Philippians 1:12-28 • Unstoppable Joy
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 1 as we will be looking at verses 12 through 18. Let me ask that you would stand as we would honor God's Word, Philippians 1 verses 12 through 18, important to remember that as Paul writes, he is in prison and surely wondering what God is up to. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12, Paul writes, "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 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. Yes, and I will rejoice." We'll finish that sentence next week. For now, let's pray together. Father, teach us what it means to be a people in whom you are working beyond what we would expect, beyond the trial, beyond the hardship, to actually believe that you are working so in our lives for the advance of the gospel. We are a community that feels some stress now of employment, of industry, of economy. There are others who feel much pressure from family circumstances that are very hard. But in all, we would pray that you are working in such a way that our own testimony might be a week from now or a month from now or 20 years from now. What happened to me really served to advance the gospel. Give us the eyes of faith and hearts made strong because we have heard your word. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. If your God is so good, then why are you in this prison camp?
The question asks from a North Korean guard to my former student, Kenneth Bae, who had made the mistake as he led a tour of Christians into North Korea, leaving on his computer messages indicating that he was hoping to help people pray for the people of North Korea. When he left his hotel room and the government searched the room and scanned the computer, they came across those e-mail and text notices and as a result, convicted him of sedition, of seeking to undermine the North Korean government by having Christians pray for brothers and sisters in North Korea. He was sentenced to hard labor 15 years and became the longest-held American in a North Korean prison. And it was in that prison camp under hard labor that the guard asked Kenneth, "If your God is so good, why are you in this prison camp?"
Kenneth responded, "If my God were not good, I would not be here to tell you about Him."
Can it really work that way? Can it really work that beyond the hardship, beyond the difficulties that come into our lives, that God is still working in such a way that the gospel is intended to advance, that even God's people experiencing difficulty, hardship, and tears are nonetheless the witnesses of a God who is faithful? Kenneth Bae later wrote in the book, "Not Forgotten," his purpose for telling people what happened to him in that prison camp. He wrote these words, "The one thing I want people to take away from reading this book is God's faithfulness."
Is that possible? It's of course exactly the thing that's happening to the Apostle Paul in this letter to the Philippians. He says, "I am in prison, but I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really happened to advance the gospel, that beyond the hardship, beyond the tears, beyond the things that don't make sense, beyond the things that are truly evil,
God is not confused, God is not lost, but is working to accomplish His purposes with power beyond our discernment." That working of God, sometimes we talk about as God's providence, which is an old-fashioned word that sounds like something an Amish father would name one of his daughters, right? There's conscience and prudence and providence. But it's a word that believers through the ages have clung to to say, "We believe that God is working beyond the trial that we can see for the purposes that He will accomplish eternally." Our Reformation forefathers said it this way, "God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions." God's works of providence are His most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions. This is more than just saying God knows what's happening in the world. It is precious to know that not a sparrow falls to the ground except that He knows it. But beyond that is the message of providence that God is holy, wise, and powerful in preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions so that this same Apostle Paul could write in Romans 8.28, "Now all things are working together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. I'm so glad that He did not write, all things are good." No, it is a fallen world with true evil and sadness and tears. But the message of God's providence is that those things in the mystery of the Godhead are still being worked for a greater purpose than that which is evil in tens or ever could fathom. That we as believers somehow profoundly profess over and over again
the hard things in our lives are like broken glass on the battered beaches of our lives, that God assembles into stained glass art to reveal the gospel that we need. And the mystery,
the absolute majesty of faith is to believe that the broken glass as well as the storms that batter are not beyond the artistry of God, that He is at work so that an Apostle can say, "I'm in prison," verse 12, "but I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." It is the old, old story that what we see and perceive that is really and truly evil, it is wrong, nonetheless is used by God to accomplish purposes beyond what humans could ever even imagine so that Joseph, remember, sold by his brothers into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned, could nonetheless by those circumstances rise to a place of authority in Egypt so that ultimately when there was famine back in Israel what would happen was his family would come to Egypt and it would become the incubator of the nation of Israel out of which a Savior would come.
But do you remember when the brothers of Joseph who had sold him into slavery recognized they had been discovered, they thought that Joseph would kill them now.
