Progress of the gospel

Philippians 1:12

The title of my message today is the greater progress of the gospel. We started off in Philippians looking at our partnership in the gospel, then the next week it was our participation in the gospel, and now today we’re looking at the progress of the gospel.  Some people have said that joy is the theme of Philippians.  But I would suggest that the gospel is the theme of the book.  In fact, the theme of every book in the Bible is the gospel.

So before we go too far into this passage, let’s define the word gospel.  It’s a very important word that encompasses so much and yet is understood so little. A good definition is found in Romans 1:16 which says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.”  So the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the doctrine of salvation, presented in every book of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.  And doctrine simply means the truths that the gospel is built upon.  The irrefutable promises, principles and laws of God.

 Our message then comes from the first verse of our text, verse 12, in which Paul says that his circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.  Now on the surface this would seem to be an incongruous statement.  After all, Paul was in prison.  He spent two years incarcerated in his own private, rented quarters in Rome but he was in prison nonetheless.  He was chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day.  The guards worked 6 hour shifts and someone was constantly chained to him.  He could receive visitors, but he was unable to come and go himself.

And I suppose that Paul had this certain luxury of his own quarters because he had not been convicted of a crime yet, in fact, he really had not even been charged with a crime.  He had merely been charged as having caused a disturbance among the Jews.  It seems everywhere he went, the Jews began a riot on his account.  And so they locked him up for his own protection at first, and then one thing led to another and he stayed locked up until he appealed to Caesar. Paul had a very valuable citizenship as a natural born Roman citizen.   So he had a certain privileges because of that, yet he was held waiting for trial.  He was awaiting trial by Caesar, who happened to be the infamous Nero, who had Christians tarred and placed on poles around his garden terrace and set on fire to light up his dinner parties.  And this was the circumstances that Paul found himself in, and was actually giving thanks for.

Now Paul had intended to come to Rome for years, but I’m sure he would have never thought that the way God would accomplish that would be in prison, yet he says that imprisonment had turned out for the progress of the gospel.  He says in verse 13, “so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,  and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.”  And the first thing we can notice here is that God used difficult circumstances to further the progress of the gospel.  Yet how often do we allow difficult circumstances to hinder us in the furtherance of the gospel.  Our difficulties at work, or our difficulties due to some unforeseen circumstance ends up hindering our purpose of fulfilling our ministry to participate in the gospel, rather than furthering it.  And I’m afraid that it may be because it was never our priority to begin with.  The ministry of the gospel is far too often at the bottom of our priority list.  Yet for Paul, his purpose was never shaken.  His mission was the furthering of the gospel no matter what the circumstances.  There was no higher priority.

And notice a couple of things Paul said happened as a result of that commitment to not let his circumstances deter his mission.  One, the whole praetorian guard had come to know about Paul and the gospel of Christ.  Paul is sitting there in this house day after day, for two years, chained to a different guard every 6 hours.  But rather than Paul thinking of himself as a captive of unfortunate circumstances, he sees the guards as a captive audience and the result is in 2 years many of them had become saved, to the point that the gospel was known throughout the praetorian guard and throughout Caesar’s house.  What an amazing thing.

It would help you perhaps to know that the Praetorian guard were the elite, “Navy  Seals” of the Roman army. The Praetorian Guard, or the palace guard of Rome had been originally instituted by Caesar Augustus. You may remember, he was Caesar at the time of the birth of Christ. They were a body of about 16 thousand hand-picked troops. They were the elite soldiers in the Roman army. Augustus had kept them stationed throughout the city of Rome because they were the force of his presence there, responsible for keeping the peace and for putting down any opposition. They had a specially built and fortified camp so they had high profile presence in Rome. They were a threat to any insurrection, any rebellion. By the end of their enlistment which ran up to 16 years, they were granted all the highest privileges of citizenship and also a large sum of money. They eventually became so powerful that they ultimately became the bodyguard of the emperor himself and after that, they became so influential that they literally became the king makers of Rome and every emperor was the choice of the Praetorian Guard.  They could impose their will by force on the population or on the leadership. And so they chose all the emperors...they were extemely powerful men.

