Rejoice Christ is Preached

To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

This morning we are continuing our series through the letter to the Philippians. In our first couple of weeks we looked at the introduction to this letter and Paul expressing his fondness for the people of the church in Philippi and telling them of his prayer for them.

Last week we started into the body of this letter where Paul is giving his readers some insight as to what has been happening to him while he is in prison. He says that the news is spreading throughout the entire Roman guard that Paul is not an insurrectionist or a violent criminal, but that his crimes are for proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. This is the reason that he is in chains.

Paul then tells his readers that many of the Christians in Rome had started to share the word of God with others even more fearlessly because of Paul. We looked at how persecution has advanced and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, not only in the stories of Scripture, but in various places around the world still today. We saw that persecution has often served as a catalyst, spreading the message of Jesus Christ across borders, cultures, and generations.

This week, we are going to see Paul go into more detail about the different people who are preaching about Jesus. He will talk about two different groups and their motivations for speaking the word of God - some preaching for good reasons, and others for not so good reasons. In the end, Paul does not seem to care what the motivations are behind these preachers, or what harm may come to him because of them, as long as Christ is proclaimed.

Big Idea: As Christians, Jesus must be the focus of our lives.

Let’s dig in.

Philippians 1:15-17

Paul goes on to describe the two types of people that he knows are out proclaiming the gospel - those who “preach Christ out of envy and rivalry” and those who preach Christ “out of good will.”

In verse 16 he describes this latter group as preaching “out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.” They preached the word of God out of a love for Christ, and likely out of a love for the apostle as well, wanting to continue the work he had started. As I stated last week, I can hear them saying in their own minds, "If Paul is willing to be thrown in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, then so should I.”

Remember how we talked about how one person standing up for what is right can lead to a chain of events that makes a massive impact on history. So this group that Paul mentions is part of the ripple effect of the apostle’s imprisonment, spreading the gospel in spite of the dangers they know may come.

The other group that Paul mentions proclaimed Christ out of, what he called, selfish ambition. He even states that these “preachers” do so in an attempt to cause trouble for Paul while he is in prison. So we see that Paul has made enemies in his missionary journeys and likely also after being arrested and imprisoned in Rome.

Turn with me to John 15. I have said that when we proclaim the goodness of God, his mercy, his grace, his love, his justice, and all the rest, we will be hated by this world. Jesus told his disciples that they would be hated by the world, but that the world first hated him.

John 15:18-21

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.”

Jesus tells his disciples that the world hated him first. The only perfect, sinless human (because he was also fully God at the same time), was hated and killed by the world. Those who handed him over were the religious leaders of the Jews who were angry with Jesus because he told them their religious rituals and traditions were worthless in bringing them closer to God. But here in this passage of John’s gospel we see Jesus say that the world, as well as the Jewish religious leaders, hated him because they did not actually know God.

This is the same today. When people malign us and mistreat us because we have committed our lives to Jesus, it’s because they hate Jesus. They hate Jesus because they do not know God the Father. When we are hated and persecuted for our faith, our response should not be that of vitriol and hatred back at the world. Instead, our response should be prayer for those who attack us. Jesus tells us that very thing in the sermon on the mount when he said:

Matthew 5:43-44

“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

I seriously believe that Paul was praying for those men who were trying to cause him trouble while he was in prison, that their actions would cause them to actually cry out to Jesus for his saving grace and love to work in their hearts and minds.

From what we can see in our text here in Philippians 1 there are a couple of camps that these men who are preaching Christ out of selfishness and insincerity could possibly fall into.

The first camp would be those who were jealous of Paul. When it says in verse 15 that some of these men are preaching out of envy and rivalry, they could be mad that Paul has such a large following and that they do not. If you don’t think that this is a real problem within the church, you should hear how many of the conversations at pastors conferences start out. After asking your name and where you are from, you get asked how many people you have as members, how many people you average on a Sunday morning, or what percentage of your church regularly tithes. It's as if the number of weekly attenders you have in your church or how much they give is a measure of your importance as a pastor.

These men the apostle mentions could also see Paul preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and noticing the following he is getting because of it. So their preaching could be to try and gain followers for themselves while Paul is in prison, perhaps even trying to lure away some of Paul’s followers in the process.

