemeteries I have seen in Europe, near battlefields like the D-Day beaches in France and the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, where tens of thousands of American soldiers are buried. What is striking about these cemeteries is the way they are laid out. Each marker is made of white marble in the form of a cross or a Star of David. They are positioned in row upon row over the carefully cut grass. These cemeteries are not interrupted by trees or statues - all you see are the thousands of graves.
I used to wonder if anyone remembered these men. Many of the cemeteries were in out-of-the-way places and had few visitors. Americans tend to have this view toward death in general. We don't think about it much. We like to forget about it. When we have to think about it, it leaves us feeling kind of gloomy. In a society which worships youth and liveliness, death strikes a flat note.
The fact that many of those honored on Memorial Day were killed in the prime of life seems like a double tragedy. If we have to choose between life and death, we would choose life hands down. For many people death is not just their second preference, it's the last thing they want to think of. They are terrified of it and this fear affects everything they do.
Alfred Krupp was a famous manufacturer of weapons and bombs in Germany. He made his living from these instruments of death but he was so afraid of dying himself that he never forgave anyone who brought up the topic in his presence. If any of his employees talked about it they were fired. Once a relative who was visiting with him suddenly died; Krupp ran from the house in terror. Later when his wife criticized him for what he did, he kicked her out and never lived with her again. When old age began to take its toll, he offered his doctor $1,000,000 if he would prolong his life ten years. All his money and fear made no difference and Krupp died. If Krupp had become a Baptist, or even a Pentecostal, he still would have died. The only thing more real than death is taxes. Both of them are inevitable.
In our passage today the apostle Paul gives one of the clearest Christian views on death. The climax of the passage is a verse which is universally memorized. It is verse 21 which says:
"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
To live is Christ - this statement means that Christ was not only Paul's reason for living but also his resource for living. It is not uncommon to find people without a reason for living. They simply exist until they can bear it no longer, or they fill their emptiness with meaningless pursuits. Other people have reasons for living but no resources for living. Once they attain to their reason for living they are left disappointed or strangely empty. Many astronauts in America's space program have experienced this. One of them said his whole life revolved around the mission to land on the moon. Once the mission was completed, he experienced a severe depression. He concluded that the only lasting reason for living could be found in God, and so he became a Christian. Two other astronauts who went to the moon also became believers and are involved in Christian ministries.
The apostle Paul based his life on what he could do for Jesus. Verse 19 discusses the two resources God gave him - people were praying for him and the Spirit of Jesus was helping him. These resources were meant to be used and verse 22 shows how. The NIV brings out the meaning more clearly by translating like this:
"If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me."
For God's will to be done on the earth, he needs people to do it. God could choose to use rocks to evangelize but he doesn't. Maybe angels are used a few times, and a donkey once, yet 99% of God's work is done through people. If God wants a poor person to have some food, he usually doesn't drop a frozen TV dinner from heaven. He prefers to motivate a Christian to share their food with the one who's in need. Every Christian has a fruitful ministry to perform for God. This involves more than witnessing or reading the Bible. Everything we do should show our lives have been changed by the risen Lord Jesus. We should enjoy living and seek to get the most out of it. According to Jesus, the surest way to serve Christ is to serve others. There have been times I have come across Christians who feel that they are too old or had been ill too long to serve God at all. You may feel this way but it's not true. As long as you're breathing you can touch someone's life.
Living for Jesus is meant to be exciting but according to Paul, dying will be even better. He actually looked forward to it. To many Americans this kind of attitude seems somewhat sick. You are supposed to hang on to life at all costs. Funeral directors are highly skilled at taking our minds off the certainty of death. When death finally comes they work hard to make everybody think it hasn't happened. When they're through, some people look better in the coffin than they did in life.
Paul enjoyed life and the opportunities it gave him. He wasn't a suicidal fanatic but he was realistic. He knew that he might be executed any day and he was prepared for it. Death to Paul wasn't the ultimate tragedy. In verse 21 he says, "Death is gain." At the end of 22 he adds:
"Yet what I shall choose I don't know. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better."
The only reason Paul would choose life is because God still needed him here. Other than that, he preferred death.
Life involves a lot of pain, failure and disappointments. Paul had experienced these things, and with Christ's help, life had been great for him. It only makes sense that life without these bad things would be even better. Eternal life in heaven involves more than escape from pain. On the positive side it involves a closer union with Jesus. In this life we may have a few intense moments when we feel God's hand directly guiding us. It may be the day you ask Christ to come into your life and wash away your sins. It could be a warm feeling while reading the Bible, or when you watch a Christian you love die. Any true Christian will have these special experiences that bring us into closer fellowship with God. But usually we're just muddling along, bouncing from one day to the next. Heaven will be a lot different. There we will enjoy life with an intensity we can only imagine now. At that time we will be made perfect by Jesus and our minds will be able to take in everything that God knows. The great chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13, brings this out. Paul says in verse 12 there:
"For now we see through a glass (or mirror) darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part but then I shall know, even as also I am known by God."
When we depart this life, we go to be with Christ immediately. You don't have to wait in line a few hundred years. The experience of heaven will be infinitely better than anything we can imagine. We tend to focus on the reunions we'll have with loved ones who have died. This will happen but the reunion with Jesus will be even better. While we look forward to this day, we should make the most out of what we have now. Paul says in Philippians 1:20:
". . . with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."
Christians who are content to do what they can must be content to magnify their own abilities in their lives. Those who want to magnify Jesus must expect to be taken to the edge of their abilities so that they have to rely on the resources Jesus gives.
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Typed on October 1, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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