The Gospel Goes Further

While you're in Philippians, we're actually going to be in Acts chapter 16 as well. So, if you would turn to save your spot in Philippians and then go to Acts chapter 16. And uh before I start tonight, [clears throat and cough] I have a question that I want to ask that I think um you'll be able to answer by the end of our uh lesson tonight. But the question is, have you considered how the gospel was able to reach you? Have you considered how the gospel was able to reach you? Or when was the moment the good news of Jesus struck your heart and saved your soul? Have you considered when the gospel reached you?

I want to take you back to when the gospel reached the church in Philippi. uh we are going through the book of the letter to the Philippians and I'll I'll give you more details about how the letter was uh how it came about but Acts chapter 16 details the essentially the start of this church in Philippi and in Acts chapter 16 it began with a vision uh Paul receives a vision um God was calling Paul across the sea into Macedonia which is a very interesting um of course of event that took place. But Acts 16:E number 9, the Bible says this, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us."

So Paul is on his missionary journey and he's wanting to go to Asia and he's wanting to to bring the gospel to the place that he's wanting to go to. But all of a sudden the Bible says that the Holy Spirit uh didn't want him to go to Asia. And so the Holy Spirit actually had other plans. And in a vision, Paul received this vision. And the vision was Paul was actually supposed to cross the sea to Macedonia where he would go and share the gospel there. And on the Sabbath, uh, when he went down by the riverside in Macedonia, um, there was some prayer that was made and and Paul spoke to a group of women gathered there.

And in verse number 14, one of the the women there present was a lady by the name of Lydia. And in verse number 14, uh, the Bible says this. Bible says that a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Tayatha, which worshiped God and heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And so this lady named Lydia, it it seems that she had been ready. She'd been seeking the Lord, but it wasn't until she heard the gospel from Paul that the Lord opened her heart and Lydia got saved. And so Lydia received the gospel. She heard the message uh and God opened her heart and the gospel was preached and God did a work on Lydia's heart

and because of that um Lydia and her whole household were baptized and in fact after that Lydia was so willing Lydia was a rich uh lady um she she had a business she sold um the she was a seller of purple as the Bible describes it um and because of that she also had a home and she opened out her home so that Paul could do Bible studies or that Paul could preach the gospel from her home. Um, and so Paul is now using Lydia's home to reach others. But the gospel didn't stop with Lydia. Um later on in verse number 25 we see that Paul and Silas um they actually before that in verse number 20 Paul and Silas they are um imprisoned because what happened was Lydia got saved.

She um made her home available for the gospel to be preached. Essentially there's Bible studies that are being done here. And while while there that's happening, Paul and uh Silas, they're on the street and there's this lady that's following them that was possessed by demons. And this lady is actually prophesying, saying the these are the messengers of God. They are they are the messengers of the most high God. And after a few days, Paul just turned around and be like, "Okay, get out of this lady." And this woman was who was demonpossessed. She is freed from that. And it said in this in this passage that this lady actually had handlers, meaning that this lady these this lady was being used by men of this city to exploit her to make money off of her.

And the Bible says that because Paul and Silas freed her with the gospel, um these people got mad. And so they took Paul and Silas, they took them to the city and they said, "These people disrupted our business." They got mad. They beat them up. And then they caused them to go to jail. And then that's where we have the whole incident where Paul and Silas are in in the jail in Philippi. And in verse number 20, the Bible says, "And brought them to the magistrate, saying, these men being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, these these businessmen. They're they're they're um threatened by Paul." And and then verse [clears throat] number 25, and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.

So Paul and Silas, they are beaten. They are put into jail. And while they're in jail, the Bible says that Paul and Silas are not complaining. In fact, you hear them singing and praising the Lord from prison. And in verse number 20 uh 26 down, we see what happens. It says, "And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed. and the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been had been fled.

So this there's a prison keeper um there's a guard there. He's in charge of the whole prison and he wakes up after the earthquake. He hears all the chains loose. He hears all the doors open and he's thinking they've escaped. And this was um that that was not a good thing to happen. Um and so he thought if if my officers or the higher-ups hear about this, they would kill me. So what he his his mindset was I should just kill myself instead so they don't get to that. Um but what's amazing is that the Bible says that um verse 28, but Paul cried with a loud voice saying, "Do thyself no harm for we are all here."

