Philippians 1:12-19
Last week, while flipping thru the stations, I happened to see Jim Baker’s son, Jay, on Larry King Live. It was so encouraging to hear to how God brought him out of a life of alcoholism and drugs and raised him up as a minister to the broken, punk culture of Atlanta. Needless to say, Larry King asked him lots of questions relating to his parents, Jim & Tammy. When I look back at the breakdown of PTL and all that happened with Jimmy Swaggart, I can hardly believe the lack of love some so-called ministers were showing toward one another. I don’t remember the names of all the people involved but it seemed as though they were all out for each other’s blood, digging up dirt on one another and feeding the information to the media. In a very real way, they were all vying for greater power in the Kingdom, and were happy to knock the next best preacher in order to gain more followers and better ratings.
But sadly, this is nothing new. In fact Paul was experiencing the same kind of self-seeking attitude among a number of the pastors in the church in Rome. We read about this in Philippians 1, verses 15 thru 17 saying,
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
I like how Eugene Peterson translates verse 15 in his translation, The Message… “it is true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way they think they’ll step right into the spotlight.” Peterson really nails the issue right on the head. It seems hard to imagine that any pastor would feel a rivalry toward Paul… but they did. Perhaps these self-seeking pastors enjoyed some level of prominence in the church, but became somewhat eclipsed once Paul arrived. They were no doubt jealous of the attention Paul was getting… frustrated how the hearts of their congregations were being drawn toward this powerful and humble man of God. And jealous of the effectiveness and vision he had.
In order to appreciate this scene more deeply, we need to look at what is happening with Paul. If you remember from our last service, Paul, at 62 years of age, having just spent the last two years in prison in Caesarea for a crime he didn’t commit, (Acts 21-28) Paul appeals to Caesar, as was his right as a Roman citizen. Roman law then required that the person under arrest be delivered to Rome where he would stand trial before the emperor. What must be strange to some is that King Agrippa (who ruled this region) had pretty much concluded that Paul was innocent and, according to Acts 26:32, would likely have set Paul free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar. Nevertheless, Paul was brought to Rome to stand trial.
Though the pastors in Rome were to self-absorbed to see this, it wasn’t just Paul who was on trial here… but Christianity itself. Paul’s trial would, in effect, serve as a test case to see whether the followers of Jesus were merely another Jewish sect or something new, something more dangerous… a new religion that would call Jesus Christ Lord, over and above Caesar. This would be treason. Whatever was decided would likely become the precedent for other such trials against believers.
While in prison, Paul’s thoughts naturally drift to those whom he is closest to… the Philippians. He writes to them and tells them what is going on with these pastors… but not to complain… but rather to encourage them that in spite of His chains, the gospel is being advanced. This would have been a real encouragement to the Philippian believers who were going through a fair bit of persecution themselves.
But who are these people who are acting out in envy, rivalry, and selfish ambition against Paul? Some commentators see them as a group of unbelievers or Judaizers… the kinds of people who tried to undermine Paul’s ministry in Galatia. Yet we see in Gal 1:7-9 that Paul saw these people as preaching another Gospel... and calls them to stop. But rather than tell them to stop, Paul writes in vs. 18, “whether from false motives or true, Christ is being proclaimed, and because of this I rejoice.” It’s clear that Paul didn’t have a problem with the message they were preaching but rather their motive. So, they preached the Gospel throughout the city trying to make themselves look good while Paul supposedly rotted away in obscurity in prison.
To be honest, while my first instinct is to put these people down and completely separate myself from them, I wonder what I would do if someone like Billy Graham announced that he was going to start a new church in Morristown. While I would be thrilled to have him here as well as another church in the area, perhaps when I preached my sermons, I would be motivated more by my desire to entice you to stay than to glorify God. I don’t know.
But the question of motivation is an important one for all of us whether we’re at work, at school, or at home. Some of the pastors in Rome saw Paul as competition for a higher position in the church… and they were willing to stoop to the world’s level to get there. I think this has strong implications for us. In spite of the gossip and competition at work-- for higher positions, more responsibility, better salaries—we need to conduct ourselves, as Paul writes in verse 27, “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” So while you should work to be the very best you can be at your job, we need to take care that we don’t fall into the same snare Paul’s opponents did in Rome… being motivated by envy, rivalry, and selfish ambition.
