The sermon 'Joy in Furthering the Gospel' by James Lundquist explores how the Apostle Paul's imprisonment unexpectedly advanced the Gospel. Despite difficult circumstances, Paul's chains provided unique opportunities for evangelism, reaching even the elite palace guards. His unwavering belief that God uses all circumstances for His glory inspired boldness and fearlessness among the Roman church. The sermon emphasizes that all Christians, regardless of their situation, can further the Gospel, drawing parallels to historical examples of faith and boldness. It encourages a perspective that sees every situation as divinely ordained for the Gospel's advancement and challenges listeners to seek joy in this mission.

To you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. Inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from good will. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. Good morning. Let's pray.

Our Father who art in heaven, would your name be praised and glorified through the preaching, especially the hearing of Your Word, God. Let me hear as well, please. This is Your Word. It deserves all the praise and glory. It deserves all of our attention, so help us.

Oh, Holy Spirit, help us. May we Leave this time desiring more joy, more boldness, just fearless, loving seeing your gospel advance, God. Please help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're in Philippians 1.

I want you to go to Acts 28 to start. Let's go to Acts 28. We need to start with a little background with how Paul got to where he is. I want to start. I'm going to start back in Acts 21.

We'll get to Acts 28. I want to start with a little background here. In Acts 21, we have Paul being arrested at the temple in Jerusalem. He's in Jerusalem in Acts 21. He's arrested.

And then Paul tells him he's a Roman citizen. He then survives a plot to kill him. And he makes it to Felix the governor. And he's with Felix for two years. Been arrested with Felix for two years.

We're not even to Rome yet. Two years. And after those two years Felix is gone, then Festus comes, and this is where Paul's famous appeal to Caesar comes. He does that, to festus appeals to Caesar, and then he's in front of Agrippa before he heads to Rome. He's before Agrippa.

He tells Agrippa about his testimony. He tells him about Christ. And that's where you have the famous phrase by Agrippa, Paul, you almost persuaded me to become a Christian. That's Agrippa. And Agrippa sends him to Rome.

He's still been arrested, still in the form of prison. So now he's headed to Rome. On that way to Rome, he's on a ship. That's where you have the terrible storm happening. And the guards are saying, hey, let's kill all the prisoners.

What they're saying to do, because if there's a shipwreck and any of the prisoners escape, we'll be killed, so let's kill them all. And then a centurion said, no, hey, let's not kill them. We're going to be fine. And so he doesn't kill him, doesn't kill all the prisoners, including Paul. There is a shipwreck.

They do survive. Everybody does survive, and that's on the island of Malta. And on that island, That's where Paul is bitten by the snake, and there's not a single effect from being bitten by the snake. There he heals a bunch of people as well on Malta. And then he heads on to Rome.

So That's in Acts 28 is where we're at. He has been bitten, he's healed people and many others, 11 through 16. He is in Rome and he's allowed to live by himself with a guard. And he meets with many brethren. Very unique situation he's in here.

Not your normal prison, but he is in prison in a home that he has rented and meeting with the brethren. And in 17 through 28, He's meeting with leaders, telling them what's happening, telling them that the gospel has come to the Gentiles. Let's pick this up in Acts 28, verses 28 through 31. Therefore, Let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it." When he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him." So here is Paul another two years.

He's already at least two years into his being arrested and everything that's happened and sent to Rome. And here he's going to spend another two years. And Paul is unhindered, it says here. People are able to come to him freely to hear the Gospel. And that's what we're going to talk here.

But when you go back to Romans 15, towards the end of Romans, what is Paul's great desire? That He tells the people in Rome at the end of Romans, I desire to be with you. I guarantee this was not what Paul had in mind of how he would get to Rome. I guarantee it. And I have in his mind he'd be arrested, and it would take two years, and he'd be two years there.

That was not his plan. That was God's perfect plan in order to advance the gospel in Rome and to embolden his church. So the overall focus of this passage, The title of this message is, Joy in Furthering the Gospel. Paul having joy in furthering the Gospel. So let's go back to Philippians, and I'll read verse 12.

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." As partners in the gospel, the Philippians are concerned about Paul. It's been a two-year journey to get there. I am confident that the Philippians have heard at least some of this journey and where he's at. They've sent people to him, Epaphroditus, and you know Timothy is there with them and others were sure that their reports have gotten back to the Philippians and they're concerned with them.

What's going on? Paul's in prison. Is the gospel still continuing? How's the church? What's the state of the church?

Is it floundering? Is it even there? What's the government doing? Is it shutting down Christianity? What's going on?

Paul, this great evangelist, this planter of churches, he... What's going... Churches, you mean, planning? He can't use his gifts. He's an evangelist.

They're concerned about Paul, and how can this possibly be for good, God, to have Paul shut up like this for two years and who knows how much longer he'll be in prison. To help us with verse 12, I want to read this with input from the other versions, NIV, NASB, and ESV. I'm going to reread this with input from these other versions. But now, now I want you to know, I want you to understand, brethren, I want you to understand brothers and sisters, the things which happened to me. Once you understand my circumstances have actually turned out for the furtherance, actually turned out for the advance, actually turned out for the progress of the gospel.

