[Generated Transcript]

We’ll be in Philippians 1, reading verses 12 to 26. where we just were listening in Acts. It’s helpful, one, because he was in Philippi, but two, as we were hearing at the end of just his ordeal, he was beaten, he was dragged off, he was thrown into an inner prison, he had chains put around his hands and his feet.

You get a picture of where Paul is writing from. We know from a few clues both in this book and then in some other books that talk about his Roman imprisonment that the word used to describe his chains meant that he was actually chained to a guard all the time. That guard would switch out, but Paul was always chained, which means 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he had metal chains around his wrists that would dig into him, and he never had privacy, he never had time on his own to just be with other believers, or even just with his own thoughts.

And that’s the situation that Paul is writing from. which then brings out this section. So I want to give a brief introduction so you know what you’re reading, and then we’ll read it, okay? So here we get into Paul giving sort of an update on himself. He’s given his introduction, he’s shown his heart to the church, and then now Paul wants to give them sort of, here’s where I’m at. Now his physical situation they seem to already be aware of, but he’s going to talk about where he’s at.

And we see him initially talk about how he’s seen the gospel go out with great success. And then he talks about how he, in his suffering, is still confident in the Lord. and then how he’s even able to then rejoice. So he’s rejoicing that his prayers will be effective, but then just rejoicing because he’s glad to see the Lord working. He’s glad to see God receiving glory. Hopefully that will give you a bit of a roadmap as we read through these verses. Would you join me as we read God’s word, starting in verse 12?

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I’m hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.” This ends the reading of God’s Word.

As we come here, we come to a section of Paul talking about how he’s viewing his own life right then. This is what’s going on with me. They seem to already be aware of where he is. They’ve sent someone to him. They know he’s in prison, but Paul’s trying to give them an update into his own status, his own heart, his soul.

As we come to this, what I want you to think about is What is one of the last big decisions you’ve had? Big decision of, well, we were going to head a certain direction and then we changed career paths or we decided to stop doing that significant thing in our life. Maybe it was a job change. Maybe you bought a house. Maybe you decided not to buy a house. What was the way that you made that decision? What made you pull back from something and say, ah, that’s not worth it?

Because if we look here, we’re going to see Paul analyze his situation. and he’s under extreme suffering, and he’s rejoicing in the suffering, which is not how we normally think. Now, what I’m not, I’m gonna tell you what I’m not trying to say. I’m not trying to say, if it’s hard, then you need to go do it, because some of us just have this propensity of, well, because it’s hard, I need to just always just put my head down and keep going. What I am trying to say is, think through how you made that decision, and what does it say about God, okay? Did you reach a point where you said, no, no, God would not want me to do that, or God would want me to do this, and why? Okay? That’s the spot I wanna put it, because we’re gonna see how Paul interprets his situation, and then even makes decisions out of what he’s seeing.

And he’s gonna show us, well, how do I rejoice in Christ, even in great suffering? So as I had just said, we see a bit of what his imprisonment would have looked like. It would be painful, it would be tireless, or not tireless, the opposite of tireless, it’d be tiring. It’d be tiring because you never get a break from anything. And for someone whose mission is to preach the gospel, he now pretty much has an audience of one, the guy he’s chained to. So it feels like everything would be stunted.

And maybe you have been in a similar situation where you think, I don’t want to be on this path. I think God wants me there, but I’m stuck here. Or maybe that door is completely closed. I was made for this, and God has said no, and I will never get to do that thing. And Paul’s looking at this, saying, well, I was made to preach the gospel. God told me it. And now I’m in prison. And I don’t even know if I’m going to die. So maybe I’ll never be able to do it again.

How does Paul interpret his situation? What are Paul’s eyes set on? There’s a story of, in the soccer world, there’s a prize called the Ballon d’Oro, and every year it’s given to the best soccer player in the world. They’ve done amazing things, and sometimes there’s heated competition, and sometimes it’s really clear, oh, it’s this one guy. That guy was amazing. But there’s a story in 2005.

There’s a man named Ronaldinho. Some of you may be too young to know him. Some of you don’t know soccer, so you won’t know him at all. But he did things that you never would have seen on a soccer field. He was amazing. He won the Ballon d’Or in 2005. And he gets down, and he’s interviewed.

And they ask him, of course, how does it feel to be the best soccer player in the world? And his answer was, oh, I’m not the best soccer player in the world. You think, what? You just got the best prize in the world. He’s like, I’m not even the best soccer player on my team. And he points to a 16-year-old on Barcelona, and he says, oh, that guy’s way better than me.