And in the providence of God Paul is being guarded by these men, and they are being saved, to the point that Christ is becoming well known throughout even the palace.  And such a testimony provokes the question:  what or who are you chained to?  Are you chained to a desk all day?  Are you chained to an assembly line?  Are you chained to an office?  For Paul, there was no where to hide from his testimony.  These men saw him at all hours of the day, every day of the week.  And yet his testimony was consistent with his message. These elite soldiers would lay down their life for the Emperor, and yet I think that Paul’s dedication to Christ in spite of his circumstances was the impetus for their salvation.  I hope and pray that your testimony is consistent with the gospel.  The greatest criticism we Christians face is that we are hypocrites.  This doesn’t come from within the church, but from without.  The world sees a discrepancy between our walk and our talk.  But it wasn’t that way with Paul, and as a result the gospel progressed, it went forward in spite of his circumstances.

Now another thing that happened for the progress of the gospel is that the brethren, those that were saved in the church of Rome, were witnesses to the providence of God in Paul’s imprisonment, and it emboldened them in their witness.  Have you considered how your testimony impacts other Christian’s walk? One of the greatest shortfalls of most Christian testimonies is that they fail to show by example a courageous, committed, sacrificial walk. And I think it’s because we have this mentality that our Christian walk is just between us and God and it doesn’t have to cost us anything.  But folks, people are watching your walk.  They notice when you are at church and when you are not.  They notice how seriously you take your commitment to the gospel.   And I would ask you, does your perseverance give encouragement to other believers or does your testimony cause them to be less committed?  Are you telling others by your mouth that Christ is everything, but telling them by your walk that you really don’t have to take it so seriously?  Sometimes I think some people would better serve the church if they didn’t tell anyone that they were a Christian.  But Paul’s testimony gave them more courage to speak the word of God without fear.  His testimony encouraged them to greater sacrifice.

(14-16)Now a lot of people go off the track on this next verse which builds on verse 14.  They want to point out that verse 15 says that some are preaching Christ “out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.”  And then they point to verse 16 and say, “Aha!  See there!  We shouldn’t speak ill of any preachers or churches or even false religions, because Paul says we should just be happy that Jesus is being preached.”  And so they want to stifle any criticism of any false teachers or cold dead, apostate churches.  “Let’s try to find the good in every thing.  Let’s just all get along.  That’s what Paul would want.”

But folks, read the text.  First of all, Paul says in vs. 14 that they were preaching the word of God.  In other words, they were teaching the gospel.  Paul isn’t condoning false teaching here.  He is not saying here that we should show some sort of leniency towards those that are teaching a false doctrine of works, or of some other way to become acceptable to God.  Far from it.  To believe that would make a liar out of every other book that Paul wrote.  Consider Galatians Gal. 1:6 where  Paul writes, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; (in other words, there isn’t but one true gospel) only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

Does that sound like inclusiveness to you?  Does that sound like we all just need to get along?   Does that sound like we’re all going in the same direction here?  Not hardly. There are a lot of so called churches out there claiming to preach Jesus Christ, but if they don’t preach salvation, then they aren’t preaching the gospel.  Paul never intends a permissive sort of easy believe-ism, or some sort of watered down gospel that says that if you just name Jesus you’re good to go.  The gospel of Jesus Christ as far as Paul was concerned was nothing less than the message that Jesus came to save lost sinners, and only by faith in His atonement on the cross, God reckons righteousness to our account, so that being made holy, we might receive a new life by the Spirit, so that being filled with the presence of Christ we might live the life of service to God that He requires, but we were unable to do in the flesh.  That is the gospel in a nutshell.  Nothing short of that is the gospel.  And anyone that doesn’t preach that gospel Paul said is to be accursed, shunned, rejected and called out from.

So what is Paul really saying here?  Well, what he is saying is though the gospel is being preached by some even with impure motives, really to try to cause Paul distress in prison, yet Paul is rejoicing because his goal is being reached.  His goal was to proclaim the gospel to Rome and that was being done.  In other words, there were some brethren who for whatever reason were jealous of Paul, and yet they were genuine believers, and they began to preach out of that wrong motivation, yet even though they thought they were causing Paul distress, he was celebrating because his goal of the progress of the gospel was still being accomplished.

The point of distinction here is not false doctrine but impure motives.  What they were preaching was the truth, was in alignment with what Paul was teaching, otherwise Paul would have called them out as false teachers.  In 1 Timothy, for example, Paul says he is delivering over to Satan Hymeneaus and Alexander so that they would learn not to blaspheme.  They were teachers in the church at Ephesus who had twisted the truth and were teaching a blasphemous doctrine.  In another place Paul says of false teachers who were teaching that you had to be circumcised to be accepted with God, he said he wished those guys would mutilate themselves rather than continue to preach false doctrine.  Paul was never for unity at the cost of doctrinal purity.  But that’s not the case here, Paul is not focusing on false doctrine, but impure motives.  There are lots of people working today in the church out of impure motives, but God can still use that as He sees fit for the further progress of the gospel.  For instance, an evangelist might be motivated by pride, to be recognized, yet God can still use his message if it’s the truth of the gospel, or a pastor might be motivated to build a huge church, but still preaching the truth.

