7,12,16 & 27, 2:22, 4:3 & 4:15 Topic #4 Paul & the Gospel #1

Alright. So, continuing the special topics that we picked up with following up on the Book of Philippians. As I mentioned, we'll be looking at the Gospel in the Book of Philippians for the last two portions. Are these the last? No, actually Bob has the very last two. He's not going to lack them.

I wasn't sure how this would work, but one thing that I've found to be really good about going this route was having gone through Philippians we've seen these themes and we pull them out and we talk about them and we talk about them in the context of the book and so we get the real, we get the historical and cultural and we get to take a deeper look at the language as we move along but sometimes some of these themes get lost in the midst of a larger group of words or of teachings and so I actually think this might be one of the best ways to do a verse-by-verse and then come back and major on the themes with a couple lessons each.

It just really drives home. I know the Book of Philippians has started to stick out in my mind with certain topics. And the Gospel being one of those, I don't have PowerPoint so we'll just follow along today. We'll go old school that way. I think the Gospel is one that Having done mission work for several years, I saw the theme of the Gospel of Philippians, but I didn't see it in the same way that I see it today, just because we've been able to take that fine-tooth comb and work through the mind of Paul and the situation that he was in in Rome while still reaching out to a very affectionate group of believers. in Philippi. So I think it's really neat to be able to go back and enhance some of these and bring them to light.

My perspective on the Gospel and the relationship of the Gospel with the body, and we use the term missions to kind of encapsulate some of the things that are surrounded in the Gospel of Philippians. And I think it's a good term, but I think this study has allowed me to get a little bit more biblical mindedness surrounding this particular area of mission work or partnership in the gospel. I know that, you know, I've read through quite a number of books on missions and have looked at, you know, I think it's Youth with a Mission has a really interesting perspective on partnership in the gospel. They have a book. that when we had first found ourselves being led into the mission field, I guess it was eight years ago now, we were looking constantly to different organizations to help us define what is the relationship between the body and the one or those that feel that the Lord would have them be sent out to a new place. And how do we communicate this to the body? How do we go about raising support? And how do we go about communicating what we feel the Lord has laid on our heart in terms of the gospel. And I turn to a lot of those different books.

I think Peter's, his last name, has a biblical theology of missions that's been turned to quite a bit. But nonetheless, there are those systematics out there that try to summarize some of the relationship between the body that is both local and the body that has been sent out. And I think that For me, one of the really interesting things with the Book of Philippians is it not only systematizes it to some degree, but I think it gives a biblical theology of some of these principles. And I was excited to go back and just renew my thinking about it from a perspective of actually being one who is in a local body and not currently sent out into the muddy waters of the world, even though we do have that experience as we each go to our own jobs and so forth. And so it hits home.

But it's unique, I think, in Paul's situation, and I think it carries over to our perspective of missions. So with that in mind, we'll do the Gospel of Philippians part one. And I have, if you look at your first handout there, the first page, I've got 1 Corinthians 15.3. mentioned there, and what I wanted to do was just remind us of how Paul perceived his understanding of the importance of the message that he had and also the origin of that message. This wasn't something that was unique to Paul in the sense that he was the only one who received it. He wasn't the only one who knew it, but he did have a unique relationship to that message to the Gentiles. And so it had a turning point for him in his life, and so he was the one that clarified for us in many ways in the Pauline epistles So it wasn't a new concept, but it became very clear to Paul to the point that it could be made known to the Gentiles.

Just to read there 1 Corinthians 15.3 and remind ourselves of how he viewed this good news, the gospel itself.

For I have delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared. And I included verse 5. We don't often include verse 5, but I think it's there for a reason. One of the things that we say is death, burial, and resurrection.

But the way that Paul communicated it here is quite interesting. He says death and then he says the buried part authenticated the death. Without the buried you wouldn't maybe understand the significance of well maybe he was just dismissed for a bit. It was the fact that he was literally wrapped in these burial cloths and laid in a tomb and that there's this physical process of burial that he went through that identifies him with the death side of it. And then if you look at the raised part, without the appearance, you don't have that connection as well.

So the buried authenticates the death in the same way that the appearance authenticated the resurrection and the raising. And so I think it's neat to kind of see how it's the death, burial, resurrection, and appearing that solidify the essence of what Paul perceived the gospel to be and how he received it from Christ and how he wanted to continue to communicate it. And it was according to the Scriptures, mind you. It wasn't something that was new in the sense that the Scriptures hadn't given Paul and those that had looked through in Isaiah and the suffering servant, and seeing the pictures of substitution all along throughout the scripture, but now it had all of this back story come to life in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and it was his job as he received it from Christ himself to communicate that clearly.

