Well, I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Philippians chapter 1. We're working through this wonderful little letter of Paul to the Philippians. And today we are coming all the way to verse 21. So I will be reading verses 12 through 21. This is beginning at verse 12 of Philippians chapter 1. Again, that's found on page 1164, if I didn't tell you in your Bibles. Verse 12 begins, 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. And 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 selfish ambition, 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, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. And we'll stop the reading there today. One of the big challenges in our present age for Christians has been to understand our purpose here and to understand, especially locally as a church, and why the Lord puts us in a church and why we are, the body of Christ in a place to represent that. The struggles in which we find ourselves, sometimes it's confusing to understand that purpose that we have. And part of the challenge, I have to say, is that the church has not always communicated as helpfully as we should what our purpose is in the body of Christ. Why are we here? Why are we doing this? Why did the Lord congregate us? What does the Lord have for us as a church? And these things get lost. These larger questions get lost when opposition comes, when difficulty comes, when hardship comes. I opened that up last week and tried to explain that, that that's just part and parcel of life, that that's what you know in your marriages. It's good at the start, and then it gets rough, And then you lose focus and you forget what all this is about and you forget what the purpose of your marriage is. And that's when all the conflict comes and then nothing but separation, bitterness, and fighting. That's consequences of that. Well, it's the same in the kingdom of God. It's the same in the church. They had lost their sense of joy. Did you notice how many times already Paul said rejoice there in that passage? Oh, come on. rejoice. They had lost their sense of unity. They had lost what it meant to be a part of the body of Christ. Why are we, why are we here and why are we doing this? And that's why he began with gospel fellowship. The gospel has made a fellowship, a koinonia. Jesus's work has created a body. And you see why that's so important for the Lord's Supper this morning. Why in Corinth there were divisions that separated them out. It was their gospel fellowship, the koinonia that was being attacked, and it was dividing the body when it was one body celebrated through the sacrifice, one sacrifice of Jesus. He wanted them to understand the immense blessing of being members of the church. Notice how it's just ingrained in all of us to oppose anything institutionally right now, we hate it and we hate accountability because we're autonomous and we're going to do it our way. And you can ask, how is that going? Paul is going after all of this because what happened in the church, and I really think there's been a lot of discussions to what is the real goal of Paul in this book. I think it comes out in chapter 4. Yeah, he stank you for a gift from them, but there was a division in the church between two women that had spread like fire. And he calls them out by name. You, Yodia, and you, Sinktaki, stop it. You're dividing the body of Christ. So you see, he's working to this, and he's working to give them a perspective and a help of why we're here and why we do this, and why God raises up a church in a given place. How do you do that? How do you fix these problems? All the discouragement and the conflict had taken them away from the purpose which God had established them. And maybe we have at times just left the impression that really what church is just about is coming to hear and hearing a sermon and bolting out and it's nothing more for your life. Actually, that sermon is intended to create a gospel culture. That sermon is intended to create a gospel fellowship. The word is to create a people. It's the word that creates a people with a purpose that God left us with in the earth. And that is important to the Lord, his project. So how do you straighten out a church that's lost its way? Or is in threat of losing its way? How do you help Christians who are in the same position today in this world where all these things are constantly coming at them and they're unable to understand anymore because of conflict and discouragement and depression and all the difficulties of life? What is our purpose and what does it even matter now? There's a reason that Philippians is used to pull up people who are facing depression. It's the book for the depressed. It's the book for the afflicted. It's the book for those who've lost a reason to get up. And that's why this book is so powerful, for he's helping them through these things. Paul's working hard on this problem, and the way that you fix this problem is to change one's perspective, how they look at life and how they look at involvement in the kingdom of God. And Paul is explaining this to the Philippian church, how to understand their purpose through difficulties, their purpose through affliction. Remember, two things have happened. Not only is it the internal divide that's happening in the church, but it's external opposition that has driven the internal divide. And I said more than a few times in starting this series, just think about how something like the external pressure of COVID has affected the divisions in the church. The same thing. So Paul is having us think here about these kind of