For to Me to Live is Christ

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the sermon by establishing the profound nature of two questions: the meaning of life and the meaning of death, illustrating their universal relevance from…

Illustrates the universal and profound nature of the question 'What is the meaning or purpose of life?' by contrasting a child's innocent query with a philosopher's lifelong pursuit.

Now whether that first question is asked by a little boy who's out taking a walk with his daddy under the stars, asking all kinds of questions, questions that little boys can ask, who put the stars there, how far away are there, how many of them are there, and in the midst of such questions he says, Daddy, why am I here? What's the purpose of life? I say whether that question is asked in the innocence of the intimacy of a boy's relationship to his dad, taking a walk under the stars, or whether it's asked by the gray-haired philosopher bent over his large, books written in all the ancient langu...

4:47 - 5:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the sermon by establishing the profound nature of two questions: the meaning of life and the meaning of death, illustrating their universal relevance from…

Illustrates the profound nature of the question 'What is the meaning and result of death?' by contrasting a broken-hearted child's grief with a mature adult contemplating their twilight years.

And likewise with the second question, whether that question, what is the meaning and the result of death is asked by a broken, by a broken-hearted child who has just seen the earthly remains of a mom or dad lowered into the earth, and as he's taken away, sobbing from the graveside, says to his remaining parent, what has happened to mommy or daddy in death? Or again, whether it's asked by the mature adult who knows that he's in the twilight years of his life and death is fast approaching, and he contemplates that reality, I say, it is a profound question. What is the meaning? What is the resul...

5:48 - 6:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that the word 'for' in Philippians 1:21 links it directly to Paul's previous assertion of continued rejoicing and confidence that Christ will be magnified in his…

Martin uses the analogy of Christian plaque makers to emphasize that Paul's statement was not a trite saying but a profound conviction born from his imminent danger and deep faith.

plaque makers and poster makers to put something that would be very nice sitting on a living room wall or in a den somewhere to be to live is Christ here is a man who knows he's only a whim away from the executioner's sword the whim of a pagan emperor named Nero and now has a chain about his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm and his arm that binds him day and night to a roman soldier and...

12:09 - 13:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: for to me, whatever else life may be to someone else, to me to live is Christ. In other words, this is testimony. This is not a Christian philosopher who is giving his views on these great questions in abstraction.

An extended analogy of discovering a diary entry 'to me to live is the violin' and needing to examine biographical details and witnesses to understand its cryptic meaning, serving as a framework for interpreting Paul's 'to live is Christ'.

Suppose you were going through the remains of a man who had died some years ago, a man whom you never knew personally.

16:09 - 16:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third meaning is 'to live is communion with Christ,' explaining that love naturally leads to a desire for fellowship, nurtured by meditation, prayer, and the reality of…

Illustrates how love naturally gives birth to a desire for communion, using the example of children falling in love and their intense focus on communicating with the object of their affection, often to the exclusion of others.

Those of you who are parents who've lived long enough to see your children come to maturity and enter into marriage, you can think back and long before your son or daughter told you that they had found an object of their love, you already saw all the evidences glued to the telephone every spare minute, communing with the object of their affection. If the telephone was not a medium of communication, then they were glued to their pen. That same girl or boy that would not write anything but the minimum amount in an essay and all the rest, suddenly they had the pen of a ready writer. Why?

33:29 - 34:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider if you truly love Christ, not just as you wish you would, but with genuine indications of love, such as delight in His fellowship.

Illustrates the hypocrisy of claiming to love Christ without demonstrating delight in fellowship, using the example of a young man claiming to be in love but never contacting the object of his affection.

What's her name? And he tells her. They watch one day go by, two, three, four, six weeks. Never gives her a telephone call, never writes a letter, never spends any time with her, but every day, after a while the parents are going to say, crazy kind of love this kid's got.

44:16 - 44:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Finally, Martin demonstrates the gospel's power by contrasting Paul's former life of hatred for Christ with his transformed devotion, explaining that only God's sovereign light in…

Martin uses the historical example of medieval Romanism's superstitious use of a crucifix for healing to set up the contrast with the true power of the gospel, which lays the 'cross in terms of the truth' upon a heart.

Now how in the world does a man committed to obliterating the very name of Christ come to the place where he says for me to live is Christ. Well he certainly didn't perform a con job on himself and he certainly isn't because he had an epileptic fit as some of the liberals tried to explain what happened. He tells us what happened 2 Corinthians 4 6 he says God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He said God sovereignly dispelled the darkness of my heart and as surely as he b...

52:03 - 53:32 Read in full sermon