Philippians 1, and if you will follow along, I'll be reading verses 12 through 20. Philippians 1, beginning at verse 12, the apostle writes, But I would, ye should understand, brethren, that the things what happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident in my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, Everyone, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed. but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. May God bless the reading of his word. Let's pray. Again, Lord, our hearts are hungry for truth. And as we approach this continuing letter, we find a passage that We pray your spirit will bring to our hearts attention for that which is needful in the day in which we live as it always has been. May Father you provide us with clarity of understanding to remove the fog of the brain at times, things that we've kind of brought in from the outside and from our past and just allow your spirit to be our teacher in all things and as we finish that we would be thankful and acknowledge the fact that it was good that the word was before us and that we were able to not only feed upon it now, but be nourished there in life ahead. Bless this time together in Christ's name. Amen. Let me open with a question. How many of you did it? Overstuffed yourself for Thanksgiving? Yeah. Got up at the wee hours of the morning to go out on Black Friday and spend all kinds of money? How many of you have read chapter one of Philippians? I hope you do, simply because what we are providing within this letter is only as good as we digest it. the cow chewing the cud. Have you ever seen the cows who go and eat grass and all of a sudden they're someplace else where there's no grass and you see them chewing away? They'll bring that up again from one of their stomachs and chew on it again. That's maybe a horrible analogy for the Word of God, but the Word of God has to be chewed upon, digested, worked upon, not only here in this worship hour, but in all of our life. And what Paul has written has been preserved for us by the Holy Spirit. It allows us to grow. And the things that we've come and always say, oh, man, that's brand new to me. Well, it shouldn't be because you've been reading, you know, as we approach the service, you've been reading chapter one. You have a little bit of an idea, I hope, of what's ahead of us. So may I challenge you again for next Lord's Day that you approach again this chapter one, not as cold turkey, but as something that you've worked on. So our text in verse 12 begins right after the beautiful prayer of verses nine and 11 that we went to a couple of times last time. A beautiful prayer in which the apostle talks to them, encourages them, says to them, I want you to grow. I want you to abound in love and knowledge. in judgment, and that heart relationship is there. But he starts out in verse 12, and it's a brand new topic. It's something that needs to be addressed. Yet he's still speaking to people he loves, people who adore him, still the same thought, heart continuance that goes on here. And if you remember, Paul was in Rome, not on a vacation, but he was in prison. And the length of this imprisonment is unknown, at least at this particular time. Could all very well have been that it would end up in execution, but they don't know. So Paul is here writing in order that the people might have a better understanding of things that are going on in his life. Nevertheless, he spends about two years in Rome, in jail, in prison, chained to a Roman, And out of that time, all of a sudden, this is before Nero, the Caesar at the time, the Jews who had charged Paul earlier to put him in prison, all of a sudden decided that they weren't going to press charges to Nero. Whatever the reason was, in God's providence, Paul's released. And in order to be able to profit from these things, this letter is here. It's interesting that Paul always wanted to go to Rome, but never planned to do it as a prisoner. You know, I want to go and I want to preach the gospel to you people, but never thought of it as an avenue for such. Rome was the center of the empire. And could you think of a better place to start a church, a focal point, a hub to be able to reach out through the known empire other than Rome? I think the spirit of God laid it upon him. As a matter of fact, in Romans 15, he writes to the believers in Rome, and this is before he ever went to Rome. He writes to them, and he says, I will go to Jerusalem to minister unto the saints, okay? Commonplace to start. And he talks about going to Macedonia and Achaia. Do you remember that from our maps? Macedonia and Achaia, the Greek area of the region. And he said he's going to collect funds there, and those funds are going to go back to the poor in Jerusalem. He's going to minister to them that way. And then, he says, when that's done, I will come by you into Spain, and I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Paul had the greatest confidence that his desire to go to Rome wasn't just something of a knee-jerk reaction, but his heart says, God is pulling me to go to Rome. God is urging my heart to go to Rome. He says, I have the fullest blessing of the gospel of Christ in assurance in my life. The saints needed to be established and strengthened. But again, he never initiated this, never thought of initiating this as a prisoner. It's amazing how God accomplishes his ways in patterns or in roads that are not often the ways we planned out. You think of your own life and you think of the things that this is what God is having me to do. This is the direction God is having me to go. We spent a little time with my son and grandchildren and the oldest one who's in college now. We talked to her, he says, Annie, what do you