Rejoicing In The Gospel - [Philippians 1:12-18]

In 17th century England, there was a countryside preacher who drew crowds of people with his dynamic

Preaching it was so powerful and so popular that the leaders of the Church of England had him jailed to silence him but He preached even in prison and he was so popular there and so loud because of his booming voice that men and women from the neighboring city of Bedford would stand outside of the prison walls and Hear him expound scripture

The jailers responded to this by putting this man into the deepest parts of the jail and forbidding him from preaching at all, but the gospel will not be silenced and so despite the greatest efforts of these prison guards to do so in this time of solitude this prisoner picked up his pen and He wrote a story that would reach tens of millions of people

Around the world it was deep in a prison cell that John Bunyan wrote the pilgrims progress

Bunyan knew the gospel must spread and spread it did

Tonight we're gonna look at a man who also had a singular focus. We'll see the Apostle Paul Shepherding his flock well in a very similar situation in which

Bunyan found himself when he wrote his allegorical epic Paul knew what

Bunyan knew The gospel of Jesus Christ will not be stopped turn your

Bibles If you will to Philippians chapter 1 we'll be looking at verses 12 to 18 together this evening

Here we're gonna see that focus that Paul had that the gospel must go forth and as you turn there Let me set the stage for you a little bit

Paul most likely is in prison in Rome when he writes this letter Paul First came to Philippi during his second missionary journey.

We see this in Acts 16 Usually what Paul would do is he would go to a city.

He would spend two years there He would plant a church who administered of them train the men there on how to lead a church

But he and Timothy got arrested while they were in Philippi and They got kicked out of the city before their work was done

And so Paul continues on his missionary journey and later on in Acts 16 And I'm sorry in Acts 21 five chapters later

Paul gets arrested again in Jerusalem Well over the next seven chapters of Acts we see how

Paul is Traveling along with his captors and with other prisoners and slowly ploddingly they make their way to Rome We see

Acts 28 verse 30 that he Paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the

Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance and Most historians believe that it was during these two years of house arrest in Rome That Paul wrote this letter to the

Philippian Church in chapter 1 Paul Opens this letter by greeting the Philippians he gives thanks to God for them

He encourages them that the father is working in each one of them And he reminds them that even though they're a thousand miles away.

They have a partnership in the gospel Paul yearns for his spiritual children and he even writes that and he desires for their spiritual growth and we see that as well

But Paul isn't just writing a letter to talk about his feelings He's not in writing this letter just to relate to the

Philippians the events that happened to him And we showing through what we'll see tonight the sovereignty of God To the

Philippian Church, they've worried about him so much Maybe they've even heard about some of the things that have been going on in the life of Paul that he was arrested again

Certainly they sent a paphroditus to him. So they knew that he was in Rome So Paul is showing the

Philippians how he responded to those trials In fact, you know

It's it's a little ironic that if you look at acts the last person Paul was meeting with Before his arrest is the very same man who wrote these words

Count it all joy my brothers when you meet various trials For you know that the testing your faith produces steadfastness

Because that's exactly what Paul did and so we'll come to our passage Let's read together.

Look in your Bibles Philippians chapter 1 verses 12 through 18 I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel

So that 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 it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel

The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but 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 So to understand this this passage what we're going to do tonight is we're going to kind of break this in half first We're going to look at verses 12 to 14

This is the advance of the gospel and then we're going to look at verses 15 through 18 the priority of the gospel simple outline advance priority

Indeed the gospel of Jesus Christ has been the guiding star of Paul's life at this point for some 30

Years and right at the beginning of this text we see this verse 12. I want you to know brothers That what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel

Now we support missionaries at BBC, right? And so you can almost kind of imagine the hearts and the minds of the

Philippians, right? Paul loves them that is well known their love for Paul is well known. They've sent a paphroditus to him

They've supported him Paul says in chapter 4. I am well supplied. They are providing for him

They love him But just imagine this you get a mission when you get a missionary update and you kind of know the first paragraph is like hello

I hope you're doing well, but you kind of skip to the meat, right? You want to know what's going on, right? Like what's the update give me the update?

That's where they are. Maybe they kind of rush through the opening to get to the good stuff And what does

Paul do? Immediately he redirects to the gospel Like any good evangelist and so that's going to be our focus the gospel of Jesus Christ now

I said the word gospel a lot of times And we were talking this morning in Sunday school about the importance of defining terms

And so here we are. Let's let's define the gospel of Jesus Christ And Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about this in 1st

Corinthians 15 This is what he said now. I would remind you brothers of the gospel

I preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

I preached to you unless you believed in vain For I deliver to you as of first importance that which

I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures This is a lot of verses and I think

I've heard this a whole bunch of times in my house over the last year that Christ Died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with scriptures

God requires perfection for from us to get into heaven None of us can make it not even the author of this passage can do it

But there is one exception Jesus Christ is the perfect sinless Son of God more than that Jesus Christ is

God and he did exactly as Paul wrote Here he came into this world. He lived perfectly for 30 years.

