Philippians 1:15-18
In our study of Philippians,
we remember that the apostle Paul is in jail in Rome and he’s
writing a letter back to the Philippian church to encourage
them in their faith, to encourage them in their walk with the Lord,
to encourage them in their ministry and church life together. Someone
has come to visit Paul and told them of the situation. And so
he writes the letter back to them. And in today’s passage,
he’s going to speak to a specific situation in Rome where he is.
And the implication is that how he handles that situation in
Rome is how they should handle a situation in the life of the
church body there. The Apostle Paul says in several
places in the scriptures, imitate me as I follow Christ. And so
sometimes a passage of scripture is simply there to tell us that
we should imitate those who are of older wisdom and grace and
the faith because their wise action is a wise action that
we ought to learn from. And the Apostle Paul is like
that today in this little passage. Hear God’s word as we read from
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 rivalry, 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 us pray together. Our great
God, we thank you that you are a speaking God and that you speak
with thunder clarity. Your voice in the prophets, your
voice through your son, Jesus, and now your voice through the
written pages of the scripture is ours for faith. It is ours
for life. It is ours for instruction. It
is ours for knowing who you are and what you’ve done and who
we are and what we need. That is namely to rest in Jesus
for our salvation. and to trust that Jesus’ words
can help us to live a faithful Christian life. So we ask now
that your word would do its work, that your spirit would open our
eyes to see, unstop our ears that we might hear. Make our
hearts open to receive your word for what it really is, the very
word of God. This we pray in the name of Jesus,
amen. One of my family’s favorite characters
when we watch the Andy Griffith show is Ernest T. Bass. Now,
you know, Ernest T., he’s that crazy man from up in the hills
and he likes to throw rocks through windows. And some of you think
that maybe he was an invention of North Carolina folklore. He was an invention of Andy Griffith
or whoever the writers and producers of that show were. Well, no,
there was an Ernest T. Bass in the Bible. Some of you
may remember in the story of King David that after he flees
from Jerusalem, He’s fleeing from his son Absalom, who’s trying
to steal his father’s throne. David is walking out of Jerusalem. He’s making his way into hiding. And he has mighty men on his
right and his left. And he runs into a man named
Shimei. And Shimei is a man who tosses
rocks at David. And as he throws rocks at David,
he also curses him. He calls him a dead dog. I mean,
think of it. He’s calling the king of Israel,
a man who, as he walks down the street, has mighty men with mighty
weapons on his right and his left. And he’s cursing the king
of Israel. He’s cursing and tossing rocks
at the man of God who rules over God’s people. And Abishai, who
is David’s mightiest man at his side says to David, let me take
this cursor’s head off. Let me take my sword and end
his life. Let me run him through. Let me
take a swing at him. And David says, no. No, it is
because God has put this man in my path. God has told him
to curse me. And who are we to stand in the
way of God? Now, if you were writing that
story, that would not be the way you would finish it. We would
have finished the story this way. And Abishai took his sword
and at the king’s command, he swung the sword and in a swift
movement, The man who cursed David Shimei fell dead in his
tracks. No more to curse God’s anointed.
No more to hurl insults at the mighty warrior of Israel who
has slain Philistines, who has conquered kingdoms and extended
the borders of Israel. A man after God’s own heart.
That’s not the way the story ends. Now we like a little flash. We like a little strength. We
like a little muscle. We like to come out on the side
of stories as heroes, But David shows wisdom and says it is because
God and His wisdom, God and His providence, God and His grace
and mercy says this is why this is taking place. Now, there’s
a situation in our passage here. from Philippians where Paul experiences
a similar difficulty. There are people who are out
to hurt Paul. There are people out to discredit
his ministry. There are people under the guise
of gospel ministers, gospel preachers, men and women of the church who
are proclaiming Christ, but their motivation for doing so is wrong. It is impure, it is ugly, it
is bad, it is sinful. And how does the apostle Paul
end this little passage? He says, I rejoice. Oh yes, they mean evil. Yes,
they’re doing this in rivalry and pretense, but I rejoice. And why is it that he rejoices?
It’s because Christ is proclaimed. This passage is about motives.
