What Are You Advancing?
Download MP3Philippians 1, as we continue our study in Philippians, we'll see how far we get this morning. I'm really excited, about the next 2 or 3 weeks about where we will be in Philippians. I think it's perfect for the situation we find ourselves in as a church and in our culture. Philippians 1, we'll begin reading in verse at 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.
Joel Brooks:And most of the brothers have 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 proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition. Not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Joel Brooks:What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. This is the word of the lord. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Father, we pray that through your spirit, you would come and you would teach us in this place. There's many other places we could be. There's other words we could listen to, but there's nowhere else we could turn, to that gives us words that produce eternal life. And so we pray that your spirit would do that in this place, that you would change our hearts and our souls and our minds. Make us new people.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I've actually had a phrase bouncing around in my head a lot over the last few months. It's it's a quote.
Joel Brooks:I wish it was from Jesus or from Paul or, maybe from, you know, a Charles Spurgeon or a Wendell Berry or or something like that, but, but it's actually from the great theologian, Bruce Banner, otherwise known as the Hulk if you don't know who that is. But if you're a fan of the, the Marvel series, and you can remember back to that first Avenger movie, there was a time when the Avengers really needed Bruce Banner, to turn into the Hulk because some gigantic flying serpent thing was heading right towards them, and and captain America says to Bruce, don't you think it's about time to to get angry? And doctor Banner tells him as he calmly walks towards this creature, he says, that's the secret. I'm always angry. I'm always angry, and then he turns into the Hulk.
Joel Brooks:How many of you have felt that way over the last 9 months? That you've pretty much always been angry. On the outside, you you might appear calm, but inside you're you're angry. Anger is just brimming underneath the service surface waiting to explode at any moment. For some of you, it hasn't been waiting to explode.
Joel Brooks:It's actually exploded. I know because I've seen the post on Facebook, And it's just lashing out maybe at at someone who has a different political view than you. Sometimes we explode in person to people who maybe they're they're not wearing a mask. Maybe we give them the stink eye or maybe we smirk, when there's somebody who is wearing a mask. But we're we have all this anger.
Joel Brooks:A lot of times we guys under like, well, I just need to express this anger because my brother and sister in Christ here really need to be corrected. Anybody else feel that? Anybody else angry because what they do for a living was labeled as unessential? Anybody? Anybody else angry because they ran into somebody at Back 40 Brewery who said they couldn't come to the parking deck service because of their COVID concerns?
Joel Brooks:Anybody? This hypothetical, just hypothetical. I've I've struggled with anger a lot over these last few months. You know the Apostle Paul, he had a lot of things that he could be angry about as he sat chained up in prison. And although we we don't share that exact same situation, we do share a number of commonalities, we do have some similarities.
Joel Brooks:Let me describe some of these things that Paul was experiencing in prison and see if any of this resonates with you. For Paul, the people who were in power over him were corrupt. For Paul, his his freedoms were systematically being denied. The government would not allow Paul to keep on working. The plans that Paul had for this past year had completely gone awry.
Joel Brooks:He was separated from those whom he loved. His bank account was running dry. People were speaking bad about him and all of his beliefs. He would try to explain himself and he would only be misunderstood. People would often riot all around him.
Joel Brooks:He'd also been shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, whipped and imprisoned, and so our commonalities end at some point. Alright? But Paul had every reason to be angry or to at least be anxious or to be depressed, but there is not a trace of any of these these things in his letters. He absolutely exudes joy and peace. Be honest, wouldn't you love to have that?
Joel Brooks:Now think of all the imaginary conversations that you have been having over the last few months. You know those conversations that just stoke your anger. They're all imaginary conversations, keep in mind. They're imaginary conversations that you have with the people that you're really angry with in which you get to tell them all the many reasons that they are so wrong. Maybe explain to them all the ways that they've hurt you and they don't even know it.
Joel Brooks:Tell them all the sacrifices you have made for them that they're oblivious to. In in your mind, you have these long elaborate arguments, don't you? Sometimes you wake up at night and that's where your mind goes. And of course, this other person is oblivious to this, they're not hurt in the slightest by you having these imaginary conversations, You're the one losing sleep at night over them. But the truth is we should be having all of these conversations, but not just in our head.
Joel Brooks:We need to be having these conversations with the Lord. Next time you have one of these imaginary arguments, I would encourage you to invite the Lord into that argument. That's pretty much what the Psalms are. If you read through the Psalms, it's it's usually a psalmist who's in a terrible situation. He's blasting out at people and then he invites the Lord to come in and to change his perspective.
