What makes you tic? What gets you going besides caffeine? What motivates you? Perhaps it's difficult to boil it down to one thing. Even if we could, it might change in different phases of our lives. It also may be different from person to person. Yet as a Christian, we share in the most foundational motivation for life – Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Last week, we heard how Paul directs us to walk in wisdom toward the outsider so that we may proclaim the Gospel to them. What motivates us to do that? Christ does! This idea is implicit throughout the letter to the Colossians and it is explicitly stated in Philippians, which was written about the same time in Paul's life as Colossians. The Philippians loved Paul and Paul loved them back. They developed a special relationship with one another. So, it is just expected that, once the Philippians heard that their beloved apostle was in prison, they were worried. Right way they figure out a way to help him by sending Epaphroditus, their pastor, with a monetary gift to help offset the cost and hardship of being in prison. This gift, then, occasioned the writing of this wonderful epistle as a thank you letter to the Philippians. Phil. 4:10 – But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Phil. 4:14 – Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress. Paul also wanted to comfort them. He wanted to put them at ease. There was no need for them to worry about him. After all, his imprisonment provided the opportunity to proclaim Christ to the Imperial Guard and even some of Caesar's own family came to know Christ as their Savior. The Christians in Rome were emboldened by Paul's testimony in prison and Christ was being preached everywhere. Besides, Paul didn't mind the prospect of death. As a matter of fact, he was looking forward to day he departs to be with the Lord. What really mattered to him was that Christ be magnified either by his living or his dying. After all, for him to live was Christ and to die was gain. This is the key to Christian motivation – TO LIVE IS CHRIST! I. Not a Personal Thing Just for Paul. A. Some have looked at the beginning of the verse and said that what Paul is saying is a personal thing, not normative for all Christians. 1. They look at the words "to me" and say that Paul is speaking of what is personally true for him. 2. It may or may not apply to everyone else. 3. So, according to this group, all Paul is doing is relating to the Philippians that for him personally to live is Christ. B. We could perhaps even consider this possibility if the teaching here worded "to live is Christ" was not so prevalent in Paul's writings. Col. 3:3-4 – For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 2 Cor. 4:10-11 – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Gal. 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. C. So, when we look at this passage, we should not see Paul saying something that is just for him. D. Rather, we should see Paul as the representative Christian saying what must be true of every Christian. II. Life Is Christ When Christ Is Our Life. A. Now is fair to ask what does it mean when Paul says that to live is Christ? B. The answer to this question is that life is Christ when Christ is our life. C. Christ is our life when we are united with him by virtue of our faith. Gal. 2:15-16, 20 (Paul's rebuke of Peter)– We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified… I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 1. A person cannot even begin to say that life is Christ unless he/she has trusted in Christ for the salvation of his/her soul. 2. The beginning of life being Christ has to be placing your faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross and resurrection in order to redeem sinners. 3. Life is only Christ when Christ is your life. 4. So if you are here today without Christ, pray that God would make him your life. Place your trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins, so that you can be declared right with God. D. Christ is our life when "we move, and live, and have our being in him." 1. In Acts 17:28 Paul uses this expression to speak of our relation to God as creature and Creator. 2. But for a Christian, that text has much more significance than just a relationship between creature/Creator. 3. It speaks of our relationship with the life giving Redeemed who delivered us form sin and gives us life and a reason to live Jn. 14:6 – Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." 4. Life begins when we meet Jesus. E. Christ is our life when he lives through us. 1. Two passages will help us see this. a. The first one is Galatians 2:20, to which I have referred quite a bit. Gal. 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 1) By virtue of our union with Christ, his death on the cross was our death on the cross. 2) Implied here is also that his physical resurrection was our spiritual resurrection to life. 3) So that we no longer live for ourselves, but it is Christ that lives through us. 4) This Christ life is lived out by faith in the Son of God, that is, in everything he is and represents. 5) More on this under the practice of Christ life. b. The second passage is a Colossians 3:1-17, which we considered in detail a little while ago. 1) In this passage Paul explicitly tells us that if we do trust Christ we have been raised from dead. 2) Not only that, by virtue of our union with Christ we are sitting in heavenly places with him. 3) Therefore, we are to live a Christ life putting off what is not becoming of Christ and putting on the characteristics of Christ. 2. An illustration of it in Philippians. Phil 1:8 – For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. a. Paul longs for the Philippians. b. Yet, at the same time he says that is Christ who longs for them. 1) Christ lives in Paul and his love for the Philippian saints is Christ's love for them expressing itself in and through Paul's heart. 2) Paul feels about them as Christ does and for the same reasons. 3) When he longed for them he was only following the impulses of the Spirit of Christ within him. 4) He was, as we say, thinking Christ's thoughts after him and, even more, he was feeling Christ's emotion after him. F. We can summarize what Paul means here by what two commentators have said. "I live only to serve Him, only to commune with Him, I have no concept of life apart from Him." J.B. Lightfoot "Without Christ there is no value in living. Life is a disappointing, often painful, hardly ever rewarding chore." Gordon Clark III. The Practice of Christ Living A. In the book of Philippians 1. Christ living will magnify Christ in the body, 20. Phil. 1:20-21 – … according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die isgain. a. The word "for" in the beginning of verse 21 means "because" and explains why Christ will be magnified in Paul's body in life. b. Conversely if to live is Christ, then we will magnify Christ in our bodies. c. The word magnify usually means to make big, but here it has the idea of declaring to be big. 1) As we live a Christ life we don't add to whom Christ is. 2) We simply declare who he is. 3) Here it is synonymous with showing Christ's glory by the way we live. d. That is where the word "body" comes in. 1) Paul says that those for whom Christ is life will magnify Christ in this present existence. 2) That means that everything about our present existence should reflect the fact that Christ lives in us. 3) The way we think, speak, dress, relate to one another, use the computer. 4) What we listen, watch, do. 5) What these things are making statements about Christ living in us. 2. Christ living will bear fruit. Phil 1:22 – But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. a. The Christian life is not static. b. Rather, it is marked by forward progress in becoming more and more like the one who dwells in us. c. Today we are to be a little closer to Christ than we were yesterday, and tomorrow a little closer yet than today. d. Sometimes this process happens by leaps and bounds, other times it is not more than inching away. e. But Christ living will always be moving forward in bearing fruit. f. Later on in Philippians, Paul speaks of this process as a striving or pressing forward, 12 – "that I may become what Christ is in me." 3. Christ living will serve others. Phil. 1:24-25 – Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith…. a. Paul identifies himself a servant of Jesus Christ in the beginning of the letter. b. Here he says that he is more than happy to serve the Philippians. c. Isn't that one of the ways that our Savior revealed himself? As a servant? Mk. 10:45 – For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." d. If he lives in us, aren't we to do the same? Jn. 13:13-17 – You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 1. Christ living will love to have communion with the Father a. Our Savior loved to spend time in prayer with his Father. b. We read in several places in the gospel of his spending entire nights after long days in prayer because he longed for that fellowship. c. If Christ lives in us, shouldn't we also long for that fellowship? d. Shouldn't desire to pray? e. Shouldn't we spend time in prayer? 2. Christ living will be other oriented. a. The concern will not be what we can get out of it, but what we can give. b. That affects every relationship in the church. 4) And mutual submission to one another
Does Christ motivate you? Does the fact you have been redeem make you tic? For you, to live is Christ.
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