LIVING TOGETHER WITH THE RIGHT DESIRE
Philippians 1:19-26
INTRODUCTION
A. How desire helped us in a basketball game against Manitowoc my junior year in high school. We were having a perfect season; we had not won a game when the eventual state champions came to town to play us. (They would eventually win the state championship twice). There was no way we could play them and win. When we had played them at their place earlier in the year, we were trounced. Now in this game, we should not even have been close to them, but the game was in doubt until the last few minutes when they finally won it. We did not win, but we had the desire to that night and almost did.
• I could recount example after example where that kind of thing has happened in athletics.
B. Paul in these verses is suggesting the same thing is true of the Christian life. If we are going to live together in Christ, we need the right desire.
C. Because Paul had the right desire, he could be encouraged about what would happen through his present situation – Vs. 19.
D. We can have that same kind of encouragement no matter what our circumstances.
KEY STATEMENT
Paul shows us from his own life two kinds of desire that we need to have.
I. DESIRE TO EXALT CHRIST – Vs. 20.
A. We see this first in the negative: We need to live so as to not be ashamed.
1. In one particular M*A*S*H episode, the character of Charles Emerson Winchester III has been on leave, only to have a woman show up at the unit who he had met on leave and claimed to be his wife. He, of course, being a straight person, was appalled to find out he had acted on leave in such a manner as to lose control of himself. The wedding was only a fabrication of one evening’s partying, but that was not the way a Winchester acted, and he was ashamed.
2. Paul had said elsewhere that he was not ashamed.
a. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, he suggested that he was not ashamed of building the Corinthians up, though they thought he should be.
b. In Romans 1:16, he indicated that he was not ashamed of the Gospel.
3. Now he had the intense desire that he would never be ashamed in his life as he sat in prison and later stood before a Roman judge.
a. This indicates that he knew he could well fall on his own and therefore needed to continue placing his complete trust in God.
b. But he had a well-founded hope that he would not be ashamed:
(1) He refers to the handling of his case before the judge.
(2) He may also refer to his judgment before Christ.
(3) He knew he need never be ashamed of the Gospel or of building people up; now he indicates he could also stand unashamed as long as he had the right desire.
4. We know we need never be ashamed of the Gospel or of serving Christ, but we need also to seek to never be ashamed by our actions when placed on trial.
a. We do not face the possibility of standing before a real judge for our
faith, but we are placed in positions nearly everyday where we can honor or deny Christ.
b. Moreover we each will one day stand before Christ.
B. We should be unashamed so that Christ is exalted.
1. In Touch and Live, George Vandeman wrote:
"A young stranger to the Alps was making his first climb, accompanied by two stalwart guides. It was a steep, hazardous ascent. But he felt secure with one guide ahead and one following. For hours they climbed. And now, breathless, they reached for those rocks, protruding through the snow above them--the summit.
"The guide ahead wished to let the stranger have the first glorious view of heaven and earth, and moved aside to let him go first. Forgetting the gales that would blow across those summit rocks, the young man leaped to his feet. But the chief guide dragged him down. ’On your knees, sir!’ he shouted. ’You are never safe here except on your knees.’"
That is how Paul desired to live life unashamed, always on his knees to exalt Christ.
2. This is the end of a three-fold result taking place in Paul’s imprisonment:
a. Vs. 13 – Christ is made known, despite circumstances.
b. Vs. 18 – Christ is preached, despite critics.
c. Vs. 20 – Now Christ is magnified or exalted, despite crisis.
3. It was still possible Paul would be found a traitor and executed, but his desire however things turned out was to exalt Christ
4. There are two ways to magnify something:
a. You can magnify with a telescope. The stars are much bigger than the telescope, yet the telescope magnifies the stars by bringing them closer. So we are to be a telescope that brings Jesus Christ closer to people. To the average person, Christ is a misty figure in history that lived centuries ago. But as the unsaved watch the believer and what his real desire in life is, they can see Jesus magnified and brought so much closer.
b. You can magnify with a microscope. It makes tiny things look big. To the unbeliever, Jesus is not very big. Other things and other people are far more important. But as the unsaved watch the believer and what his real desire in life is, they ought to be able to see how big Jesus really is to us, that he is more important than anything in life.
5. That ought to be our desire in life.
6. David Brainerd said to Jonathan Edwards once:
"I do not go to heaven to be advanced but to give honor to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high or low seat there, but to live and please and glorify God.... My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory."
II. DESIRE TO MINISTER – Vss. 21-26.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education in 1991 quoted a headline from The Ram Page, the paper at Angelo State University: "DEATH HAS IMPACT ON LIVES."