And so as we look into the book of Philippians, we have this special privilege in the mind of Paul, having been given this good news to make it both clear and to also find partnership in the body with his role as both an apostle and a missionary to the Gentiles, a mission-minded apostle. So he's definitely the one that we look at as we look to develop a biblical theology of missions and Thoughts? Any thoughts before I touch? Yeah, Jim. I mean, I think the fact that he was seen by not only Peter, but by the 12 and then by 500 and more.

I mean, is that true, Mohammed? I mean, either you believe this or you don't believe. I mean, this is a lie, right? I mean, a historical lie. I'm not following, I'm sorry. No, what I'm saying is that what's the historical record of Mohammed being buried and risen from the dead?

Right. I mean, in other words, our faith is based on the fact that we believe that this is historically true. Right. Not intellectually only, but by faith. That's right. According to the scriptures, right? Yes. I mean, but yet, you know, is there any other faith that ultimately is based on resurrection from the dead? I mean, what I'm saying is I like your conclusion of that component in terms of the gospel, the witnessing of him being risen from the dead. This just isn't some story, right? That's right. Yeah, it is. And it's interesting, and I can't remember the exact reference to it, but Christ said at one point that even if a man be raised from the dead, would you believe? Right, I know.

While these components, historical, and to your point, these components are here for the purposes of establishing a historical reality. However, Christ himself recognized that even if you see these things, even if you were to see me in the flesh, there may not be the intellectual connection that triggers a faith, a faith in the truth. So it's interesting that it authenticates, but it doesn't necessitate that a person actually believe it, even still. So it can go to that degree.

And we talk about using the resurrection. And Paul, we're going to include the word defense today as we look at some of these verses. When we think about defending the Gospel, we often want to prove that He did rise from the dead, and we turn to the historical realities. And those are good. They are there for a reason. lived and breathed and died and was resurrected in a society that we can go back to and see historical record of.

The language itself was the most, in the fullness of time when he came, was one of the most prolific times of language in the Greek language to be able to explain the things that he was saying and that he was doing. And so we have a very, unlike certain religions that have a kind of an unknown set of tablets that you can't understand, you can't really perceive. This was all based and grounded in history that we can all go and unearth and uncover and look at. and find evidence of. However, that evidence doesn't mean that one will ultimately believe. And that's what's interesting about it. But we do have a unique gospel in that it was grounded in history and it could be observed in the historical setting. But ultimately, it does come down to a personal understanding of the historical reality and then a personal faith.

And so it does move on beyond that. But yeah, I think that having the idea of the bearing of Christ and the appearing of Christ, authenticating those two, just, you know, we often think of death, burial, resurrection, and I've just been drawn to that, the appearing side of it too, because it didn't end with the resurrection. He continued to teach and continue to communicate and make himself known. And Paul was in the process of sharing that message.

So let's move on to the first passage here. What I've got on the Gospel theme of Philippians there, if you see the eight passages in Philippians, I've got 1-5, 1-7, 1-12, 1-16. These are the eight instances where this term, the gospel as we translate it, is mentioned in the book of Philippians. There are other instances where we see proclaim Christ. and then we see truth, but they're very closely tied to the passages that I have here, and I don't think that they actually, for the sake of our two-week study, bring anything much greater to what we'll establish with these eight verses. So I'm going to use these eight verses to establish a biblical understanding of the Gospel in Philippians.

And what we're going to do is very neatly go through the first four verses today and then the latter four verses next week. And that will frame the way that we look at these things. So, just thinking about an overview of what is going to be made clear in this book with regards to the Gospel. We've looked at this already, but to kind of bring it in a summary fashion, you've got You've got the second slide there that in quotes, just the quotes that are surrounding the word gospel in those verses.

So the first one, we're going to look at participation in the gospel. This is a biblical mindedness that we are to have about Paul's perspective of the gospel. So what does this mean, participation in the gospel? And then in 1.7, what about defense and confirmation of the gospel? And then in 1.12, the progress of the gospel. which is one that I have found to be very interesting in looking at, and I think we're going to find some really unique thoughts.