I can't even live perfectly for 30 seconds He did it for 30 plus years And when he stretched out his hands on the cross and died as an innocent man for the sins of his people

He paid for the sins of all who would believe Jesus was raised from the dead showing that he defeated death

This is the gospel message that Paul preached. This is the message that will go forth

That must go forth and that is the gospel message that we will talk about tonight

Verse 12 begins the meat of the letter I mentioned the meat of the letter verse 12 begins the meat of the letter the first 11 verses inspired precious valuable are

The greeting here's where Paul gets down to brass tacks and here he wants the Philippians he wants us you me everyone

To focus so he slows down. He draws his reader to the point.

I Want you to know Brothers Pay attention

Notice this Like a like a medieval herald blowing a trumpet to get everybody's attention

Behold or if your kids are you know, like my kids? I kind of have to put a hand on either side of their face, you know and get right in their face

Listen to me obey your mom, whatever it is. I don't I don't I don't know what it's but the focus pay attention

Now that you're focused what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel That's what he says

That's what he doesn't say no we've we know the story there's seven chapters and acts about what happened to Paul We can read this we could we could see all sorts of things.

Here's what Paul doesn't say. I was falsely accused I was nearly lynched. I was thrown in prison. I was given a sham trial.

I was misrepresented I was thrown in prison again. I got stuck at sea in a storm. I got shipwrecked. I almost got murdered by the crew

I got thrown in prison a third time He forgot that list. What about this list?

I woke up late kids aren't getting dressed. I burned breakfast. I got stuck in traffic I got a bad grade. I forgot to plug the crockpot in I missed a meeting.

Oh, that wasn't Paul Who was that? Paul knew that all of these things that happened to him were governed by the hand of a mighty

God a God that he Trusts and so when he looks around with that mindset after all of that he says

What has happened to me? Has served to advance the gospel That's his response.

It's amazing So remember Paul's in Rome he's in prison in Rome just a few years early earlier me who could have been as much as a decade

We don't have exact dates Paul wrote a different letter and this letter was to the church at Rome We know it as Romans now and listen to what he wrote.

He says Romans 1 verse 11 for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you

Do not want you to be unaware brothers that I have often intended to come to you but thus far have been prevented

In order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles So I am eager to preach the gospel to you.

Also who are in Rome Okay, Paul You're in Rome I don't think this is what you expected

One woman wrote the will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better And a lot bigger

He's here. He's in Rome and look at the passage We see two results from these events these events that he talks about that he mentioned specifically two results from this advance of the gospel

And the first one is the one that you probably think about It's in verse 13. The first one is that the gospel has reached the unsaved

Right. The gospel has reached the unsaved I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me is really sort 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 Although he can't travel freely around Rome.

He can still meet with the members of the church and bonus He has an additional visitor at the end of the manacle attached to his wrist

These manacles are like handcuffs but it would be a cuff and then a two -foot chain and then another cuff and The idea was that one would be on Paul's wrist and the other would be on the wrist of a rotating set of soldiers over The course of two years one man wrote that he

Paul is chained to them But they are also chained to him Paul could not escape from them

But they could not escape from his witness for Christ. He had a new congregation with every shift.

All right Now I love one of the things that I love to do when I'm in in quiet time or when

I'm studying or trying to Understand what's going on is to picture what is happening picture kind of the context around what is happening

Imagine this situation. This is the Imperial Guard. This is the elite Praetorian Guard the best of the best

Caesars own Now I want you to imagine the break room break rooms are funny

I want you to imagine the break room think about the kind of blue -collar break room where all these soldiers are hanging out.

