Philippians 1:12-14
Please turn in your copy of the
New Testament to Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Our reading
today is from chapter 1, verses 12 through 14. In this passage of scripture today,
the Apostle Paul speaks of how his personal suffering for the
sake of the Lord Jesus is actually advantageous to the advancement
or to the spread of the gospel. That is completely counterintuitive
to the way we might think. particularly to the way the world
thinks. But in the gospel economy, we will find over and over that
humiliation leads to exaltation. And very often, it is our own
humiliation. It is our own suffering, our
own wounds, our own difficulties that lead to the exaltation,
not of ourselves, though that is the case at times, but for
the others. We remember that the Lord Jesus
suffered in order to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
And so that is the mindset that we’ll find today in this passage
from the apostle Paul. Let us hear God’s word together
beginning at verse 12 of chapter one of Philippians. The apostle
Paul says, I want you to know brothers that what has happened
to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become
known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that
my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having
become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. Amen. This is God’s holy
and inspired word. May he add his blessings to it.
Let us pray together. Our gracious God, we pray that
your word today would comfort and build up your saints. We
pray that it would awaken and save sinners. And we pray most
of all that it would make a people ready for the coming of their
Lord Jesus. Do this by your word and by your
spirit, which are most powerful, most able, most effective, even
to save us under Christ. This we pray in his name. Amen. Our church is hosting the spring
meeting of first Presbyterian this Tuesday. It’s a lot of work,
a lot of planning, a lot of logistics. We pray that God will bless it
and it will go well. It’s very interesting all that
takes place at Presbytery. We do lots of boring things.
We do lots of mundane things, lots of administrative things,
but one of the great things we get to do is we get to examine
young men, some a little older because it’s a second career,
but most of all we get to examine young men to see if they are
prepared for gospel ministry. Well, I believe it was 14 years
ago at the 2003 spring meeting, I was examined for ministry. I stood with another Brian, a
Brian who eventually came here a few months later to be your
associate pastor. But we stood there and asked,
or asked lots of questions. We answered lots of questions.
But I was thinking back to that particular time in my life where
ministry in my mind was pretty naive. I thought ministry would
be a day job. I’ll wake up. I’ll pray. I’ll
read my Bible. I might go see somebody. I’ll
study. I’ll prepare. I’ll preach. I’ll
teach. I’ll visit. I’ll do a little
administrative work. And I’ll wake up in 30, 40 years,
and I will have had a fruitful ministry. Well, boy, was I in
for it. My first couple weeks on the
job, maybe in August of 2003, We had two deacons pull guns
on each other. You go down the list and we had riots, we had
fights, we had squabbles, we had this, that, and the other.
And I began to realize that my little naive view of ministry
is being happy and quiet, godly, faithful, easy, study the word,
read the word, pray the word, minister the word. It was not
all I had thought it was to be. You see, the reality now of 14
years of ministry is that ministry is not glamorous. Ministry is
not orderly. Ministry is not about sitting
in your office and keeping all of your books on your bookshelf
straight and getting to study and read them in the quiet and
peace of life. In fact, ministry is not a professional
career of nine to five or eight to six or whatever might be in
our minds. Ministry is messy. Ministry is
service. but ministry is glorious. And
we read in this passage from the Apostle Paul today where
he completely blows out of the water any conception that we
might have that ministry should be neat and orderly and just
so. In fact, he’s gonna tell us that
the gospel advances in less than adequate circumstances. The gospel
goes forth best under hardship, in turmoil, under difficulty
and duress. Just ask the ancient forefather
of ours, Joseph, sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers who hated
him, carried into Potiphar’s house where he served, and then
he served 10 years of hard time in the prisons. But after he
arose into favor and saved not only Egypt, but Israel from a
great famine that would come to that land, his brothers gathered
around him one day, hoping that he would forgive them. And he
says to them what God meant for evil, or what you meant for evil,
God meant for good. And so we see in the life of
Joseph, difficult circumstances brought forth great harvest and
fruit and blessing to the people of God, or Moses. Moses was a
rich prince, a privileged man growing up in the house of Pharaoh. Yet the book of Hebrews tells
us he chose rather the reproaches of Christ by identifying with
his Hebrew people instead of the king’s family. And he suffered
greatly in service to God for the sake of the gospel and the
people of Israel. And we could go through the list
and speak of David. We could speak of the prophets.