things, how to look at these things. And what he does today is really remarkable. He uses himself as an example and wants them to reflect upon his attitude in it. He describes, number one, his persecution. And then he describes his perspective. And then he describes to help the church his pursuit in the midst of it all. So there's your three-point outline today. Did you get it? Okay? His persecution, his perspective, and his pursuit through it all. Paul begins by explaining that two difficult things have happened to him. Two very difficult things. This has been something like four years since they have heard from Paul, the church in Philippi. And if you ask the question, as they were probably asking the question, what happened to him? Was he martyred? Is he still alive? Paul was their kind of founding pastor. Did all of his ministry come to nothing? All this labor and everything that he did? And now this church is facing the threat of their own persecution. You can imagine the circumstance. Paul is laboring to take the gospel to the unbelieving world, and he desires to go to Jerusalem. And remember in our study of Acts, everything that happened to the man? Let me just help you to recall it from Acts 21, that ignited the long stretch of persecution for Paul that would land him in Nero's courts. Think about Nero, the most wicked tyrant to exist in the first, in the first centuries to oppress the church and afflict the church was Nero himself, and Paul will go in chains to this man. Now when, this is Acts 21, when seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place. And furthermore, he has also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place, and all the city was disturbed. And the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. Now they were seeking to kill him. Then the commander came near and took him and commanded him to be bound in two chains and asked who he was and what he had done. Oh, this wouldn't be so far off. Can you believe what these Christians are saying today against homosexuality, against this and against that, when our goal is to see people, what, forgiven of their sins and saved? They bound him. They grabbed him. And they shackled him. Now, the perspective of the church has to be through something like this. Is God even really with his church in something like that? Here is a weak now apostle imprisoned, powerless in the face of this great evil in the empire. What in the world is happening? With Paul, the whole situation was unjust. He's falsely accused. He's lynched by a mob. he's bound in chains, he's thrown in prison, he's struck and flogged. The whole trial is full of mockery and false witness. There's a plot for his life. People have even made a vow against him not to eat until he's dead. Do you believe that? That's a dumb vow to make, by the way, when God's in charge, you know. He's almost killed in a storm on the way to prison, bound by a chain for two years and then under house arrest with soldiers guarding him. On all accounts, this is a failure when looking at it externally. Imagine happening to you. Physical suffering for your faith, being hated by your own, beaten, arrested, bound in chains, and the whole thing is completely in every way unjust as the culture cries out for justice. All of it from Paul's perspective. How utterly frustrating, you know? How utterly miserable. The man had no clothes. The man had no money. The man had no savings account. He had no insurance. He had nothing. No friends. Most had utterly abandoned him. The churches didn't even know where he was, and he's absolutely alone to go through this. And now the church is facing opposition, and it's falling apart. Now that's the first problem Paul faced. What's the second? Which is an interesting one. Second one's this. In verse 15, he raises something that might seem to be out of context for a minute, but follow it. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. So let's put that in plain terms. There are a bunch of pastors out there. There are a bunch of preachers out there that are jealous of me. What's hard is I don't believe these are false teachers. He'll mention dogs in chapter 3, and deceitful workers. He says, these guys have lied about me. They're doing the entire Christian ministry out of selfish ambition. It's all about them. And in the midst of it, they're seeking to afflict me and add to pain in my imprisonment. If I knew there's another pastor I believe was fake and insincere and out there preaching just for the sake of envy and strife, and their ministry was just that, and then they want to add to my afflictions, I'm trying to put myself in Paul's shoes for a minute, how I would handle that. Start slandering me in the community. Start saying false things. Starts trashing the pastor. And some people are starting to believe the false reports. That's exactly what happened to Paul. I'd be ticked. Punk pastor, you know. I would not be happy about this. Put yourself in it. Now put yourself in it. Whatever situation in life you find yourself, everything's been unfair to you. You didn't get the job you wanted in life. You're stuck in a situation you can't get out of. And then that boss of yours, who's been nothing but trouble to you. Then there's another so-called Christian who's provoking you all the time. And nothing's going well in life. Well, I've been in the ministry long enough to know and see how hard the world can crush people. And how many painful things can happen to people who used to be very joyful people. Pleasant to be around. And all this has made them hard, bitter complainers. Bitter, a rot of