To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain
September 7, 2025
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
Philippians 1:12-30
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
With the holiday last weekend, perhaps you were away from your church, so let me fill you in: We began our study of the letter Paul wrote to a church in a city called Philippi. Philippians has four chapters. We’ll give it eight sermons. This is the second.
I’d like to pray as we begin, asking for God’s help as we study this passage. Before we do that, I’ll draw your attention to one word in v. 19, the word deliverance. If you have a Bible open, put your finger on the word. If you’re using your phone, you might want to highlight the word deliverance. Paul writes, beginning in the middle of v. 18, “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” When Paul wrote that, he was being a bit cheeky, I think. We might say he wrote that line with a twinkle in his eye. As we get into this, we’ll see that understanding what he wrote about deliverance—and what he meant by what he wrote—is super encouraging. Let’s pray as we begin.
“Dear Heavenly Father...”
During seminary, which is school for pastors, I worked for a construction company. But during my last semester, I received a scholarship that would help bridge me to graduation. So, I quit my job and worked on my house to get it on the market while also looking for new jobs. I’ve talked about this season before, so I’ll be brief. This was during the housing market crash around 2009 and the few years after. And because so many members within churches had lost their jobs, most churches were not hiring. If a pastor left a church or if a church was growing, and there was a need for another pastor, many churches figured it was better to just get by with the staff they had.
I didn’t fully realize this until I had already quit my job and started applying for church jobs only to find that every opening had tons of candidates. For one church in Georgia, I was one of 600 applicants. And the job I ended up getting—the one in Tucson where I had never been before and had no family within a 24-hour drive—that job had 300 applicants. I’m sure 50 of the 300 were goofballs and easily dismissed, but I’m also sure lots of us applying for jobs were thoughtful, faithful pastors.
Anyway, I didn’t know any of this was about to unfold when I quit. I just knew God had provided a scholarship, and I could look to find a job, and it would be great. But then I got super worried, super fearful. What if I didn’t find a job? What if this didn’t work out? After five years of graduate school, and all that time and all that money, and writing all those papers and reading all those books, maybe no one would hire me? And, after curtailing my engineering career to attend pastor school and then quitting, could I still find a job in engineering? Had I made a terrible mistake? And what if it was all a waste, not only for me, but for my young family who depended on me? At the time we had three young children.
Well, it all worked out. I did find that job and so on. But I tell you this to help you think of a time in your life when you’ve worried, after all the effort and all the money and all the time and all the sacrifices, if any of it would even amount to anything useful. After four years of dating someone you thought you might marry, the relationship blew apart. After ten years with a company, they “reorganize,” and you don’t have a job anymore. After the chemo and after the radiation and after losing your hair, and then after five years of remission, now the cancer comes back. Was it all a waste? you wonder. You fix the transmission, but then someone rear-ends your car, and you’re fine, but the car with the new transmission got totaled. That feels like a waste.
And, to make it more related to our passage this morning, shift this to the Christian context of ministry and kingdom work. What happens when the church you love goes through hard times, the church splits, people leave, the building gets sold, and the property becomes a grocery store? What happens when you commit to ceaseless prayer for healing, and your loved one doesn’t get better? What happens when you tell others about Jesus, but their hearts seem hardened to Christ? You disciple someone for a year, and just when they are starting to really grow, their company transfers him to Texas. Right when the church is starting to take off, Covid comes.
We’re just getting into this letter to the Philippians. It’s a wonderful, positive, warm, encouraging letter. It’s a letter full of joy, as Pastor Noah so helpfully showed us last week when we began. This is why we’ve titled the sermon series “Joy in the Living Jesus.” And, by the way, if you Googled sermon series on Philippians, you’d see so many with the words joy or rejoice in the series title. It is, again, a letter full of joy.
But behind the letter, just like behind many of the details of your life, just behind your Sunday best, fears exist about whether ministry for Jesus will be one big waste. We worry at times if the hard things will prevent the good things from coming true. We fear that Jesus can’t carry us when nothing goes as planned.
We’ll look at this passage in three parts. We’ll revisit the context of the letter and our passage, then we’ll talk about the content, and then we’ll talk about the commands God gives us in light of the context and the content.
1. Context: it all feels like a waste
So, first the context. As I said, all the progress they’ve made serving Jesus now feels like a waste. What do I mean? Well, Paul, their beloved, fearless leader, is in jail, and they worry that this will cause the advancement of the gospel to cease. Look at a few verses with me, starting in v. 12.