Instead he said, "You meant it for evil. God meant it for good to save many people. You are here today because Joseph was sold into slavery, betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused, and imprisoned so that God could have him in the place for God to work and to save many people." It's most profoundly perhaps evident in Jesus Christ himself betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused, in prison, put on trial before Pilate. Pilate is going to condemn him to die on a cross and Jesus speaks directly to Pilate and says, "You could do nothing to me had you not been given authority by my Father in heaven." God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing of all his creatures and all their actions. The evil thinks it has succeeded. The evil thinks it has its day. We sometimes think, "If I, life is this hard, if I'm going through this crisis, God must be gone."
But the heart of faith is still saying, "No, my God is present and by my testimony, even in hard things, terrible things, awful things, the things that are wrong, God is nonetheless working altogether for a good through those that love him. When I believe that, I have explanation for a world that I can't otherwise explain. I think of the Christians who would have come before the same set of Roman emperors that are holding Paul now. After this Caesar, there will become one who is named Nero. And Nero will be so upset with the believers to remember that he will begin to persecute them. He will begin to imprison them. He will begin to put them in the Colosseums to be torn apart by the lions and the gladiators. John is sent to Patmos where he writes Revelation. And out of all that cruelty, God actually begins to disperse the Christians across the lands so that the message of the gospel goes far further and faster than they ever would have done had they just been left on their own. They're sent out. And by the second century, Tertullian begins to plead with the Roman emperor saying, "Justice of Rome requires justice even for the Christians." And he begins to plead for Roman justice to extend even to those who call themselves after the name of Christ. But even Tertullian wrote, "But what has happened is that the blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the church." That God is planting farther, wider, faster than we ever would have thought possible. It's almost as though the enemies of God have have stubbed their toes on the ear of corn of the gospel in a field and have said, "I know how to get rid of this ear of corn. Let's bury it." And instead what begins to happen is the seed prospers and spreads, and it is not just a story of an ancient time. I think of the story of our time. So many of you who are of a certain generation, I know grieve as you see the pressure and the marginalization of Christianity in this culture. But as a consequence of what the Lord has done here, as He has used the resources of this people to reach further peoples, do you recognize the center of Christianity has moved from the West to the global South so that faster than we ever could have thought possible by just individual missionaries that we would be sending out. Now the most Christians in the world are in Africa and Asia and South America, and God is just multiplying the kingdom. And it's not just in past decades, it is happening right now. This last week ISIS released its most grisly video yet. So often we in a Christian culture think about ISIS and Al-Qaeda launching efforts against Christians and virtually eradicating Christianity from the Middle East. But we forget that far more Muslims have been killed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda which are Sunni-oriented, and they so much take their rage against Shiite Muslims. That often is the Shiites who receive far more terror than even the Christians do. So this grisly video that has details we can't even talk about in a church setting shows one after another Muslims being hung up on meat hooks and slaughtered like farm animals.
And we say, "How could this possibly be good? It is not. It is evil. It is wrong. It is awful." But what has been the consequence, the greatest dispersion of peoples in the history of the world as we know of, is happening in our lifetime. And where nations are not simply overwhelmed by fear or bigotry and are taking refugees in, the Christian church has had opportunities such it has never had among the Muslim world. Already the West so much has been reached. Now Africa, now Asia, now South America, and suddenly the Muslim world becomes the next great opportunity for the gospel because the Muslims are being dispersed across the world. Listen to this. Just this last week from Christianity Today, in Germany, more than 2,000 recorded converts in the last 18 months in Bible believing churches. In Switzerland, their 20 Minutes news program has reported through the Center for Integration and Religious Affairs similar numbers of Afghans and Kurds coming to faith in Jesus Christ and being baptized in Bible believing churches. They would have been murdered for that in their own countries. And now able to believe they see an Islam that is violent in orientation, murderous and intent, and they're saying, "We believe there has to be something else." And the opportunities for the gospel are amazing. I've told you before of Christian ministries working in the refugee camps of Lebanon who now have opportunities with hundreds of thousands of Muslims to explain the ministry of Jesus Christ. But even I was not prepared for the news report that came out this past week from the Southern Baptist Conventions News Service that reported these figures. 80% of the conversions of Muslims to Christ
in the history of the world, 80% of the conversion of Muslims to Christ in the history of the world
have happened since 9-11. With the cataclysmic world events so tragic and so horrible, 80% of the conversions of Muslims to Jesus Christ have happened since that moment.
