Philippians 1:12-26 Paul: Prisoner for Christ

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community and service.

Good to see you guys. Ray, your smiling face, good to see you. It is my privilege to preach this morning here at Recast. I'm glad you're here. Do you have a book of the Bible, maybe it's a particular passage or maybe a verse that you just love?

You turn to that verse or that passage or that book and you go there often, maybe for encouragement or for some other reason. Maybe you have that passage. For me, it's the book of Philippians, the whole book.

I just love that book. The Apostle Paul wrote the book to the Church of Philippi and the book is full of Paul's message of joy in the middle of suffering. That's one of the reasons I just love that book, is his incredible message there.

But also it's the perspective that Paul has. If you think about it, he's imprisoned in Rome, yet he's writing to encourage others. And I am just overwhelmed by that perspective sometimes. So at any rate, I love the book, I'll be preaching from Philippians and right now what I'd like to do is introduce my message and introduce worship and kind of set the tone for worship now as we get started this morning.

Joy in Suffering and the Call to Worship

Paul is writing this book full of encouraging words and the question I want to just ponder this morning with you is, how could he do that? How could he be in the middle of suffering and difficulty and hardship in his own life and yet have the perspective to encourage others and to write an encouraging letter to other believers?

He was imprisoned and chained to a guard. You know, God doesn't really promise us an easy road, does he, as Christians? We are probably all experiencing some type of hardship and difficulty even this morning.

God doesn't promise us a cushy life and a bed of roses. In fact, it's the opposite. You may remember Jesus' own words in John 16 .33. He says, in this life you will have tribulation. I mean, that's a fact.

James later writes in the book of James chapter 1, count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. Not if you face trials, but when you face trials. They're going to come. We shouldn't be surprised by them.

And we know that God has some deeper purpose in those difficulties. It's really hard to know sometimes why. We know he has a purpose, but the amazing thing is he tells us to be joyful in the midst of suffering.

And I find that just incredibly challenging. How do we do that? How do we do that? I would submit to you that it is a supernatural thing, that it's by yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit, to the Spirit of God in our lives in the middle of suffering.

So today, as we come to the book of Philippians, we're going to get a privilege of seeing the Apostle Paul exemplify this for us. We're going to see the Apostle Paul living out his life, and we're going to see his perspective in the middle of suffering.

And so I'd like to ponder that here as we come to worship this morning, and I'd like to encourage you all to, you know, whatever's on your mind this morning, whatever burdens, whatever difficulties you're dealing with, just encourage you to lay them down before God, just in prayer, in your own mind, just as we come to worship God, turn your burdens over to him.

He is truly God. He's worthy of our worship this morning. And so I just encourage you to truly worship him. So as I come to God's Word here, we're going to read from the book of Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 to 26, Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 to 26.

That's page 840 in the Bible in the seat back in front of you. I encourage you to take a copy of that with you home if you don't have a Bible or don't have the ESV version. You're welcome to that. That's for you.

But turn to page 840, it's Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 to 26, as I read. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, this will turn out for my deliverance. 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, whether by life or by.

Death.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for this time to come before you as a body of believers to worship you, God, to lift our voices in song and to hear your Word proclaimed.

Father, I pray right now that you would help us to just turn our burdens and our cares and concerns over to you, and to genuinely worship you from our hearts, to lift you up, Lord, to lift up your name, no matter what we're going through, Father.

You're worthy of our worship, you're worthy of our praise, and we love you, and we praise your name, Father. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Thanks Dave and the band, appreciate those songs.

The lyrics were solid. This morning, as we come to God's Word, I reflect back, it's been about a year since I preached last here, and I did preach in the book of Philippians, ironically, Philippians chapter 1, verses 1 to 11.

So I want to give, a lot of you probably weren't here then, and even if you were, it's been a while. So I want to give you a little context and a little bit of the history around this letter that was written.

So the city of Philippi was an important city in the Roman Empire at this time in history. It was actually first named after Alexander the Great's dad, King Philip of the Greek Empire, who was later conquered by the Roman Empire, and was actually made a Roman colony, which meant that there were Roman citizens in Philippi.

They had citizenship and the right to own land and the right to govern themselves, and this was a significant city. And this was actually the entrance point for the gospel into Europe. Paul, during his first missionary journey, was traveling with his companions and felt called by the Macedonian man in the book of Acts, and entered into Europe in the city of Philippi, and met a lady by the name of Lydia.