Have actually served to advance the gospel. And then we go to verse 18, and in this I rejoice. And in this I rejoice. Now Paul did not only write Romans by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he believed Romans, he lived Romans. He's the one that wrote Romans 8.28, and we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

He not only wrote it by inspiration, but he believed it and he lived it. And that is what he is saying here. Things have actually turned out for the advancement of the gospel. My circumstances under the sovereign control of God and his gospel is going forth no matter what. My circumstances are under the sovereign control of God and His gospel is going forth no matter what, therefore God will even use these circumstances for the advancement of the gospel.

Paul did not say in verse 12 that the gospel is being advanced in spite of his circumstances, in spite of his adversity. No, he says it much different. The gospel is going out, God is using my circumstances, the circumstances are critical in the advance of the gospel. Not in spite, it's not, oh woe is me, no, it's my circumstances are critical to the plan of the gospel being advanced. That's what he's saying.

Not in spite of, but because of my circumstances. This is a sovereign God advancing the gospel through the circumstances that he has ordained this is the way he wants to do this. And to rid all the fears of the Philippians, their possible fears, their concerns, He just gets directly to the point here in verse 12 that God's plan is greater than all of our plans and His plan to have me imprisoned has actually really served to advance the gospel. How is that possible? That's what the Philippians might be thinking at this point in the letter.

How is that possible, Paul? You're not planting churches. You're not out there evangelizing. How is this possible? So Paul is going to expand that in the next few verses.

This is like a missionary letter, like getting a missionary letter from Malawi. They're just telling us what's happening and they tell us the details of what's going on. We just love it. We love it. That's what this is.

This is like a missionary letter to the Philippians. And he's saying this. And now they want to, OK, how? All right, Paul, we get it. But how is that happening?

Paul is in very unique circumstances. Yes, he's in prison. But he's in prison in very unique circumstances. In house arrest, where he has freedom for people to come and talk to him and visit him all the time. But even though they're unique circumstances, don't tune out thinking, well, there's not a great application here for us.

Because there really is. The application is to all Christians in how we look at our circumstances. Our circumstances random chance events, or our circumstances actually ordained by God for a purpose primarily to advance the gospel, build His kingdom for His glory. How do we look at our circumstances? Paul firmly believes that our circumstances, no matter how hard or how common, how unremarkable they may be, are for the overall purpose of glorifying God in the advancement of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And for the Christian this drives joy. This brings joy and you will and he rejoices and we are called to rejoice. Let's look at verses 13 through 14. So that, so have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren of the Lord haven't become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Now, I've titled this section Evangelistic Awareness and an emboldened church. Evangelistic awareness. That was a phrase that Gary used last Monday morning that I love and I've latched onto. This evangelistic awareness of Paul and this emboldened church. Here's a couple of players we have here in verse 13.

We have first the palace guard, which is also known as the imperial guard. These are the elite guards. Now previous when we saw back in Acts of Paul and Silas in jail and that centurion or that guard that was there. That guard in the inner prison, he's on the lowest rung of the ladder of guards. These guards are the highest.

This is the height of guards. These are the elite of the elite. So elite from this group are guards for Caesar's household. Personally guard Caesar, personally guard his house, these are the elite of the elite. And by the way the Caesar that's here is Nero.

This is Nero. Talk about Nero in a moment. But in this house arrest, we don't get it from here. We get this really from history. What typically happened was the person in our house arrest, this would be Paul, is on a short chain 24 hours a day with this palace guard.

The palace guard has put over people that are high risk, high flight people, we don't want them escaping, so we're going to chain them to him. And they're chained 24 hours a day, and generally they tended to rotate on a six hour basis. So maybe up to four guards were around Paul 24 hours a day. Paul had no privacy. When he met with people, the guards were there with him.

When he ate, the guards were there with him. When he slept, the guards were there with him. When he wrote these letters, the guards were chained to him. He had zero privacy. There was never a moment where they said, all right, Paul, I'll just take the handcuffs off and go do that.

No, he was chained 24 hours a day to these guards. And he had access then to a lot of guards over two years. And you also have all the rest. You have all the rest. Who are all the rest?

Well, one of them, one set, at least has to be the ones mentioned in Acts 28, all the people that were coming to Paul. You had Jews that wanted to know what was going on with the gospel coming to the Gentiles. You had other people coming. You may have had people from the church that we'll talk about here, people from the local church coming, maybe people from Caesar's household coming, the palace guard, Caesar's household people from Rome. So That's who these main players are here in verse 13.

And Paul mentions three times here in these sets of verses, and he already has once before, but three times in these verses in verses 13, 14, and 17, my chains in chains. He says, my chains are in chains. And what he's really saying is, can you believe what God is doing while I'm in prison? Can you really, is this really happening? Remember, this is all happening while I'm in prison.

That's why he's saying this. He doesn't elaborate on his change. He doesn't elaborate on his discomfort. He's not complaining about, I can't do this, I can't do that. He's not doing that.

