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.
The people who were preaching Christ out of selfish ambition couldn’t steal his joy.
The Christian faith is a joyful faith. Paul not only modeled joy but commanded believers to follow his example.
We can have joy in spite of affliction. Paul was in prison, he had haters, and he was far from home but still had joy.
Philip Ryken writes:
“Joy is the exhilaration of the heart that comes from being right with God.”
Remember at the beginning of this series I said that we
We will fight for joy in the midst of our circumstances.
We will find our joy again.
We will face the future with joy.
This is what Paul is doing. He doesn’t know what the future holds but he knows who holds the future. Whatever the outcome, whether it be life or death, he will make a choice to rejoice.
Point to Ponder: Do you really believe, as Nehemiah said, that the joy of the Lord is our strength? Have you made a choice that you will rejoice no matter what?
Confidence
“…for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.”
If joy is an act of the will, then confidence is an act of faith.
Why can he rejoice?
Because he will be “delivered.” He is absolutely convinced of this. But how? Through what means?
Through their prayers
James writes that the “prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)
Throughout Paul’s letters, he constantly prays for the recipients and asks them to pray for him.
He knows that prayer is where the power comes from in his ministry.
My father-in-law Patrick and I worked the prayer tent at multiple Promise Keepers events in the 1990s. What most people didn’t know was, underneath the stadium, there was a group of women that were on their knees interceding for the speakers and those of us in the prayer tent.
Charles Spurgeon was once asked what made his sermons so powerful. He took them to the boiler room in the basement of the church and said that this is where the power comes from. While he preaches, there is a whole room full of people praying for him and for the Gospel to reach lost people.
He said, “It all happens because my people pray for me.”
Dr. Adrian Rogers wrote this:
“The greatest problem we face is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer. Tragically, many of our prayers are so vague that if God were to answer them, we wouldn’t even know it.”
Leonard Ravenhill wrote:
“Tithes may build a church, but tears will give it life.”
What specifically do they pray for? They pray that the Holy Spirit would provide Paul with the power and courage to stand in the face of the possibility of execution.
The word supply means a “lavish abundance.” It’s actually a musical term for a choir that adds one voice on top of another in harmony.
Paul knows that if he tries to face the future in his own strength, he will fail.
He knows Zachariah 4:6 by heart:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zach 4:6)
So as they pray for him to be overflowing with the Spirit’s power, he writes that it will “turn out for his deliverance.”
This does not mean that he knows the future or has some inside information about the outcome of his trial.
The word deliverance is better translated as “salvation.”
It may not be obvious, but Paul has been meditating on Job’s life and troubles because this is a direct quote from Job 13. Job has listened to his friends accuse him of sin and he finally explodes:
“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him!” (Job 13:15-16)
Though his Philippians friend’s prayers for the Holy Spirit to empower him, he is confident that what he wrote in 1:6 will be true:
“He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6)
He will have sufficient courage no matter what he faces because, in the end, he wins either way.
Point to Ponder: Do you have the assurance of your salvation? I ask people that question and many times they answer, “I guess or I hope so.” Scripture said that we can know for certain:
He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:12-13)
Hope
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death”
The word translated as “eagerly expect” is a word picture of someone craning their neck to try to see someone coming on the horizon.
Paul then lays out his hope. Hope in the Bible is very different from the way we use the word hope. We say, “I hope that it doesn’t rain.” It’s wishful thinking. ?
Biblical hope is a certainty of the future; a rock-solid confidence in God’s Sovereign purposes and plans.
He first expresses this negatively - he will in no way be ashamed.
When we hear the word shame we think of that feeling of embarrassment when we want to hide.
But the concept of shame in the Scriptures is different. It means that he will not be disappointed in the fact that He placed his trust in God.
Peter, quoting Isaiah, wrote
“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”(I Peter 2:6)
The word disgraced can also be translated as “not ashamed.”
Peter writes that this Cornerstone is Jesus. The center of Christianity is not a program but a Person.
When it comes time to stand before Nero, Paul has complete confidence that he will have the courage to be bold no matter what happens.
Then he states in a positive way - Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
The word exalted means to magnify, to make big.
David wrote in Psalm 34:
"I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.” (Psalm 34:3-6)
But just how do we make Jesus “bigger?”
When Rich Meier moved to MO, he gave me this telescope. With it, I can see stars that are mind-boggling far away.
They may look like little twinkles of light, but they are massive, sometimes thousands of times bigger than our sun.
Most people see Jesus from very far away. He lived 2,000 years and has very little effect on their lives.
So we are the telescope! By our actions, we bring Jesus closer and make him easier to see for those around us. With our tongues, with our eyes, with our bodies, we exalt Jesus and make Him clearer to those who can’t see through the fog of their unbelief.
John Piper has reminded us for years that:
“God is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Notice, this will happen whether he is released or whether he is executed. It doesn’t matter to Paul. This is his ultimate hope.
Point to Ponder: How are you doing being a telescope to your unsaved friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors?
Life
We now come to one of the most famous verses in Philippians. This is Paul’s creed, his motto, and the ultimate aim of his life.
Before we look at this verse, let me ask you a personal question:
What are you living for? No, really. What is the ultimate aim of your life?
Paul writes:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
We are going to look at the first part of this verse this morning and the second part next week.
How would you fill in that verse?
For to me, to live is wealth. Then to die is to lose it all.
For to me, to live is fame. Then to die is to be forgotten.
For to me to live is partying. Then to die means the party is over.
For Paul, as he wrote in Colossians, Christ is his life.
In chapter three, Paul gives a list of reasons why he should put confidence not in Christ but in himself:
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Phil 3:4-6)
But then he makes it clear that his heart, his affections, and his goals have been radically altered by his love for Jesus:
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8)
Paul is more satisfied in Christ than all life had to offer and more than death could take.
What does it mean that Christ is our life?
Dr. Ligon Duncan writes, “Our first and central aim in Christ is our life is to know glorify, and enjoy him forever.”
How can we do that? He gives three ways:
When Christ is our life, we will purpose to know as much about Christ as possible.
There are people who can tell you more than everything you need to know about sports figures or movie stars.
There are professors that become experts on historical figures such as Churchill, Lincoln, or Einstein.
Most people in the US have so little Biblical knowledge that they know very little about the Jesus they claim to follow.
What can you do to get to know Jesus more? Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Four different books from four different perspectives about the life and ministry of Jesus.
When Christ is our life, we will desire to be like Jesus.
But in the 80s, there was an ad campaign, “Be Like Mike.” This meant wearing the shoes and jersey that Michael Jordon wore, eating the food that he advertised, and modeling your game on the court to be like Mike.
As we get to know Him more, we will want to be more like Him. To love better, to serve more selflessly, and to lay down our lives for others.
When Christ is our life, we will make Him known to others.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Company found that only 13% of Americans consider religion to be the most important thing in their life.
I heard a story about a little boy who went to Sunday school. At lunch, his mother asked him what the lesson was about. He said that the teacher must have been Jesus’s grandmother. His mom asked him why he thought that. He said, “Because all she ever talks about is Jesus.”
Could you be accused of being Jesus’s grandparent by your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family?
Paul knew that to live is Christ and to die is gain.
What happens when you get everything you wanted, wealth, fame, and instead of giving you joy it leaves you in utter despair?
Video: I Am Second Joshua Broome (YT)