plan to do? And she just went on and described, this is, you know, I thought, whoa, you know. I says, Annie, I says, just be assured that the direction that you go will allow the Lord to lead you. You may have your heart set to go and do this particular studies, but the Lord often takes us down the road and moves us in a certain way that isn't often our plans. Somehow, though, the news of Paul's imprisonment reaches the Philippian believers, and they were obviously concerned. Aye, Paul's in jail. If your Bibles are open, you could flip over to chapter 2 and 25. We read here, yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother. and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, that he that ministered to my wants." So we'll talk about Epaphroditus in weeks ahead, but enough to mention here that he came to Paul from Philippi. He brought news of what's happening in the church. Again, no emails, no text messages, you know, not even the USPS or Roman Roman mail service or something like that, you know, nothing like that. This is a man with a message and he says, Paul, this is what's happening. The believers back there are concerned. So he brings the news and he also brings a care package along with them in order to help Paul out in this situation. When he takes back then that letter that you have in your Bible, Philippians, this is what Epaphroditus takes back to the church. This is his response to all of the things that he's heard. So as we study this book, everything that Paul is answering or sees a reason to respond with, this is news that Epaphroditus brought to him. He gleaned out of it, and he does spend a number of months, or rather a long time, because he gets sick later on. In any case, Epaphroditus tells Paul that the church at Philippi was seriously concerned. What's going to happen to him? Is he going to be executed? Is he going to be released? And others are thinking, aye, poor Paul, and now the gospel. All of a sudden, the gospel there for those in Rome, but what about us? He was the founder, in essence, of our church. He visited us again. What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to the ministry that Paul has? They were really overwhelmed with this thing, tremendously disappointing. Why would God do this? Why would God allow this to happen? How many times have we asked that? How many times have we thought, why did God allow this? I didn't need it, or we didn't need it. It's so painful. It's just hard to understand. The question that many would ask, why do bad things happen to good people? Why would that child die? Why would this illness? Why were all of these tragedies that go on? Our disappointments are very often God's appointments. Have you ever heard that before? A well-used phrase among Christian circles, our disappointments are often God's appointments. Even though it may sound trite and doesn't always take away truth involved, we need to be reminded that Paul comes to this situation. He's relying upon the reality of a sovereign God. The psalm that we read in the second, or the psalm that we sang in the second hymn there, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord. This is his communication in the world. He operates in all of these things. He's powerful. He's a mighty God, mighty to save, but mighty to control all stuff. And when we go, whoa, how is this happening? Why? Paul sees this in his heart and his mind. And he says, even in times of disappointment and discouragement, we always say it, God's in charge. Ah, but it doesn't give me relief. But God is in charge and Paul understands that. So again, Epaphroditus tells Paul of the church's fears and disappointments. And beginning in verse 12, Paul wants to turn their pessimism into optimism. He hears what's taking place back there and he says, I want to change their attitude. I want them to see things differently, to turn their eyes off of jail and turn their eyes onto Jesus. take away the idea of the fetters that he's chained with the soldier to the faithfulness of God in his life. He wants them to shift away that, and I'm sure these are things he's wrestled with. Paul's no Superman, no big S on his shirt and says, I can, no problem with that. You read of Paul's life. There are many times he talks about discouragements and pains and so forth, you know, very, very despondent at times. Yet Paul's learned many, many lessons for that. There's a beautiful hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will look strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That's what Paul had to do. No matter what was taking place, he had to turn his eyes off of those things that were around him that were discouraging and despondent, and turn them to Jesus. And the things of earth all of a sudden disappear. But I would, you should understand, brethren. He writes him. He says, let me make it clear. Let me help you along with this. I want you to see things as I see them. I want you to understand them as I understand them, as I'm grounded in. I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened unto me have fallen out, rather, unto the furtherance of the gospel. about five years before his imprisonment, and Paul suffered an awful lot through his life. He writes to the church in Corinth, and he says, of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes. You ever think of that, what he means? Five times 40 stripes, save one. Well, the person who is giving the whipping, if he went over 40, that person giving the whipping would receive the whipping himself. So the person who was counting, he would get up to 39 for the sentence of 40 stripes, whips, and he would say, that's it, 39, just in case. Just in case the guy wasn't real good at counting or whatever, you know? So he