Some of you know the name of Nick Ripken, who "Insanity of God" book was put into a movie that was here in town just a week or two ago. And in that book, "The Insanity of God," he writes this, prior to 9-11, we were hearing of hundreds of conversions of Muslims to Christianity. But since 9-11, tens of thousands of Muslim conversions. There is a flood of the work of God as God is saying, "My works of providence are my most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving, and governing of all my people and all their actions." And when you see someone like the Apostle Paul who was in prison experiencing the awfulness of the assaults upon body and spirit, you begin to recognize that what God is calling him and us to do is to be those people who will say, "God, this is so hard, but I trust you. What I'm going through with my family, what I'm going through with my job, what I'm going through as a nation, this is so hard, but I trust you
because I believe in the hand of providence that there is a God who is working all things, even the awful, horrible, evil things. They are somehow not beyond the hand and the artistry of God to accomplish gospel purposes. So even the Apostle Paul could say, "I want you to know what's happened to me, beatings and betrayals and shipwreck and deprivation and imprisonment and false accusation. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I want you to know something. This has worked to the advance of the gospel." So much so that he can say in verse 13, "Did you catch it?" So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Here's the Apostle Paul. He's chained to a Roman guard, so what does he do? Have you heard about Jesus? And not just that one, but the whole palace guard is aware of why Paul is there and who Christ is. And did you catch the words, "And all the rest?" If you go over to the fourth chapter of this same book, Paul will begin to address the saints in the household of Caesar. That what appears to have happened is that not just the guards, but the household. Now that's just not the servants. In the Roman tradition, that would have meant the governors, the treasurers, the people who are responsible for policy and politics and transportation and communication. There are saints among them now in the household of Caesar. That what the enemies of the gospel did, the enemies of Paul did, is say, "We'll get rid of this guy." And instead what God did, He took that very plotting and used it to put Paul right in the center of ancient commerce and transportation and communication and government and power and said, "I'm going to plant the gospel there." And then it begins to spread. God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions. And I think what that means for us, not just from an ancient story, but what would it mean for those of you who are going through the job upheaval right now, or your families under pressure such as you never knew, or your children in some ways that tension with you and you think this cannot possibly be good. It is not good,
but all things can be worked together for good with hearts that say, "God, this is so hard, but I trust You." Because then the works of providence begin to work in such a way that it actually increases people's boldness for the gospel. Did you catch that 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." One of the reasons they're bold is even they begin to see the works of providence. What the palace guard believes now? There are saints in the household of Caesar?
God's doing something. But the other thing that's happening is that boldness begets boldness.
When you see people standing for the Lord against all odds, against the horrors of the word, when you say, "There's something real in what they believe." This Christianity thing is not just about appearance and prosperity and getting along. I mean, there's something real. These people are willing to sacrifice everything, risk everything to stand for their Lord despite horror in their lives. There must be something concrete and real to this gospel. And so people become more committed, more bold to it. I think of it in my own life. You know, in just a few days, I will be in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I've been there before. Some of you may remember the great tensions during what they called the troubles when Protestants and Roman Catholics murdered each other because of politics that paraded his religion. Being there just a couple of years ago, I was with a young pastor who's ministering in a part of Belfast where it's an older church, just a few older people left. And I began to walk with this young pastor who's taking his family into a very troubled neighborhood and walked with him on a Sunday morning as he began to collect his congregation, going to a set of apartments and knocking on the door. And I'm a little scared because there's graffiti from militant gangs that are on the wall of the apartment building. And he knocks on the door and as a woman greets him in her bed clothes, he says, "Mary, church is in 30 minutes. You need to get the kids. You need to come." And then we're driving along and he sees another young woman with her kids in a stroller. "Lisabeth, 20 minutes. You need to be done with your walk so you can come to church." And as we're driving by what is their equivalent of a 7-11, he sees one of the attenders of his church go inside and he knows what's going to go on. So he pulls up into the 7-11, he goes to the liquor aisle, and he says, "Betty, this is not the answer. Church is in 10 minutes. You need to be there."
