Philippians 1:12-18 - The Happiest Outlaws

Introduction

A number of years ago Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described how medical schools in Canada were no longer accepting pro-life students into their programs. If a prospective student is not willing to perform abortions once they become a doctor, they will not be admitted. Dr. Mohler went on to say that this kind of discrimination will have the effect of shutting off whole career paths from Christians, limiting their income and their lives in significant ways. He summed up by saying that “The greatest challenge for evangelical Christians in the coming years will be to find out if we can remain faithful when we can no longer remain middle class”.

He made that statement about four years ago—and no one could have foreseen just how quickly our culture would have shifted since then. I would argue that the consequences for faithful Christians is now moving beyond a matter of economic impact—the development of legal attacks on Christians in this country (bakers and florists being sued for refusing to celebrate same-sex mirage, for instance) as well as the spectacle this past year of tyrannical governors threatening to jail pastors for conducting worship according to God’s Word (as we saw in California) means that we may very well be coming into a time in this country where the challenge for evangelical Christians will be to find out if we can remain faithful Christians when we can no longer remain law-abiding citizens.

Even if things don’t deteriorate in our country to the point where we may be facing jail time and a criminal record for being a Christian, we are unquestionably living in a time when there will be greater costs for faithfulness to Christ. So what will ministry look like in 2021 and beyond? How shall we prepare ourselves for the days ahead?

There is no better place to look for the answers to those questions than in the life of the Apostle Paul. He knew better than anyone else what it meant to live contra mundi—to live “against the world” in his faithfulness to Christ and to his call to proclaim the Gospel. It is no coincidence that the “Epistle of Joy” to the Philippians was written while Paul was in prison, and written to a church that began because he had been falsely arrested and imprisoned! But in spite of his circumstances, Paul was the happiest prisoner in Rome, because he put the glory of God in the Gospel first in his life.

So as we see what Paul writes about the Gospel here in these verses this morning, my aim is to show you that

Our JOY during trials is rooted in the GLORY of God in the GOSPEL of CHRIST

As we will see later in the letter, Paul says that he has learned the secret of being content in every circumstance—whether he was chained up in prison or living freely. Here in these verses we see the foundation for that contentment and joy. There are two ways that the glory of God in the Gospel gave Paul a joy that could not be shaken by opposition, unjust imprisonment or hardship. And if we are going to face the trials ahead for the church in our society in the coming days—not only face them but minister in them—then we need to follow Paul’s example. First, our joy during trials is rooted in the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ when

I. We make the Gospel our PRIORITY (Philippians 1:12-14)

Look at verse 12 with me:

Philippians 1:12 ESV

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

Right here in the first verse of our passage we see Paul’s priority, don’t we? Advancing the Gospel. Paul’s joy during trials was rooted in the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ because he saw that

The Gospel will always ADVANCE (Philippians 1:12)

No matter what happened to Paul, he knew that the Gospel would always go forward—nothing that happened to him would hinder the growth of the Kingdom, and so Paul could rejoice in whatever circumstance he was under.

This becomes clear when we start to unpack what he means by the phrase “what has happened to me”. We already know from our study last week that the Philippian church came into existence because of Paul’s unjust imprisonment (Acts 16:19-24)—the jailer who kept Paul under guard was one of the first members of the church!

But as you follow Paul’s life after he left Philippi, you see that he went on to preach Christ and get chased out of town by rioters in Thessalonica who then tracked him and chased him out of Berea (Acts 17:1-15). From there he landed in Athens, where he preached Christ in the Areopagus, and went on from there to preach Christ in Corinth and Ephesus (suffering attacks and riots in both places), and then on to Jerusalem where he was arrested in the Temple (after preaching Christ) and bound over to the Roman governors where he spent two years in custody in Caesarea (preaching Christ to them every chance he got) (Acts 21-26). From there he appealed to Caesar, and was put on a ship for Rome, which promptly sank out from under him, leaving him stranded on Malta (Acts 28:1-10) where he—you guessed it—preached Christ! He finally arrives in Rome where he sat under house arrest with the Imperial Guard (Philippians 1:13), who he preached Christ to every day!

