BLAZING THE GOSPEL TRAIL

Introduction

-{Philippians 1}

-There is a story from the 1980’s about a Congregational pastor named Hristo Kulichev in Bulgaria which was under communist rule at the time. On January 9, 1985, Kulichev was arrested because he was preaching without a license (we might say). He was not a government approved or appointed man to conduct religious services. But he didn’t care, because he knew the Savior and he knew the saving power of the gospel, and he knew that the message had to go forth. The communist government didn’t like that, so they threw him in prison for 8 months.

~But prison didn’t stop him from his great calling. During his time in prison he made Christ known in every way that he could. When Kulichev got our of prison, this is what he wrote: “Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church. God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free.”

-Pastor Hristo Kulichev knew that no matter where he was or what was going on in his life, the gospel message needed to go forth. Wherever he went, he blazed a trail for the message of Christ crucified and risen. And in the passage that we read today, Paul finds himself in a very similar situation. Paul is in prison, but his circumstances did not hinder the gospel from progressing. Paul continued to blaze the trail.

-And now we 21st century Christians need a sense of the calling to follow the legacy of Paul by continuing to blaze the trail for the gospel so that the saving message of Jesus reaches the ears and hearts of those around us. May we join Kulichev and Paul and others with the burden to blaze the gospel trail.

Philippians 1:12–18 (ESV)

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,

13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

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.

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice...

-{pray}

-At the time Paul was writing this letter, he was imprisoned in Rome awaiting his appeal to Caesar. While he technically was under a form of house arrest (as Acts tells us he had to pay rent for a house), he was still literally in chains as he was most likely chained to a Roman soldier day in and day out. But this was no short stay for Paul, as most experts believe he was in chains in Rome for around two years—and this was after being imprisoned in Caesarea for around two years.

-Can you imagine being in that situation? What would be the thoughts that you would obsess over during those circumstances? The injustice of it all? How unfair it is? Would you question your life and your faith and everything? Well, what did Paul do during this time? He blazed the trail for the gospel. And I want us to come to some realizations that Paul had so we can take on the same mindset he had that helped him blaze the trail so we too can blaze the trail. The first realization is that Paul had:

1) A singular focus of mind and heart

-After giving thanks for the Philippian church and telling them his prayers for them, Paul gives them an update on his circumstances—he’s still in prison. But Paul doesn’t start this letter wallowing in self-pity which would seem to be the normal human reaction. Paul doesn’t say: YEP, I’M STILL HERE. THIS STINKS! or anything like that. In fact, Paul doesn’t really focus in at all on what’s going on in his life. What is the comment that he begins with? LET ME TELL YOU THAT THE GOSPEL IS STILL ADVANCING!

-This is where Paul’s mind is—what is going on with the message of the risen Savior. He didn’t comment on his conditions. He didn’t comment on his emotional fragility. He didn’t rail against the system. He didn’t comment on the politics of it all. All Paul cared about (all Paul focused on) was whether the gospel was being helped or hindered.

-Paul’s first comment after thanksgiving and prayer is: HEY! GUESS WHAT? THIS WHOLE IMPRISONMENT THING? IT’S ACTUALLY HELPED THE CAUSE OF THE GOSPEL! The filter through which Paul processed everything was how did it affect the progress of the gospel—that was the singular focus of his mind and heart.

-And even at the end of the passage that we read, Paul is like I DON’T CARE HOW THE GOSPEL MESSAGE IS GETTING OUT THERE, I JUST REJOICE THAT IT IS. That is all Paul cared about. And my question to myself and to you is, does this even cross our radar? Do we even think in these terms? Do we even think about how something might help or hinder the gospel message getting out there? Do we even care?

-This is so foreign to us. Paul’s main concern wasn’t being chained up for years on end or having anxiety over how his case was going to end up. And he didn’t want the Philippian church to be anxious about these things either. Paul’s telling them: LOOK, I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON, SO YOU DON’T NEED TO BE WORRIED ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON! LET’S CONCENTRATE ON THE GOSPEL!

-To use some modern slang, we could say that Paul was always in the zone. We say that someone is in the zone when they are completely concentrating on the task at hand. We often say this of sports players. If a football player is playing his position exceptionally well and getting the job done, we say that HE’S IN THE ZONE—he’s doing what he’s called to do and isn’t letting anything on the outside distract him that would cause him to fail at his task.

-Paul was in the zone and is calling all Christians to join him in being in the zone. Look, you and I may wear a lot of hats in our lives related to family and jobs and schools and church and society. But whatever titles or positions you or I hold, you and I are first and foremost Christians, and that means the call of Christ on our lives trumps all others. That means what is most important to Christ is most important to us. Yes we have duties and responsibilities, but we can’t let that get us out of the zone. Even in the midst of fulfilling our earthly duties, we can still be in the zone with the thought of how the gospel can advance in the midst of what we’re doing. How can the gospel advance in the midst of where I’m at and what I’m doing?