Joel Brooks:This is what Paul's doing. Paul is one who would have real conversations with his savior, not imaginary conversations with his enemies. Paul would take all of the wrongs, all of the injustices, all of his suffering. He would take them to the Lord and he would talk to the Lord about them. And what he would be given would be an entirely new way to see everything, which wasn't easy.
Joel Brooks:Because I'm sure at first, Paul thought, what am I doing in prison? I'm a church planter. How do you plant churches while in prison? I mean, I can't even get out of this room. And Lord, you've given me all of these giftings, and yet, how do I use them?
Joel Brooks:I'm just dying on the vine in here. Then the lord would remind Paul that his plans are never thwarted, that everything happens for a reason. And that although Paul's plans were not advancing, God's gospel was advancing. And Paul could rejoice in this. His imprisonment was not a derailment of God's plan at all.
Joel Brooks:It was actually the very tool that God was going to use to reach a people that Paul could have never reached otherwise. God was using suffering in his life. Paul writes to the Philippians. He tells him that his imprisonment is actually for the gospel's advancement. In verse 12, he says, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's become known throughout the whole imperial guard into the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Paul was actually being guarded by the elite guards of the Emperor himself. There were 9,000 of these imperial guards. They received double the pay of normal guards, and they had access to all of the inner rings. Those those inner rings of power within the Roman Empire.
Joel Brooks:They even had access to the Emperor himself. The Emperor often sought input from these guards to see what was actually happening throughout the Roman Empire. Now part of the duties of an imperial guard was to guard important prisoners, And so every day, 3 or 4 guards would take shifts being chained to the Apostle Paul. So Paul literally, he he has a captive audience at this point, they can't go anywhere. And what initially seems like an attack against the gospel actually has become an incredible weapon for the gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's it's really hilarious when you think about it because I mean just think, 3 or 4 times a day God was going to chain some of the most hardened, cruel, pagan, influential, social elite insiders to the most persuasive evangelist who has ever lived. It's like the time I I was on a plane and, a guy who was just a few years younger than me, he sat down next to me and you know, we're just chit chatting for a while and then and then he asked, what do you do for a living? I said, I'm a pastor. And I love looking in people's eyes, like, you know, when they see that for the first time, and and this panic. You could see him calculating immediately how long is this flight?
Joel Brooks:How can I get out of this conversation? And so I just looked at him I said, so you want to get this over with now or do you want to wait till later? I'm sure Paul said the same thing. It's like, you know, next person chained up. It's like you wanna get this over with now or do you wanna wait later?
Joel Brooks:I mean, we've got 4 hours, and Paul would preach to them the gospel. Paul might have thought that God was gonna use him to preach to the masses, but God had Paul preach some of the best sermons he has ever preached to an audience of 1. One person at a time, and God might have you do this. If you're not doing this already, I would encourage you to pray for divine appointments. Pray for people that you can share the gospel, you can advance the gospel with.
Joel Brooks:Pray that somebody might be chained to you this week. See that as an opportunity for evangelism. Alright. So when Paul's chained to them, he would take this time to explain to them the gospel, but when you hear the word gospel we instantly we think of the Christian word gospel, but the word gospel is not uniquely Christian. It the gospel was it was not originally a Christian word.
Joel Brooks:It it simply meant, we've looked at this before at Redeemer, it simply meant the declaration of a king. And if you had a good king, of course, this declaration would be good news. That's why Christians adopted the term gospel. But there already was a gospel in this day, and it was the gospel of Caesar. And the gospel of Caesar was that he was king and that it was through his rule he was going to bring peace, and he was going to bring unity to the world.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that actually one of Caesar's titles was savior of the world? But then Paul proclaims this different gospel. He he says Caesar's not the king. Caesar is not the savior of the world. He says, no, there was a Jewish man who was crucified and rose from the dead 20 years earlier.
Joel Brooks:He is now the king and he is calling men and women from every tongue, tribe and nation to come to bow their knee and to submit to his lordship. And he alone brings peace and unity to this world. And then Paul would call on these guards to quit putting their hope in Caesar or in any Caesar, but to instead put their hopes in the Lord Jesus Christ and to move their citizenship from Rome to their citizenship to heaven. And I could tell you these guards had never heard a gospel like that. These guards had never heard a gospel like that.
Joel Brooks:And I'm sure as they heard that gospel, And I'm sure as they heard that gospel, they began comparing the 2 Gospels that they had heard. How one gospel had tried to bring peace through force, but the other brought peace through meekness. 1 used rule and law to bring order, the other actually changed hearts. Caesar took the lives of those who opposed him. But Jesus, he laid down his life even for his enemies.
