Philippians (#2)

The Unstoppable Gospel (part 2)

An overview of the whole letter:

Nijay Gupta’s "rundown” of Paul’s Letter to the Philippian church…

The gospel, despite our assumptions and fears, is unstoppable. It is like a rushing river unimpeded by persecutors, chains, and even the death of human leaders. (Phil 1:1-30)

The gospel is unstoppable.

The story of Jesus Christ guides the way to what it means to live a victorious life that models humility, obedience to God the Father no matter what, and unconditional love for others. It is this kind of life that God honours and rewards. (Phil 2:1-30)

The story of Jesus is our model - especially His death and resurrection.

The gospel demands, not a modification of values and allegiances, but a complete transformation towards cruciformity and Christoformity. True life and resurrection glorification only exist on the far side of conforming to the life- and especially the death - of Christ. (Phil 3:1-21)

The gospel will transform us to look like Jesus. (Cruciform)

The God of the gospel is a God of peace. Many live with anxiety and fear, but Christians ought to be filled with joy, thanksgiving, and hope. Let us come together in partnership and worship to praise the God of good news. (Phil 4:1-23)

The transformation will be recognizable: lives filled with peace, joy, thanksgiving and hope.

So to review: our journey through this letter Paul wrote to the church at Philippi will traces these four themes…

The gospel is unstoppable.

The story of Jesus is our model - especially His death and resurrection.

The gospel will transform us to look like Jesus. (Cruciform)

The transformation will be recognizable: lives filled with peace, joy, thanksgiving and hope.

Last week, we looked at how to read a letter from this time period. And at the context of Philippi as a Roman colony where status was a high value, and we examined how the unstoppable gospel is recognized by the kind of love it produces. Paul prayed for the kind of love that grows and overflows in knowledge and insight/wisdom. The kind of love that enables proper judgment, telling the difference between good and evil. The kind of love that results in lives being filled up with the fruit of justice and integrity which is what bring glory and praise to God.

This week, we continue to explore the unstoppable gospel as we look at the 2nd part of chapter 1. In this section, we will hear Paul address the interruption and suffering he is experiencing in prison, the challenges of motivations and the reality he faces of his own vulnerability and possible death.

Neil, will you come and read for us? And would you please stand for the reading?

12 Now, my dear family, I want you to know that the things I’ve been through have actually helped the gospel on its way. 13 You see, everybody in the Imperial Guard, and all the rest for that matter, have heard that I am here, chained up, because of the Messiah, the king. 14 My imprisonment has given new confidence to most of the Lord’s family; they are now much more prepared to speak the word boldly and fearlessly.

15 There are some, I should say, who are proclaiming the king because of envy and rivalry; but there are others who are doing it out of good will. 16 These last are acting from love, since they know that I’m in prison because of defending the gospel; 17 but the others are announcing the king out of selfishness and jealousy. They are not acting from pure motives; they imagine that they will make more trouble for me in my captivity.

18 So what? Only this: the king is being announced, whether people mean it or not! I’m happy to celebrate that!

Yes, and I really am going to celebrate: 19 because I know that this will result in my rescue, through your prayer and the support of the spirit of King Jesus. 20 I’m waiting eagerly and full of hope, because nothing is going to put me to shame. I am going to be bold and outspoken, now as always, and the king is going to gain a great reputation through my body, whether in life or in death.

21 You see, for me to live means the Messiah; to die means to make a profit. 22 If it’s to be living on in the flesh, that means fruitful work for me.

Actually, I don’t know which I would choose. 23 I’m pulled both ways at once: I would really love to leave all this and be with the king, because that would be far better. 24 But staying on here in the flesh is more vital for your sake. 25 Since I’ve become convinced of this, I know that I will remain here, and stay alongside all of you, to help you to advance and rejoice in your faith, 26 so that the pride you take in King Jesus may overflow because of me, when I come to visit you once again.

How do we handle interruptions? (ie. Covid, diagnoses, disappointments, layoffs, unexpected developments)

Have you flown anywhere recently? The stories are HORRIFIC. Delayed and cancelled flights. Lost luggage. Mayhem in Canadian airports.

But for those of us who have stayed home recently, perhaps we counted ourselves safe from such interruption.

Did you try to make a call/text/etransfer or to pay by Interac on Friday?

The Rogers outage - The widespread disruption, which got underway early Friday morning, paralyzed communications across a number of sectors, including health care, law enforcement and the financial industry. Many 911 services couldn't receive incoming calls, several hospitals reported impacts to their services and debit transactions were paused when Interac was knocked offline.

We experienced a disruption, an interruption. We had to adjust our plans and our expectations. We might have decided the day was a total write-off - and indeed for some small businesses, it might have been.

My favourite tweet after the Rogers debacle combines the recent air travel woes with the Rogers outage.

[tweet]

How do you handle interruptions? How do I?

How do we deal with the different motivations we have for proclaiming Christ?

There are a lot of people out there talking about Jesus or about the bible more generally - and some of them say some strange things. How do we handle seemingly contradictory motivations for proclaiming Christ? And how do we deal with those motivations even within our own community and within ourselves?

How do we live in the tension between wanting to be fully engaged in this life while also longing for the world to come?

I think we hear Paul speak to all three of these questions in our passage today?

And his answers are all linked to his confidence in the gospel being unstoppable.

How do we handle interruptions?

Of course, Paul’s imprisonment was more than just not being able to make a call or pay for a purchase.

Paul had been arrested. Again. He was arrested in Philippi, back in Acts chapter 16. But we know that this was not the only time. And God didn’t always send an earthquake at midnight to break him out.

So how is it that Paul doesn’t seem all that bothered?