But to really grasp what Paul is experiencing in Rome, there’s one more thing we need to remember… that it that it isn’t the Roman guards who are looking to cause Paul distress… but his fellow brothers. You know this as well as I do… when the world is gossiping or saying untrue things about you, when those people who’ve never experienced God’s love really hurt you… it’s hard. But when those same people are sitting next to you in church the next Sunday… it hurts a lot more. The church I served out of prior to being with the Vineyard had, as a qualification for being an elder, a question asking whether or not you have ever been significantly hurt by another believer. I know this may seem strange… but the fact is, that many Christians have a hard time dealing with conflict initiated by another believer. Of course, it wasn’t the getting hurt part that this church was interested in… but rather how well you dealt with the situation.
Maybe you have been hurt by another believer and haven’t quite resolved the issue with them. Maybe you need to forgive them or need to ask God forgiveness for having judged them. That’s for you to decide. What about those people, perhaps at work or in your family, who’ve been motivated by jealousy, and have been critical of you… How have you responded toward them? Here, we have a lot to learn from Paul. Let me share just two principles, which Paul expresses in Philippians.
The first is in chapter 2:3, where he encourages us to “consider others as better than ourselves”. This principle keeps Paul grounded in reality… that he is no better than anyone else. Jimmy Swaggart eventually learned this after his own sin was publicly exposed. You see, Swaggart had been one of Jim Bakker’s biggest critics… publicly denouncing the PTL and Heritage USA. But several years after Swaggart was exposed, he got a call from Jay Bakker, pleading with him to encourage the authorities to release his father, as his parole hearing was coming up. Jay writes in his book that he had gone to every other Television preacher… and they all refused to stand with Jim Bakker. Not only did Swaggart write the authorities, but re-taped his next four shows, encouraging all his viewers to do the same. The man who was being accused of trying to take over the PTL was now petitioning for Bakker’s release. I don’t know if Swaggart ever really dealt with the issues he wrestled with… but at least in this case, unlike before, he could see that he was no better than Bakker.
A great example of “considering others as better than ourselves” can be found in the lives of two great English evangelists… John Wesley and George Whitefield. While these two men differed on doctrinal matters relating to free will and election, both were very effective… preaching to thousands of people and seeing multitudes come to Christ. It is reported that somebody asked Wesley if he expected to see Whitefield in heaven, and the evangelist replied, “no, I do not.” “Then you do not think Whitefield is a converted man?” “Of course he is a converted man”, Wesley said. “But I do not expect to see him in heaven—b/c he will be so close to the throne of God and I so far away that I will not be able to see him.” Though he differed in certain areas of belief and practice from Whitefield, Wesley had no envy or rivalry in his heart, nor did they ever seek to oppose one another’s ministry.
Paul shares another principal, which no doubt helped him deal with the attacks he faced. In verse 5 he writes, “your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Paul is calling us to reflect to those around us the kind of love, mercy, and grace, which Jesus showed toward us.
Perhaps without realizing it, you’ve become the kind of person that Paul was dealing with… maybe not to the same degree… but your motivation in your relationships have been driven by envy and jealousy... saying bad things about others or being critical. Maybe its time that you lay this before His throne in confession… receiving the forgiveness Christ purchased for you on the Cross… asking the Spirit to fill you afresh so your attitude reflects that of Jesus.
With all Paul was going through-- with some of the Roman preachers seeking to cause trouble for him; a number of the believers in Rome deserting him; with his being chained to a prison guard 24 hours a day; and all that goes with being held under house arrest-- Paul simply describes his situation with the expression “my circumstances”. In verse 12 he writes, “my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. The NIV reads,
12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole praetorian (palace) guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
Little did the Roman authorities realize that the chains they fixed on Paul’s wrists would serve to release Paul rather than bind him. Those chains gave Paul contact with the lost. Imagine being chained to man who prayed without ceasing! Fact is, Paul was dangerous guy… and he was dangerous to be around! The way Paul writes here, we’re not supposed to think of him being chained to the praetorian guards, but that they are chained to him! And the fact is, the praetorian guards changed shifts every 6 hours. Already we see God using Paul’s chains, his circumstances to advance the gospel.
