I don't know if you're familiar with Mission Impossible. Actually, it originated as a TV series in the 60s. But kind of in its current iteration, it exists as a fairly successful film franchise starring Tom Cruise. I think the eighth film in that franchise is due out sometime next year. But if you're not familiar with Mission Impossible, it's based around a kind of independent fictional task force called the Impossible Mission Force or IMF as it's known. And this IMF, they're kind of used as secret off the book contractors of the US government who, you know, when there's situations that where things have kind of hit the fan and they have seemingly impossible objectives that need to happen, they call in the mission impossible task force. So they'll be given a mission, which is kind of on the surface seems impossible, whether it's infiltrating secure locations or seizing critical intelligence or destroying sensitive data or equipments or whatever it is that needs to happen. Um, basically their job is just to come in and get the mission accomplished. It doesn't really matter how they accomplish their missions. The important thing is just that it gets done. And what is kind of. become really popular about this franchise, I guess, is because of the nature of trying to do impossible things. It's got some really insane stunts and other things like that. So they've got a seemingly impossible mission. They come up with a plan and, spoiler alert, in case you haven't ever watched Mission Impossible, usually everything goes wrong. But somehow they still managed to accomplish the mission at the end. Now I'm sure you're sitting there going, that's all very fascinating, Ryan, but what's it got to do with Philippians chapter one? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, Paul is actually a man on a mission. In Acts chapter nine, uh, Paul is confronted by the Lord Jesus, the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Jesus has a very special role, a job for Paul to accomplish. In Acts 9, verse 15, Jesus tells Ananias about Paul. He says, he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. See, Paul's mission is to reclaim Jesus. Paul's mission is to make the name of Jesus known, to spread the good news about Jesus, about how he died. For our sin how about how he rose for our hope so that we could be reconciled to God that's Paul's mission to get the message of Jesus to the Gentiles and to the all the all the world But as you would have seen as last week and you get to Philippians chapter 1 Paul is in prison he's a prisoner and So if your mission is to get out and tell the whole world about Jesus, it might seem like actually that mission is in jeopardy. How's that gonna happen? It might seem impossible. So Paul, he's been arrested, he's in chains, he's under house arrest. How's the gospel message gonna get out? How's Paul gonna achieve his aims, his objectives with the situation he's in? That looks impossible. And if you are Paul and you know your task is to get the gospel out about the Lord Jesus and you're stuck in prison, it might be really easy for you to be despondent. Might be really easy to look at your circumstances and lose hope. It'd be easy for Paul to be moping around, but he's not. In fact, Paul is rejoicing. In fact, if you read the letter to Philippians, it's all about joy. As we saw last week, as we began in Philippians chapter one, joy is found throughout this letter. And so it's Paul, someone who's, he's under house arrest. How is he able to rejoice in those circumstances? What's the source of Paul's joy? What's the source of Paul being able to rejoice? Well, Paul's joy is obviously not in his situation. I'm sure things hadn't gone the way that Paul had planned. But last week in Philippians chapter one, Paul had a prayer for the Philippians and he said, do you remember it? This is the context of our passage this morning. He says, praying for the church in Philippi, he said, this is my prayer. that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. Paul wants the Philippians to have knowledge and discernment so they'd be able to approve what is excellent, or as the NIV translate that, that they might be able to discern what is best. And so I put it to you that as Paul has actually come to discern what's best, that's how he's able to have joy. As Paul discerns what is actually the best outcome, that kind of drives what's going on in this passage. Now, last week, if you were here, I said that, you know, sermon was brought to you by the letter P. Well, today's message is brought to you by the letter M. And if you want a sermon outline, I think it's on page six there of your service outline. So in spite of Paul's circumstances, he's not moping. He's got joy. Now that's three points this morning. He's not moping because the gospel is still moving, in spite of some people's motives. And so Paul rejoices that Christ is magnified. So the context, Paul's in prison. That's seemingly an obstacle to the gospel going out, but have a look with me, turn, have a look at verse 12. Paul says, he says, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Paul says that rather than it being a reason for him to despair and lose heart in his being arrested and his being in prison, it's actually helped advanced the gospel rather than hinder it. How has Paul's circumstance advanced the gospel? We'll have a look at verse 13. He says, It has become known throughout the whole imperial God and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. See, because Paul's in prison, that's actually provided an opportunity for the guards to hear about what Paul's been doing, about why he's there, about how he's been preaching Jesus. How do you imagine Paul would ever get access to the inner circle of even the emperor