You may know the story and remember this from the book of Acts. Lydia was a merchant in purple cloth, and she became the first convert. And so then from there, Paul was imprisoned, beaten, and then miraculously set free by an earthquake.

The jailer became a Christian, he and his whole family, and the church in Philippi was started. And this was the humble beginnings of a group of believers in the city of Philippi. Paul left and went on to several other missionary journeys, and eventually came to Jerusalem to offer a gift to the Jerusalem church and also some vows, and was arrested in a riot and was put into captivity.

Basically, he was taken into custody and eventually moved to Caesarea, spent two years languishing in prison before he appealed to Caesar, and then was then transported to Rome with a shipwreck and all that.

So now he's finally in Rome, and 11 years have passed. So I just wanted to sort of paint that picture of the church starting in around AD 50. Now it's about 11 years later, AD 61, somewhere around there, and Paul is now under house arrest in Rome.

He's imprisoned, he's chained to a guard, and in house arrest as he writes this letter. In the first few verses of the first chapter, Paul identifies himself, verse 1, as a servant of Christ. The word actually means slave.

Paul's actually proud to announce, hey, I'm a slave of Christ. And I actually think that's a high calling, to be associated with Christ in any capacity is a high calling, and to be a slave and a servant of Christ is awesome.

Paul identifies himself that way as he starts the book. In verses that follow, verse 3, he just talks about how thankful he is for the Philippians. Now 11 years later, he's still thankful for their memory and for who they are and what they're doing.

He talks about how much he loves them. He pours his heart out, really, in this introduction to the book of Philippians. Verses 7 and 8 talk about his intense love and compassion for the people in Philippi.

And then in verses 9 to 11, he just sort of overflows into a prayer. Just right in the middle of this letter, he's praying for these Philippians. He's praying that their love would grow more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so they'd discern what's best and be able to grow in wisdom, living out their faith.

In essence, living out their faith. That's his prayer for them. And it's a beautiful prayer, verses 9 to 11. You know, if you are ever wondering what to pray when you're in the midst of prayer, I'd encourage you to look for those prayers in Scripture and pray those.

They're powerful. They're a great pattern for us as we come before God. So that leads us to the passage I read to you this morning, which is Philippians 1, verses 12 to 26. So let's dig right in. Philippians 1, verse 12 says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

Well, what has happened to Paul? He's now in prison. He's chained to a guard. So what is that like, by the way? Any of you been chained to a guard? Well, maybe I don't want to see you show hands. Don't tell me you have.

But what do you think that's like? Honestly, I don't know what that's like. But I was just pondering this week what it would be like to be chained. Can you imagine, just what do you do in a 24-hour period?

What do you do in a 24-hour period? You probably use the restroom a few times. Maybe you bathe. Hopefully you do something like that. You have some quiet time, some private time, hopefully, or some rest and relaxation in there.

Imagine being chained to a guard for just 24 hours straight. When are you going to sleep? How are you going to sleep with a chain on your arm trying to roll over and stuff? How are you going to ever have any privacy, zero privacy, to do anything?

I mean, how does that wear on you after a while? Can you imagine being chained like that constantly? I can't. And yet that's Paul's circumstances. But what I think is amazing is Paul's perspective in the middle of this.

If you look at this verse, he says, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. His perspective is looking at this in light of the gospel. What is God doing with the gospel message in the middle of my circumstances?

And Paul actually ends up being encouraged as he looks at his circumstances in light of what God is doing. So I want to encourage us this morning to think about that too. What circumstances and hardships are you going through right now?

I want to encourage you to look at those in light of the gospel, in light of what God is doing and can do in your circumstances. How is he advancing the gospel? How can you share the gospel? How can you demonstrate Christ to those around you, even in those difficult things?

Verse 13 goes on to say, It's pretty amazing. Everyone here is finding out that Paul is imprisoned for Christ. Clearly, Paul is not hiding his faith, is he? He is living boldly. He is declaring why he is there.

And I'm sure that wasn't easy for Paul, being chained to that guard. No privacy, no alone time. I'm sure this was kind of an intrusion in his life. In our modern culture, we value our privacy and our ability to be alone, and he certainly had none of that.

But while I think I want to just point out one interesting contrast here in perspective. Rome had successfully captured Paul and shackled him and was holding him on trial to await the outcome of his trial in front of Caesar.

