Philippians Sermon Notes Week 2

Outline

Intro/Welcome

Glasses: The lenses we look through matter

Golf: new opportunities emerge

How could Paul be so joyful in his situation?

Our deepest need has already been met in Jesus, living in light of taht

2. Phil 1:12

I want you to know - The relationship/partnership with the Philippians

That what has happened to me - Paul’s sufferings over the years (Acts 21-28)

Most likely he included all the events from his imprisonment at Jerusalem through his imprisonment at Rome. These were the riot, the two-year imprisonment at Caesarea, the appeal to Caesar, the threat on his life, the trip to Rome with its shipwreck, his house-arrest and restricted freedom, and the impending trial. However, the focus is on the Roman events. As Paul described them, he spoke in terms of the effect on the soldiers and the Roman church. (NAC)

Has actually - the surprise, contrast, the reason

served to advance the gospel - Paul rejoices b/c the gospel is advancing (Acts 20:24)

Not in his circumstance but the gospel (draw out contrast)

To ask Paul how he’s doing is to ask how the Gospel is doing.

Paul’s life was about the gospel.

What’s yours about? — What lens are you looking through? (a mirror or a window)

Why is this happening to ME?

vs. “Why IS this happening to me?”

I am in Christ

Because I am IN CHRIST

I am in prison for Christ

"I am not a prisoner of Rome” rather “I am a prisoner of Christ” (for Christ and his purposes”

but you see we are prisoners either way, either of the world and sin or of Christ and his kingdom.

3. Paul’s Passion (Phil 1:13-14)

How do we grow in this?

Get inspired.

Who around you is infectious? You want to be more like them?

Paul is an example — be in the word

Look at this life

Paul proclaimed Christ through everything.

Paul and the Imperial Guard — The Gospel Advances

The Result:

The Other Brothers are emboldened - The Gospel Advances

Opponents of Paul — maddening

You can’t stop the gospel, you try to suppress it and it only gets expressed further

Where did Paul get his passion?

He was a great sinner, but knew a great savior

Paul met the risen Christ.

Why don’t we live this way?

Suffering has a way of revealing out motives — our passion.

rivalry & envy — selfish motives

guard against this

God’s only called you to be who you were made to be

only God can tell you who you are.

how do we grow in our passion for the gospel?

Experiencing Grace

Confession and forgivness

I am a great sinner, Christ is a great savior.

What needs to be confessed?

vain facebooking

pornography

Can’t gather physically, but we can gather spiritually.

Share the gospel

Share Christ in your life

How can the present circumstances be an opportunity to advance the gospel?

The lens

Church — online

Easter, 10 million viewers, 70,000 new professions of faith

How can your present circumstances advance the gospel?

Share a post — 150 people 150 friends = 22,500 people, (500) 75,000 people

Church Online Platform: 70,000 all over the world. people said yes to Jesus.

During easter Week - from 3,000 to 23,000 churches

10 million signed on

Application Questions:

Where is Christ in your life?

because he is there

Where is Christ in your circumstance?

Because he is in them.

How are you (how can you) proclaim Christ in your life?

seeing that this is God’s plan

That God is sovereign over this

That only he can turn evil for good. (Gen 50:20, Romans 8:28)

Are you proclaiming Christ in your life, wherever God has you? (to yourself, and others)

How has suffering (or failure) revealed your motives?

Are you living in the freedom of Christ? (how can you get there?)

4. Source of JOY

The reason for this remarkable attitude was that the advancement of the gospel was his primary goal in life. As a result, if his own adversity was the occasion through which the gospel could gain a wider hearing, then Paul could face that adversity with equanimity. If, in our own circumstances, we lack this kind of joy, then perhaps we should search our souls to be sure that our happiness is not more firmly connected to our physical and emotional comfort than to the goals of the gospel. (NAC)

When you tell your story? — Where is Christ.

When you answer how are you? — Where is Christ?

When you struggle? — Where is Christ?

When you rejoice? — Where is Christ?

What is Christ doing in me in this time?

What does Christ want to do in me in this time?

How can I proclaim his goodness in the midst of this?

Perhaps, it is precisely because you are suffering that God can be more glorified

Big Idea

The show must go on

The gospel cannot be hindered

Christ proclaimed prevails

The unbound gospel.

