Preached March 18, 2012
from
Philippians 1:12-18

Theme: Joy in difficult circumstances comes from keeping our eyes on what God is doing in them.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

At the time when Paul wrote his New Testament letter to the Philippians—a letter that is God’s instruction book on how to experience prevailing joy in life—he himself was in a Roman prison cell. He was suffering for his work of faithfully preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I suspect that the Philippian Christians that he wrote to were not only concerned for the well-being of their great preacher of the gospel, but also for the very gospel that he preached. He had brought that gospel to them a few years before; and was given the privilege of taking the gospel to the very center of the known world—Rome—not long afterward. But then he was thrown in jail for his preaching; and it seemed as if his great work of spreading the gospel of Jesus had been brought to a halt. How could the gospel spread if its preacher was locked in a prison cell?

And yet, one of the reasons that Paul wrote this letter to them was to assure them; and to call them to rejoice with him that—even in the difficult circumstance of his imprisonment—the progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ had not been stopped at all. In 1:12-18, Paul wrote;

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice (1:12-18).

Consider those last few words: “. . . and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” The word “this” shows us that Paul’s joy was based on something specific—that is, on was the things that he had carefully looked for and saw that God was actively doing in his trial of imprisonment. And I believe that the example the apostle Paul sets for us in this passage—highlighted by those words—teaches us an important lesson about how to experience the kind of prevailing joy in our own times of trial that the great apostle himself had experienced.

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For Paul, a prevailing experience of joy was the by-product of consistently keeping his eyes on something. He didn’t look merely on the circumstances of his trial, but rather, on what God is doing in those circumstance.

One of the misconception people often have about joy is that, for those who have it, it’s something that just comes naturally—something that comes without effort. It’s easy to have this misconception about joy, because there are some people that tend to be happy by nature. They always seem to be ‘up’, and positive. They always tend to look on the sunny side of life.

But that’s not the kind of joy we’re talking about. It’s probably not even proper to call that “joy”. That’s more a matter of personality style and emotional disposition. It’s a kind of habit of attitude that happens for such people without their even thinking about it. And it’s certainly not that there’s anything wrong with that. Personally, I’m very glad that there are people like that in the world. But let’s face it—it’s not very likely that even naturally “happy” people would experience the kind of confident “joy” that Paul exhibited in the difficult trial of a Roman prison cell.

I think there’s plenty of evidence in the Scriptures to show that Paul was not that kind of a person by nature. It would be very hard to think of the man who was once known as Saul of Tarsus—the man who used to terrorize the Christians by forcing his way into their homes and churches, and dragging them off to their executions—as someone who was ‘happy’ by nature. And even after he became a believer, it’s hard to think of this fiery apostle—who wrote such confrontational portions of Scripture as the Book of Galatians—as just a ‘bubbly’ kind of guy. I believe that the kind of deep, prevailing joy that Paul experienced—even in the most trying circumstances of life—was something that did not come about as just a part of his natural personality style. I believe it involved a resolve of heart; something that he had to work at. It came through a choice of the will. It came by being careful about what it was that he focused on and thought about; so that he was able to be specific and say, “In this I rejoice.”

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Now; stop for moment and think about what it is that we typically focus in on when we’re in the midst of a difficult trial.

One of the things we often focus in on is the suffering we’re going through and how hard it all feels. I call this the “woe is me” sort of thinking. Paul, I’m sure, could have found a great deal of “woe is me” material to focus in on while in that prison cell. He was in bonds. His liberty had been taken away. He was constantly under guard. He was separated from comforts and from the people he loved. He felt as if he had been put on the sidelines. His future was very uncertain. I wouldn’t blame somebody one little bit for moments in which they felt sorry for themselves in the midst of a hard trial; would you? That’s a natural and normal direction for our thinking to go. No one enjoys the experience of a trial.

Sometimes, in such trials, we focus in on the bewilderment of it all. We ask, “How could this happen to me? This isn’t fair!” This would be what I call “Why do bad things happen to good people?” kind of thinking. And I’m very sure Paul could easily have fallen into that too. After all, he was in prison for doing the right thing—the very thing that God had called him to do. and that would have done the greatest possible good for people. He was in prison for having preached the gospel. But why would this happen to him when it was what God Himself had called him to do? And again, I think it would be natural to think that way. After all, we would ordinarily expect that—if we did what God told us to do, and we tried our best to follow His will—we would be blessed, and protected, and kept from troubles and trials. It would be natural to be confused while suffering in the midst of a trial, and ask, “Why me?”

And there may, instead, be times when we focus in on how we can solve our problem and bring our trial to a quick end. We search for a solution. We seek relief. Put in Paul’s context, this would be the “How can I get out of this situation” kind of focus. Surely, Paul would have been tempted to spend some time in his prison cell thinking of how he could get himself out of this difficult situation. I certainly wouldn’t blame him if he did; would you? He’d use his “get out of jail free” card immediately—if he only had one. It would only be natural to want to try to manipulate the situation, or bargain, or plead in some way—or even attempt to escape—so that the trial could be over, and the suffering brought to an end.

