Philippians 1
Christ Is Preached
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
To Live Is Christ
19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.
25And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
This is the second in a sermon I am preaching from the book of Philippians. Last week I spoke on Philippians 1:3-6. We examined how God began a work of grace in our lives and is committed to finishing it. This week we will examine Philippians 1:13-26 and look at how Paul as a prisoner glorified Christ in the situation he faced.
First of all we should look at some of the background concerning the book of Philippians. Paul was writing this letter to a church in the city of Philippi, located in Macedonia. Philippi was a city on the Egnation Way, a road that led from Europe into Asia Minor. It was a city located at near the far eastern European edge of the Empire and was at a crossroads between east and west.
Paul’s history with the Philippian church began in Acts 16 when he and Silas entered the city to begin their missionary work there. When they entered Philippi they met a slave girl who worked as a fortune teller. The girl, possessed by a demon, began to follow Paul and Silas.
She followed them everywhere, proclaiming: “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17) Now even though what she said may have sounded like a positive heralding of the two men, it seems that the way she did it brought much embarrassment to Paul and Silas.
We read in Acts 16:18 that Paul became annoyed with her and turned and spoke to the spirit inside the girl: “I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her.” Immediately the girl was set free from the demon and as a result was no longer able to work as a fortune teller.
Her masters, having lost a considerable source of income, became angry with Paul and Silas. They had the two brought before the magistrates and then had them beaten with rods. The rods they were beaten with were not single ones, but rather ones tied together in a bundle.
They are thrown into the inner prison and their feet were placed into stocks. Whenever prisoners were placed into stocks their feet were spread as far apart as possible in order to produce painful cramping. So here they were in this dark prison cell, their bodies in pain from the severe beating, and the muscles in their legs and thighs severely cramped due to the stocks.
Most of us in this kind of situation would not be handling it very well. What we read in Acts 16, however, is that an amazing thing then begins to happen. Paul and Silas begin to pray and sing praises to God. It must have been some amazing singing they were doing, because we read that God responded by sending an earthquake to the city of Philippi.
The earthquake was so powerful that all the doors were shaken open and everyone was freed from their stocks. Paul and Silas could have escaped at this point, but rather chose to stay.
The Philippian jailer freaked out when he saw that the doors of the jail were open and that the prisoners were about to escape. He drew his sword and was prepared to kill himself when Paul cried out to him to put the sword down. The Philippian jailer then asks: “What must I do to be saved?” (v. 30)
We read that Paul and Silas were then invited to the home of the jailer where they shared the gospel and that the jailer and his whole family came to Christ. We see in this story how God used adverse conditions to bring about great good and how God used these circumstances to bring salvation to a whole family.
As Paul was penning the letter of Philippians, he was again a prisoner—this time on trial for his very life. He was chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day. The guards would likely come in for six hour shifts, so Paul would meet with four different guards a day. It seems that the guards that Paul met with were not ordinary guards, but Praetorian guards—guards that were sworn to protect the life of the emperor. To be a Praetorian guard, one had to be a member of the Roman elite Patrician class.
For a long time Paul had prayed to go to Rome. If he had been able to have gone to Rome freely, he would have been able to have preached to Christianized Jews or even Romans who were lower class, but as a prisoner he had access to some of Rome’s elite. Where many people would have seen Paul’s imprisonment a hindrance to preaching the gospel, Paul saw it as an opportunity.
It seems that there were three positive outcomes from Paul’s imprisonment: He was able to share the gospel with men who had access to the imperial court, he wrote the prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, and others were encouraged to share the gospel by Paul’s example.
Lessons we can learn from Paul’s response to his captivity
1.We need to make the most of the opportunities we face.
Philippians 1
13so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
There is a Greek word kairos that means when time and destiny meet. Paul saw that he had such a kairos opportunity when he was a prisoner in Rome. Here was an opportunity for his witness to shine before some of Rome’s elite. If Paul had to be chained to Praetorian guards, then he would be a missionary to them.
In the years to come following Paul’s captivity, some of the Praetorian guards were among those who claimed Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I know a friend who was battling cancer a few years ago. He said that he didn’t merely want to survive his cancer, but thrive in it.
It can be certainly said that Paul didn’t merely want to survive his circumstances, but rather wanted to thrive in them.
I think of the testimony of Watchman Nee, a Chinese minister who was arrested by communist authorities for his faith. While he was in prison, Watchman Nee had letters smuggled to Chinese believers that were so eloquent and profound that many Christians became more sold out to Christ and won others for Christ.
The Chinese authorities thought they could outwit Nee by replacing the guards every six hours and never assigning the same guard twice because he kept converting the guards and persuading them to smuggle out his letters. The result was that even more guard got converted and even more letters were smuggled out of the prison.