Phil. 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Paul rejoiced that his difficult circumstances turned out for the  progress of the gospel.  His life’s goal was for the progress of the gospel.  He was willing for his life to be poured out for the church.  And that prompts the question for us; what is your greatest passion? Is it the gospel? It was for Paul. It was of little consequence to him what happened to his own body, what happened to his career, what happened to his own circumstances. The only thing that really mattered to him was the progress of the gospel. Back in the twentieth chapter of Acts  Paul says, "I don't consider my life of any value." I could care less about my life and my possessions, my clothes, my recognition, reputation, prestige, whatever it is, I just want to finish the course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus "To testify of the gospel," that's all I want to do. In Romans 1 he says, "I am ready to preach the gospel." In 1 Corinthians 9 he says, "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." Paul was driven to the progress of the gospel.  I ask you today, is the progress of the gospel your greatest concern?  Have you put it above every other thing in your life?  Are you willing like Paul to consecrate your life to the service of the gospel?

Unfortunately, our response to that question more often than not is limited to going to church on a somewhat regular basis.  We’ll make sure we check in at a church for an hour or so every week or two somewhere and that covers our consecration to the gospel.  But that answer reveals a gross misunderstanding of the word church and of our mandate to carry the gospel to the world.  Church isn’t a building, and it’s not attending a service.  It’s not even  hearing a message.  If it was, then why not just all of us  stay home and download something on the internet and we can watch it at our convenience?  No, that’s not church according to the Biblical definition. The Bible defines church as the body of Christ.  Now what does that mean? It means that  the church is a body of living organisms, each filled with the spiritual presence of Christ, each connected to one another in a local body, a living community, each dependent upon the rest of the parts of the body for their well being, and the body as a whole dependent upon the healthiness of the individual parts.  And that body that we are all to be a part of, it’s purpose is to reach the world with the gospel of salvation and to be effective, God needs all of the parts to participate in the work.

Eph. 4: 15 says, “we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”  Note it says grow up.  As Christians there is a time and a place for infancy and for being fed and nurtured and a newness in life.  But we are called to grow up, start eating the meat of the word, that’s doctrine, and start becoming teachers and leaders.  Serving the church in agape love, sacrificial love for the body the way Christ served the church.

So by that definition then, church is not merely  checking in somewhere to watch a religious service.  But rather, church is reporting for duty, becoming a servant to the local body God has placed you in.  And if you aren’t fulfilling your responsibility to the local church you’re not fulfilling your responsibility to serve God.

We need to understand the equivalency of the words gospel, church and ministry.  They are all connected.  They are all interdependent.  God never intended for a separation between the clergy and the laity.  God never designed the church to be operated by a few professionals, and populated by a congregation of spectators.  God’s design for the church is presented in 1Peter 2:5 which says “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Christ changed Simon’s name to Peter, which meant rock or stone, and Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church.  And from that statement evolved a twisted doctrine has resulted in the false notion  that only priests or ministers are the appointed professionals that God uses in the church.  But look at what Peter, the original stone, had to say.  You also, are living stones, you’re a holy priesthood, and you are designed to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God.  

I would ask you today, how is your priesthood going?  Have you consecrated your life, have you consecrated your body, have you consecrated your resources, have you committed every aspect of your life to be a living sacrifice in service to God?   Are you offering up spiritual sacrifices to God?  What sacrifices are you making for the sake of the gospel?  Are you serving the church even as Christ served the church and gave His life up for her? Who is on the throne of your life?  Is  Christ there or are you still in control and serving your  passions and your desires and your goals?

Or can you say with Paul, “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Whatever I counted as gain in my life before, I now count as loss for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I pray that your circumstances have brought about progress for the gospel.  That you will not let circumstances keep you from service, but you would see difficulties as opportunities for service.  I pray that those things that you are chained to are being impacted for the gospel and that your testimony is matching your claim to Christianity.  I pray that your enthusiasm and commitment for the progress of the gospel is resulting in an encouragement to other Christians to step up in their commitment to the gospel as they see the sacrifices you have made.

I pray that at the day of Christ’s appearing, you will be able to say with Paul that you are not ashamed, but Christ was exalted in your body, both in life and in death.  I pray that we might live according to the motto of Paul, the most elite warrior for Christ in the kingdom, “for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.”