ENVIOUS EVANGELISTS
Philippians 1:15-18
12/7/94
It is a point of history that two of the greatest English evangelist that ever America, John Westley and George Whitefield, disagreed on certain doctrinal matters. While Whitefield was a Calvinist, Westley was not. However both of them were very successful in bring many people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was once reported that someone asked Westley if he expected to see Whitefield in heaven, Westley replied, "No, I do not."
The person then asked, "Then you do not think Whitefield is a converted man?"
"Of course he is a converted man," stated Westley, "But I do not expect to see him in heaven- because he will be so close to the throne of God and I so far away that I will not be able to see him!"
Now I must admit that a read this story in two separate places, and one has Whitefield saying this about Westley and the other as Westley saying it about Whitefield. But what is important is that when you look at how these two men interacted with each other, it is clear that either could have said it. You see they did not let their secondary doctrinal differences stand in that way of what was really important, and that was the Christ was being preached and people were getting saved. They did not seek to oppose each others ministries, but both rejoiced in the fact that souls were being won for Christ.
Now if only we could be like that. We have all been to church meeting were feelings have been hurt, were things have been that ought not have been said. And it all comes about because we take our eyes off the reason we are here, to see Christ preached. And as we look at our passage for today we can see that for Paul it did not matter as what motivated the individual what matter is that Christ was preached.
Turn with me please to our passage for today which comes from the book of Philippians chapter 1 verses 15-18;
"Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from good will: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice."
If you recall last week we noted hope God had used Paul’s imprisonment for the advancement of the gospel. Paul was used to influence nonbelievers, the palace guard, and as the Scripture stated "all the rest". Paul was also used to encourage the believers, in that they to became bold in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In our passage for today Paul tells of some other people who were not all that happy about Paul being around as well as those who Paul speaks of in verse 14.
In verse 15 see Paul speak of two different classes of People. We have those who were preaching Christ from envy and strife and those who are preaching Christ from good will.
In studying this verse there seems to be a difference of opinion as to who these people were who were so envious of Paul. Some commentators stated that they were Judizers, those who wished to mix the law with grace. They taught one had to accept Christ and follow the law in order to gain salvation.
Others hold the view that these people were those who were simply jealous of Paul. It is this view that I am inclined to accept. Paul is very clear in stating that these people were in fact preaching salvation through Christ. He does not say that they are preaching false doctrine. They were in fact preaching the true doctrine Paul is in this passage stating the spirit in which they were preaching the gospel. Their gospel was pure but there motives were not. You can be sure that if these people had been preaching a false gospel Paul would have certainly warned the people.
I just want to jump ahead to chapter 3 verse 2 very briefly here. Listen to the words Paul uses for those who preach a different gospel. "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!"
These are the type of words Paul uses for those who preach a different gospel or another Jesus.
In our passages he uses no such words as he is attacking there motives not their message.
We need to realize that there was a church in Rome before the arrival of Paul. So we cannot doubt that there would have been certain prominent men in the church. It may be suggested that with the arrival of Paul and they his fame spread throughout the city that these men had maybe lost some of that prominence. Perhaps it was this type of men which Paul refers to here. Men who were preaching the gospel but, did so with envy towards Paul.
Might I add that it would seem strange that these men would envy Paul, a prisoner. I thing it shows how we as humans sometimes do envy someone far worse off then us simply because they have maybe one thing that we don’t, in this case popularity.
The second class of people Paul speaks of in this verse is are those who are preaching "from good will." These people were like John Westley and George Whitefield. They did not care that Paul was getting attention, what they cared about was that Christ was being preached. So they showed good will not only toward their Lord Jesus Christ, but they also showed good will toward Paul, who had given them encouragement and was an example for them.
In the next two verses of our passage Paul points out the motives of these two groups of people. The thing which drove those who were preaching Christ from envy was selfish ambition. These people did not care about souls being saved, what they cared about was how big there church was. They cared about drawing people away from following Paul. Paul states that they were "supposing to add affliction to my chains." Perhaps they thought Paul would be upset when he saw that these people would follow these certain men instead of Paul, knowing that Paul was confined and really could not do anything about it.
