Well, good morning, church. It's good to be with you all today. Our sermon text today is Philippians
chapter 1. We're looking at verses 12 through 18. Philippians chapter 1. If you're new to reading
the Bible, if you're new to Christianity, if you're new to the Bible, just a quick way of
orientation. The big numbers are the chapters. The small numbers are the verses. So that should
help you find your way around. And today we're going to look at chapter 1, verses 12 through 18
of the book of Philippians. So this fall, what we're doing is we're walking step by step through
Paul's letter that we call the letter to the Philippians to this church in a city called
Philippi. And we're doing so because we want to learn what it means as a church to be citizens
of the gospel. You know, we live in a time when there are a number of very loud and very different
and at times very compelling visions of what it means to sort of live life well, what it means
to kind of do this human thing. But, you know, as the church, we're not meant to be sort of blown
and tossed or captivated and compelled by these kind of competing narratives that are around us,
whether they be on the left or on the right, whether they be kind of so-called progressive
or so-called conservative. Rather, as the church, we're meant to have our identity rooted and grounded
in the radical distinctiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're meant to be citizens primarily
of the gospel so that when we love our neighbors, when we engage with our communities, then we really
are salt and light to the glory of God and not just another kind of echo in the echo chamber.
Now, when Paul wrote this letter, he was writing to Gentile Christians in a Roman colony. Philippi was
a Roman colony, so the people in Philippi were citizens of Rome. They were citizens of that great
empire that was uniting the known world politically, and it was ruled under the great Caesars who were
telling a story about peace flowing through their rule to the ends of the earth. This was Rome.
But Paul's helping this small church in the midst of that to become who they truly are.
He wants to help these citizens of Rome become citizens of the gospel, citizens of Jesus Christ,
and to live a life worthy of Jesus. And that's what we want too. That's what we want too as a church.
So we're going to jump in, and we're going to read verses 12 through 18, and then I'll pray for us,
and then we'll dive in. So chapter 1, verses 12 through 18, after a kind of greeting and a prayer,
Paul writes this. He says,
I want you to know, brothers, and remember that Greek word includes men and women, brothers and
sisters, 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 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 proclaim 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. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven,
please help us, as we've just sung, to present our lives before you now. Lord, help us to open our
hands before you. And God, we ask that by your Holy Spirit, you would speak into the depths of our
souls right now. God, we know that your word is living and active, and it pierces down to the depths
of who we are. So we pray that you would do that deep work today as we attend to your word.
Lord, lift our eyes and our hearts up to you, Lord Jesus. Help us to become more the kind of church
that you long for us to be. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
So you have to imagine that when Paul's friends in Philippi heard that he had been arrested and put
in prison and eventually shipped off to the capital, to the city of Rome for trial, you have to imagine
that they were quite worried. I mean, what was going to become of their friend, the Apostle Paul,
and what was going to become of his mission, to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ to the
nations? You have to imagine they were pretty worried. After all, it's pretty hard to plant churches
when you're chained up in house arrest, right? Paul's imprisonment seemed like a major setback,
a massive hindrance to the plan. And they might have even been thinking, how could God have allowed
this? And what's worse, they maybe had even caught wind that there were some Christians in Rome or
maybe in some surrounding cities that were not supporting Paul in his prison, in his imprisonment,
but ridiculing him. Now that Paul was out of the way, so to speak, they could step up and preach
Christ eager to show how much better they were than Paul. You know, oftentimes I think we can be
like the worried Philippians, can't we? We think that above all, God must use our strength and our
strategies to bring about his purposes. Now there's nothing wrong with planning and strategy, and there's
nothing wrong with giving our best efforts. Paul had a strategy, right? And he poured all of his
strength into it. Read the book of Acts, and you'll see that what becomes pretty clear is that Paul has
a strategy. He would find a sort of city center of a region, he would go there first, he would preach
to his fellow Jews, then he would turn to the Gentiles, he would establish the fledgling church with
godly leaders, and then he would head to the next city, knowing that if a church had taken root in the
city center, then the gospel would radiate out from there to the surrounding region. And that's what we see in
Acts. But what happens when our strategy and our strength get curtailed, get hindered by trial and weakness?
Is everything lost? When your good, godly ambitions are seemingly thwarted by physical illness, say, or a lack of
financial resources, or a global pandemic, what do you do? When your strategy meets nothing but setback
after setback, how should you respond? Well, here's what Paul wants his friends at Philippi and us today to see.
This passage is showing us that God can use even our trials, even our setbacks, even our greatest
hindrances to advance the gospel. It's not just through our strategy and our strength, but also and
especially through our weakness and dependence that God's gospel goes forth. What has happened to me,
Paul says, has really served to advance the gospel. Think about it. What's really going on?