I One morning all these huge dudes come into work, right and they look at the job board where they have all their assignments and one guy looks and he says

I Got Paul He's gonna be like, oh this guy again the weirdo who won't stop talking about Jesus But Paul's faithfulness to the gospel message and the power of God working through him

Slowly turns the hearts of some of these tough career soldiers Who would have ever thought that chains and incarceration were effective models of ministry strain road

He said it seems so counterintuitive and yet resting in the infinite sovereignty and perfect wisdom of God We ought not to be surprised when the

Lord does great things marvelous in our eyes the truth is Gospel growth is not really our primary concern

Gospel faithfulness is our primary concern growth is primarily

God's concern But that is exactly what happens

Paul's faithfulness and tenaciousness in laboring for the gospel are on full display here And what happens to these soldiers they change from obligate hearers to devoted disciples

Obligate hearers to devoted disciples Soldiers would hear and they would go home and tell their families about this strange but captivating prisoner

The gospel message would penetrate to the deepest parts of the leadership of the

Empire indeed all the Saints greet the Philippians Paul writes in chapter 4 especially those of Caesar's household

Who would have thought the gospel carried by Paul would reach Caesar? God knew

Now so do these people How weird the soldiers would have told their families? He says that he is glad to be imprisoned for the sake of Jesus That's the kind of thing you remember

It's weird. So the power of the gospel through what has happened to Paul has reached to the unsaved

But there's a second point here We see not only has it reached the unsaved number one But also it has reached the believers in Rome and we see this in 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

What is happening that imprisonment has? emboldened the believers Isn't punishment supposed to be a deterrent?

Who here has been a student in a classroom? Okay, a couple of hands not as many as I expected.

I forgot about the homeschoolers What happens when a teacher finishes giving a lesson and asks if there's any questions?

One person raises their hand and it's the teacher by the way who raises his hand. Thank you. Usually nothing happens, but eventually

One hand kind of comes up, right? They ask a question and then what happens a couple more hands come up Maybe you know a little bit of courage is creeping in right courage is infectious

Is that what's happening here? Maybe? Certainly. Yes Remember the

Christians of Rome were able to visit Paul and remember that Paul is shackled to a guard These believers aren't just seeing

Paul, but they're seeing the turning of the hearts of the guards, too. They're witnessing that These guards suddenly are now engaging in the preaching and listening to the preaching and this is giving them courage to maybe before Paul No They were terrified of being arrested themselves these believers in Rome, they saw how

Roman leadership dealt with Paul and they were a little more encouraged To preach the gospel, but there's more 1949

Maoist communism took over China. A lot of you probably know the story Thousands of Western missionaries were expelled kicked out of the country churches were closed

Gospel preaching was silenced by all accounts. This was an evangelistic catastrophe 30 years later things change governments change some of these restrictions eased

Some state sanctioned churches were permitted to open and the results were shocking

In 1949 before the churches were all shuttered and the missionaries kicked out the

Christian Church in China numbered 1 million people When the thumb of communism crushed it 30 years later state sanctioned churches opened and the count of the churches reported 12 million members

Some people think the real number might have been five times that or ten times that When you include the underground churches that were unable to open under state sanction, what happened?

Well, where did all these Christians come from? I think we know the answer, right? The gospel happened strain writes that God was at work in gospel

Providence to turn evil into the spread and advance of the good news about Jesus Christ.

That was true in China It was true in Rome and it is true today Paul knew this he wrote to Timothy.

Remember Jesus Christ Risen from the dead the offspring of David as preached in my gospel for which

I am suffering Bound with chains as a criminal, but the Word of God will not be bound or is not bound

God is unleashing his word in Rome saving the unbeliever and Encouraging the believer.

This is the advance of the gospel that we see in verses 14 12 through 14

And now we can turn to the second half of our passage We see not the advance but the priority of the gospel the priority of the gospel starting in 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 proclaimed

Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment

It's easy to read these verses and come to an incorrect conclusion and if we do

We will miss the stunning truth of this passage These men preaching

Christ from envy and rivalry verse 15 a proclaiming Christ out of selfish ambition verse 17

They're preaching the gospel William Hendrickson the men of whom

Paul is thinking are all heralding Christ They are exercising their ambassadorship and are publicly and authoritatively proclaiming him as the one

Only name under heaven that is given among men by which we must be saved As far as one is able to gather from the text.

None of the heralds is a preacher of false doctrine None of them for example is giving undue prominence to the observance of the law as a means of salvation

None of those referred to here is preaching a different gospel or another Jesus None of them is a dog or an evil worker

But while all are proclaiming the true gospel Not all are actuated by pure motives.

This is shocking It's so easy to look at people like this in Scripture and just mentally just cast them out the the opponents of Paul but to do so would be too

Proverbially proverbially easy for me to say throw the baby out with the bathwater Not only do most commentators believe they were preaching the gospel

But they say that they're Christians This is weird to think that Christians in Scripture would malign the

Apostle Paul But divisions in the church aren't anything new

By this time Paul would have already written the first letter to the church at Corinth where we see this

I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ That all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you

But that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you my brothers

What I mean is that each one of you says I follow Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow follow

Cephas or I follow Christ or I follow Mike or Steve or Pradeep or whoever those people might be

That's not in the scripture. Please. Don't think it is But are we so naive to think that those divisions were sinless?