It funny how sometimes Christian will serve God for all wrong the reasons. Yet God accepts the preaching of imperfect and sinful man. And Many times these men or in some cases woman are very successful in drawing people in. I thing of Jim Baker. Look how successful he was. There was a man who was certainly preaching Christ for selfish reasons. He had fame, power, wealth, all those things, all from preaching Christ. And whether we want to admit it or not, a lot of people accepted Christ under his ministry. Now his sin finely caught up to him as it always will. But the same it true with many of these televangelists. I will watch them, and see how they mix the gospel with there pleads for money and wonder how God can bless that. I have learned that where ever the gospel is preached, God will bless.
The other motive Paul mentions in this passage in verse 17, is that of love. Paul states that these people were preaching the gospel out of love Christ and Paul.
Now love is the reason we all need to be preacher of the gospel. Love for God, and love for our fellow man. This motive needs to drive us.
If we were to see a house on fire how many of us would just drive on by and not do a thing about it. None of us. We would either go call the fire department, knock on the door something like that. Why? Because most of us have that sense of compassion in us, that sense of love for our fellow man. This is why we are saddened when we see someone go through a terrible ordeal weather we know that person or not.
Yet why is it that we are so shy about letting people know that they are going to hell if they don’t have Jesus. Now there is certainly no need to be that blunt about it. I am not suggesting that we put on our sign out front accept Jesus or go to hell, even though that may be the truth of the matter. Yet we need to be as those people Paul mentions here, and preach Christ out of good will and love. We cannot say we care for someone if we have never told that someone about Jesus Christ, be it through our words or our actions.
I suppose I have kind of gotten of the track here a little bit so let us get back to our passage. I would like to read verse 18 again,
"What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice."
What a beautiful passage! Paul does not pity himself because of the actions of these people. He does not care that perhaps they are gaining in popularity at his expense. It does not matter to Paul what they are doing to him, what matters to Paul is what they doing for the gospel. Paul does not matter to Paul, Christ matters Paul. Paul finds joy in that fact that Christ is being preached.
It is so sad that Christians cannot be more like Paul. The Christian community gets caught up in so many things that it for the most part, lose the sense of joy that is found in seeing Christ preach. Never mind that this guy does not believe this way, never mind that their church is bigger or smaller then ours, never mind that they speak in tongue, or wave their arms in the air, let us find joy in the fact that Christ is preached.
Let us find joy that the message that Christ came down, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead three days later. And when we make him our personal Saviour and are born again of the Spirit of God we will have eternal life. There is so much joy in that message, so much joy which we miss because we are so nit picky about a bunch of stuff that don’t matter anyway.
Now I want to just step back from these three verse and take a look at what we can learn from them.
First, Preaching Christ is the most important work of the Church. It is the one work which should bring us the most joy. To many time Church get caught up in magnifying their own traditions. They boast at how big they are. They get caught up in running social programs. All the while they neglect that the very reason why they are their to preach Christ. The responsibility of Milford Center Baptist Church is to make Christ known to this community. And all of us who are a part of this fellowship share in that responsibility.
Second thing learned from this passage; We all need to realize that Christ may be preached in different ways and by different people. While motive is important, the message is more important. We should rejoice when Christ is preached regardless of how it effects us. Churches may feel a sense of jealous when one is growing more so then the other, but if Christ is being preached in both, that is what is important.
The third thing we can learn for this passage is that while division is not something which is idea, it can lead to a more zealous preaching of the gospel. As in our passage we saw how these men were preaching Christ to draw people away for following Paul, and perhaps they would not have been preaching so vigorously if not the fact they were jealous of Paul. God can and often does use division to further the work of the gospel.
"Competitive Christianity is certainly better the lifeless Christianity."
The forth and final thing which we can learn from this passage is that the true servant of Christ will value the preaching of Christ, over their own values and ideas. I have seen Christians argue over the stupid things, to the point were they neglect to realize that the most important things that we can do is to preach Christ. That is what matters, not our view on these secondary things but on whether Christ is being preached. We need to be as Paul was and forget the injury that may be done to our pride or ego and rejoice in the preaching which is done for the Lord.
SHALL WE PRAY
