Title: Dying is better than living
Text: Philippians 1:21-23
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 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.”
1.Paul’s Sermon title: “I wish I was dead.”
2.Your crazy to… wish you were dead
3.Paul knew some things about death we need to hear today
Unless Jesus comes back first we are all going to die…
Our youngest daughter Leisha who is 6 thinks I’m really old and has said to me more than once
“I’m going to miss you Dad”
1.We don’t like to talk about dying
2.When Jesus talked about his own death…
3.Peter rebuked him…
4.Some of you might be rebuking me right now!
It’s good from time to time to look into God’s word to see what is says about dying
Summarize: For the believer: Dying is never portrayed as a bad thing
Paul said;
“To die is gain”
“To depart and be with Christ is better by far”
In other words dying is better than living
Question: What do we gain when we die?
Why is dying better than living?
I want us to consider this morning 4 things that we gain when we die?
1, We gain a better home
“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John 14:2-4
1. The Bible calls this better home: HEAVEN
A. Definition of Heaven; Heaven is God’s dwelling place
Jesus called heaven “My father’s house.”
B. We don’t know everything there is to know about heaven but what we do know is pretty exciting.
1.In heaven there will be no more sorrow, tears, pain, or death (Rev. 21:4)
2.In heaven there will be no more night (Rev. 21:23-25)
3.In heaven there will be no more evil (Rev. 21:27)
4.In heaven there will be no more curse (Rev. 22:3)
The Best Thing about heaven is…
5.In heaven we will be with God for ever and ever (Rev. 21:3)
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
Challenge:
We read in John 14:2 that Jesus said “I am going there to prepare a place for you”
Right now Jesus is preparing a room for us to live in up in heaven.
What if Jesus gave us the same size room in heaven as we gave him on earth!
(Jesus might say: I’m going to stick you in the closet because that’s where you stuck me)
If Jesus is preparing a room for us in heaven it is only fair that we preparing a room for him to live in here on earth?
That’s how we can apply what Paul meant when he said “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”
To live is to … make room in my life for Jesus
Did not Jesus say to Zacchaeus…?
“Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today.”
What did Zacchaeus do?
“So he came down at once and welcomed Jesus gladly.”
He made room for Jesus and he did so immediately and gladly!
Have we room for Jesus in our lives?
Or maybe we made room for Jesus but over the years the room got taken over by other things
Sometimes it can happen unintentionally
Sometimes it can happen intentional
The important thing is to recognize it happened and to rectify the situation.
Recap: Paul said “Dying is better than living because we gain a better home
#2 Paul says “dying is better than living because …
2. We gain a better Body
The Bible calls this better body our Resurrection body
Paul tells us about this Resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
The Corinthian church had asked Paul 2 questions
How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they come?
Here was Paul’s answer
1.We don’t receive our resurrection body until after we die
“What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” (v36)
2.Our resurrection body will be imperishable
“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable” (v42)
3.Our resurrection body will be a spiritual body
“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (v44)
4.Our resurrection body will bear the likeness of Jesus
“And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” (v50)
Challenge
Jesus is preparing a better body for us to live in up in heaven
Are we preparing a better body for him to live in here on earth?
We are the body of Christ!
Paul says “To live is Christ”
Christ lives in our bodies by his Holy Spirit.
“Christ in you the hope of Glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)
Dying is better than living because…
We gain a better home
We gain a better body
3. We gain a better inheritance
Here is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)
According to these verses there are 2 types of inheritances
1.There is an inheritance that will not last
Meaning - everything we keep for ourselves in this world
Either it will outlive us or we will outlive it
Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 12:16-21
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself. ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, “This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to my-self, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool!” This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then you will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” .
2.There is a second type of inheritance
An inheritance that will last forever
It will never outlive us and we will never outlive it!
This inheritance is our inheritance in heaven!
“We run for a crown that will never fade.”
The Bible tells us some of what that inheritance is
Several times in the NT we are told we will inherit golden crowns
With the price of gold being so high…
Some of us might like to inherit some of that Gold now…
But remember the prodigal son.
We inherit eternal life (Mk. 10:17)
Our biggest inheritance in heaven will be Christ himself
We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ…
Challenge:
Christ is guarding our treasure up there in heaven
Is he our treasure here on earth?
“For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Again this is what Paul means by “To live is Christ” Christ was his treasure on earth
What you live for is YOUR TREASURE!
Dying is better than living because
We gain a better home, a better body, a better inheritance and lastly
4. We gain a better fellowship
Paul calls this better fellowship…”being with Christ”
“I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far…”
Being with Christ is better than being with anyone else!
No one loves you like Jesus loves you!
Hymn writer
What a day that will be when my Jesus I will see
To look upon his face. The one who saved me by his grace.
When he takes me by the hand and leasd me through the promised land
What a day, glorious day, that will be.
Heaven is …being with Jesus
Where ever Jesus is…is heaven
We can have a bit of heaven on earth
What are we going to do with Jesus in heaven?
We are going to do a lot of singing about Jesus in heaven.
We are going to rule with Jesus in heaven
We are going to serve Jesus in heaven
He served us on earth- we are going to return the favor in heaven
Challenge
Jesus can’t wait to fellowship with us up there in heaven
Jesus we can’t wait to fellowship with you down here on earth.
“To praise him in the morning”
Conclusion
Who goes to heaven?
Who gets a resurrection body?
Who gets an inheritance that will never perish?
Who gets to fellowship with Jesus in heaven?
Those who live here on earth for Christ!
Paul says “ For me to live is Christ!”
How do you live for Christ
Let go of living for anything else – repentance
Not Sin
Not Self
Not Satan
Ask Christ to come into your life – becoming born again
From this day forward Christ I’m going to life for you
Be at home in me
I offer my body to you
You are my inheritance
Help me to fellowship with you.
It’s a matter of life or death!
To refuse to live for Christ is to forfeit all the great things you gain by dying.
You will get a new home. It begins with h- but it won’t be heaven.
You will get a new body but for all of eternity you will wish you didn’t
You will get an inheritance but it will be an inheritance of destruction
You will have fellowship but it will be not be based on love
Today I ask you to choose Christ!