It’s about the motives that are behind the proclamation of Christ. First, let’s look at the bad
motives. We find these in verses 15 and then 17 and 18. It says
in 15, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry. Then it says in 17, they are preaching Christ out of rivalry
and it’s not sincerely, but thinking to inflict me in my imprisonment. Verse 18, it says Christ is proclaimed
out of pretense. How is it that we can say someone
proclaims Christ in one phrase of a sentence and in the other
portion of that same sentence use the words envy and rivalry
and self ambition, insincerity and pretense? Now, one thing
we have to understand is these are not heretics. If we were
to stand here today and say the apostle Paul is condoning heresy,
that would be wrong. We know how the Apostle Paul
speaks against heresy. We read in Galatians, if anyone
preaches a gospel other than the gospel of Christ, let him
be accursed, let him be anathema, let him go to hell, the Apostle
says. So we know in the case of Galatians
and in other places, the Apostle Paul condemns heresy. Here the
situation is rather odd. They’re proclaiming Christ. And
it seems they’re proclaiming Christ accurately, faithfully,
but it’s their motives. It’s their reasons for proclaiming
Christ that are wrong. And notice what it says in this
passage. It says their goal is to afflict
Paul. Now, the apostle Paul is in a
Roman prison. Remember, he got in a little hot water when he
visited Jerusalem and as he was arrested and accused of all sorts
of things. He said, I want to appeal to
Caesar. And so he made his way to Caesarea Philippi, where he
appeared before Roman authorities. And now he’s made it to Rome
where he’s in prison. He’s chained to guards. People
are visiting coming in and out. It’s like house arrest. And the
gospel has gone out in the city of Rome, praise the Lord. And
others who have heard the gospel are out proclaiming the goodness
of Jesus. But what appears to be taking
place here is that some are realizing that while the Apostle Paul is
down and out, they can preach the gospel for personal gain.
for personal ambition, and they can even do it out of envy and
rivalry, creating factions and followings for their own personal
gain. And in a sense, the apostle Paul
is saying, what they’re doing is done to rub my chains into
my skin. They’re kicking a man while he’s
down. They are saying, Paul is down,
and so we’ll exalt ourselves. We’ll proclaim the gospel. They
really dislike him. They are envious of him. They
want Paul to fail. They’re creating divisions. They’re
trying to outdo this man. They’re doing what we call in
the modern church sheep stealing. I want you to come to my church.
And so we go to other churches and we poach people. We we encourage
them to come to our place because what we’re doing is better. Now
think about the Apostle Paul in these terms. He’s a big man,
not in size and stature, because he’s actually small, but he is
a world-class, world-famous preacher. He is gifted with intellectual
ability. He’s gifted with the Holy Spirit,
and he is able to preach and proclaim the Word of God in a
way that no one else in the world has ever seen. He is famous. If it were today, he would have
a Twitter following. If it were 2017, he would be
preaching in Manhattan. He would be preaching in Paris.
He would be preaching in London. He would be holding preaching
services throughout the world and people would know that he’s
famous. But then all of a sudden he’d end up in jail and we know
about it because we watch the news, we hear the stories of
it. And then what we would see if
this were modern times is others taking advantage of a man used
by God who’s down and out. They would say, well, Paul’s
in disgrace. Paul has discredited himself.
He’s in prison. Oh, some say he’s in prison for
the sake of Christ. But they would look at it as
an opportunity to further or advance their own kingdom. So
these are bad motives. These are sad motives. These
are ugly motives. But this is a call for us to
check our hearts, because what would we say if we were being
sanctimonious and pious? We would say we would only proclaim
Christ out of good motives. We would only proclaim Christ
because we want the world to be evangelized. We want the lost
to be found. We want the unsaved to become
saved. But we need to check our hearts.
We need to consider our motives. Why do we proclaim the gospel?
Why do we do church the way we do church? Why are we Reformed? Why are we Presbyterian? Why
do we exist as a church? Is it because Christ is proclaimed
to our advantage? Or is it so that Christ might
increase? And as the great John the Baptist
said, I or we must decrease. The bad motives of the preachers
in this little passage should show us that there are people
out in the world with false motives for preaching the gospel. I think
we already know that. But we should also take a moment
to examine our hearts. Why do we proclaim Christ? The
second thing this passage shows us, though, is good motives.
It teaches us about good motives. Look at every verse. It says,
starting in 15, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others
from good will. The latter, those preaching from
goodwill, they do it out of love, love for Paul. Knowing that I
am put here, he’s in prison, for the defense of the gospel.