Well, Paul's in prison. He's stuck. He's awaiting trial, maybe awaiting execution. Yes, all that's true.
But what's really going on, Paul says, it's really served to advance the gospel.
Our trials are not meaningless. In fact, they are the very means that God uses to spread
the life-saving message of Christ crucified and risen. And what we see in the rest of the passage is that
God uses our trials, God uses our setbacks to advance the gospel in at least three ways. So we're
going to look at those three ways that God advances the gospel through our trials. First, in verse 13,
we see that God uses our trials to advance the gospel in the hearts of unbelievers. In other words,
God uses our trials to reach those that we might not have reached before. Verse 13 says,
it's become known because of my imprisonment, Paul says, it's become known throughout the whole imperial
guard. And to all the rest, that my imprisonment is for Christ. All those guards that kept watch over
Paul, all those administrators who work in what he calls the imperial guard, that is the praetorium,
these were sort of the executive offices of the empire found in Roman cities throughout the
Mediterranean, they're all hearing about Paul. But not just about Paul, they're hearing about this one
that Paul proclaims. This guy Paul has been talking about some new emperor who's taken the throne.
And it turns out it's a crucified Jew named Jesus. And according to this Paul, his death has brought true
peace and true justice to the whole world. And everyone, absolutely every man, woman, and child is being
called to bend their knee in allegiance to him alone. And to find reconciliation with God by grace.
And to find a whole new life in this broken and hurting world.
Because God raised Jesus from the dead.
Now imagine citizens of Rome hearing that message.
Not just strange, but profoundly countercultural.
You see, Rome advanced through strength and through power.
And yet, this King Jesus won his victory and advanced his kingdom through a cross.
It's pretty countercultural today too, isn't it?
It's very easy for us to exalt in the powerful, in the brash.
You know, we get excited when things hit quick and hit hard.
The best defense is more offense, as we learned from watching Cobra Kai, if you've seen that.
We think real freedom is having our own way.
And yet, and yet, on the throne of the universe sits a king with nail scars in his hands.
And who demands our utter allegiance to him and his way, the way of the cross.
And for this message to get through, to reach those it might not reach otherwise,
God uses not just our strength, but our weakness.
And not just our triumphs, but he uses our trials.
And that seems pretty fitting, doesn't it, when you think about it?
That God would not just use the strategy and strengths of Paul to advance the gospel,
but also his weakness and imprisonment.
After all, isn't the gospel the message of how God became weak to save us?
And in becoming weak ourselves, then our lips don't just speak the message,
but our lives live it.
And the message of Jesus, then, is able to reach those that otherwise we could not reach.
You know, have you ever thought that your non-Christian friends,
yes, we'll hear the gospel through your well-thought-out answers to their questions.
There's a good place for that.
But they'll also hear the gospel, perhaps even more clearly,
when they see how you endure through suffering and trial.
You know, it's easy for Paul to talk about Jesus as king
when he's traveling footloose and fancy-free through the Roman Empire,
but when his hands and feet are in chains,
and he still speaks about the good news,
how much greater must that have struck the hearts of those hardened soldiers
assigned to watch over him,
those pragmatic administrators just running an empire?
It'll be the same for us, friends.
God will open new opportunities and new hearts through our weakness,
through our supposed setbacks that in our strength we could never reach.
So the first thing we see is that through our trials,
God will advance the gospel in the hearts of unbelievers.
But second, God doesn't just use our trials to advance the gospel in the heart of unbelievers.
He uses our trials to advance the gospel in the hearts of our fellow believers as well.
God's able through our setbacks to reach those we might not have reached before,
but he's also able to empower and encourage those we might not have empowered or encouraged before.
Look at verse 14.
Paul says,
And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Now, it was a scary thing to go to prison in the first century.
It's a scary thing to go to prison in any century.
But when Christians saw Paul go there for the sake of Christ,
and when they saw how God used Paul there,
it's as if that venom of fear was sucked out of their hearts.
If God can use prison for his purposes,
then what have we to fear?
What can this empire really do to us ultimately if God is our God?
The God who can use a prison to advance his freedom.
The God who can use a cross to defeat evil.
The God who can swallow up death in the resurrection.
If this is our God, why are we afraid?
And when we face trials with the assurance that this God is in control,
our fellow believers will see us and take courage too.
This is one of the great benefits of reading Christian history,
of reading missionary biographies,
of learning about the saints who've gone before us,
like Ida B. Wells, the anti-lynching activist,
or like Hudson Taylor, the pioneering missionary to China,
or like Athanasius of Alexandria, the defender of orthodoxy.
All these, in their own way, stood up for Christ
in the face of great danger and great trial.
And we can read their stories and be encouraged
to speak the word without fear.
Right now, in our adult class,
happening on the second floor next door,
we're highlighting some of these stories.