And he was clearly Rome's prisoner, no doubt about it. But in a real sense, there's another thing going on here. God has effectively captured and imprisoned a Roman guard to hear the gospel 24 hours a day.

No options. He is stuck. Think about it. He doesn't have much of a chance, does he? He is stuck next to Paul. And in that day and age, it was very common for guards to have six-hour shifts and swap out like that.

So it was very likely that every six hours a new guard was coming in and getting shackled to Paul. And so think about that. Guard after guard is just stuck there listening to Paul, watching Paul, seeing what he does, how does he interact with people as people come and visit Paul and they talk.

So I think it's interesting that this verse in particular says that it had become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. If Paul had been saying one thing but living a different way, maybe you know how we all go through difficulties in life and in perspective and in our attitude.

But if Paul had been inconsistent in his life, that would have become known. I'm confident it would have become known. You can't hide yourself, those acts from a guard that's chained to you. And yet Paul's testimony had become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else.

So God was using Paul's words and his life, lived out in front of these Roman guards and anyone else who came and visited to testify to Christ. So I want us this morning to think about that a little bit, about who are you chained to?

Who are you imprisoned with? And there's a common joke about marriage being a ball and chain. I don't mean to allude to that. But honestly, some people look at their jobs as kind of like I'm stuck here.

I'm chained to this desk. I'm stuck next to this guy who keeps saying this stuff and I'm annoyed by it. What are your life circumstances? Where are you stuck? Maybe it's at home, it's with kids, and that's a burden and that's a duty.

Who are you stuck with? And think about it like Paul is here. Who has God chained to you as your captive audience? Who is it that you're with at work, at home, at the ball field, running errands, wherever you go?

God has brought these people into your life. I'm convinced of it. God has brought different people into all of our lives for a reason. And that reason is we are ambassadors for Christ. We are ambassadors like Paul for Christ in this world.

Let's continue on in the passage. Verse 14,. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. When I first read this, I thought it was kind of interesting and confusing logic.

You know, if my friend was a believer and was suddenly imprisoned for his faith and persecuted, how would that encourage me? I would think that would make me fearful initially, right? Like, oh, what's going to happen to me?

And yet, if you take a step back and you look at history and you look at the martyrs of the faith, if you even look at the early church, just shortly after Paul wrote this letter, 8061, around 8065 there was a fire in Rome.

Anybody heard of a fire, the Roman fire? Who did that get blamed on? The Christians. And what did that spark? It set off a massive persecution which lasted for a long time. And the early church actually thrived in that midst of that persecution.

How can that be? Well, when people are persecuted, it actually is an amazing inspiration to others when you see someone who's willing to make that level of sacrifice. I want to talk briefly about a martyr for the faith that's in more recent history, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Who's heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? A few of us have. He was a German pastor in the 1930s and 40s. And we know what happened during that time in history in Germany, the rise of the Nazi party. He was one of those who did not go along with the mainstream, and he took a stand against the Nazis.

And he risked his life to do it. In fact, I won't go into the full history of it, but there was actually a plot to assassinate Hitler and he was a part of that. But I want to point out that he took a stand and wasn't caving into the pressure.

He also sought to free Jews and help Jews escape from the prison camps and things like that. He actually escaped himself. His life was in jeopardy, and he got out of Germany in 1943, came to the U .S.

But as he was walking around Brooklyn attending church and meeting with other believers, he just felt a deep conviction that if my country is going through this dark period, how can I run away from that and hide from that?

So he went back to Germany in 1943, knowing that his life was potentially at risk, and he helped additional Jews escape, but eventually he was captured and imprisoned. And in 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war, he was hanged and martyred.

And this man was willing to take a stand for his faith and put his life on the line. That's inspiring to me and convicting, and I just want to encourage you to consider the men and women of faith who have paid the ultimate price for the cause of Jesus Christ as encouragement for you.

Maybe you've heard of the Book of Martyrs or other references that you can check out, but those can be incredibly inspiring stories for us. Most of the brothers, this is verse 14 now. I'm sorry, moving on.

Motives for Preaching Christ and Rejoicing in the Gospel

Verse 15. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking to inflict me in my imprisonment.

So it's clear here that some preach Christ out of good motives and some preach Christ out of bad motives, and that can be a little bit confusing, and I thought about this quite a bit and dug into it, but I would really rather not spend all of our time pondering why do people have these different motives, but just accept it and look at Paul's response to it.

