Philippians 1: 19-23
To Die Is Gain
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Death is not extinguishing the light from the Christian. It is putting out the lamp because the bright new glorious dawn has come. Our hearts grieve deeply over losing a champion of the faith, yet we are undeniably grateful for the life of Ronnie Pitts & the completion of his earthly journey. Therefore we gather today to support each other in our loss & to celebrate his home-going to be with the precious Lord Jesus Ronnie loved and served so faithfully.
Ronnie was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a preacher, a teacher, a prayer partner, and a friend. He was a hunter, a fisherman, a painter, a body man & a writer. To Ronnie family was important. So he was always there for his beloved children; Johnnie & Kelley. He not only made sure they knew Christ, he discipled them in Christ & prepared them to live & enjoy life.
Ronnie loved people, & each of us here could attest to that point, because he loved each of us. He also loved things like fishing polls, guns, tools books, but mostly he loved the Bible. He gave a Bible to those he loved best & even to those hardly knew. Why? Because he loved God’s Word and knew what it did for him, how it brought him closer to the God he loved with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. Ronnie was an inspiration to us all and the full impact of his life and ministry will not be comprehended or calculated this side of heaven. His life and ministry brought high honor, praise, and glory to the Lord he loved so deeply and served so admirably.
Ronnie taught me many things, (particularly concerning living by faith). In his last year here he taught me that the power of CANCER is limited. Cancer cannot kill love. It cannot shatter faith. It cannot eat away hope. It cannot corrode peace. It cannot destroy confidence. It cannot cripple friendships. It cannot shut out memories. It cannot silence courage. It cannot invade the soul. It cannot reduce eternal life. It cannot quench the Spirit. It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.
Ronnie found the enabling to face such trying days from His Lord Jesus and His Word. We can find great comfort and understanding in the Bible so that we might face such days in faith, like Ronnie did. Philippians 1:19-23 states,... "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain...."
If "for me to live is Christ," then to die is gain." If for me to live is money, then to die is a loss. If for me to live is pleasure, then to die is a loss. If for me to live is self, then to die is a loss. If for me to live is ambition, then to die is a loss. If for me to live is sin, then to die is a loss. If for me to live is worldliness, then to die is a loss. But if for me to live is Christ, then to die is a gain. For Ronnie to live was Christ.
Let me share with you Four ways that for the Christian death is gain.
1st, We gain a better body.
Christians receive a glorified, immortal, eternal resurrected body. In this present body of clay we are subject to all the sorrows and tears that earthy life brings our way. Age, sickness, and finally death are the inevitable companions of this tent made out of the dust of the ground. But in death and in the resurrection of the dead we gain a new body, a better body, one that can never grow old, never know disease, never suffer pain, and can never die. We gain a better body.
The 2nd way for the Christian that death is gain is: WE GAIN A BETTER HOME.
The experience of dying, especially if suffering is involved, is not pleasant to contemplate. Even so, for the Christian, death means going Home. It means being ushered into the presence of our Savior! It means a departure from this world, with all its trials and heartaches, to the blessings and joys of heaven. Paul spoke about his "desire to depart and be with Christ," which which he promised would be "far better" than remaining on earth (Phil. 1:23).
The Greek word translated "departure" is significant. "It was used metaphorically as a nautical term for when a vessel pulls up anchor and loosens its moorings so it can set sail. The word was used in a military terminology when an army broke encampment to move on. In the ancient Greek world this term was used also for freeing someone from chains and for the severing of a woven piece from its loom.
This departure for another place is how death is as described in the Bible. Here, we are anchored to the hardships and heartaches of this life. In death, the gangway is raised, the anchor is lifted, and we set sail for the golden shore. In death, we break camp here to start for heaven." [Lehman Strauss, When Loved Ones Are Taken in Death]
Have you ever been away from a loved for a time and longed to be reunited? When the day at last arrives when we head for home we experience excitement. May this excitement and anticipation be ours as we look toward going home to heaven and being reunited with loved ones once again. Death for the believer is a departure for Home, our eternal Home.
The poet Vandall describe it like this:
Life’s day is short-I soon shall go
To be with Him who loved me so;
I see in the distance that shining shore,
My beautiful, eternal home. [Vandall]
Heaven for the Christian is best spelled H-O-M-E.
Whatever the beauty and the embellishments of any house we may possess in this world, it is nothing to be compared with our place in the beautiful city of God. According to the promise of Christ Jesus in John 14:1-3, our Lord has been preparing for us a place in heaven through the years and centuries. I don’t know what it will be like, but He created the heavens and earth of our existence in six days. & He has been preparing heaven for 1,000s of years. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. But we can not possess it in this life. Only in death do we move into our heavenly home. The longing of the Apostle Paul for his home in heaven expressed in Philippians 1:23 is the deep-seated hope the Christian feels when our life’s journey nears its end. Our forefathers used to sing this old song:
I am a stranger here,
Heaven is my home.
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home.
