For our scripture reading this evening, we'll turn back to the book of Philippians. Last week, we looked at Philippians 1, verses 1-11, and this week we'll be looking at verses 12-18, and then next week, hopefully, we'll be looking at verses 19-26. So once again, this evening, I'm going to read through from verse 1-26, just so we can see the whole flow of Paul's thought. So Philippians 1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who begin a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ of Jesus Christ it is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel for God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. 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 ashamed at all, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. So far the reading. What would it take for you to say, I rejoice, other than when you're reading the Bible? Probably you would never say it. That's not really how we talk anymore. We don't use words like rejoice. But putting it another way, what would it take to give you joy? I was listening to a convocation speech this week from Rainn Wilson, and his argument was that if you want to find joy, you do things for other people. That's how you find real, true, lasting joy. Maybe today, being Father's Day, some fathers sat back with their families and looked around them and saw their children and their children's children, and that gave them a spark of joy. But we seek joy in a lot of places. We seek joy in our work. We seek joy in whether or not people will like our vacation pics on Facebook. We seek joy in whether our kids will be well-behaved when they come to church. We seek joy in whether someone's going to notice the unique clothing combination we've put together today. And while, I guess in a little way, that joy is real, those sources of joy are so impermanent. There are so many ups and downs when you seek your joy in Facebook photos. And we know that at the end of the day, that's not the place that we should look for true and lasting joy. But we do. So often, we do. Now, if you looked at the title of the sermon, it was called The Pursuit of Joy. That was my weak attempt to make a play on the words of the Declaration of Independence, the pursuit of happiness. So often we look at those things, we look at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness not as inalienable rights, but as a laundry list. That the pursuit of happiness is something that we should be going out and doing. That we should pursue above all else, happiness. And Paul knows that. That's why Paul wrote Philippians. Because he knows that quite often what's most important to us, what we most seek, is what's right in front of our faces. And there's nothing more important to us in that moment than that thing. And so often we forget, especially in the bad times, that Christ is working all things for our good and for his glory. So often what Christ is doing in our lives is so far down on the list of priorities that it doesn't even flicker because we seek our joy in all the things I already mentioned. But in our text, Paul leads by example. And while he looks at his own circumstances and reacts to his own circumstances and what's going on around him, we see in him his priorities and what he rejoices in, where he finds joy, how he is able somehow to rejoice in the Lord always. This text challenges the way that we will look at our own circumstances and where we will find joy. Because Paul's goal in this text is so that we will see that Christ is working in us for His glory. And so Philippians 1, 12-16 teaches us that because the proclamation of Christ will not be suppressed, we can remain joyful and hopeful in the face of opposition. Because the proclamation of Christ will not be suppressed, we can remain joyful and hopeful in the face of opposition. And we'll see this in two different ways that Paul brings up in the text. First, we'll see it in Paul's chains. And then we'll see it in Paul's competition or competitors. Paul's chains and Paul's competitors. And so, it'll be helpful, first of all, to backtrack to what we saw last week, especially for those who weren't here. This letter begins with Paul's greeting to the Philippians and his prayer for the Philippians. And both of them are full of joy. He has so much hope for the Philippians. He says to them, he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Paul is so confident in the faith that the Philippians have because they have been co-laborers or co-communers with him in the defense of the gospel because they've shown their love for him by the support that they've sent him, by the prayers that they've been offering up for him. And so Paul's prayer is that They will abound more and more. And in that, we saw that Paul has a fundamental priority shift. That Paul no longer prioritizes the things that the world prioritizes. Whether it be ourselves, or our own whereabouts, or what's going on in our own lives. But Paul cares most about the Philippians. Because Paul has a heart changed by the gospel. A heart that seeks to love God and his neighbor first and foremost. And the Philippians have that as well. Because Paul is a slave of Christ first and foremost. He's had his worldview totally shifted. And so there's then a connection between what we saw last week in the first verses of Philippians and this text because that priority shift is what allows Paul to link now to how does he react to his circumstances. Because Paul is fundamentally, first and foremost, a slave of Christ, that changes how he's going to react to all the things that are going on around him, to