He's not drawing attention to himself. That's not the purpose for mentioning he's in chains. He wants all the attention on the Holy Spirit's work to advance the Gospel. All he's really saying is, can you believe this is God's plan? And can you believe all this is happening while I'm in chains?

Oh, Philippians, you're concerned about me. Thank you for your concern. Thank you for all your support. But this is what's happening. The gospel is not being hindered.

In fact, the gospel is advancing because this is God's sovereign plan. There's no self-pity here by Paul. He's not having any self-pity. And It says here that it has become evident. It has become evident, it has become clear, it has become well known to all who have association with Paul that his imprisonment actually has to do with his Christian faith, has to do with the Gospel.

The guards and all the rest who have come in contact with Paul have become well known to them. Paul's not there for crimes necessarily. He's not there because he murdered somebody, stole something. He's not there for crimes against the state in that form. He's there because of his faith and because of the Gospel.

His defense of the Gospel. He's a preacher of Christ. And he's become known to everyone that has contact with Paul. And I'm sure outside the church, outside the prison at that point to the greater church that this is why Paul's in prison. And it's become evident to them.

How did Paul make this evident? He didn't make this evident from, hey listen to me, I'm innocent everybody. Hey I'm innocent, come on. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. No, I guarantee you that's not how Paul made that well known.

I'm confident it's because of Paul's speech about Jesus and his actions demonstrating fruits of righteousness, such as he prayed for for the Philippians in verses 9-11. It was an evidence of fruits of righteousness there before everybody that what he said and what he preached was backed up by his actions. Now I'm confident that He didn't just spend 24 hours a day talking about Christ. He spent that time getting to know His captors. Sure, he got to tell me about your family.

Are you married? Tell me about your children. How long have you been a palace guard? Well, how did it take to get it? How did you become a palace guard?

Looking for news from the outside, getting to know them and really caring for them as people. I'm also sure, since Paul was there two years, that he sinned while he was in prison. He was in house arrest. I Guarantee he sinned over the course of two years. Guarantee it.

So one of the fruits of righteousness, I am confident, came up is at some point he probably had to ask the guards for forgiveness. Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to complain about the chains. I didn't mean to complain about you pulling on that chain so hard and messed up my letter or whatever it might be. I'm sure he sinned and had to seek forgiveness, had to ask forgiveness, and they saw him repent. They saw a genuine man that understood he wasn't perfect, that he was still a sinner, and he preached Christ.

I'm sure that these guards who are really the captured audience here heard the gospel quite a bit. They heard it when visitors came and talked to Paul. They heard about when Paul was writing letters. It was always about Christ. There was no, I woe is me.

There's no, I deserve better. In fact, Paul probably is part of the gospel saying, I deserve far worse. It was Paul that wrote, the wages of sin is death. Paul probably, instead of saying, woe is me, I deserve better, he's probably saying, you know, God, let me tell you what I really deserve. Part of the gospel, as a sinner before a holy God.

I deserve death. I deserve death. Not because I was a murderer of Christians. I deserve death because when I was a little boy, I was a sinner. I lied to my mom.

I lied to my dad. And before that, even, I was a sinner. That's why I deserve worse. But Christ, let me tell you about Christ. I don't deserve salvation.

I don't earn salvation because of my evangelistic efforts, because of all the letters I'm writing, because of the churches I've planted. I don't deserve any of that. I still deserve hell. All of those works are still deserving of hell. The only reason why I am saved is because of the work of Jesus Christ, because of his perfection, his sinlessness, his death, his conquering sin and death, and covering me with his blood, and forgiving me, and reconciling with God, and bringing peace, and causing me to repent and believe in him alone for salvation.

That is what these guards and all the rest were hearing all the time. Paul has an evangelistic awareness. Yes, he's chained to these soldiers. We look at it obvious. That's an obvious opportunity, isn't it?

Paul couldn't help, and hopefully we couldn't help either to utilize that. But look at the effects of this evangelistic awareness. Turn over just to Philippians 4 at the end, verse 22. Here's a possible effect. It says, all the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household.

Now, when Paul got to Rome, there was an established church. There were Christians there. It is definitely possible that there were Christians in Caesar's household already when Paul got there. But it is highly probable as well that Paul, in evangelizing the guards 24 hours a day, yes he sleeps a lot, but all the guards that came to him over a two year period, or however long it took during this, at what point he wrote this letter, quite possible that these palace guards are going back, talking to their family about this man that is in house arrest, far different than anybody else they've ever been chained to, and telling them about this man and this gospel he preaches. And the people that bring him food, and everybody else that helps out.

And it's quite possible that there are Christians in Caesar's household because of Paul being in chains and his evangelistic awareness. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2, just a couple books over. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through 10. This was also written during this time when Paul is in prison. We talk about Paul's prison letters.

I believe they were all written, thought of as being written during this time, these two years that Paul was in prison, house arrest. 1 Timothy 2, verse 8 through 10. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffered trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not changed. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Paul is in prison.

Paul is sharing the Gospel. The palace guards are hearing it. The Gospel is advancing. Paul is in chains, but the Gospel cannot be chained. In the same way, God cannot be put in a box.

