I want to invite you to turn with me to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 1, beginning in verse 12. Philippians chapter 1, beginning in verse 12. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. Let's pray. Father, we come now to this blessed time together. We come now to Your Word. We come to Your Word seeking to understand it. We come to Your Word seeking to submit to it. We pray that now You would minister to us through Your Word and that You would bless for us the preaching of Your Word. We ask that Your Spirit would speak to each one of our hearts, lay us bare, show us hidden faults, show us where we fail, and conform us more into the image of Christ, the power of Your Word and the power of Your Spirit. In all this we ask, in His name, Amen. So as you know, we've been studying through the book of Philippians together, and we've been seeing some wonderful truths just in these early verses. It took us five weeks to get through the first eleven verses as we looked at five different reasons for joy that Paul gives us in the way that he opens this letter to the Corinthians. And just by way of reminder, those joys that he had as he rejoices over the Philippians were these. They had their common partnership with Him, common salvation, common affection, common sanctification, and common glorification. He outlines those five reasons that he rejoices as he thinks about the Philippian church. And like I said, we were able to glean some wonderful insights from all of those concerning reasons that we have to be joyful here at Shiloh and reasons that we have individually to have joy. in the Lord. This next section that begins with verse 12 really goes hand-in-hand with it in a peculiar way. We're going to see some wonderful counterpoints to what we have been seeing as reasons for joy. Really, you could call the rest of chapter 1 detriments to joy. First, he gives them a bunch of reasons for joy, and then he starts to outline what you would think would be detriments to this joy that he has. It does seem that the primary thing that the enemy wants to do for the Christian is to remove us of our joy, to take our joy away from us, to cause us to doubt, to cause us to fall into self-pity and self-loathing. You go all the way back to the beginning, to creation, and we see that that is exactly what Satan did when he came to Adam and Eve as the tempter, as the serpent. He tempted them with the thought of becoming like God. He tempted them with the thought that God was holding something back from them. He tempted them with the concept that perhaps God had given them almost everything that He could give them, but He was holding back something greater, something better, something more, something that could make them happier, something that could make them more joyful. They had, as you know, all of the joy that they could have. They had unimaginable, unspeakable joy, perfect, unbroken relationship with their Creator God as they walked in the garden with Him in all of their innocence in that original creation that was very good. And Satan, the father of lies, wouldn't have it. And so he came to them and he tempted them with a bite of fruit. with the promise that they would be like God. And they fell. They fell for the ruse and they lost their relationship with God. They lost that perfect, unbroken fellowship with Him. And with their fall, the entire world around them fell with it. The entire creation was subjected to futility, according to Romans chapter 8. And now even it waits for its own redemption as it waits for the redemption of the sons of God. It's clear from life that the pursuit of life is happiness, joy, unspeakable, unshakable joy in something. In fact, you do know that when the Founding Fathers wrote that phrase that our basic rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, what they meant was joy. Not some strange worldly definition of happiness, however you would like to define it, but true, unshakable joy. Every single person in this room pursues joy every day. Every decision you make is a pursuit of joy. And we either succumb to the fleeting pleasures and cheap joys of sin and the temporal satisfaction that they provide, or we forsake our sin and find our everlasting joy in Christ. That is the fight of our lives. is finding joy in Christ rather than joy in the things of this world. Either way, we are pursuing joy in something. It is why the addict returns to drugs or alcohol. Because he's seeking joy. It's why women continue in abusive relationships. It's why we constantly go back, as Jeremiah 2.13 reminds us to, broken cisterns that hold no water when the fountain of living water is being offered to us. And it's also why the New Testament focuses so much on joy. real joy, different joy than the world has to offer. In fact, joy seems to be, with the way that it is presented, the foundational experience of the Christian life, out of which all other things flow. All obedience flows out of joy in Christ. All love, all emotion, all forgiveness, all forbearance, all patience, all of it flows out of this foundational experience of joy and love for Christ. Jesus taught this way. He told the disciples in John 15, 11, These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Later on, as He talked about prayer, He said in John 16, 24, Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive. Why? That your joy may be full. Paul told the Romans in chapter 15, verse 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. He also connects joy with faith in a very discernible way. In 2 Corinthians 1.24 he says, not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for what? Your joy. for you stand firm in your faith." Paul sees the foundational connection between faith in Christ and joy in Christ. He almost, in that phrase, uses them interchangeably. We don't lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy as you stand firm in the faith. Even John in his first epistle, we are writing these things so that your joy, our joy, may be complete. And he says in 2 John 1.12, I have much to write to you. I'd rather not use paper and ink instead. I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. Joy, joy, joy. Over and over again in the New Testament, we are called to joy. Told the Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. Right? Again, I will say rejoice. And we're seeing that here. Paul has been rejoicing over this wonderful church that he loves dearly. And now he's going to start to talk about various things that, from any perspective, you would think would crush his joy. You would think that what he has to talk about in the rest of chapter 1 would squash his joy dead, but that is not what happens with the Apostle Paul. Even in the midst of these detriments to his joy, he is resolute and stalwart that he will rejoice. In fact, that's the capstone phrase in the rest of this chapter. Yes, and I will rejoice. He says it like it's a resolution almost. No matter what happens, no matter what comes, no matter who comes, no matter what happens here, there, or anywhere, I will rejoice." So what kind of detriments is he experiencing that would threaten his joy and cause him to make such a stalwart statement? We're going to take a few weeks to get through the rest of this chapter. First off, we see that He will have joy, He will rejoice in spite of His circumstances. He will rejoice in spite of His circumstances. Verse 12, I want you to know, brothers, what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel, so it has become known throughout the whole imperial garden and all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. What does He mean, what has happened to me has served to advance the Gospel? I remind you quickly about the situation Paul is in when he writes this letter. This is the time frame of Acts chapter 28. He is in imprisonment. He is under Roman guard. Acts 28 beginning in verse 11. After three months, we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria with the twin gods as a figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. And from there, we made a circuit and arrived at Regium. After one day, a south wind sprang up. And on the second day, we came to Puteoli. There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the form of Apius and three taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. He's been under guard this entire time. He's now been brought to Rome to stand trial. And after three days, he called the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. Because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain." Paul understands why he's wearing his chains. He understands why he's been imprisoned. He understands why he is under guard. It is for the hope of Israel. It is for the sake of the Gospel. He lived there in Rome according to verses 30 and 31 of Acts 28 for two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. He's under guard. He's under house arrest. But he has a modicum of freedom. He's allowed to receive visitors. And he's still allowed to preach and proclaim. He's still allowed, obviously, to write the prison epistles as they're called. and get them out to the various churches, Colossians and Philippians and so forth. But he's incarcerated, and it's clear that he is unfairly and unjustly incarcerated. And he has chosen to appeal his case before Caesar himself. He's allowed to do that, by the way, because of his Roman citizenship, which he has invoked at this point. And it's in this type of circumstance, this type of house arrest, this type of unjust and unfair incarceration, under Roman guard, probably even chained to them, under lock and key. He says, I will rejoice. Why? Because, according to Philippians 1.12, what has happened to me has served to advance the Gospel." He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has served to advance the Gospel. Not only was Paul's situation a potential detriment to his own joy, it was a potential detriment to the joy of the Philippians. You need to know, brothers, because they know his situation. I want you to know, brothers, not to lose your joy." He calls them brothers as a term of endearment. He loves them. They love Him. And He knows that they will be tempted to lose their joy and lose their hope as they think about this man who had come into their town declaring the good news to them. You remember the story in Acts 16 of Paul when he first came into the city of Philippi? He meets Lydia out at the river. He's thrown into jail. The Philippian jailer, you remember, is miraculously converted, or converted under miraculous circumstances. These people were his spiritual children. This is how Paul looked at them. And probably this is how they looked at Paul as their spiritual father. And now he's in prison. And he's in prison for doing exactly what he had come into Philippi doing. And he's in prison in much the same way that he was thrown into prison in Philippi for doing. The danger is not only potentially that Paul's circumstances could cause him to lose hope, the danger is also that it could cause the churches that He had helped to found and to plant lose hope as well. But He wants them to know that His imprisonment has done nothing but serve to advance the Gospel." That word advance, it means to profit, it has profited the Gospel, or it has made progress for the Gospel. And it's even a different connotation because it means that it has made progress in the midst of hardship. It has made progress over obstacles. There has been things that would seem to be standing in the way of the progress of the Gospel, but I want you to know that these circumstances, that for all outward appearances look like they are hindering the work of the