We could speak of all sorts of men and women and boys and girls
who, during the course of their Christian life, their faithfulness
to God cost them dearly. But God was glorified. The name
of Jesus was lifted high. And we can only Think this week
with the passion of the Lord Jesus, of all the suffering that
Jesus went through in order to bring many sons and daughters
to glory. Oh, Jesus was the king of kings.
He was the son of David. He was the son of God, most high
Yahweh, the creator of the world and everything in it. Yet he
came to Jerusalem and his people did not know him. He rode in
on a donkey. And he was soon to be mocked
and tried and unjustly put to death. He suffered greatly, but
it was for the sake of his own gospel. Now, the apostle Paul,
in many places, will speak of his hardships. He’ll speak in
one place of being an ambassador for almighty God. I come on behalf
of the king of the universe on his terms to negotiate reconciliation
between God and mankind. that there is peace with God
through Jesus. And in the same breath, when he calls himself
an ambassador, which we know is a high political office in
service to a great monarch, he says, but I am an ambassador
in chains. He speaks in other places where
he is bound, he is literally bound in chains, chained to a
guard, a prison guard, but the gospel is not bound, it continues
to leap forward and advance in the world. The Apostle Paul writes
this little letter to the Philippians from a jail, from a prison sentence,
from a position of waiting for a judgment, a judgment ultimately
that will lead to his death. But in his circumstances, which
many of us would fuss and whine and complain about, he finds
great joy. And he writes this little letter
to the Philippian church, a church which he has not seen in four
years. But a church which he, because
of the preaching of the gospel, the blessing of the Holy Spirit,
he had seen grow. They were gospel partners with
him. They loved him dearly. And he writes this letter to
them because they’ve sent Epaphroditus, one of their own, to him in prison
there at Rome. And he writes to them to instruct
them, to encourage them, to push them a little to nudge them along
in their faith and their duties before God. But he writes them
to put them at ease about his current situation. And in his
current situation, he wants them to know that though it has been
difficult for him and them, that nevertheless, the gospel is speeding
ahead. The gospel is advancing into
new territories as an army may advance as it takes over new
lands. There are a couple of things
that we want to see from this passage. A couple of things that
show us that the gospel does not always advance under the
most perfect circumstances. You may be naive like me as I
faced a new ministry years ago. You may be like others who say,
everything has to be just right, just so, and then I can get to
work. But this passage is going to
blow all of that out of the water and say to us, life is messy. Gospel ministry is messy, but
God is always at work in the world. First thing we want to
see from this little snippet from Paul’s letter to the Philippians
is that church growth, at least here, it comes through chains. Now, if you were to read any
modern book on how to grow the church, how to start a new church,
how to have success in church planting or church revitalization
or whatever you may want to call that endeavor. The first thing
you would not read was get yourself put in prison. That’s not going
to be the first key to successful church planting or church revitalization. But here we read in verses 12
through 13, Paul say, I want you to know brothers, he’s speaking
to the church at Philippi, that what has happened to me has really
served to advance the gospel. so that it has become known throughout
the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment
is for Christ.” We read at the end of 2 Corinthians in chapter
11, the Apostle Paul gives an account of all the hardships
he’s faced. He’s been beaten with rods three times. From the
Jews, he’s received the 40 lashes lest one, which will kill a man,
five times. He’s been in prison. He’s been
shipwrecked three times. He’s been afloat at sea. He has
been in the wilderness. He has been hated by his own
countrymen. He has been oppressed by the Gentiles. He has been
in the midst of cities in riot over his gospel ministry. And
on and on we might go. In addition, we could speak of
how he’s been sick, how he’s been near death, how he’s been
abandoned by his gospel compatriots. We can speak of how his ministry
associates have turned their backs on him or as he speaks
of at the end of some letters, they have done him great harm.
These are not the things that we would read about in a book
about techniques for church growth. or church success. Oh no, we
live in too slick of a world. We live in a world where we want
our ministers not to be servants, but to be celebrities. We live
in a day where we don’t want a minister to be middle-aged
and bald-headed and with a pudgy belly, but we want him to have
a full head of hair and the latest fashions. We want him to be able
to speak with a silver tongue. We want him to produce books
and have a large following beyond the walls of the church, and
there’s a place for some of that, we know. But church growth comes
through hardship. Here it comes through chains. And so think about your adversity
for a moment. It may never compare to the Apostle
Paul’s, but your adversity, your circumstances, your difficulties,
At least in the kingdom of God and in the economy of the gospel
advancing ought to be seen with spiritual eyes. Oh, physically,
yes, there are hardships. And in human eyes, we may say
things are impossible. God could not possibly be at
work in these situations or circumstances. But with the apostle Paul, we
must say God can use our adversity. God can use our sickness, he
can use our suffering, he can use the difficult boss we serve
at work. He can use an auto accident we
really didn’t need at this time. He can use a tree falling through
the roof of our house. These are things that create
opportunities we never otherwise would have had. And you think
about the Apostle Paul. Did he want to sit in a Roman
prison? No, he’d rather be making his way around the Mediterranean
Sea, preaching from church to church, building the church,
strengthening the church, warning the church, encouraging the church.
