Anyway, we're going to take up the next passage part of Philippians. We've gone up to, I hope we've gone up to verse 11 thus far, I was away for the last one I think, and we're going to look at verses 12 to 18. So assuming I haven't got it wrong, that's the bit we'll read, that's the bit we'll look at in a minute. So Christ is preached, verse 12, page 104-2. But I want you to know brethren, Paul speaking, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord have become confident by my chains and are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defence of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. So should I dress up, should I turn the light on? No, it's just a simple talk. Hopefully it will get something out of it, but the more you read of it, the more it brings out challenges I think, things that you maybe have skimmed over before and not really thought the implications for yourself and it's challenging all the way through I think. The background, the letter was written just as a quick refresher for a few seconds on where we've been before and for those who maybe haven't been here through the other talks. It's written by Paul to the Philippians, church that he planted and founded in a Macedonian city called Philippi. He visited in AD 51 and now 12 years later he's going to write this second letter that he wrote whilst he was in prison in Rome. So here comes the Sunday school guessing game. What was the first letter that he wrote whilst he was in prison in Rome? Begins with E. Ah, Ephesians. How many were there in total? Come on youngsters, guess. It's a number between one and seven. How many letters do you think whilst he wrote? Oh, handy. Five. Five's good, but it's not right. Four. Four, well done. See, that jacket makes all the difference. Four letters, okay then, clever plugs. What are the other two? We've got Ephesians, Philippians, what are the other two he wrote whilst he was in prison? One's a very little one. Thessalonians? Nope. One begins with C. Colossians. Colossians. And one begins with P. Phil. Phil. Philemon, yes. So those are the letters he wrote. Five reasons he did this letter, I think, to report on his circumstances in prison, to thank them for a gift delivered by a long-named man called Epaphroditus, to ensure them that Epaphroditus who'd been ill was now fit and was returning to them in Philippi, to urge them on and to warn of false teachers. And we're going to do a bit of part one. So we've already had a bit of his circumstances in previous weeks, in his greeting and onwards, and now we're going to look a bit more at his circumstances. So he was in prison. What was prison like? Who'd like to go to prison? Don't think so. Not very nice place. Shall I come a bit this way? Prison, not a nice place. What was it like for Paul? He was chained. 24 hours a day to a guard, and you can imagine the problems that that would have brought him. We don't want to go into some of those. But the shift changed every little while and there was a different guard who came along and was chained to him. The responsibility was passed from soldier to soldier throughout the 24 hours. I don't know whether that's three shifts or four shifts or whatever, but of course, what did it mean? If you were chained to someone for 24 hours, how would you feel? Think of all the things you'd miss. Apart from all the things that would be very difficult. Come on. Yes. Trapped. Trapped's good. Anything else? You don't have to be little. You can shout out. Pardon? Lonely. Yeah. Missing the people you love. Bored. In great discomfort. and having a total lack of privacy. Chained to someone else, what do you do all day? Not very nice and yet throughout this letter, you've seen a little bit of it already and you'll see far more as we go through, Paul speaks a lot about joy and rejoicing. So we come back to my theme of usual Thursday nights, joy and rejoicing. He does that, why? Because he loved the gospel and since it was good news he was joyful about it. Question, what about us? Imagine your situation, you've got freedom, something goes wrong, how do you feel about it? Just pose a question in our minds because we all know what the answer is I think. So what did he want to do? He wanted to encourage the church at Philippi, not necessarily a big church, But how does he write to them? Look at the very first bit in verse 12. I want you to know brethren that the things which happened to me have actually turned out. So just the first little bit. I want you to know. He was trying to share something with the church that he'd planted. Why did he want to do that? He wanted to do it because he loved them, because he wanted them to know his situation. And he calls them brethren, that's not just a male word, brothers and sisters. He loved the people in Philippi. So if you were written to by someone who was stuck in prison yet still thought of you, how would you feel? I think the word is encouraged. So he encouraged them. But he also knew that as they heard of his plight, because they were faithful, they would praise for him and be concerned about him in prison, how encouraging for him. So it's like a virtuous circle, he wanted them to know that they would go through trials, that's what he's telling them here, I'm in prison, I'm in chains, it seems a bit unfair, question I suppose to us, for you youngsters this is a difficult phrase, but there's a thing called the health and prosperity gospel, I don't see much of that for Paul here. You know, you can become a Christian and you can be changed some 24 hours a day. Doesn't sound much like health and prosperity does it? But it doesn't defeat Paul by any way. And