And then 116, defense of the gospel, we see that word again, and we'll focus more on defense of the gospel in 116 and in 117, even though it's mentioned there as well. And the next week we'll look about the worthy of the gospel, service in the gospel, labor in the gospel, the beginning of the gospel.

So we'll take those phrases, look at them in each of their contexts, and start to establish a biblical theology of the gospel out of Philippians. And I did include 1 Corinthians 5, 3 and 4 and 5 just as a starting point. And I've decided not to include a lot of other additional Pauline verses just because I think there's so much packed in here. And given that we're wrapping up Philippians, I just wanted us to be able to go away from this book and say, this is something that is very clear in my mind right out of this book. When I think about the gospel and the way the body perceives it based on its involvement with its missionaries and our perspective here as we send out and support and pray and so forth, we can go to Philippians and say, we've got these pillars that we can really build our thinking of the gospel on.

So it wasn't so much that Paul established the content of the Gospel with the Philippians, this was something that they had already known. He had spent time with them, established the truth. And in fact, they were in unity in so many ways, unlike many of the other instances where Paul is establishing a correction of teaching with, say, the Corinthians and in other locations. Here with the Philippians, he's largely appreciating what it is that they have taken in and learned about previous time spent together and the fact that they are a mature group of believers. And so this is going to be interesting. You know, I think of Holly Hills in many ways like I think of the Philippians.

Not to say that it's because of our own doing. We're privileged. We're a privileged body. We're privileged to be mature in our faith. We're privileged to be mature, not only in the gospel, but also in the identification truths. We're privileged in grace. And, you know, I constantly am in awe before the Lord about the kind of gracious body that we get to participate in. And again, that's a privilege. It has nothing to do with our own abilities. It's Christ in us, and it's a real joy to be a part of it.

And I've seen a lot of bodies function in a lot of different ways, and I've seen a lot of axes that needed to be grinded, and leadership that had a lot of different perspectives. and a body that had a confusion about how unity worked. And we have so much to grow, much like the Philippians had to grow. But when I think about the gospel and I think about Paul writing about this topic to the Philippians, I think it really hits home. I mean, I like the analogy of us perceiving ourselves very in close relationship to the way the Philippians might have seen Paul. Why?

It's a personal opinion at the end of the day, but I'm thankful to the Lord for this body. And I think that we are at a place where we can take some of these mature themes of supporting and being in partnership with those that are sent out. And we can really take them to heart at another level. I think there's an opportunity for that because we're at a place where we're not fighting amongst one another. We can actually focus on the message and focus on support and prayer and the grace that's extended to those that are involved with it. So I think it hits home in a lot of real practical ways.

Let's look at the first verse, Philippians 1.5. And I'm gonna read verses three, four, and then five is the focus point here. However, I wanted to give you a little bit of context so that we can remember what was being said and surrounding this verse.

So, verse three, I thank my God. Here, Paul's talking to the believers at Philippi right out of the first introduction of the book here. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now." So we have this verse 5 and preceded by it was Paul's thankfulness for them and as he remembered them.

We talked about how remember where Paul is and remember his setting. This is an attitude that is not based on circumstances or maybe it is based on circumstances and the circumstances being as bad as they were for him were still a source of God's training in his life that caused the kind of outcome you would never expect. Thankfulness, remembering the body, offering prayer, and then he throws in that joy theme that we've looked at, and then there's a consistency of prayer he talks about, and then he recalls their participation in the gospel, and it's not just once, it's from the first until the present, where he was at when he wrote this. And so there's these circumstances we're going to look at, and we're going to use a different verse to really build on that.

But here there is this term participation in the gospel as Paul is writing to his fellow believers in Philippi. So some questions here, and I'm going to try to be a little bit more inclusive and Socratic in asking questions. I don't do a good job of that. I'm learning from some of you guys to ask questions that are better. What is it that Paul is driving home in this idea of participation in the gospel? And I'll give you a hint with that word. The Greek word is koinonia. So it might be translated differently, but even in the translation I found myself choosing to go with participation over what? What is koinonia?

Fellowship. Okay, and fellowship is a theme in Philippians. We have fellowship with Christ, fellowship with Paul, and fellowship with the believers. And so we have this three aspects of fellowship that we see in Philippians, but here this word koinonia, fellowship in the gospel, what do you think that fellowship included?

Because I think when we think of fellowship, You know, we think, oh, let's think back to Sunday when we all had dinner together, or in our case, we were out looking at the lights at the zoo, but we had fellowship with one another. Is this the same kind of fellowship here?