building the church. He’d rather be in Rome and Spain
as he would go in the future. But no, for now, he’s in prison. And he’s willing to suffer because
he puts the gospel of the Lord Jesus first. And he knows that
the church grows through his chains. Now, the second thing
we might see from this passage is that church growth enters
into pagan circles. Notice what the apostle says
to us in verse 13. He says that his imprisonment
has made it possible for it to become known throughout the whole
imperial or praetorian guard and to all the rest that his
imprisonment is for Christ. You remember the Apostle Paul
had gone back to Jerusalem after a missionary journey and some
point in the city or the temple area, he upset his own people.
He upset them so much that there was a riot, he was arrested,
he was put in prison, and he decided that he must appeal to
Caesar in order to exercise his rights as a Roman citizen. He
wanted Caesar to hear his case. That meant he was going all the
way to Rome. He was going all the way to the
tip-top. He was going to the Supreme Court, to the Supreme
One who could judge and adjudicate his case in a favorable way.
And so the Apostle Paul is in Roman prison, probably in some
sort of house that he rents. And daily he is chained to some
rotation of men who are part of Caesar’s Praetorian Guard. These would be the elite. These
would be the Navy SEALs. These would be the Army Rangers.
These would be the the secret service as we know it. These
would be the best of the best. And one of their mundane duties
was to guard prisoners of the emperor. These were extraordinary
prisoners, prisoners of specific value to the Roman Empire. And
so while these elite soldiers were chained to the Apostle Paul
in his rented quarters, and in addition to Paul and whoever
was chained with him, there would be all kinds of visitors who
would come to see him, whether it be Epaphroditus or Timothy
or or whoever would come, Paul would no doubt speak. He would no doubt talk. He would
no doubt tell the guy, yeah, this is what I do. This is my
job. This is why I’m in prison. This is why I’m appealing to
Caesar. And there would be some back and forth. Tell me about
your children. They would open up their wallets and show pictures.
If that were available at that time, you get the picture while
chained to these men who were of great importance in this Roman
culture. He would speak of the gospel.
And the apostle is going to go on to say that God has saved
the unsavable. The gospel has gone into circles
where the elite of the elite might not never hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus. And we think about how the gospel
has gone into closed countries. It’s entered into China. It has
gone into closed parts of the world. where the gospel light
has not shined before and where we might think from human eyes
and human minds, the gospel could not enter or even flourish. And the apostle Paul says of
his imprisonment, it has been for the purpose of advancing
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of Philippians,
if you flip to chapter four and look at verse 22, when the apostle
is closing his letter and saying his goodbyes and his hellos and
his greetings, He speaks in verse 22 these words, greet every saint
in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me
greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s
household. You can only imagine that if
you didn’t quickly pass over those words, you can only imagine
that the gospel has gone into one of the most powerful households
the world has ever known. And how did that happen? because
Paul was willing to submit to Jesus, whatever it takes, whatever
the cost, gospel first, even chains. And so the church grows
through chains. It grows into pagan circles. And so we may get it in our minds
because we think in a worldly way at times, our faith dwindles. We may think that the gospel
is not powerful enough to save our rotten American culture.
We may think That our world is going, as we say, to hell in
a handbasket. We may say that there is no possible
salvation for this man or that woman or this child. But we need
to be reminded of the power of the gospel. The power of the
gospel through chains. The power of the gospel into
pagan circles. The gospel can advance. The church
can grow. God will never leave or forsake
his church. There’s a third thing for us
to consider, and this is where our eyes come off of the Apostle
Paul. This is where our eyes come off of the gospel in pastimes
going into pagan circles. This is where the rubber hits
the road for us. And that third thing we must
learn is this, church growth comes through bold Christians.
