Sermons by Ken Trivette from The Living Word

The Book of Philippians (Study 12)
HOW WILL YOU MEET CHRIST
Philippians 2:16-18

1. The Apostle Paul had on his mind meeting the Lord Jesus. There was the potential of meeting Him any day and the promise of meeting Him one day. Paul knew that one day he would arrive in heaven and someday he would appear before Christ.

2. In verse 16 he spoke of "the day of Christ." This was a reference to the return of Christ and meeting Him at the Judgment Seat. In verse 17 his words, "if I be offered," was a reference to potential execution and death.

3. In either case, meeting the Lord was on his mind. Each person that has been saved will one day meet the Lord. We could meet the Lord any day. Life on earth will not last forever. We have a appointment with either the undertaker or the upper-taker. We are either going to be carried out to the cemetery or we are going to be caught up in the air. One day, someday, any day, maybe this day, we have an appointment to meet the Lord.

4. A Sunday school teacher asked her class how many wanted to go to heaven. Everyone raised their hands but one little fellow. She said, "Johnny, don't you want to go to heaven when you die?" He said, "Oh, yes, but I thought you were getting up a load to go today."

5. We may go as a group in the rapture or we may go one by one in death, but in either case, we are going. At the end of this life or at the end of this age there awaits a meeting with the Lord.

6. As Paul thought about meeting the Lord that which concerned him was how he would meet him. It was not so much how he would get there that concerned him but how he would meet the Lord once he got there.

7. A doctor sat down with a patient and said, "I've got some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?" The patient said, "Well, go ahead and give me the good news first." The doctor said, "You've got three days to live." The patient asked, "That's good news? What in the world could be bad news?" The doctor replied, "I meant to tell you two days ago."

8. If you got the news today that you only had a few days to live I wonder how you would meet the Lord? Would it be good news or bad news? Would it thrill you or terrify you? How would you meet the Lord? Let's consider Paul's words and consider two ways to meet the Lord.

1. A DREADFUL WAY TO MEET THE LORD!

1. We read in verse 16, "Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." Paul knew that one day he would stand before Christ. He knew that "in the day of Christ" he would appear before his Lord and give account of his life and ministry.

2. Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 5:10, "For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done." Also in 1 Corinthians 3:13 he stated, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

3. Paul suggested two possible conditions in which one could stand before the Lord.

A. A FAITHFUL LIFE WOULD BRING REJOICING.

1. Notice the words, "that I may rejoice." It was Paul's desire that he be able to rejoice on that day. He knew that if he lived, "holding forth the word of life" he would be able to rejoice when he met the Lord.

2. You can be certain of two things: when we die we will rejoice that we know the Lord, and secondly, when we meet the Lord we will rejoice that we served the Lord. In the hour of death, we will thank God ten thousand times we were saved. On the day we stand before Christ, if we have served Him, we will thank God ten thousand times that we lived for Him.

3. Charles Gabriel wrote:

O that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me;
When by His grace
I look on His face,
That will be glory, glory for me.

4. If you serve God and live a faithful life it will be glory for you when you stand before the Lord. A faithful life will bring rejoicing.

B. A FUTILE LIFE WILL BRING REGRET.

1. Paul not only expressed the desire of his life but he also expressed the dread of his life. This was dread was that he might "run in vain" and "labor in vain." The picture Paul used is that of a runner in a race. The word "run" speaks of the runner on the track while the word "labor" carried the ideal of the runner in his training.

2. Oftentimes Paul used this picture to declare spiritual truths. We read in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery in temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

3. Paul took the picture of a runner's training, a runner's task, and a runner's triumph to illustrate the Christian running a spiritual race. In our text, using that picture, Paul declares that the one thing he fears is that he would run the race in vain. He feared running a race that would be futile, empty, and meaningless. He didn't want his life to be futile or meaningless. He didn't want to meet the Lord with the regret that his life had been without meaning, without purpose, and without effect.

4. I think of the prayer of General Douglas Macarthur for his son: "Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain" (emphasis mine)

5. General Macarthur did not want to live his life in vain as a father and Paul did not want to live his life in vain for his Father. What a dreadful way to meet the Lord, to have lived, yet lived in vain.

