I spoke to the men at breakfast yesterday about the disciples on the night Jesus was arrested. And though they all had professed to follow Jesus to the death, if necessary, though they all professed to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, though they had all witnessed Jesus raise people from the dead, by the end of that night, when Jesus was arrested, they all fell away. Mark tells us that they all fled into the darkness.  Turns out they were afraid of death after all. But it would seem that after the resurrection, after they had seen the risen Christ, they had no fear of death anymore.

 In today’s passage, Paul is addressing his commitment to the ministry of the gospel.  We started looking at this last week.  In that message, I said that I think that verse 21 was actually Paul’s life motto.  In fact, to some degree or another, I’m sure that it was the motto of every Apostle or prophet, or even any contemporary man or woman of God that has been used in a mighty way to present the gospel to the world, whether or not he may have claimed this particular verse.  But as I said last week, Paul’s statement, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” should be the motto of every committed Christian everywhere in every age. 

Basically it means that whether we live or die in the flesh is of little concern to us.  What should be of utmost importance is that we have put Christ first in our lives and to live for Him is our greatest goal.  Nothing else in life comes first but Christ.  He takes preeminence in everything we do.  Christ should take preeminence over your social schedule, over your friends, over your family, over your career, over your business, over your free time, over your “me” time.  Christ should have the preeminence always.  And when you have that kind of sold out attitude, then you, like Paul will be able to say, whether I live or die is of no consequence to me.  I want to live for the Lord and I want my life to count for the Lord and nothing else is more important to me than that. 

I know it is a difficult thing to say.  And I know it is an even more difficult thing to live like that. The magnetism of this world will constantly be pulling on you to draw you away from your commitment.  But what we should constantly be doing is encouraging one another to persevere in this commitment to Christ.  That is one reason why we need to be in church whenever we can.  Because the the lusts of the flesh is like gravity working against us 24/7.  And we need to be encouraged and strengthened to stay the course.  To persevere in the faith and the ministry of the gospel.

So, as we looked at last week, we first of all have to come to the point where we are willing, if necessary, to physically lay down our life for Christ. But before you can come to that point, you first must lay down your life by laying down your goals, laying down your agenda, laying down your  aspirations, laying down your ambitions at the foot of the cross.  That’s what Rom. 12: 1 means when it says we are to present our bodies to Christ as a living sacrifice.  This is what it’s talking about in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me.”  See, I’m not living according to my agenda anymore, but I now live according to Christ’s agenda.  He has saved me, He has changed me, and He lives in me, and I now live the life that He wants to live through me.  I am merely a clay vessel that the Spirit of Christ occupies and works through.  And if you have that mentality, or should I say spirituality, where the desires of the flesh no longer take precedence, and you are walking in the spirit, then, and only then will you really be in a position to say, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

I think the best illustration of this is a soldier.  A  good soldier must come to the place where he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.  He must be willing to lay down his life in service for his country.  But in order to get him to that point, his superiors will first of all strip him of everything that he once held dear, and remake him into a new man.  They will take him away from his family, take away his freedoms, take away his pride, and they do all that to conform him to the image of the soldier that they know is necessary if he is to be able to risk his life to serve his country. 

Paul uses that same metaphor in talking about our Christian life.  Listen to 2 Tim. 2:3, Paul says, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Hebrews 12:1 talks about the same commitment from the viewpoint of an athlete.  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

I think it was last Friday that I saw a large group of people walking down the street and carrying a large wooden cross in downtown Millsboro.  I suppose they were acting out Christ’s walk to Calvary where He would be crucified. Perhaps they thought they were fulfilling the command to take up their cross and follow Christ. But I don’t think that is how we fulfill that command. I believe it’s a daily, laying down of our life in service to Him. We present our body as a living sacrifice which is our spiritual service of worship.

Now when we understand that level of commitment, when we come to the place where we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, when we are truly followers of Christ, willing to lay down what we think is important in our lives, willing to take up our cross and follow him, then we find ourselves in agreement with what Paul said in Phil. 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  It’s a 100% commitment.  Notice there are two resurrections mentioned in that verse.  Christ’s resurrection, and the resurrection of the dead.

Our commitment unto death spoken of in that verse reveals the significance of Christ’s resurrection.  It is not enough to rehearse the historical events of the physical death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  That is all most churches seem to want to focus on today.  But it is another thing to know the spiritual significance of the resurrection.  That is what Paul speaks of as the power of His resurrection.  Knowing Jesus means knowing this power, the new life that is imparted to us now, not just when we die.

