I) Rejoicing in the Face of Death

“In a very real sense, the epitome of joy is reached when the circumstances are ultimately negative, because that throws you totally on the relationship, throws you totally on faith, and you extract nothing out of circumstances. You know the pure joy of a living relationship with the living Christ. That's where Paul is. He is chained to a Roman soldier and will be during this imprisonment in Rome for about two years. He will know no privacy. The soldiers will exchange chains through, around the clock, through the weeks and months. And he will always be chained to a soldier. He's lost his freedom. It's an incarceration of, in some sense, very difficult proportions, and yet he understands the joy of the Lord. The key to this section, verse 18, the second half of verse 18, "In this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice." Now there we kind of unlock the issue here. Paul is talking about his joy.” John MacArthur

A) Rejoicing because of the promises of the Word of God (Job 13:6; Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 3:13-22)
Verse 19 “for I know… this will turn out for my deliverance”

“Like Job, Paul fully believed that God would one day deliver him, both from his physical afflictions and from the false accusations of those who wrongly insisted that all of his suffering was the result of iniquity.” John MacArthur

B) Rejoicing because of the prayers of the Saints (James 5:16; Ephesians 6:18-19; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; Romans 15:30)
Verse 19b “that through your prayers… this will turn out for my deliverance”

“He expected great results from the prayers of the church. That is certain from the text. He expected evil to be turned to good, and himself to be helped onward in the divine life. Beloved, my heart has no deeper conviction than this, that prayer is the most efficient spiritual agency in the universe, next to the Holy Ghost. He is omnipotent, and doeth as he wills; but next to the omnipotence of the in-dwelling Spirit is the potence of prayer. “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:” this great charter of the church of Jesus Christ confers upon her powers which are almost, if not quite, omnipotent; and if a church will but pray, it shall set in motion the second most potent agent under heaven. The apostle knew the power of prayer, and we know it too, and hope to prove it more and more.” Charles Spurgeon

C) Rejoicing because of the help of the Spirit (John 14:15-17, 25-46; Romans 8:26-27)
Verse 19c “through…the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance”

“The supply of the Spirit is essential to the edification of the church of God. What if the ministry should be the best that ever was produced, its outward form and fashion orthodox and ardent? what, if it should be continued with persevering consistency? yet the church will never be built up without the Holy Ghost. To build up a church life is needed: we are living stones of a living temple. Where is the life to come from but from the breath of God? To build up a church there is needed light, but where is the light to come from but from him who said, “Let there be light?” To build up a church there is needed love, for this is the cement which binds the living stones together; but whence comes true genuine love, but from the Spirit, who sheds abroad in the heart the love of Jesus! To build up a church we must have holiness, for an unholy church would be a den for the devil, and not a temple for God; but whence cometh holiness but from the Holy Spirit? There must be zeal, too, for God will not dwell in a cold house; the church of God must be warm with love; but whence cometh the fire except it be the fire from heaven. We must have the Holy Ghost, for to build up a church there must be joy; a joyous temple God’s temple must always be: but the Spirit of God alone produces the fruit of heavenly joy. There must be spirituality in the members, but we cannot have a spiritual people if the Spirit of God himself be not there. For the edification of the saints, then, we must have beyond everything else the supply of the Spirit.” Charles Spurgeon

D) Rejoicing because of the hope of Christ (Philippians 3:12-14; Romans 1:16-17; Romans 9:33; Isaiah 49:23)
Verse 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…”

“What he is saying there is simply this: “I'm confident in the promise of Christ, that if I'm faithful to Him, He'll be exalted in me. That if I'm never ashamed of Him, He'll never be ashamed of me” (Mark 8:38). Jesus said, "If you confess Me before men I'll confess you before My Father. But if you're ashamed of Me before men, I'll be ashamed of you before My Father." John MacArthur

E) Rejoicing because of the Sovereignty of God (Ephesians 1:3-6; 2 Timothy 1:8-14; Romans 14:7-9)
Verses 20b-21 “…whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

“Life is summed up as Christ. “I'm filled with Christ. I am occupied with Christ. I trust Christ, love Christ, hope in Christ, obey Christ, preach Christ, follow Christ, fellowship with Christ, Christ is the center circumference of my life. It's all Christ. Christ and Christ alone is my inspiration, my direction, my meaning, my purpose - consumed, dominated by Christ.” John MacArthur

“Surely death is loss. When I look upon thee, thou clay-cold corpse, and see thee just preparing to be the palace of corruption and the carnival for worms, I cannot think that thou hast gained. When I see that thine eye hath lost light, and thy lip hath lost its speech, and thine ears have lost hearing, and thy feet have lost motion, and thy heart hath lost its joy, and they that look out of the windows are darkened, the grinders have failed, and no sounds of tabret and of harp wake up thy joys, O clay-cold corpse, than hast lost, lost immeasurably.” Charles Spurgeon

“How can he 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?”
John Piper

“What! weep! weep! for heads that are crowned with coronals of heaven? Weep, weep for hands that grasp the harps of gold? What, weep for eyes that see the Redeemer? What, weep for hearts that are washed from sin, and are throbbing with eternal bliss! What, weep for men that are in the Saviour's bosom? No; weep for yourselves, that you are here. Weep that the mandate has not come which bids you to die. Weep that you must tarry. But weep not for them. I see them turning back on you with loving wonder, and they exclaim, "Why weepest thou?" What, weep for poverty that it is clothed in riches? What, weep for sickness, that it hath inherited eternal health? What, weep for shame, that it is glorified; and weep for sinful mortality, that it hath become immaculate? Oh, weep not, but rejoice. "If ye knew what it was that I have said unto you, and whither I have gone, ye would rejoice with a joy that no man should take from you." "To die is gain." Ah, this makes the Christian long to die—makes him say, "Oh, that the word were given! O Lord of Hosts, the wave divide, And land us all in heaven!" Charles Spurgeon

“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. All the martyrs said, "It is better to be cut off in the midst of my dreams, if I might gain Christ." John Piper

Next Sunday’s Sermon Text: Philippians 1:22-26