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Cannibals or Worms
Philippians 1:19-26
I
don’t know if you have every heard of John Rutter or his rendition
of the Te Deum. "Te Deum" are the first two words of
the text in Latin which begins--"Te Deum Laudamus"-- "We
praise thee, O God." The text goes back at least to Ambrose who
became the bishop of Milan
in A.D. 374. He probably translated it from an earlier Greek version. So
what we have in this text is a very old hymn of the Christian church
which goes back probably to the third century.
In
the second stanza, the choir declares to God that three groups of people,
long dead, are praising God today. In the present tense the choir would
sing to God:
"The
glorious company of the apostles praise thee."
"The
goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee."
"The
noble army of martyrs praise thee."
Te
Deum declares the Biblical truth that the apostles are not dead. And the
prophets are not dead. And the martyrs are not dead. They are alive. And
they are praising God in heaven today. Te Deum voices the truth of
Philippians 1:21, "For me to live is Christ and to die is
gain." To die is gain.
How
can Paul say, "To die is gain?" Because he knew that when he
died he would immediately be "at home with the Lord." In 2
Corinthians 5:8 Paul said, "We are always of good courage because we
know . . . to be absent from the body is to be at home with the
Lord."
To
die is gain because death is to be absent from the body and at home with
the Lord. Do you love Jesus this much? Do you love him so much that to
lose everything in order to be with him would be gain?
I
have always been struck by the 3rd line in the Te Deum, "The noble
army of martyrs praise thee." The noble army of martyrs are praising
God with us this morning because they all said, "For me to live is
Christ and to die is gain." They all said, Christ is worth more than
life. Christ is worth more than falling in love. Christ is worth more
than marrying and having children. Christ is worth more than seeing my
children grow up and become independent. Christ is worth more than making
a name for myself. Christ is worth more than finishing my career. Christ
is worth more than the dream spouse and the dream house and the dream
cruise and the dream retirement. Christ is worth more than all my
unfinished plans and dreams.
This
morning as we look at verses 19-26 and in particular at verse 21 I want
to take a look at Paul’s Confidence, Paul’s Confession,
Paul’s Conflict and Paul’s Conviction.
I. Paul’s Confidence
Yes, and I will continue to
rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my
deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed,
but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted
in my body, whether by life or by death (Philippians 1:18b-20).
When I read the opening words of this section –beginning with the
last part of verse 18, one question comes to mind. How could Paul be so
happy? After all, he’s in jail in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar. He
didn’t know what would happen next. So why so confident? Why does he write “I will
continue to rejoice.”
He says that he is depending on two things:
1) The prayers of his
friends, and
2) the work of the Holy
Spirit on his behalf.
From
verse 20 we learn the content of his prayers:
A. That he might never do anything that would bring him shame.
B. That he might never lose his courage.
C. That he might always magnify Christ Jesus.
So Prayer, work of the Holy
Spirit, but note the last phrase in verse 20: “Whether by life or
by death.” Here is the other
key to his amazing confidence: He wasn’t afraid to die. Could you
say the same thing? Of all the fears that grip the heart of modern man,
none is greater than the fear of death.
Yet somehow Paul has come to the place where he can say, “The only
thing that matters is that Christ be magnified in my life. And it
doesn’t matter whether I live or die as long as Christ is
magnified.”
Five Missionary Martyrs
When you can say, “I
am not afraid to die,” you are …
1. Free to focus on the things that really matter.
2. Indifferent to your own personal fate.
3. Utterly consumed with doing God’s will.
Do you recognize these names? Nate Saint … Roger Youderian …
Ed McCully … Peter Fleming … Jim Elliot. In 1955 these five
young men (all under the age of 35) gathered in Ecuador with a vision of
reaching a tribe of Indians called the Aucas (the word means
“savage,” a name given to them by other tribes) who lived
deep in the rain forest. No one had ever presented the gospel to them.
These five missionaries—all highly trained and deeply devoted to
God—began praying about ways to make contact. In September they
began flying over an Auca village, lowering a pot containing gifts for
the Indians. Eventually the Aucas took the gifts and replaced them with
simple gifts of their own.
In January 1956, the five men decided the time had come to make contact
in person. After much prayer they established a base camp on a sandy
beach of the Curaray
River. On January
8, 1956—at about 3:30 PM, they were speared to death by the Indians
who mistakenly thought they had come to hurt them. The news shocked the
world. Many people wondered how young men with so much promise could
waste their lives that way. When the journals of Jim Elliot were
published several years later, they were found to contain this sentence:
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he
cannot lose.”
The Apostle Paul would agree. Once you decide that your life won’t
last forever, you are free to invest it in a cause greater than yourself.
You give up what you can’t keep so that in the end you gain what
you can never lose. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Whether
by life or death.”
II. Paul’s
Confession
“For to me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Here is Paul’s personal mission
statement. Get this and you’ll understand how Paul could
“turn the world upside down” wherever he went. In essence
this is a definition of a Christian ….that Christ is his life—and
that dying is gain.