says, of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes, saved one. And that's 139, by the way, if you're good at math. Thrice received as I beaten with rods, sticks. Once I was stoned. Thrice suffered shipwrecked. A night in the day in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers. in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils of the heathen, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." He says, the things which happen unto me isn't just this particular reference, being jailed in Rome. He says, in all my life, the things that have happened, these painful things, and I'm sure the scars were there, the arthritis was there, the aches and pains, all of that. It's happened to the furtherance of the Gospel, that the Gospel goes forth, just not this particular current situation. Surely those things could have crushed the spirit of any man, but the Apostle in reality says, no, prison, God has allowed in his sovereignty to oversee me and to allow the gospel to go forth. Remember, he had great confidence that it would turn out in the advancement of the gospel. Doors that were otherwise shut are now open. Remember in our study of Joseph in the book of Genesis, the things that we talked about in all of the situations, a sovereign God that oversaw his life. Towards the end, Joseph reveals to his brothers, he says, but as for you, ye thought evil against me. And sometimes it may not have been you, the person we're talking to, but the situation we find. This seems to be an evil situation, a painful situation, hard to swallow, hard to understand situation. Joseph says, but God meant it unto good. to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. So for Joseph's life, it was to save his countrymen, his family, and many, many more. God's overseeing, overriding the current situation, the situations in life past, present, and future. We talked about the beginnings of the church at Philippi, when that demonic woman was saw Paul and Silas and Sheba says, these are men of the good God, and he cast out the demon in the young woman. And all of a sudden, the men who were using her to make money said, hey, you just robbed us of our income. And it takes them before the judge, and they whip them, and they strip them, and they drag them down, and they throw them in prison, and they put the chains on their feet or the stocks in their feet, and they lock them up in there. Paul says, the things that happened unto me, the furtherance of the gospel, even that very instance of the beginning of this church, locked up in jail, and then the earthquake, what would have happened to that Philippian jailer? What would happen to his family had not Paul followed through with these things? Paul says, I can see how in time, I couldn't see it then. I couldn't see it when we're being whipped. I couldn't see it when they lock us in the stocks. I couldn't see it for how many days they were in the jail in Philippi. I couldn't see those things, but as time went on, and actually they sang praise God all the time, but then all of a sudden I could see it when all of a sudden this Philippian jailer comes to know Christ as his savior and his family. And all of a sudden the things that unfold, We have no idea what God is doing through the difficulties of our life. Our disappointments, our hardships, our pains, our sufferings, are opportunities for God's advancement in the gospel. The things which happen unto me have fallen rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, verse 13, so that my bonds, his chains, The chains that I've got in Christ are manifest. So what he's telling us, or what he's writing to the Philippians, he said, everybody who's in prison is a what? Except for everybody else who says, I'm innocent. They're criminals, aren't they? And here is a Christian, a well-known Christian, in Rome, brought to Rome from Jerusalem, and he's chained up, so therefore he must be a? Criminal! And that's the picture that's thrown upon the church. It's a picture that's thrown upon Christ. But all of a sudden he's saying, all of a sudden my chains, the reason that I'm here, is the purpose or the purpose of Christ. And that's all. And the longer that I'm here, they see me, they hear me, my testimony, the things that I talk about, bringing Christ to others. He said, he's not a criminal. It's for the manifestation or the showing forth of Jesus Christ. Now, where? He says, in all the palace and other places. Okay, we're at Rome, and this word palace here in the Greek is the praetorial, or the praetorial guard. These were 10,000 soldiers handpicked by Caesar, most often used just for the oversight of Caesar's well-being. They're his protectors. Later on in the Roman Empire, they became the most powerful unit in Rome. to overthrow Caesars or whatever it was. So the Praetorium Guard, used for assassinations, used for investigations, used for kind of like a CIA, FBI type of situation, you know, military-minded. And Paul is chained to these. Some have even said that there was two of them connected with him. So he says, the gospel all of a sudden becomes known to these hardened soldiers, these men who have a purpose of guarding the Caesar himself. He says that the word has come to them, and then he says, to all the palace. If they hear the gospel of Christ, what do you think they're going to say? They're going to take it to their families or to others that are around him. We remember that Ephesians chapter 6, it talks about the Christian's armor. He says the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the fichad, gospel of peace, and so forth. I guarantee you, as Paul is writing this particular letter, or as he wrote the book of Ephesians, or the letter to the Ephesians, he sees the guard