in Rome? Yet here Paul is, guarded by imperial guards, And he's not free to kind of leave, but he's free to talk to them about Jesus. And it's given Paul new opportunities to proclaim the gospel. He says it's become known to the God and all the rest that his imprisonment is for Christ. See, Paul's circumstances have actually given him a unique opportunity to reach a new group of people that he mightn't otherwise have been able to reach with the gospel. But I wonder about you, have you ever felt like maybe your plans have been messed up before? It's easy to get down when that happens, isn't it? It's easy when we kind of make our plans and we kind of organize our life the way that we want it to kind of work out. And then something happens and everything seems to mess up. I mean, take this last week. Take all the flooding that's been seen across central Victoria. For so many people, that's completely messed up their lives in so many unplanned ways. And it'd be easy, wouldn't it, to let that kind of get you down, to kind of lead you to despair. It's also completely possible that God actually uses things like that to open up new doorways, new opportunities that wouldn't actually have been possible. And likewise, Paul's imprisonment has opened up opportunities for him to share the gospel. But not only has Paul's imprisonment opened up opportunities for him to share the gospel, what's happened to Paul has actually advanced the gospel through the impact it's had on other people. Have a look at verse 14. He says, Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear. See, Paul being locked up and unable to freely proclaim the gospels, it actually prompted other believers to kind of step up in Paul's place. Somehow through Paul's imprisonment, other Christians have become even more bold to proclaim the gospel. It's easy to imagine that might actually put you off, right? I mean, you can imagine people thinking, well, I mean, look what's happened to Paul. He's got himself locked up for proclaiming Jesus. You know, maybe it might be best if we kind of lay low and hold our tongues and kind of don't talk about Jesus. Otherwise we might find ourselves locked up. You might think that that would be what happened. Well, that's actually not what's happened. Through Paul's being arrested and imprisoned. Many believers actually come to realize that people need to hear about Jesus, and Paul's not able to do that freely. And so, many people responded by trusting in God and becoming more bold, started sharing Jesus themselves. Now, it's not exactly the same, but, so, Pastor Russ is currently on long service. And obviously he's done the bulk of preaching at church here over the last 10 years, and as you would expect him to. But it's actually, as he's been away, as he's been not here to preach, it's actually been super encouraging to see other people step up. See guys in our congregation have a go at preaching in church, about proclaiming Jesus in his absence. So take, for example, one of the men in our church, Dave North. He preached here a month or so ago. It's the first time he's ever done that. And he's actually not here this morning because he's actually off someone else's opportunity come up for him to go and proclaim Jesus. Now, they're easy to imagine that if Ross hadn't have gone away, that maybe Dave never would have done that. He might have never had a go at preaching. Now, not everyone is going to publicly proclaim Jesus by, by preaching and teaching. But you know, maybe it's as you see obstacles and opportunities for you to serve through circumstances that come up, that it'll actually prompt you to step out and serve in something, in a way that you might not have ever done. I remember when I was at university years ago. The church I went to, he had like two guitar players. And one of them broke his hand playing rugby. And so we had one guitar player. And then he was suddenly away and they needed someone to play guitar. And someone had heard that I had a guitar and they're like, can you play guitar? And now I kind of am not a very upfront person and I hate kind of doing that kind of thing, but actually prompted me to serve in that kind of way. And, and it's through opportunities, things like that with hardships on breaking their hands that actually it forced me to, to grow and develop skills that I might not have otherwise have done. Likewise, in the hardship through Paul being imprisoned, actually people have stepped up and it's encouraged them to be more bold and to preach the gospel. You see, Paul's imprisonment, it's encouraged people to be bold and to speak the word without fear. See, God actually used that situation and those circumstances for good. And I want to put it to you that when we're bold, that we can have confidence too, that Jesus is going to work through those circumstances, work through our efforts and our actions to see the gospel go out. So we see in Paul's imprisonment, it's actually served to advance the gospel. The gospel is still moving rather than it being a barrier to the gospel going out. It's provided new opportunities. It's provided more people to preach and proclaim the gospel. But you also notice there that some of the reasons that people are proclaiming Jesus are actually mixed. There are different motives for why some people are proclaiming Christ. And if you see verse 15, he says, indeed, some are now preaching Christ from envy and rivalry. but others from God will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition. They don't do it sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. Paul here is acknowledging that people have different reasons for why they're proclaiming Jesus. And they're not all good. Some are doing it out of envy, some are doing it out of rivalry. Perhaps