sometimes it will seem very unfair and unjust if you'd have been Paul and you preached all that time and you thought you were now stuck in prison in chains 24 hours a day. I think he had every right probably to feel that he was unfairly treated but that's not how he felt at all. He says God can work equally well in the times when we're going through happy times than when we seem to be suffering. So what does that teach us? Firstly I think that we should be open with each other about our needs and our feelings. How else can others pray for us and give us assistance if they don't know what we're going through? And I suspect that quite often we shut ourselves up to those things if we really are a true body we should be aware of what's going on. Lisa shared with us about a family and scan for tomorrow and it's a private thing but it means that we can help pray for them in their situation. So that's the first thing. But secondly though, even though it's easy to say and hard to put into practice, we should recognise God's hand even when we're feeling badly treated and that's not very easy to do is it? We're in trouble God's done this, why has he done this to me? And I've talked to you before about when I got cancer and the man in Scotland said, why you? And I said, why not me? I mean, we are not any different to anyone else. We go through the same sufferings. You can ask people who've gone through problems of depression, why me? You've gone through someone who's had a bad operation, why me? It's not the way that Paul responds. He glories in what's happening to him. But it's not easy. So does persecution cause encouragement or discouragement? Throughout time the church has grown when there's been persecution. We might not have seen much of it in this country. But for example, the Auckland Indians. I know Paul loves to talk about it. I remember even Sunday schools going, I'm going to play this because there's the Auckland Indians. And we've heard the stories several times. But it's good. Five of them murdered. What happened? It encouraged more people to be missionaries. Poor example, but I like the story. after the terrible things that went on in Australia and are still going to happen again tomorrow. Just imagine that you're several batsmen into your team, they've all been skiddled out for no runs, and then in comes a player who you think, well, he's very similar in standard to me, and he stands up to them and he gets battered and bruised all over the place, and then all of a sudden he starts hitting sixes. And you think, well, if he can do it, I can do it too. So Paul, I think, has encouraged them. When your turn comes for persecution, look at the way that I'm reacting. You too can feel the same way. So he encourages them even though he's being persecuted. So I think Paul has two reasons why he's happy even though he's in prison. We need to look at the next few verses. First time he's in contact with unbelievers. Well we've seen it already, hasn't it? He says in verse 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ." So he's in contact with unbelievers purely because he's stuck with them all day. Just imagine you're with the sort of person you really don't want to hear who yaks a lot and they are talking all day long. Well Paul has his chance, he has a gospel, he wants to spread it, he's got a soldier stuck with him for six or eight hours and he's going to tell him all about the gospel. and you might wonder what reaction he's going to get. The guards have got nothing to do. They were pretty bored probably and they listened. He told them I'm in chains because of the gospel. They said what does that mean? And he explains it to them. He has got a captive audience. He unfolded all of the gospel message to them. So next question. What do we do when we're given the opportunity? Sometimes it happens and we think, can't say anything now, I'm going to look really silly if I speak up for Jesus now, I'll keep quiet. Paul wasn't like that. How do we react when we're in difficulties, when we feel that we've been unfairly treated? Well we've seen how Paul reacts. So it seems that Paul's reaction in dire circumstances showed a character that reflected what his Saviour was like. Wasn't it true that Jesus suffered in much worse ways and yet he didn't rebel against his captors. There was something attractive, and look what Paul looked like, there are big suggestions that he wasn't exactly Mr World or the sort of person you'd look at and think what a wonderful face, what a lovely, but he had a character that showed Christ through. So it was something attractive about him that these guards wanted to know what it was he was talking about and it worked through his everyday actions. What about us? The effect on the guards and the others he came into was profound, very, very deep, had a lot of effect. Why do we rarely see this reaction? Well, maybe it's that people don't see what we believe coming out in our lives. And I think that's something we'd all own up to. We believe it, we say it, and then we come into a situation and maybe our reaction doesn't really reflect what it is that we believe we should do. And that's not surprising, we're all sinners and that's the way we react. But that's not how Paul reacted. So it seems that the guards come to faith and then feel compelled to spread the good news and you say well where on earth do you get that from? It's not in that verse is it? Well we know they believe because it says the palace guard but at the end of the Philippian letter and I'm sorry for the person who's coming last but it says this, all the saints greet you but especially those who are of Caesar's