Reasons to rejoice in adversities (Philippians 1:12-21)
Introduction: From verse 1-11, Paul expressed his heart to the Philippians. He thanks and appreciates them for supporting him in his mission from the very beginning. As he is the servant of Jesus Christ, but his service is rendered to God by serving the saints in places like Philippi. When he addresses them, he has highest respect and affection toward them; is filled with compassion when he remembers them. He just longs for them and wishes that they would know the best way to live while here on earth and when the time comes for them to appear before God, they would also appear as blameless and holy in the sight of God, bearing the fruit of righteousness for the glory of God. The way Paul writes to them, it appears that there had been a constant communication between Paul and Philippians all along the way; they knew what had happened to Paul and how he was in Rome. They were aware of his suffering and adversities.
Therefore, in our text today from verse 12-20, Paul explains as how he rejoices in the midst of all the difficulties that they have heard; all the suffering that Paul went through, the Philippians were aware of and therefore, he encourages them to be joyful in all adversities, sufferings and difficulties by giving his own example as how he rejoices in it.
Suffering, adversities and difficulties are the part of our life. Yes, we long for a smooth life with no bump along the way; we wish things would just work out well for us so that we would not have to worry for the next day. May be when we are young and haven’t faced many difficulties, then such wish and longing may not be there as strong as in many of us who have spent more years on this earth. We wish and long that our bodies were perfect with no pain or sickness, we wish that our families were perfect and our finances would always be plentiful, our relationships with people would be always joyful, our jobs would be always delightful without any stress. We all long for an easy ride; it would be either foolish or ignorance to say that I like sufferings, difficulties, adversities and all kinds of problems in my life. No, any human being who knows about life would like to have easy and comfortable like and that is why we work hard, we do all that we do in order to make our lives livable and comfortable. But the fact is that we all face one kind or the other kind of sufferings, difficulties and adversities in our lives. There is suffering; there is difficulty and adversity and when they come our way, we cannot avoid them.
When we face such adversities in life, then we begin to ask many questions. As long as things go well in life we don’t ask these questions, but the moment sufferings and adversities hit us, we begin to wonder and ask questions as countless people do; why is there suffering in the world? Why do we suffer? What is the reason for suffering and how can we avoid it? What relationship does it have with God? Why does God allow suffering in human life? Why can’t God take away all suffering from this world? I don’t have the time to dwell in all these questions for now, but I would like to touch the question of “why is there suffering?” before I go into the text and see the reasons for rejoicing in the suffering and adversity. To shed a little more light on this question, we need to see that there are various kinds of suffering and all of them have their origins and solutions. But these origins and solutions might not be what we wish them to be. So, I would put the suffering basically into three categories;
One: Suffering because of disobeying God. What I mean by this is that God is the creator and when he created the material world, including man, he set this world into motion and laid down the laws that would govern its operation. When the creation was perfect, and without sin, there were no suffering and no laws of nature were broken. But the fact of the matter is that these laws are still there and the moment we break these laws, we invite suffering. Our body has certain ways in which it works perfectly, but if we don’t eat and sleep in time, if we abuse it, then we are headed for myriads of diseases that can inflict unbearable suffering in our life. Even after the fall of man, when man became sinful and lost the right relationship with God, God still wanted man to live and therefore he gave him the moral law. With the natural laws and moral law, God wanted man to overcome the suffering that had come after the fall of man. The only condition was that man was supposed to obey these laws and if man disobeys these laws, suffering is the only outcome. This suffering can come in one of the three ways; it can come from self, others and nature. One can bring a lot of suffering on himself or herself. Others can bring terrible suffering on the innocent people and even the nature if tampered with can case unbearable damage. If the people of Haiti were careful and had built stronger homes and lived in safer environment, many would have survived the earthquake and the same thing goes with people in Bangladesh where every year thousands die of flood because of the deforestation in all the mountains surrounding the nation. So, sin bring all kind of suffering on self and others.