No. I don't think so. Okay, so help me understand. How might you explain fellowship in the gospel or participation in the gospel from Paul's perspective here? Could we look at it as a partnership? Okay. I think of a reflection of the oneness that is based on the foundation of the Gospel and what it's all about. Okay.

And we know that there's definitely a one-mindedness and that freneo is also a huge theme that Paul shared this mindedness with these believers and they shared his mindedness with them. So, there's definitely a unity in the way of thinking In fact, the Hall-Hills example, I think that's why we gather together, right? There's a fellowship that's bonded in biblical truth, so as we perceive it, left by the Spirit, we're privileged. And I think you're right.

But you've been in many bodies. We all have. We're that fellowship. I mean, even though you're all believers, it just doesn't seem to really get the first base, does it? I think you've touched upon a unique point. We're going to hit it again later on down the road here.

Paul's concern for the truth and his relationship to those that were sharing it is a pretty interesting perspective in this book because there were those sharing the gospel, same message but with a different attitude. But yet Paul has a perspective on that that trumps his own feelings about the way those people are behaving. So what we're going to end up seeing is that in Paul's mind, truth outweighed his own personal feelings about a situation.

And when you have that, you have a kind of participation, a kind of fellowship, a kind of freneo and mindedness with a body that is different from any other possibility because you share a truth. Even though you say it differently than I, and there are those that like the way you say it better than me and vice versa, because that's the way it works, right? And we know that that's not the attitude that the Lord would have us, you know, developed, but it is the way that people behave. We all respond to personalities different, and we all respond to people's motivations differently.

But nonetheless, if the truth remains the same, there is something to be, I guess, joyous about. And Paul looked at it as an attitude of rejoicing, even in the midst of different motivations, because the truth remained intact. So I think that there's some there's definitely fellowship based on the truth. Go ahead. Well, I was also going to say one of the reasons I think he's so thankful is because there has been Galatia and Corinth and other churches where, as you pointed out, he's he's been trying to bring them back to the truth. And so Philippi is one of these churches that it just gives him such joy no matter what his circumstances are. He is so happy. that they are in fact one-minded and they are fellowshipping among themselves and to other people in their community about the truth.

Could we say that one-mindedness on the truth produces a mission-mindedness? I think so. Or could we say that one-mindedness surrounding a clear understanding of the truth produces effective missions? There's a lot of churches involved in a lot of missions and in mission work. And there's a lot of zealousness surrounding missions. Even the cults are mission-minded and they produce this sending out. They put us to shame in many ways in terms of the actual doing of these things.

But here there's something that Paul is extremely thankful for because they share in the message and it produced an effectiveness. As we'll see, his effectiveness was not contingent on his circumstances. In fact, circumstances made possible some very unique effectiveness with the gospel to the Praetorian Guard as we'll look at.

But here we have this participation in, and that little in is a unique component in this phrase because it's not only fellowship. as you and I enjoy being around one another and we kind of have, it's not like he's saying that we hang out in the gospel, right?

And we think of fellowship as largely being hanging out and spending time together. It's a joint participation. It's participation in. And so he's saying that what I'm doing is in connection with what you're doing. And there's a co-effort here that's taking place as Christ works through the both of us. even though I'm where I am in my circumstances and you're in the circumstances where you are.

So it's interesting that effective mission-mindedness is based on a clear understanding of the truth, and we see that it's not a one-man show or a one-family show. And I'm not trying to establish why a person would want to leave or be sent out or fills the call.

Those are all separate topics, but it's interesting that once the call has taken place and once the missionary goes and begins to labor through Christ, in the sharing of the message that he is never alone or she is never alone and that in a true mature relationship with a body there would be a very unique koinonia fellowship that takes place in their mind that spawns thankfulness in their heart as well as joy. And I've talked to a lot of missionaries that feel awfully lonely. But that's not what Paul's expressing, and yet his circumstances warranted loneliness just as much as anyone's. But in Philippian Pauline biblical mission-mindedness, there's joy, thankfulness, prayer.

There's not a loneliness. Loneliness would be something to be worked through and trusted over to the Lord, if that were in fact feeling. But feelings don't dictate Paul in this situation. Truth does. And I'm sure he felt lonely if you were to look at his flesh and how he perceived it. How in the world am I ever going to get out of here? I have to defend myself constantly. I'm chained. How am I supposed to be this ambassador to the Gentile nations stuck in prison in Rome? How is that supposed to work?