-This was Paul’s focus of mind and heart. Yes, he was in prison, but his concern was for how the gospel was advancing in the midst of where he was and what he was doing. May we realign our thinking to do the same. Another realization that will help us blaze a trail for the gospel is to join Paul in his:

2) A sense of God’s sovereignty over circumstances

-With Paul saying in v. 12 that what happened to him really served to advance the gospel, Paul wasn’t just kind of resigning himself to where he was at—he wasn’t leaving it up to fate. He wasn’t just trying to make the best of a bad deal or finding a silver lining in his circumstances. Paul had the thought that God had put him there for the express purpose of advancing the gospel.

-Paul says in v. 16 (of the ESV and more modern translations) that those who support him know that he was put where he was for the purpose of the gospel—to defend it, to proclaim it, to share it. The word that is used there means that something is appointed for a specific purpose. Paul truly believed that it wasn’t just dumb luck that got him to where he was, but God sovereignly controlled his life to put him in this place so that the gospel would have its effect. And since God had him there, he was going to be obedient and faithful and advance the gospel.

-We like to talk about God’s sovereignty when things are going good, but not so much when things are going bad. But we have to be consistent in saying that at minimum whatever is going on in our lives God allows. We might not like to say that God brought me to this particular situation, but we have to admit that God is in control of our situation. God doesn’t cause sin, but he allows sin for a time waiting for people to repent. God at minimum allows the bad circumstances in our life, but He has all power and authority over those circumstances, and can use you in those circumstances to advance the gospel message. And that might be why you are where you are.

-Paul recognized that’s why he was where he was at—God put him there for the defense of the gospel. And Paul, with his focus on gospel advancement, took advantage of his adverse circumstances and advanced the gospel. And Paul gives a testimony how by God sovereignly appointing him to be in this situation of imprisonment, that God has done some neat things with the gospel.

-First, Paul talks about how the gospel message was heard and believed upon by unbelievers. In v. 13 Paul says that the whole imperial guard and anybody and everybody else he came into contact with knew that he was imprisoned for the cause of Christ. Think about this, 24 hours a day Paul was chained to an imperial guard. Do you think someone like Paul, with the singleness of mind and heart for the gospel, is going to let that opportunity pass? The guard thought that Paul was chained to him so that Paul couldn’t get away, when in reality the guard was chained to Paul so the guard couldn’t get away. You better believe Paul was going to talk the guys ear off about Jesus. That’s like a pastor’s dream—an audience that can’t get away so they have to listen to the gospel.

-Paul says that not just the imperial guard knew he was there for the gospel, but everybody else as well. This includes other people who worked in the Roman government, it included people who worked in the imperial palace—and the Bible tells us that many people within the imperial circle believed in Christ. Acts 28 tells us that when Paul first got to Rome, the Jews in the city came to see Paul to see why he was there. And it says that Paul testified to the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. And then it says that some were convinced and others weren’t. So Paul saw people come to Christ among the Jews and the Gentiles. Paul testifies that God sovereignly put him in this imprisonment in Rome so that the gospel would bring unbelievers to Christ.

-But there was another effect of the gospel advancement in his imprisonment. Paul says in v. 14 that the believers in Rome became more confident in the Lord because of Paul’s imprisonment so they started sharing the gospel more boldly than they had before. The church in Rome had been planted by another, but they knew of Paul and had received a letter from Paul (the epistle to the Romans), so they knew he was an apostle.

-And it could have been easy for them to just kind of turn their backs on Paul since they hadn’t really known him and he was imprisoned. They could easily have thought that they didn’t want to stir the waters so they’d end up in prison too. But they saw how Paul was sharing the gospel in the midst of his circumstances, and they thought if Paul can share the gospel in prison, we can sure share the gospel outside of prison and leave the results to God.

-When we take the mindset that God is sovereign where I’m at, and do what we can to advance the gospel, we’ll see that God had us where He wanted us the entire time. It’s when we dismiss God’s sovereignty in our circumstances that the gospel is stymied. When all we can do is play the victim, focused in on ourselves and what’s happening to us, and how unfair it is, and these people did that to me, that the gospel is of no effect.

-Think about where God has you in your life right now, the good and the bad. And now think of how God could sovereignly use you to let unbelievers know about Jesus and how you can be an encouragement to believers to share the word of God boldly without fear. Look, bad things might be happening. But consider Paul, he was literally the victim of a conspiracy. But all he knew is that God sovereignly had him there, so he was going to advance the gospel. May we think that same way. And one last realization that we need because Paul realized this—he knew that he had:

3) A Scripture that is greater than any motivation

-Paul says that his imprisonment emboldened the believers in Rome to share the gospel, but not everybody was sharing the gospel from pure motives. Yes, there were those who were preaching the gospel with the right heart, knowing that is was obedience to Christ, and we could say they were doing it in honor of Paul (Paul says they were doing it from good will).