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
I’ll stop there. Paul says a lot of things. Stay with me for a minute on the context of imprisonment. Paul’s imprisonment is, in human terms, a devastating setback. Paul had planted the church, which had gone really well. People have come to faith, even in surprising, miraculous ways that only God could do (see Acts 16). God causes hearts to open to the preaching of the gospel, and a church gets founded. Then, as Paul so often did, he moved on, and now their leader is in jail.
The author of the ESV Study Bible notes on Philippians describes this letter as a “missionary support letter” (Sean M. McDonough). That, for me, is so helpful. (And by the way, even though I have a pastor’s degree and I’ve been reading the Bible every year for over twenty years, the ESV Study Bible is often one of the most helpful tools for me in understanding passages. If you only have one extra tool as you study, I’d certainly suggest that.)
So, what does it mean that the context of this letter is best understood as a missionary support letter? It means the church and Paul, on the whole, like each other. They root for each other. They pray for each other. They help each other. They have been engaged in ministry together, first in the same location and now in two different locations. But they are warm toward each other. That’s so clear when you compare this letter with other letters, perhaps like the letters to the churches in Galatia and Corinth, which had, shall we say, challenges.
To make this more real for us, consider our church and Ben Bechtel. Many of you will know him. He pastored here for eight years and for the last two has been one of the pastors at Midtown Community Church. It’s only three or four miles away. We sent fifty people there, and now, about two years later, they have over one hundred members and an average attendance of over one hundred and fifty people, with lots of their members and attendees being people new to Christianity. So many of you have friends who went to the church, and so many of you sacrificially gave to the church, even as some of you are still giving. This is great church planting, missionary work.
Now, Ben doesn’t write missionary letters to us. But I do still see him at least once a month, and we talk and pray, and I hear how they are doing.
Let me reframe the context of Paul and Philippians into the context of Midtown and Community and Pastor Ben. Let’s say that for whatever reason, one of Ben’s sermons goes viral and he says things that are true to the faith but also controversial, and now their church is in the hot seat. The city government gets involved and actually shuts the church down. Now, this isn’t something that would happen in our moment, thankfully, but it might happen with our other missionaries, say those in Turkey. Anyway, let’s just say the only agreement Midtown can come up with is to hold services outside in the parking lot. That’s fine in September, but October is coming, and then November. And then, well, you know, it’s Pennsylvania. Soon it’s going to be cold. How are the elderly going to come to church outside in December? How are new mothers and infants going to stand outside in the rain, maybe even the snow? All of a sudden, this new church that seemed to be thriving, wonders if they can make any progress in the gospel. And you wonder if your money and support and saying goodbye to friends was all a waste, let alone if Community might be the next church to get removed from their building.
This is the context for the letter. Paul is imprisoned; they are worried. What does Paul tell them—tell us? Let’s move to the next point and discuss the content of what he says.
2. Content: it’s all going to be more than okay
I’ll tell you up front what he says: Paul says, Don’t worry, don’t be afraid, don’t stop serving because everything will be okay. Everything will work out. This is what he’s saying to us even now. And this gets back to the word I highlighted as we start. Paul is thankful they care about his well-being, but he knows that everything will work out for his… what was the word I used in v. 19? Deliverance. I’ll read vv. 18–19 again.
… Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance…
Wait, what does he mean? How can he say that? Does he mean he’ll get delivered out of jail? Or does he mean he’ll die and go to be in the presence of God and thus be delivered in an ultimate sense? What does Paul mean? I tend to think, as I said before, Paul is being a bit cheeky. He’s got a godly, gospel-filled twinkle in his eye when he writes this.
I’ll explain with a quick story. There was a men’s breakfast, perhaps a year ago. At this breakfast, Pastor Tony was leading, and he was going to talk about discipleship and following Jesus. He started with a little ice breaker, asking each guy to share his name and someone they follow, whether a teacher, parent, coach, sports team, author—just someone they follow. We go around the room, everyone says something, and Tony starts in on this short lesson. But the guys are like, “Wait, wait, Tony, you didn’t answer.” Cheeky Tony gets a twinkle in his eye and looks out and says, “Oh, I follow Jesus.” The whole room groans. “Come on, Tony.”
What does that have to do with anything? I think the church in Philippi is asking Paul, “Is this going to work out?” And Paul is like, “Yeah, it’s going to work out?” And they are like, “No, we mean, are you—and are we—going to be okay?” Paul is like, “Yeah, I’m going to be okay. You’re gonna be okay.” And they say, “No, no, are you going to be delivered?” And Paul is like, “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” But they are like, “Come on, Paul, you know what we mean. Are you going to be delivered-delivered? Last time you were in Philippi and when you started the church, you were in jail here with us, and then people prayed, and in the middle of the night there was an earthquake and the prison doors opened, and you were delivered. Is that going to happen again?” And Paul is like, “Yes, I’m going to be delivered-delivered.”