In the sports world, everything’s about pride. It’s all about your ego, because you have to tell yourself you’re good enough to make it to the next level. You have to always be going against people who say you’re not good enough. but then to see someone who’s at the top of the peak of the world able to recognize, oh, I’m good, but that guy is great, and you guys don’t even know it yet. There’s something humbling about seeing, well, all the attention’s on me, but actually, I’m not even the focus of this. That guy’s gonna be way better than me. That’s just a little, one that should just blow us away that someone has that humility at the peak of sports. But that’s just a glimpse of what we see with Paul.

Because throughout this section, what we’re gonna see is what changes everything for him is the glory of Christ. So first I wanna look at how he interprets his situation. We talked about how everything would look bad, but verses 12 to 18, Look how Paul reinterprets his situation in light of Christ and his glory.

He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. That really, he’s saying, look, things look bad, but actually what’s going on is something really good. And then he gives two reasons. He says, well, look at how the gospel is succeeding and Christ is receiving more glory by me being in prison. And he points to two things. What are the two things he says? Verse 13, it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. So he points to unbelievers and says, look how the gospel is going into places that it never would have reached if I was free.

Why do I say that? Because he’s speaking about the imperial guard. These were like Caesar’s own personal bodyguards, but it’s like eight to 10,000 soldiers that stay in their own barracks, that their whole job is they’re directly underneath Caesar’s guard. They live in their own world.

How is the gospel ever going to get into there? And Paul says, actually now the whole imperial guard knows about Christ. Well, why? How on earth would God be able to get the gospel into this secluded people, this special forces in the Roman legion that’s opposed to Christianity? Well, because Paul’s been chained to one every single day of his imprisonment. And every day they switch around. And so what is he talking about? He’s talking about Christ.

There’s a story of these people in Europe who got a missionary zeal hundreds of years ago. And they said, we need to get this places that no one’s ever going to be able to go. And they would sell themselves into slavery to be able to reach the slave owners. It’s worth a whole life of slavery to be able to reach these people who would never be reached. And that’s what Paul is saying here. Well, I’m rejoicing at this because now every single day I can tell the gospel to someone, and they’re going to go and tell it to the people back at the barracks. And then the next day, I get someone new, and I’m going to talk to him about Christ. And now through my imprisonment, yeah, I’m not preaching to crowds. I’m not able to go into a church and preach the gospel. But none of those people would ever make it into a church. None of those people would ever be in the crowd listening to me.

And now they’re hearing about Christ. He says, this is, the gospel is exploding in this area in a way that I never could have reached before. That’s what he points to, the first thing. And then he says a second. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So he turns from, well, look how the gospel is going out in unbelievers, but look how Christ is being magnified among believers. There’s an interesting thing that as Christians receive sort of a pause in persecution for a while, we settle in, and things get comfortable.

And then all of a sudden, the idea of persecution that maybe was normal before, it seems like intolerable. Well, God wouldn’t ask me to do that. I couldn’t get back into it. When you were in it, when you first came to Christ, and your family was against you, and they were doubting you, or your friends were making fun of you, it was just normal. But now you’ve settled into a church and you’re stable in your work, and now you can’t imagine a coworker starting to criticize you for that, and so you quiet down.

And Paul sees that tendency, but then he says this, by my imprisonment, others are emboldened to preach the gospel. By Paul being in prison day after day and continuing to preach the gospel and not shrinking back, they think, oh, he’s right. That’s actually not that bad.

What’s the worst that they can do to me? And so he’s hearing of others outside of prison starting to speak God’s word. And he sees that fruit and says, isn’t that amazing? I mean, I could be bold out there. But by me being in prison, now there’s dozens who are being bold and going out into all of their circles. Isn’t that even better? So Paul sees, look, the gospel’s actually, Christ is being magnified more by me being in prison among the unbelievers and among the believers. He says, well, actually, this is really serving to advance the gospel. This isn’t a detriment. But you notice that all of this only makes sense if he’s seeing this through the mindset of Christ’s glory. Christ is the key to all of this.

