Philippians 1:12 –26 April 6, 2008
What to do when troubles come…
In this passage, Paul has 3 problems
Problem 1: Paul is in Prison – Turkish prison – possibly Ephesus
This is a good thing, right?
I can’t help but think of the Canadian woman who has been in jail without trial for two years down in Mexico – you hear tales of a vibrant woman with a now broken spirit because of the conditions that she is held in. Paul Condition in a 1st century Turkish jail was likely much worse.
There is this amazing story in the Old Testament about Joseph who had his own time in prison. Joseph the second youngest son of the patriarch Jacob. His father spoiled him rotten, and his older brothers were jealous. They wanted to kill him, then they decided to sell him into slavery. Joseph was taken to Egypt, where he became a trusted servant of his new master, until his master’s wife falsely accused him of trying to molest her, and he was thrown into prison. After a long while, he was suddenly brought out to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, king of Egypt — with success that Pharaoh put him in charge of his major project to alleviate the coming famine. In that capacity he found himself selling corn to his own brothers without their knowledge Eventually, having tricked them to test their state of heart, he told them who he was. The story ends happily~ with the whole family surviving the famine and settled in Egypt.
After their father Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers worry that he will now take revenge on them for what they’d done to him many years earlier. So they come and tell him that Jacob had told them to seek his forgiveness. Joseph’s reply is one of the most memorable statements of faith anywhere in the Bible. ‘Don’t be afraid: he says. ‘Don’t suppose that I am in God’s place. After all, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50.20). And he forgives them and continues to look after them.
I find it amazing that Joseph is able to set aside the bitterness of half a lifetime spent in slavery and prison because “God had a larger plan.” It is even more amazing that Paul is able to have such an attitude since he does not have the benefit of Joseph’s hindsight to understand his troubles. He is sitting in prison, and he can see how his suffering is a good thing.
The Imperial Guard is aware of Jesus because of Paul’s chains – Paul was the prisoner, but he had a captive audience –
In Acts 12, Peter is in jail and the have him chained to two roman soldiers so there was no chance of escape. There may have been times in Paul’s life where he had the same experience: literally chained to his guard.
Paul was never shy over talking about what was on his heart, so I imagine every guard who guarded him got to hear the story of the Gospel! You can imagine that as the shift changed, the guy coming off would say, “okay your turn with the preacher.” Some of his jailers would have become Christians, and all the rest would at least have an understanding of Christian teaching! Paul was using his bad situation to evangelize Caesar’s army!
He says that the Christians in the region had actually become more bold because he was in prison! This is rather counter-intuitive – persecution bringing more boldness – you would think that the rest of the believers would have went into hiding.
It could be that the Christians figured that if Paul was “Out of commission,” they had to pick up the slack, so instead of one evangelist, you had many, knowing that the work had to be done.
It could that out of their fear, they prayed for more boldness, and God answered. Acts 4:23-31 Peter and John have been thrown into prison for preaching Jesus’ resurrection, and this is what happens:
On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" ’Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one. ’
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
This happens, and has happened all over the world – that when persecution comes, instead of shutting the church down, the Christians are more bold in their faith, and the Church actually grows!
Problem 2: his enemies are stirring up trouble
He says that some people preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
There are a few options – 1. it could be other Christians who either disagree with Paul, or they think that they should be in his place of leadership, so they have stepped into the limelight and taken over while he is out of commission – Paul says “Go for it, as long as Christ is preached!”
On Friday, we remembered the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King also participated many times in what he called “the sacrament of imprisonment.” In 1963 he felt the need to write his Letter from a Birmingham Jail to answer to his Christian detractors over the issue of civil disobedience. MLK takes his detractors to task much more than Paul does, but His brief letter is a must read for Christians concerned about human rights.
Or 2. it could be people who were against Christianity, trying to give it a bad name – similar to the time when they discovered that the people who were being violent at a protest rally were actually undercover RCMP trying to stir up the crowd. These people might stand on a street corner and start preaching about Jesus in order to cause more troubles for Paul and the Christians – Paul says, “great! Jesus is being preached!” Even if they are wrong, the topic of Jesus is being discussed.
There were some people that were very upset about the Da Vinci Code and the lies that it promoted, but we actually had people come to Alpha at the Pub because their interest in Jesus was sparked by the book and movie. They came to faith in the true Jesus!
3. NT Wright has the idea, that Paul’s imprisonment had people talking about Jesus:
“Have you heard?” they’ll be saying to each other. “They’ve caught that strange fellow who’s been going around saying there’s a new king — a new emperor! And you won’t believe it — this new king turns out to be a Jew whom they crucified a few years ago, and this jailbird is saying he’s alive again and he’s the real Lord of the world!”
Talk like that would be guaranteed to make people feel that Paul was a dangerous lunatic who should be kept locked up. But Paul’s reaction is to celebrate. “That’s fine by me,” he says. “As long as people are going around saying that Jesus is the world’s true Lord, I’ll be happy.”
Paul is happy as long as people are talking about Jesus, because God can use that talk to draw people to the true Jesus.
Problem 3: Paul might die
In the last paragraph of this section, Paul deals with the issue that he might not last in this imprisonment. He might die. Either he could be executed for his belief – life was cheep in the Roman empire and the best way to deal with someone who is talking about another king is to kill them. There is also a possibility that he could expire because of the conditions that he is held in. He could also be tortured to death since it would appear that regular beatings were a part of the prison experience.
He tells them that their prayers are keeping him strong – you can imagine that if he was being beaten or tortured, the temptation to recant and give up his faith was present – he says, “for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (19-20)
Then, he says, “Hey, I win either way! If I die, I get to be with Jesus! And If I live, God has more work for me!
He even says that he’d be hard pressed if he had the choice – both options are so good!
He decides that he sure that he will live because all the things that God would have him do are not finished.
On the grave of the novelist Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) was this prayer:
God give me work
Till my life shall end
And life
Till my work is done.
Paul is able to actually rejoice over (not just endure) prison and beatings, enemies kicking him when he is down and the very real possibility of death. He is able to find the good in each of these this that on their own would make me want to roll over and just give up. (or at least to whine a lot!) Paul fibds a way to rejoice in all things
How does he do it?
Need to say two things first
He is not triumphalistic –
Many people think that 2 Corinthians 1 speaks of the same imprisonment that he speaks about here. It shows that he did despair at times.
“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
The other thing is that this is not the suffering that many of you experience – it is basically his own personal sufferings because of the Gospel. Much of our suffering is emotional suffering as we watch loved one go through hard times or make bad decisions, or life situations that may have very little to do with our faith.
But there remain things that we can learn from Paul about oulling through difficult times:
1) Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
If Paul can find something to give thanks for, so can we.
Two men looked out from prison bars – the one saw mud; the other saw stars.
2) Paul’s purpose was much larger than himself – he is completely sold out for the gospel – it is his all in all
3) Paul has an eternal perspective, rather than a immediate perspective – “what will this matter in the long run?”
