Have you ever noticed how the things we tend to desire most in life are usually the things that are the most difficult to get? And that when we do get them, they’re usually the most difficult things to hold on to? Now I’m not talking about a new boat or a fancy car or things like that—I’m thinking of the emotional needs that we search for in life; things like joy, contentment, peace, acceptance, a sense of purpose and satisfaction. These things are very difficult to get, and when we do get them, they are very difficult to hang on to. I think this is proof enough that something inside of us is seriously out of whack, which is precisely what the Bible teaches us.
According to the Bible, God created us in a state of perfection—we had no sin, and our ancestors Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with each other and with God. But we as humans rebelled against God and decided to go our own way, and ever since then we have had a natural desire to worship ourselves rather than God.
And I think that lesson tells us why things like joy, peace, and contentment are so hard to find—its because we’re looking in all the wrong places. Since we are estranged from God because of our sin, we start to look to our own accomplishments to bring us joy, or we look to the material things of this world to bring us joy, and what we find is that they never meet that need for us, and yet we often simply continue on down the same path because our sinful mindset continues to turn us away from God and back toward ourselves.
So what is the answer to this problem? How can we find something like lasting joy? Well, the answer the Scripture gives us of course is to rejoice in the Lord. We can find lasting joy by finding it in the Lord. But what does that mean exactly? When we say, “rejoice in the Lord,” that’s still a little bit of an abstract concept. Is it possible to be more specific about how we are to do that?
In our study today from the book of Philippians, we are going to gain some insight from the Apostle Paul as to how we can find a joy in the Lord that is lasting. What we will see from our study today is this…
We can have lasting joy when we rejoice in the unstoppable spread of the gospel.
Would you turn with me please to Phil. 1:12–18? Let’s read these verses, and then I want to look at two realities about the spread of the gospel that give us reason to rejoice [READ Phil. 1:12–18].
I. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution
In our last study in this letter from Paul to the Philippians, we saw Paul’s greeting to the people of that church. He told them how he prayed for them (with thankfulness and joy) and he also told them what he prayed for them (that they would have a knowledgeable love that would guide them into choosing what is best). Now, Paul begins to tell them about his present circumstances, which for Paul means that he is going to start talking about the gospel. Paul’s entire life was centered around the spread of the gospel, so Paul isn’t really going to talk about how he’s doing, instead he’s going to talk about how the gospel is doing. And perhaps to our surprise, we find that even though Paul was in prison, the gospel was doing quite well.
Notice again v. 12 [READ v. 12]. Now how could this be? Paul was in prison, under persecution first from the Jews, then from the Romans. How could that situation turn out for the greater progress of the gospel? Well, what Paul tells us gives us a couple of insights into how persecution can actually accelerate the spread of the gospel.
A. The gospel often spreads among those who are conducting the persecution
Look at what Paul writes in v. 13 [READ v. 13]. Apparently, all of the soldiers and the people in Rome who had come in contact with Paul realized that he was not an ordinary prisoner. He was not under arrest for a crime, nor was he really a political prisoner—he was under arrest for his preaching about Jesus Christ. This fact had become known among the guards and the officials, and some of them had apparently accepted the gospel themselves, because Paul writes in 4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” Now at that time, “Caesar’s household” would have also included servants and guards, so this may not have referred to Caesar’s actual family, but nevertheless the gospel had been accepted by some who were in the closest proximity to a man who proclaimed himself lord of all.
This shows us the amazing truth that when the gospel comes under persecution, it doesn’t stamp out the message—it actually causes it to spread farther, sometimes among the same people who are conducting the persecution! This truth has played itself out throughout church history time and time again. Some of the most incredible examples of this truth have come out in just the last few decades from countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. In his book Desiring God, Pastor John Piper records part of the autobiography of a former member of the Russian secret police named Sergei who became a believer through the willingness of Christians to suffer for their faith. I want to read part of that for you. Sergei writes about one of his police raids and he says:
I saw Victor Matveyev reach and grab for a young girl [named Natasha] who was trying to escape to another room. She was a beautiful young girl. What a waste to be a believer. Victor caught her, picked her up above his head, and held her high in the air for a second…Victor threw her so hard she hit the wall at the same height she was thrown, then dropped to the floor, semiconscious, moaning. Victor turned and laughed and exclaimed, “I’ll bet the idea of God went flying out of her head.”
On a later raid, Sergei was shocked to see Natasha again.
I quickly surveyed the room and saw a sight I couldn’t believe! There she was, the same girl! Only three nights before, she had been at the other meeting and had been viciously thrown across the room…I picked her up and flung her on a table facedown. One of my men held her down and I began to beat her again and again.
To Sergei’s shock, he later encountered [Natasha] at yet another prayer meeting. But this time something was different:
There she was again—Natasha! Several of the guys saw her too. Alex Gulyaev moved toward Natasha…then something I never expected to see suddenly happened. Without warning, Victor jumped between Natasha and Alex, facing Alex head-on…Victor’s feet didn’t move. He raised his club and said menacingly, “Alex, I’m telling you, don’t touch her! No one touches her!” Angered, Alex shouted, “You want her for yourself, don’t you?” “No,” Victor shouted back. “She has something we don’t have! Nobody touches her! Nobody!”