-You think of maybe a high school football team whose star quarterback got injured and is out the rest of the season. So, the rest of the team says LET’S GO OUT THERE AND WIN IT FOR JIMMY!

-Well, the church is like LET’S GET OUT THERE AND PREACH CHRIST IN HONOR OF PAUL. Paul says these people are doing it out of love—love for Jesus and love for Paul. Knowing Paul was somewhat limited, they chose to go to the places where Paul couldn’t in order for the gospel to advance—they blazed their own trail for the gospel.

-But then there were these other people. Paul says in v. 15 that there were those in the church at Rome who preached Christ out of envy and rivalry. In v. 17 he says that they proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely by sort of wanting to heap more affliction on Paul—they wanted to kick Paul while he was down. For whatever reason, these people set themselves up as rivals of Paul’s, and thought they could take advantage of his imprisonment for their own gain.

-But we learn something about them from Paul’s description—these were not false teachers because Paul says that they were proclaiming the true Christ, sharing the true gospel. If they were false teachers preaching a false gospel, Paul would have shut them down real quick. Think of the warning Paul gave the Galatians—if anyone is preaching a gospel that’s different from what he preached, let them be accursed. But Paul doesn’t say that here. Paul acknowledged that they are proclaiming Christ.

-So, there were people who were proclaiming Christ but did so with wrong motives. They weren’t sharing the gospel so that it advanced, they shared the gospel so that they could harm Paul in some way. Paul says that they’re doing it out of envy and rivalry. They were jealous of Paul because Paul got all this attention from all these churches, and they wanted to take that attention away from him and put it on themselves. They thought that they could preach the gospel and somehow detract from Paul’s ministry and make their ministry bigger.

-Maybe to put a 21st century twist to it, it’d be like a pastor of a church that runs about 100 being jealous of a megachurch pastor whose church has 2000 every Sunday. Out of jealousy, the smaller church pastor will do whatever he can to disparage the larger church and if there’s any little hint of a problem at the larger church, he swoops right in to give his opinion to try and tear that church apart thinking maybe that he can siphon some of the people his way. The smaller church pastor is still preaching the gospel, but he’s more concerned about making himself look good and feel good rather than a true concern that the gospel advances.

-That’s where these people are at. They are jealous of what Paul has accomplished and think they can throw salt on his wounds, and by doing so somehow think that they can advance their own selfish ambitions. Their motives are completely skewed.

-So what’s Paul’s reaction to this? He isn’t hurt by it in the least. In fact, in v. 18 Paul says that he’s just rejoicing that the gospel message is getting out there. It doesn’t matter if someone’s motives are true or pretentious, the gospel is getting out there, people are hearing about Jesus, and that’s all that matters. Paul is indicating to us that the Scripture containing the gospel message is bigger than any one person’s motives. Just because the Word of God goes forth out of the mouth of someone whose motives are a bit nefarious doesn’t somehow nullify the power of the gospel or the Word of God.

-When Scripture says that God’s Word won’t return to Him void, the motives behind the mouthpiece of that Word doesn’t change the power of the Word itself. Paul didn’t care what the reason was for someone preaching the gospel—he was just glad the gospel was being preached.

-We can’t read other people’s hearts, so we need to be slow to make a judgment about why someone is doing what they’re doing. If someone is teaching a true gospel message about the true Christ, then let’s rejoice that the gospel is going forth. That was what was most important for Paul, and that’s the most important need for this world.

Conclusion

-There were two Christian converts from Islam who met one another at a conference in Turkey, became friends, and committed their lives to reaching the lost by canvassing the streets of Tehran, Iran. For three years, they sought gospel opportunities and spread New Testaments throughout the city with accurate modern translations of the New Testament in Farsi to supplant the Islamic version allowed in the public shops, which had been rewritten to support the Koran.

~The government-approved Christian writings in Tehran leave readers with the impression that Jesus was nothing more than a prophet. Such lies had to be subverted, and these courageous women set out to combat the lie by trafficking bulk Bibles — once transporting three thousand copies into the city in one vanload under the cover of night. On foot, the women carried several copies of the New Testament in backpacks to hand out every chance they got. They boldly shared the gospel of Jesus Christ in one of the most foreboding Muslim cities on earth, and in three years the distributed 20,000 copies of the real New Testament.

-These ladies blazed the trail for the gospel, oh that we would do the same in Alabama and around the world.

-Christian, come to the altar and pray that God would change your heart and the heart of His church so we have the singular focus of mind for the gospel. Maybe your circumstances are distracting you, so maybe you want to come and pray that God would open your eyes to how the gospel can advance in the midst of your circumstances.

-But maybe you yourself have never accepted the gospel message—Jesus died to pay for your sins and offers you complete forgiveness...