So I want to give a little bit of a preface, since we’re just kind of at the beginning of the sermon, that this is actually an area that I struggle in. I can say it, I can know it, but rejoicing in suffering when my plans aren’t working out is something I know Christ is more important than me. I know that I don’t deserve anything. I know all the facts, but it’s hard for it to penetrate into my heart. So I’m gonna preach what I know and what God’s Word is saying here, but don’t take it to mean that, okay, Pastor Greg’s got this all down, his heart’s there. That this is something I’ve been praying over the last week, knowing this is a real struggle to, I can say that Christ is more important, but to actually know that my life is in service to Christ, and if I get nothing and Christ is magnified, that’s actually really good.

I can say it, but we need it to actually be in our hearts, because that’s where it is for Paul. It’s in his heart, that he looks at a situation and sees all of the ways that it could be negative, and he says, no, actually, let me tell you the positive things that are going on. So if you’re in a spot where you’re doubting God’s goodness, you’re thinking, now, this can’t be God’s plan for me, or I don’t like this. Take a moment to just try and force yourself to see it through the eyes like Paul sees.

Okay, what are ways that Christ is being magnified by the things I don’t like? And then maybe a step further, okay, well, what can I be doing in this situation I don’t want to be in to magnify Christ’s name? How do I take advantage of the bad situation I’m in to magnify Christ’s glory? Not just spend all of our time, how do I escape it? OK? We see this as it digs in a little bit deeper in verses 15 to 18.

And he thinks, OK, people are proclaiming God’s word more, and then the counter-argument’s going to be, well, some of them are actually speaking against you. Some, indeed, preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. And Paul acknowledges that some people actually are just doing it for their own selfish gain. It says, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. But listen to this, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

As we look out in the Christian world, we can see all sorts of muddied motives for doing things. And you can see people, and you think, that doesn’t seem right. Satan loves to muddy God’s church. But we see, as Paul looks at the situation, he’s able to see it purely because he’s seeing it through the eyes of Christ. And he’s seeing it’s not about me, but it brings unity to everything. And we’ll get to that at the end, but I want you to feel the weight of what he’s doing.

What are the false preachers doing? Now, they’re not false in what they’re saying, but what is the people who are preaching under pretense doing? They’re looking to afflict Paul in his imprisonment. They’re preaching out of selfish ambition. They’re actually preaching against Paul while they’re preaching the gospel.

So imagine you came into the church, and every single week, the pastor got up, and you were the illustration for every single sermon. Not the good illustration, but like it was your sin. Look how bad that guy is. Good thing you’re not like that guy, or you don’t wanna be like that guy. And every single week, the preacher was pointing his finger at you, just you, and saying, ah, you’re a bad example, and just trying to make everyone in the church look down on you.

That’s what Paul’s facing. Yeah, some do that. They have selfish ambition. They’re looking to afflict me in my imprisonment. Like, how low is that? Paul’s stuck in prison, and they’re just mocking and making fun of him and looking to, I just want him to feel bad. And how do they do it? By preaching the gospel, isn’t that twisted? Isn’t that cruel? The thing that Paul has devoted his life to, now that’s being used against him in a personal attack. But what is Paul’s response? Well, what? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

And Paul hears what people are saying about him, and hears what’s going on, and he says, but did they preach the real gospel or not? That wouldn’t be my response, leaving a church like that. I wouldn’t walk back, or drive back home, talk to my wife and think, ah, that was a good sermon. They really magnified Christ well. I’d be complaining about, that wasn’t right, that wasn’t, but what’s Paul’s only concern here?

Christ is proclaimed. Imagine every single week he’s talking about you and you leave and you’re smiling and you think, huh, that was the good gospel. That was right. Christ died for sinners. He might be lying about me, but Christ died for that sin that he’s talking about. Isn’t that amazing? I can’t even imagine having a response of that graciousness. But why? Why is Paul able to do that?

Because his whole focus is on Christ. Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Everything is being interpreted through the lens of, well, what magnifies Christ? And it all begins with, well, how do I interpret the situation right in front of me? Am I able to look at it? Are things able to find order in my life? Can I find unity around the gospel and around the glory of Christ? Even if it’s not the way I would have wanted it to be. And you can say, okay, that’s good because I see what Christ is doing in that.

That’s where Paul’s at. But then he’s gonna bridge to another step. He’s not just able to look at a situation and say, okay, I can see how God is using this for good. He ends saying, in that I rejoice. This is the theme of Philippians, and we’re gonna see that in Paul’s own life. He’s writing from a situation of rejoicing and suffering, and he’s gonna explain how. He repeats it, yes, but he moves on even further.