“Woe is me!” “Why is this happening to me?” “How can I make this end?” Those are the kinds of things that we would naturally focus in on in a “prison cell” kind of trial—a painful trial that we simply cannot get out of, and for which there is no apparent solution. Perhaps those questions sound familiar to you. Perhaps you’re even saying such things in a trial you might be going through right now. We should have mercy on each other, and give each other a little slack when we’re in those difficult times. We should not condemn each other if we fall into thinking in those down-hearted ways. Even our Lord Jesus agonized as He faced the cross on our behalf. I don’t have any doubt that even the great apostle Paul had his moments.

But even if his mind occasionally went to those dark places in his time of trial, they weren’t the places where his mind stayed. I suspect that it took hard work—and a resolve of the heart—to keep his mind from spiraling downward in those ways, and set his thinking in the right direction instead. But it’s clear that he did what he himself said, later on in this letter;

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things (Philippians 4:8).

And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; this is one of the ways God is telling us—through His servant Paul—that we must work toward experiencing prevailing joy in life. We must set our thinking on the right things in a time of trial. We must raise our attention above the mere circumstances of our trial, or even above how that trial is making us feel; and set our thinking instead on the sovereign God who is above our circumstances, and on the ways that He is working through our trial to bring about His good purposes.

We must do what Paul did, and have our theology right. We must think biblically about our trials in the light of sound doctrine. We must fight the natural course of our thinking in a time of trial; and affirm, as Paul did in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

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Now, please understand; this wasn’t a matter of mere “positive thinking” for Paul. This resolve of thinking had real substance behind it—and that was why he could have real, prevailing joy even in a dark Roman prison cell. Look with me at how he demonstrated this to us.

At the beginning of this passage—when writing to those dear brothers and sisters in Philippi who may have been thinking, “Woe is Paul! How could this happen to him? How can he get himself out of this? What horrible circumstances these are! Where is God in all this?”—he wrote, ” But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel . . .” (v. 12).

When I looked at those words in the original language, I thought it was very interesting that the very first word in verse 12 was one that’s translated “To know . . .” This is placed in what’s called the ‘emphatic’ position—that is, it was something that Paul wanted to emphasize in the thinking of his readers. He very much wanted them “to know” that his imprisonment was not a matter of circumstances that had gone out of control. He wanted them “to know” that the things that had happened to him had actually been used by God to do the exact opposite of what everyone was worried about—that they have actually resulted in the gospel of Jesus Christ being spread in Rome even further!

Then—having carefully looked things over, with a confident faith in the sovereignty of God—he goes on to tell the Philippian believers the different ways that that this was so. First, he told them, in verse 13, “that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ . . .”

The “palace guard”—or, as it’s translated in some Bibles, “the imperial guard”—was the Praetorian guard. It was the royal order of guards in the imperial palace of Rome in the service of Caesar Nero. Because Paul was held in prison in Rome—scheduled to make his defense before Caesar—he was kept in chains under the close supervision of this elite troop of guards. Perhaps he was even chained to some of those guards twenty-four hours a day. They would take turns guarding Paul every few hours or so; and you can be very sure that, when they were with him, Paul would talk to them. He would tell them why he was there; and about the Lord Jesus Christ that had saved him. They couldn’t get away! They had to listen to the greatest evangelist that ever lived! Pretty soon, word got out among them about the remarkable prisoner Paul. They would see how he wasn’t like other prisoners—that he seemed to be an innocent man who confidently preached a message about a wonderful Person named Jesus. After a while, it became “evident to the whole guard” that his “chains” are “in Christ”.

Not only had the word about him spread among the Praetorian guard, but it also went beyond them to “all the rest” within the imperial court! Everyone was talking about Paul—recognizing that he was in prison for the cause of Jesus Christ! And would you like to know how deep and effective this spreading news about Paul had become? Paul kept a surprise for his Philippian brothers and sisters until the end of his letter. In 4:22, in closing his closing words, he wrote, “All the saints great you, but especially those who are of Caesar’s household.” Some in Caesar’s own household had heard, and had believed, and had become saved, and were now “saints” in Christ! Now; who but God could have done that? And how else could it have been done but by God sneaking one of His own under-cover missionaries into the very imperial palace itself—cleverly disguised as a prisoner?

Before we depart from this, let me point out just one more thing to you. It’s a bit of an aside; but I believe it’s a very important one. It seems to me that Paul was careful to so trust in God’s sovereignty in his trial—and to conduct himself in a careful manner—that it was not only evident that his chains were in Christ, but that it remained evident. He didn’t lose his cool. He didn’t blow up in anger and frustration. He didn’t behave in such a way as to bring any doubt to the evidence that his chains truly were in Christ, or any disrepute to the gospel he preached.

We need to remember that in our trials too. People are watching us; and we are constantly being made missionaries of Jesus Christ through how we endure. As he wrote later on in this letter;

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me (Philippians 1:27-30).