Two: Suffering because of obeying God. This world has become so hostile to God and every time you want to live for God you face a lot of suffering and adversities. When you want to believe in Jesus, your family, friends and co-workers can cause a lot of suffering. Even in Christian families, when you want to live for God, at times the family members can become very harsh on you. People in the world who have decided to disobey God will do anything they can in order to make your life miserable. This suffering primarily comes in two ways; one from the people and the other from Satan himself. Some times we blame all such suffering on Satan, but the reality is that people do have the freedom to choose to make us suffer when we believe in God. But other times, Satan himself will try to cause you to suffer so that you would abandon God.
Three: Suffering because of unknown reason. There are times when we have no idea as why we have to suffer. May be being human itself is the reason for this kind of suffering. In such suffering, it is possible to become bitter and blame God, but the best thing in such times is to trust God and believe that he is able to change our suffering. Suffering is not the will of God but when we face it, we must believe in and hold on in the goodness of God. God does not enjoy when we suffer, in fact if we suffer for doing good, God suffers with us. Suffering and adversities may come to us, but they are not supposed to be our life long lot; even in suffering, we must always believe that God wants me out of this suffering but I don’t know why I am in it right now. My suffering, my adversities will come to an end, even if it means that I have to go to heaven to see its end.
So, if we suffer because of disobeying God, it is time to obey so that we could be delivered from the suffering either in this life or in the life to come.
If we suffer because of obeying God, it is time to rejoice because great will be our rewards in earth as well as in heaven and if we suffer because of unknown reasons; it is time to trust God to see us through this suffering.
But today, I want to talk about Suffering because of obeying God and what are the reasons that we should rejoice in suffering and adversities when we suffer for God. Peter also talks about rejoicing in suffering for good. If we suffer for our evil actions, we deserve it but if we suffer for doing well, we should rejoice (1Peter 4:12-16) instead of being ashamed of it. Paul is also talking about suffering and adversity that come because of obeying God. Suffering and adversities themselves are not the reason to rejoice, there is nothing good in suffering itself. But what Paul is telling us in this passage is that we can rejoice in spite of suffering because God is able to use our suffering for our own good and for his own glory. When we suffer because of obeying God, there is possibility of being delivered, but when we suffer because of disobeying him, and then unless we repent, there is no solution for our suffering. Now, let’s see today’s text verse by verse and see how Paul faced adversities in his life for obeying God?
Paul was attacked and arrested in Jerusalem, and at one time they nearly tore him apart. The Jews wanted him to try and put to death in Judea but because he appealed to Caesar, they had to send him to Rome as a prisoner. To be a prisoner in the ancient time was not a pleasant thing. In his old age, he is now living in prison and writes this letter. Paul is not rejoicing because he is in prison, because he faces all kinds of adversities but why is he rejoicing? He rejoices…
1. Because of Paul’s suffering in Roman prison, Christ is preached and because of this, Paul rejoices (Phil. 1:12-13).
a. Paul’s suffering helped in advancing the gospel. How?
i. All palace guards know that Paul is in prison because of preaching about Jesus Christ. Every time Paul testified in the court or he met the guard keeping watch over him, he did not fail to explain the gospel. Whenever Paul was brought before the officials, he would explain his conversion testimony and they would listen and possible many of the believed.
ii. Everyone knew Paul was in Prison because of the gospel. Paul realized that God had allowed him to be in chains so that he could testify to the powers in Rome and therefore, he rejoices.
b. What about us? Every time we suffer or face some kind of adversity, that can be either the reason to be bitter and grumble or we can rise up to the occasion and show our character as true believers in Christ and allow others to see how we can turn the suffering as a witness for Christ. If Christ can be preached because of our suffering; that should be reason to rejoice. So, we must be in the look out as how we can testify for the name of Christ. We must live for preaching the gospel. Paul never let any opportunity to slip by whether in good time or in bad time to be the witness for Christ. Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, then you shall be my witnesses”. We are to be the witness of Christ, even if it means through suffering and when we do that, we can rejoice. Secondly…
2. Paul’s suffering helped the brethren to be bold in their witness of Christ (Phil. 1:14).
a. They saw their Pastor turning every hardship into opportunity to witness for Christ. They saw the grace in suffering and also realized that what Paul was preaching, he was actually living what he preached. They saw how gospel was reaching to the highest office in Rome and they were not afraid to die for Christ.