Of course not Do we know the nature of the sins committed in the name of those divisions?

No But Paul refers to them all as brothers So too in our passage

These men preaching yes with impure motives sinful motives would be

Christians These men were jealous of Paul Maybe these were the men that we talked about before they were cautious in their ministries.

They were afraid of the Romans And then Paul comes to town Bursts onto the scene bold for the faith.

Now. He's converting the Romans that they were afraid of Now they are emboldened in their faith, but maybe desperate for some attention

If we can understand that I agree with it, but understand Good theology bad

Motives so how does Paul react to that? Does he blast him give him a dose of their own medicine, right?

I mean, I know I would I would want to write well Don't punch anyone, but if they punch you you can punch back right that kind of idea.

I'm not saying that either I'm gonna watch it Paul does two things number one.

He reassures the Philippians that he's not alone He's not going through this alone The brothers of verse 14 emboldened by the ministry of Paul are preaching

Christ also from goodwill They are confident verse 16 and Paul's purpose his purpose his appointment is like a military assignment

Dr. Lawson wrote they acknowledged that it was God who sovereignly commissioned him to preach the gospel and to protect it against all attacks

They understood that Paul was in prison because of his boldness in the gospel Even in his suffering they saw that he remained true to the message of saving grace

So that's the first thing he he says it's okay. I'm not alone And the second thing is what we see in verse 18 and this is just incredible 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 I feel like this would have been so shocking for them to read that Paul wanted to say it twice right

Why does Paul respond it like this because he knows what's at stake. He knows what is happening

The gospel message is paramount affliction or not rivalry or not. The gospel is being preached

Paul understands that the priority is the spread of the gospel In fact later in this very book in Philippians 3 he writes this he says indeed, you know this

I know you do I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my

Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish In order that I may gain

Christ He understands he gets it Paul knows the power of the gospel message and he knows that it's not in the speaker

But in the message itself He willingly endures this endures the slings and the arrows for the sake of the advance of the gospel

He places the message of salvation through the work of Jesus Christ above even his own life and his own comfort

This is why Paul rejoices as the message is spread regardless of what that motivation might be

I Said I was only going to be talking about verses 12 through 18 and here we are at verse 18

So as we come to the close of this text what I want to do is I want to share to all of you some reminders

That we can take from this passage Within these seven verses are some timeless truths that we can be reminded of Five of them.

I have five reminders from Philippians 1 verses 12 to 18 for you. Number one This passage reminds me of the importance of our mission from Jesus Christ the single most

Important thing that you can ever do as a Christian is to preach the gospel

To yourselves to your family to your friends to strangers

Paul was assigned a new stranger every day Da Carson wrote this

Paul's example is impressive and clear put the advance of the gospel at the center of your

Aspirations our own comforts our bruised feelings our misunderstood motives all of these are insignificant in comparison with the advance and the splendor of the gospel as Christians we are called upon to put the advance of the gospel at the very center of our aspirations

What are your aspirations? to make money to get married to travel

To see your grandchildren grow up to find a new job to retire early none of these is inadmissible

None is to be despised the question is whether these aspirations become so devouring that the

Christians central aspiration is Squeezed to the periphery or choked out of existence entirely through all of this

Consider Paul's status and change. We all have Chains of some sort in our lives.

Maybe it's a family commitment. Maybe it's your job Maybe you have an illness that keeps you from being able to go out in the world

Of these kinds of things James Montgomery Boyce wrote that this should not be a cause for discouragement If you are in circumstances like these this has been given you by God and can be used by him

You can bear witness to people who come by your desk your kitchen sink your hospital bed If you do God will bless your efforts.

You will see spiritual fruit What's more it will change the way you look at your limitations, whatever their cause

And think about this what an incredible gift it is that the primary responsibility

God has given the Christian can be done anywhere To anyone

So number one the importance of your mission from Jesus Christ number two This passage reminds me that we always have listening ears around us

Not only can your primary mission as Christians be done anywhere You also know that there will always be ears to hear it These may be direct the very people to whom you are preaching or teaching like in this case the church at Rome But they can also be indirect the child that your side

The co -worker at another table a classmate who happens to be in the same room the guard at the end of your manacle

We will never Exhaust the supply of people who need to hear the gospel message

Paul lived his life knowing that everyone he interacted with was another potential saint in the kingdom of God When you see everything in your life through the lens of advancing the name of Christ everyone around you will notice it

And you never know how far those words will spread beyond just the people who hear your voice number three

This passage reminds me that my brothers and sisters in Christ and even myself

Need to hear the gospel frequently We saw in verse 14 the encouragement of Paul to the brothers men who already believed the word

Paul brought the gospel to those who already knew it and it was a sad to their souls. So too it is for you

Indeed what did Jerry Bridges say preach the gospel to yourself? every day One commentator called preaching the gospel to yourself a spiritual discipline.