The temple was made to worship and to sacrifice to God, but it could not contain God. God is not contained here. God wasn't in Malawi six hours ago, and then he had to hustle to get over here to help us. God is infinite. Our solar system can't hold him.

Our universe can't hold him. He is above the heavens. And the Gospel cannot be changed. It's going to advance. And God is going to order all circumstances that it would advance.

He ordered the circumstances that you would hear the gospel, that I would hear the gospel and be saved. And his gospel advances. Not only, verse 13, are the guards and the rest greatly affected by Paul's imprisonment, so was the rest of the church in Rome. What was the rest of the church in Rome here in verse 14? And most of the brethren, and that's Keith, brethren, he's talking about brethren from here out, and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." So here's an implication here.

Before Paul came, there are brothers and sisters, there is a church there. Here's the implication. That before Paul came, before these circumstances came and the church had all this, the church lacked some boldness and the church had some fear. But now, but now they have increased their boldness. Their boldness is far more and they are fearless.

They are fearless now. We're in about the year 62. Nero is Caesar. In about two years, around the year 64, is when Nero will burn down Rome, blame the Christians, and start all of his wicked atrocities against the Christians. Absolute horrific, wicked things that would be hard to read about and speak about in front of children in mixed company.

Horrific things. Could it be that Paul's in prison, we're going to talk about the boldness and what's happening here, could it possibly be, believe it is, that these circumstances of bringing Paul to Rome, of the church being emboldened and becoming fearless, yes, it's advancing the gospel in Rome now, but could it be that it also made them more bold and fearless two years from now when they had to be facing Europe? It's all the atrocities that have been faced also denouncing Christ but proclaiming Christ more preaching Christ more in the face of awful atrocities. Look at these circumstances that when Paul is writing this, he has no vision is coming in two years. We only know it from history.

Look at what God did to help the church in Rome. What was the source of this boldness and fearlessness here? It says, having become confident in my chains. Now the NIV and the NSB help us a little bit more here. NIV says, and because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear, the NASB says, 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." I'm not saying that the new King James, the King James are in conflict with the NIV and the NASB.

I believe that they're in harmony. It's just the other two versions decided to clear it up where Paul's saying, yeah, the confidence in my chains, that's all going back. How did I get here? My circumstances got me in chains. My confidence is in the Lord.

The Lord is the one that ordained these circumstances. It's in the Lord you have trust. It's in my chains that you can have boldness and you can have fearlessness because look at what God has done. Look how I got here in the first place. Look at these circumstances.

I couldn't ordain this. This is all ordained by God. You can have confidence in the Lord, boldness in the Lord, fearlessness in the Lord. All your confidence is in the Lord. It's coming from the Lord.

They know that. Paul is saying he's the one that's driving this confidence. He's the author of this confidence. He is a great example though. We'll talk about here in a moment.

He is a great example. Examples do help us. That is for sure. Examples do help us. They see God providing for Paul.

They see that God has given Paul evangelistic opportunity. Unlike anything they could possibly imagine. The guards and all the rest, people are being saved, and their confidence is in the Lord. Now this confidence isn't a confidence of saying, well I can be more bold and fearless because if I'm arrested, I'm going to get a house arrest. Yeah, I'll be chained to a guard.

That won't be comfortable. But I'm not going to be in the inner prison, probably. That's not the boldness and the confidence they have, is that the Lord is going to treat them like Paul has. And what Paul has isn't all roses being chained to somebody. He has a physical chain on him, on his wrist at least, maybe his ankle, but on his wrist at least 24 hours a day.

It's not like it's all rosy for Paul. He's not in a prison, yes, but he is under arrest. What they saw was that God ordained circumstances to advance the Gospel. And that gave them boldness and fear. What they saw in Paul was joy in this.

They're seeing his joy. They're hearing about his joy. They're going to hear it throughout the letter. They're going to see it in verse 18 again. What they're seeing is Paul's joy.

And they want more joy. And they want more joy through the advancement of the gospel. So they went for the joy with all boldness and fearlessness. They are going for the joy and speaking the word it says here which is preaching to Christ. They have gone for the joy with all boldness and fearlessness.

So, Father, Redeemer, Community, Church, brothers and sisters, me included with you, I am your brother and sister, I encourage you, I encourage us to go for the joy. Go for the joy with all boldness and fearlessness for the advancement of the gospel. But Paul's joy is not wrapped up in his comforts, in his unusual freedoms he has, even under house Arrest. His joy is all wrapped up in the advancement of the gospel, which we see in verse 12. And then we see in verse 18.

The bookends tell us where his joy is wrapped up in. It's wrapped up in the advancement of the gospel. Where is the source of your joy? How is the source of your joy is in Jesus Christ saving you? You have that joy.

Where is that joy continuing to increase? Is your joy increasing more and more? Is it? Is your hope for joy wrapped up in your circumstances? Is it wrapped up in your possessions, which Ma and Russell destroy?

Is it wrapped up in any comfort or abilities in this life that's a vapor? Most of us, not all, who have been to the nursing home, it's better not to be wrapped up in our abilities at all. Is it wrapped up in our relationships, even in our marriages? We're going to back one another down. I'm going to fail you.