b. Example from my Pastor: When I was a new believer in Christ, I was arrested and put in Police custody for being a Christian along with 24 others (Christians were severely persecuted in Nepal in those days). Our pastor, Rev. Joseph Shrestha, was one of us in the custody. He was just about forty with three young children at home with his wife. He had a good government job and a house and with a middle class living standard, was enjoying the best time of his life. But then, we 25 were arrested and the next day, we would be sent to the district court to be tried and if convicted, we all would go to jail from 3- to 7 years in Prison and possibility was that Pastor and some of us would be sentenced to 7 years. But the place where they locked us in was not very secure. Since they did not tie us down, if we wanted, we could make our way out of the station in the middle of the night. On top of that, as the evening darkness fell, all the guard on duty were drinking and all of them fell headlong fully drunk. When we saw that they were not moving and when we teased them, they could not even move from where they were. Realizing the opportunity, some of our brothers began to urge us to run away. If we ran away, it was possible that we could avoid being re-arrested by hiding or going into India. But the Pastor urged all of us not to be afraid even if we had to go to jail. For a while all of us sat there in the dark but one by one the brothers began to disappear through the back hole. Some said that they had young children to look after; others also gave many excuses. Some even used Jesus’ words “run from one city to another”. So, the Pastor could not convince them to stay on. Finally, four of us and the pastor decided that we would stay there and suffer for Christ instead of running away and bring the name of Christ and Christianity into disrepute as cowards, criminals who run away from police custody. I too was wondering about my future, I was ready to go to Bible College and there in that night, was staring in the face of at least three years in jail, and even had thought about running away and going to India where I was already accepted in a Bible college. But when I saw the dedication and the commitment of my Pastor, I was ashamed of thinking of running away. He was a man of God who was willing to lay down his family, his good government job and comfortable life for the life of prison for the sake of Christ and his example gave me the courage to stand on trial for the sake of preaching the gospel. Somewhere late after the midnight, the guards came out of their drinking binge, and when they saw the room empty, only five people remaining there, they were furious and gathered all five of us and brought to another room. They called their senior officer and began to threaten of charging us, in addition of preaching the gospel, for helping the prisoners to escape. They harassed us nearly for one hour and then the sober officer really began to listen to us. My pastor showed him the government servants Id and explained to him what we were doing in that place. It is not that easy to charge a government employ. Finally after listening our stories; the man calmed down and said that if we would sign a document saying “we will never come to this district for preaching Christian religion”, he would release us. We agreed not to come there because we had come from a different district (we had gone to that district for a funeral of one of the members of our branch church), and all those who were from that place had already run away. So, he wrote the document and as we were sitting in a row in front of the officer, he read to us before asking us to sign. In Nepali language Christianity is called “Isai”. This police officer after the drinking and all, messed up his writing and instead of saying “we will not come here to preach “Isai” religion”, he wrote, “we will not come here to preach “Islamic” religion. Oh, when we heard that, we were willing to sign ten times! The first brother signed, the second was Pastor, he signed, I was the third and the fourth brother also signed. The fifth brother was a bit slow in comprehension. May be when the officer read, he did not pay attention or something, and also when we were speaking with our eyes, he never really understood. So, he wanted to read the document for himself, and blurted out “No way, we are not Muslims, we are Christians, how come you accuse us of being Muslims, you must change this “Islamic into Isai”. All of our shoulders collapsed and how mad we were with that bone-head. But than, may be the Lord only gave me the courage to speak. Words came out, “Sir, do you know why you have arrested us in the first place? How dare you accuse us being Muslims? Don’t you have any idea as what Islam is? What proof do you have that we are Muslims?” As I was on and on, the man got so mad and I still remember his shouting “shut up or I will burry your spectacles in your eyes”. He was so furious because he did not know the difference between Islam and Isai. Out of his anger, he tore the paper and shouted at us “get out of my sight, go back to where you came from and never visit my district again”. Praise God, by the wee hour of the morning we were back in the home of the person whose daughter we had gone to burry. The end of the story looks humorous, but the beginning was not and the courage of my pastor still becomes the reason for my strong faith in God even in the midst of adversity. So, we must live not only for our faith, but also for the faith of the fellow believers. Thirdly…
3. Paul rejoices because what people intended for his harm, God used it for good (Phil. 1:16-18). There were Christians who were opposing Paul and they wanted to cause more trouble for him. But Paul says that even in their selfish and wicked intension, they had actually preached Christ and therefore, Paul rejoices.