Joel Brooks:And one of these kingdoms would last for maybe a 1000 years and the other kingdom would never ever fade. It's 2 very different gospels, 2 very different kingdoms. And so, the question is, which kingdom do you wanna be a part of? Because you cannot have both. Let me ask you, just why do you think Rome killed off so many Christians in the 1st century?
Joel Brooks:I mean have you ever thought about wondered why all the Christians were being hunted and killed? Do you think it was for all their good works? Do you think they were killed because they took care of the poor because they built the world's first hospitals? Do you think Christians were killed because they kept paying their taxes or because they went around forgiving everyone? They were killed because they refused to say Caesar was Lord, they said Jesus was Lord.
Joel Brooks:Our citizenship is in heaven, not here on earth. And that message was vehemently opposed. So these soldiers heard these 2 very different gospels. And we know that many of them came to faith and to believe. Paul ends his letter by talking about that.
Joel Brooks:Now here's the question that we all need to ponder as we read these words. We need to ask this. What am I advancing? What am I advancing? I mean, think about this past week, do all the conversations you've had, maybe the post you've had that the time and energy you've spent.
Joel Brooks:What exactly is it that you've been trying to advance? Paul says that his imprisonment has served to advance the gospel. And this is why he had so much joy. I mean, if he was just trying to advance his portfolio, well then prison would have killed it. It.
Joel Brooks:If he was trying to advance his reputation, well, he would have died behind those bars. If he was trying to advance his social status or his comfort, well prison would have ended all of that too. But when you live to advance the gospel, it cannot be stopped. I mean, do you think that Paul thought for even a moment that prison was stopping him from advancing the gospel? Do you think for a moment Paul thought that God, if he if he wanted to, he couldn't have me out of this prison?
Joel Brooks:God had already done that in an earlier imprisonment. Actually, when he was in Philippi, God calls an earthquake, opened up, his jail cell and Paul walked out a free man. Paul knows at any moment if God wanted to, he could spring open these doors. God hasn't. Therefore, He has me here on mission.
Joel Brooks:My suffering is for the advancement of the gospel. For every Christian, you don't have to wonder what is the purpose of your suffering. Know this, at the very minimum, it's for the advancement of the Gospel. So once again, what are you advancing? If you don't know, then I would say you should probably pay attention to your joys and your sorrows.
Joel Brooks:They give good hints as to what you are advancing. If you are thrilled when your savings account goes up and you're If you are absolutely elated when your political party wins and you get really, really angry when they lose. Well, it's because you primarily see yourself as a citizen of the US and not as a citizen of a kingdom that cannot be shaken? What are you advancing? Is it your career Or is it your children?
Joel Brooks:Does your emotional state rise and fall with their every grade? Jesus says that the gates of Hades cannot stop his kingdom from advancing, so that's the kingdom we should all want to be a part of. Because if Hades cannot stop his kingdom, then neither can a pandemic, neither can an election, neither can the stock market, neither can a loss of a job, neither can your failures and neither can your sins. Even death cannot stop Jesus' kingdom from advancing. That's why Paul's joy is unshakable.
Joel Brooks:Wouldn't you like to be part of that kingdom? Paul's joy is so unshakable. He goes on to say that even though his rivals, they're out roaming free and rich, bad mouthing him, he is still able to rejoice because apparently they keep preaching the gospel. We don't know exactly who these people were, but apparently, there were some preachers out there who didn't like Paul. I would imagine they probably just thought Paul was too extreme, maybe too reckless.
Joel Brooks:Paul was you look out and we're like, that's a man who's gonna get the church in trouble. He just needs to shut up. They were probably glad that he was in prison. But Paul says, hey, although they don't like me, although they're rejoicing that I'm in prison, you know what, they're still preaching the gospel and I can rejoice. And you don't get a shred of anger from Paul.
Joel Brooks:Who cares what they say about him as long as they proclaim Christ? Wouldn't you love to be so free? Wouldn't you love to be so free, and to have such joy that's being offered to you today? If you haven't already put all of your hope, all of your trust in Jesus. A day is coming, church.
Joel Brooks:A day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Jesus' lordship over all. But we have the opportunity and the joy of doing that today. Pray with me. Lord, we do join with the angels in heaven in declaring your lordship. We do join with all the saints of old and all the saints in the future in declaring your praise that you alone rule and are lord over all.
Joel Brooks:And, lord, we are constantly daily presented with 2 very different gospels. But I pray that we would hold on with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind, the gospel of Jesus for you alone, safe. We praise you Jesus. And we pray this in your name.