I remember back in the early nineties… I led a team to Istanbul, Turkey each summer for three years. During one visit, we got word that a Turkish newspaper, with a large distribution throughout the country, exposed the entire missionary community in Ankara… literally listing all their names and address, explaining exactly what they were doing. They also exposed all the discipleship material they had… printing a copy of one of the books. It looked really bad for the work of Christ… especially in Ankara. But the newspaper made one mistake. They printed the phone number that people were supposed to call in to get a free copy of the discipleship book they used. Within one week, over six hundred Turks had called in for their free copies! While their circumstances may be heated up a bit, the gospel was being advanced!
From verse 13, it is likely that most people in and around Rome were aware of Paul’s imprisonment. Again, this was a precedent setting case… how this was settled would determine how Christians would be treated in the future. In order to come to a decision, the courts would have to look carefully at the doctrine held by the Christians. What joy that must have brought to Paul, knowing that his imprisonment was providing the opportunity for many in the court system to hear the Gospel.
This must have had an effect b/c in his closing comments, in chapter 4:22, Paul writes, “all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” Apparently word got out… not only to the palace guards but also the very household of the Emperor! We read about this time in Acts 28:30… that during his two years under house arrest in Rome, Paul “welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” I love the fact that Luke sticks in the word, “unhindered”!
While we might have seen our chains as a hindrance… Paul saw them as an opportunity. Paul knew that God often uses our chains to reach people with the love of Jesus. This doesn’t just apply to people like Paul… but to you and me. I think of my wife… though she’s never said it, I’m sure she has felt somewhat “chained” to the kids. But even a mother’s chains, aka loss of personal freedom, lack of sleep, etc., can bare great fruit… like the growth of godly kids and new relationships with women in the same situation. Suzanna Wesley was a mom of 19 kids… speak of loss of sleep! But from those kids came godly men and women including Charles and John Wesley!
The secret it this… when you have the single mind, as Paul had, you look at your circumstances as opportunities to know Jesus more intimately (sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings) and as opportunities for the furtherance of the Gospel… and you rejoice at what God is going to do instead of complaining about what God didn’t do.
In the same way that Paul’s circumstances “turned out for the greater progress of the gospel”, so can the circumstances and suffering in our lives create opportunities to not only speak about Jesus both to the saved and the lost, but will create opportunities for us to live out the Gospel before them. The fact is, when people take notice of the suffering in their own lives or the lives of those they know, they’ll often ask questions they haven’t considered before.
The great grandfather of this church is a man named Lance Pitluck. Lance was discipled by John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard, and, after several years, felt God’s call to plant a Vineyard on the East Coast. He ended up in planting a church in Rockville Center, Long Island. About five years ago, Lance’s 3 year old son died of a pneumonia-like illness. I’ve heard Lance share that story twice… and he broke down both times. I can’t imagine a more terrible thing than loosing a young child like this… that is why stories such as the shootings at Santana High School in California, always leave me shaken up a bit. Lance arranged for worship at the funeral service… he couldn’t get why this had happened… yet He felt stirred inside of him to lift his hands in worship. When he did that, it was like the heaven’s breaking in. The suffering he and his wife shared together with God had a powerful impact on the church and their community.
Maybe you aren’t experiencing something of that magnitude, but is there anything you are going through now… from a challenge at work to a crisis in your family… which God might be using to touch those around you? You know, to the average person out there, Christ is simply a misty figure in history. But through our crisis and suffering, they have the opportunity to see Jesus magnified and brought much closer to Him.