The Lord later opened Sergei’s heart to the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. As he later reflected on Natasha…he wrote:
…Natasha, largely because of you, my life is now changed and I am a fellow believer in Christ with you…God has forgiven me; I hope you can also. Thank you, Natasha, wherever you are. I will never, never forget you.*
What an amazing testimony to the way that God can work to advance the gospel through the persecution of his people! Persecution cannot stamp out the gospel, because it often spreads among its persecutors, and moreover
B. The gospel often spreads through believers who gain boldness in the midst of persecution
Look again at what Paul writes in v. 14 [READ v. 14]. Now this sounds awfully strange at first, doesn’t it? How could the other believers become more courageous in preaching the gospel after Paul had been arrested? Don’t you think the temptation would be for them to keep quiet to avoid being arrested themselves? Think of it like this—most of you are probably familiar with Dan Jones and his cowboy church ministry. Imagine that some local official got upset about what Dan was preaching and someone maneuvered to have Dan arrested for preaching the gospel. Don’t you think there would be a temptation for us to keep quiet?
But, imagine if some police officers and some other officials began to accept the gospel because of Dan’s witness in jail. That would probably give us a renewed confidence to preach. We would have living proof that our message cannot be stopped, and I think that’s what these believers around Paul discovered. They had more courage because they saw that nothing can stop the spread of the gospel—not prison, not persecution, NOTHING! And tell me friends, when you’re convinced that something will succeed, doesn’t that make you more confident to attempt it?
So Paul saw this new boldness in others to preach the gospel, and he saw the gospel advancing despite persecution, and this allowed him to rejoice even though his personal circumstances were not great. Nevertheless, he had a lasting joy because it was based on a lasting work—the work of God to advance the gospel through the preaching of his people.
So first, we can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution. And second,
II. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite the sinful motives of some who preach it
In v. 14, Paul mentioned that the believers around him in Rome had grown bolder in preaching the gospel, but in vv. 15–17, he goes on to state that they didn’t all have pure motives behind their preaching [READ vv. 15–17].
Now let’s distinguish these two groups. On one side, we had a group that was spreading the gospel out of love—probably love for Paul and for God. They apparently understood that even though Paul was in prison, he was right where God had placed him for the defense of the gospel, and they were motivated to carry on Paul’s evangelistic work.
On the other side, we had a group of Christians who apparently saw Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to gain something for themselves by preaching the gospel. Perhaps they saw the notoriety that Paul had achieved and the fact that people were sending him money and they thought, “Hey! Here’s my chance to get a piece of the pie!” For some reason they saw Paul as a rival, and therefore they viewed his imprisonment as a chance to get ahead.
Now we don’t know exactly who these believers were. They may have been Jewish Christians who thought that Paul wasn’t promoting the Jewish traditions enough. They may have been Gentile Christians who saw religion as a means for financial gain the way it was for the pagan priests. But please not that they were not spreading false doctrine. Verse 14 affirms that they were preaching “the word of God.” Paul would not have rejoiced in their preaching if they were spreading false doctrine, but as it was, Paul was able to say in verse 18 [READ v. 18]. Paul could rejoice because even though the proclamation wasn’t perfect, even though some people had sinful motives, Christ was still being proclaimed, and that was enough for him.
I’m sure in our own day that there are Christians who have sinful motives in preaching the gospel. In many different ways, Christianity has become “big business” today. There is a lot of money that changes hands in the Christians music industry and the Christian publishing industry, and wherever the possibility for profit exists you can be sure that the temptations of greed and selfishness are there as well.
Sometimes churches can engage in “turf wars” with one another where there is a subtle competition to become the biggest or the wealthiest church. Paul is not telling us here that such motives are okay, but he’s telling us to keep the big picture in mind. The crux of the matter is this—is the gospel being proclaimed? If it is, fantastic! If someone has sinful motives in their ministry, God will deal with them on that, but on our part, we can share in the joy that Paul demonstrates here over the spread of the gospel.
And that I believe is an important key for us if we want to have lasting joy. If we base our joy on temporary or transitory things, then our joy will come and go; but if we can learn to find joy in the spread of the gospel, we can have unconquerable joy because the gospel is unconquerable. It cannot be stopped by persecution or by the imperfections of those who proclaim it. So if you want to have more joy in your life, find out how the gospel is doing around you. Ask your Christian friends about people they might be witnessing to, stay informed about ministries in the US that are trying to spread the gospel. Keep up to date with the missionaries we support and find out how God is blessing their efforts. Base your joy in the spread of the gospel, and your joy will never be extinguished.
But of course, finding joy in the spread of the gospel means that you must accept the gospel message yourself, and you can do that today if you’ve never done that before.
*John Piper, Desiring God, 2003 Edition (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003), 275–278.
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