Well, first of all, he is confident that the God of the gospel is on the move. And that the gospel cannot be stopped. If Jesus is King (and not Caesar) then He will reign. Even over the interruptions and disruptions and disappointments of our plans not coming together…

Secondly, this isn’t the first time Paul has been interrupted… starting with his conversion, King Jesus has been interrupting him all over the place. So perhaps he has grown in his ability to see God at work when things don’t go according to plan.

This was not the first time God had intervened in Paul’s plans and changed Paul’s path. At the time of his conversion, Paul was on a mission he believed was honouring God — the persecution of those who were part of The Way. God stopped him. Later, Paul was determined to preach the Good News in two different regions of Asia, but he was stopped by the Holy Spirit and ended up heading in a totally different direction — that led him eventually to Philippi and the founding of this amazingly faithful congregation. (from Dwelling With Philippians)

And then Paul is even able to reassure the Philippians that though we are no longer on plan A (or maybe even B or C) good things are still happening… this is not just seeking a silver lining in the midst of a difficult situation. This is Paul seeing God work with the raw materials of what is going on and making something of it. Paul is trusting that the gospel of Jesus is unstoppable.

Paul being in prison has meant that he has had proximity to people he might otherwise not have had the same kind of access to. The Roman guards have a front row seat to Paul…they knew why he was there. He was in chains for Christ. And I can’t imagine that Paul was quiet about that. He would be telling the Story of Jesus. And his own story maybe. Of thinking that these Jesus-followers were crazy… until he was stopped in his tracks. And then the Christians in whatever city Paul is imprisoned would have been coming to see him, too… possibly to provide food and care for him, but also they are being encouraged by him. Growing in boldness. Learning to tell the story themselves. And learning to see their own interruptions and disruptions as not necessarily getting in the way of the good news. Of the unstoppable gospel.

Then Paul moves onto a different kind of disruption. In verses whole section about motivations for preaching the gospel and how there are folks who are proclaiming Christ, but not out of the kind of love we explored last week, rather for selfish gain or trying to build some other kingdom. But again, trusting in the God of the unstoppable gospel, Paul seems to be able to say, it’s okay. The King is being announced. And He will build His kingdom.

I do think it’s important to note that Paul is not someone who doesn’t care if people teach things that are wrong or if they explain the implications of the gospel in false ways. In fact, most of Paul’s letters go to great lengths to counter false teachers, often who add something to the proclamation of Christ as king. Jesus AND circumcision. Or Jesus AND this kind of gnostic spirituality. Or Jesus AND … anything.

But whatever he is talking about there, the gospel is being proclaimed. And so he’s not going to quibble about motivation. And that’s admirable and challenging.

I wonder how this plays out for us. How do we partner with other Christians who might understand things differently from us? Can we partner with people with whom we disagree? Can we partner with people whose motivations differ from our own? Or from what we aspire to?

What if someone has a really great idea for Southwest, but the motivation is that they hope it will bring in more donors?

What if we plan a whole series of events simply because we want to attract people from other churches?

What if attracting seekers and new Christians is too costly because they will require discipling and mentoring?

What about taking care of the people we’ve got? The kids and the adults, the seniors and the seniors who still think they’re middle-aged? ;)

What would trusting the God of the unstoppable gospel look like for us here at Southwest?

And finally, Paul is open about the very real possibility that this imprisonment could lead to his death.

This would have shaken the Philippians, because they’re still a relatively new community of faith. Paul has been a catalyst. What would they do without him?

I wonder how you react to Paul’s words about facing death. This idea of longing to be with Jesus while also pulled in the direction of earth. Of longing to find freedom from his imprisonment in either way - either by being set free and being able to visit the Philippians again face to face, continuing the good work of helping others know Jesus and learn how to love Him more… in fact, Paul feels he cannot lose… for either way, his life is in Christ, his life is wrapped up in the One in whom life comes from death. The gospel will not be stopped - not by Paul’s imprisonment. And not even by his death.

How is it that Paul’s confidence in the unstoppable gospel not shaken? Not by imprisonment and the disruption to the things he had planned to be doing. The places he was going to go. The people he was going to visit.

How is his confidence in the unstoppable gospel not shaken by seeing the murky motivation of some of those who were proclaiming Jesus for some less-than-ideal reasons?

How is Paul’s confidence in the unstoppable gospel not even shaken by the threat of death OR by the reality that he might need to persevere in life for awhile yet?

Friends, Paul is not shaken because the One in whom Paul has placed his trust, his confidence, is not shaken by these things either.

King Jesus knows what has happened to Paul. And King Jesus says, “Yeah, I can work with this.”

King Jesus see that some people proclaim Him with murky motives. Even us, sometimes. Mercifully, He allows us to continue. Gently correcting us along the way. But if Jesus waited to people with perfect motivation to proclaim Him… well. Then none of us might ever have heard the good news.

King Jesus holds us in His hands. Whether we live or die, we are held. We can rest. We can trust.

And this is what Paul bears witness to in this text.

“The gospel, despite our assumptions and fears, is unstoppable. It is like a rushing river unimpeded by persecutors, chains, and even the death of human leaders.” (Nijay Gupta)

The good news, the gospel is unstoppable because God is committed to bringing it to completion.

Remember the prayer from last week? Just a few verses before our text for today… Paul is praying for God to fill them with love that grows and overflows.

Love that is marked by knowledge and insight/wisdom that enables proper judgment, telling the difference between good and evil.

Love that fills a life up with the fruit of justice and integrity - of doing what is right.

Which is what bring glory and praise to God.

May we trust in the God of this unstoppable good news.

Pray… Jesus we offer You ourselves…

Our motivations

Our church and community

Our families and friends and loved ones

Our neighbours and our work and school mates

…