Now, I get it that Paul and Silas were were still there, but we don't know how many prisoners were in that jail. We don't know how many um were not saved or, you know, but I think because they heard they saw the testimony of Paul and Silas, Paul and Silas had been praising God all night and they saw that and for some reason the prisoners didn't want to leave as well and they stayed. If that was you today and you had the opportunity to escape prison, you would be on the on the most wanted list because you'd be gone. But Paul and Silas and the rest of the prisoners, they're in prison and they're praising God.

And the the the um prison keeper, he's amazed by this. Verse number 29. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sers, what must I do to be saved?" So the gospel, Paul is taking the gospel. He thought he was going to take it to Asia, but God had other plans. A vision is given to Paul. A man in Macedonia is praying, "Come and preach the gospel to us." Paul goes to Macedonia. He preaches and there's a lady by the name of Lydia. And Lydia, God opened her heart and Lydia accepts the gospel. Lydia opens up her home and says, "You know what?

Use my home to share that gospel." And day in and day out, Paul and Silas, they're doing ministry in Philippi. After that, they are beaten and they go to prison. And in prison, the gospel reaches a gu a guard. And the gospel also frees this guard. [snorts] This is how the Philippian church was born as a business lady and a a prison guard. They received the gospel and soon after that we they probably started that church in Philippi. But a couple years later, if we fast forward a couple years, Paul is now in prison. And uh this account is actually found in Acts chapter 28. um which is where he's writing the letter to the Philippians and the [snorts] church he helped birth um hears that their beloved uh minister Paul is in chains.

So they send one of their own uh his name is Abaf Ebaproditis and they send him so he can minister unto Paul. Uh which is pretty interesting that they could send someone to go to prison and minister unto Paul. This is this is essentially what is happening in Philippians chapter number 2:2 detail is kind of uh Paul is saying look I'm so thankful that you guys brought that you guys sent me Epaphroditis and Ebaproditis spends time with Paul but [snorts] while he was there he falls sick uh in fact so sick that he nearly dies so if you turn to Philippians now we'll go back to Philippians this is where we'll spend the rest of our time [snorts] Philippians chapter number two [crying] [snorts] In verse number 25, the Bible says, "Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Ebapro Ebaproditis, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants."

And then he says, "For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him. And look at this in verse number 27. The Bible says, "And not only on him, not only on him only, not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." You know what Paul is saying? I'm so glad that Epaphroditis didn't die because if he had died, I would have gone into depression. It just goes to show like Paul had a heart for people, but he also had close friends that he cared deeply about and Ebaproditis was one of those friends.

And Paul is admitting that, you know what, if something was to happen to him, I'm already in prison. That would have been worse. Um, but God is gracious and because through all of that, Paul hears that the church is worried about Ebapoditis. And so Paul says, "Okay, you got to go back and you got to you got to go back and send this letter." And so it is from this that um this letter was written to um the the church in Philippi. And so Paul sends Baffroditis back to Philippi with this letter. And in the letter it actually details, thank you so much for being uh a church that prays for me. But then he also details that you guys were the church that gave to me financially.

So when Abaproditis came to Paul, he not not only went there to minister to Paul, but he also brought the um the offering that was taken up by the church of Philippi um and to give it to Paul and it was it was their their support their mission support uh give uh that Baproditis brought to Paul and that's why in verse number in chapter 4 we see that my God Paul is praying to about to this church is praying for this church and he's saying my God should supply all your need because you gave to me. And that's just so cool that this church it um it's been a couple years now that they've they've uh been um in service, but they've been on mission work.

They've they've sent support to Paul and they've continued to help uh Paul throughout this whole ordeal here. But my first question that I had started with was, do you remember when the gospel reached you? And as we get into our portion of Philippians tonight, [snorts] Paul is going to um encourage this church because they see Paul is in prison and it's it's not it's not because he sinned or anything. Um but he's in prison and that doesn't look good for a church that's supporting Paul. And they're they're very worried for Paul because they're like, "You've been on mission. you've been sharing the gospel everywhere, but now that you're in prison, what's going to happen to the gospel?

And I think they're very worried that prison has stopped the furtherance of the gospel. And that's actually the language that Paul uses in verse number 12 in Philippians chapter 1. This is where our passage will pick up. Philippians 1, chapter chapter 1, verse number 12. Paul says, "But I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." Now, why would Paul have to explain himself in this in this situation? Um, probably because the Philippian Christians were wondering, why is this happening to Paul? I mean, Paul is serving God.

He's been put into prison. and they're probably wondering, did you do something wrong? And how is the gospel going to go further? Um, in fact, the Romans have stopped the gospel from moving forward. And Paul in his letter encourages this church and he pretty much says, "No, on the contrary, what's actually happening is God is still moving the gospel even though I'm in prison." I mean, he says it right here, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. And I think that should encourage a church in Philippi and think and and say, "Wow, yeah, actually it's not over.