• Paul saw death having an impact on his lives, and it should on ours in a different way.
A. Vs. 21 is one of the familiar passages of Scripture, but I am afraid we have often misunderstood it.
1. We have taken it as a bold statement of Paul’s attitude to death, and that is certainly there.
2. It is more correct, though, to take it as a statement of Paul’s attitude toward ministry.
B. Paul is making a difficult decision here between what he desires and what is necessary.
1. He desired to depart and be with Christ – Vs. 23. That is what he wanted to do and certainly that had a lot of advantages to him. Look at the word depart:
a. It was used by soldiers and meant to take down your tent and move on. That is what we do in death, and Paul was ready to do that.
b. It was used by sailors and meant to loosen a ship and set sail. Certainly the Christian sets sail into a greater life in death.
c. It was used as a political term to describe the setting free of a prisoner. That happens to us in death. Christians are in bondage because of the limitations of the body and the temptations of the flesh, but death frees us.
d. It was used by farmers to refer to unyoking the oxen. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:22-12:10 of the burdens he bore in life. Certainly we bear burdens in this life, but to depart and be with Christ means laying aside the burdens of this life.
2. Look, though, at what Paul says is necessary. That is what he desires.
a. It was necessary for him to remain and minister to the Philippians – Vs. 24, so that is what he desired.
b. Vs. 22 – He not only wanted to remain with them, but his desire was to work hard (the word for labor).
c. Here as always Paul was driven by necessity and not by his own needs. He is willing to postpone heaven in order to help Christians grow.
3. Let me ask you, do you desire to minister to that extent?
a. Nearly 30% of Americans serve in some volunteer capacity. That is almost 80 million people. At a ratio of ten volunteers to one full time worker, that’s over eight million jobs serviced without pay. Church member are twice as likely to volunteer as non-church members.
b. Yet many people desire to be in the church, but do not desire to work hard.
c. The church will grow, not when we have the right buildings or the right leaders, hut when we have the desire to minister and to put other’s needs above our own.
d. Don DeWelt in the Spring 1986, issue of One Body tells of his heart attack in 1982 that left him dead. They continued to work on him and revived him. He said one of his first thoughts was "Why am I still here? -- quote. He had a desire to minister in a new way.
Later at 9:30 that same morning, I suffered another heart attack and "code blue" rang out through the corridors as they hurried my wife into the chapel to prepare her for my death. After anxious moments of intense efforts by the special cardiac crew I was revived. One of my first thoughts (no 1 didn’t see anything or hear anything while dead) was "Why am I still here? Why was I returned to life?" It would have been far better to have died; it seemed a loss not a gain, for me to return to this world. Why, then was I returned? Of course I was glad to see my dear family and yes, I wanted to continue to teach at Ozark Bible College, which I eventually did, But was there any special one reason? Was this just a continuation of the same things I had been doing (or the past 40 years)? I really did wonder!
It was to be answered in the few days interim between my heart attack and my open-heart surgery. Returning home for a few days I continued my early morning personal worship. By reason of my circumstances the day of my original heart attack I had not been able to get to my desk for my daily time of prayer and writing Had I kept that daily tryst, the on going scripture I would have studied was John 17:21-24. The impact of that text had never before hit me with the force I now believe the Lord intended. The more I thought about it the more I knew this is one reason I am alive today.
CONCLUSION
A. What is your desire in life? Do you have the right desire?
B. Perhaps, like me, you are like Maltbie Babcock, who wrote; "This Is My Father’s World" has said, "Life is what we are alive to."
C. I experience this when Christine and I go to the mall. She wants to visit the antique or craft show or go into a fabric store. I dread it, but when I spot the bookstore, I come alive. The things that excite us are really life to us, that is our real desire in life.
D. Paul says Christ was his life. Christ excited him. Does he excite you? Is he your life? Is exalting and serving him your desire? Examine yourself in light of Vs. 21:
1. Fill in the blanks: "For to me, to live is _______ and to die is _______
a. "For to me to live is money and to die is to leave it all behind."
b. "For to me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten."
c. "For to me to live is power and to die is to lose it all."
2. We must instead take Paul’s convictions, and live by his desire.
E. Yet this passage should also affect our thinking about death.
1. We do face death as Christians, and we need to see it as a gain.
2. Andy Pyatskowit’s background and testimony at Sandy Ganong’s funeral: We who believe in Jesus and in his death and resurrection, do have the assurance that death is not the end for us, but only the beginning.