madness, empty, never happy. That's the natural response. That's the natural response. Now imagine this in a church context. If that's how members are handling hardships. everything's caving in on us the world hates us nothing but problems kind of hard to see why we're here you've got people who just aren't as committed anymore people who who used to have some kind of commitment have just dwindled away people who've never really bought into it people who are separating and fighting imagine all that he could have thrown up his arms can you believe this American government, oh no, I meant Roman, sorry. You believe this Roman government, how it's treating me? You believe how I've been unjustly beaten by this Nero, the child killer, the persecutor of Christians. I'm ready, God. Call down fire from heaven and burn them up. I have rights. I have dignity. Do they know who I am? I'm the Apostle Paul. And here comes the whole purpose of the passage. And now we move to his perspective. How did he help them? He did nothing of the sort. Faced with his life on the line, knowing he might die for this, faced with impending death, he writes to the Philippian church, facing the same persecution on the inside, complaining and disputing, I want you to know... Stop. What did he just pray in the previous section? Well, he prayed something, didn't he? This is my prayer, that your love would abound more and more with knowledge. I want you to know... This is what he's talking about here. I want you to know something that's really important. I want you to know, brothers, did you see it there? Verse 12, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. So that it's become known throughout the whole palace imperial guard and to the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold now to speak the word of God without fear. He's talking about the praetorium here. That was the, of course, the guard of the emperor. He's talking about the guards who took post in Rome. So we know where Paul is. He's at the end here. He's at the end. He's going to go before Nero. And they would rotate prisoners and guards on a four-hour shift to guard these prisoners. So here's what happened with Paul's mindset, and here's what happened, that all of the terrible things that he had suffered, Paul said, guess what? Do you know what actually happened? It was an opportunity that God used to further the gospel so that my chains became a way, now listen to the fruits of this, of making the whole palace guard the very guards of the emperor himself. Guess what God did? He saved a whole bunch of them. And this unjust prisonment, you know, it's one thing if you go to prison for stealing and murdering. It's quite another thing if you go to prison for righteousness sake, you know. Unjust as it was, Paul said, guess what God did? He used the whole thing to spread the gospel to the whole imperial guard. In fact, it's the end of Acts, the very last of Acts. Paul dwelt there two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him. Listen to this. Who set this up? All who came to him preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. So, so you're saying he put him through the chains and the prisons and the beatings so that that would be the outcome. Paul says, yep, and I'm willing to take it. People were saved through this. The whole palace guard, as I was in prison and was watching how I was handling this, and we know how Paul handled it when he was in prison, what did he do? He started singing psalms. Remember in Philippi? And then God saved the Philippian jailer, you know, after he'd been beaten. Paul says, the whole palace guard was watching me. You know what they saw in me? Jesus. They saw Jesus. And they saw him magnified in my body. God raised up a church over here, you guys. All these brothers now who are your brothers. It's like a plague in here. All these prisoners, these are tough guys. All these guys are coming to Jesus. See the point? The fruit of that doesn't come by an angry, bitter complainer. Some of us complain if our fries are too cold at the drive-thru. How do we look at everything? I mean, that's really the question. How do you look at COVID? How do you look at the moments you find yourself? You see what would happen if you have no perspective as to why you're here? You'd look a lot like the world in handling it the way it does. Instead of thinking, why does God orchestrate these things in his wisdom and sovereignty and then use them? How does he use them? Christ says, oh, by the way, if you think I'm just being a little too much for you here, I'll tell you something else. You know how I look at those punk preachers who are attacking me? Who are insincere and fake and who trash me and who hurt me and who afflict me? You know, do you know how I've gotten through that? Here's how I've come to look at it. I'm not standing around judging their motivations. Trying to figure that out. Here's what I'll be happy with if they're still preaching Jesus. I don't care what they say about me. I don't care what they do to me. I didn't write this. I have a good friend in this church who says, I don't really care for Philippians because I'm a Calvinist and Calvinists are grumpy. Agreed. That Calvinists are grumpy. But I know what he was saying. This isn't just idealistic. It's really the way of sanctification in the Christian life. It's the most freeing way to live you'll ever live. Tell me, when you're worked up over everything, if you're a happy person, if that does you any good in life, it's the only response that fits receiving grace. Think about that, and Paul's going after