Charles Spurgeon said of the power of His resurrection, “I do not think, however, that Paul is here thinking so much of the power displayed in the resurrection, as of the power which comes out of it, which may most properly be called, ‘the power of his resurrection.’ This the apostle desired to apprehend and to know.” 

The power of His resurrection is an evidential power. It is the evidence and guarantee that everything Jesus did and said was true. It was evidence that He was the Son of God.  The power of His resurrection is a justifying power. It is the receipt and proof that the sacrifice of the cross was accepted by God the Father as payment in full for the forgiveness of our sins, that we might be justified with God. The power of His resurrection is a life-giving power. It means that those who are connected with Jesus Christ receive new life, we are born again to new life.  When I baptize someone I usually say “Buried with Him in the likeness of His death, and raised with Him in the likeness of HIs resurrection to walk in newness of life.”  And the power of His resurrection is a consoling and comforting power. It promises that those who are dead in Christ are alive with Him in spirit even though their body may in the grave, and that at the second coming they will be raised incorruptible with a glorified body, even as Christ.  

When we come to know the power of His resurrection we find that we have victory over death. Then we can say with Hosea, “O death where is your sting?  O grave, where is your victory?” Death no longer has dominion over us.  It no longer has the power to make us afraid. As Hebrews 2:14 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Now this is the hope of the Christian.  The penalty of death is what we were saved from.  We are set free from judgment and damnation; eternal death.  We are set free from the curse of sin and death that came upon all  mankind back in the Garden of Eden.  We who have accepted the atonement of Jesus Christ have been set free from death, and have been given eternal life. This is our hope.  This is the future glory of the Christian. This is what the hope of Christianity is all about.  It’s not just about having a better life here and now.  It’s not about having a deity at our beck and call to order around and deliver us from every sort of discomfort here on earth.  No, our hope is in heaven.  Our hope is eternal life.  Our hope is life beyond the curse of death that every man, woman and child on earth is under.

This is what Paul is saying in verse 20; “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”  Whether he lived or died, Paul knew that Christ would be exalted.  Did you know Christ is exalted in the death of a Christian?  Because the testimony of our faith even in death brings glory to Christ.  Our confidence in the resurrection, even as Christ was resurrected exalts the name of Jesus.

Then having established this fact, Paul continues in Phil. 1:22  “But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.”  Paul says, if God chooses to let me live, then that simply gives me more opportunity in the flesh to produce fruit through my labors.  And Paul knows that is a good thing.  Because one day, folks, Rom 14:12 says that  “each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”  And God is going to reward our work that we have done in the flesh and Paul planned on doing more work if he stayed. 

1Cor. 3:13 says that at the day of judgment, “each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”  Listen, there is nothing on this earth that cannot be destroyed by fire.  Everything you worked for in this life will be destroyed by fire. Your bank account will be burned up. Your beautiful home will be burned up. Your possessions will be burned up.  So where is your reward?  The only things that will not be destroyed are things which are spiritual.  Only spiritual things cannot be destroyed by fire, and they are the works which will bring a reward in heaven.

But the question arises then, when Paul says in verse 23, that his desire was to “depart and be with Christ,” what exactly is he talking about?  Or maybe the better question is where is he talking about?  Because obviously, Paul’s confidence is that when he dies, he fully expects to be with Christ.  In fact, in another passage 2 Cor. 5:8, Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  But where is that exactly? 

For me, the answer to this question came about the hard way.  Two weeks before I got married, my dad died.  And though he had been in poor health for a number of years, it still rocked me to the core like nothing else on earth.  And when I came to the point where I was able to start thinking logically,  the first thing I wanted to know was exactly where my dad was right then.  Growing up in the church I had always heard about heaven.  I believed in heaven.  And yet my understanding of heaven was like a lot of other Christians.  It was a doctrine made up of a lot of disjointed references in scripture, which when I really started examining them I found they were sometimes talking about different things.  I discovered that most of what passes for the Christian view of heaven really is something that is found in Revelation and Isaiah, both of which refer to a new heaven and a new earth that is yet to be created.  They speak of a place and a time that will be ushered in at the end of the ages, after the second coming when Christ shall rule over all the earth, and Satan and his angels will forever be taken out, after this present earth shall be destroyed by fire, when God will make all things new. Then said Peter, comes the new heavens and new earth, which is described by John in Revelation but which has been misinterpreted to be speaking of “Heaven” as it is right now.

And so I sat about the quest of finding out what the Bible really said about heaven.  I wanted to know where my dad was right now.  And I think it is important for all of us to know.  If you don’t know where you’re going when you die, then how can you have the joy and confidence that Paul had when he faced death?  And furthermore, where was Christ when He died? Was His body and Spirit comatose in the grave for three days? Where did Christ go when He died?