Let's look at verse 7. So to read 6, 7, and 8, just to give context, any follow-ups on 1, 5? It's interesting that there's a comma after verse 5 and then a semicolon after 6, and I think to some extent the fellowship in the gospel, defining it however we want to do that.

One-Ninth-Mindedness as Truth allows us, not only from the first day until now, but going forward being confident of this very thing that God's about His business and conforming to Him and completing His work in us until the day of Christ. I mean, it's kind of past, present, and future. Absolutely. The kind of being, I was saved, being saved, and we'll continue to be saved by the truth of the Gospel. Again, back to identification. It is.

And I think time is a very significant component in Paul's mind, human perception of time, because he establishes some points in time in this next verse. And even in that previous verse, verse five, he talks about from the first day until now. So he is he is talking about the gospel in time and and how its effectiveness will last. And there's so there's a basis for hope in terms of its effectiveness that's established here, I think. If you look at verse 6, he communicates, based on what we just read, a confidence in this very thing that Christ, who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day. of Christ Jesus, and we've talked about that.

We've talked about the fact that this is not a sanctificational verse, that there are other verses that are really good in that, and we wouldn't go to the mat on it and say to a person that wanted to establish, you know, Philippians 1-6 as a kind of sanctificational security blanket for a believer, because there are those security blanket verses, if I can use that phraseology. There are definitely those verses, but here he's talking about the good work of the believer, not the good work of God in the believer. And everywhere Paul uses good work, good deed, good works, good deeds, everywhere in the book of Pauline writings, it always has to do with the works of the believer as being empowered and energized through fellowship with Christ. And so this was their works of being a participant in the gospel with Paul from where they were in Philippi and his joint participation of that same message in Rome.

And so there is a good work that's taking place and it's not one that's identified as being here or there as much as it is one that's being done with the body wherever they are, whenever they are, and there's a time point of which that good work will exist for him.

When is the time that it talks about in verse 6? Until the day of Christ Jesus, right? And we talked about that being the return. So what was started With Paul and the Philippians and this joint participation of the good news of the gospel will continue, that work will continue until the day of Christ Jesus.

And he goes on in verse seven, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness how I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus.

I have been on the receiving end of this, but feeling lonely from the body that I belong to and that had sent me out. And I've spent time with believers just feeling like I'm not connected. And I think that those feelings, and I mentioned a minute ago, they are not related to a biblical perspective of missions when both the body and the body that's being sent, understand these truths. There's no loneliness in terms of not feeling connected.

Here, Paul is on the receiving end of grace. He perceives himself as being imprisoned, but receiving grace, and that was a source of joy and comfort to him because he had the grace of the Lord Jesus as he went through this imprisonment. And he said, guess what? Not only do I get to receive, grace in this way, but your partakers of that same grace with me."

And he says that since my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, what does that defense and confirmation of the gospel mean? That's the words that we're trying to pull out here. What is it that Paul is saying when he's saying, because of my imprisonment, I'm in the defense and confirmation of the gospel? He'll use that word again and we'll further establish it. But this is that apologia where we get our term apologetics from. But is he defending the gospel in the same way that we perform apologetics?

What's his setting and what was he having to do here? Why was he in prison? Was he in prison for this message? Yes. That's why he was there. For sure. This good news gave him a bad circumstance. And he was constantly being called to the stand to defend himself with regards to this message. If you flip back to verse 6 too, God, complete his work in us, but doesn't say how, does he? Right. From Paul. This is part of his plan. Yep. Like it or not, Paul.

What do you think about the word confirmation there? Is it the idea of making real the gospel? I just forgot what that word actually was. If Paul was able to successfully defend the gospel, so far as he was able, would that not also confirm the gospel? It validates it, right? Right. And so it's interesting that the gospel isn't something it's like, won't you pray and see how you feel about it? Yeah.

Although there is potentially a prayer involved in faith that doesn't necessitate one, right? You can trust the gospel and not be in a prayer to do it, right? But my point here is that it's not about, well, see if you feel this kind of burning or this, you know, this Paul's not turning to feelings to confirm.

He established the defense of the gospel based on historical reality as we saw in 1 Corinthians 15. But nonetheless, that didn't necessitate belief. He could defend it and he could confirm its historical reality. But it didn't mean that the Romans that were listening would believe it. And we could be in that same situation today.