Philippians 1:12 ESV

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

Philippians 1:12 CSB

12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel,

Philippians 1:12 UBS4 Int.

12 Γινώσκειν δὲ ὑμᾶς βούλομαι, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι τὰ κατʼ ἐμὲ μᾶλλον εἰς προκοπὴν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου ἐλήλυθεν,

The New American Commentary: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon Reactions to Paul’s Imprisonment (1:13–17)

Paul, therefore, saw the events as forging new territory for the gospel. They took Paul into contact with a select group of people, soldiers and Roman officials, who otherwise would have had no relationship to him, and they also prompted a renewed evangelistic effort in the city.

Church Online Platform: 70,000 all over the world. people said yes to Jesus.

During easter Week - from 3,000 to 23,000 churches

10 million signed on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iatfxa6r2_U&lc=UgylrmbIkPTmAt4g5el4AaABAg&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86613348&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--6eujf7LrFW5bma1Fh417VXIM3zy3rP8aqZEdlxO8Fp_RbMHq41uvVoJOsIc95SfuiWbV3YskQ_b1Bq5c6jqE3RqYkpg&_hsmi=86613348

Contrast Language

What has happened to me (my circumstances)

rather than hindering the gospel it has helped it

rather than atrophying the advance of the gospel it has actually advanced it

rather than stopping the gospel it has accelerated it

rather than preventing the spread of the gospel it is actually progressing it

The inspiration here is that God really is sovereign and he acts in ways we cannot imagine.

He gets the gospel into places and ways we never could have thought

It means we can stop and ask not

Why is this happening to ME?

But rather, “How can the gospel be advanced through this?

or “What is God up to?

Or “Why IS this happening to me?”

What is God’s design, his plan in this?

All Paul cares about is that the Gospel goes forth

no matter the circumstance, barrier, hindrance or obstacle.

Can the gospel progress in spite of my current situation?

But it God’s world, it is his plan to use exactly the situation to further the gospel in ways you never imagined.

ILL: for us right now that’s the Digital Church and Digital Discipleship.

How is God using this? How might God want to use this?

Since he is sovereign, and since he is Good.

The Message of Philippians 2. The Present

Paul perceives that God turns events to advance the gospel, and he himself makes his daily decisions according to what he sees will best and most proclaim Christ.

What the world intended for evil, God turned for good

The Message of Philippians 2. The Explanation of the Fruitfulness

He did not see his suffering as an act of divine forgetfulness (‘Why did God let this happen to me?’), nor as a dismissal from service (‘I was looking forward to years of usefulness, and look at me!’), nor as the work of Satan (‘I am afraid the devil has had his way this time’), but as the place of duty, the setting for service, the task appointed.

What are you in prison for?

What

Because I am IN CHRIST

I am in prison for Christ

"I am not a prisoner of Rome” rather “I am a prisoner of Christ” (for Christ and his purposes”

but you see we are prisoners either way, either of the world and sin or of Christ and his kingdom.

Christ’s Purposes Prevail:

Advancement 1: The whole imperial guard has heard the gospel.

Advancement 2: the brothers are now preaching the gospel more boldly

Advancement 3: The Gospel is preached even by those with false motives

Christ is proclaimed.

Questions:

Where is Christ in your life?

because he is there

Where is Christ in your circumstance?

Because he is in them.

How are you (how can you) proclaim Christ in your life?

seeing that this is God’s plan

That God is sovereign over this

That only he can turn evil for good. (Gen 50:20, Romans 8:28)

Humility

Paul has joy because Paul is not primarily concerned with himself.

Paul rejoiced becuase that which is most important to him continues — proclaiming Christ

Paul is not concerned with himself, but rather is concerned with the progress of the gospel.

The NIV Application Commentary: Philippians Bridging Contexts

Instead of reporting how he was doing, Paul talks about how the gospel is doing

The NIV Application Commentary: Philippians Bridging Contexts

To the question how it is with him the apostle must react with information as to how it is with the Gospel.

The NIV Application Commentary: Philippians Bridging Contexts

What matters most is whether or not the gospel is going forward. If it is, then we should rejoice.

Application:

Where is Christ in your life?