He recommends four things that you should do every day one gaze on the beauty of Jesus Christ to Remember who you are as a child of God Three rest in his power and in his provision for act in reliance upon him.

Those are good reminders I know that they're the gospel, but they're good reminders

Don't forget also that Jesus Christ died for you a sinner because you cannot be perfect He is perfect and he was risen from the dead.

That's preaching the gospel to yourself every day As you live in the world and you remind yourself of the gospel don't forget to remind one another

So one remember the importance of your mission from Jesus Christ to remember that there are always

Listening ears around you number three that every Christian even yourself needs to hear the gospel

Daily number four this passage reminds me to not get too caught up in the motives of other people

The only reason Paul knew of the motives of his detractors in Rome is because they were going after him the same word translated selfish ambition in this passage

Olympians can also be translated as Disputes and we saw disputes in first Corinthians.

This is how Paul knew what these men were thinking But even still he wasn't worried about them. Why not?

We know the answer to this too because his primary focus The advancement of the gospel was still happening.

So what do we do in those situations? Well, one man has a thought about that, too When you see a tweet that jumps out at you, is it called a tweet still?

I think it is I don't know. I still call it Twitter Anyway, when you see a tweet that jumps out at you don't immediately interpret it as saying something contentious or defensive

Oops When you read an article or see a video choose to grant the grace of believing and hoping and bearing and enduring all things

Think of that person as a brother or sister in Christ and choose to look for the best possible

Not the worst possible explanation This man goes on later to say we can turn to the sobering words of first Corinthians 4

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness

And will disclose the purposes of the heart Then each one will receive his commendation from God Might I say that it's kind of easy to assume the worst

It's kind of easy to do that, right? It's kind of easy to point to a grievance and then you get kind of this cathartic release because they did it first Right, you know

I'm talking about it's you get kind of an excuse You're not to do that. How much harder is it to look past or even to ignore the potential of something?

You don't know Paul knew and still he looked past it for a greater purpose

So too should we and finally number five

This passage reminds me to rejoice in the progress of the gospel to rejoice in the progress of the gospel

Late 15 in the 1500s during the Reformation two men were imprisoned by the

Church of England They were to be burned at the faith at the at the stake for their faith in the gospel

So they were they were tied up. They were thrown on the fire and as the flames grew higher Hugh Latimer looked to Nicholas Ridley and said this

Be of good comfort brother Ridley and play the man We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a mighty force that will never be put out

True to Hugh Latimer's words and in this we rejoice every time you tell

Anyone of the perfect Creator God our sinful state Jesus perfect righteousness his death and resurrection as payment for sin

This gospel message flares up and spreads again Paul never stopped preaching this gospel until the day he died.

He wrote these words in 2nd Corinthians Starting in verse 1 working together with him

Jesus then we appeal to you Not to receive the grace of God in me

For he says in a favorable time I listened to you and in a day of salvation

I've helped you Behold now is the favorable time behold now is the day of salvation

We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry

But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions hardships calamities

Beatings imprisonment riots labors sleepless nights hunger by purity knowledge patience kindness the

Holy Spirit genuine love by truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left and through honor and dishonor through slander and praise we are treated as imposters and yet are true as Unknown and yet well -known as dying and behold we live as punished and yet not killed as Sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing

Everything that is

Paul describing his life and Christian This is the description of our lives as well our trials were not as deep as Paul's were to be sure

But our rejoicing need not be any less We saw the advance and the priority of the gospel in this passage and through this we can be reminded of five things

The importance of our mission from Jesus Christ There are always listening ears around us that every

Christian even ourselves needs to hear the gospel every day that we ought not to get too caught up in the motives of other people and finally that we are to regularly rejoice in the progress of the gospel

Who will you preach the gospel to this week? Let's pray Heavenly Father. We thank you for this evening

We thank you for the food that everyone came together to bring we thank you Lord for your word that we can rest in praise you

Lord for Reminding us every day of your good grace of your son Jesus Christ of all that he has accomplished for us father no matter how

Great in our eyes our offerings may be there or nothing compared to what you have done for us

I just praise you for your word. I praise you for Just your kindness for your grace common and special Lord I pray that you would save everyone who is in this room everyone who is online everyone who is listening to this word