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.

Paul and Bunyan as Examples of Gospel Faithfulness

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 welcome to 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 haven't 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.

The Advance of the Gospel in Prison

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. When 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 delivered 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 get right in the 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. Notice what he doesn't say. No, we've we know the story. There's seven chapters and acts about what happened to Paul. We could 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 crock pot 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 to the unsaved. Right.

The gospel has reached to 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. Now I loved 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 Just imagine, you know. 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.

Would have ever thought that chains and incarceration were effective models of ministry strain wrote. 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. And now so do these people.

How weird the soldiers would have told their families. He says that he's glad to be in prison 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? 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.

The Priority of Christ Proclaimed

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

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 in 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.

Five Reminders from Philippians 1:12-18

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's 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 to 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'll 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 then 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 1st 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 1st 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. Kind of easy to do that, right? It's kind of easy to point it 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 get kind of an excuse. You want 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 pain.

For he says.

In a favorable time. I listened to you and in a day of salvation have 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.