So, since you're here at the 9 a.m. service,
and you're not at that class,
later in the week, you can listen to it on the podcast,
and you can be encouraged to speak the word more boldly,
without fear.
But brothers and sisters, don't you see,
your story can encourage others too.
The trials that you face,
they can become evidence of God's gracious work in your life.
They become testimonies to God's powerful gospel
as you cling to Him,
and find your peace and joy and strength in Him,
even through hardship.
The trials that you face will encourage others just the same.
They're not wasted in God's providence.
God will use them,
not just to reach others you might not have reached,
but encourage those,
to encourage those you might not have otherwise encouraged.
Through your trials,
others will become more confident in the Lord,
to speak the word more boldly and without fear.
So friends,
be comforted by these verses.
What trial or hindrance are you facing right now?
Maybe it's a professional setback.
Maybe it's a relational hardship.
Maybe it's a health crisis.
But in the hands of our sovereign God,
He's able to take it
and use it
and to come close to you
and to advance the gospel,
not just in the hearts of those outside the church,
but in the hearts of those inside the church as well.
But now there's one more area
where God advances the gospel through our trials.
Paul says,
first,
He's going to do it in the hearts of unbelievers.
And second,
He does it through the hearts of believers.
But third and last,
through our trials,
through our setbacks,
God will advance the gospel
in our own hearts too.
You know,
up to this point in the text,
everything kind of seems pretty rosy.
Yeah,
Paul's in prison,
but yay,
the gospel still advances.
But you know,
it's not all pretty.
It's not all such a straight,
easy line.
We learn in verse 15
that when Paul went to jail,
some of his fellow believers,
turned their backs on him.
And they started preaching Christ more fervently
really out of a desire
to kind of put Paul down.
Or as verse 17 says,
to afflict him in his imprisonment.
Now,
it's hard to kind of reconstruct
exactly what was happening here historically,
but it doesn't seem like
these opponents of Paul
were preaching a false gospel.
It doesn't seem like
they were preaching a wrong gospel
or a false gospel
because we know from Paul's other letters
that he would have never rejoiced in that.
So it wasn't the message
of these opponents
that was the problem.
Rather,
Paul says,
it's their motivation.
They saw themselves
as rivals of Paul
and perhaps they didn't care
for his methods
or care for his style.
Perhaps they were jealous
of his gifts.
Perhaps they were envious
of his office
as an apostle.
Who knows?
But whatever it was,
when Paul went to prison,
they stepped up
and started preaching Christ
all the more fervently,
it seems,
in order to put Paul down
to discredit him.
You see,
Paul's not so great,
they might have been saying.
After all,
he landed in prison.
What good is Paul?
Where is he now?
Let us proclaim Christ to you.
You don't need him.
Listen to us.
Let us proclaim to you
that Jesus is king.
Now look,
Paul certainly does not
excuse these motives.
In fact,
he is kind of exposing them
in this passage,
isn't he?
But rather than
taking offense at them,
rather than trying
to sort of rescue
his own personal reputation,
rather than trying
to sort of silence
his rivals,
what does Paul do?
What does he do
when fellow Christians
are questioning his ministry,
ridiculing him
for being in prison,
making themselves out
to be the good guys
and Paul the bad guy?
What does he do
when his good name
is at stake?
Shockingly,
Paul says,
what then?
Only that in every way,
whether in pretense
or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed.
And in that,
I rejoice.
So what if my name
is being dragged
through the mud,
Paul says?
So what if other people
want to jump in my place?
Is Christ being proclaimed?
Is the gospel faithfully taught?
If so,
then in that I'll rejoice.
My reputation
at the end of the day
isn't worth comparing
to the reputation of Christ.
Now,
do you see what's happening here?
In these verses,
in this whole section
of Philippians actually,
Paul is modeling
for the Philippians
and for us
a heart
that values
and rejoices
in the advance
of the gospel
more than our personal comfort
and more than
our personal reputation.
In other words,
through the trial
that Paul is facing,
the gospel is advancing
deeper and deeper
in his own heart.
The supreme worth
of Christ,
of Christ proclaimed,
is more and more
taking the uppermost place.
What Paul cares most about
is Jesus.
Does it matter
that people are slandering him?
That he's losing
his reputation?
That some people
have a personal axe
to grind with him?
Through that trial,
Paul's saying,
look,
I'm seeing more
and more
that what really
matters is Christ.
So what about
in our hearts?
When hard times come,
can we say,
Christ is proclaimed
and in that I rejoice?
Can we say that
when our best laid plans
go awry?
When fellow Christians
ridicule us?
It's hard,
isn't it?
We live so much
of our life
wanting comfort,
good friends,
a good name,
a good job,
a good living,
good health.
And all of those things
are, well,
they're good things,
right?
There's nothing wrong
with them.