And I think, "This is a bold man." And I think of how easy my life is and how much more willing I'm to be bold because I see people living in boldness for the sake of the gospel. It's what we recognize Paul says when you believe in the providence of God. It's not only advancing the gospel, it's giving boldness to his people. And that providence is happening because we believe the gospel itself is powerful. It's not just that there's this blind providence. It's not just the equivalent of luck or fate. There is this working of God. And the way that he works is through his gospel. When we believe that this gospel has power, we are willing to proclaim it with this kind of boldness. The gospel power that's being expressed is odd to us. Do you remember? The apostle says in verse 15, "Some are preaching Christ
from envy and rivalry. Others are doing it out of love for me." And then he begins to describe more of that. Some are actually trying to hurt me by preaching the gospel. They think I've got too much fame. They think I'm getting too much attention. And so they are preaching the gospel so they'll get more prestige. And they actually want to hurt me. They want my ministry to fail so that theirs will succeed like there's nobody in any church that ever did that. I hope that ministry fails so that ours succeeds. Paul says, "I don't care because whether they are preaching the gospel for pretense or pure motives, what happens as a consequence?" Do you remember? Verse 18, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that I will rejoice." Listen, you preach the gospel for good motives or bad. As long as you preach the gospel, I'm going to cheer for you. I'm going to rejoice. Why? Because Paul is saying, this gospel has its own inherent power that is not based upon the virtue of the one who's doing it. There are people who are preaching out of wrong motives. And yet as long as they say what's true, the gospel's got the power to work into people's hearts. That's even true if you think about Paul. I mean, think about the virtue that's in the one writing here. He used to kill Christians to persecute them, to separate husbands from wives, to separate mothers from their families. All for the sake of what he thought was a good cause. And now this same former murderer of Christians and persecutor of the church is in prison. Boy, there's a testimony for you.
And yet Paul is saying, "It does not matter as long as I am saying what is true of the gospel and others are saying what is true of the gospel. It has its power to advance in the world." Just a silly example. It's almost like if you say, "It does not matter if Jimmy Olsen holds the kryptonite or Lex Luthor holds the kryptonite. Both are still dangerous to Superman, right? It's got its own power. It's not the virtue of the person or the nature of the person. It's saying to you and to me, "We want to check out. My family knows me. They know my weaknesses. My co-workers know how I've messed up. People hear me when I cuss and get angry and they think I've got no way to share the gospel." Listen, I'm not saying that's a great way to share the gospel. I'm saying the gospel can work beyond you if you'll say it. I'm saying it has its own internal power. It has the power to save even people like us. That's the message. And so when Paul is saying, "Listen, I want you to know this gospel, whether you hear it from good people or bad people, if you'll hear the gospel, it's got the power to transform you. I know it from my own life in ways I don't want to bring up too often, but I need you to know I know the conversion of my brother, who is now in prison, was a consequence of another man in the holding cell ministering to my brother when he was terrified and afraid. And I recognize the man was in the holding cell because he was guilty of some crime too. And yet he was the one who took the words of the gospel and said them to my brother that led to his eternal salvation. It does not matter the virtue of the person. The virtue of the gospel is what we promote. And if we will say what the gospel is, if we will be true to its nature and content, then God is working beyond us to accomplish what He intends. And that is the great blessing. I just think of the people of courage who are willing to do that. You know, in this town, if some of you know Him, Jerry Trecek, you know, Peoria Rescue Mission, and there are not many more courageous people on the face of the planet, I will tell you. I sometimes go with Jerry and I'm embarrassed. Really, Jerry, would you say that to those people? And he just does. And you say, "Praise God, I need to be as courageous as He, His trust in the gospel, taking to the down and outs, to the drug-indicted, to the people in the awfulest straits because He believes in the gospel." And when you have that sort of profound belief in the power of the gospel itself, it makes you courageous for God's purposes. And that's His calling. And He's not calling just special people. He's just calling people to be part of this belief in the profound nature of the gospel so that they will speak. We believe in the power of God's providence, the power of God's gospel. But ultimately, we have to believe if we're to be the church of Jesus Christ in the power of God's people. I mean, recognize there's a couple of people on display here. I mean, there's the one kind of on stage, the Apostle Paul. And we recognize that that person is being used despite an awful past and an embarrassing present.
But He's still teaching us things, isn't He? The Apostle Paul there in prison is teaching us, "Don't waste your contacts." No, if this gospel is so powerful, if even hard things can be used, you're hard things in life, if you're able to say, "This is so hard, but God, I still trust Him." If that's your message to friend and family and coworker, then God says, "I can use that because I used Paul." So Paul's not wasting his contacts. He's speaking to the soldier that he's chained to. He's speaking to the emperor's household when he has opportunity. He's speaking to the brothers around him in the church of what God is doing. He's just not wasting his contacts. He believes that God has put this person in my life. There's a reason for that. And Paul is not wasting his crisis either, is he? "God, I'm in prison. Where'd you go? I'm done with you. I don't like this." Instead, he profoundly believes that if he is able to say from his heart, "God, this is so hard,
but I trust you," that that message in itself is powerful for the sake of the gospel. And so he's not wasting his contacts. He's not wasting his crises. But Paul's not the only one on display here. Do you recognize the other people that are on display? Paul is writing to those at Philippi, and he's writing to those at Philippi for two major reasons. One of them, if we go to another portion of Scripture, to Acts 28, where it's actually describing Paul in prison, it says that he survives in that Roman-chained house arrest by providing for his own expenses. As Kenneth Bae was required to raise his own food in the hard labor camp, Paul is required to raise his own expenses in order to survive under Roman house arrest. Where does that money come from?