Consider the phrase “to live is Christ.” It means that Christ
is the essence of our life … the aim of our life … the solace
of our life … the reward of our life. We
live in Christ … for Christ … by Christ … through
Christ … and from Christ. He is the beginning, the middle and the
end of life. He is truly the Alpha and Omega.
How could Paul say such things? It’s because for Paul death
didn’t put him in a cemetery; it put him in the very presence of
God…and that would truly be “gain” for him.
Shelled Out and Gone Home
to God
Many who read Philippians 1
wonder how death can be a “gain” for anyone. In his sermon on this text Alexander
MacLaren gives the following answers:
1. We lose everything we don’t need—We lose the world, the
flesh, and the devil. We lose our trials, our troubles, our tears, our
fears, and our weaknesses.
2. We keep everything that matters—We keep our personality, our
identity, and our knowledge of all that is good.
3. We gain what we never had before—We gain heaven, the saints, the
angels, the presence of God, and Jesus himself.
“You Can’t
Threaten Me With Heaven”
Are you afraid to die? You needn’t be. God has an appointed a time and place
to take you home to be with him. Paul
said in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have finished the race.” He knew
that his death—the time and place and circumstances of it—was
in God’s hands…and so is ours.
Many years ago—perhaps 70 years ago—the great Southern
evangelist John R. Rice preached in Waxahachie,
Texas, just south of Dallas. As was his custom, Dr. Rice
preached against sin, especially against the bootleggers bringing illegal
liquor into that small Texas
town. Eventually the powers that be decided that this pesky evangelist
must be silenced. They sent a message to stop preaching or they would
kill him. “You can’t threaten me with heaven,” he
replied.
III. Paul’s Conflict
If I am to go on living in
the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose?
I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1:22-23).
Some people want to die because they hate this life. Paul was ready and
willing to die because he looked forward to life with Christ in heaven.
However, in the meantime he was willing to remain if he could make a
difference in the lives of other people….for the sake of the
gospel. Paul was committed to
exalting Jesus…whether in live or in death…..but he was torn.
Ultimately we are all
torn….we want to stay here on this earth to take care of loved
ones….and we long to be with Jesus….and so our prayer must
always be “Thy will be done.”
IV. Paul’s
Conviction
But it is more necessary for
you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will
remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in
the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ
Jesus will overflow on account of me (Philippians 1:24-26).
In the end Paul concluded that he wouldn’t die just yet, but would
be spared so that he could minister to the Philippians. Even though he
preferred to die so that he could see Christ, he put aside his own
preferences for the good of others.
Here are three positive benefits that would accrue to Paul by postponing
his own death:
A. He would experience Christ in his life.—v 21
B. He would have fruitful labor to perform.—v. 22
C. He could help the Philippians grow spiritually.—v. 24-26
Paul is saying, “I can’t lose either way!”
If I die … Gain for me!
If I live … Gain for you!
How do you stop a man like that? You can’t! Go ahead and kill him.
He’ll die with a smile on his face. Put him in prison. He’ll
preach to the guards. Put him in jail at midnight and he’ll start
singing, Amazing Grace. Run him out of town. He’ll just go down the
road and start a church in the next village. Stone him and he’ll
use the rocks to build a sanctuary.
Cannibals or Worms?
One final story and I am
done. In 1858 a young man named John G. Paton felt called of God to leave
his ministry in Glasgow, Scotland, to go as a missionary to the New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. In those
days missionary ventures were greeted with disdain and
opposition—in part because of the great danger attendant to
preaching the gospel to people regarded as uncivilized. An elderly
gentlemen warned John Paton: “You will be eaten by
cannibals.”
“Mr. Dickson,” Paton replied, “You are advanced in
years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there
to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die
serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me
whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my
resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our
risen Redeemer.”
Only one life, ’Twill soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
The stories of martyrs press a question on us: Do we
love Christ more than we love life? David gave his answer like this in
Psalm 63 when he was in the wilderness of Judah:
O
God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh
faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is . . .
Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee.
The
love God is better than life. It is better to die for the love of God
than to live without it.
For
almost three hundred years Christianity grew in soil that was wet with
the blood of the martyrs. Until the emperor Trajan (about A.D. 98)
persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about
A.D. 250) persecution was legal but mainly local. From Decius, who hated
the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first
edict of toleration in 311 the persecution was not only legal but
widespread and general.
One
writer described the situation like this in this third period:
Horror
spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi (the
ones who renounced their faith when threatened) . . . was enormous. There
was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom
rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more
intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance
grew stronger and stronger. (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, 1882, p.
620)
So
for 300 years to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life
and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at
the extremity of that test was martyrdom. And above that martyrdom was a
sovereign God who said, there is an appointed number. They have a special
role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special
role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the
people of God only serve him because life goes better.
And
they have a special place in the heavenly choir.
"The
noble army of martyrs praise thee."
The
Te Deum probably comes out of that period of suffering. It is not a piece
written in the ivory tower seclusion from suffering.
Will
we say with the apostle Paul that our heart's desire is that Christ be
exalted in our bodies, whether by life or by death? For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.
Do
I love Christ more than life?
May
God use the very singing of this great old cry of the suffering church to
make the answer, YES.
Return to First
Baptist Sermon page.
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