Paul is still preaching the gospel even though it looks like he's in he's at he's a failure because he's in prison." And the first thing that I see from our text today is that the gospel goes further through our hardships. The gospel goes further through our hardships. The gospel in verse number 13 says, "So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places." So if you were to take a step back and consider what has happened to Paul in to the Philippian church, they might have thought it's done because in the prison there's a low possibility that you would survive. And I think as you read the rest of Philippians, you would you would hear the tone of that Paul's tone.

He's thinking he's going to die. This is actually his first uh imprisonment. Uh we we just studied second first 1 Timothy, second Timothy and we find out that he actually has a second second imprisonment. So for us looking back, we know he he actually does survive. He he is free from after this. But in Paul's mind, he's thinking it's it's this is probably the end for him as well. But to the church, they don't know. And so they're thinking this is the end for him. But Paul says, "No, it's not." In fact, the gospel has been able to reach people that would not have been reached if I had not been in prison.

And he says here that it's reached the people that are in the palace. You know who the people in the palace are? This was the culture here is the Roman officials. Um Julius Caesar, all of those people that were part of the Roman um government, whatever. This is one of the palaces. And Paul is saying that because I'm in prison, the gospel is able to reach these people. [snorts] Isn't that amazing? Cuz we think, "Yeah, that's that's that's a failure. There's no way the gospel can go further." But Paul says, "No, it is actually reaching people that you would never expect that it would reach." And then he goes on to say that it also has reached not only the people in the palace but he says and in all other places.

Now maybe it's because um the people in the palace are now spreading that gospel and so more people are hearing cuz Paul is not going out out preaching anymore. He's stuck in prison. But maybe those that are coming to visit him and maybe those that are in the palace that have been converted that have accepted the gospel are also doing their part. and and the furtherance of the gospel is reaching others. Um, has anything unfair ever happened to you? Have you um has the gospel been able to advance because of that though? Uh, has a family member done something to you that they shouldn't have? Or have you been in a situation where it it's just unfair?

Because when you look at Paul's situation, there's there's no reason why he should be in prison. He's just in prison because they didn't like the fact that he was preaching the gospel. Now, for us in this society, we we are so blessed to live in a country that we can freely give the gospel. So, we have no excuse. We we we can't really say that we are being persecuted like how Paul would have or had been. Um but you know what? There are situations in our lives where we are wrongfully mistreated. Um, but in those situations, can you honestly say that my focus was still on the advancement of the gospel?

[crying] H have you ever lost someone that you shouldn't have lost? Maybe it was um someone you cared about so much they they died early. Has the go was the gospel able to advance in those moments? Now, those are hard questions. Those are hard situations. Um, recently my my cousin, if you guys heard the news, uh, it was actually close by. It was this um, drive down to Fort Chapter exiting. My cousin, he uh, he passed away in a car accident. He was only 22 years old. Uh, that was about a week uh, at the beginning of May is when that happened. But in um, two weeks ago, I was able to preach his funeral.

And I was supposed to preach it in my language. My language is tra. But as I looked out, there's a lot of people there that did not speak Turkey. And they were Max, my cousin's friend, Max. His name was Max. They were my my cousin's friends. A lot of them are in are in gangs and things like that. Uh but they were present there. And as I looked out, I I was like, you know, the gospel is best received when it when it is understood. So I looked at the the people in in the audience that were Chis that spoke my language. I said, "I'm sorry, but I have to preach in English because Max's friends are here."

And in that service, I was able to preach the gospel to Max's friends and to the family members that were there. That that that was a horrible day for us. Um there was a just losing someone like that so early. He he wasn't supposed to die. Unfortunately, he made some uh bad decisions. Um he hung out with the wrong friends. They kind of partied it up that night and as they were dropping him off, that's when it happened. He was about to go home and that happened and instantly his life was taken. It was very hard for us to lose someone like that. But in that and preaching at his funeral, the advancement of the gospel, the gospel was able to go further.

And I don't know what the fruit from that is going to be like. We'll know when we get to heaven. And in your case, when you go through things like that and you're able to share the gospel, you may never see the fruit from that. But one day, you'll be able to see how good God is because he was able to use you to move that gospel forward. The gospel goes further through our hardships. But then secondly, the gospel goes further through our boldness. Um, it's interesting in in verse number 15, actually verse 14, the Bible says, "And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposeding to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yay, and will rejoice. So because of Paul's situation, um some of the Christians that were near Paul, they're emboldened by the fact that he is in prison because of his faith, because he believes in Christ. And and from that, they're just emboldened to continue to preach the gospel.