And I think that's where we have to recognize if we're going to draw any kind of apologetical truth from this, as we go about defending whether we're being in prison and we're having to give a defense for the reason that we're doing what we're doing, which may come, that a successful defense of the gospel And a defense that confirms the gospel does not mean that everyone is going to believe it. Actually, I listen to J. Verne McGee, and one of his things I remember in this light, he says, you know, I can, in apologetics, I can win the argument nine times out of ten, but that doesn't bring a person to Christ. That's right. He said, I can beat him over the head. really do a great job in apologetics, but that doesn't bring them to Christ.

So let's remember. And based on that kind of thinking, there are two ways that typically believers go with that. Well, then I'm going to lead them over the head. even though they're not going to believe. Or, I'm not going to beat them over the head and I'm going to urge them to believe and I'm going to use emotional tugs and pulls and music and context and environments.

I'm going to pump smells into the air so that it makes them just... I have literally heard a person tell me... I've heard a person tell me that we are working to build a church that will control every sense in the same way that Disney controls theirs. I know, I was floored.

And not to say that every large megachurch has that mentality, but it's designed to tug on the emotions, right? But here, I'm just saying it's not one or the other, as much as it is a proper defense and letting the Lord do the ultimate faith-based convincing. So we can defend and confirm, but we can't convince the way the Holy Spirit can. And I think that's where we have to recognize an ambassador shares a message, but it's not his message.

I've been given this message. If you like it, you'll like it. If you don't, you don't. Ultimately, it's not up to me to decide if you want to believe this stuff. But I've got to make sure that you get it, so that if you're going to deny it, you're at least denying a clear understanding of what it says, right? A good example of this the other night was with an event with Margaret. I just got back from the Middle East and met a couple.

I'd met him before, but hadn't talked to him. So we talked for about 10 minutes, who he is, who I am, what we do, and stuff like that. He said, you know, I don't have many friends. He seemed like a friendly guy to me. I said, oh really? Why is that? He said, because everybody I like and want to hang out with goes to Bible studies. And then about two minutes later he said, how did you meet Margaret? And I said, I don't know. So what do you do with that? It's just an interesting sequence of events, right?

That is interesting. I slam the gospel down his throat, right? When you think of the fact that the scriptures are foolishness to the unbeliever, the power is in that simple, simple gospel. It makes them make a decision. They either say yes or they don't, period. That's right. So one thought on that, and you're exactly right, it is. They perceive it as foolishness. I do believe that it can still make sense to them and they can choose against a clear understanding.

And so not to say that we wouldn't try to, and I use the word labor here, but labor in the Lord to make the message clear and simple to understand, but knowing that ultimately as their flesh wrestles with what they're hearing, many of them will stand on their initial foolish perception of it. Some won't. You and I didn't. By the grace of God.

But don't you think too, part of that is, I think it's a prideful thing because as soon as they say that that could be true, then everything their entire life past is thrown into such a disarray about what they believe, what they've done, what they've said, how they've encouraged or influenced other people.

I mean their whole everything is totally turned upside down. And I think as we share the gospel and we're involved in missions that we have to realize that seeing a bunch of kids come to know the Lord, even kids have a lot to quote-unquote And this is the way they think. Look at all that I've got to give up. And adults in the same way. And that's not the way it is, but people are being thrown into disarray in their mind. Their whole worldview is getting turned upside down. And it's good.

But it's not easy, especially as one wrestles with it in the flesh, because they don't have the grace of the Lord present in their spirit in order to comprehend these things. They only have their fleshly spirit to deal with this stuff. The sin nature is the only thing trying to make sense of this until they don't, right? And how that all happens, we're not getting Calvinistic on this issue because there's no reason to.

The Lord says that this is how it works, and there's a change of mind. And when that change of mind takes place, and how it takes place, we need not obsess ourselves with it because it does. And the Lord says it does. And it comes through the power, the dunamis, that word power of gospel. There's power in the clear understanding of the gospel where people have not a work-merit-based effort to believe, but they do have the ability in a personal volition that they can exercise to believe a message that's clear and they understand. And the Lord says that the reward of that belief is Himself and being clothed in the righteousness of Himself.

And it goes on and on and on and we build the identification to this all based on a clear understanding of the Gospel up front. So that's what's going on here. This is all precursors to any kind of identification truths that we get into here. But there's a defense and there's a confirmation.