I'm going to fail you. I already have, I'm sure. We're going to fail one another. We're going to stand against one another. Our joy is whacked up in relationships, even in our marriage, in our children, in our work, our vacations.

All of this will be the sources of peace. It will be up and down, up and down, up and down. But, what is it? If your joy is wrapped up, is determined by the work of God first to save you, and then for God to keep furthering the Gospel and having Christ preaching, your joy will keep increasing. Paul said anything, you will rejoice, You rejoice now and you will rejoice.

Your joy will keep increasing. You go for the joy of preaching Christ and the advancement of the Gospel. The advance of the Gospel by preaching Christ in all circumstances is absolutely possible and is encouraged. Advancing the Gospel, preaching Christ in all circumstances, in how you use your possessions, how you use your money, how you use your abilities, right? So by advancing the Gospel and preaching Christ in all of your relationships to your children and your work and your marriages and your vacations and your home education and your cooking and your dishes and your laundry and what you read and everything, that's food.

Circumstances that God has ever set can be used, and should be used in the advancement of the gospel through preaching Christ in all of these areas. I encourage us to make this an earnest part of our prayer. Make an earnest part of our prayer that the gospel would be advanced, and that you would have evangelistic awareness, and that we would have an eye to see how God is furthering the Gospel, even in the simplest of circumstances. Pray for that. Pray for that and go for the joy.

We've seen other examples from history where people were emboldened through their example. We see this through history. We see it through the martyrs especially. We've seen that. And Paul's not even a martyr yet.

That's coming in a few years. They're being emboldened through his example. We've seen that. You see that through scripture. We read the word of God, and we're emboldened by the examples that we see in scripture.

We're emboldened by other Christians. We're emboldened around here. Think back five years ago. Then over five years ago, when we started this church, there were many things I wasn't doing then that I'm doing now. And many of you are right there with me.

Five years ago, I was not visiting nursing homes. Wasn't on my radar. I wasn't visiting nursing homes. I wasn't at the abortion clinic. I had never street preached before There was no Griffin's parking lot.

I wasn't in the middle of Griffin's parking lot through examples Others through encouragement If you would have said five years ago, James, this is what you're going to do, or many of you have been right there with me, this is what you're going to do. You're going to be in Griffin. You're going to be in a nursing home preaching. You're going to street preach. You're going to be in front of an abortion clinic.

You're going to do those things. I would have been so fearful, probably, at that point. I was not as bold five years ago as I am now. I had more fear five years ago than I have now. And I know many of you are in the same boat.

But through examples and through encouraging and through building one another up and through working together, our love abounding more and more and being together and seeing the examples and seeing, hey, look at that. Jim preaches at the abortion clinic, oh, he had a water bottle thrown at him okay I can do that I can do that all right all right J bez or Matthew held a sign at Griffin's invited people to hot dogs and hear the gospel preached. And when he came in and heard it, he said, hey, I can do that. I can do that. Nursery home.

Wow. Yeah, the smells are awful. The time. But you're in there, you're like, wow. Or you can come on down the top.

I don't want to die. God is more full. He causes less fear. So hearing the stories from each other, how God is furthering the Gospel through your families, to the community, and your homes is incredibly encouraging. It's incredibly encouraging.

Then we have the examples of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. One of the few examples, He was hated by the religious leaders. He was beaten, he was killed, all for the sake of advancing the gospel. He did that with a leapfro. And no fear at all of them.

No fear of Satan, no fear of man. That is our ultimate example. Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross? Hebrews. Jesus' joy was in the advancement of the gospel.

Jesus had joy, yes, ultimate joy in pleasing His Father, in obeying His Father, but all of that was part of advancing the Gospel. How did He advance the Gospel? By purifying a bride for Himself. By making a bride reconciled with God, bringing peace, forgiving them, shedding His blood, covering them with His blood, clothing us in His righteousness. Jesus advanced the gospel by giving Himself a prize.

And it brings him complete joy, even through the worst circumstances possible, taking on the wrath of God, humbling himself to live among people like us. His circumstances, and he had joy, because the gospel was being advanced. Paul is talking about brethren here, brothers and sisters here. He is not talking in this passage specifically to elders or deacons. He is talking to brothers and sisters.

Just Pray that your elders and deacons have a boldness and are fearless. Yes, absolutely. He's talking to you. He's talking to all of us. That we would be emboldened.

That we would be fearless in preaching Christ and have joy in the advancement of the gospel. Who is talking to me? Verses 15 through 17. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my change.

The latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel." These three verses of the Pallet preach Christ. Preach Christ. Now, the first thing to know if you're to read the NIV, the NASB, or the ESB, they reverse verses 16 and 17. They reverse those. And all that means to us is it doesn't change the meaning of the text at all.

All it does is it changes the order in which we will talk about these two groups that are mentioned here. That's all it does. It doesn't change the meaning at all. There are reasons why they would do it one way or the other. It makes sense to do it one way or the other.

