9.2. - Finding Joy in the Gospel, Pt 2

In this second episode on Philippians chapter 1, we look at the premium priority Paul placed on the Gospel. Paul's joy is found in the Gospel of Christ being preached!

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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/

Transcript

Paul: 0:30

Well, hello and welcome. Happy Monday to those who are following us on a Monday as we're launching our new season nine. Last week we started the book of Philippians and we got through about the first 11 verses. We really wanted to work through Paul's prayer in Philippians 1, 9, 10, and 11. We're finding great joy. Trying to find the great joy that we can have, the joy that the apostle Paul had, the joy that he wanted those in the church at Philippi to have the joy that we need to have. Mm-hmm. Because we are in Christ, because we share in the blessings of the gospel. And so welcome today, Noah in the studio. We're in Philippians

Noah: 1:08

chapter one, Philippians chapter one, and we, we left off at the end of verse 11 last time. So we're gonna be getting into verses 12 and following. There's a little bit of a. A shift here in what Paul is talking about, but the underlying theme that we, you know, we're calling this the Letter of Joy the underlying theme does not go away. If anything, it intensifies as we get into this section. Because Paul says to these Christians that he's writing to, that he's just, you know, very effusively expressed affection and admiration for, and he's, he's prayed for. He says, I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. You know, I think Paul should get some sort of prize here for nonchalant writing. I want you to know that what has happened to me. What what has happened to him is he's sitting in prison. Yes. He's, he's sitting in prison for teaching about Christ effectively, and he's saying, you know what? This is actually, this has worked out. Again, he, it seems so he just seems so okay with it and that that alone should challenge us that he's so. Content to which is gonna be a theme later in the, in the book, that he's so content to work for God and to serve the gospel wherever he is, even if it means it's in prison.

Paul: 2:37

Yeah. And he tells us, why Noah? He says, of course, you know, verse 12, it, it only helped to spread the gospel. He says, I'm, I'm rejoicing. I, but I want you to know church'cause you would be very concerned. He said, I'm, I'm, I'm rejoicing in this because it's given me opportunities that I wouldn't have. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's getting to share the gospel with people that he would've never gotten to share the gospel with if he were not in prison. Then he mentions another thing in verse 14. I like this translation chapter one in verse 14, and he says, because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians here. Have gained confidence and become more bold in telling others about Christ. I mean, think about that. And that was a real thing. Yeah. And Paul took great joy in the fact that he, he could be an example. To others, and these had to be new believers mm-hmm. Who were now emboldened to share the gospel. Somebody shared it with me. Mm-hmm. I want to share it with somebody else. And really that's been God's plan. Mm-hmm. You know, commit to faithful men.

Noah: 3:42

Right.

Paul: 3:43

And they'll, they'll teach others, but never miss, here's the obvious, let's just state the obvious. Very, very early. Joy and faith is contagious. Courage is contagious. So I have to look at me. Do people see in me a boldness and an enthusiasm and a joy in spite of circumstances. That are less than ideal. Yeah. My word when Paul's in prison, but people look at me and can they look at me and say, Hey, there's something about you that's contagious. Yeah. It's influencing me in a positive way. Yeah.