Now there are a lot of different opinions and views about heaven that have been propagated in the church, and a lot of it is purely speculative.  So we want to avoid being dogmatic about things that scripture does not speak clearly about.  But what we can absolutely know for sure, just from the first two verses that I just referenced, that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Both Phil. 1:23  and 2 Cor. 5:8 confirm that.

Furthermore, Jesus Himself said to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43  “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”  When was that? “Today.” That day they would both be in Paradise.  Now where is Paradise?  We know that Jesus’ body was in the grave for three days.  But the scriptures teach that Jesus’ spirit wasn’t in the grave.  Jesus said He would be with him that day in Paradise.  Yet when Christ rose from the dead, He said to Mary Magdalene, in John 20:17,  “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father;'”  So according to Jesus own words, He had been somewhere other than in heaven with God the Father.

I believe that the Bible makes it clear that Jesus went to Hades. 1Peter 3:18  “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”  Now I don’t have time to explain all of that verse here today, but note that it says Jesus was dead in the flesh, but alive in the spirit, and in the spirit He preached to disobedient spirits in prison.

Jesus Himself gives us more insight into that place in Luke chapter 16 starting in verse 19. I don’t have time to read it for you this morning, but I trust that you will read it later if it’s not already familiar scripture for you.  But there are a couple of things I want you to see in this passage.  One is that I don’t believe it is a parable.  Jesus taught many things using parables.  But often he introduced parables as parables.  Jesus doesn’t do that here.  Secondly, never in any parable does Jesus name the characters.  But here Jesus names Abraham and the poor man as Lazarus.  So I don’t believe it is a parable, but an actual story of real people.  However, even if it were a parable, Jesus would not  make up some fairy tale place just to make a point.  Furthermore, this teaching is completely in harmony with the Jewish rabbinical teaching about Sheol, which is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament as the abode of the dead.  The Old Testament doesn’t really talk about heaven.  But it does talk about Sheol, which was the abode of the dead awaiting judgment. 

Now notice that in this story Jesus describes two distinct places in one location.  One is a place of torment where the rich man was.  That is called Hades in many parts of the Bible.  It is a different place from Hell or the Lake of Fire that is described in Revelation 20:11.  Many theologians believe that Hades occupies the lower regions or the bowels of the earth.  The Bible talks about Jesus descending into Hades. Eph 4:9 “(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?”

It is my belief that Jesus is describing the resting place of the dead. This is why Jesus referred to death for the believer as being asleep.  The body is dead, but the spirit is alive. In the case of those that rejected Christ, then theirs is a place of torment.  In the case of the redeemed, theirs is a place of comfort, which Jesus referred to as Paradise to the thief on the cross.  And I believe the Bible teaches that as Christians in death we will know the presence of Christ.  Jesus said, “today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Jesus is God, and one of God’s greatest characteristics is that He is omnipresent.  He is able to be everywhere at once.  And He promises to be there with us. 

But God doesn’t leave us there. Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection, and we too will be resurrected even as He was.  Jesus promised to come again to claim His church.  Listen to 1Thess. 4:13  “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Paul knew the comfort of hope in heaven.  He had seen things while caught up to what is called the third heaven that he was not allowed to speak of.  Things that were impossible to describe.  Things that were beyond our comprehension.  Maybe we aren’t told everything about that place  because  we can’t comprehend it. The Apostle John speaks of the new heavens and new earth as the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.  Describing it would be like trying to describe a sunset to someone who had been blind from birth. As 1Cor. 2:9 says, “ just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

Paul said in our text in Philippians that to depart and be with the Lord would be so much better than living here on earth.  And yet he knows that if he is allowed to live here, it’s going to result in fruitful labor.  His labor was for the church.  God had chosen him to be a useful vessel in establishing the church and he knew that God wasn’t through with him yet.  He was looking forward to glory.  He was looking forward to being free from this body of death, and yet he was more than willing to live his life in service for the kingdom of heaven here on earth, the church, the body of Christ.  Paul was looking to the future reward.

I hope that you will come to the same level of commitment and maturity as Paul.  You have been chosen to be priests and kings in the Kingdom of Heaven.  And one day, whether we are alive in the flesh or if the flesh is dead and we are alive in the spirit, Christ is coming back to judge the living and the dead.  It’s my hope, and I trust your hope, that we will not be ashamed on that day, but we will hear Christ say, ‘’Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’’