standing there, and he's looking at his armor, and he's looking at how this guy is laid out. And as he's writing, that picture is just translated right into the text itself. So he sees these Praetorian soldiers right there. Verse 14, and many, and that word could better be translated, and the majority of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. This is obvious a day when Christianity was very unpopular. To witness as a Christian, put your life at stake. Who was the God of Rome? Caesar. You worship Caesar. And for a Christian to come along and say, no, I can't bow down to Caesar. And the Colosseums were always filled with such. In 1857, some first century graffiti was found in Rome or outside of Rome on one of the hills, part of the royal palace. And as they came along, they found scratched into the marble of the palace wall depicting Alexanimos, this Greek fellow, and he says he was worshipping a person who was being crucified on a cross, and it wasn't a T cross, it was just a top cross, but he had the head of a donkey. And so this was somebody's depiction of seeing this Greek young man worshiping, he's looking up at him, and it says, the particulars scratching into the thing, Alexandre Mamos worships God. Christians suffered tremendously, and they gave their lives for Christ. So Paul looks upon the situation that he's in and he says, it costs the Christian everything to worship and they are saying to themselves, if Paul can be a testimony in the palace, if Paul can be a testimony chained up in prison, if Paul can be a testimony to those that are around him, which is a much more difficult situation, why should I be silent? Why should I be quiet? He says, they're waxing more bold, speaking out more than they've ever had before. I'm afraid that in our day, it doesn't take very much, but a little opposition to keep us from witnessing. Sometimes it's just a matter of embarrassment. Sometimes it's just, I'm kind of shy to do that. I just don't want to say anything. Even to pass out a tract, even to stop somebody and share with, helping them along, and yet, how things might be different in the world in which we live if we were bold for Christ as we perceive it as being important. Whatever you hold to be important in life, you're bold to speak about it, you know? We're bold to talk about the strength of our country and the love that we have for our country and to get out to vote and da-da-da-da-da-da-da, the whole thing. And yet when it comes to Jesus Christ, he's, well, we'll, next time. were shy in doing such. Verse 15, some, again not a majority, indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some of goodwill. One preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add to my bonds or burdens, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. You know, they envied Paul's reputation in the church. Again, he had not been to Rome to establish a church. And here are other pastors in Rome envying the work that Paul's done, envying the people that he's attracted to, the people who like Paul's preaching or are gone in that direction. They, out of selfish motives, have designated Paul in the eyes of the church as being a reprobate. He's in prison. Why would you follow him? Follow my ministry, okay? Why do you follow that man? Because look, all of that's happened to him that's just got himself thrown in jail. And it was kind of like a kick him while he's down situation. What then Paul says, in other words, people are taking the gospel and preaching it and modifying who I am. And they were preaching the gospel, but they're attacking me. And he says, what then? What's taking place? Well, he says, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, what? Christ is preached. Christ is preached. And therein do I rejoice. Yea, I will rejoice. The NIVs translate this way. What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached. Isn't that a marvelous picture? How often is Christ preached in every opportunity that we have? Christ preached to bring forth such a powerful truth. Paul says that their message was pure, but their motives were suspect. You know, we need to daily ask the Lord to use us to preach the gospel of truth to those around us. But those He would instill with right motives is really the key to that. My witnessing, my prayers for others, my service to others, is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, it's not about me. Remember the acronym for the book? J. O. Why? Thank you. It's like pulling teeth, you know. This is Paul's testimony. Jesus first, then others, and then yourself. This is Paul living in the prison. This is Paul telling about everything else. Yes, they were not necessarily kind to me and gracious to me, but he says they were preaching Christ. And who's going to use what they preached? God will. God will deal with these particular situations. Joy, that's what Paul taught us. Verse 19, for I know, I'm not thinking and not guessing, I know, I am convinced that this will turn to my salvation. Someone could look at that and say, what does he mean his salvation? What's another understanding for salvation but deliverance? Some would say, well, that means I know this is going to mean I can be delivered out of jail. by the work of the Holy Spirit and by your prayers, that you do that and I'll be delivered, I'll be saved out of jail. The entire situation would prove to be a blessing, though, to Paul through the Spirit of God and others. Let me ask, if the great apostle needed such, how much more do we? If the great apostle says through you people in Philippi to pray for me, Paul, pray for me. And the work of the Holy Spirit through those prayers, and that's the key. The Spirit of God leading us on how to pray and what we ought to