how he can have joy, even though these terrible things are taking place all around him. Even though things that most people would say, I can't rejoice when this takes place, Paul is able to because he's a fundamentally different man. And so while he's been praying for them, now it seems he's going to turn and talk about his own circumstances. We see that in verse 12. He starts off, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. And so he uses this phrase, I want you to know. And that was actually a common part of letter writing in the first century. And what it would do, it would introduce a sort of intimate, personal part of the letter. it would reach out and grab the focus of the reader and say, I'm going to talk about something a little bit different. I'm going to tell you something that really gets close to my heart. What Paul's doing is he's grabbing the Philippians' attention and he's saying, okay, really listen to this. I'm going to tell you something that's really important to me. And we can kind of feel that. As he introduces this new section, we can feel that there's a change of tone, that he is flicking a switch and talking about something different. And the question is, what's the new topic that Paul's going to talk about? And what we expect, of course, is that he's going to start talking about himself. Because that's what's always most important to us, is what's going on in our own lives. We're expecting Paul to speak about some personal details about what's going on. And no doubt the Philippians wanted to know those things. No doubt the Philippians had said, Paul, how is it going? how are you? Do you need any more support? They wanted an update on their pastor's condition. And so Paul begins in verse 12, I want you to know, I want you to know that what has happened to me. And so at first, he does reference his present conditions. Now we recall from last week that Paul is a prisoner. And I didn't go into exactly what that looked like. But if we want to picture in our minds what being a prisoner looked like for Paul, he was likely in Rome. But he wasn't behind bars, as we would probably imagine. No, in fact, the word for prisoner really means that he is in chains. He's probably under house arrest. And what that looked like was he was probably literally chained to a guard, but he was allowed to have visitors, he was allowed to write letters, because he was awaiting a trial from Caesar. And it's probably these exact details that the Philippians want to hear. They want to know how it's going. They want to know his prospects. Are you in danger, Paul? How is this trial that you're about to go into going to turn out? Will we ever see you again? And that's what they were expecting when Paul said, I want you to know. But then after grabbing their attention with this little phrase, what does Paul want to talk about? Because Paul doesn't want to discuss himself. But he wants to discuss what he cares about more than anything. And he wants to teach them what they should care about more than anything. Not their circumstances, not his circumstances, but what Christ is doing in his life. And why does Paul do this? Well, certainly that was Paul's first priority. It was always Paul's first priority to speak about Christ. He, as he said, is a slave of Christ. He is a servant who cares first and foremost about how his master's kingdom is faring, how Jesus Christ's name is being proclaimed. But second of all, I think we should jump to verse 28. If we jump to verse 28, we read this. Maybe back up a little bit. You see, the Philippians themselves were undergoing persecution. They had opponents, and if we were to look at chapter 3, we would sort of get a picture of what these opponents looked like. On the one hand, they seemed to be sort of favoring circumcision. Maybe they were some sort of Jewish, Judaizing sect. And on the other hand, he talks about people who serve only their stomachs. And so it's some sort of hedonistic, godless sect. Maybe there's two different groups that are opposing the Christians, but either way, the Christians are being oppressed by these various groups in Philippi. And so what Paul wants to tell them is, look at how my chains have advanced the gospel. Let me console you, Philippians, with how the power of Christ took what my opponents desired and returned the exact opposite. Paul wants to say, look, Philippians, at how when I was oppressed, when they tried to silence me, the gospel exploded. And more people heard of it than I could have ever planned. Because that's the life story of Paul. It's amazing if you go back, all the way back to Acts 15, and just skim through the book of Acts, you see this happen over and over. When Paul first comes to Jerusalem, the Jews get so angry that they try to drag him out of the city and kill him. And so what happens? The tribune in Jerusalem steps in and saves Paul's life. He arrests Paul, and instead of silencing Paul, this tribune puts him up on a platform and says, Give your testimony, Paul. And so now in front of all these Roman leaders and all these Jews, Paul gets the opportunity to tell about how he was converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the Jews make another plot. Paul's in prison, but they still want him dead. And yet their plot is discovered this second time. And so instead of keeping him in prison, this tribune sends him higher up the chain. He sends him to Felix, the governor. And as he's with Felix for two years, he gets to talk with Felix day after day, telling him about the gospel until it says that Felix was well acquainted with Paul's