But to us here this morning, it doesn't change the meaning of text at all. It just changes the order in which we will talk about these two groups. So after reading about this boldness, about the gospel being advanced, about boldness happening, they're more confident, they're bold, they're without fear, This is a surprise to hear. This really is a surprise to hear. You have no inkling if there are any issues anywhere.

If you just stop back at verse 14 and then picked it up again in verse 18, The church is wonderful. Everything's great. Look at what Paul's got around. Look at the brethren. The brethren are fantastic.

No inkling that there's a problem at all. And so there are two groups here that are linked to verse 14 in that they are brethren. Both of these groups are brethren, are brothers and sisters. They have two completely different motivations in many ways. But the key here that Paul gets out is Christ is preached.

Christ is preached, and Paul is joyful. He is rejoicing about it. So let's look at each group. The first group are brethren again. Remember, these are brethren that are preaching Christ, though, from envy, strife or rivalry, from selfish ambition or contention, not sincerely or not from pure motives.

And they are supposing to add affliction to Paul's chains. They are supposing that they can stir up trouble for Paul while he's in chains. If you were just to take this list without verse 14 and knowing that they are brethren, if you were just to take this list and compare it to Galatians 5 or Romans 1 or 1 Timothy 6, you would say, these aren't Christians. They have to be preaching a false gospel. If you compared it to those, they're brethren.

They are not the Judaizers from Galatians 1. They are not the dogs or evil workers that we will see in Philippians 3, 2. They are parts of the brethren that are emboldened and are fearless and are preaching Christ. As hard as that may seem, that's what the Holy Spirit had inspired to be written. Therefore, they must be Christians.

As hard as it might be to understand. Second, whatever they are doing, and whatever they are doing is really against Paul personally, and not against Paul's teaching. Really not against Paul's teaching. They agree with Paul's teaching. They have the same doctrine statement.

They agree with one another on what they're teaching. So what is going on here? Why would Paul even bring this up? Why would Paul bring this up? Well, the text doesn't say.

We don't know, ultimately. I'm going to give some ideas here of generally what could be happening based on these character traits that Paul saw in them, some thoughts, some ideas on it, to give us some ideas and also to help us with application. But what we really don't know why he's bringing us up, maybe it's because the Philippians have heard about them, have heard about this group of people that are preaching Christ this way. And they're wondering, hey, are they brothers or not? Are they brethren?

And Paul wants to say, yeah, they are brothers. They are brother. Maybe they're envious of Paul's gifts. Paul's gifts, They're envious of his church planting abilities, his miracles. They're envious that he's even an apostle.

They're envious of his financial support. They're envious of his writing. Envy easily can lead to strife, contention, rivalry, to the point they see themselves competing with Paul. Of the brothers or sisters, some of these may be pastors, may be elders, and they're just tired of hearing the congregation every week come in and, Paul this, Paul that. I went and visited Paul.

Paul's got this, Paul's got that, Paul's planting churches, Paul's doing this. Have you read Paul's latest letter? So they might hear, They might see all this and think that they're in competition with Paul. Hey, I need to get this back. Why are they talking about Paul?

Instead of, that is great. The gospel's advancing. I rejoice. The gospel's advancing. What a wonderful thing that Paul can use like that in prison.

They have selfish ambition. On the one hand, they're faithful preachers committed to declaring a Christ, a Jesus Christ who is selfless, who is self-sacrificing, who is unself-seeking. On the other hand, they are complete opposites. They're self-seeking, self-regarded, moved by desire to hurt, fall through Christ's same. There may be a form of double-mindedness where their speech doesn't match their thoughts somehow.

It's hard to understand, hard to understand unless we're honest with ourselves about our own sins. Ever been envious of somebody else's activities? Yes. Ever been jealous? Ever been self-centered in any sort of way?

Absolutely. Right now, I'm not here to say that I've ever preached out of competition with anybody, right? Or jealousy of anybody in that way. But we can understand how, well, they're sinners. The brothers and sisters, they are sinners.

And the Holy Spirit is going to sanctify them, because they are called brothers. Trust that God is going to complete the work. They are being molded and shaped, just like we are being molded and shaped. And Paul's not calling them out individually either here. How are they adding affliction to Paul's chains?

Remember, Paul's chains are for preaching Christ. So maybe they're saying things along these lines. They're like Job's friends and wife and saying, hey, everybody, Paul wouldn't be there. He wouldn't have spent these last two years doing this if he would repent. There must be sin.

There must be sin in Paul. This can't be. Look at his great gifts. There's no way God would chain that man with all those gifts up. There must be sin.

He must repent. That's one way to add. Push into his chains. Maybe they compared him to Peter in Acts 12. Peter was in an inner prison.

He was chained to two gods. He was chained to two gods. And look what God did. The angel freed him. So maybe he didn't have enough faith.

Maybe Peter had more faith. He just had more faith. Obviously, if he was more like Peter, God would have freed him. Look what happened to Peter. God freed him.

There must be something here. Hey, we're free, and we're preaching Christ, and we're not being put in jail. There must be something wrong with Paul. All those could be ways that they're adding to Paul's chains. But absolutely, all this is just a guess.