pray for as we earnestly seek Him. Earnestly seeking the Lord for a new moving Spirit in our hearts and lives, showing us sin, making us more like the Savior. Can I do that? Can I ask the Lord, Father, work in my heart. bring these understandings to my name. And then verse 20, according to my earnest expectation, I'm expecting it, and my hope, and this is just not, eh, hope so, that in nothing I will be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, now also in Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether in my life or by death. Paul talks about boldness of the gospel. He says, I hold the preaching of the gospel, the most powerful thing that I can do, is I do forth for Christ. One Sunday on their way home from church, a little girl turned to her mom and she says, Mommy, the preacher's sermon today got me a little bit confused. The mother says, oh, what's that? The little girl replied, Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true? Mama said, oh, of course it's true. Then she says, well, what else? What confused you? Again, he says that God lives in us. Mommy, is that true? And again, the little girl says, of course. Well, she said, if God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn't he show through us? wouldn't he show through us? What do others see in us? Do they see, like Paul, not Paul, but Jesus, in the things that we say and the things that we do, our interaction, our business, our life? Or are we hidden for them? D.L. Moody once said, a Christian is the world's Bible. And some of us need some revising. Is Christ being revealed in my life? Is Christ being seen in my life? Is Christ being saying, that person is different? They're showing forth Christ in all that they do. It's a challenge for me as we live every single day in the same pattern of relationships that we have the week before. But it has to be God to rule and reign in my heart and my life, to open my eyes to the daily situations that we have for us. This past Thanksgiving, we went out to our son's house, as we tried to all the time. Our other son came up from Virginia with his wife, and we spent time with them. But there were 22 in the house at the time. There were two turkeys, both of them 23-pound turkeys. But amongst those who were invited, there were three men from India. Two of them worked in a bank. One of them worked in a bank, and two of them juice blendy thing, you know, one of those places, and then the guy's using his evening hours to drive down to Maryland from up there to do computer work. We had one family from Egypt. He has a food truck there in Harrisburg. Been in the States for quite a few years, and he was invited last year and came. Another family from Afghanistan. two cute little children. He was a translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, and when the U.S. troops moved out, they brought him out, too. We sat around the tables, and the prayer came up. We prayed, and conversations around the table were distributed, and they started talking about Indian religion and karma and all this other kind of stuff and so forth. And it could have been, this is, hey, listen, you need to hear the gospel. But what we did is we just took time and shared with them life, what it is. And well, this is what we believe. This is what we think that we hold to the fact that God is in charge of all stuff. And God understands what's going on here. And God will take care of it in his perfect time. And when they finished and everybody just seemed to hang on and was just finally near the end of the day, they all went on their own ways. We seeded some truth in their lives. Not a typical, what Thanksgiving meant wasn't about, Mama had a nurse, a Philippine nurse at the clinic, and he says, this is my first Thanksgiving in America, and they keep telling me, what are you going to do for Thanksgiving? And he says, I don't know what Thanksgiving is, you know? Can you explain it to me? What is it? Is it the turkey? Is it the football games? Is it the gathering of family? It all comes back to God in charge of life and how we relate to that sovereign God. So what Paul presents unto these people is not chaos, not woe is me, but God's in charge. He's sovereign over the universe and he's allowed us to be his servants, like Epaphroditus. He's allowed him to be a messenger. Does Christ show forth through us? And we need to ask that. Lord, help me to be showing Christ in my life, where I've been or what I've done and all the things that are there. I think this time, from this time until New Year's, is gonna be a great opportunity for visiting a people and interacting with people who don't know Christ as their Savior. An opportunity for us to be able to bring Christ to their lives and allow Christ to be able to shine through us. May it be so. Father, we thank you again for the privilege to be your representatives, your spokespersons, interaction that we have with people that we're very familiar with, and maybe even some that we have no idea where they've come from, but in your providential hand, you've put them into our life for a certain period of time at a certain location. May they see in some way something different about us. May Christ be seen in us. May whatever takes place in the days ahead, may we understand it and be confident that whatever we may perceive as a disappointment isn't a disappointment to you, but it's an advantage. It's an opportunity. It's a key move that you've placed in our day in order for you to be glorified. Father, give us wisdom, give us a heart of love, give us a desire to show forth Jesus first in our life, and then others, and then ourselves last. Thank you again for this letter. Thank you again for our time together around it. In Christ's name, amen.