Others proclaim Christ out of rivalry, 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 will rejoice. Why are these others, this other
faction of preachers, this other group of gospel proclaimers.
Why are their motives good? Well, they desire goodwill. They want a positive outcome.
They want others to hear the gospel and be saved. They have
a love for Paul. And it’s likely that his preaching
converted them. It’s likely that God used the
apostle Paul’s preaching, his apostolic ministry, to proclaim
the goodness of Jesus. They heard it and they received
it with joy. The spirit was at work and they now want to tell
others of the goodness of the salvation that has come to them
in Jesus. It’s also that they understand
God’s sovereignty, God’s providence, God’s good hand in the world.
They understand that the apostle Paul is in prison and they understand
that somehow, some way God is going to make his glory shine
through chains. The Apostle Paul is in chains,
but he says in other places, the Word of God is not in chains.
In fact, it is unbound, it is unleashed, and it is going into
places where it could never go. Remember, in weeks past, we’ve
heard the Apostle Paul thank God that the gospel, because
of its imprisonment, has gone throughout the Praetorian Guard.
It’s gone through the Navy Seals of Rome. It has gone through
the secret service of their day. It has gone through the elite
military ranks of Rome. And it has even gone from the
Praetorian Guard into the household of Caesar. And you can’t help
but bless God and thank God for Paul’s imprisonment. That sounds
a bit strange. But those who preach the gospel
from good motives understand this. They understand, as it
says, In verse 16, the latter do it out of love, knowing that
I am put here for the defense of the gospel. It’s as if they
understand Paul is in prison and will appear before Caesar
and he will give an account of Jesus and the gospel and the
glory of salvation. And it will be opportunity for
Paul before the most powerful man in the world to say, Jesus
is God, not Caesar. The gospel is true, not Roman
citizenship. And he will get to defend the
gospel. But while he is in prison, they are out proclaiming the
same message that Paul taught them. and has saved their very
souls. And their job, as it says, their
goal is to make Jesus fully known. Did you know that in the New
Testament we have specific words for gospel ministry? There’s
a specific word in the Greek language for preaching. And that’s
the first word that’s used in verse 15. Some preach the gospel,
they preach Christ. And then there’s a word proclaim,
it’s used twice in this passage. It’s a word that means to proclaim
and make fully known who God is and what he’s done. There’s
a specific word in the New Testament for evangelism. There’s specific
words in the New Testament for all the activities of the church.
And here we understand that those who have good motives are preaching
and proclaiming Christ because they want Jesus fully known to
others as he has been fully known to them. No hypocrisy. No politics, no personal gain,
no opportunist. And it leads us to ask the question,
why do we proclaim the gospel? Why do we preach Christ? Why
do we want others to know Jesus? Is it simply that Christ might
be exalted and that others may be rescued from darkness and
brought into light? So we’ve seen bad motives. We’ve
seen good motives. Now I want us to look thirdly
at the ultimate motives. This is what we find in verse
18, as the apostle Paul asked the question, what then? What
am I to make of the bad motives of some and the good motives
of others? He says, only that in every way, whether in pretense
or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. What would you do if you were
in the Apostle Paul’s shoes? What would you do if you were
in his shoes and you were in Roman prison, but you had the
authority, the ability, the freedom to work with various folks who
are in gospel ministry? Certainly he had access to these
people. He knew them. He associated with them. He had
firsthand knowledge of what they were up to, the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Well, what would we do? We’d
get out our book of church order. We’d get out our book of church
discipline. We’d get out our book of worship. And maybe rightly
so, we would say, look at what you’re doing. It does not conform
with our standards, with our beliefs, our book of order, our
standards of doctrine. And we might pursue them. We might put them on trial. We
might do all the things we like to do as grumpy Presbyterians.