Gospel, are doing nothing more than advancing the work of the Gospel. Don't lose your joy. I will rejoice, and you rejoice as well. Now how so? How is it making progress for the gospel message? Verse 13, it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. The imperial guard or the elite imperial guards, they're the highest of the high in the Roman army. These are the hand-picked guards of the emperor himself. And now the Gospel has made headways into the very Imperial Guard that was set to watch over Paul as he was imprisoned. He says, they know. Throughout the whole Imperial Guard, they know. And to all the rest, not only the Guard, but anybody else in Rome, they know. My imprisonment is for Christ. Everyone knows why I'm here. Everyone knows it is because of the message that I preach. Because of that, they are coming to know the message itself. You think about this kind of mindset that Paul has, and you wonder, what in the world are the authorities going to do with this man? What do you do with a guy who sees his life the way that Paul sees it? The people in Philippi, as I already mentioned, had witnessed firsthand the effect of Paul's message and the effect that it could have even when he was in prison. You remember, he and Silas are in there, Acts 16, verse 25, and they're praying and they're singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly a great earthquake came, and the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. And when the guard came in, he sought to kill himself, because he figured the prisoners had escaped. Paul stopped and preached the Gospel to them. And he said, what must I do to be saved? And they say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Believe is the message of the Gospel. They had seen firsthand the power of the Gospel, even in the midst of trying circumstances. Just a little later in the book of Acts, you'll remember Paul said to the Ephesian elders as he was leaving them, I don't count my life of any value or as precious to myself, but what? If only I might finish my course and complete the work that He gave me to do to testify to the gospel, the grace of God. Paul doesn't see his life as worth anything except that it would involve the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Why is Paul able to rejoice even in the midst of these trying and terrible circumstances, at least from an earthly perspective? The reason that he is able to rejoice is because Paul's passion is not in his own glory. Paul's passion is in the glory of God in the message of the Gospel of Christ. And as long as that is preached, he says, I will rejoice. Don't fear, brothers. Don't lose heart, brothers. Don't lose your joy, brothers. I want you to know everything that has happened to me has done nothing more than advance the Gospel. We've even made inroads into the imperial guard itself. Rejoice. Rejoice. You know, there's another thing that trying circumstances do for us. James talks about it this way. He connects it with our joy. He tells us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Count it all joy when you meet trials and tribulations. Trying circumstances, James says, produces steadfastness. It's another word for endurance. It makes endurance. It makes you an enduring saint. It produces steadfastness. that you may be perfect and complete. Paul looks at these circumstances that he's found himself in and he says, no, in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the sorrow, in the midst of the heartache, in the midst of the trouble, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the tribulation, I will rejoice because the gospel advances. It's progressing. It's moving forward. And in that, I will always rejoice. You know, Paul gets it. He really does. I mean, he gets it. He gets the eternal perspective that we talk about that we need to have in this life. So many times we focus on the temporal. We focus on the here and now. We focus on what's going on today. We focus on what's going on this morning. So many times we focus on what went on yesterday. And it robs us of our joy today, and it robs us of our joy tomorrow. Paul gets it. The Gospel is all that matters. As I was thinking about this, you know, keeping that eternal perspective, I mean, it's not easy. But as I was thinking about this in particular, this understanding of the Gospel and the way that it works and the way that it makes us new how to conclude this message thinking about maintaining this Holy Spirit given and driven joy in the midst of suffering and trial. I was thinking about that wonderful parable of our Lord, the parable of the sower, parable of the soils, remember this one. We'll go, I won't read the parable, I'll just read the interpretation of it that Jesus gives us. Here then, the parable of the sower. Matthew 13, 18. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what is sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, endures for a while, But then tribulation and persecution arises on account of the Word, and immediately he falls away. As for what is sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the Word. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another sixty, and in another thirty. What type of person are we? Are we the kind that will have received the Word? And we might have even received it joyfully. And then tribulation and persecution comes. Trials come. Circumstances come. Things happen. And we lose our joy. Immediately we fall away. Cares of the world reach up to choke. Deceitfulness of riches reach up to choke the Word. I hope that we not be found to be that type of person that immediately springs up and then loses his joy when trials and tribulations come. One of the marks of true Christian maturity is an unshakable foundation of joy in our God and joy in our Christ. That is one of the foundational marks of true Christian maturity. Unshakable joy. This is a timely message, by the way, in light of things that are happening in our context, in our country, in our culture. You know, we've been so bred in our prosperity to lose our joy over piddly things. We lose joy when we spill milk. in the morning trying to eat our breakfast. We lose our joy when we stump our toe walking around barefoot in our air conditioned homes with a roof over our head. We lose our joy when it rains a little too much. We lose our joy when it rains a little too little. We lose our joy when the car breaks down. We have been We have been molded to lose our joy over insignificant things. And I fear that in the days ahead, when the persecution that has already begun to happen for the church comes, there will be many that fall away. There's an article that came out this week about the death of Christianity in America. It went into the statistics of You know, the population of people who identify themselves as Christian is declining. Therefore, Christianity in America is dying. Ed Setzer, who is one of the editors of our curriculum, the Gospel Project curriculum that we use at Sunday School, some of our Sunday School classes, he wrote a counter to that. And his answer was, Christianity in America is not dying, but what is dying is nominal Christianity. You know what nominal Christianity is? Christian in name only. You know, 20 years ago, people knew the right box to check to stay socially acceptable. Check the Christian box. Nowadays, people are more and more not willing to identify themselves as Christians if they're really not. And that's a good thing. Anyone who has done any amount of study in church history knows that the church has always flourished and burned the brightest under persecution. Not in ease. There's an old hymn, one of the verses goes, must I be carried to the sky on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. That's the reality of the church, the history of the church. This, this has sailed to us on a sea of blood. This didn't come off of printing presses. in a spiritual sense, it came to us through a sea of blood in church history. It has always been so, and it is so now. Today, someone is being persecuted for their faith somewhere in this world. And our day is coming. That's the way the winds of our culture seem to be flowing. And the tide of our culture seems to be flowing. The true Christians will rise up, and the false ones will leave. Going back to the fact that the church has always flourished under persecution, it has also always been persecution that God has used in order to purify the church. You know, fakers aren't going to hang around if hanging around means they're going to die. So what kind of circumstances do you find yourself in? We deal with this world every day and this is a dark world. The world is not a friendly place for Christians. We are aliens in this world. We are sojourners, we are travelers, we are foreigners who seek a city that is to come. We don't belong to this kingdom. We are citizens of the kingdom of Christ before we are Americans. How do you deal with your situations and circumstances that spring up to threaten to sweep away your own joy? Doctors' visits, diagnoses. When Paul looked at his situation, at his imprisonment, he saw the advancing of the Gospel. And when Paul saw the advancement of the Gospel in his situation, He wasn't trying to find the silver lining to the cloud. That's another thing we talk about a lot. Just try to find the bright spot. Try to find the silver lining in your cloud. Paul wasn't finding the silver lining in his cloud. When he looked at his situation, he understood what was going on and he knew that this was the plan. The whole thing looked sweet and beautiful to him. this entire culture of trying to find the bright spot, we should start to understand that God is sovereign and start to trust Him in our circumstances. Paul had prayed, you know he had prayed, he talks all the time about how he prayed. He prayed for the churches, he prayed for the lost, he prayed for his ministry, he prayed for the advancement of the gospel. Paul didn't look at his imprisonment and think, well, now I'm stuck in this situation, let me sort of help God figure out how to do something with it. Paul looked at his imprisonment and said, this is the answer to my prayer. His trying circumstance was the answer to the prayer. His imprisonment was God's plan to get the gospel into the imperial guard. He rejoiced that God's will was working into the gospel. was advancing. So look, don't let circumstances rob you of your joy. The God we serve isn't merely bigger than your circumstances. The God we serve has ordained all of them, the good and the bad, to work together for your good. in order to conform you more and more into the image of Christ. That's the promise of Romans 8. We know that for those who love God and are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good. He's not just bigger than the all things. He is working all of them together. How does he cap off that Romans 8, by the way? In all these things we are more than conquerors. through Christ Jesus who loved us. So trust Him. Rest in His goodness. Rest in His faithfulness. And don't let this world rob you of your joy. Let's pray. Father, we do pray that You would make us this type of people. We ask that You would help us to be joyful in the midst of trying and terrifying sometimes circumstances. We sing all the time, I know who holds tomorrow, I know who holds my hand. May that be not just a lyric that we sing, but a life that we live, resting in the hands of our sovereign God, in your goodness and in your grace. Keep us in your spirit, with this joy that only He can give, and that only He can bring. For it is a fruit of the Spirit, and nothing else. In all this we ask, in the precious name of our Savior, Amen.