Gospel-Centered Ministry Series

Technicolor Joy: Philippians 1:18-26

Gospel-Centered Ministry Part 2

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

5-21-2023

The Future’s so Bright I gotta wear Shades

When I was young, I was obsessed with Nostradamus. He lived in the 16th century and was a doctor, and astrologer, and could tell the future.

He predicted the Moon landing, the assassination of JFK, the Challenger explosion, and the death of Princess Diana.

Except, he didn’t. Most of his predictions were wrong, never came to pass, or were so vague you could make them mean anything.

Why? Because it’s really hard to predict the future!

In 1958, a group of high school students were asked what they thought life in 2000 would be like.

They said that we would have flying cars, we would be getting around using our jet packs, and be able to watch tv on our watches.

Perhaps the writers of Star Trek did the best predicting the future. Filmed in the early 1960s, the show featured touchscreen monitors, voice activation, tablets, virtual reality, 3-D printing, universal translators, and video chatting.

In the verses that we study this morning, Paul is going to predict the future. Well, not really. But he is going to predict the way that he will respond to the future.

Abraham Lincoln once said,

“The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.”

Gospel-Centered Ministry

Last week, we began studying Paul’s Gospel-Centered ministry.

The Philippians hadn’t seen Paul in years and they were worried about him. They wanted to know how he was doing.

They waited with anticipation for Epaphroditus to return with some news about Paul.

When he returned, he brought a letter from Paul to be read to the congregation.

When they heard, “I want you to know brothers and sisters…” their ears perked up and they got ready for a full rundown of the past few years.

"Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.” (Phil 1:12)

He used five words “what has happened to me” to describe the last three years of ministry.

This is Paul’s divine perspective. Everything that had happened to him “actually served to advance the Gospel.”

Tim Keller, one of the most winsome witnesses for Christ of our generation, died on Friday. His words on the Gospel deeply affected me over the years:

We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

He can rejoice because he has been able to share Christ with the elite soldiers that are guarding him. How would he ever have access to these men other than by being in chains?

Seeing his boldness, he can also rejoice that the Christians in Rome shared the Gospel more freely and courageously.

He also rejoiced that the Gospel was being preached. Yes, some of the pastors in Rome were jealous of Paul’s influence and gifts. They preached Christ to build their own pulpits and platforms, hoping that it caused Paul irritation.

Other pastors, knowing that Paul was in chains by the will of God, decided to honor Paul by taking up the slack and preaching the Gospel out of love.

In the end, Paul didn’t care. He rejoiced that Christ was being preached. It wasn’t the messenger or the motive but the Gospel message that he rejoiced in.

Turn in your Bibles to Philippians 1.

Prayer.

Joy

“Yes, and I will continue to rejoice…”

Paul moves from the present tense to the future tense. Not only will he rejoice, he will continue to rejoice.

Walter Hanson wrote:

“Like a mighty river surging through solid rock, joy flows from this letter to the suffering community of believers giving them love for one another and the presence of God.”

Paul uses the word joy, rejoice, or glad sixteen times. We need to distinguish joy from happiness.

Happiness is dependent on circumstances. When everything is going well, we are happy. When they are not, we are unhappy.

The kind of joy that Paul is talking about here is very different from happiness. This is contentedness, a deep-seated joy in believing the Gospel.

He is making a choice to rejoice despite his circumstances.

If you remember when we studied the book of Habakkuk, he made the same choice:

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls  yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Hab 3:17-20)

Everything that had happened to Paul wasn’t going to steal his joy.