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So; that was one way that God was spreading the gospel through Paul’s trials. His faith in Jesus Christ was becoming the talk of the imperial guard—and the news of it was even making its way into the palace! No wonder Paul could have joy in his trial—knowing what amazing things it was that God was doing through it! Truly, the sovereign God that Paul served was making all things work together for good!

And then, Paul wrote of another way that God was using his trial. He said, “and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (v. 14). It may be that many of the believers in Rome were a bit hesitant to join Paul in preaching the gospel to those around them. It may have been that they didn’t feel that they needed to speak so long as the mighty apostle Paul was in their midst. It may be that they didn’t feel that they could preach it as well as he could. And it may even be that they were intimidated by how Paul had, at times, suffered for his preaching. Whatever the reasons may have been, many of them had been keeping silent.

But now that Paul was in prison—now that he could no longer go about in their midst and preach the message of God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ; now that his ministry had been temporarily put on hold because of his chains—many of them rose up to meet the need. The believers who had been silent before then began to step up to the plate; and began to proclaim Jesus Christ to those around them. Some of them were even inspired by the very things that Paul suffered; and were willing to suffer along with him, if that’s what God called them to do. His chains emboldened them, so that they too spoke “the word without fear”. The believers in Rome were beginning to be what Paul was encouraging the believers in Philippi to be:

. . . blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain (Philippians 2:15-16).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; if you are in the midst of a trial right now—even a “prison-cell” trial that there seems to be no escape from—do you realize that God may be using you, right in the midst of it, to encourage and inspire someone else to serve Him? God causes all things to work together for our good—and sometimes, that good is for others in the body of Christ!

That’s what was happening to Paul! No wonder he was able to rejoice in his trial!

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Now; these were the sorts of things that Paul focused his attention on in his trial. And it was that focus that was the basis of his joy.

But this didn’t come easy. It took a lot of work—and a tough resolve of the heart—for Paul to seek out the things that the sovereign God was doing in his trial, and to keep his focus on them. Just how hard a work it must have been at times is shown to us in what he wrote next. In speaking of those who rose up and preached the gospel during his imprisonment, he wrote; “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel” (vv. 15-17).

There were some in Rome who were very much like the believers in Philippi. They were genuine partakers with Paul in the ministry of the gospel; and were not only willing to stand with him in what he suffered for it, but also to go forth and preach it when he couldn’t. As Paul said, these Roman Christians were doing so “out of love”. They genuinely wanted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and support Paul in his work; and were even willing to go out into the world and do what he could not do because of his imprisonment. I suspect that they were a great encouragement to Paul in some of those dark times.

But there were also some in Rome who had impure motives in preaching the gospel. They did not love Paul; and wanted to make his trial of imprisonment even more painful for him. Perhaps they thought that the preaching of the gospel was the proclamation of something that Paul had made up; and so, they sought to preach Paul’s message as if it were something they could steal from him. Perhaps they thought that they could make Paul feel badly because the gospel was progressing in the world without him; and because he wasn’t able to go out to minister to the lives it was transforming. Perhaps they were of the kind of ‘partisan spirit’ that Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians—where some were saying that they were of Paul, or others were saying that they were of Peter, or others still were saying that they were of Apollos; and that they were thus trying to advance an ‘anti-Paul’ spirit through their preaching of the gospel. Personally, I think that that the malice of these people toward Paul was the thing that pained him most in his imprisonment. Initially, it would have wounded him deeply that there would be people who would claim the name of Jesus, and yet would preach the gospel just to spite him and cause him grief.

But notice how—even in this—Paul looked for what great thing the sovereign God was doing in his trial. He wrote, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice” (v. 18). For Paul the great thing was that the true gospel of Jesus Christ—whatever the motives—was being preached. Even when it came to those who meant him harm, he looked at what God was doing through it—and made that the focus of his attention; and said “in this I rejoice . . .”

No wonder he had prevailing joy—even in prison!

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Now; Paul was in a unique position. He was given a clear vision of what it was that God was doing in his trial. And that was so our sovereign heavenly Father could show us through this great apostle of the faith that He does indeed cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him. When we’re in the midst of our own “prison-cell” times of trial, God may not see fit to make things as clear to us as He made them to Paul. But as much as we may want Him to, He really doesn’t need to. He has made it abundantly clear to us through Paul that He really is at work, and truly is brining about good through the difficult things He allows us to endure. And that’s really all we need to know.

Paul then—who is our great example in so many aspects of the Christian life—is also our example of how to have real joy in our Christian life. For Paul, joy—even during a very difficult time of trial—was the by-product of having a disciplined focus of thought in the light of the promises of God, and of keeping his eyes on what God was doing in the circumstances of his trials in life.

It’s the same with us. May God help us to learn to trust Him faithfully, seek out His sovereign hand in our trials, and—by faith—rejoice in the eternal good that He is bringing about through them.