a. Some preach with good motives. They were the brothers who were encouraged by seeing Paul’s example and were willing to lay down their lives for preaching the gospel. Even though Paul was confined in Prison, God was using other brothers to spread the gospel as they were becoming bold from watching Paul’s example and courage.
b. Other for selfish and envious motives. They were Christian people who were against Paul. Instead of being bitter, Paul rejoices because God is able to use for our good what Satan or people intended for our harm.
c. When we face such people, we must seek God in such a way as how their evil actions could be used for our good and for God’s glory.
d. God will always give us victory over our adversary if we live for the purpose of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ by our words and actions. Fourthly…
4. Paul rejoices because there are people who love him and pray for him (Phil. 1:19-20).
a. Philippians prayed for Paul.
b. When people pray for us, God does answer. Paul believes in the prayers of saints on his behalf.
c. Because of their prayer, God will not allow Paul to be ashamed but will see deliverance. When we suffer for God and for good, we will not be ashamed. Eventually we will see the victory. God will hear the prayers of saints on our behalf. We also need to pray for our leaders so that they would be delivered from the enemy; either physical or spiritual. Fifthly…
5. Paul rejoices because whether in life or death, God will be gloried (Phil. 1:20-21). Our ultimate aim is the glory of God. If we have a kind of life that does not glorify God, it is of no use. But even when we die, if that will bring the glory to God, that death is worth dying for. It is easier to die for God but harder to live for God. Paul wants to see God’s glory whether he lives or dies in Roman prison.
Conclusion:
So, there are many reasons to rejoice when we suffer for obeying God.
1. Christ will be preached and people will be saved. Our aim in life is to save as many people as we can. Whatever we acquire in this world, it will be left behind. Houses, cars, and any material possession, that will be left behind. What good it is to acquire material wealth whole of your life and then die at the end; leaving behind all that you spent your life for? But if we live to be the witness of Christ, we shall be instrument of God in saving someone’s life from hell and will take these people with us to eternity. Paul lived for that purpose and we too need to live with this purpose in our heart. If you have non-believers in your working place, they should be in your heart, in your prayers and you should look out for every God ordained opportunity to share your life and testimony so that they would be saved. Also, we must use our materials possessions very wisely, and invest them into God’s kingdom where no thief can steal; no rust and moth will destroy it. Jesus said “where your treasure is there your heart also will be”. So, not only we should be witnesses, we also should use our material possessions for the work of God in which the gospel is preached and people are saved.
2. Secondly, we must live to strengthen the fellow believers. We are not to live all for self and self alone. We are to do good to the household of faith. We must encourage the fellow believer. If you want to grow in faith, you must start thinking about others. Surrender yourself to God and then trust him to take care of you while you try to pray for your fellow believer. We all need some one to give us a hand once in life and should the opportunity come, we must extend that hand of help. This can start from praying for the fellow believers, praying for your church leaders as the Philippians were doing for Paul.
3. Thirdly, we must live for the glory of God. Actually, dying for God is easier but living for God is rather difficult. There are too many difficult people, too many difficult situations and circumstances and often time, we lose sight of what we are here for and do things that do not glorify God. Some of us if we have to choose between life or death for believing in Christ, we may not be afraid to die. But if we have to forgive, if we have to surrender, if we have to be humble, if we have to be holy and if we have to sacrifice, we may back away from that demand and look for easier way. Therefore, we must live for God as Paul says “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.
If we live for the purpose of saving the lost souls, if we are living for helping the fellow believer and if we are living for the glory of God, than only we can rejoice in all kind of adversities. Than only we can find reasons to rejoice as Paul commands us in this passage. Let’s be willing to suffer for obeying God and when we face adversities, let’s use that opportunity to be the witness of Christ by demonstrating godly character and by utilizing every opportunity to share the gospel. Let’s rejoice in our adversities and suffering knowing that God can turn that into his glory and our deliverance. Amen!