In addition, many believers were even more inspired by Nee and the church in China grew even more. Nee was later martyred for his faith.
We may not be severely persecuted for our faith as others are overseas. We may not be in prison for our faith, but we may facing a difficult trial in our lives. It may be a difficult work situation, home situation or life circumstance. The challenge we face is how we can glorify Christ in our circumstances.
When we are facing challenging circumstances how can we manifest the love of Christ to those around us. It seems that when we are facing a difficult trial that God would have us dig our wells deep in Him so that we would not only be able to drink of His presence, but so that others would benefit as well. We do not merely want to survive our circumstances, but thrive in them.
2.We should not try to promote our own agenda
15Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
There were those preachers who were out sharing the gospel out of love for Christ and those who preached the gospel in order to promote themselves and discredit Paul.
Paul was not concerned about how people perceived him or even that his critics were sharing the gospel. In fact, Paul was able to rejoice over the fact that even his critics were preaching Christ. Even if they were preaching Christ out of bad motives, Paul rejoiced over the fact that people were hearing about Christ.
Paul was not concerned about promoting or demoting his name, but rather found joy in the fact that people heard about Christ.
3.We need to trust that God will deliver us.
19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
The word used for deliverance here is soteria and is also synonymous with salvation. Some believe that Paul was referring to his salvation from the prospect of being condemned by the Roman courts. Other commentators, however, believe that Paul was referring to the ultimate salvation would experience after death when he would go to spend eternity with God.
I happen to lean toward the latter view. Paul certainly believed what he wrote in Romans 8:28:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”—NKJV
Consider the situation the Hebrew people faced when they stood before the Red Sea. A pillar of fire separated them from the advancing Egyptian army. Just as God’s Light protected the Israelites from their certain doom, so the light of Christ protected Paul from whatever darkness would seek to engulf him.
Paul knew he might suffer or even die for the sake of the gospel, but he was also confident that the pillar of Christ stood between him and the forces of darkness. He knew that his salvation was secure and that his ultimate victory would be realized when he faced God in Heaven. Job had a similar sentiment when he wrote:
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God.—Job 19:26
Much of what we worry about is of a temporal nature. We need to be more concerned about what is eternal.
4.We need to remember that our lives belong to Christ
21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
Some of the writings of Paul really reveal the heart of the apostle. Certainly his statement “to live is Christ and to die is gain” revealed much of what drove his life. Another verse that summed up what Paul was about is in 2 Corinthians 5:14:
“For the love of Christ compels us…”
This passage in the Amplified Bible states that “the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us.”
Illustration: Love truly does compel us to go the distance for the object of our affection. Mel Gibson, playing cab driver Jerry Fletcher in “Conspiracy Theory,” said this to someone riding in his cab:
“Love gives you wings! It makes you fly. I don’t even call it love—I call it Geronimo. You see when you are in love, you’ll jump from the top of the Empire State and you won’t care—screaming Geronimo all the way down!”
“Then you’ll die,” objects the passenger. “You’ll squash yourself.”
“Love gives you wings.”
Consider what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 4
8We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- 10always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
Paul was the ultimate Christian terminator. Remember the movie Terminator? Arnold Schwarzenegger played an android from the future that was programmed with a mission. Nothing it seemed could stop the Terminator. The Terminator always moved forward to accomplish his mission and never ran away.
You could shoot the Terminator, but the Terminator would always get back up. Paul was much like the Terminator, you couldn’t stop him because he was on a mission. He was consumed with Christ and compelled by his love to share His love with a lost and dying world.
Nothing could stop him from sharing about Christ—not beatings, not prison, not the threat of death. Like the Terminator, Paul would never retreat, but would always seek to move forward. He would continue to advance the gospel wherever God would lead him whether that would be to Jews, Greeks, or even to Roman Praetorian guards chained to him.
He loved life in that in living he could continue to share the love of Christ with a lost and dying world. He eagerly anticipated his death because he knew that in his death he could be with Christ. His passion for Christ enabled him to endure great discomfort and even torture for the sake of the gospel.
His passion for Christ was the source of his hope and his joy. Though Paul experienced many arduous trials and great poverty, he also experienced such a depth of joy and peace that even those who live under the most comfortable of circumstances fail to near.
The joy, the peace, and the sense of purpose that Paul had in his life is available to you this morning.
Some of you may need to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Some of you may need to rededicate your life to Christ and resume your journey. Some of you may be facing a difficult trial and may need assurance of God’s grace in your journey.
Whatever you are facing this morning, I want you to know that you don’t have to face it alone—that you too can experience the grace of God in your life. Wherever you are at I want to invite you to come forward or pray in your pews as we sing the closing hymn.