Notice what he says in verse 14. He says, most of the brothers,
this is just other Christians, Most of the brothers, having
become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are so much
bold to speak the word without fear.” Now you remember during
the Passion Week of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus. His disciples
couldn’t seem to stay up at night with Him and pray. His disciples
couldn’t bear the fact that He was arrested. His disciples all
fled into the night. We read from Zechariah, strike
the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. That is exactly
what happened. A bunch of Galilean fishermen
became timid as can be, and they fled into the night when the
going got tough. But what the apostle Paul is
saying here about folks in the Philippian church, maybe even
about some of his companions in Rome who are with him while
he is imprisoned, He’s especially saying this to you. The gospel
and its advancement emboldens Christians to speak the gospel.
So we might have this question in our mind, will our church
grow? Will this little church grow? Could more people come
to this church someday? Could we fill more of our seats?
Could more people that I come in contact with come to know
Jesus and worship Him, not only in this life and the life which
is to come? The answer is yes. But how does that happen? Well,
ordinarily, it happens through Christians becoming emboldened
and they speak of the gospel of the Lord Jesus to all those
with whom they come into contact week after week, day after day.
You think about where we go as a church when we leave this place.
You go out of here with God’s blessing and his benediction.
and you go into doctor’s offices, you go into schools, you go into
neighborhoods, you go to your places of vacation, you go into
your weekly appointments, you go to all the places where God
calls you and sends you during the week, and you think about
our little number here. But if we all go to 20 or 30
places a week and are given opportunity to speak of the hope of the gospel,
you couldn’t pay one missionary and set apart that missionary
and send them into all the places you go. But yet God uses you. He uses you, bold Christians,
who aren’t going to keep quiet about the gospel, but no, you’re
going to shout it from the mountaintops. You’re not going to take your
light and hide it under a bush or cover it with a bowl. No,
you’re going to let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and give praise to God, our Heavenly Father. You say, oh, I’m not much of
a missionary. I’m not much of a gospel proclaimer.
Remember Moses. Moses said, Here I am, but don’t
send me. I can’t speak. I’m not eloquent.
I’m not going to speak to Pharaoh. Send somebody with me. And so
God relents and sends Aaron. Or we think of Peter being timid. Or Timothy in the faith. Over and over, the apostle Paul
basically has to give Timothy a speech that says, you’re a
minister of the gospel. Get up and do your job. Quit being timid. Quit being scared. Quit being
shaky. And that’s where many of us are.
We need Jesus. We need Paul. We need each other
to encourage one another and say, always be prepared to give
an account of the hope that is within you, because the church
will grow through chains. It will grow in pagan circles,
but it will grow through bold Christians proclaiming the goodness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, I don’t know the
words to speak of the gospel. Well, let me encourage you in
this way. Keep it simple. Speak of sin and How it’s a great
offense to almighty God. Speak of the grace of God and
how he comes into the world through Jesus to save sinners. He pays
a debt that he did not owe, a debt that you owed but could never
pay. And he saves sinners who come to him knowing that they
are needy, they are weak, they are wounded, and they have no
standing except through the Lord Jesus. Tell them your story about
how you came to faith in Jesus and how God has saved you. Oh,
sometimes we want the right circumstances. We want the table set just right,
the tea poured exactly on time. We want every circumstance to
be perfect. But we understand the gospel
often advances in messy circumstances. It comes under difficulty, under
duress. And maybe you’re like me when
I set out early in ministry. I want the ideal situation. I
want the ideal ministry opportunities. I want it to be easy and glorious.
I want it to come without effort, without pain and without hardship.
Oh, but the gospel is not that way. It is glorious, but it is
difficult. And one of the things we need
to remember, it’s an old Southern saying, God hits straight licks
with crooked sticks. Things may not be perfect. Our
words may not be articulate, but you let your life and you
let your sincerity, and you let the truth of the gospel do its
work, and there is no telling where the gospel may advance
for the glory of God, for the sake of Jesus, for the growth
of the church, and for the betterment of our culture and society through
our simple gospel labors. Oh, the world thinks in terms
of big and grand and glorious and slick but the gospel enters
into messes and it makes them whole again through Jesus Christ.
Let us pray together. Our great God, we thank you this
day for the glorious work of the gospel, how your name is
being made famous even to the ends of the earth. We thank you
that you use us. We thank you that you use us
broken vessels, jars of clay, but in us you have put these
treasures. We pray that we might proclaim the goodness of Jesus
as a church, Through the missionaries, we set apart and send and support,
but especially through our own lives, that wherever we go, week
after week, wherever you send us, that we might be used by
you in ways we might not ever imagine, but in ways that are
glorious and eternal for the good of individuals, but for
the fame of your great and glorious name. This we pray in Jesus’
name, amen.