Sorrows and dangers stand
Round me on every hand
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
[When I was a youth an old pastor said to me, ‘Son, so often when older people want to talk to young people about heaven and about the land that is yet to come, the young people will turn aside as though it would be something inappropriate. You see, older people have faced a long journey and want to talk about death, heaven, the grave, and the resurrection. Do not turn them away. If you were going on a long journey, would you not be interested in talking to someone who has been there? If older people talk to you about heaven, listen to them, read to them, say things to them that God has revealed in His sacred Book. This will comfort them and strengthen their belief in the glories of the blessedness of eternal life."] We gain a better home.
The 3rd way for the Christian that death is gain is: WE GAIN A BETTER INHERITANCE.
Our final inheritance is not here. It is in heaven. Our final reward is not here, it is in heaven. It is only beyond the gates of death that we ever hear the precious words of our Lord, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Mt. 25:21).
All the demands of discipleship that Christ had placed upon Ronnie and Ronnie so faithfully fulfilled are now being rewarded in a way that is beyond our present comprehension. For Ronnie is now more alive that he has ever been. He is appreciating more deeply than he thought possible and experiencing more fully the glory, the wonder and the worship of Jesus whom he loved so faithfully. We gain a better inheritance.
The 4th way for the Christian that death is gain is: WE GAIN A BETTER FELLOWSHIP.
All of us in this world live in a dissolving family circle. A mother is gone, or father is gone, or a child is gone, or our grandparents are gone, or friends are gone, or a brother is gone. If we live long enough, we shall be strangers in this earth. Everyone we knew and loved will be gone. But the circle is unbroken in heaven. There is no death there, no more sorrow and crying and pain, for these earthly things are passed away.
But best of all, beyond our families and our friends who wait to greet us there, we shall see our Savior face to face. And we will finally be like Him and truly see as He is. Hallelujah! Praise His dear name! There we will enjoy our Lord through all the eternities yet to come. [Adapted. W.A. Criswell, Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors, Broadman, 1980. 302-303]
What should be our attitude toward death? Is it something that we cringe before, something we pray against, something we dread, a terrible and awesome sentence on our lives? Is this to be our attitude toward dying? God promises that it is better over there than it is here for those of us who look in faith to Him. God says that we will have a new body and a new home. We will have a new resurrected and glorified body in that world beyond the gates of death.
There will be no more blind eyes or crippled bodies. There will be no graves on the hillsides of glory. Down the streets paved with gold there will be no processions of people weeping and crying. God has prepared something better for us. We will be with those who have been redeemed from all the ages. We will sit down with Abraham, Moses, and Job, with the apostles and prophets, with the children of God though all the centuries. Best of all, we will break bread at the table of our Lord.
Just three days BEFORE HIS DEATH Dr. F. B. Meyer wrote to his friend, Pastor David Findlay, Glasgow, Scotland:
"My dear Findlay and Wife:
’To my surprise, I have been told that my days and hours are numbered. It may be that before this reaches you, I shall have gone into the palace. Don’t trouble to write. We shall meet in the morning.
With much love,
Yours affectionately,
F. B. Meyer"
And with the sweet dignity of a prince who goes to his coronation, he greeted death. He knew that "to die is gain." He knew that the Pierced Hand that opens to us the doors of grace, opens also the gates of glory.
CONCLUSION
THE Bible does not give us a lot of details about the Christian’s life in Heaven immediately after death. Enough is revealed, however, to cheer our fainting hearts, to awaken our highest aspirations, and to stimulate us to be diligent servants of Jesus. Because we do know that for the believer, entering the Lord’s presence will be rapturous, euphoric, for are told that "to depart and to be with Christ. . . is far better." The Scriptures also teach us that we’ll be reunited with friends and loved ones who have gone before. What comfort this brings to our souls!
After meditating on this glorious prospect, John Bunyan wrote the following lines:.
They are not dead, those loved ones who have passed
Beyond our vision for a little while;
They have but reached the "Light" while we still grope
In darkness where we cannot see them smile.
So let us gird our souls with this bright hope,
Still praising God as bravely here we wait;
Then loving, serving, when Our Father calls
We’ll find our dear ones waiting at the gate.
Bunyan continued, "All our loved ones who died in Christ are triumphantly singing hallelujahs in the highest Heaven. While we are fighting and sighing here below, they are rejoicing with Jesus above. According to Jesus’ prayer for us, they are seeing His eternal glory" (John 17:24).
When Christians die, they do not "pass away," they "pass into Heaven" to enjoy the rich fellowship that God has promised. [H.G.B., Our Daily Bread] Based on God’s Word, Ronnie declared with conviction that the best is yet to be!
I belong to the King - I’m a child of His love,
I shall dwell in His palace so fair,
For He tells of its bliss in yon Heaven above,
And His children its splendors shall share. -Smith
Earth’s desert pathway for the Christian will end in the Paradise of God. So remember, THE BEST IS YET TO BE! For as Philippians 1:23 declares. . . to depart and to be with Christ. . . is far better.