6. The word "vain" was used by a weaver to speak of a piece of cloth that was not fit for sale. It would not bring a price. How tragic to be a Christian yet live life on earth doing nothing and then standing before the Lord having nothing.

7. On the ceiling of the great state hall in the Palace of Versailles is a painting of Hercules. It took the artist two and half years of continuous labor to complete the painting. When he received no pay for it, he committed suicide in the room underneath the painting. Life for him seemed without purpose in the absence of a commensurate reward.

8. To live life in vain is no way to live, its no way to die, and certainly no way to meet the Lord. How tragic to live life and live it in vain. To meet the Lord with such a life will be one of regret. As the songwriter said:

Must I go empty handed,
Thus my dear Redeemer meet?
Not one day of service give Him,
Lay no trophy at His feet?

9. The last words of Philip III of Spain were: "Oh, would to God I had never reigned! Oh, that those years I have spent in my kingdom I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness! Oh, that I had lived alone with God! How much more secure should I now have died! What doth all my glory profit, but that I have so much more torment in death?"

10. Many have died with regret and many will meet the Lord with regret. That was a dread of Paul. He did not want to live in vain and meet the Lord empty handed.

11. The Scottish preacher, G.H. Morrison wrote: "Be good and true: be patient; be undaunted. Leave your usefulness to God to estimate. He will see to it that you do not live your life in vain."

12. To live life in vain is a dreadful way to meet the Lord.

2. A DELIGHTFUL WAY TO MEET THE LORD!

1. We read in verses 17-18, "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me." Paul now speaks of the believers at Philippi and what they would mean to him when he met the Lord.

A. THE FATE HE WAS EXPECTING.

1. When Paul says, "Yea, and if I be offered" he was speaking of the possibility of death by execution. He is writing from prison and knows that any day he could be carried to be executed. The word that he used to describe his death (offered) was a word used in connection to the offering of an sacrifice. He view such a death as an offering unto God.

2. He used the same word in 2 Timothy 4:6, "For I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand."

3. Paul looked the giving of his life as an act of worship. It was an offering to the God who saved him and whom he loved. He did not run from such a death but rejoiced in such a death.

B. THE FRUIT HE WAS EXPERIENCING.

1. He not only viewed his death as an offering to God but also as an offering for the Philippians. He says in verse 17, "Yea, and if be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." Paul said that if he died it would be with joy and there would be no regrets. Why? His life was bearing fruit in the Philippian believers.

2. First, he spoke of their "sacrifice." The word is the same that he used in Romans 12:1 when he told the believers in Rome to present their bodies a living sacrifice. Paul's words were a testimony that they had given their life to God and were living for Him.

3. Then he spoke of their "service." The word means, "ministry." They were living in the will of God and doing the work of God. This was his fruit, his life in flesh and his ministry in shoe leather.

4. Paul could die without any regrets because he knew the he would live on in the lives of the Philippians believers. He had led them to Christ and helped them grow as Christians. They were monuments to his life and ministry.

5. When we meet Christ, we should want to meet him with a life of service and lives that are serving. We should want to meet Him with a life that is honorable to Him and leave behind lives that are honoring Him.

6. Can you point to someone that is going to heaven because of you? Can you point to someone that is in church and living for God because of your life? What could be greater than to come to the end of your life, knowing that because of your life, you will leave behind fruit.

7. Lyman Beecher was a scholar and preacher in his day. His sermons were printed in newspapers throughout the country. When he was on his deathbed someone said to him, "Dr. Beecher, you are a great intellect and a brilliant scholar. Tell me, what do you believe is the greatest thing that a human being can be or do with his life?" Lying on his deathbed, he replied, "The greatest thing is not that a man should be a scientist, important as that is; not that a man should be a statesman, as important as that is; not even that one should be a great theologian, immeasurably important as that is. The greatest of all things for one human being is to bring another human being to the Lord Jesus Christ.

8. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 2:19, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming."

9. Paul said that the crown of his rejoicing when he stood in the presence of the Lord would not be a crown he would wear on his head but people he had won for Christ.

10. We are going to meet Him one day. If we have invested our lives in God's work and have invested our lives in others, it will be a delightful way to meet Him. It would be a delightful way to meet Him at any time and in anyway.