Noah: 4:19

That is a really good observation, especially since in verse 13, which you referred to already. Basically what Paul says is that anyone who knew anything about him. Knew that he was imprisoned, he was suffering for Christ. Now, there are two ways that that could go, right? Some people, anytime that they're suffering, even just a little bit, everybody knows it. Yes. Right? I don't think that's what's going on here. What's going on here is he's suffering. What does everybody know? It's for Christ, right? So there's a difference there. There's, there's you can, you can be known for suffering if you complain about it enough. Or in this case, you can be known for suffering for Christ. And that comes through joy. That that's demonstrated. That's contagious. It's, it's notable because it's done with joy. And I think that that's a really important thing for us to notice about. Paul's Paul's suffering here is that every, anyone who knew about it, anyone who knew anything about him, knew that he was, he was here for Christ. But it's a good thing. Mm-hmm. It's a positive thing. And that's why we see in verse 14, like you talked about these, these brothers and sisters in Christ who have become more bold, more confident. You know, when you read that, I don't know about you, but I start flipping the page back and forth and I go, well. How does that work? Right? He's, he's imprisoned. Where does he say, oh, and here, by the way, this is why they're, this is why they're more confident, they're more bold. We're not told exactly why you, you mentioned a moment ago, it could be as simple as, listen, someone who is suffering shared this with me. And now I, I feel compelled, I feel, I feel confident to share this, to teach this to other people as well. But another one that I think is, is commonly cited as a possibility here in Philippians is that if if Paul's in prison and he's suffering, yet he's still able to find an opportunity to teach an opportunity for good, then how much more can I. You know, Christian, so and so in first century who's not in prison, how much more can I find an opportunity to, to spread the gospel and to teach about the kingdom of Jesus? Certainly that would be an, an option as well, or a possibility, but I think this also just reflects a historical reality that can be very uncomfortable to consider as a Christian, but that is Christian suffering throughout history. Has increased the cause of Christ, not diminished it.

Paul: 7:09

Mm-hmm.

Noah: 7:10

And for people who sit comfortably in air conditioned rooms in, you know, our 21st century United States of America, that that can be an uncomfortable thought. Paul points to his suffering. Says this has increased the cause of Christ. And if we are, if we're willing to look at historical, you know, the historical narrative around Christianity, guess what? That's not unique to Paul.

Paul: 7:38

No,

Noah: 7:39

no.

Paul: 7:40

For the furtherance of the gospel to happen, it, it takes, it takes the blessing of God. Mm-hmm. But for the furtherance of the gospel to happen, this, this is gonna really shock some people listening. It takes people speaking it. Preaching it, and, and so if we're interested in what Paul was interested in the furtherance of the gospel, then we have to do what Paul did. Mm-hmm. We had to do what the first century Christians did. Even when they were persecuted, even when they were scattered, they went everywhere. What preaching the word, they were emboldened. And they took joy in doing that. And here's where it's gonna get even more amazing, Noah, when Paul starts speaking about those that were preaching the message. So the message was true, right? The motive was not so true, right? Was not so good. And he mentions things like. Envy. Verse 15. Strife. Verse 15, selfish and vision, verse 16. And just not sincerely. And look, I got a lot of questions about that, right? That I was like, Paul, hey, could you tell me more here? Especially as a preacher, tell me about these people with impure motives. But Paul quickly turns the conversation away from, let's not have a pity party. Mm-hmm. Let's find the positive. In spite of the negative. Mm-hmm. Christ is preached. Yeah. And then he says, so verse 18, I rejoice and I'll keep on rejoicing. Yeah. Oh, oh my.

Noah: 9:14

Yeah. Wow. I can tell you right now that this is this is one of the most difficult things for me to comprehend on a personal level because man, sometimes I'll speak for myself. Sometimes I get really hung up on trying to discern other people's motives.

Paul: 9:33

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Noah: 9:35

And I'm not saying there's never a time for that. I think we can look elsewhere in scripture and see that we are to be discerning about those kinds of things. Certainly with our own motives, we need to be introspective and discerning and wise in that area. But Paul's. Attitude here is not that their motives, that the ends justify the means, don't, don't misunderstand what he is saying here. Those people with wrong motives are still wrong, but Paul is able to find joy anyway. Mm-hmm. And that is really, really hard because it's easy to allow the, the. Poor motives or poor execution or frustrating personalities, et cetera, et cetera. We can go down the line and list all the things. It's easy to let those things cloud the work that is being accomplished. And Paul sweeps away the cloud and he says, look, the gospel's being preached, and I'm gonna rejoice about that. That's hard.

