Wear a Helmet!
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Life can be really tough sometimes. People die. We get sick. Friends leave. People get divorced. Cars break down. Checks bounce. People fight. You disappoint people. Others are rude. We are sometimes ridden with guilt. And sometimes we just plain do not feel good—whether physically or emotionally. We wonder what the point of all of this is. Yet there is one thing about difficult circumstances—everyone has to live through them.
Sometimes we bring these things on ourselves—like the terrorist who did not pay enough postage for his letter bomb. When he got the letter back he forgot it was a bomb…opened it up and blew him to pieces.
Sometimes we are trying to do nice but it turns out bad—like the housewife who came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Until that moment he had been happily listening to his IPod.
Sometimes bad things just happen despite all our efforts—like during the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Many animals were killed but some were able to be saved. Apparently it cost about 80,000 to rehab even one seal. It was a costly endeavor. At one ceremony the people were celebrating two quite costly animals and their release back into the wild. As they released the seals back into the water the many on-lookers celebrated with shouts of applause. But within one minute both seals were eaten by a killer whale.[1]
Or sometimes you’re trying to help your fellow man and they don’t like you for it and so you end up getting thrown in jail and treated harshly. And you think that God might be doing something in this and so you appeal and you end up spending the next two years of your life on house arrest—chained to a guard non-stop as you fight court battle after court battle until you can take your case to the head ruler himself. That was Paul’s circumstance as he wrote this letter to the Philippians.
I doubt it would have made the news but lets pretend for a moment that Paul’s circumstances made the headlines. Paul was quite likely the greatest evangelist in the early church. His mission travels and church planting efforts spread the gospel all around the known world. As we read in Acts this started stirring up trouble for some local communities. Like in Ephesus when the gospel takes such a root that they had a bonfire of all their magic books. The local idol makers started losing money. And so they worked to shut down the apostle.
Paul was quite likely the greatest evangelist in the early church. His mission travels and church planting efforts spread the gospel all around the known world. As we read in Acts this started stirring up trouble for some local communities. Like in Ephesus when the gospel takes such a root that they had a bonfire of all their magic books. The local idol makers started losing money. And so they worked to shut down the apostle.
Furthermore, Paul was hated by the Jews and he the more he was known the more unpopular he became throughout the Roman Empire. He was a troublemaker. After that Ephesus riot the great evangelist was finally arrested. What do you think would have appeared on the Jewish news site that morning?
What do you think would have appeared on the Jewish news site that morning?
TROUBLEMAKING CULT FOLLOWER FINALLY SLOWED BY AUTHORITIES
What about the Roman news sites?
JEWISH RABBLE ROUSER NOW CHANGED TO ROMAN GUARD
And from our perspective each of those leads would have seemed accurate. The Philippians likely would have been concerned about Paul. They wonder how Paul is doing and we get the hint they are curious about what this will mean for the advance of the gospel. Will this slow things down? Will this hinder kingdom growth? If I were Greek speaking I’d use the word proskope (pro-skow-pay) which means “hinder”. The headlines would read PROSKOPE. Hindered. But the headline in heaven is different:
READ TEXT
Paul just surprised them and us. Rather than Proskope it’s actually pro-ko-pay…advance. So the news headlines had the whole thing backwards. The heavenly press would have read something like:
INFINITELY WISE GOD CHAINS ROME TO GREAT EVANGELIST
Paul was chained to a Roman guard. Rome was now chained to the apostle Paul. From the outside it looked like evil and darkness was winning, but in reality God was doing what he always does—advance His kingdom and promote His glory. This is great news for us. God is on a mission and it will not be thwarted. Regardless of what the news headlines read, know that there is always another story taking place. It is a story which overrides all other stories, even though it is quite often the one playing in the background.
This is great news for us. God is on a mission and it will not be thwarted. Regardless of what the news headlines read, know that there is always another story taking place. It is a story which overrides all other stories, even though it is quite often the one playing in the background.