All this is a guess. But we need to take this as an example and find out how do we protect ourselves from this? How do we protect ourselves from having this described of us? In Galatians 5, 26, here's some text all about brothers and sisters. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

In Philippians 2, 3, in a few weeks, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Paul is freely admitting, hey, as brothers and sisters, We can do stuff through selfish ambition or conceit. We can have a high mind think more of ourselves than we ought. We can provoke one another, envy one another. He fully conceives that point.

He's saying, hey, let's not do that. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's preach Christ. Let's have joy in advancing the gospel. Let's have joy in how God would use anybody's circumstance to advance the gospel.

The second group, preach Christ from goodwill and out of love. This group is brethren. We're saying, yeah, OK, this group is brethren. That's obvious. But this group is brethren.

We want to identify with this group and think we're this group. Whenever you look at the text, look at whoever's looked at the worst, and you probably more identify with that person, right, or that group. We want to identify with this and say, oh yeah, this is us. We would be here. If it was Paul, we're the ones that are good will and full of love, right?

That's who we would be. Let's be careful who we think we identify with. One, they're all brothers and sisters. Let's just be thankful for them. Saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

This group of brethren though, they really understood that Paul was the defender of the gospel. That he had been appointed, that he had been put there by God that the gospel may be advanced. They really love Paul. And their increased boldness and their fearlessness has caused them to step up when Paul seemingly has been set aside. Paul's not there and they're saying, preaching must continue.

We don't know how it's going to happen. Preaching must continue. So they're stepping up. We love Paul, but we love Jesus more. We want people to know Jesus.

We want them to know that. We know the love of Jesus and want them to know it too. So they were preaching Christ with the right motive. And then verse 18. Verse 18.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. First out, what then? What does it matter?

What does all of this matter? Here's the bottom line. Only one thing ultimately matters to Paul in causes rejoicing. Whether it's out of pretense, false motives, or out of truth, the thing that matters to Paul the most is that Christ is preached, Christ is proclaimed, and the gospel is advanced. That's what matters.

When we say out of false motives, out of pretense or false motives. Remember back in Acts 16, the deimpossessed person that was following and proclaiming Christ, proclaiming they spoke the truth, no, that person was wrong and that person needed to be rebuked and He did not want the gospel associated with that kind of evil. That's not what's happening here. There is a time for that. Right here, God through Paul is telling us, these are brothers and sisters.

And whether it's out of pretense or false models, Christ is being preached. The gospel is being advanced. These are just Christians that are not fully formed yet. They have not fully been formed for the end of Jesus Christ, but they are Christians. Be joyful over the gospel being advanced through them.

Paul says, in this I will rejoice. Paul is not saying this in a grudging way. He's not going, yeah, I know, I'll work together for good, those that love God, but. And it's not, he's not doing that. And it's not some weird joy over, I am just, I am just feeling over being in prison and changing the start all day long.

That is just fantastic. I can't think of a better way to live my life. It's not that there because there really is pain. You try being handcuffed and chained to another person for two years. Probably not gonna try it, but try for a few minutes.

All right, Parents, put your children, put two of them together for five minutes and see what happens. Now try two years with you and somebody else who came that way. There is pain, there is discomfort, freedoms have been removed, people are slandering him. But his joy and thankfulness are that the circumstances have been used to embolden the church to preach Christ. That's his joy.

He is getting true, genuine joy from that. This has to be unexpected by this year. This is actually bringing joy. That this is actually advancing the gospel. That these circumstances that God ordained are doing this, but it is encouraging, it is encouraging to us And the overall effect of Paul's imprisonment has been the advance of the gospel.

And in that, Paul rejoices. In that, we should rejoice. To kind of sum this up, Follow this trail. Here's a trail. Follow this trail that only can be described, only can be explained by God's sovereign work at hand.

Bring the gospel and have the gospel advance in these people and cause boldness. Listen to this. So Paul wanted to go to Rome. He's arrested in Jerusalem. He gets to Rome after two years.

He gets to Rome by way of a shipwreck. He's in house arrest with some unusual freedoms, but it's still house arrest. Guards are chained to him 24 hours a day. They hear the gospel. People visit.

Paul continues to preach to people as they visit his home. The church is emboldened. Some are jealous of Paul. Some love Paul. Christ is preached.

There's a revival in Rome. People are saved and there's more joy. Paul's rejoicing. Could you have arranged that set of circumstance to cause great joy, great boldness, great fearlessness, great revival in the house of Nero, in Gards, in Rome, in the church. Look at that.

Paul will continue to rejoice as the Gospel continues to advance. I have three applications. The first, Pray for those that are in chains for the defense of the gospel. Pray for those in chains for the defense of the gospel. Listen to Hebrews 13.3.

Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated since you yourselves are in the body also. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. Pray for them. Remember them. There are people in chains right now because they are Christians, because of their faith, because they dare to preach Christ and proclaim the gospel, remember them.

Think of them as if you were in chains with them because we are one body. We are one bride. Think of them. Pray for them. Pray that they would be able to preach Christ to their captors and that the gospel would advance.

Pray for their families. Pray that their churches would be emboldened and fearless through these circumstances. So number one, pray for those in chains for the defense of the gospel. Number two, How can my response to my circumstances be used to further the gospel? How can my response to my circumstances be used to further the gospel?

I'm telling you, this is possible in every circumstance. After this and during fellowship meal, hey, come to me and come to me if you think you've got a circumstance in which you don't think the gospel could be advanced in that circumstance. Let's talk about it. I'm very confident that I'm not wrong here. I'm very confident that Paul's not wrong here.

But let's talk about it, because there may be ones that you're struggling with. How can I do this? Let's talk about the circumstance. This is possible, whether a hard trial or during a great vacation. Romans 8.28 again, all things, all things, all things, all, all, all means all.

All things. God uses all our circumstances that he ordained for everyone. For a believer, we've been saved by the precious work of Jesus Christ. We are God's adopted children. We are too precious.

We are bought at too precious of a price for God not to use our circumstances for His glory, to build His kingdom, to advance His gospel. You want real joy? Do You want your joy to be increased? Do you want to be rejoicing like Paul did in his circumstances? All of our circumstances can be and should be used for the advancement of the gospel.

Number three, go for the joy. Go for the joy. Go grab onto it with all you have. Go for the joy. You want joy.

There's not a person here if I was to have you raise your hands, every hand would go up. I want to be joyful. I want to rejoice. I want to rejoice in all things and everything give thanks and everything rejoice. Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice always.

You want that. I know you do. So go for the joy. No matter your circumstances, are you full of joy? Are you full of rejoicing when you hear about the advance of the gospel?

Are you full of joy? Are you rejoicing when Christ is preached? No matter who does it, no matter how it's done, When Christ is preached, are you thankful and are you rejoicing? Whether it's your mom or your dad, your husband, your wife, your brother, your sister. Are you thankful when the gospel is advanced and Christ is preached?

We're not talking about just the pulpit. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking primarily wherever we are in our circumstance that God has ordained. Christ is preaching. Can you have joy with that?

When God lets you see His work, do you take advantage of your circumstances that are right before you? Do you have evangelistic awareness? We have self-awareness. We understand self-awareness. We may not all have self-awareness, but we understand self-awareness.

How what I do affects those around me. That's self-awareness. Evangelistic awareness is understanding the circumstances God has me in are not random. They didn't just happen. Things don't just happen to me.

They are there. Whether it's extremely hard trial or whether it's the most mundane, unremarkable thing that's happened, whether it's the most joyful thing that's happened, they've all been ordained to glorify God, to preach Christ, to advance his gospel. We're not chained to guards. I understand that. We're not chained to guards where it might seem, well, it was just easy for Paul.

He was gifted. No, we've been filled the same Holy Spirit. We have. Look what's in our homes. We have children.

We have coworkers. There are people on the street, abortion clinic, nursing home. You want more boldness? You want more boldness so you can see this joy? You want more fearlessness?

Then put yourself in position to see boldness in action. Put yourself in a position to see boldness in action. When you're at the abortion clinic or the nursing home or at Griffin's or anywhere else, Look for boldness of Christ being preached, of the advancement of the gospel happening. Look for that. Someone's not just up on the ladder preaching to the abortion clinic, and it's just great, glad it's him.

You're praying for that person, look for the boldness, and look for the fearlessness, And pray for that person to have more boldness. And it would drive more boldness for you. Otherwise, read biographies. Read biographies. Read about the martyrs.

Of course, read scripture and great, great boldness from all the examples here. Children, you have great, all the stories you love, right? David and Goliath, Daniel and the lion's den, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, all of these, right? You love these stories. Grab them.

Get boldness over them. The same Holy Spirit that strengthens them will strengthen you. Stay alert to what's happening to your brothers and sisters here. Here's an example of this effect of seeing boldness in action. The latest baby born is Titus Tyndale.

Titus Tyndale. How did he get his name? Titus from reading scripture, Tyndale, a martyr for the gospel, had great boldness. And you hear the story from Josh and Cami, Why they even came really to understand who Tyndale was is from hearing the biography of William Tyndale preached by John Piper. That was a big part of it.

Read biographies. Go for the joy in your life. Preach Christ to yourself. Know the Gospel. We can't know it enough.

Go for the joy in your life. Preach Christ to yourself. Know the gospel. We can't know it enough. Go for the joy in your home.

Preach Christ in your home and pray that the gospel is advanced. Go for the joy in Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. Preach Christ here. And advance the gospel here in our fellowship with one another, in the way we care for one another. It can be advanced.

There are people here, not just our children. I'm confident There are people that come much older than our children that are not saved. But still, preach it. Go for joy in the community, in our community. Preach Christ in our community.

And pray that the gospel is advanced. Go for the joy. Let's pray. Our God, our Savior, our King, I thank you that all circumstances are ordained by you, God. Help us to have eyes to see that you have ordained everything.

You are in control of everything, and I am so thankful. I'm thankful, God, for your salvation. I'm thankful for the joy that that brings to us through salvation. So God, help us to rejoice. Help us to have eyes to see how you are building your kingdom through the advance of the gospel to bring you glory.

I thank you, Jesus. Amen.