household. The gospel message had gone right to the top of the leadership in Rome and all because Paul was in prison. He wouldn't have had the opportunity otherwise. The spirit that was in Paul was also seen in another Christian preacher. Does anyone know the name of the preacher on the Titanic? Yes? Well done. Did you get whispered to? You've got the book. Well read. I wouldn't have known. He was on the Titanic. He had a life jacket. He gave his life. You're going to tell me I'm wrong, aren't you? He gave his life jacket away. And what he shouted out was, let the women, children and the unsaved into the lifeboats first. Well we'd all probably say, oh let the women and the children go first, but it was the women, the children and the unsaved. And what does that say about his view of the important things in life? He knew that he was saved, he knew that he could save himself, but he knew that it was more important that someone who was unsaved had the chance to hear the gospel, so he gave up his life jacket. So, just think then, so maybe someone is ill, friend, relative, not saved, and you're given an opportunity to say a word. Maybe that's the opportunity because they're ill, you've got the chance to go and talk to them. Let's use the opportunities. Maybe yourself being set aside in hospital, it'll allow you to speak to someone. We've heard that from various people before. They're in the hospital bed, no one else got anything else to do in there. they start chatting to you, you've got the chance to explain to them. So out of what seems to be adversity comes opportunity. But it's up to us to lead lives that provoke questions from others who want to see that we are joyful. There's no good us going around looking miserable and saying we've got a great message for you, haven't we? You need to show the joy as well and I know it's not always easy. So what else did he want to do? He wanted to motivate other preachers and we come to see that in verse 14 and onwards It says, most of the brethren of the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And there's one word in there that's a bit surprising, most. So there were still people who were Christians who had word to speak who didn't speak up when given the chance. But certainly most did. And what sort of people were they? There were two groups of people and you may have heard all about these before but go over it again. There were those who preached out of envy, little ones, someone younger, give me a word, what does envy mean? You can take guidance, this isn't like University Challenge discussion barred. Come on, be bold, be strong. Yes? Who? Jealousy, that's a good word. I like jealousy. Some were jealous when they saw that Paul was in, well not that he was in prison, but that he preached. Now let's think what was going on. Paul was in Rome. Rome was the capital of Italy. Rome had had a church, or several churches probably, for a long long time before Paul got there. He wasn't the first one to arrive there. So although he was in prison there, he was a famous name, there were a lot of other preachers around Rome. And it's no different now to parts of our country I suspect. Some preachers gain great prominence, they are big people, lots of followers. Some preach to great numbers in the congregation where we get 60 at most maybe. We know of churches that get maybe 200 or 300. We know of churches in America that maybe get a couple of thousand turn up where they have free services. So some of the preachers are very well known. Some get put on a pedestal by their congregations. What does put on a pedestal mean? Oh, I thought Philip was going to answer. It means that they are made very big in other people's eyes, very special, very important. People say, oh look, you're very, very important. And it can be a problem. So some preachers believe the hype. You can say it when you're not a preacher, can't you? And some end up believing themselves to be the centre of the message rather than Christ. And it's sad, but we've all seen it happen. This is my favourite thing, I guess. The church is not a business. I work in a business and I know what the business world is like. It's not church. It doesn't have chief executives. There is no hierarchy. We may all have different roles but we're all part of one functioning body. I found out something I haven't seen for years and you lot might be far too young to know this I think but I promised I was going to say this even though there's absolutely no theology in this whatsoever. When I was little I used to love Beano, Dandy, Beezer. Do you know these comics? Some of them got out of existence now. But there used to be these characters. Does anyone remember these? You've maybe got to be over. You do? I know you do. You probably remember the first one. So the numbskulls. The numbskulls were people who live in your head. You know these people. People that live in your brain. And they used to control the body. And there was one who looked after your ears, there was one who looked after your throat, one who looked after your brain, one who looked after your ears. and they told the rest of the body what to do. The problem was, you can come and look at the stories later, there's even ones in colour. They used to get into real problems because, this one here, there's a guy on stage who says, think of a number and I'll tell you what it is. And the brain gets very very confused, writes it down on a bit of paper, he's going to go and tell the man what the number is and he drops it so it turns upside down and the number should have been 11089 and it turns out to 68011. So the brain confused everyone. And why do I mention it