And that’s what I want us to see this morning. Life is going to be tough. Being a Christian doesn’t shield you from this—in fact it might even make things worse for you. It’s “in Christ” that Paul is “in prison”. But isn’t this comforting? It’s comforting to know that the people who God used to write the Bible and those, like Paul, who lived in the Bible times aren’t all that much different than we are. When he was chained to a Roman guard the guy who wrote this letter would have been experiencing the same type of temptations that you and I face. We all face difficult circumstances—the question is what are we going to do with them? Some people never get over their sufferings. They spend their lives wondering why. Why did this relationship end? Why did this person die? They spend their lives in despair and constantly asking the question why, why, why? Others use these stumbling blocks as stepping stones. They see a much greater cause in all of this. That’s my goal for us this morning. I think we have a great model here for us who will help us begin to learn to read heaven’s headlines instead of what we see elsewhere. God gives to believers a new set of eyes by which to see the world.
Isn’t it comforting to know that the people who wrote the Bible and lived in the Bible aren’t all that much different than we are. When he was chained to a Roman guard the guy who wrote this letter would have been experiencing the same type of temptations that you and I face. We all face difficult circumstances—the question is what are we going to do with them? Some people never get over their sufferings. They spend their lives wondering why. Why did this relationship end? Why did this person die? They spend their lives in despair and constantly asking the question why, why, why? Others use these stumbling blocks as stepping stones. They see a much greater cause in all of this. That’s my goal for us this morning. I think we have a great model here for us
You’ve likely come in here with chains. You’ve got stuff in your life that isn’t going great. Maybe it’s just kind of discomfort and inconveniences in the background. Maybe those are on page 14 of your daily newspaper. Or maybe they are making the headlines this morning. What I want to do this morning is show you from God’s Word that there is often another story being written—and it’s a better story. tells us the better story.
When Paul begins by saying, “I want you to know” he is picking up a common writing tool. In studying this week it was fun for a history nerd like me to read through some of these old letters from the Roman Empire which follow this format. One sounded like a kid in camp whose mom was worried about him. He wrote to her and said, “I want you to know....” So Paul is using this literary device and letting the Philippians know of his story. Because they were concerned for him. But notice that he really doesn’t answer the question of how he is doing. This is what I’d call the effect. There Paul says it’s no longer my life but the life of Christ. So “how you doing Paul?” is now answered with, “Oh man, things are actually advancing. The gospel is spreading like crazy.” “Yeah, but how are you doing Paul?” “I just told you!”
When he says what has happened to me that’s where you are invited to put your story into this. Put your situation into this. “What has happened to you”. I want you to know that my doctor’s diagnosis, I want you to know that my friend’s death, I want you to know that…you fill in the blank. For Paul we can read about his “what happened” in the book of Acts. We know that Paul had a passion to take the gospel to Rome. But the way he got there likely wasn’t how he would have planned it. It all started when he was preaching and teaching to his ex-friends and they didn’t like his new found relationship with Jesus so they brought him before the authorities who flogged him. Now that’s a significant “no-no”. You don’t flog a Roman citizen. So Paul appeals. And now here we are two years later and his appeal is going all the way up to Caesar…who at the time would be Nero. But for two years now he would be on house-arrest, day in and day out chained to a Roman guard.
When he says what has happened to me that’s where you are invited to put your story into this.
So this is a strategy to take the gospel to the highest office in the land. He wants to share Jesus or give a “defense of the gospel” to the leader of the known world. But he is going to be doing it through chains. What is Paul’s take on all of this?
But this is a strategy to take the gospel to the highest office in the land. He wants to share Jesus or give a “defense of the gospel” to the leader of the known world. But he is going to be doing it through chains.
We learn even from verse 12 that Paul sees this as a mission. Perhaps this is why he uses so many military terms; and that is precisely what the word for “advance” is. It originally referred an army of pioneer wood cutters preceding the regular army, cutting a road through an otherwise impenetrable forest, thus making possible the pioneer advance of the regulars into regions where they otherwise could not have marched. So, what Paul is saying is this, “My difficult circumstances are actually being used by God to open up doors all throughout Rome for the gospel to be preached”. Then in verse 13-17 Paul shows us two ways in which the gospel is expanding. The gospel is growing inside his “prison cell” and it’s growing outside in the community. It’s also spreading throughout the whole palace guard—so to outsiders. But it’s also motivating those who are inside—it’s empowering the church.
