Till Final Breath, This Life Is for Magnifying Christ

January 27, 1980, my candidating sermon. This building didn't exist. The building that did exist is gone. It's over there. You can see pictures of it sometime. And I preached on this text, the one that was just read. And we dug down to the water table of this truth. Really sweet water. Christ is most magnified in you when you are most satisfied in him, especially in your suffering and death. And today, in Global Focus, we're simply going to draw out the missionary implication of that. Christ is magnified in his world. It's the title, you can read it there in your worship folder. Christ is magnified in his world through servants who are satisfied in his worth. That's more than poetically cute, especially in their suffering and death. In other words, the peoples of this world will come to magnify Christ, glorify Christ, honor Christ, worship Christ, through servants who are so satisfied, so soul satisfied in Christ, that this soul satisfaction in Christ carries them through all missionary suffering. Let's read it again, first part. Verse 20, Philippians 1, it is my eager expectation and hope. I tell you, when I read an apostle talk like that, I want on board, I want in. Okay, if that's your eager expectation and hope, I want it to be mine. I hope you do too. That negatively, I won't ever be ashamed. But positively, with full courage, now as always, Christ will be magnified, honored, glorified in my body, whether I live or whether I die. I love that text. I love that man. I love that vision of life, how not to waste your life. What that verse established in 1980 and establishes now, right now, is that Paul's great passion in this world was to see Christ magnified. Is that clear? Everybody see that in the text? Passion, Christ to be magnified, Christ to be glorified, Christ to be made much of, Christ to be great in the world. Seen, trusted, loved as the greatest treasure in the world. Remember he said in chapter 3, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth, that's why I got the word worth in the title, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. So when that happens, when Christ is so valuable to us that everything is lost by comparison, he's looking great in our lives. He's looking great. He's looking magnificent, especially when that happens as you die or suffer. And we know he meant it globally, right? Because in chapter 1 verse 5 of Romans he says, my ministry is for the sake of Christ among the nations. It's not just like, I want to have a little private worship party here between me and God, make him look great, just me and him. Not the way he's thinking. Or Romans 15 20, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named. So we know when he said my passion is that Christ would be magnified, honored, glorified in my body, he didn't just mean me and him. He meant I want my life to count for the magnifying of Christ among the peoples of the world, all the peoples, all the nations of the world. Now here's the question. How does Christ come to look magnificent in us if we live or die? How? How does that happen? So you're sitting there and you feel, I'm just so absolutely ordinary. It's just not gonna happen. Oh yes it will. And I'll show you how it will. It's not beyond any of you. The answer is in verse 21. Half the answer is, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, because for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. So Christ will be magnified. He'll look great. He'll be magnificent in my body, because to me to die is gain. Now that almost makes sense. It doesn't yet, right? There's a missing piece in the argument. It doesn't make sense yet. Okay, die is gain, and when that happens, Christ looks great. Doesn't make sense. The missing piece is in verse 23, second half of the verse. My desire is to depart, and that is to die, which he just called gain. He's explaining how it's gain now. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. It's gain. Death is gain, because he gets more of Christ. Now the argument makes sense. Mind-blowing sense. Life-changing sense. Church-revolutionizing sense. World-reaching sense. What an argument. Christ will be magnified in my death, because I will experience death as gain, because I'm going to be with him, and he's everything to me. Way better than life. So argument, Christ will be magnified in my death, because Christ is more precious to me than life. If you don't get that, I don't know how to preach to you, except to keep saying it again and again, keep lifting them up as more precious, more precious. I'll say it again. Christ will be magnified in your death, the way you die, the way you suffer unto death, the way you walk the path of dying in obedience. Christ will be magnified there, because Christ is seen as more precious to you than life.