And just as we were like, “Ahh, come on, Tony—don’t give us the thick super spiritual answer,” even as we loved Tony, I think they were like, “Ahh, come on, Paul—don’t give us the super spiritual answer,” even as they loved Paul. But you see, sometime the super spiritual answer is the answer.
When Paul says to them—even as he’s saying to you right now in all the fears you have—that everything will be okay, he grounds this truth in two ways. He says everything will be okay, offering some “for instances” and, more importantly, he says everything is going to be okay because of rock-solid, unshakeable gospel realities about life and death.
What are those “for instances”? Well, we’ve already seen some of them. Look again at vv. 12–14.
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
The phrase “imperial guard” was a special, elite group of soldiers protecting a palace or the governor’s quarters. For us it would mean something like the Secret Service. Paul is saying, “I know this looks like a waste, but because I have to be guarded by the highest authorities, even they are now hearing about the gospel. When some people come to visit me, and we sing hymns to Jesus, and when other people come to visit me and I tell them about Jesus, even soldiers are getting saved. That’s a cool for instance,” he says.
Let me put it back in the context of Midtown and my fake story about them having to meet outside. It would be like this: In January, when it’s freezing outside on a Sunday morning, the two hundred people gather and sing and there’s gospel preaching and baptisms and the Lord’s Supper, you can imagine, can’t you, the whole neighborhood opening up windows and looking out and thinking, “Man, what are those people up to?” And then, even the police officers stationed at the Midtown church building, who are there to not let people inside, have to listen to the preaching, and they get saved.
Those are some of what I’m calling the “for instances” that Paul can highlight in his letter to say this is working out okay. There are others. For example, Paul writes about a group of believers who seem to be preaching about Jesus out of envy and rivalry. It would be like this: another church in the city sees Midtown struggling, and they are like, “Sweet, this is our chance to grow.” And they start doing targeted ads on social media about how warm it is in their church building. And Paul, who you think would be all worked up about it, just sort of shrugs and is like, “You know what, I don’t care. Let their church grow. It was always about Jesus anyway, so, if you ask me, this is working out for deliverance.”
There are other “for instance.” But we’ll keep going. It’s super nice when you’re in the midst of a struggle to have some for instances. You know what I mean? It’s really nice when some really lousy thing happened, but God lets you see the way that three other good things happened that would have never happened if the bad thing hadn’t happened. It’s a kind grace from God that God sometimes allows us to see a few instances that remind us of his good and sovereign rule in the midst of what feels like a waste.
But these for instances are not what most ground Paul’s hope in deliverance. If you only have hope of deliverance in the for instances that you can see in this life, that makes for shaky, fragile joy. God wants you to have sturdy, solid joy. Where does Paul want us to ground our hope and joy that everything will be okay? Answer: In the finished work of King Jesus. Look what Paul says in vv. 19–26, with v. 21 being a famous.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
That’s a mouthful, but the central point is clear: To live is Christ, to die is gain. Because Christ is not dead; he’s alive.
How can Paul tell us everything will work out for deliverance? Is Paul just saying something like those famous lines in the movie The Lion King, the song “Hakuna Matata”? You know what I’m talking about, right? “Hakuna Matata / What a wonderful phrase / Hakuna Matata / Ain’t no passing craze / It means no worries for the rest of your days / It’s a problem-free philosophy / Hakuna Matata.”
When you go to jail for Jesus, when you come home from the hospital on hospice, when you lose your job, when your church splits and gets sold and becomes a grocery store, you’re going to want truth more sturdy than wishful thinking, more sturdy than a problem-free philosophy.
Which is what Paul offers you, even now by the power of the Spirit of Jesus. This hope can be your hope. For you to live can be Christ and to die can be gain.
Paul is saying that because Jesus lived and Jesus died and Jesus rose, defeating sin and death and evil, and because Jesus promises to come again, and because when Jesus comes again, everyone who is in their graves will come forth, those who have loved him and trusted him, will be raised to everlasting life on a recreated earth, then in that context, yes, no worries for the rest of your days. Because Jesus lives, then to live is Christ and to die is gain. When we die, the souls of believers will be immediately with him. That’s what Paul says when he says, “to depart and be with Christ.” And when Jesus comes again, our souls are reunited with our bodies and heaven will come down to earth and everyone who has loved God and been loved by him will be a family feasting together forever in joy. That’s what Paul means when he says, This will work out for my deliverance. It’s the ultimate win-win. Live or die, win-win.
3. Commands: live for Jesus
So if the context of this letter feels like setbacks. And the content of what Paul says is that there is, in the good sovereignty of God, no such thing as a setback that will derail God’s ability to bring you everlasting joy, then what are the commands he makes to us? What is the therefore? If no matter what happens, in life or death, there is deliverance, how then shall we live?