Yes, I will rejoice. Not just am I able to look back, reinterpret things and say, okay, I can look back years from now and say that was good, but he’s saying, no, I will rejoice. In this situation, I’m gonna be able to give praise to God. I’m going to be glad. And there’s two ways that he rejoices. This will be the second and third point. First off, Paul rejoices just in confidence.

He doesn’t quite see all the situation, but he is confident in the Lord’s work. Look at verses 19 and 20. I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. Paul doesn’t know how it’s gonna turn out for good for him. Do you see that? But he knows it will. How does he know? He points to two things, through prayer and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, I really think that’s just one thing. He says it in two ways, but it’s just one thing.

How does God work? God works through the prayers of his saints. And the prayers of the saints are just praying that the spirit will be working. But God’s trying to give credit to kind of both sides of God’s work. God works by his people praying. Don’t give up on prayer. But it’s all under God’s control. And God will work it out for good. So he says, not will I be able to look back in five years and rejoice because God will work it out. But he says, in this moment, I will rejoice through all of this because I know that prayer is effective and that God will work. OK?

And he points to two things. This will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation hope that I will not be at all ashamed. He sort of has two fears that you hear. He needs to be delivered from something and there’s this worry about being ashamed. And I want to think for a little bit about what that means. I think that’ll give us a clue into how Paul is able in the moment to rejoice.

What does it mean that it will turn out for his deliverance? Now we need to continue on to see what it means. What does it mean that he will not be ashamed? We’ll see that also at the end of verse 20. He says this, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. Now that last phrase is key.

He is confident in the Lord working this for his deliverance and removing the shame from him, whether he dies or whether he lives. So the shame he’s afraid of and the deliverance he’s looking for are not things here on earth. I am confident that the Lord will give me that job I want. That’s not what he’s saying. I’m confident that the Lord will take me out of prison and let me preach again.

That’s not what he’s saying, because he could die and he still has the same confidence. I’m confident that they will stop beating me up, or harassing me, or the people who are speaking against me will stop speaking against me, and I’ll stop being ashamed. That’s not what he’s saying, because he could die right then, and he still will not be ashamed, okay? Do you see that? What he’s looking at is saying, whatever this is, is seen in light of the resurrection. Whether he dies or whether he lives, he will be delivered and he won’t be ashamed.

Everything is interpreted in terms of, well, Christ will make everything right. So his deliverance is his salvation, which tells us something about Paul’s mindset. For years, he’s been preaching the gospel, but his concern is the weight of sins on his soul. The first thing he says is, I’m confident that this will turn out for my deliverance. What does he need to be delivered from? That he’s a sinner. And in all of this, he knows, well, if my sins are forgiven and I’m brought to the Lord, then everything is good.

That’s all that he needs in life. How frequently do we get caught up, as we mature in Christianity, we’ve been walking with the Lord for a decade or two decades, and then we start aiming for more? Well, yes, God forgave my sins, but he also should be giving me this thing. Maybe God will give you more, but are you content if it just works out for your deliverance from sin, your salvation? If that’s all that God gave you, are you content? Because that’s how you can have the mindset of Paul. He knows it’s gonna be okay, because he knows he’s saved. He knows it will work out for his salvation. He will be saved. He won’t be shamed. Because everything is interpreted through the lens of Christ will come again and everything will be made right.

If you’re a woman and you’ve given birth, you know the pain more than I do of giving birth to children. But then you also know the beauty and glory of having a child. And you look back and you’d say, oh, if I had an option of not going through that labor, but then I wouldn’t get my child, well, the option’s clear.

I know what I would choose. But Paul’s actually saying, no, in the middle of it, I’m gonna rejoice in my labor, in my suffering, because I know what’s coming on the other side. I know the great wedding feast of the lamb is there. I know how much Christ is worth. And I know what he’s promised and he’s good for his promises. Not just I’m willing to rejoice now that it’s passed, I will rejoice in it now. And we see that drilled home in the third point that he says. He gives an example of how much he means this.

Verse 21, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I’m to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I’m hard pressed between the two. Paul goes into this sort of back and forth battle. It’s as if he had a choice. Let’s pretend that I could actually, God just said, well, which one do you want to do? What would you choose, Paul? And now here’s what he’s answering. Now, he doesn’t actually have a choice. Things are just going to happen to him. But you’re seeing his mindset think through it.

Now, one of the shames of running through Philippians in 10 sermons is sort of any of these sections could be their own sermon. So we’re flying through things that I wish I could spend longer to dwell on. And this is one of those sections that, oh, there’s so much to unpack here.