Paul: 10:39

Yeah. He, he didn't feel the need to call out these guys. Hmm. Other times Paul was very clear in making sure, because again, the, the purity of the gospel was being challenged, right? I mean, looking through the Galatians and other, other occasions when, when Paul needed to make sure that others realized, watch out for these teachers, watch out for what their teaching. But here he says, look. They're teaching the gospel, people are being saved. This is a reason to rejoice. Mm-hmm. And look Paul rolls above a very real personal irritation to take the high road and have a more noble perspective.

Noah: 11:23

Yeah.

Paul: 11:25

How do you explain that? The only answer I have to that is Christ in you. Mm-hmm. And he would say that often when he would write. And look so, well, you know, sometimes when I think about the apostle Paul, I've said this before, I just envision somebody with a cape with a giant guess on the back. Like he had some edge here, right? He was super human. He had real passions like we do as preachers. Yeah. He had real irritations like we do as preachers. But what was Paul interested in the church at Philippi growing? Mm-hmm. The church at Philippi having true joy. He didn't throw a pity party. He didn't want them to throw a pity party. He said, let's keep our focus where it needs to be. The gospel's getting preached and God's getting honored in this. Yeah, that's what matters. And we'll say, he'll, we'll see Later on, he says, whether I live or die. Right. Yeah. Christ, Christ is being honored. If, if I die, he's gonna get glory. If I live and he wants me to live, he's gonna be honored. Mm-hmm. And what a perspective.

Noah: 12:31

Yeah. He, he, his mindset was one that would not allow him. To he would not allow himself to be pitted against other people who were doing the work of teaching the gospel. If, if they, if they were teaching the gospel, then they are, they are workers alongside him, not opponents. Across from him. And that mindset is it, it can be really easy to lose that mindset. And, and it can be even, even if we avoid, even if we avoid falling into the trap of seeing people's opponents that we should see as fellow workers, sometimes it can still we can still allow ourselves to have the joy just sucked out of us in that kind of a situation. Mm-hmm. You know, we're, we're calling these episodes in, in chapter one, finding Joy in the Gospel, and I, I said to you before we were recording that part of the reason I like the terminology finding joy is because Paul gives these admonitions to rejoice. But I think we can all admit that sometimes it's hard to find the joy in the first place. Mm. It's hard to dig in and say, I am. I am going to find a way to rejoice in this situation. And that's part of what's so powerful about Paul's you know, Paul's situation and his testimony in this case is he's in prison and there are people out there that are doing good, but they're trying to spite him. They're trying to, to taunt him or some other way, frustrate him. And he's like, Nope, I'm going to find joy in this.

Paul: 14:08

Yeah. I can't remember. Originality for me a lot of times just forgetting or I read something or but I, I just, I remember the fact that it so impressed me that, that I just keep turning this over in my mind, the concept of joy. It's not based upon external circumstances. Right. And Paul was able to find joy because he understood what his mission. Was truly all about. Mm-hmm. And here's what I think helps us to grow our joy when you're so convinced that you're right in the middle of the will of God. That what I'm doing with my life is what God wants me doing with my life. I'm not saying become so arrogant to the point that you, you think you can never be wrong. Sure. Like I'm in the will of God. Well, you may not be just so I'm, I'm not saying because you think so. Right. It is so right, but when you're the apostle Paul was in the middle of the will of God and what, what God allowed to happen in his life. Paul said, look, I know I'm in the middle of the will of God and so if I die doing the will of God or if I get get released from prison so I can keep doing the will of God, I can find joy in knowing that I'm in the middle of the will of God and God is being honored with my life. That's the only way I know to continually grow your joy, right, is the confidence is not in us. The confidence that we have is in God. Alright? Is my life centered in the will of God.