it, because without a right perspective or pursuit, we'll never have gospel fellowship as we should, and we'll never appreciate what the church is intended to be. Imagine if we looked at the life we have in Christ this way. We love Romans 8. Everything's going to work out for good, right? And we say, We're just waiting for that good. We're just hoping we can finally get there. And Paul's saying, what are you talking about? The good doesn't come when life gets always easy. The good that God is working out might be, now listen to me, because you know the story, boys and girls. The good that God is working out might be to have you stripped, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, gone down into Egypt. Everything bad happening to you so that you would save many people, as Joseph said. That's what Romans 8 is talking about. Paul says some of the most difficult things that happen in this life to the redeemed children of God, the good that God intends is precisely for what Paul says here, for the furtherance of the gospel. I want you to know, brothers, that all this stuff that's happened to me has actually been for the furtherance of the gospel. God gave me a saving-serving opportunity in it so that it's become known throughout the whole guard that my imprisonment is for Christ. And guess what the fruit of that is? It's spread. Now all these guys are bold. They're now speaking without fear. And so what does Paul say here in his pursuit? He says this, finally, to close with, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing will I be ashamed. See, that's how the Christian is to think. You're not going to be ashamed. It's going to turn out for your deliverance. You belong to Christ. Think of your greatest burden. Think of your greatest enemy. This is a mindset change, isn't it? and Paul now makes that very personal. If it's true of me, then it's true of you because you are partners with me in the gospel. That's his whole point in this section. You can be absolute sure that the difficulty and the struggle will turn out for your deliverance too. In full expectation and hope, you will not be ashamed. And Paul gives us this pursuit to think about in verse 20. Since it's true, that I won't be disappointed. Then with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. If my imprisonment leads to my death, which it did, you know what the outcome will be? I'm going to go be with Jesus. Christ will be magnified then in my death, whatever death he chooses for me. But, this is what we'll come back to do next time, if he wants to leave me here to continue to serve and be a blessing, then it's going to be a lot of fruit from my labor for you. And Christ then will be magnified in my life. He'll be enlarged. He'll be shown. I think this anticipates the mind of Jesus. What is the mind of Christ? He went all the way to death for your salvation. He went all the way to the cross and he did not fight the will of God. He submitted to the will of God knowing and thinking about you. And that's the kind of heart that's spilling over into this servant, Paul. He knew how great God's grace was to him. It became a privilege in life that would be the magnification of Christ. Whether he's going to die tomorrow or whether he's going to live tomorrow, it's going to be for your benefit, not his. They will see Jesus. We have this treasure in jars of clay. For what reason? To show that surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies for we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. There's your purpose. There's your pursuit. And that gets back to gospel fellowship today. If you believe your life is so completely in his hand that apart from his will you cannot move or be moved, doesn't that give you a perspective then in life and wherever he has us that to live is Christ and to die is gain. If it's your time to die, then you'll gain him in full. But if not, you got the opportunity to be part of a grand fellowship still on earth that is in God's project of saving people. And that gets back to Paul's prayer. I pray that your love would abound more and more for each other. Your purpose to serve your neighbor, to enjoy your brothers and sisters. And in the hardships to show that in life and in death, we have the life of Jesus. Your neighbor needs that. But you can't do these things with a sour, bitter attitude over every circumstance of life. When the Lord shows us his grace, as he's going to do in chapter 2, of his son's love for us. It inspires love. It's a result because he's forgiven you and he loves you. And he calls us to be a part of his body that's met in unity as we come to the table. Don't be surprised, though, if he starts saving a prison guard and bringing them into the EURC. This is how he works. These are his surprising ways and difficulty. We have to understand that and appreciate why he left us here. What a purpose, what a pursuit. And that's what the apostle's helping us with. Let's come to the Lord in prayer and then come to the table this morning knowing that he's made us one body in Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us to understand these things. And Lord, give us the kind of mind of Christ that understands a purpose in pursuit. It's so freeing. We hold on to everything wrongly and we confess that. Thank you for giving us Jesus who forgave all our sins has washed us and cleansed us and made us to have a gospel fellowship with real purpose in your kingdom. May other people see that and become bold in the faith too. Thank you, O Lord, for giving us perspective. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.