This doesn’t mean that we just put on a mask and pretend like we’re enjoying those crisis in our lives. In this passage, Paul never tries to mask the terrible situation he is in with “joyful” language… he’s not just putting a happy face on a bad situation. * He writes what he does because he has learned, by the grace of God, to see everything from a heavenly, eternal perspective. Some may discount this by saying that Paul was so heavenly minded that he was, in a sense, completely out of touch with reality. That’s just not true. Paul did feel all that we would feel… yet he lived with another set of values. In other words, he didn’t live to enjoy his circumstances… but rather lived to know his Lord more intimately than the day before… and to see other embrace this reality for themselves.
But Paul’s chains didn’t only give him contact with the lost, they gave courage to other Christians. In verse 14, Paul writes,
14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
The word “speak” doesn’t refer to the act of preaching… but rather refers to everyday conversation. What I get from this is that lots of folk in Rome were discussing Paul’s case… and rather than shrink away from the conversation, they found themselves more able to join in on the conversations and say a word or two about Jesus. I remember back in college there was a guy who showed up on campus for a few weeks… completely off the charts. He would march back and forth across campus carrying a huge cross that had blood stains painted on it for effect. He basically yelled at everyone he saw. One day one of the Crusade staff-woman tried to initiate a conversation with him… she was such a godly woman. But in return, he yelled at her, questioning her salvation b/c she was wearing shorts. At first, we were just counting the days till he disappeared. But then we started to realize the tremendous buzz on campus concerning this guy. It ended up giving us wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel of Peace in the dorms, cafeteria, and around campus.
The net result of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome was the advancement of the Gospel… both to bless and encourage the Christians and to lead the lost into relationship with Jesus… and for this, as he writes in verse 18, “I rejoice”. Notice again that Paul isn’t joyful over his sufferings and imprisonment, but over the fact that through these things people have found salvation in Jesus.
In the first part of this passage we see that b/c of Paul’s chains, Christ was known. We then saw that b/c of his critics, Christ was preached. And now, in verses 19 & 20, we see that b/c of his circumstances , Christ is magnified. Paul writes…
“For I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage that now as always Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Underlying all Paul has said is the fact that Paul finds his confidence in the fact that God will have His way… that everything He wants to do in and through him will be done through the provision of the Holy Spirit and through the prayers of the Philippians. That everything that has happened will turn out for my deliverance. The word “deliverance” here doesn’t refer to the possibility of Paul getting set free… as we can see from the next verse that he still believes death might be the net result of all of this.
Rather, Paul is saying that through the provision of the Holy Spirit and the continued response of the Spirit as a result of the Philippians’ prayers, he will not stand in disgrace when he soon faces the Roman tribunal. He knows that the Spirit will release in him the courage to speak with boldness so Christ might be magnified in his body.
I think its important to see that Paul didn’t say “I will magnify Christ in my body” as though he was relying on his own courage and strength. Nor did he simply write, “Christ will be magnified” – as though he had not been a willing partner. Rather, he writes, “Christ will be magnified in my body”... whether his trial leads to his freedom or death.
But how is it that Jesus is magnified through a man like Paul… let alone through us? In a way, it works a lot like a telescope. The stars are much larger than the telescope, and yet the telescope magnifies them and has the effect of bringing them closer. That is one of the reasons God wants to magnify the Son through our lives… to be a telescope that brings Jesus Christ close to the people around us.
As I said before, I think to the average person, Jesus is simply a misty, ambiguous figure in history who lived centuries ago. But as the unsaved watch the believer go through a crisis, they can see Jesus magnified and brought so much closer. And all of a sudden the Gospel message makes sense to them.
I don’t know what circumstances you are experiencing now… But I do know that as we experience tough times, through the work of the Spirit in our lives, God can accomplish wonderful things in and through us. Paul understood this. He was a man of single passion… and His passion was Jesus.
He was a lover who saw his life and circumstances in light of knowing Jesus more intimately, and seeing others come into relationship with Him. This is why Paul lived in such victory in his life… and experienced joy in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances. And through Paul’s letter to the Philippians, God calls us to this same life. Paul writes in 4:9, “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace shall be with you.”
Let’s pray.