Look at verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Paul's perspective is that whether people are preaching Christ out of good motives or preaching Christ out of bad motives, he's going to rejoice either way.

He's going to be happy and be grateful and be thankful either way, and I think that's just an incredible testimony. I want us to dwell on this for just a second. Sometimes I think I get too concerned about attitude and others' attitude or my attitude, and to be honest, how good our attitude is is not the power that changes lives.

It's not the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel is the gospel message itself. It says in Romans 1 .16, Paul wrote these very words in Romans 1 .16, that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

It's not our motivation. It's not how pure our motives are, how good our motives are. It's the gospel itself that is the power to change lives. So I want to ask you a question. Do you get excited when you hear the gospel, when you hear the gospel proclaimed?

Maybe it's on TV even, or maybe it's in a public place. You overhear someone telling someone else, and you hear Jesus' name mentioned. Does that get you excited? I hope it does. I hope you get excited about the gospel being proclaimed and the gospel being shared, because people need to hear about Jesus Christ.

I'm here to tell you this morning that there is no better thing on the planet. There is no better anything. And I want to just share that this last few weeks and the political campaigns that are going on, you hear the debates and different things.

I don't know where you stand politically, but there's no politician that compares with Jesus Christ, and there's no political party. There's no sports team, whether you're a Nebraska fan or Ohio State or whatever.

There's no success that you can have personally. There's no pleasure. There's no joy. There's nothing on this earth that compares with Jesus Christ. He is the only answer that will truly satisfy you, and He's the only answer that will truly satisfy others around you.

And that's why people need to hear about Jesus Christ. Romans 10, verses 14 and 15, Paul writes, and this isn't a paraphrased translation, but he writes, but how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust?

And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the one who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them unless someone is sent to do it?

So the bottom line is people cannot believe if they don't know what they're supposed to believe in. Paul is excited about the fact that the gospel is being preached. People are hearing about Christ, and He's rejoicing, and so should we.

Verse 18 goes on to say, Paul is continuing on in his joy. You'll notice that in verses 12 through 18, Paul's been talking about how the gospel message is being proclaimed, and that's his joy, and he's excited about that, and that's a good reason for joy.

But now he goes on to say that he is also calling for help. In the future, in his own personal experience, whatever that is. And he says that God will result in his deliverance. But what does that mean exactly, the word deliverance here?

I would submit to you that he is not saying things are going to work out nice and easy right now. He's not saying that at all. Instead, rather, he's saying that his eager hope and expectation is that he will not be ashamed, but will have courage.

Do you need courage to go through easy stuff? Not so much. You need courage to go through the tough stuff. And Paul knows that's probably ahead. He says, so that I will have courage, so that Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or death.

In verse 20, he's saying that deliverance may mean life, and it may mean death. But either way, he wants Christ to be honored in his body. Paul knew that he had been bought with a price. His own body had been bought with a price, and it belongs to God.

Paul continued on in verse 21. This is a really well-known verse. Maybe you've memorized this. It says, verse 21, I think this is one of the most comforting verses in Scripture. I think it's an awesome verse to reflect on and meditate on.

It gives a perspective that can be life-changing. If I live, I'm going to live for Christ. That's a sense of purpose in life. It gives you meaning in life. It gives your life direction. Why am I here?

I'm living for Christ. If I die, I go to be with Christ. I mean, what's the worst that can happen to you?

Death.

Well, you're going to go be with Christ, and that's the best thing that can happen to you. There is no bad option here. Either way is good. And that is incredibly, for me, it gives me peace and joy to know that.

Verse 22. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose? I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. So we see this thought continue on here in verse 22. He says that going on and living in the body means fruitful labor for Paul. That's the way he looked at his life.

I don't know how many months and years Paul had left, and he didn't know either. He was going to live some period of time, but whatever that was, he was going to live it for Christ. And I think that should be our perspective as well.

Whatever time God has left for us on this planet, we can joyfully serve Him. We can joyfully live for God. I wanted to ask a question to just reflect on this morning. When you were saved, when you put your faith in Christ, why weren't you just raptured up to glory?

Why aren't we all with Christ right now? What's the purpose for being on this planet for however many years God gives us as a believer? It's to be salt and light to those around us. It's to be an ambassador.

It's to be a witness and a testimony of what Christ can do to share that good news with others. So I want to encourage us and challenge us to do that, to be a testimony and a witness and an ambassador for Christ.