But if they're threatened
or if they're taken away,
can we still rejoice?
Can you still rejoice
because the greatest good,
the advance of God's gospel,
is still undaunted?
How do we get our hearts
to stop loving lesser things
more than we love the gospel?
Well, the good news is
we can't do it on our own,
but God can.
Through the Holy Spirit,
our hearts do change.
And how does the Holy Spirit do it?
The Holy Spirit does it
by shining the spotlight
on Christ
in the midst
of our trials and weaknesses.
When comfort
or approval
or our reputation
fall away,
when our trials
and setbacks
show us
how fleeting they are
and how insecure they are,
the Holy Spirit
in those moments
of trial comes
and He shows us Christ,
who He is
and what He's done
and what He's doing
right now,
right here.
How do you get to the place
where you rejoice
in Christ being proclaimed
more than you rejoice
in your own comfort,
more than you rejoice
in your own reputation?
You get there
when you see afresh
what Christ has done
for you
through the working
of the Holy Spirit.
When you see
that He's done for you
what no one
or no thing else
has or can do.
Can the idols
of comfort
or the approval
of others
compare with Christ?
Christ gave up
His comfort for you
and Christ gave up
His reputation for you.
The Lord of history
became a servant.
The all-powerful one
became powerless
and died
for your sins
and for mine.
And because of that
God raised Him up.
And in the resurrection
God the Father
was proclaiming
the ultimate
divine yes
over the price
that Jesus paid
and over the divine love
that Jesus demonstrated.
It's as if
in the resurrection
God says
yes
this is who I am.
Not a tyrant
who makes others
pay for their crimes
so that I can get better
but the God
of self-giving love
who pays
your price
in your place
and my price
in my place.
Christ
is King.
The crucified
Jesus
is the risen Lord
and the world
cannot stay the same.
You know friends
the church
is the one place
on earth
where heaven
has broken through
to stay.
And with our citizenship
in heaven
we form
a colony
on earth.
This earth
that God
is reclaiming
for His glory.
Will we lose
comforts
as we live
as citizens
of the gospel?
Probably so.
But if Christ
is proclaimed
if the king
is getting glory
and the kingdom
is breaking through
and the new creation
is taking root
so be it.
We are living
for something
bigger
and better
and more lasting
than mere comfort.
Will our reputation
suffer
as we live
as citizens
of the gospel?
Will even fellow
Christians
disappoint us?
Maybe even
ridicule us
as we follow
in the footsteps
of our crucified king?
As we follow
in his footsteps
and choose
service over power?
Choosing gentleness
over anger?
Choosing forgiveness
over fear?
Choosing justice
and righteousness
over the status quo?
Yes
as we do this
in Jesus' name
our reputation
will suffer.
But if the name
of Christ
is exalted
if our king
and our redeemer
is getting praise
if his name
is great
then let ours
be small.
Let our puny
little matches
be outshone
by the burning
radiance
of his glory.
If Christ
is proclaimed
then let us
rejoice.
And if the road
that God has
for us
is one of weakness
and dependence
and not just
of strength
and strategy
then let us
rejoice
because we
are sharing
the sufferings
of Christ himself.
Paul says
in this text
that his imprisonment
isn't just
for Christ
but it literally
says my imprisonment
is in Christ.
We are walking
in the footsteps
of our Savior
in union with him
as we walk
through trial
and suffering
and setback.
And as Paul
will tell the
Philippians
in chapter 3
let us share
in Christ's
sufferings
so that we too
may share
in his resurrection.
Let's press on
to make Jesus
our own
because he
has made us
his own.
So friends
when trials
come
and when setbacks
happen
and when the
best laid
plans of mice
and men
ultimately
go awry
remember
at the end
of the day
our greatest
good is not
threatened at all.
Christ has
made us
his own
and the gospel
will advance
through our
weakness
as much as
through our
strength
and his gospel
will advance
through our
setbacks
as much as
through our
successes
not just in
the hearts
of unbelievers
not just in
the hearts
of believers
but in our
own hearts
too.
And if that
be so
and Christ
is proclaimed
that no matter
what comes
we can always
rejoice.
Let's pray.
Our Father in
heaven we pray
that by your
spirit
you would
grant us
to begin
to imitate
the example
that we see
in the
apostle Paul
in these
pages
to be able
to say
with joyful
confidence
not that
his circumstances
are good
but that
you the
good God
take any
circumstances
and advance
the gospel
our greatest
good.
Oh Lord
help us
to live
as your
church
in this
confidence
this week
and we
pray Jesus
that your
beauty
and your
majesty
and your
worth
would become
more and
more real
to all
of my
brothers and
sisters and
friends in
this room.
Help us
to turn
from trusting
in ourself
and place
our deepest
trust in
you.
We ask
this Father
in Jesus
name.
Amen.