And interestingly, through the grace that Paul was participating, or I'm sorry, being... through the grace that Paul was experiencing, he was saying that they too were partakers of that same grace. Essentially, when there is perceived suffering or a need, that we participate in the reception of that grace.

It's just a body thing, right? It's just a unique... There's no analogy, right? I mean, the only analogy we can pull from the Scriptures is you know, the body itself, you know, the eyes and the ears and the nose and each performing its own gifts in its own way in unison and conjunction with one another because it's all sourced in Christ, right? Who's the head. Okay, let's move on.

112. And I want to pick up on the time element here because I think that's really important. It's driven home a second or third time at least here. But Philippians 112, we'll read through 14. Paul says, Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. So here we have suffering of a missionary, Paul, And yet, how does Paul spin it? It's progress. It's progress. It's a progress thing.

I mean, how many times do you see a strategy? Maybe it's a nation's strategy or a business strategy or a non-profit strategy where their main head evangelist It could be brand evangelist, marketing evangelist, business evangelist, whatever they're evangelizing. The strategy sends this main guy who's the best guy to share this, whatever it is that they're sharing, and he gets chained and locked up and put away, and there's a progress in that strategy. Is there any business medical scenario where this kind of thing would result in progress.

Or, verse 14, far more courage. I can think back to certain cultish style martyrdom where it provokes people. But here we are, some, let's just say 2,000 years later, and there's still progress. I mean, we're talking about the same massive amount of progress that was really started in these days of Paul in prison. And here we are all sitting here as a result of it. That's pretty amazing. And that further and sort of to both of them.

How has it progressed to the Brethren? Being uplifted by his faith and his trust in the Lord. Had more courage. How is it that you get courage from seeing someone in prison? If I do that, I'm going to get in prison. Talk about last few weeks, right? Citizenship, right?

So they did. The Philippians had a different perspective about belonging. They knew where they belonged, they knew where their citizenship was, and they knew where their savior was. And while here, they knew that there would be progress because it says that he will continue the good work until the day of the Lord. or until the return of Christ Jesus. So, the day of Christ Jesus is what it said there. So we have this situation where we can draw on our biblical understanding of missions and the gospel and the body that when we hear a report of there's no one that's coming, There's nothing happening.

All the books that I was trying to bring into the country have been stopped at the border. The frustrations are endless in missions, right? The circumstances are very difficult. And that's why you have books like Brother Andrew, and you have these stories of things that were absolutely circumstantial from a human perspective, impossible to get through. And this would be one that from a human strategy, you'd say we're basically, we're done here. You know, this isn't going to go anywhere.

But there's a guard. or there's a border customs agent, or there's a... I was spending time with a fellow missionary from Goodseed that I'd worked with this past week. We went and had lunch, and he had spent some time in May and this past spring in Thailand and Singapore and in Russia. and they're trying to get resources translated into these regions. And he said one day, they were in the Caucasus region of Russia, and one day the guy that they were with said, he said, come. And they took the two of them, the two good sea missionaries that were there, they jumped in a car, and he drove them to this house, and what seemed to be just a two-story house kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

They went into it, and it was a safe house for pastors who were coming to get refreshed from all of the circumstances that they were dealing with in their own ministry, and the persecution was so great that they had to come and actually physically recharge in order to go back and continue with it.

Are those circumstances going to prevent the progress of the gospel are not getting a translation in a certain... See, what's interesting is that we have a sovereign God behind this progress. And while he's moving things in ways that we can never perceive as an eternal creator, we're bound by time and space and our own limitations as creatures, He is working in a progressive way with this message in ways that we can never cover. And when we see it done, it ends up being a miraculous experience, doesn't it? And it's so neat that so much, in fact, miracles themselves were validating the Word of God. And it's interesting to hear how many, what we would say, this is not possible at all. you know, when surrounding the desires to share the gospel message with unbelievers, God makes a way that seems like it could never have been made before.

And he does it in a time that is not our time. But here there's always the hope of progress based on a biblical perspective of Philippians. So just some thoughts there for me. I mean, We all enjoy, I think one of the most enjoyable things that I can think of is hearing how God did something in a way that I could have never believed it to be. And that might be for something that's not related to the gospel, but it's interesting how often and regular it is when it's surrounding surrounding that truth. So many books. I mean, you guys have all read kind of the hero stories, but that's just, that's, that's the Lord delivering on Paul's perspective of progress of the gospel.

And isn't it neat that we get to be a part of that, joint participants in it, one way or another? Think about Hassan. Think about Giles and others that are in your own interests in those things. Let's look at the last verse, we've got five minutes here.