So in this passage, I think it's interesting also to see how Paul is kind of challenged and struggling in this whole situation. In verse 23, he actually says that he really prefers to go be with Christ.

That's actually his preference. That's the best scenario. Death is Paul's best scenario, best option. And that's awesome news for us. Death has lost its sting. We no longer have to fear death. But he goes on in verse 24 to say that continuing on in the body, serving the Philippians is more necessary for Paul right now.

So Paul concludes that he's probably going to stick around and serve others for the time being and help out. Ultimately, it's in God's hands where we go right now. Our future is in God's hands. Verse 25 continues on.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.

So Paul, having fought through all this, is convinced he's going to remain for some period of time. He's going to continue on to encourage the Philippians in their faith so that they will glory in who?

They will glory in Christ Jesus. That's Paul's goal, to help them grow in their faith, to bring glory to Christ Jesus. So I want to just summarize briefly here. In the passage, verses 12 to 26, Paul, we see him start off by sharing his faith boldly with the Roman guards, and the word is spreading.

And then Paul talks about how no matter what the motive, he's excited to hear that the gospel is spreading. And being proclaimed. He was rejoicing in it. And he's convinced that it's going to bear fruit.

And he even says, as he faces a potential death sentence, that he's going to remain confident. And that his confidence is that whether he lives or dies, that he wants God to be glorified in his body. An amazing perspective for us this morning.

So what should we do with all this information, and what do we walk away with? Well, first, I'd like to just ask this question. What about you? Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? Do you know the gospel that Paul was so excited about?

The gospel that he just weaves in and out of this whole letter? The gospel about Jesus. Well, the gospel is simply that Jesus, who is God, became flesh, came to earth to save us from our sins. Because the reality is we are all sinners.

All of us. And I think we know it if we look at our hearts. If we really examine our hearts this morning, I think we all know we have problems in here. We're sinful. And not only do we have junk in our life, but we are unable to do anything about it.

And that's why God had to come and save us out of that helpless state. He came in the person of Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and set us free. If you just simply put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and what He has done for you, then you can be free from this curse of sin and death.

But it's better than that. You actually have a relationship with God. As a believer, you not only get freedom from sin and all the problems there, but you get an incredible relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

And it's not just... I mean, just think about the concept of the Almighty God, the creator of the whole world, the whole universe, having a personal relationship with that kind of God, that kind of power.

It's an amazing thing, a gift that we're given. So I want to encourage you, if you haven't made that decision, to just express your faith in God and turn your life over to Him. And if you have any questions about it, I'd love to talk to you afterward.

I'd be happy to talk further and answer any questions. But now I'd just like to draw out another application point and ponder this as well. What about those of us who have put our faith in Christ and we are striving to grow in our faith and in our walk with God?

We want to walk with God and serve Him and please Him. I want to consider your life. I want you to consider your life and what you're chained to. Maybe it's your job, your coworkers, the person at work who annoys you.

I'm sure nobody has any of those people. Whether you're at home, whether you're at work, whether you're running errands, who are the people that you encounter on a daily basis? You can't avoid them. They can't avoid you.

It's just forced interaction, pretty much. Who are those people? I want you to think about that for a moment. Just like Paul, we're chained to people, and I want you to consider that and how you can not only share your faith verbally but live out your faith in front of those people.

And maybe you're going through hardships and difficulties and challenges in life, and I don't want to trivialize those at all. But God gives us even more opportunity to demonstrate our faith in Him and to be a witness for Him through those difficulties.

How do we do that? Well, Paul sets a really good example for us by showing how to put your mind on the Gospel, to dwell on the Gospel of Christ, and to let that Gospel transform your life. But it's by the Spirit of God.

It's by the Spirit of God in us. When we become believers, the Spirit of God lives in us, and we need to rely on God's Spirit to transform our lives and change us from the inside out. So, as we come to Communion today, we do this every week.

We take the juice and the crackers as a remembrance of what Christ has done for us. And we do that intentionally because we want to constantly keep that reminder in front of us of what Christ has done for us.

It makes all the difference. Jesus Himself actually instituted this. At the Last Supper, He said, This is My body and this is My blood, and do this in remembrance of Me. This was something Jesus asked us to do, to remember Him, to remember His sacrifice.

So I want to encourage you to just consider that this morning as we come to Communion. Jesus died for us. He forgave us of our sins and made a way for us to come to God. Just this morning, as you take in your Communion, I encourage you to just thank God for what He's done for you.