to you? Apart from the fact you're here and I think you might like it. So if you would like to read it later you already know. I used to think it was great fun. They were silly stories. But it does mean that sometimes one bit of the body doesn't work with the other bits of the body and what happens? You get total confusion. And that can be true of the church as well, so there is theology in it really. One bit of the body works against the other bit and the whole body doesn't function and it's a verse in the Bible isn't it? So you've all got to work in the same way. One part of the body takes over, the whole body ceases to function. That was what was happening in some of these preachers. They were trying to outdo Paul. So when Paul arrived in Rome He'd already got fame and the people knew that he was a big preacher and some of the other prominent preachers had their nose put out of joint. What does that mean? It means they were upset. So, you are the brightest pupil in the school, alright? Don't look at me like that, just say yes. And then someone else turns up and they are even brighter And the teacher starts ignoring you, not picking on you because you've got the nice, what do you call it? Dressing gown. So, you were the best and then he turns up and he's even better. Or maybe James turns up and he's even, because he told me he was the best on Sunday night. So, how do you feel? You were really good, your teacher loved you and now someone else has turned up and they're even better. Feel a bit miffed, a bit upset? Well that wasn't how Paul felt because we see what he says and we'll come to it. Verse 15, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife and some from goodwill. So they were preaching, they'd seen him in prison, they suddenly thought, my opportunity is gone, let's get on with it, I'll get prominence back. Totally the wrong approach and yet Paul was comfortable with this. Why? They weren't preaching error, they were still preaching Christ, just the wrong motive. So it was a challenge to us. If we speak in any way, might be Sunday school, might be that you get the chance to be in the pulpit, might be FOI, If you talk at all, don't take glory to yourself. And if we're listeners, enjoy the preaching. Hopefully the preacher is a winsome person, someone that you like and can get on with well. But don't stand the man on a pedestal because he may well end up falling from it. And it's partly your own fault for giving him that feeling. I remember Geoff saying, if only I could be a conference speaker. And then we say to him, can you do a series of three? And he's still coming along. So, you know, he hasn't been a conference speaker. What has he been? He's been a teacher of the young men. Maybe we've all got different roles. Same body, different roles. All the parts work together. So that was the first one. There were those who preached out of envy. Paul wasn't worried because he knew that the gospel was still going out. So as in business, where a senior manager is removed, these people saw the opportunity, ooh, it's my chance to step up again. But Paul takes a very rational view of these men. Maybe he's a little bit hurt, but he doesn't appear to be by the envy. He delights in the fact that the gospel is still being vigorously preached. How would we feel in a situation like that? Bitter that we're in prison? Bitter that we're not getting the accolades? bit of the others are speaking ill of us to some degree, not Paul. If the gospel is preached he's happy. And then what are the other ones? Those who preached as the back of that verse 15, also some from goodwill. So there were others who maybe had lost a little bit of the flame, maybe were getting a bit depressed about the persecution, maybe they were a bit concerned. They saw that Paul had confidence to speak up They also saw his joy in his chains and were seeing fruit from his preaching. They heard about these guards who'd been saved. As a result, they were emboldened to speak up for Christ. And as others were given boldness to preach, Paul was encouraged as well. He heard that other people were learning of Christ because of that and therefore he says, even though I'm in chains, the Gospel's going out. Maybe Paul even thought about Joseph in the Old Testament. Now, someone who's under 12, what would he have thought in the life of Joseph at this time? Something that had happened to Joseph that was similar to what was happening with Paul. Don't whisper, oh you're over 12, someone who's under 13, come on in. got put in prison, so I don't have any feelings. Was it fair that he got put in prison? No. No. Same situation. He'd been put in prison. What came out of that? Well, we used to listen on Sunday mornings to a premier radio programme by a man called R.T. Kendall who was at Westminster Chapel and he spoke for lots of weeks on Joseph and the title of it was God Meant It For Good. So when things happen to you and they seem really, really bad, Maybe you can't see the whole picture, you see a little tiny bit, but God sees the whole lot. So how often have you been surprised by God when you thought that everything was in such a state and then he does something surprising. Surprising to us, not to him. So, conclusion. So you're going to get home in time for bed. Paul was able to rejoice in his circumstances when it appeared that his enemies had triumphed. Let's conclude with a quote from Roger Ellsworth, speaking about Romans 8.28, he says, We cannot always trace the hand of God, but we can always trust the heart of God. His heart is devoted to working all things together for good for his people. So Paul was encouraged, let us be encouraged.