You might be tempted to think, “Well, if it’s all gonna work out, then just sit back and enjoy life and seek out whatever comfort you can now as we wait for it to get even better someday. In other words, if it’s all going to work out, let’s just have more Netflix. That is not what he says. In light of the good news of Jesus, Paul gives commands in vv. 27–30.
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
When dying is gain, that means living is obedience to Jesus.
I think back to my Midtown story. To meet in the cold in January would display to the world that Jesus is worth more than warmth. If I were to paraphrase Paul, I’d say something like, If Jesus is worth more than everything else in this world, then it is a privilege to show the worth of Jesus to others. And when we suffer and sacrifice for Jesus—giving up stuff for Jesus—then it displays to the world that Jesus is worth more than stuff. Some Christians might display the worth of Jesus by standing in the cold. Some might display the worth of Jesus by telling others about Jesus and getting laughed at. All of us do it by giving tithes and offerings and thus living with less income than we might have had otherwise. And a few might show Jesus is worth more than life by giving up their life. Paul did. And so have hundreds of thousands of others.
Let me just pause for a moment. There are two audiences here. Some of you are engaged in service to Jesus and you need the reminder that it’s always worth it. And there are others who don’t really understand why Jesus and ministry even matters. We’re going to spend eight weeks studying this letter called Philippians. And one reason Phillipians might not make much sense some of you is because the biblical Jesus seems so un-precious to you. You might be able to understand how, in a Christian framework dying becomes gain, but you can’t understand the goodness of “to live is Christ.” Maybe you can identify with how one pastor put it. For many people, “Jesus is simply the chaplain to their status quo” (Ray Ortlund). Jesus is there to make things a little better, to add a little more zip, to bring a little more happiness.
And that’s okay to state that out loud if that’s how you feel right now. I’d encourage you not to pretend. Of course, that’s not where I’d like you and I to be long term. My hope, Paul’s hope, would be that as he explains more of who Jesus is, the more you would love him and want to follow him and become engaged in fruitful labor.
I don’t know what sacrifices the Lord has in front of us in the coming years as a church, or what sacrifices we’ll have individually as we follow Jesus. But I can tell you that I’m praying with Paul that we would become those who, in his words, labor for progress and joy in the faith. I love those words. Paul says, I’d rather die and be with Jesus, but as long as I’m here, I’m here for your progress and joy in the faith. And would that we would be too.
The passage has those lines about those who preach from envy and rivalry. But, if you noticed, Paul says that some preach Christ from goodwill. I want to close with a quick illustration of someone who preaches Christ from goodwill, namely, Pastor Jon Shiery, the pastor of Brookfield Bible Church. If you don’t know, you can walk there in like five minutes, so their church is super close.
I’ve told this story privately several times, but I’d love to tell it now because it fits so well. When we were looking for a church building, some eight or nine years ago, we struggled to find one. We were growing out of our current building, just as we are growing out of this one. So, we decided to move. I’ll make this really short. We struggled to find a suitable building. Until we found this one. But this building was like a five-minute walk from a great, Bible teaching, Jesus-loving church. So I call Pastor Jon, and I’m like, “Hey, can we meet. I need to talk.” So we meet. And I tell him, “Look, I would have never wanted to put a church so close to yours. I’m not trying to make that weird or whatever. You’re doing great stuff here. You always advertise and you built a playground, not mainly for your church but the neighborhood. You guys are great and now we’re going to be close. And, man, just know I hope that is never weird.”
I had no idea what he’d say. He looks at me and says, “Oh, Benjamin, look out our front door. There are the mobile homes right there. Then the neighborhoods that way and that way. And then just one minute over there is the apartment complex. Look,” he says, “you and I could do ten services every Sunday and not reach all these people for Jesus.” I loved that conversation. I can’t tell you how often I think of it.
In light of the rock-solid promise that God can and will bend everything hard in your life for his glory and our ultimate deliverance, may he give us this same kind of passion for the kingdom of God and the fame of Jesus. May we, in the words of Paul, “let [our] manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that [others would hear] that [we] are [together] standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” If your life is about that, if your life is about Jesus, then so will be your death and so will be your eternity in everlasting joy.
Let’s pray.
“Dear Heavenly Father…”
Sermon Discussion Questions
What life and ministry setbacks have you been discouraged by?
Have you known people who preach Christ from bad motives? How does this group differ from the “opponents” mentioned later in the passage and the evildoers mentioned in chapter 3?
Do you ever struggle to understand the details about what happens to believers when they die and what that timeline looks like? How does this passage help?