And we might say we’re justified in that. But what do we find
here the Apostle Paul doing? He says there’s some with bad
motives, some with good motives, some with ugly motives, some
who are self-seeking and self-serving. And we know that the Apostle
Paul in other places in the scripture has attacked bad motives, bad
doctrine, bad teaching. He’s fussed at Timothy for being
timid. He’s fussed at the Galatians for their false doctrine. He’s
fussed at the Corinthians for being gluttonous and lazy and
not gospel-living Christians. But here he says, Christ is proclaimed
and in that I rejoice. It’s somehow as if he’s saying
their motives, yes, are bad. Their goals are wicked. But I see God’s sovereign hand
in this work. And I see that God is able to
make Jesus known, fully known, proclaimed in this part of the
world. He’s seen it as he’s been in
chains, as he’s ministered to the Praetorian Guard, as the
gospel has infected the household of Caesar. Paul also remembers
that many times in the scriptures, God has used unlikely means,
unlikely people to do the work. I mean, after all, he chose a
pagan, Abraham, and he called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans
and said, I’m going to build a nation Israel, my church, out
of you, a pagan, from Ur of the Chaldeans, and I’m gonna make
your name great. I’m gonna build up a nation.
I’m gonna make your offspring as numerous as the sand on the
seashore and the stars in the heaven.” God used Abraham. God
used Rahab, the harlot, to assist the spies who were looking over
the land to escape Jericho when the people came looking for them.
He used little old Mary to be the mother of Jesus. He used
Peter, the hot-headed, double-minded apostle, or disciple, to become
the apostle of all apostles, to be the rock upon whom he’d
build the church. God uses you. He uses me. He uses all kinds
of odd situations to make his gospel known. And that’s what
the apostle Paul remembers. That’s what he knows. Oh, their
motives are wrong, but God is sovereign. Oh, their Their reasons are bad, but God
will use it. This is an apostle who remembers
the grave could not hold Jesus. This is an apostle who knows
that poorly motivated preachers can sometimes still get the gospel
right. Now, what are we to think of
this? We need to pause a moment and think wisely. Does this mean
that every TV preacher, every heretic out there, every Tom,
Dick or Harry who writes a book on Christianity ought to be given,
well, at least they’re preaching Christ. That is not what the
Apostle Paul is saying. There are some books that should
not be published. There are some preachers who
need to be removed from pulpits. There are some who are influencing
the Christian audience that they have in front of them who need
to shut their mouths because like in Ezekiel 13, they are
lying prophets who are speaking false visions, who are saying
peace when there is no peace and saying comfort when there
is no comfort. There’s that. But here what the
Apostle Paul is saying to us, the gospel gets proclaimed by
sinful people whose motives are not pure, whose lives are not
free from sin. Nevertheless, God is still at
work. You know, sometimes we can get
nitpicky. Sometimes we can pick and pick and pick and we can
look at things and examine things and say the conditions aren’t
right. This will never work. And we forget that God can do
all kinds of things through ordinary circumstances, through less than
adequate circumstances. And so sometimes we need to remember
and have the same spirit, the same wisdom, the same attitude
of the Apostle Paul. What then? Whether in pretense
or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. You know, the Apostle Paul here
is literally saying this, I got a choice to make. I can be a
grumpy old curmudgeon. I can be nitpicky. I can prove
why they’re wrong and why they should be out of business. But
I, I choose to rejoice. I choose to be a bigger man.
I choose not to run down the path of foolishness and make,
make a mess of a situation that God is over. Because why? because the apostle Paul sees
that the gospel must be first and foremost in our motives. There are some with bad motives,
ugly motives. There are others with good motives.
And here Paul says, I have ultimate motives. His motives trump all
others that Christ is proclaimed. Let us pray together. Our great
God and Heavenly Father, we thank you that nothing can hold back
the message of Christ. Nothing can hold back the glory
of Jesus and his perfect obedience, his splendid righteousness that
is ours by faith, that righteousness, that work on the cross that has
saved us. It must be proclaimed. It must
be fully made known to the world that others may see Jesus. and
see their need of him and bow their knee to him and come to
him by faith in him, realizing that he alone can save, that
he alone can redeem their lives. We pray, oh Father, that we would
remember that you are using us. Oh, we’re weak. Our motives are
sometimes false. Our reasons for gospel ministry
may not be good, right, and true, and pure, yet you still use us. You still consider us a faithful
witness. a lampstand of the church, a
picture of heaven. We thank you for that. But help
us to be faithful. Help us to be more faithful,
to repent of our wicked motives, and to ask that by your grace
and spirit that you might put more pure motives in us. And
that we would say every day that our heart would beat, our minds
would believe, and our lips would say, may Christ be proclaimed. And we pray it in his holy name.
Amen. Let us respond to God’s good
holy word as we sing about our redemption and our desire to
proclaim it. Number 521, redeemed.