they think, well, now that Paul's out of the way, is it opportunity for me to kind of expand my influence or to grow my followers? And maybe they're envious of Paul. Now that he's not around, perhaps there's an opportunity to try and make him look better. It's easy to imagine someone saying, well, you know, if God was pleased with Paul, you know, Paul wouldn't have ended up in prison. Or some people might say, well, you know, Paul, he's trouble. He ticks people off. He goes around acting as though God's given him some sort of special authority or whatever is going on. Paul recognizes that others proclaiming Jesus, some of them are doing it for bad reasons, and some of them are doing it to make things harder for him. But Paul's actually not focused on that. Paul's actually not worried about himself. He just wants people to hear about Jesus or however that happens. And if people are hearing about Jesus, for whatever reason, Paul's thankful for that. Now, I think it's important to say at this point that although the motives that some people might have for proclaiming Jesus are ungodly, There's actually not anything to suggest that what they're proclaiming about Jesus is wrong or unhelpful. The situation that Paul seems to be speaking about here is that Jesus is being proclaimed truthfully and accurately. It's not a situation where people are proclaiming Jesus, but they're saying stuff about Jesus that's wrong. It doesn't seem like what they're saying is that they're just false teachers. I say that because if that was the case, I can't imagine Paul saying what's happened is actually to advance the gospel. If people are proclaiming a false gospel, that's not actually advancing the gospel. that's actually confusing people about the gospel, if that makes sense. So just, even though people, maybe they've got bad reasons for proclaiming Jesus, there's no reason to think that what Paul, what they're saying about Jesus is wrong. See? In Paul's letter to the church in Galatia, for example, it's not like what we read in Philippians. In Galatia, Paul's actually quite worked up by the fact that the gospel is actually being distorted and that people are in fact preaching a false gospel and turning after a false message of salvation. Not that there is another gospel. Paul actually rebukes those who get the gospel wrong in kind of strongest terms in Galatians. In Galatians, Paul is concerned that what's being preached is leading people astray, but that's not what you have here. Here, it seems like what Paul's talking about is that somehow you've got people who are proclaiming Christ, even if it's out of bad motives, but what they're saying is actually true, if that makes sense. So for example, I don't think this is a situation like someone like a Do you guys, have you heard of Joel Osteen, for example? Joel Osteen is a so-called Christian teacher and preacher. He leads one of the largest churches in the USA, in Houston, Texas. So Joel Osteen, he'll talk about God. He'll even reference scripture and the like. But I believe that he's on a record of, he's actually distorting Jesus. He's actually proclaiming a false gospel. He doesn't really talk about sin. He doesn't really explain Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross to pay for our sin. He doesn't really talk about how we can be reconciled to God, which is actually at the heart of the gospel message, right? That's at the heart of what Jesus came to do. And so he might write best-selling books about living your best life now. But I say that he's actually confusing people about the gospel. He's deceiving people about the gospel. He's deceiving people about what following Jesus actually looks like. It actually looks like taking up your cross. No, I can't see that. Paul would see any reason to rejoice in something like what Joel Osteen has done. He's not advancing the gospel, in my opinion. He's just one example of many others I could name about people who are confusing the gospel. Now, I think what's happening here is maybe something more like a Mark Driscoll, if you're familiar with Mark Driscoll, who I'd put in kind of different categories. See, Mark Driscoll is a preacher, teacher, most commonly known for planting a mega church in Seattle, Mars Hill Church, which for various different reasons ended up folding because at very least like part of his own sin. But at the same time, it's really hard to deny that many people actually heard the gospel through his ministry. Many people heard the gospel through his preaching and were saved. And that's the kind of thing where I think you can say, we can rejoice in that, right? Whatever bad things may have happened in that section, as the gospel was faithfully proclaimed, as people heard about Jesus, as they understood the good news about Jesus, Whether good reasons or bad reasons, whatever was going on, Paul, as he hears people proclaiming the gospel, he can see that and go, can rejoice that Jesus is being proclaimed. See here in this letter, he says, people are proclaiming Jesus. Some are doing it for really bad reasons, which may even include making things hard for Paul. But even so, if what they're saying about Jesus is true, if they're getting the gospel right, And people need to hear about Jesus, so if they're talking about Jesus, if they're getting Jesus right, that's a reason to rejoice that people are hearing about Jesus. But maybe it's worth, at this moment, just considering just for yourself about our motives for why we do some of the things that we do. See, God can use all the things that we do for good, but maybe, It's because he can use them. Sometimes our motives for why we do things are mixed. They're unhelpful, and those motives actually matter to God. You know, if somewhere in our motives for