Good morning. As we begin today we are going to continue in our study of the book of Philippians. Here in the beginning I want to go ahead and read today’s section. It is Philippians 1:12-18. Here in this section we hear more about Paul’s chains. In Philippians 1:12-18 it says, “1”
Now as we begin I want to ask you two questions.
1. What are the chains that bind you?
2. What is the message that people see through those chains?
Now those are some big questions. For Paul the chains involved being ship wrecked, beaten, living in a dungeon, and then chained to a Roman Guard as we discussed last week. Life for Paul had nothing to do with freedom, except the fact that he was free in Christ.
He had little reason to rejoice, except that he knew Christ. Paul’s life was one of chains, but his message was Jesus. When your message is Jesus you can have all kinds of chains, but still be free.
A well-known sailor once said, “Ships in harbor are safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” He went on to say, “We, too, are not built to stay in the safe harbors of life but to take some prudent risks, have some daring, take some chances. Theodore Roosevelt praised the man who “… if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.””
Now consider these questions again. What are you chains, and what does your message preach? All of us face chains in our lives, and all of us preach a message.
Your chains may be failure. A bright young scholar emigrated from England to America. His friends predicted that he would be a great success, but he died within one year. He left his personal library of two hundred books and his money, seven hundred pounds, all to a new college. Today that college has a thousand professors, ten thousand students, and it bears the name of that bright young man who dies so young. Where is this place, it is named after John Harvard.
Failure is a chain that we all face in life, but with Christ, we are still free.
Your chain may be death. There is a Christian preacher who stood out in World War II. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who joined a movement to overthrow Hitler, lectured in the US during a period of time in which his life was threatened in Germany. He had offers to stay in the US, but refused them in order to stand with his brothers in Germany against Nazism. He was arrested, spent his last years in prison, and was executed in April 1945, just before Germany’s defeat.
I love some of the words that Bonhoeffer had to say. He said, “Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.” Here was a man who would die in the future in a Nazi Concentration Camp because he had a strong faith in God. He had chains, heavy ones, but freedom in Christ was his. His chains also advanced the kingdom.
Death may be a great chain in our life, but in Christ we are free from worry or where we shall spend eternity.
The advancement of the Gospel of Jesus was foremost in Paul’s thinking as well. He was totally wrapped up in living out his divine commission to be the apostle to the Gentiles in proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ. His personal circumstances or comforts in this life were not his primary concern.
Paul certainly didn’t have what we would judge to be the most advantageous circumstances. He had no big salary, no fancy office, no radio broadcast ministry, no publishing house distributing letters for him, no flock of servant to wait on him hand and foot. Instead as we looked last week he was under house arrest in Rome. He was concerned that believers such as his faithful supporters back in Philippi might misunderstand his difficulties and become discouraged. That is the state of mind that we see Paul in here.
Now that we are past the introductions, the thanksgivings, and the prayers for the people of Philippi, we can now move into the meat of the text. He is now moving into what he wants to talk about to the Philippian church.
Lets read over this another time to refresh our memory. Philippians 1:12-18 says, “1”
Now verse 12 starts off different than usual. The phrase “I want you to know…” was generally used in letters at that time to point out that crucial information was going to be given. Obviously Paul was going to be giving them something that he did not want them to miss.
Now you have to love Paul’s persistence here. As we read on in the first section of this we find out that Paul was very persistent. Not only is he is prison for preaching about Christ in the first place, but while there he is preaching to the guards. He even comments that being in prison has helped to advance the gospel. He says that the entire palace guard had come to know that he was in chains for Christ. You see they had no way to get away from hearing him preach Christ.
This is where it gets neat. Because Paul was under house arrest he had a guard chained to him 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. In fact in Paul’s situation the guard would be changed every four hours. So every four hours Paul was given a new guard that he could tell about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The point in this section is that even though Paul was in chains he was still accomplishing things for Christ.
Now Paul being in prison was sort of a two-fold advantage. Not only was he able to minister to the guards, but other brothers and sisters in Christ were able to see that as an encouragement to them. They were encouraged to speak more boldly about Christ as we see in verse 14.
You see in that time, Nero was the emperor of Rome, and he did not take too kindly to Christians. There was much persecution, so for them to be encouraged to be more courageous, they were actually putting their own lives on the line.
That is why Paul was so joyful as he explained to the Philippian Church that his imprisonment was helping to spread the gospel even more than they could imagine.
It is interest to see how God works when people try to stop Him. The Jews tried to stop Jesus by putting Him on a cross, but that didn’t work. Here they try to stop it by putting Paul in prison, yet again it doesn’t work. Today separation of State and Church, abortion, gay marriages, and the list goes on. The devil thinks that this will stop Christ form being preached, however that won’t work either. The gospel of Christ has the most powerful force in the entire world. It changes lives, heals the hurting, brings families back together, saves marriages, and that list goes on as well.
For 2000 years now the gospel has been persecuted against, but you know what, it is still here, it is still advancing, it is still growing, there are still people giving their lives to Christ and saying that Jesus Christ is Lord. The gospel is the most powerful force in this world, and there is no obstacle that can hinder or stop it, it will continue to advance.
In verse 15 Paul begins to elaborate on those who are courageously preaching because of the encouragement that they have received. Out of this Paul brings out two distinct groups that we are going to look at today.
They are those that preach out of envy and rivalry and those that preach out of goodwill. Paul separates these two kinds of preachers by what their motives are. Those that preach out of goodwill do so out of love for Christ and his gospel message that can bring salvation. Those who preach out of envy and rivalry as Paul says do so out of selfish ambition. They only want to promote themselves, they are not even sincere in their preaching. It isn’t about Jesus, it’s not about how they live their lives, it isn’t what’s in their hearts, it is just the words that come out of their mouths, it is just and act to help themselves using Jesus and his gospel as a means to success for self.
Now it is important to point out now that these two types of preachers were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their doctrine was fine, for some it was their attitudes that needed adjusted. All of those preachers by using the gospel were having people follow them. They were looked to, they were admired, they were respected, and they were admired for their courage and their faith. For some of these preachers it was all for Jesus and for others it was all or mostly for themselves and just a little for Jesus.
The point to all of this for us this morning is that if we are called to minister, and we all as Christians are called to minister as it says in Matthew 28:19-20. If you will look at that with me, here in Matthew 28:19-20 it says, “2”
If we are called to minister, then we have to examine our motives and our hearts. Selfish ambition will work when we try to build up our ministries as long as we preach the gospel of Christ, but in the end of our lives in the presence of God what will our character say about us? What will our hearts say about us? Did we love Jesus above all else or did we love ourselves just a little bit more? In I Corinthians 13:1-3 it says, “3”
The love of Jesus needs to be in our hearts when we minister in His name. He is all that matters, He is all that is needed, He needs to be our everything. If we work our entire lives and achieve great things, whether it is ministry or not, if we have not the love of Christ in the forefront of our hearts then really all we have is nothing.
Now in verse 18 Paul ends things up by saying, “1”
Paul rejoices. The prospect of joy is a powerful motivation for courage.
There are three key words in this text today and they all point to Paul’s total devotion to Jesus. Whatever happened to Paul these three words would permeate his life because he trusted Christ. Chains could not silence the words, and his preaching proclaimed these words.
The first word comes in verse 13. Here it says, “1”
The first word is WITNESS. Here is the message of Paul. My chains advance God’s witness. What an attitude! Even though he was going through problems and had chains in his life, he realized that even through that he was witnessing for Christ. Paul’s life was one of chains, but his message was Jesus.
The second word from Paul would be ENCOURAGE. In verse 14 it says, “1”
There’s that word again. It will not go away. Encourage someone even when you are in chains. Your attitude in the midst of the chains encourages others.
In verse 18 it speaks of Paul REJOICING. That is the third word. We should tell everyone about Christ. Develop a witnessing tool. However you do it, tell people about Christ. It may be speaking a positive word about your church. This would be the perfect time to invite them to come and go to church with you. Our message is Christ, and we can rejoice.
To bring things to a close I want to address a lie that some Christians live with and that is, that bad things don’t happen to good people. The truth is, bad things do happen to good people. Just look through the Bible and see all of the bad things that happen to good godly people.
My thought is that when those bad things happen, rather than saying, “Why Me?” We should be saying what does God what me to do through this? How can I make this a time to do something for God?
I heard a story some years ago, and I forgot the guy’s name, but one of the team members of Billy Graham Crusades ending up in the hospital and wondering why God kept him from helping at a critical time. Even worse, he was placed in a room with a very bitter man, who ridiculed him for his faith in Christ. yet, each day, he treated his obnoxious hospital roommate with encouraging words and offered to share food that others had brought him. On the day that the member of Billy Graham’s Crusades was going to be discharged from the hospital, his roommate slipped him a note that read, “If only for me, God brought you here, to show me His love.”
When we are in our chains, or our burdens, do we look at how God is using us in spite of our circumstances? There is no telling what bad things are going to happen to you in the future and you cannot control them. But you can control how you react, and what you will do in the name of Christ.
Let me read verse 18 one more time. Here in verse 18 it says, “1”
The important thing is that Christ is preached and because of that I we rejoice. Here is a good church growth philosophy to close with. It is taken from John 3:25-26. Here in John 3:25-26 it says, “4”
A loose translation of that would look like this, “John, how come your church is shrinking and Jesus’ church is growing?”
Then in verses 27-30 it says, “4”
The original Greek wording could be translated by me to say something like this: “You idiots. It’s not about me. It’s about Christ.”
Paul even though he was in chains, was looking at the advancement of the gospel for Christ, not simply for his church.
In closing a summary of this morning is that we need to view our chains as a way of still advancing the gospel of Christ. And through that we may encourage others to do so as well. We need to witness, encourage, and rejoice, and we need to do it all to the glory and honor of God and not to ourselves.
Let’s pray
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