Funeral Sermon: You Win Either Way

You Win Either Way

Philippians 1:21

Robin’s life was all about Jesus because she had traded her sin for joy! A spirit of rejoicing oozed out of Robin. Let’s go back to her favorite verse from Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This verse is short but is packed with meaning.

We could summarize it like this:

• Because Robin lived for the Lord, she has now gained glory.

• If you live for the Lord now, you will gain glory.

In the original, it literally reads this way: “For to me to live Christ, to die gain.” The person, purposes and plans of Christ were preeminent to Robin. When Paul says, “To me” he is emphatically saying, “Whatever life may be to you, this is what it is to me.” We might say it like this: “As far as I’m concerned…”

How would you honestly complete this sentence? For to me, to live is . What floats your boat? What gets you excited? When you say, “That’s what life is all about,” what are you referring to?

No one can leave that sentence blank. Everyone is living for something. What are you living for right now? Is it a relationship with someone? Is it your job? Could it be a pleasure, a place, or a possession?

• If for me to live is money, then to die is to leave it all behind

• If for me to live is fame, then to die is to be forgotten

• If for me to live is pleasure, then to die is to miss all the fun

• If for me to live is ambition, then to die is to become insignificant

• If for me to live is my car or boat, then to die is to have them all rust and fade away

Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” Colossians 3:4 puts it this way: “When Christ, who is your life…” Is He your life? He was Robin’s life and still is. We could ask the question this way: Is Christ prominent in your life, or is He preeminent?

For most of us, we don’t think of death as gain. In fact, we often refer to someone dying like this: “We lost so-and-so.” Listen. Nothing is lost if you know where it is! Robin is not lost. Because she was found by Christ and saved by His amazing grace, she is now eternally secure with her Savior.

In many of our minds, the absence of life is loss. How then can death be gain? Revelation 21:3-4: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The word “gain” refers to “profit” or interest on money. We could say it like this: As born again believers, we come out ahead when we’re dead!

Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

Actually, we’re not really dead when we die. We leave this world to spend eternity in another world. What do we gain? One pastor said that we gain a better body, a better home, a better inheritance, and better fellowship.

Illus. When we were with Robin last Saturday, I quoted the words of Jesus found in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Robin has not died; she’s just changed her address! Many of us think this is the land of the living, and that when we die, we go to the land of the dead. We have it backwards. This is the land of the dying. When our life here is over, we are transferred to the place of the living.

The Bible says we will live forever in one of two destinations - a place of terrible torment called Hell or a place of eternal joy called Heaven.

For the believer in Jesus, death is everlasting gain. For the unbeliever, it is eternal loss.

• Because Robin lived for the Lord, she has now gained glory.

• If you live for the Lord now, you will gain glory.

Robin believed in Christ. She lived for Christ, she died in Christ, and has now gained Christ forever. If you know Jesus through the new birth, you win either way.