Noah: 15:54

Right. And there's, there's an element of pursuit to that, right? Yes. Of where there's a, there's an intensity of saying, this is what I want. Not, not nec, not in specific like, well, I want to, you know, I want to have this role in this situation and teaching in this kind of an area or not. Nothing that specific. What I want is I want to be doing the will of God for me. I want to be doing what is going to be best for his kingdom. I want to serve the gospel to the greatest extent, and this comes back to a comment that I believe you made last episode. This is what differentiates, I think, to some extent the good. Versus better and the better versus best. We can do good. We can do and we can improve on that. But really the pursuit is what? What's gonna be best? Well, however, God can use me. For the purposes of the gospel, for the purposes of the kingdom. That's what's best. And as long as we can keep that in our sights, keep that in our target then we're gonna be growing towards that. We're gonna be pursuing that. And I think in that pursuit of, and we can go back to last episode again, of growing in love and knowledge and discernment and. Pursuing God's glory. That's where we're gonna find the joy and the contentment that we see Paul have in the book of Philippians.

Paul: 17:21

Yeah, verse 19. Noah is one of my favorites in all of chapter one, and chapter one is Rich. But verse 19, for I know there's confidence. Paul says, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance. All right, pause. My deliverance and there's, there's been a lot of back and forth on that. What? And it could be, it could be simp, it could be as simple as Paul is very confident that he is gonna be released. That right. That he is not gonna die. Right. But anyway, but notice this, he says, my deliverance, it comes through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. I, I'm not saying that this was Paul's primary point. I think his, his primary point is to let them know that, that he appreciates the fact that they have been praying. And this is not dependent on Paul. Mm-hmm. This is dependent upon the Lord. What is the Lord will in this? But we can pray, Lord, if this is your will. Release Paul. Don't let him die there. Right. Continue to use him so that he can come see us and continue to preach the gospel. But Paul says his confidence was not in the brethren, it was in the supply of the spirit. Mm-hmm. But you don't have the supply of the spirit apart from the faith of believers in prayer. Mm. And you know. I wish I could go deeper in that and I, and I don't feel that I can. Yeah. But this is a thing that only God can do. I don't know if God wills it to be so or not, but my faith in praying is, Lord, I know you can. I can't. You can't. And if it is your will and you get the glory in this, you can supply this by your spirit. And so I'm praying in faith for you to do this. It's a supply of the spirit. It's the working of God. It, it's not my power, right? It's not my might. It is his will. It's his power.

Noah: 19:36

Right? There's an external confidence that's going on here, right? There's Paul Exudes confidence in this letter, like that's one of the main attitudes that you might be able to use to describe Paul in the book of Philippians. He's confident, yes. But it's not a confidence in himself, it's confidence in God, his provision and the supply of the spirit as you, as you referenced there in verse 19. And I think that that's an interesting thread to pull on a little bit here in this context, because Paul's already talked about confidence as well, not his confidence, but the confidence of the brothers who have. Seeing him suffer. Mm-hmm. For the sake of Christ, they are made more bold. Or as the ESV translates in verse 14, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment. Mm-hmm. So if we want to, if we want to take one quick, you know, pull from this text for us in the 21st century, we though we don't necessarily have the firsthand, you know experience that the first century Christians did, who knew Paul and witnessed Paul doing this through his writing, we can, we can do the same thing as these Christians. We can look at Paul's example. We can look at his confidence, not in self, but in God and the Spirit mm-hmm. And the supply that they bring. And we can become more confident, not in ourselves, but confident in the Lord. And made more bold to speak the word, like you said, speaking the word is, is where this is gonna inevitably take us. Yeah.