Some of the people that could have had this motivation were the Jewish converts to Christianity who were trying to tell the Gentiles that they had to follow the Jewish laws in order to be part of the church. This was a group that you see Paul address and condemn multiple times throughout his many letters, including later on in this letter to the Philippians.

The other camp that these men could fall into is those who wanted Paul to suffer. Paul said that the men preaching from these false motives could be trying to cause trouble for Paul in his imprisonment. So the speculation from scholars is that these men could be even non-Christians who, knowing that the spread of Christianity was not what the Roman authorities wanted, making Jesus known even more could make the Romans want to be even more harsh with Paul while he is in custody.

These two theories are the leading choices when it comes to trying to understand what Paul means by people preaching out of envy and rivalry and with false motives. I think both of these fit well into the historical possibilities of the false motives people would have to proclaim Jesus as Paul was in prison.

There are still people today who will preach Christ out of false motives. With the advent of social media and the rise of online influencers making money from talking about certain subjects or products, those who claim Christ have started moving into that space as well, creating content in the form of pictures, videos, word posts, etc. in order to spread their message.

Remember two weeks ago, when we talked about knowledge and discernment, and Charles Spurgeon’s definition:

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather it is telling the difference between right and almost right.”

There are those who are spreading messages that are pretty right on. Others teach things that are almost right. I have seen many online businesses that are centered around helping Christians to be more fiscally responsible - people like Dave Ramsey. I may not agree with everything that Ramsey says, but I can tell you that he does not sugar coat anything about fiscal responsibility. He teaches what he sees as a Biblical way to handle money. He tells you that it will be difficult, you will have to make hard choices, you will have to delay the gratification of big purchases and major vacations, etc in order to get out of debt and work toward saving money for retirement. It really is a simple process, but it isn’t easy.

I have also seen online businesses that are centered around helping Christians “become wealthy so they can better help God spread his message of prosperity in this world.” These businesses offer a route to financial prosperity, and will either make it sound a lot easier than it actually is, or will twist how Scripture says we should deal with money and make this process sound really attractive so you will spend money on their program and fill their pockets. These types of businesses will bring in “pastors” to speak on their platforms or as part of their seminars who also teach of the need for Christians to be financially prosperous - wealthy - to expand the kingdom of God.

We can also see some false motives for preachers outside of the social media space. There are pastors who regularly teach at big name Christian conferences because they are known as faithful teachers of the Word of God. There are other pastors who are not satisfied with only preaching to their own congregation and want to make a name for themselves. They want the notoriety of these other pastors and to preach to these large groups at conferences, so their ministries can grow and so they can make more money. These are the types of pastors who try to say things that can go viral on social media in order to bring attention to themselves.

This is something that I have to be careful of for myself. When fantasy football was really exploding around 2015 and podcasts were coming out all the time, I tried to get into that space to make a name for myself. If someone else can do it, so can I. That was a horrible idea.

As a pastor who has considered converting a sermon series into a book, or turning a set of sermons through a book like Philippians into a commentary, I have to watch my own heart and motivations, asking God to help me work toward the advancement of his name, his Word, and his glory and not the advancement of my name, my words, and my glory. I would love to be a speaker at different conferences and to meet many of the pastors who have helped to teach me the truth if Scripture. But if that happens, I pray it would be because I am seen as a faithful teacher of the word of God, and not because I have tried to work or manipulate my way into it.

Next Step: I will let God judge the motivations of my heart.

When we do that, he can direct our hearts on the right path.

Philippians 1:18-19

What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

In spite of Paul’s enemies trying to cause trouble for him, or people trying to gain a following of their own, Paul cares more that Christ is proclaimed, and in that he says that he rejoiced. Paul considers the motives of these preachers to be insignificant. They could have been preaching to build their own fame or reputation. However, if they were preaching the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul rejoiced.

I do think that we need to make a very clear distinction here. Paul says that the only thing that matters is that Christ is proclaimed. I struggle to believe that Paul would say that those who are distorting the truth of the gospel do not matter because they are at least preaching Christ. Paul spends a lot of time in many of his letters trying to combat the false teachings of those who would manipulate the gospel to say what they want it to say.

I know people that have come to Christ through denominations, churches, or even special events like camp meetings where the theology of what was taught was shaky at best if not erroneous. And yet, God used the encounter to bring people to himself. God can use our fallible attempts at evangelizing others to expand his kingdom. That does not mean that we excuse the bad teaching of others. We who are in Christ are to proclaim the truth of who he is as best as we can with the knowledge that we have.