the things that we do, in our actions, if there's kind of envy and rivalry, kind of mixed up into our motives as wanting to make things hard for other people, well, I pray that God would actually reveal those things to us. That he'd help us repent of those things. But finally, verse 18, Paul says, what then? He says, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. Paul wants people to hear about Jesus. Above all else, what he wants is people to hear Jesus proclaimed. Because Paul knows that if people are going to come to salvation in Jesus, If people are going to know and trust the salvation that comes through Jesus, then Jesus needs to be made known. And Paul knows that God can work through the message of the gospel, in spite of the motives of the messenger. But Paul says the important thing is that that message gets out there. If that's happening, Paul is rejoicing. It doesn't even matter to Paul if it's making things harder for him personally, as long as people are hearing about Jesus. Now I wonder, have you ever had moments when you hear other people talking about Jesus? How does that make you feel? Perhaps someone is talking about Jesus, but maybe you feel like they're not doing the best job of it. Maybe you feel like they're lacking in tact, or nuance, or maybe you feel like it's just really bad timing. Maybe you think, you know, is it really the most appropriate time for you to bring Jesus up at this point? Maybe you fear what other people are going to think in that circumstance, right? People are going to think all Christians are like this Christian. Is that person sharing Christ in this way at this time, is that going to make it harder for me? You know, someone at your workplace, maybe you might know another Christian and maybe they're doing things that you think, it's making it hard for me here. I don't know if that's helpful. It's easy to feel like that, I think. I confess, I sometimes feel like that, that some people in there sharing Jesus and the gospel is not exactly the same way that I would do it. Or it's not at the time and the place that I would do it, or not in the context of a relationship that I would do it. But Paul says here, he says, what then, only that in every way, whether pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice, Paul says. See, if someone is sharing Jesus, I should rejoice in that. We should rejoice in that. It's easy to feel like, you know, maybe now isn't the exact right time to talk to someone about Jesus, but if we wait for the exact perfect time, according to us, that might never come. Sometimes when circumstances mess up our plans, God actually uses them to advance the gospel. It might not seem like perfect time for us, But I tell you, it's better that Jesus is proclaimed than that he's not. It's better to say it at the wrong time than to not say anything at any time. So my encouragement to you, to myself, is be confident, be bold to proclaim Jesus and rejoice when Jesus is proclaimed. We had a first Bible reading was from Romans chapter 10. And Paul says in that chapter, he says, how are people going to call on the one in whom they've never heard? Paul in that chapter, he says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. If someone is proclaiming Jesus, I think we can rejoice whenever that happens. Whenever the gospel is preached, we can rejoice for at least two reasons, I think. One, because whenever Christ is proclaimed truthfully and faithfully, we can rejoice because we'll actually be reminded about the amazing truth of the good news of Jesus and what he's done for us. And that will cause us to rejoice as we remember what God's done for us in Jesus, as we remember that God has demonstrated his love to us in his son. As we remember that Christ died for us, that he died in our place to take the penalty for our sins. Whenever we're reminded of the gospel, we can rejoice in the goodness of the gospel. But also, we can rejoice that it's only through the gospel that others are going to hear about Jesus and be saved. And so as people talk about Jesus, as Christ is proclaimed, we can have confidence that God is actually going to use that to bring people to himself, to bring glory to his name. It's easy for Paul to think that in his circumstances, in his situation, everything was messed up. But Paul rejoices. He sees how God has been at working in his situation, through himself, through others, despite their motives, so that Christ is proclaimed. Paul says whenever that happens, we rejoice. So as we finish up today, I want to say that your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be bold, to be confident about sharing Jesus, to have the same attitude that Paul has that rejoices whenever someone proclaims the truth about Jesus. How can I pray that he'd help us to do that? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Apostle Paul. Thank you that you used him and worked in his circumstances. As he was in prison, he wrote a fair bit of your word to us now so that the gospel could even advance through that. But also, you see, as, as your working opportunity opens up new opportunities for the gospel, we pray that you'd help us to be bold. to take opportunities where we can to share the hope that we have in Jesus. I pray that we do this with gentleness and with respect, that you'd help our motives to be pure. That you'd help us not to wait for the perfect time to share Jesus, but that you would use us even in our weakness, even when we don't get the words right even. when we feel like we're not even doing a good job of it, that you would actually take that gospel message and that you would draw people to yourself. Thank you that this is happening even now. And for that we rejoice. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.