message. Paul is the private tutor of a Roman governor. And then the Jews come again, and they say, we want to bring charges against Paul. And what does Paul say? I appeal to Caesar. And so Paul is sent to Caesar. And on the way to going to Caesar, he gets to talk to Festus, he gets to talk to Agrippa, he gets to talk to Bernice, all these Roman rulers who never would have heard the gospel before, who Paul would never have had access to, now have access because the Jews are trying to get him killed over and over and over again. Without that opposition, Paul would never have spoken to those leaders, and he probably would have had a hard time getting to Rome. So what Paul is testifying to here is that the oppression that Paul has suffered through his whole life was used by Jesus Christ for his own glory and to spread his name. And so Paul says, Now I'm in chains. Now I'm in Rome in chains, and what good does it do? Verse 13. So it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Now, I said that Paul would have probably been chained directly to one of his guards, but he would have been surrounded by maybe four or six of these Praetorian guards. And they would have rotating shifts, just like anyone else. So every four or six hours, there would be a new set of guards who would come and guard Paul. And so, through this turnover, through the Praetorian guards coming in and out day after day, it seems that they all became acquainted with the fact that Paul was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. They all had an opportunity to see him firsthand. They all could know, this guy's no criminal. This guy's not a murderer. This guy's 60 years old. He's no threat to anyone. All he does is sit and write and preach about Jesus Christ. It seems all the Praetorian Guard knew why Paul was a prisoner. and they learn that it's for the sake of Jesus Christ. Not that they necessarily came to a saving faith. It doesn't say that they believe. But there were probably 9,000 praetorian guards in Rome. So that means that because Paul was in prison, perhaps tens of thousands of people who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ have now heard it. Not only them. Verse 13 says, But all the rest, not only the Praetorian guard, but everyone who hears about Paul, everyone who catches gossip on the street, everyone who talks to a Praetorian guard, everyone, all these people in Rome, they all know that Paul is imprisoned for the sake of Jesus Christ. They all know that Paul is a Christian. Is that what the Jews intended? No. More importantly, is that what Paul had planned? No. Paul is pointing out to the Philippians that Christ has worked through him. That Christ had a plan. And despite the fact that he is sitting imprisoned, despite the fact that the gospel appears to be so weak and powerless with its main apostles sitting in chains, Paul is saying, no, the gospel, our Savior Jesus Christ, is more powerful than any opposition that could come against it. And that's where we see this priority shift that Paul has already had. That more important than anything, Paul wants the Philippians to know the gospel is spreading. The name of Christ is spreading. That Christ is using his chains, using his persecution. And in that, he rejoices. And in that, he's teaching the Philippians to rejoice in their persecution. And maybe we begin to see that he's teaching us to rejoice. Because, brothers and sisters, we are not promised the luxury of being ignored. If we're ignored, that's not a good thing. Because either that means that our faith looks exactly like what the world wants it to look like, Or it means we're successfully hiding it under a bushel. No, brothers and sisters, Christ promises that we will be persecuted for His name's sake because a servant is no greater than his master. But what Paul wants us to know is that through that persecution, whatever pressure comes against us, Christ's name will be projected even further. His glory will shine out further. and he will do more than we can ask or even imagine. Paul is testifying to the work of Christ in his chains, but not only in his chains. He's also testifying to the work of Christ even in those who don't like him, even Christians who don't like him, his competitors. Because as he says, he is not the only one testifying to Christ in Rome. Verse 14, Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So our first reaction to that statement is, why did they become more bold? Prison's not supposed to have that impact on people. Prison, the idea is that you put people in prison to discourage them from doing things. You put people in prison to inspire fear, and yet Paul's saying that people were inspired to preach the word without fear because of his imprisonment. He inspires bold proclamation. And Paul anticipates this curiosity, this question. And so he explains. He explains that there are two groups who have sprung up. On the one hand, there's a group who loves Paul and who preach a good message, who preach the gospel faithfully. And especially, he wants to point out that they do so out of good motives. They do it out of love for Jesus Christ. As he says, they know that he has been put here for the sake of the gospel. And we presume, at first face value, that what Paul's talking about, when he says that he's put here for the sake of the gospel, that he means put in prison. But I don't think that's what we want to see Paul saying right here. He's not exactly saying I'm put in prison for the sake of the gospel. Rather, he's using military terminology. The word he uses is like a commission from a superior