Paul is affirming that the truth of Christ needs to be proclaimed. For Paul, if someone tells others about the truth of Christ because they know the spread of the gospel within the Roman territories will make Paul suffer even more in prison - that is what Paul rejoiced in. If someone preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to gain followers for themselves, but actually are teaching the truth of Christ, that is what Paul rejoiced in.

Paul would not lift up another church or group saying it doesn’t matter what they are doing as long as they preach Christ if the things they are teaching about Christ are not the truth.

He then affirms his willingness to rejoice in Christ being preached because he believed it would lead to his “salvation”. There are a couple different ways that we can look at what this salvation means. The word soteria, though mostly used in reference to our salvation from sin - often seen as being allowed into heaven after we die because we have asked Jesus to forgive us of our sins - it can also refer to deliverance from bondage in a physical sense, like being released from prison. Even in that sense though, the word soteria still has that same meaning. Paul discusses in his letter to the Romans about how we are in bondage to sin, we are slaves to sin. In Romans 7 he asks the question, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

So I think there are two ways to look at this salvation that Paul is talking about. It could mean that Paul believes that the preaching of the gospel will turn the hearts of those in authority in a way that will move them to releasing Paul from prison - a salvation from the human bondage of prison. It could also mean that Paul believes that the preaching of the gospel will further harden the hearts of the Roman authorities, moving them to execute Paul - a salvation from the bondage of a sinful body, now free from that sin and with Christ his savior.

We will see in the coming weeks that the first of these two options seems to be Paul’s belief about his “salvation” in this particular passage. Either way, he knows that his release will come about through the intercessory prayers of the saints and the work of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

This is not some odd way of saying that the “ghost of Jesus” is going to help Paul. He is referring specifically to the Holy Spirit. By calling the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Jesus Christ” Paul is pointing to what Christ told his disciples. When Jesus was having his last supper with those 12 men whom he had chosen, he told them that when he left, he would send the promised Holy Spirit. Christ today is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. It is the Holy Spirit that we see working on our hearts and minds to will and to act according to the good purposes of God.

So through the people of Christ asking God to move on behalf of Paul while he is in prison, and the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of men to do the will of God, Paul says that he will have “salvation” from his current troubles.

The final thing that I think we need to see this morning is how our series title starts to come through in this passage. I have titled this study in Philippians as “Joy through Humility.” How can we learn to have joy by being humble?

Humility

“a modest or low view of one's own importance”

In our passage today, Paul regards his own life as less important than the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says that even if the preaching of others led to more trouble for him in prison, it did not matter. What was most important was that Christ was preached.

When we regard ourselves as less important than the word of Christ being proclaimed, our joy is not found in ourselves or in our circumstances. During Advent I shared this definition of joy from John Piper:

“Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.”

That is what Paul is feeling here! He is seeing the word of God go forth to change the hearts and minds of people. He is regarding that as the ultimate goal of his life. Because he sees his own life as less important than the preaching of the gospel, his joy is not in himself but in the proclamation of the truth of Jesus Christ. As we saw in learning about discernment, he is choosing greater over good! While it would be good for him if he was released, it is even greater that Christ is preached to the nations. And yet, Paul can still take joy in his own life knowing that what he is doing and suffering is advancing the kingdom of God.

Next Step: I will ask God to help me see his glory as more important than my own.

I have to ask this of God on a daily basis. My ego loves to feel important. I have the bad habit of thinking of myself, or my thoughts and ideas as better than those around me. I am a sinful man who constantly needs to be reminded of the greatness of the glory of God, that I might see the littleness of myself in comparison. My joy, your joy, they must be found in seeing God glorified, lifting him up above ourselves. then we can find joy in our own lives, knowing we are taking part in showing the glory of God to those around us.

Today, if you have not had joy in your life, you can find it in Christ. If you have struggled to see the larger purpose for your life, you can have confidence that your life is pointing toward something greater than yourself. If living for yourself has always left you feeling empty, you can have a fullness in your life that you have never experienced before. If you have never submitted your life to Christ, today is the best day to do so.

Next Step: I will submit my life to Christ.

If that is you today, the elders and I are available to you, to talk with you, pray with you, and to encourage you on this path of following after Christ. There is no better thing we can do with our lives than to submit our lives to Jesus. Only in him can true joy be found.

Let us pray.

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.