But I want to just draw out the fact, Paul is thinking, well, if I had a choice, what would I choose? And he says, I’m actually stuck. I don’t know which I would choose, whether to live, whether to die. I’m hard pressed between the two. What does that tell us? It tells us that his choice of rejoicing is actually a choice that he’s choosing. And that if God gave him the opportunity, it’s not just, I’m rejoicing because I don’t have any other choice, so I might as well just rejoice. But now it’s like, well, even if I had a choice, even if I could choose to get out of prison or to die here in prison, he sees with the clarity the glory of Christ and says, actually, I don’t even know which one is better.

I don’t even know which one’s better. When I said at the beginning, look, I struggle to I struggle with this, because I’m not here. I have definite things that I know this is better that aren’t true in my life right now, and I don’t know how God’s going to make sense of that. But Paul looks at a far worse situation, and he says, well, yeah, there are hard things, but I actually don’t know if I would choose to get out of this or not.

And again, why? Why is he able to do that? Because his love and pursuit of the glory of Christ has so consumed him that his own choice for his well-being is subsumed underneath all of that. Do you see that? Immediately, how does he process information?

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But why is it gain to die? Because he’s going to be with Christ, right? If I’m to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, for Christ. But I don’t know which I’m going to choose, because my desire is to depart and be with Christ.

So everything about his choices, well, it’d really be great to get these chains off my arms, right? It’d really be great to stand in front of people and preach in front of a church and hear, that was a really good sermon, right? That’s what he’s trying to sort through. No. Well, one of these is going to bring glory to Christ, because I’m doing his labor for him. I’m working for him. But on the other hand, I would just love to just be with Christ and not do anything for him, just enjoy him. That’s Paul’s mindset.

As he looks out at life and he sees, well, the only reason I have any worth in my life at all is because I’ve been delivered from my sins. And so this has worth because I’m able to do something for the one who saved me from my sins. But this has worth because I just want to be with Christ.

If you talk to a widower, lost his wife of many years, and you would say, oh, if I could just have like one dinner with her. Just a regular dinner. A thing they would have throughout their whole life. You take it for granted, over and over again. But now there’s this longing, I can’t do that. I could just enjoy having dinner with my wife again. That’s the longing of Paul for Christ. I love him. If I could just have dinner with him. If I could just sit there and enjoy his presence. That’s what my heart wants.

The chains don’t matter. The insults don’t matter. The unfruitful life of being in prison doesn’t matter. You see, Paul’s able to look back and interpret his situation in a way that we would struggle to see it. It doesn’t matter what they say. Christ is being magnified. That’s all that matters.

He’s able to rejoice because he knows the character of Christ. I’m confident that God’s going to bring this through. He’s going to bring me through, and I know what he’s done for me. And why? Well, because he’s so consumed with the beauty and glory of Christ that he looks and says, all I want to do is just see his face and be with him. And it brings order to everything. It brings order to everything.

There’s not a great way to just make you feel that, especially for a sinner who’s preaching and is trying to feel that himself. So I just hold that out to you and say, this is what we need to feel about Christ. Oh, that we would see his face, and that would be all that would satisfy us. That’s what we want. And how much of all of the struggles here on Earth, and the competition, and how much of our own discomfort would just be settled if we just saw how beautiful Christ was? if we could have the mindset of Paul here and really see how valuable Christ is to us. Would you pray with me that that would be so, that we would just grow maybe an inch towards that this week? Lord, we pray that you would show us Christ. We need your spirit to enliven our hearts, not just to know these truths, but to carry them through and meditate on them this week.

And that you would be present and show yourself in your beauty. That you would humble our hearts to see how valuable just our salvation is. Would you open our eyes to see your work around us where we see frivolousness? When things seem small, it’s the day of small things. May you help us to trust your character.

For the mothers here, as they’re caring for kids and just struggling through the same things every day, would they see that their work is not in vain? May they see the one for whom they work more clearly. And would you receive their offering with joy? For the children who are just growing to know Christ, would you plant a love of Christ deep in their hearts? That Christ would be the one through whom they interpret the world as they’re learning and growing. That they would see your hand in everything.

That when things happen that confuse them and don’t make sense, they would run to you in prayer and they would feel assurance that this will turn out for their deliverance. That they will not be ashamed. And we pray that we would press forward, looking for the glory of Christ, knowing that you are our honor, you are our worth. We pray this in Christ’s name, amen.