Paul: 21:18

Yeah. I, I love, we're, we're trying to co couple of minutes trying to, to get through the rest of what he says here about the fact that he's in prison and he has this confidence that his deliverance would come through prayer and supply of the spirit. Yeah. And he makes the point that, but, but Christ is gonna be honored in magnified verse 20, in my body, whether I live or whether I die, notice verse 21, Noah four, to me to live is Christ. Wow, man. I, I really think about the Colossians three, you know, since you've died with Christ or since you've, you know, you've risen now having died with Christ and risen. Where's your affection? Where's your heart? Where, where's your allegiance? And, and you know, Paul was alive to anything and everything that was about Christ. Yeah. But then he says this in verse 21, to die is gain. Big question here. Could I say that? Mm-hmm. I mean, today, those that are listening today, could you say, for me to die is gain, right? For Paul, his perspective was, if I die. Glory. Right. Glory. Right. I win. Gain. It's gain. Look, I don't, I don't want to, I, I'm not looking to leave behind these people or this responsibility and they need me and I've got more work to do and I wanna be of benefit and blessing these people. But if, but if it is a Lord's will for me to go today, glory. Right. You know, it's, it's gain. Not everybody who professes Christ, if they'll be honest, could say that. Yeah. And Paul could

Noah: 22:48

and did we should as well. Yeah. Extremely challenging to consider the depth of my Paul's mindset here. Mm-hmm. The, his, he, you can, you can feel the tension, the, the, almost the struggle between, I mean, clearly he, he would like to go experience glory with Christ, but he also has this deep affection for the Christians, and he wants to serve the Christians. He's so dedicated to the service of the gospel that he says I to. Either way. Either way, I know that it's Christ who I'm, who I'm gonna serve, or who I'm gonna be with. I think the level of commitment to the work of the gospel that Paul demonstrates here is so challenging. I was reading recently some writing. By a brother who who passed and he was, he had children, you know, and he, he talks about, in his writing, he says, I, unless God intervenes on my behalf, I'm not gonna live to see my children reach adulthood.

Paul: 23:58

Mm-hmm.

Noah: 23:59

And he talked about how that he has, he has no regret about going to see, going to be with God.

Paul: 24:07

Yeah,

Noah: 24:07

his, his only concern is I wish I, that these people who depend on me, who I, you know, et cetera, et cetera, that I could care for them, that I could train them, that I could teach them. I think that's a, a good. Modern day application of this mindset that we see in Paul. Yeah. And it's a challenging one to consider.

Paul: 24:26

Yeah. You know, far better to be with Christ. Far better. Far better. Absolutely. But he said, this is what is more, more needful. Mm-hmm. To be with you, to stay in this body, to be with you. Paul said, that's more needful and I'll accept that. I'll gladly accept that. In fact, it gives me joy to know that I'm able to help your progress of faith. Right. You'll talk about that later on. Mm-hmm. I've, I've wondered, Noah, as we're bringing this to a close, you talk about, you know, I, I've wondered, you know, it says that Jesus wept, and that's, that's connected to the context of, of the raising of gonna raise Lazareth. Right. You know, m and Martha, and he was close in that relationship. People always ask the question, why is Jesus weeping there, right? Well, yes, because Mary and Martha are sad. I would offer this. Jesus is weeping and he absolutely knew that he was to raise Lazarus from the dead so that God would be honored in that and his, his power would be made known and manifested through that miracle. I would offer this, that Jesus is also weeping'cause he knows he's bringing Lazarus back into a world full of sorrow, tribulation. Paul says, I'll choose that because it's better. Yeah. You know, I could go to Glory, which is far better, but I, I'm, I'm okay with what God wants in this and that is Paul's confident for me to remain in this body because it's gonna benefit you. Yeah. What a perspective.

Noah: 25:54

Yeah. Well, I think we've pushed to the, the max that we can so we made it through. Another chunk of chapter one, but we'll have to, we'll have some things to wrap up in chapter one next week when we come back. For those of you who are listening, we are thankful that you're with us. We pray that this study through the book of Philippians will be one that encourages you, that brings you joy and Christ, and, and gives you opportunity to. To glory in the goodness of God and, and the goodness of Jesus. Until we come back next week and we're all together working through Philippians again, we pray that you will continue to look to Christ for strength, continue to lean on God for his provision, and that together we can stand strong.