Verse 15 through 18, 16 is the one that we're really focusing on at this point, but it says, Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. So there's an appointment there for Paul, and he's delivering on that appointment by defending it. The former, meaning those who preach Christ out of envy and strife, out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice." He has to say it again because you probably didn't believe him when he said it. Yeah, I just said that. I rejoice.

So, interesting here that Paul is concerned with the truth itself. rather than all of the surrounding personalities and even some of the motivations. Now there's a place for correcting that, I'm sure. Paul would not have allowed them to continue to do that in his presence without correcting it, but it still was cause for rejoice in that the truth was made known. And Paul put truth above his own personal feelings about a situation.

I think that's pretty interesting here. Some thoughts? Well some of what we see in our day and age, we see various ministries and various people proclaiming the gospel. And people respond to that, it appears, and we rejoice in that. We may not agree with them doctrinally, but I think that kind of applies to the current age. If people are truly responding and coming to the Lord, we praise the Lord for that. Even though, like you say, if we had an opportunity to talk with them and say, well, you know, the way you presented that, or the way you, you know, there's some things that could, you could be more biblical about that.

That's right. And to that point, I think I've had to learn a difficult lesson, I think, through this. And I've got a few minutes and I'll just maybe end on this thought. You know, I believe that a clear understanding of the gospel is the best way that you could go. If a person can clearly understand it, then they can make a very conscious decision to reject what they actually understand as opposed to rejecting something that they don't. They don't really get it.

So we have different methods that we've used, and we've called them different things, and we've branded them different ways, and I enjoy being able to make the gospel clear in the method that I know how to do. It's one tool in my toolbox of how I share. However, is it the only way that God makes the message clear? And is it always extremely clear up front for a person to believe?

For example, each of us did not come to know the Lord with the same presentation. You heard this message in one way. I heard it in another. This guy heard it at Billy Graham. How can anyone ever come to understand the gospel really clearly from Billy Graham?

I mean, these are the kinds of things that we ask ourselves, right? Because we want to make it clear. I mean, we want to be good stewards of ambassadorship, and it's a good thing. However, it's interesting that the Lord has brought each of us to a clear understanding in much different ways and in much different timetables. And if we get back and say, well, when did you actually believe? I don't know how it all happened exactly, but there was a clear recognition in my mind of when I believed this, and I stopped believing it, and then I started believing this. What I started believing started to become more and more clear over time. But it's interesting that Paul is very concerned about the message of the gospel being made known and that it's being made known in different ways.

And so we may not necessarily enjoy this particular approach or that approach, but if the essence of the gospel itself, the truth is there, we may not say, ah, the track approach doesn't work anymore. You know, you can't just open up a track anymore and share it. You got to expand on it far more. However, Is there the possibility of that truth to become clearer over time and a person to be saved? There is. But there may be better choices for us, and so we have to be wise about how we choose it.

I'm excited that truth brings unity, and it brings co-participation, and it brings progress, and it's tied to this freneo and this mindedness, and it's tied to the joy, it's tied to the heavenly citizenship. Paul's interweaved these major themes into this book to encourage us as a body and to cause us to ask ourselves continually, where are we in relationship to these things? And what would the Lord have us think through and allow Him to do through us in regards to missions?

And those are good questions. And you can go through these four verses and think about them from your own perspective. And ask yourself, as a part of the body, where's your participation? Is it prayer? Is it financial? Obviously those are the two things that Paul found in his relationship with them. But there's other ways as well.

And I think it does behoove us to ask the Lord, what is it that you want to do through me and through this body? So with that mindset, we'll go to the Lord and end our time today. Father, we thank you so much that we are privileged. We are recipients of your grace and that we, as a unique body, all brought together in each unique gift, have the ability. because of you, to make progress in the gospel and to be participants as ambassadors in that. And Lord, as we think about our own relationship to that, whether we be the one that's sharing the message with the unbeliever or whether we be the one that's supporting and praying from afar, Lord, that we would find ourselves in the same biblical perspective that Paul did, in a thankfulness and a joy and a hope that you will complete the good work that you started until your return. Lord, we just thank you for the message of the gospel and you as the Savior and the centerpiece of all that is possible for us as we look to just being both saved from the penalty, the presence, and the power, Lord, of sin. We thank you for the truth of the gospel and how it saves. It's your name we pray. Amen.