But how? How does that happen? I will answer that question and then we will try to apply this text.
How does Paul’s imprisonment advance the gospel?
The first answer to that question ought to be obvious. Because God is God, and He will use whatever He wants however He wants.. And that is the foundation for all of this. Had Paul merely decided one morning, “I’m going to go get myself arrested and witness to Caesar—had that been only Paul’s idea it probably would have fell flat on its face”. But this is God’s plan and God is going to use it. God is always doing something. You can rest assured that everything that God is doing in your life is ultimately for His glory and this is our greatest good.
Secondly, what we have here is a principle that an early church Father named Tertullian spoke of. He said, “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church”. What he means by that is that so often the gospel is spread through people giving their life for Christ. You see this in the story of Jim Elliott.
“In the Autumn of 1955, missionary pilot Nate Saint spotted an Auca village. During the ensuing months, Elliot and several fellow missionaries dropped gifts from a plane, attempting to befriend the hostile tribe. In January of 1956, Elliot and four companions landed on a beach of the Curaray River in eastern Ecuador. They had several friendly contacts with the fierce tribe that had previously killed several Shell Oil company employees. Two days later, on January 8, 1956, all five men were speared and hacked to death by warriors from the Auca tribe.”[1]
These men never had the opportunity to share Christ with the Auca tribes—at least not with their lips. What is really interesting to note is that a few years after Jim Eliot was martyred his wife, Elisabeth, among many of the other missionary wives were able to make contact with the Auca Indians and many where led to Christ; in fact it is told that Elisabeth had the opportunity to lead the Indian who had killed her husband to faith in Jesus Christ. Jim Elliot and those 4 other missionaries where much like the Apostle Paul—pioneers cutting a way before the gospel could march through.
The third reason is more explicit in the text. Look at verse 13.
[1] Taken from http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/mighty/portraits/jim_elliot_213678.html
The third reason is more explicit in the text. Look at verse 13. What is happening here is that Paul’s life and lips are ministering to the guards that he is chained to and it is spreading all throughout Rome. The wisdom of God here give me chills. You think Paul is chained to a Roman guard don’t you. No! That’s not what is going on at all. God is chaining a Roman guard to the gospel. You can catch this from what Paul says in verse 16. He says, “I am put here for the defense of the gospel”. The word there for “put here” is a military term, it simply means “on duty”. As one commentator points out Paul is just as much “on duty” as the Roman guards.
Paul’s life and lips are ministering to the guards that he is chained to and it is spreading all throughout Rome.
Do you realize what is happening here? The brilliant wisdom of God here gives me chills down my spine. You think Paul is chained to a Roman guard don’t you. No! That’s not what is going on at all. God is chaining a Roman guard to the gospel. You can catch this from what Paul says in verse 16. He says, “I am put here for the defense of the gospel”. The word there for “put here” is a military term, it simply means “on duty”. As one commentator points out Paul is just as much “on duty” as the Roman guards.
Just imagine this for a moment. Maybe you need to know Paul a little better—but this man could not shut up about the gospel. This man had the Spirit of Christ flowing out of him. He modeled with his life and his lips Jesus Christ. He was constantly preaching. Imagine being chained to this man. It is also worth noting that Paul “wrote” (probably spoke) his prison epistles during this time. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon would have been written during this time. That means that some blessed guards actually got to hear the Word of God flowing from Paul’s mouths to his secretary and on to the original manuscript of Holy Scripture.
Do you think that it is possible that some of these guards were converted? Do you think maybe it would have been a joy to be chained to prisoner Paul? Perhaps other prisoners would be belligerent, not Paul. He was on duty. In fact we learn from the last part of Philippians that some of the “guards” give their greetings. It is cool to note that Philippi was probably a military retirement home—therefore, it is quite possible that Paul is letting some of the Philippians know that some of their family members or friends are coming to know Christ. How amazing is the wisdom of God? I only ask one question before moving on…if an unbeliever were chained to you what would they see? Would your life and lips minister of Jesus Christ? Would they get to know you better or would they come to know Jesus Christ?