What was Paul’s focus during all of this? Did he complain about the unfair treatment he was receiving at the hands of the various government officials who ruled against him or upheld baseless charges against him? Did he fuss over the raw deal he got from the governors, or grumble about being shipwrecked or having his liberties taken away? No—everywhere he went, he had only one focus—to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ! And everywhere he went, the Gospel advanced!

Christian, are you worried as you look at the days ahead that there will be fewer opportunities to make Christ known, that it will be harder to point people to the Gospel? Look at Paul—it didn’t matter whether he was preaching on the street or chained to a wall or shivering on a beach after a shipwreck or arguing with Ananias in front of the Roman governor—every circumstance he was in was a chance to make Jesus Christ known! And he could do it because he knew that no matter what, the Gospel would advance!

Verse 13 is a perfect example:

Philippians 1:13 ESV

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

The Gospel will always advance—no matter where it goes out

The Gospel will always be HEARD (Philippians 1:13)

The Greek word translated “imperial guard” here is the Greek word Praetorion. The Praetorian Guard in Rome numbered about nine thousand soldiers—and every one of them knew why Paul was there!

Now, think about that for a moment, because one of the characteristics of government persecution is that they will never publicly state the real reason for imprisoning a Christian. There will always be a “cover story” that will be used as justification for taking away your rights. The official charges against Paul were that he was stirring up civil unrest in Jerusalem and around the Roman Empire (cp. Acts 24:5-6), and that would have been the way Paul’s case was introduced to the Praetorian Guard.

And like any corrections officer, the Praetorians would have heard every excuse in the book for why a prisoner was innocent, or unjustly charged, or a victim of the state, or whatever of a hundred different reasons an inmate gives for why he doesn’t belong here.

But in this case, they believed the prisoner! Paul’s guards knew the truth—he wasn’t there because he had fomented a riot in Jerusalem—he was there because of Jesus Christ! They knew that Paul was there because he was a worshipper of Jesus and the authorities in Jerusalem didn’t want him saying the things he was saying about Jesus! That’s an amazing testimony to the power of the Gospel, and a great incentive for our unshakeable joy during trials and opposition—no matter what “cover story” the authorities try to concoct to justify their attacks on the God-given religious liberties that we have, no matter what kind of trumped-up charges they lay against you to vilify and silence you, Christian, the truth will come out. People will see that it is because of Jesus Christ that you are going through these things, and they will hear and believe the Gospel!

Our joy during trials and conflict is rooted in making the Gospel our priority—the Gospel will always advance, it will always be heard, and

The Gospel will always be PROCLAIMED (Philippians 1:14)

Look at what this deeply-rooted, unshakeable joy in the Gospel does—it emboldens others to speak!

Philippians 1:14 ESV

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.

The enemies of the Gospel tried to intimidate others from preaching by imprisoning Paul—but what happened instead? Other people who had been timid were emboldened to be fearless in declaring the Gospel! When one preacher gets arrested, five more rise up to take his place! Here is another rock-solid foundation for your joy in the Gospel—instead of worrying over the prospect of being targeted for your bold stand for Christ, you can be assured that if they take you down it will actually multiply your boldness as others rise up to take your place! When you make the Gospel your priority, you have an unshakeable joy in the midst of your circumstances that the Gospel will always advance, it will always be heard, and it will always be proclaimed! Nothing will stop the advance of the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Our joy is rooted in the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ when we make the Gospel our priority. And there is another way that this “Gospel-first” mindset sets us free—when we make the Gospel first, we take ourselves out of the spotlight--

II. We put our EGO into PERSPECTIVE (Philippians 1:15-18)

Look at verses 15-18 with me:

Philippians 1:15–18 ESV

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. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Paul was free from worrying about himself, his ego, his reputation—all he cared about was that the Gospel was advancing. I want to point out three things Paul says about his attitude toward himself and toward his so-called “rivals” in these verses. You see, though he says that most of the other Christians in Philippi were emboldened to speak that Gospel without fear, there were some who were “preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry” (v. 15). They saw that Paul was sidelined, so they decided they would jump in and try to make a name for themselves as evangelists. But Paul understood that

