“Advance the Gospel”
[Philippians
1:12-18a]
July 27, 2014 Second Reformed Church
What is the most important thing in
your life? Your health? Your marriage? Your children? Your job?
Your money? Your home? Your friends?
Your stuff? What do you most look
out for?
After Paul greets the Philippians in
his letter and gives thanks for them and tells them the things that he yearns
for them, he then turns to address their concerns about him. Remember, Paul was in prison in Rome, waiting
to appeal his case – and preach the Gospel – before Caesar, himself.
In addressing the Philippians’
concerns, Paul tells them two things in this morning’s text:
First, suffering for the Gospel
advances the Gospel.
Second, the advance of the Gospel is
more important than the reasons people advance it.
Paul had plenty of enemies from the
Jews and the Romans and others for a variety of reasons. And that does not surprise us, does it? Jesus promised that Christians will be enemies
of the world:
“If the world hates you, know that
it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would
love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to
you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But
all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not
know him who sent me” (John 15:18-21, ESV).
Paul addresses the Philippians’
concerns about him regarding what seem to be two different groups of enemies. Paul is so vague about them that the
Philippians must have known exactly who he meant without his going into much
detail. We, however, can only safely
conclude some basic facts about these two groups.
And so, we consider Paul’s points:
First, suffering for the Gospel
advances the Gospel.
In Paul making that point, we
understand that his enemies – his detractors – were saying, “See, Paul is in
prison for preaching the Gospel. If he
was really preaching what God said – if he was really a son of God – would God
allow him to suffer at the hands of Rome?
No, the Christian life is one of victory over sin, the devil, death, and
Hell. If Paul is suffering, it is
because he preached something that was not true. Paul is suffering because the Gospel Paul
preached is not true.”
It’s not a terrible argument, is
it? Paul was preaching about union with
Christ, the hope and joy of the Kingdom, the victory of Christ in the
Resurrection, and here he was, being hunted, beaten, and some people were even
trying to kill him. That doesn’t sound
right, does it?
The only problem with their
criticism of Paul and his preaching of the Gospel was that Jesus promised that
anyone who follows Him will suffer at the hands of the world. And the Scripture writers are in agreement
about this: follow Christ and you will
suffer.
As Peter wrote, “Now who is there to
harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for
righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be
troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being
prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope
that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good
conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good
behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing
good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil” (1 Peter 3:13-17, ESV).
When we follow Jesus, when we
proclaim the Gospel, when we advance the Gospel, we should be prepared to
suffer. The world hates Jesus and His
Gospel. So, we shouldn’t be surprised.
And, understand, if you suffer for
the Gospel, that advances the Gospel. As
Paul says in this morning’s text, “I want you to know, brothers, that what has
happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,”
Paul explains two ways in which his
imprisonment has served to advance the Gospel – how his suffering for Christ
and His Gospel has served to advance the Gospel.
Paul tells the Philippians, “so that
it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest
that my imprisonment is for Christ.”
The imperial guard of Rome – the Praetorian
Guard – consisting of 9,000 praetoriani
– 9,000 guards (O’Brien, Philippians,
93). Paul told the Philippians that
because he was imprisoned for Christ, word spread throughout these 9,000 guards
that Paul was imprisoned for preaching that there is One Way to Salvation –
through faith alone in God Who came to earth in the Person of Jesus and
physically resurrected from the dead.
“Because I am imprisoned in Rome,
the Gospel has advanced – 9,000 soldiers have heard the Gospel!”
And Paul tells the Philippians, “And
most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
The Christians in Rome looked at
Paul and how he was dealing with his imprisonment – continuing to preach the
Gospel to any who would hear, and the Roman Christians took great confidence in
his example. Rather than dissuade the
Roman Christians from proclaiming the Gospel, seeing Paul continue to stand for
the Gospel and preach the Gospel in prison, served to make them more confident
in the message and the truth of the Gospel – it served to make them much more
bold in their preaching – they were preaching the Gospel without fear of what might
happen to them – they were submitting to the rule of Christ over them and not
worrying about what secondary powers in the world might do.
As Jesus taught, “And do not fear
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can
destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And
not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the
hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value
than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before
men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven”
(Matthew
10:28-33, ESV).
“The Christians in Rome have taken
my imprisonment and my example in prison to be an encouragement and an
emboldening – they are preaching the Gospel all the more – and without fear of
what the world might do to them.”
Paul told them not to worry about
the people who were preaching against Paul – and the accusations that his
imprisonment showed that his preaching of the Gospel was defective – or wrong. The results he was seeing was that the Gospel
was advancing – the guards were hearing the Gospel preached – and the Gospel
message was circulating among the ranks.
And the Christians in Rome were preaching all the more, with greater
boldness and without fear.
Remember, as we have noted before,
we are not called to seek out suffering – we are not called to be obnoxious for
the sake of the Gospel. We are called to
be prepared, because if we truly present the Gospel, suffering will occur. Maybe you’ll be thrown in jail, maybe you
will be thought less of, maybe your spouse will be murdered, maybe you’ll lose
a promotion – or a job. Are you ready to
suffer for Christ and His Gospel – whatever that suffering may be – if it
serves to advance the Gospel?
It’s not an easy thing to consider,
and it’s easier to say you will lose anything than to actually lose something. So, we need to prepare for it – by getting
our priorities right – seeing what is of true value and what we can let go of for
the sake of Christ.