The fourth reason is also spelled out in the text in verse 14. Not only was the gospel spreading outside the church to unbelievers, but Paul also says his imprisonment has caused others to be more boldly preach Christ. It’s not that they are just now beginning to share the gospel but they are doing it with even more boldness and less fear. One can imagine that Rome in the early 60’s would have been a difficult place to live. Nero—who committed suicide at the age of 30 about 8 years after this was written was the leader of the known world and he was in his early 20’s at the time when Paul stood before him. He’d be the one who Christian tradition says in 62 AD would have both Peter and Paul executed as the greatest persecution against Christians broke out. But this was a little bit before he had gone completely mad, so it wasn’t as bad as it would get but it wouldn’t have been easy being a Christian in AD 60. They would have been tempted in Rome to be very timid in their gospel sharing. But something about Paul’s imprisonment has emboldened them.
Not only was the gospel spreading outside the church to unbelievers, but Paul also says his imprisonment has caused others to be more boldly preach Christ. You can learn from the text that some preached Christ out of love and others with horrible motives. Apparently some people thought they would stir up trouble for Paul by preaching his gospel. To be honest I am not exactly sure what their cause for preaching this way is or exactly what they preached. All I can say for certain are two things, God was using it—it truly was preaching Christ and not heresy and secondly they were doing so with improper motives. One commentator shares an instance that I think would be quite similar:
You can also learn from the text that some preached Christ out of love and others with horrible motives. We could really chase a rabbit here—but I don’t think it would do us a ton of good. We don’t know much about this group of people but we do know that Paul refers to them as “brothers” in verse 14 and they are actually preaching the gospel (this isn’t error) and they are doing it with messed up motives. It’s difficult to piece all of this together, but an illustration that I’ve heard and used in the past I think helps us see this a bit.
In the University of Pennsylvania a professor of history read to his class Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The aim of the professor was to show how harsh, disagreeable, and morose the New England Puritans were. Because of his reading, however, at least one student was converted to Christianity. This professor was obviously reading the sermon for an immoral reason, but what he was reading nevertheless presented a biblical message, by means of which God converted at least one person in the class. Perhaps something somewhat similar is taking place in Paul’s time—people preaching truth for wrong reasons.
This professor was obviously reading the sermon for an immoral reason, but what he was reading nevertheless presented a biblical message, by means of which God converted at least one person in the class. That is probably what was taking place in Paul’s time.
But others are actually being motivated out of love. It’s not an accident that some of the same words we saw last week are in this text. Notice that one grip is not preaching Christ sincerely? And notice that one group is motivated out love? But this is the great mystery in the passage—both are still preaching Christ. And in this Paul rejoices. So no matter if they are doing so with good motives or bad motives even more people are preaching the gospel. So Paul’s imprisonment is actually causing the gospel to advance. And for Paul that’s the greatest news ever.
So what do we do with this text?
I see three big application points.
We can rejoice in opportunities or grumble about obstacles
Amazed by Paul’s perspective when it comes to the people that were hating on him and preaching Christ from messed up motives. So much more to dig into on this, but I think from this we see Paul is doing something that wise biblical counselors will tell us. If I start with the foundation that God is good and everything He does for me as His child is for my good it causes me to look at things with a new set of eyes. When people were going about preaching the gospel trying to do Paul harm he could have looked at this from the perspective of “guys are trying to do me harm” and fixated his attention there. But he didn’t. Firmly convinced that God is working to advance the good news of Jesus in his life and in the world, Paul knows that the other side of this is that the gospel is being preaching. Likewise, his being locked up isn’t an obstacle to the gospel it’s part of its advance—it’s an opportunity.
You’ve likely heard the phrase, “life is tough, get a helmet.” I think it’s true, but incomplete. Yes, life is tough and we need to be prepared and not shocked when we have to endure suffering. But it’s also true that God is good and everything He does in our life is ultimately meant for our good. Of course God loves us enough to actually pursue our good and that doesn’t necessarily equal what we want. But if I arm myself with this theology then it can help me when I go through suffering or difficult situations to know that this is really an opportunity. Choose to believe that God is good and that He is doing something in your life.
2. We can see ourselves in our circumstances or in Christ
The stuff I’ve learned from Bill.
When Paul says in verse 13 that his “imprisonment is for Christ” it is filled with meaning. That could just as easily be translated “imprisonment is in Christ” but that doesn’t seem to make quite as much sense. But picture it this way. Paul meets a new guard every few hours during their shift change. A common question comes up. “What are you in here for, buddy?” From all appearances one would think that his rap sheet would read, “prisoner of Rome” or “prisoner of Caesar”. But Paul says that he is actually on duty and he is a prisoner of another. He’s a prisoner of Jesus. It has become absolutely obvious to everyone who meets him that his identity isn’t Paul, prisoner of Caesar but that he is Paul, disciple of Jesus.
When people look at us what story do they see? What story are we happy to tell them? What is the first story that comes out of our mouth when people ask, “what happened to you?” Is it primarily negative? Is it our circumstances. If you were in Paul’s situation what would be the stuff coming off your lips?
Life’s tough, get a helmet.
Is your identity in your circumstances or is it founded upon Christ. Do you identify more with your sin and the way it has ravaged your life or do you identify more with the Savior? Paul really is so connected to Christ that he sees everything through this lens. But you want to know the glory of the gospel? We blow this all the time. We end up grumbling and complaining and telling the wrong story. But even still Christ Jesus is telling a better story. And that’s the last thing we see here.
But you want to know the glory of the gospel?
3. We can see ourselves as victims or as participants in God’s victory.
Paul could have given us quite the sob story. He is a victim. He’s a victim of an unjust legal system. This letter could read so much differently, but it doesn’t because Paul refused to view himself as a victim.
Now before I go any further I need you to listen very carefully at everything I am not saying here. I am not saying that our suffering is not real, that our suffering is not painful, or even that we aren’t at times real actual victims. I want you to know that if you have had things happen to you which are incredibly painful and that you’ve been the victim of something—you will unquestionably have a friend in me. You can come to me with every bit of that hurt and you aren’t going to receive unfeeling counsel. But more than anything you need to know that the Lord keeps track of your tears and he keeps them in a bottle and someday he is going to wipe away every single one of them.
If you have had things happen to you then you need to face it honestly. I don’t think Paul is unfeeling as he mentions his chains. You can hear his anguish in other places like 2 Corinthians. He has faced the things that have happened to him.
The Bible is also a great resource for us to acknowledge our hurt and our confusion. Just read . The Bible invites us to be honest with our suffering and to cry out to God. And it invites us to go to our community of brothers and sisters with our hearts and our aches. (At times the church has been less than helpful in this, but we get it right sometimes too. And you’re more authentically loved in the family of God than elsewhere).
All of this is true. And it is also true that we have to face our suffering and the things which have happened to us biblically. And part of that means that we realize our fundamental identity is never that of a victim. We have to know the bigger story and embrace that.
The logic of .
This is what Paul is saying in when he gets so excited about the gospel advancing.
We can see ourselves in our circumstances or in Christ
We can see ourselves in our circumstances or in Christ
For unbelievers. The gospel is advancing and I pray it is advancing today. God created you. We blew it. Jesus fixes it. Repent and believe.
When Paul says in verse 13 that his “imprisonment is for Christ” it is filled with meaning. That could just as easily be translated “imprisonment is in Christ” but that doesn’t seem to make quite as much sense. But picture it this way. Paul meets a new guard every few hours during their shift change. A common question comes up. “What are you in here for, buddy?” From all appearances one would think that his rap sheet would read, “prisoner of Rome” or “prisoner of Caesar”. But Paul says that he is actually on duty and he is a prisoner of another. He’s a prisoner of Jesus. It has become absolutely obvious to everyone who meets him that his identity isn’t Paul, prisoner of Caesar but that he is Paul, disciple of Jesus.
When people look at us what story do they see? What story are we happy to tell them? What is the first story that comes out of our mouth when people ask, “what happened to you?” Is it primarily negative? Is it our circumstances. If you were in Paul’s situation what would be the stuff coming off your lips?
Paul really is so connected to Christ that he sees everything through this lens.
But you want to know the glory of the gospel? BRING IN SIBBES
Amazed by Paul’s perspective when it comes to the people that were hating on him and preaching Christ from messed up motives. So much more to dig into on this.
The stuff I’ve learned from Bill.
Life’s tough, get a helmet.