This is NOT a COMPETITION (Philippians 1:15-16)

We may be tempted to look at these verses and shake our heads: “Oh, those poor benighted Philippian Christians! To think that they would treat the Gospel like a popularity contest!” But how many times do we have that same attitude today? Another church the next town over is bursting at the seams and building a new facility and always in the papers with another program or another special service, while yours just seems to be sputtering along, barely keeping things together. How easy it is to look down on a thriving church! “They must be compromising in some way, they’re probably all just fluff and entertainment, I bet they probably use the Living Bible!” We tell ourselves that we’re being “discerning” and “faithful” and “pure” when we act like that—but Paul says we’re really just being envious.

At the same time, when God begins to bless a church and grow it and strengthen it—you can expect that church to be the object of envy and accusations. Paul was dealing with this very thing in his own life when he wrote these verses—God had used him mightily, and now that he was sidelined there were other preachers who thought they would “afflict him in his punishment” (v. 17). But whether we are guilty of envying someone else’s ministry or others are guilty of envying us, Paul reminds us that—either way,

This isn’t ABOUT YOU (Philippians 1:17)

Take another look at verse 17:

Philippians 1:17 ESV

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

Paul says that some people (note that he calls them “brothers”—these are not false teachers that are doing this, they are “brothers in Christ; they are fellow Christians). Some people preach the Gospel out of “selfish ambition”—they are trying to “build their brand” or “extend their platform” by using the Gospel message. The Gospel becomes something that is added on to their message, something that they include in their platform to demonstrate they are good Evangelical Christians, but something that they rarely (if ever) talk about specifically. They include a paragraph about the Gospel as part of their presentation, but what they really want to talk about is their stance on politics or social justice or abortion or homeschooling or some other hot button issue. They’re not sincere about the Gospel advancing, they are only sincere about advancing themselves.

But even in this insincere handling of the Gospel—even though there are people out there who are just “tacking on” the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins for anyone who comes in repentant faith to Him—even though there are people and ministries who are just trying to “grow their brand” by using the Gospel, Paul is still joyful. Because Paul knows that

God uses FLAWED PREACHERS every day (Philippians 1:18)

Philippians 1:18 ESV

18 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,

Now remember, Paul is talking about genuine Christians in these verses—if they were false teachers who were distorting the Gospel, he would be a lot more harsh. In his letter to the Galatian churches, for instance, he said

Galatians 1:9 ESV

9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

So Paul did not hesitate to lower the boom on false teachers. What is going on here in Philippi is not false teachers preaching a false Gospel—it is genuine Christians teaching the true Gospel insincerely. They are trying to hold big evangelistic rallies and build up their ministries and plant a bunch of churches—motivated not by wanting to see the Gospel advance, but motivated by their own ego and their desire to make Paul jealous.

But that just goes to show that they don’t understand Paul any better than the authorities who thought they could stop the Gospel by putting him in prison! Putting Paul in prison only gave him more opportunities to preach (and emboldened a bunch of others to preach!) And in the same way, planting a bunch of churches and baptizing a bunch of people didn’t make Paul envious, it made him joyful that the Gospel was flourishing in the world, even if he was languishing in prison! His joy was rooted in the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ, and so however it was proclaimed (whether “in pretence or in truth”), it made Paul rejoice!

Paul knew that the true Gospel in the mouth of an insincere preacher is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone who hears it! Picture the most insincere, self-centered, pompous TV health-and-wealth preacher you’ve ever seen—someone who uses the Gospel message as a thin veneer to make their pride and greed go down easier with their viewers. They make sure they have a Biblical definition of the Gospel as part of their ministry, not because they care about getting the Gospel right, but because a good orthodox statement of faith gives them legitimacy with the wider Christian world. They couldn’t care less if someone gets saved, just so they send in their thousand dollar “Seed pledge” with their prayer card and subscribe to their heavily monitized YouTube channel. It’s not about advancing the Gospel, it’s about advancing themselves.

But Paul is saying here in this verse that the true Gospel in the mouth of an insincere preacher is still the power of God for salvation for everyone who hears it! God can still use a flawed, selfish, manipulative preacher to deliver the Gospel to someone who needs to hear it, and who will be genuinely delivered from their sin by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! And there will be many insincere and selfish and egotistical preachers who will stand before their Judge to answer for the ways that they manipulated and distorted and scorned the Gospel in their envy and rivalry—while the people who were saved through their insincere ministry are rewarded for their sincere faith!

Christian, consider this—if God can use the Gospel coming out of the insincere lips of a selfish, egotistical preacher to miraculously save someone, why do you believe that you are not good enough or smart enough or clever enough to sincerely share Christ? The power of the Gospel to save someone does not come from the spiritual excellence and untarnished godliness of the preacher—it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit working through the truth of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ! Like the old preacher said, God spoke through the lips of Balaam’s donkey to prove He can use anyone to preach His Word! So take heart, Christian—if He can use a donkey’s lips, He can sure use yours! Let go of your ego, let go of having to be seen and praised and acknowledged and find your joy in the Gospel’s fame, not yours!

Take heart that God can use any circumstance to advance the message of the Gospel of Christ—persecution, imprisonment, shipwreck, false charges, sickness, envious rivalries—no matter what happens in your life, there is always a way to advance the Gospel! One of our missionaries who works in a nation where Christians are often arrested for evangelizing tells the story of one of his friends. An older gentleman, he has been arrested several times for preaching Christ. He has a bag packed that he keeps under his bed, so that whenever the police bang on his door in the middle of the night to arrest him again, he grabs the bag to take with him—filled with Gospel tracts that he can hand out to the other people he meets in jail! He calls it his “vacation”, and actually looks forward to going because he has a captive audience he can preach to!

That is what it looks like to make the Gospel a priority in your life—that’s the kind of joy in the Gospel that Paul had, and that’s what God is calling us to be in the days ahead, whatever they may be! This Gospel will always advance through every circumstance, it will always be heard, it will always be proclaimed, no matter what the adversaries of God will do—persecution and hardship and legal attacks and threats of lawsuits won’t stifle this Gospel, they will only propel it into more and more hearts and lives. The Gospel can’t be silenced by intimidation or threats, because for every preacher like Paul that gets thrown in jail there are a dozen more ready to stand and take his place!

So root your joy in the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—it’s not about you, it’s not a competition, and if God can use the insincere, envious lips of Paul’s so-called “competitors” to advance the Gospel, He can certainly use your sincere but imperfect words—even if you feel like you “crash and burn” while trying to share the Gospel with someone who turns around and ridicules you, your “failure” may very well embolden someone else who hears you to go and speak the Gospel without fear to their friends! There is no greater joy than watching this Gospel message advance against all odds—watching the message of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins for all who come by faith reach into someone’s life and transform them completely! So take this unstoppable message and be the happiest outlaw this Gospel-hating world ever saw as you take your joy in declaring the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some of the most difficult personal circumstances you have endured in this past year? What are some ways you were able to show people around you the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ in the middle of your circumstances?

Read Acts 24:5-6 and Philippians 1:13 again. Compare the reason Ananias wanted Paul arrested with why he says he was imprisoned—what promise does this give you when you are falsely accused because of your stand for Christ?

How does hearing someone speak God’s Word boldly in the face of opposition affect you? Does it make you more likely to want to speak out, or less? What does Paul say in Philippians 1:14 about the effect his imprisonment had on his friends?

What is your first reaction when you hear about another church that is growing and flourishing in its community? Do you become suspicious of their motives and methods for growth, or are you genuinely glad to see the Gospel flourishing somewhere—even if it’s not in your ministry? How does putting the glory of God in the Gospel first in your life help you to have a God-honoring response at those times?