officer. It's someone who's specially appointed to a given task. It's someone who exists for a certain purpose. What Paul's saying is, they know that I am put on this earth to defend the gospel. The reason I exist, Paul says, is to defend and proclaim the gospel. And that's the claim that Paul has always made. If we go back to those first accounts of Paul's arrest in Acts 21, we see that he tells the story of how he went from being a persecutor of the church to an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then in Galatians 3, he talks about how he was commissioned especially as an apostle to the Gentiles by Jesus Christ himself. This was his God-given purpose for living, was to defend and proclaim the gospel. And the people who love him, the people who preach the gospel out of good motives, they recognize that Paul's apostleship is genuine and that his message is true. That he has been commissioned by Jesus Christ. And that explains why those who love him are so much more bold to proclaim the message. Because they've seen him preach the gospel in all circumstances. And they've seen that Christ worked in all of it. And seeing how powerfully Christ has worked in all of Paul's circumstances has made them more bold to follow their leader into battle. As one commentator put it, they dare to take on chains because Paul dares to take on chains. So the motives of that first group are good and loving and genuine. On the other hand, there's a second group. A second group whose motives Paul calls into question. They're not motivated by love, but by envy, by rivalry, and by selfish ambition. And we shouldn't think of these as harmless descriptions. Paul is making it clear that they have sinful motivations when they preach. Just to take one example, the word envy that Paul uses here, he also uses in Galatians 5. And he puts it in the list of the works of the flesh. Envy is one of the works of the flesh. And he lists it alongside of things like drunkenness, idolatry, orgies. Envy is not something that is innocent. It's clearly a sinful attribution. These second group are clearly sinning in their motives when they preach Christ. And yet, interestingly, it seems that Paul doesn't have a problem with their message. If we look at verse 14, he says that they are much more bold to speak the word without fear. If we look at verse 15, he says, Some preach Christ from envy and rivalry. Paul makes it clear that these people who are preaching with sinful motives are preaching Christ. And I think we should trust these descriptions. I mean, if you look at places where Paul talks about false gospels, he has no holds barred against those people. You look at Galatians 5, when he talks about people who preach circumcision rather than Christ, he says they should go the whole way and cut it all off. When Paul talks about it in Galatians 1, he says that if anyone, even an angel, preaches a different gospel from the one I'm telling you, let them be accursed. Paul has no soft words for people who would preach a false gospel. And yet here, it seems he is giving them the credit that they deserve that they are preaching a genuine gospel. But they're doing it for sinful reasons. Likely, these men are Paul's own disciples. that he passed on the faith of Jesus Christ to them, and now they're going out and preaching it on. But they're preaching it because they're jealous of him, jealous of the fact that he is the famous Apostle Paul. And so these men have become more bold because Paul's out of the picture, because this famous preacher is now gone. They can get their own piece of the pie. They can get their recognition. Because at the end of the day, they thought that Paul was just like them. They thought Paul was seeking what they were seeking, that Paul was seeking glory rather than being a genuine apostle. They thought Paul was seeking fame and honor. And that's kind of how human beings work. You know what always fascinates me? Is the first person in line at a Black Friday sale. Usually the person who brought a tent with him to Walmart so he could stand outside and sleep outside and get that television. Because what must be going on in that person's head is he's thinking there's going to be a lineup. And everyone else wants this TV. So I'm going to go to Walmart with a tent in the back of my car and I plan to stand in line. You know, it's not that he saw that there was a lineup and then decided to get in line, but he planned to make a line. Because in his mind, this person thought, everyone wants what I want, so I have to get there first. Everyone wants this flat screen TV, so I have to be first in line. And I think that's the sort of thing that we should see in these apostles who preach Christ out of envy. They're looking at Paul and saying, that guy, that guy wants fame. That guy wants honor. Because that was what was sinfully going on in their own hearts. And so Paul says they're seeking to afflict him in his imprisonment. By taking his fame, by taking his honor, they think now we're really going to stick it to Paul because what Paul really wants is fame. What Paul really wants is glory. So this is really going to get him upset. They expect Paul to be torn up about this. And that's not a terrible plan. It's not a terrible plan, using someone's pride to get back at them. I mean, you can imagine if you were a pastor and you spent day after day laboring in a congregation. You loved them. You worked in the study for them. You prayed for them ceaselessly. You spent long hours among a congregation. And then one day you're put in prison for the gospel and you find out that half the