We looked at a passage recently in
Sunday morning Bible study, where Jesus said, “Now when Jesus saw a crowd
around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up
and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said
to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let
me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave
the dead to bury their own dead’” (Matthew 8:18-22, ESV).
Jesus told a scribe – someone with
some authority and standing in the community – you must be willing to become
homeless for the sake of the Gospel.
Jesus told a man whose father had just died that showing Christ the
proper respect was a higher calling that honoring his father by being there to
bury him.
Jesus said, “If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits
his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man
is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will
repay each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:24b-27, ESV).
Jesus tells those who follow Him, if
it will advance the Gospel for you to be crucified, you must do it. Because advancing the Gospel is the most
important thing – making sure everyone hears the Gospel call to belief and
repentance – is the most important thing – it’s the chief job God has given us.
Second, the advance of the Gospel is
more important than the reasons people advance it.
“Some indeed preach Christ from envy
and rivalry, but others from good will.”
A second group of people, who were
against Paul, were preachers who were envious or jealous of him. People who looked at him or heard him speak
and thought, “I’m a better speaker than he is.
I dress better than he does. My
body is more buff than his. Why should
he have all the followers? Now that he’s
in jail, it’s my time to capitalize on what he was preaching and get the
attention, the recognition – all the benefits that Paul was getting that I am
certainly more deserving of.”
The words that Paul uses here do not
mean that these preachers saw what Paul had and wanted to have it for
themselves as well. What Paul is saying
is that they preachers saw what he had and they wanted to have it and they
wanted Paul not to have it. They did not
just want to be as popular and as admired as Paul, but they wanted to be as
popular and as admired as Paul and have Paul no longer be popular or
admired. It is an insidious form of
covetousness that says, “You have this thing that I want and deserve, and I
want it and I want you to no longer have it.”
OK?
Now, here’s the rub: working out of insidious, envious, covetous,
rivalrous motives, these people preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ rightly and
truly! Whether they really believed and
received the Gospel themselves, we are not told, but they preached the Gospel Paul
preached because they were envious of what they thought Paul profited by
preaching this Gospel, and they thought they should have that profit and not
Paul! They were preaching the Truth of
the Gospel – salvation in Jesus Alone – they were preaching for the wrong
reasons, but they were truly proclaiming the Gospel.
“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.”
There
were preachers who preached, believing the Gospel, and believing that Paul was
advancing the Gospel by suffering for the Gospel in prison. Then there were these others who preached out
of selfishness – hoping to hurt Paul’s reputation – to knock him off the top of
the heap – to cause him competition in the Gospel-preaching game.
But
Paul was not concerned about being the most popular or the best recognized
preacher of the Gospel – as he explained to the Philippians: “What then? Only that in every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
Paul
said he didn’t care why people were preaching the Gospel, as long as the Gospel
was being rightly preached. If the
Gospel was being preached – if it was being advanced – Paul was filled with joy
– that joy that can only come through being satisfied with where you are in
Christ Jesus.
Would you be satisfied with being
nobody – with having any recognition or awards taken away by someone else – if
it advanced the Gospel?
John the Baptist was talking with
his disciples about Jesus and said, “John answered, ‘A person cannot receive
even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me
witness, that I said, “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.”
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who
stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore
this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease’” (John
3:27-30, ESV).
John told his disciples that – at a
wedding – the bride and the bridegroom are the center of attention – the friend
of the bridegroom ought not to be seeking to be in the spotlight. The best thing the friend of the bridegroom
can do – if he is a true friend, is direct people’s attention to the bride and
bridegroom. So, the best thing we can do
to show people Jesus and direct them to the Gospel is to get out of the way. And if others want the “spotlight” of
preaching the Gospel – directing people to Jesus – if they are rightly
preaching the Gospel – rejoice! There
are more places for you to go and more people for you to tell.
So Paul tells the Philippians that
all is well, because the Gospel is advancing.
Yes, he is in prison, but the guards are learning why he is in prison –
the message of the Gospel, and that message is spreading throughout the
praetorium. The Christians and Rome are
looking at the way Paul is carrying himself in prison and being more confident
and more bold in preaching the Gospel.
And Paul tells them not to worry
about people who are preaching the Gospel because they don’t like Paul. The joyful point is that they are preaching
the Gospel!
Of course, heretics must be stopped,
but anyone who is preaching the Gospel ought to be encouraged to do so. Other issues – such as covetousness – may be
addressed in other ways – but don’t stop the right preaching of the Gospel.
So, are you ready to work hard for
the advancement of the Gospel? Are you
ready to tell others about what Jesus did in history? Have you made advancing the Gospel your
priority? Will you obey Jesus? As we noted last week: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew
28:18-20, ESV).
Are you ready to suffer for the news
of the One Way to salvation? Are you
ready to be looked down on, ignored, forgotten, and even despised?
Brothers and sisters, true joy is
found in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. As
Paul shows us in our text this morning – the advance of the Gospel is where we
will find our joy through Jesus Christ.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we do not like to
suffer, and we enjoy others thinking well of us. Help us to keep Your Incarnation, life,
crucifixion, and Resurrection before us that we would see the advance of the
Gospel as worth more and more joy-filling for us, than having the world treat
us well and think well of us. For it is
in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment