One Day I Will Arrive

Philippians 1:21-30 One day I will Arrive

1. When the text was written

• The Apostle Paul wrote these lines during his imprisonment in Rome, probably sometime between 61 and 63 Ad.

• Paul’s imprisonment was a situation of house arrest under military custody that would have allowed him certain privileges, for instance visits of Timothy with whom he penned this letter.

2. The writing begins by talking about living dyeing

• The text starts with the following sentences: “For to me, live is Christ and dying is gain.

• If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer.

• I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:21–23, NRSV).

3. What kind of thinking is dying is gain?

• Life is mostly thought of gratifying and fulfilling

• We admire people who succeed in life and live life to the fullest

• One commentator said, “There are not many role models for the idea that “dying is gain.”

• If you visit a nursing home you may think like Paul dying is gain

4. Why did Paul think dying is gain?

• Perhaps for Paul it was the potential of death so it was expected and he knew it so he probably thought about death a lot. Larry Reed said, “ A man would be stupid not to be afraid of death”

• Paul believed in death he would be with Jesus in verse 23: “my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

• Paul believes in death he will be united with Christ. Paul had written In Corinthians “ … we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8 NRSV).

5. Consider others who thought like Paul about death

• In the spring of 1945, the last message written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his execution in a concentration camp in Nazi-Germany he says,“ … for me this is the end but also the beginning. With him or with Jesus . I believe in the principle of our Universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain.”

• Dwight L. Moody said, “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone higher, that is all — out of this old clay dwelling into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. He said these words before entering Home

• There are Christians from a certain tribe in Africa who never say of their dead “who die in the Lord” that “they have departed.” Instead, speaking as it were from the vantage point of the glory world, they triumphantly and joyously say, “they have arrived.”

6. He makes a few recommendations on how followers of Christ should live

• (1:27–30).“standing firm in one spirit, I saw I heard this the other night we are united

• striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (1:27).

7. Remember the tribe in Africa if we die church we have arrived

• We will have arrived to all the splendors of eternity “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints

• We have arrived to eternal rest Hebrews 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;

• We will have Arrived to Paradise To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

• We will have arrived to No more needs I shall not want no more we will be filled with energy, love, peace, that we will be saying with the other saints "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

• We will have arrived to acknowledgeing dying is gain

• We will have arrived to saying that now being with Christ, for that is far better,

• We will have arrived to say its been a privilege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him as well,