Do you remember verse 5 of this same chapter? Paul began to praise those at Philippi because they had been partners with him in the gospel from the first day until now. Even as he is writing, he is saying, "You have been my partners." And just to go into verse 19, what he concludes with, "For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." Here are the people of God supporting the Apostle Paul in partnership, which is generosity of money, and at the same time in prayers, that we're putting these things two together so that Paul's ministry could not have gone forward, could not have done anything had it not been for the people of the church who believed they were part of the mission. I think of that on a Sunday where, you know, we put and promote so that you can see what you have helped do, this unlimited grace media, and see major cities across the country, 400 cities across the country, 40 to 60 nations across the world, and perhaps more to come. And I do not kid myself that this is because of me, if there had not been a generation before many of you here establishing the media facilities that we even have in this church, if there had not been people who brought their support a year ago to even enable us to launch in such a major way, if there had not been people praying for it, none of this would have happened. That whatever happens to a person, for God's sake, is actually because others had been partners and provided. I think of my wife and I think so much has been required of her to take care of kids in a ministry of my lifetime. I think of Sunday school teachers who prayed for me for decades in various places where we've been. This is God using His people for His purposes. We think this is just one ministry. No, this is our partnership in the gospel that God is calling all of us into a lifestyle of generosity with the understanding that we are participants in the ministry of the gospel wherever He places us. And what God is doing is not just through me. I mean, do you recognize Pastor Greg prayed 70 missionaries that this church supports? And 85 percent of them, by the way, brothers and sisters, are out of this church. That God is doing a tremendous work as He's saying, "I'm not looking for a selfish people, but a selfless people who believe that as God is by His providence, using His gospel through people, there is tremendous work to be done that should just encourage us all, excite us. I'm part of the saints. I'm part of the people of God. As God is using me, as I am committing myself to generosity and prayer, God is using this far beyond what we would ask or imagine, and it has been His nature all along. God's works of providence are His most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing of all these people and all their actions. That's what God is doing. And the blessing for all of us, regardless of what we're facing in this moment of our lives, would be if we could a week or a month or 20 years from now, look back with a friend or a grandchild and be able to say these words of the apostle Paul, "I want you to know it was hard. It was so hard. But what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel."
I think of Kenneth Bae, who was the longest-serving American in a North Korean prison camp. And I remember Kenneth in my classroom. His English was not all that great. He was shy. He stayed in the back of the class. He did not contribute much.
When he graduated from seminary, he had trouble finding a place to minister. His marriage shattered.
It was so hard. He could not have dreamed that by his continuation in prayer for the people of North Korea that he would be imprisoned for the cause of Christ and that the focus of the entire world at some point would be, "Why is this man in prison and what does he stand for?" And then Kenneth could write about it, "I want my book to tell people that God is faithful. It was so hard.
But I trusted God. And the gospel advanced far beyond what he, you, or I could have ever anticipated. It is what we pray, what I pray for you, friends, family of God. I know some of you are going through misery right now. My prayer for you is that you could say, "It is so hard. But I trust God." And through that testimony, you will look back and say, "I want you to know what happened to me, served to advance the gospel." Stand strong. Let nothing move you. Always be
abounding in the work of the gospel because your labor is not in vain. This is the promise of God.
This is the gospel we hold. Father, teach us the old old story that what the world intends for evil does not have the final say. But a God of all providence whose gospel is more powerful than the hardest hearts. Breaking hearts as a hammer can break a rock in pieces. So is this gospel you have committed to us. As we are true to it, use your people for the salvation of many.
Knit our own hearts and heal them by the knowledge that you are yet faithful in the hard things. That this message that we proclaim would be hope to friends and family and neighbor.
Teach it again. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who loves sinners like us, that we may become those of his purpose forever. So use us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.