Philippians 1:18b-26 –

^18bYes, and I will rejoice, ¹⁹for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰as 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. ²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Introduction

Do you ever get annoyed when people ask those “Would you rather_____” questions? They go something like this. Would you rather always have to sing instead of speak, or dance everywhere you go? Would you rather have no taste buds, or no sense of smell? Would you rather live an extraordinary but short life, or a long but ordinary life? One recent and particularly odious example at work provoked a surprising amount of passionate argument among my coworkers – Would you rather get beat up in front of your girl or run away from a fight in front of your girl?

In this passage, Paul takes his turn at a Would you rather question: Would you rather live or die?

Wait a minute, Paul. That’s too easy! I don’t think you understand the unwritten law of Would you rather questions – They need to be tough to answer. They produce pain either because both options are desirable or because both are awful. Answering should be hard. A good question should be like, Would you rather have to walk a thousand miles, or reach your hand in an adder’s den to grab the car keys? On the surface, Paul’s question seems a lot more like, Would you rather have coffee, or not have coffee? But, as we’ll see, Paul is able to turn seemingly obvious reasoning on its head.

Philippians Background: Paul the Exemplar and the Upside down Philippians

Before we get there, let me refresh your memory of this letter’s background. Since December 2023, this is my fourth sermon from Philippians. I last preached to you from Paul’s letter about 9 months ago. I also surveyed Philippians in Berea about 6 months ago. That said, I’ve previously provided a lot of background of the church and the circumstances that occasioned Paul’s letter.

So this morning, I’ll give it just 200 words. Luke dedicated the whole of Acts chapter 16 to narrating the establishment of the Philippian church. He notes that Philippi was “a leading city of Macedonia”, a province to which Paul arrived in AD 50 after seeing a vision of a Macedonian man beckoning for help. Paul went, and thus, the Philippian church was born when he preached the gospel to some women gathered by the river to pray. Written some 10 years later, this letter reflects a warm ministry partnership.

Philippi was a Roman “colony”. This means her citizens enjoyed special legal privileges like those in Rome. Acts 16 shows how deeply this identity ran, since opposition to Paul centered on threats to Roman customs. They were accused of advocating customs “not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:21). This civic pride highlights the clash of allegiances the Philippians felt and orients us to Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 1:27 to “behave as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ”, which occasioned the letter.

Why does that matter this morning? An awareness of this background helps us because it’s the occasion for Paul’s frequent presentation in the letter of his faith, his reasoning, his affections, and his motives. He talks them through these to give them an example of gospel-worthy thinking, feeling, and behavior to imitate in their trials. We saw his example in the opening 11 verses, where he reflected on the past – framing not only their gospel partnership, but also, counterintuitively, his imprisonment and legal defense as grace. We saw his example again in verses 12 through (the beginning of) verse 18, where he considered the present – namely, the contribution of his imprisonment to the advance of Christ’s interests. And in our passage this morning, Paul will conclude his missionary report by reasoning aloud, so to speak, about his future.

Next time, we’ll consider Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to imitate his example. But for this morning, we’ll focus on Paul’s exemplary role modeling. Here he applies his chief hope for Christ to be honored in his body to the hypothetical question of whether it is better to live or to die. The big idea of this passage is that Christ should be the great desire of every Christian. Thus, the main takeaway is to let the desire to see Christ exalted rule our hearts and direct our response to every trial.

Deliverance? (vs. 18-20)

Verse 18

In the first half of his ministry report, Paul shared his present joy that, even if it is at his own expense, Christ is getting glory. Verse 18 begins, “What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice”. He is speaking there of his current circumstances. In the latter half of the verse, however, Paul turns to consider the future. “Yes, and I will rejoice” (v. 18b). He is rejoicing now over what he expects to come, namely, deliverance.

Verse 19

“For I know that through your prayers and with the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance”. Deliverance, or salvation, in simplest terms, means that God will come through on Paul’s behalf. Reading v. 19 in isolation, one might naturally assume he means getting out of prison and escaping a death sentence. However, that conclusion becomes much harder to maintain when we continue on to verse 20. Before we do I’d like to consider the phrase, ‘[This] will turn out for my deliverance’.

The Septuagint is the Greek OT translation that was Paul’s “Bible”. It was read routinely during the time of Jesus and apostles like Paul and of course it was the only translation most Greek-speakers could read. Here, Paul’s Greek is apparently identical to that of Job 13:16 in the Septuagint. It looks like Paul is quoting from Job. It serves to cue his readers in on his perspective. He views his circumstances through the prototypical lens of Job’s story.

Most of you are familiar with that story. But if not, let me summarize briefly. In the book of Job, Satan is allowed to wreak calamity on Job’s property, his servants, and his children. This destruction comes upon Job, not because egregious sin warranted it, but because of God’s sovereign purposes, which ultimately included greater blessings for Job in a new life yet to come. But Job could not have known any of the secret purposes of God. Therefore, he feels unjustly wronged because he assumes that since bad things happen to bad people, this shouldn’t have happened to him. Meanwhile, his friends labor for 30 chapters to convince him that he’s being punished because he has sinned, if unconsciously, and if he would only repent and admit it, God would relent. Job is compelled to appeal to God, to argue his case with his Maker and vindicate himself.

Let me read to you from Job chapter 13 (vs 3, 14-18) to get the context of Paul’s quote:

3 “But I desire to speak to the Almighty
and to argue my case with God…

14 Why do I put myself in jeopardy
and take my life in my hands?
15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
16 Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless person would dare come before him!
17 Listen carefully to what I say;
let my words ring in your ears.
18 Now that I have prepared my case,
I know I will be vindicated.”

As do all righteous persons in this age, Paul has detractors. We saw this formerly in vs. 15 and 17. These take gleeful, vindictive joy in the apparent embarrassment and shame of his chains, eager to see him humbled and fallen that they might rise in power and esteem. Harboring envy and rivalry, and to further their pride and selfish ambition, they frame Paul’s chains as evidence of God’s judgment. But Paul is eager for both God and himself to be vindicated. Like Job, Paul is banking on a righteous God. As Job says in 13:16, ‘this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him’. That is, I have the confidence to come before God because I know I’m innocent, He’s on my side, and He can be trusted. ‘He will surely slay me, I have no hope’, Job says, fully expecting to be slain in the presence of a holy God, yet expecting both ‘deliverance’ and to &#...