Sharing christ in your story (instagram, facebook)

Share about out service.

150 people watching

each of those have 150 friends

If everyone shared on their timeline that would be 22,500 people reached.

Preaching Feedback

Two groups of people

Those who do care about the advancement of the gospel

Those who do not really care about the AOG

We are partners in the gospel b/c we are partakers of the gospel.

What kind of life is Paul living that he can rejoice in this?

He cares only about the gospel?

How did this happen to him?

What is going on in my heart that I don’t care about the gospel?

what’s happened?

plays into the false motives if you get it backward — partners but not partakers

John’s story of blizzard.

NAC

All these things

The New American Commentary: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon Reactions to Paul’s Imprisonment (1:13–17)

Paul did not specifically mention his imprisonment. The Greek text says simply “the things to me” (ta kat’ eme). Most likely he included all the events from his imprisonment at Jerusalem through his imprisonment at Rome. These were the riot, the two-year imprisonment at Caesarea, the appeal to Caesar, the threat on his life, the trip to Rome with its shipwreck, his house-arrest and restricted freedom, and the impending trial. However, the focus is on the Roman events. As Paul described them, he spoke in terms of the effect on the soldiers and the Roman church.

Acts 21:27-28 (last 1/4 of the Book)

A Prisoner of Christ

In this undesirable situation, the gospel spread through the ranks of the soldiers. Basically, Paul said that they knew he was a prisoner of Christ, not just of Rome

or “that I was a prisoner of Christ.” Since Paul lived for the gospel, perhaps he stated that he was not guilty of any charge brought against him and that the soldiers knew he could be released except for his commitment to Christ. In the truest sense, he was a prisoner of Christ

New Territory for the Gospel

the idea here is that b/c of God’s plan that Gospel was now progressing in places previously unimaginable, into Caesar's high guard.

This is how God works

This is Paul’s perspective

Opponents:

Message, Method and Motive

First two seem to be ok, it is the last that he takes issue with

But only God can deal with the motive.

Thoughts:

Contrary to expectations Paul’s imprisonment has actually advanced the Gospel.

The gospel cannot be stopped.

The power of the gospel in Paul’s life

b/c he is sold out for Christ. To live is Christ, because Christ lives in him.

What has become known?

That Paul is in prison b/c of his testimony and life for Jesus

“CSB” I am in Christ

The Result:

The brothers have become confident in their proclamation of the gospel.

leading by example.

A distinction:

Preachers

some out of selfish motives

others out of true motives

For Paul, Christ is being preached either way

Praise God for that!

What does this mean for us?

How is God asking you to preach the gospel whatever situation you find yourself in?

in words and actions

Paul is in prison but is rejoicing

The brothers see this and are emboldened

Good leadership

Like seeing courage in a battle, rallies others to the cause

Two Types of Motives

False Motives (pretense)

Selfish ambition - to be the center of attention — this is bad

To make their name great, greater than Pauls.

competition — want to afflict Paul

This is silly, we are not in competition with other churches

I am not in competition with other Preachers (good word for me)

especially in this digital age where so much is available.

Self protection — out of fear, this is also selfish —

Neither is “to live is Christ”

Jesus had a God-centered ambition — to make his name great

Jesus didn’t self protect, but rather opened himself up to harm

True Motives

love of Christ

Holy Spirit filling, compulsive evangelism.

Suffering reveals our heart motives

Paul is rejoicing — b/c his motives are Christ centered

so even if some are trying to be better than him, he does not care

because Christ is being proclaimed.

What freedom there is in this.

Furthermore, the Paul is still proclaiming Christ right where he is.

Application

Are you proclaiming Christ in your life, wherever God has you? (to yourself, and others)

How has suffering (or failure) revealed your motives?

Are you living in the freedom of Christ? (how can you get there?)

4. Source of JOY

The NIV Application Commentary: Philippians Contemporary Significance

The reason for this remarkable attitude was that the advancement of the gospel was his primary goal in life. As a result, if his own adversity was the occasion through which the gospel could gain a wider hearing, then Paul could face that adversity with equanimity. If, in our own circumstances, we lack this kind of joy, then perhaps we should search our souls to be sure that our happiness is not more firmly connected to our physical and emotional comfort than to the goals of the gospel.