church has changed their membership to the church down the street in your absence. Wouldn't that make your imprisonment a little bit worse to find out something like that? Because that would attack your pride. And that's where Satan always goes to attack his ministers, is pride. He uses that to tear his ministers apart. Because once a minister starts thinking of himself, he's no longer thinking about his congregation. He's thinking about himself rather than his flock. And that's why, brothers and sisters, we have to keep our pastors in prayer because they are constantly under that attack of pride from the devil. And so as these competitors try to tear Paul down, using his pride, what happens? Verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. What an amazing man. These people who are trying to tear Paul down are preaching Christ out of rivalry, and what they want is to upset Paul. And what does he say? He says, what they wanted, what happens is the exact opposite. They want to make me upset, but I rejoice. Because why? Because Christ is proclaimed. Just like what happened to the Jews in the book of Acts as they tried to afflict Paul over and over, and the gospel just spread more and more and more now, As these competitors try to afflict Paul and his imprisonment, all they're doing is increasing his joy that the gospel is spreading more and more. Because Christ has worked so powerfully in Paul's heart. Christ has worked to suppress that natural human pride. And Paul has no desire to return their spiteful, envious motivations with evil. he rejoices in all the preaching of Christ because he is put here for the defense of the gospel. That is his only purpose. No matter what attacks, no matter what chains, no matter what competitors come against him, he rejoices because he is first and foremost a slave of Christ. His only priority is to serve his master, to spread his name, to spread Christ's fame and not Paul's. And he rejoices because he sees that Christ is working through him. And that joy, brothers and sisters, that rejoicing that Paul receives is not only Paul's, and it's not only the Philippians, but it's also ours. Because we too are slaves of Christ. Because we are not slaves of temporary circumstances. We do not need to look to temporary circumstances to give us joy. We don't need to look at what we can grasp at and strive for to give us joy. But as slaves of Christ, we have the opportunity to rest in joy. To rejoice in the Lord always. Because He is always our risen and ascended and powerful Savior. Because our Master is in control. And because He is working all things, not only for our good, but also for His own glory. And so, brothers and sisters, because the proclamation of Christ will not be suppressed, we can rejoice and remain hopeful in the face of opposition. Because we have a risen and ascended Savior. Because whatever resistance or persecutions or afflictions we face, we know that He is going to continue to work that for His own glory. Because whether we face chains or competitors, we know that the result will be His glory. Not only in the future, but right here and right now. And as slaves of Christ, there should be nothing that brings us more joy than to know that our Master is getting more and more glory. The more the world seeks our harm, the more opportunity we have to be like Christ. And as He poured Himself out on the cross for our salvation, so we also proclaim Him in our sufferings and in our trials. Even in our weakness, even when it looks like the gospel that lives in us is so powerless, Paul tells us Christ is strong. And so rejoice, brothers and sisters in Escondido, because of our chains. Rejoice when your boss and your co-workers think you're a weirdo because you go to church. Rejoice when they call you a bigot because you call them to repentance. Rejoice when the world can't understand why you are fervent in deeds of love and mercy against people who hate you. rejoice in the day that the officers of this church are called to publicly testify to the faith that we hold and the gospel that we believe because each and every opportunity that is presented by the world to testify to Christ is our opportunity to speak his name and it's our opportunity to revel in those four beautiful words because I'm a Christian so brothers and sisters we will rejoice so long as Christ is proclaimed and so long as Christ is glorified and those are two things that the world can never stop let's pray our great and awesome heavenly father you who work all things for your good and for your own glory we come before you in this evening and we seek to rejoice in you we seek to be overcome by that same joy that Paul had even though his circumstances would have warranted something far less. Nevertheless, Father, he rejoiced. And so we also seek to rejoice even though our sufferings and trials are not so obvious, even though the pressures can be digital, even though the pressures can be societal, even though the pressures can be simply written on a piece of paper. Nevertheless, Heavenly Father, we too experience persecution and we experience fear because we too are slaves of you. And so we ask that you would bless us in this week, that we would zealously claim the title of Slaves of Christ and that we would zealously claim the name Christian so that we could see more and more your name spread throughout the earth and so that when they come against us, they will know that we are in prison for the sake of Christ. Heavenly Father, please give us strength. Please equip us for this task. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.