Patsy Bonner shared with our Friday Bible study group a spoof news story that had been sent to her recently. The dateline is ostensibly Dallas, and the brief that follows says:
Dallas Cowboys football practice was delayed nearly two hours today after a player reported finding an unknown white powdery substance on the practice field. Head coach Jason Garrett immediately suspended practice and called…police and federal investigators. After a complete analysis, FBI forensics experts determined that the white substance unknown to players was the goal line. Practice resumed after special agents decided the team was unlikely to encounter the substance again this season.
Everybody is wondering, I guess, why it is the Cowboys can’t seem to score this year. But, before we judge the Pokes too harshly, maybe we need to ask ourselves: Do we know where our goal line is, or even what it is? And, even more importantly, do we know what God’s goal for us is?
If we don’t, it’s not because the Scriptures are unclear about it. Take Paul here in Philippians. He was in prison in Rome, and he wasn’t there because he had committed some terrible crime. He was in jail for preaching the gospel. Now, I’ve got to tell you, I have been ordained for forty-two years, and I have yet to be put behind bars for my preaching. Some of you are thinking that may be an oversight on the part of the justice system! Maybe I’m long overdue!
But what if it were to happen? Would I look at it the way Paul did? Would I see it not as a setback but, rather, as an opportunity? Probably not! Paul says in one of his letters that he was subject to “countless floggings” and was “often near death” just for being a minister of Christ. Here’s what he writes in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11: “Five times,” he says, “I have received…the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked” (vv. 23ff.).
Why did all these terrible things happen to Paul? Why did all these perils beset him? Was he just unlucky? Was it that he always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? Was it that he was one of those people that trouble just seems to find? No. It was something entirely different. All this happened to Paul because he knew what his goal was. It was to do everything in his power, no matter what the risk, no matter how difficult the challenges, no matter how high the cost – it was his goal to do whatever it might take to accomplish one thing. And that one thing was to advance the gospel. As we saw earlier, that’s the very reason that he was in jail. And he wasn’t going to let a little thing like being in prison keep him from doing what he knew he was there to do. He would just change his strategy.
Check out verse 12. He says, “I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel.” Now, keep in mind: that’s his goal. That’s his aim in life: to advance the gospel. His slant on this whole thing wasn’t: I’ll donate a little time, maybe even a little money, to help out if I can – you know, as long as it doesn’t create a wrinkle in my plans. If it doesn’t require too much of me or cost too much, then I’m in. I mean, you can count on me as long as it doesn’t inconvenience me in any way. That was not Paul’s outlook. He says later, right here in Philippians, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need” (Phil. 4:11f.). What could possible motivate such an attitude? What would cause him to be content if it meant having little or actually being in need? Any condition was okay with him as long as it advanced the gospel. That was his goal.
What is Paul saying? He’s saying that he doesn’t count the cost if it means that people hear the good news of Jesus Christ. “What has happened to me,” he says, “has actually helped to spread the gospel.” In other words, Paul was determined to use his setbacks, including this one – being in jail and maybe even being condemned to die – he was determined not to waste a single one of them, but to use them to advance the gospel.
We see here in Philippians, chapter 1, that his imprisonment caught everyone’s attention and directed it toward Christ. That was true of believers, and it was equally true of unbelievers. Paul says in verse 13 that “it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ.” That’s the goal – to get everyone focused on Jesus – and if it takes being in jail to do it, then that’s what it takes.
Imagine what it was like for those soldiers in the imperial guard to be chained to Paul – one for the first watch, another for the second, still another for the third, and so on through the whole rotation. And when Paul looked at each of those men, he didn’t see an enemy. He saw a person for whom Christ died. And so, what did he do? He didn’t complain about being in jail. He could have, but he didn’t. He didn’t even talk about himself. He talked about Jesus. And, as a result, Christ “became known throughout the whole imperial guard.” That was the goal.
If it took Paul being in the clink to get people’s attention, then that was okay with him. Paul used his adversity as leverage for the gospel. And not only did it give him opportunity to witness, but it emboldened others to do the same. He tells us in verse 14 that “most of the brothers and sisters” – fellow believers – have “been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, [and they] dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear” (v. 14). So, you see, the Roman guards assigned to Paul heard the gospel, and the other believers along with Paul heralded the gospel – all because Paul was in jail.
And that was his goal. His goal wasn’t getting out of jail. His goal was getting the gospel out. His goal wasn’t staying out of trouble. His goal was staying at it until the whole world, if possible, knew about Jesus. That was his thing, and hardship didn’t prevent him from doing it. If anything, it became the arena in which he did it. He didn’t say, “Oh, I’m in jail now. I guess I’d better quit preaching and figure out what to do next.” No, he said, “I’m in jail now. Who’s here that hasn’t heard the good news of Jesus Christ? Oh, look! There’s a guard. Hey, buddy….”
My friends, allow me to ask a question for all of us to ponder: Can it be that we are just a little too easily inconvenienced by the gospel? Are we committed to so many other goals in life that they squeeze out the importance of this one, to get the word out about Jesus?
Paul says, “I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel.” Can you and I say that? Can we look at this or that circumstance in our lives and say, “As bad as my situation is, I can see a way to press it into the service of the gospel. I can bear witness to Christ even in the midst of this”?
I suspect for this to be a possibility, you and I, first of all, will have had to hear the gospel ourselves in a life-changing way. If we can’t see the point of bearing witness to Christ in the face of our trials, then maybe we don’t have a witness to bear. We’ve seen nothing; so we can report nothing. We haven’t experienced the sufficiency of Christ, so we can’t tell of the sufficiency of Christ. If this is the case, then we mustn’t delay even another day! “Now is the acceptable time; …now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Let’s be sure that we ourselves embrace the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and what he has done for sinners – and let’s be sure we do it before another day passes.
On the other hand, if we do know the sweet comfort of the gospel, if we have, in the words of Psalm 34, tasted for ourselves and seen “that the Lord is good,” if we know the happiness – the great and unparalleled joy – of taking “refuge in him” (v. 8), then let us press every moment into a means of sharing what we know of him. Is there some loss that has overtaken us, some grief that might embitter the souls of others? Then let us speak of the comfort that only Christ can give. Is there some reversal of fortune that has seized upon us, some difficulty that might otherwise set us ablaze with anxiety? Then let us testify to the peace that only Christ can give. Is there some threat that has befallen us, so that others would naturally expect our faith to falter? Then let us use it as an opportunity to speak of the hope that only Christ can give. Is there some sorrow, some burden so grievous that it seems likely to crush our very heart? Then let us speak of the joy that only Christ can give. Let us pray to God for the strength to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “What has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel.” Let us make that our great goal in life. And then let us pursue that goal with such resolve that we can say, as Paul did here in Philippians, that “Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.”