And he says these people, they're preaching with a pure motive. They they preach because they love me and they preach because they love Christ. But then he says there's also others that are preaching and they are actually preaching out of pride and out of jealousy. And I don't know why, but they hate me. And they're preaching because they hate me and they want me to suffer more. But you know what? It doesn't matter because they're still preaching Christ. And because of that, I do rejoice. And here's something interesting. Paul doesn't say what they're preaching is wrong. He just says what the way they're preaching it is wrong because their their motivation in preaching the gospel is for is against Paul whereas the others they're preaching because they they love Paul.

And it just kind of goes to show that sometimes we can lose sight of why we're preaching the gospel. And sometimes we preach the gospel in comparison to how others are doing instead of just solely focused on how good God is and how Christ has loved us. Um, thank God that despite our failures, God is gracious and still uses us. But what kind of a gospel deliverer are you? Are you one that is preaching more focused on what others are doing or are you one that is preaching because you're more focused on Christ? What motivates you to share the gospel? Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the love of Christ constrainted us.

And it's the love of Christ that should motivate us to preach or to to deliver that gospel to others. We don't look at others and say, you know what, I'm I'm going to preach against the way they're preaching their gospel or I'm going to preach against the way they're doing their church service or I'm going to preach against the way they're doing their thing. That's the wrong motivation. If if if you carrying the gospel is just to attack others, yeah, you might be preaching Christ and and God's word is going to be blessed because it's God's word, but you're doing it out of a wrong motivation. It should be because you love Christ and it should be because you love others.

It really boils down to what Jesus Christ said, the greatest commandment is to love God and love people. But when you focus more on attacking people, then you're not necessarily loving God. And the gospel is is better received when you give it with love. The gospel goes further through our boldness. But then lastly, the gospel goes further through our surrender. In verse number 19 and 20, the Bible says this in verse 19, "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your pray prayers and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death."

I think, like I said, Paul was thinking that he was at the end of his life. Um, he thought that um after this he was going to die, but you know what's really encouraging from Paul's writing here? He's essentially saying, "I'm fully surrendered to give my life for the gospel." Like, I'm in prison and it doesn't matter if I die and it doesn't matter if I live because my life is about the gospel. And Paul is saying, I [clears throat] want my life to be magnifying Christ. We sang that song, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. And Paul's heart was that I've been ready and I'm still ready to continue to advance the gospel.

And he doesn't just say with my words, but he says with my life, with his body, with where he is, the gospel will continue to advance through Paul. Paul said it this way in Galatians 2:20. He said, "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." [crying] Paul wants God to use his life to further the gospel, and that is total surrender. Can we say the same though? And to be honest, I I don't think we can, and I'm not just pointing fingers. I'm saying even for myself, [crying] I don't think we can if we are full of pride. If we are full of pride, we we cannot advance the gospel.

If we are full of um if we care more about the the things of this world, then we we cannot we are not fully surrendered. If we place anything above God, we are not fully surrendered. I think this type of dedication comes when we have the mind of Christ. And later on we'll talk about Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 5 to8. Um Jes uh Paul said, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

If we see the way Christ saw, then we can advance the gospel. If if we are humble, then we can advance the gospel. Humility, I believe, is the key to being able to reach people with the gospel. And the reason why that is is because that's exactly what Christ did. God became flesh to reach and save sinners like us. And if he came down and then we look at our brothers or we look at the people in our neighborhood and we see and we look at them and we're like, "Yeah, they I don't think they'll they'll accept the gospel. Yeah, they they look different. They look too intimidating." You know, I think we're just being prideful because we're not humbling oursel and giving of ourselves to be able to just say, "You know what?

It's not about me. Let me just go share the gospel with this person. You know what? It's not about me. Let me just share this gospel not just with my neighbor, but hey, can I actually share it with my uncle or my auntie or my cousin or the people that are actually closest to me? If I have the mind of Christ, then it doesn't matter what political views we have. It doesn't matter what status we're in. It doesn't matter how old they are compared to how young we are or how young we are compared to how old they are. I I could just say the same thing, but it doesn't matter what it is, but because I love this person and Christ loved me, I'll still share the gospel.

And so, I didn't say we cannot do this just to attack you. But it's more of a challenge that the only way that we can do this is if we have the mind of Christ. If we humble ourselves. And when we humble ourselves, then we can be the next one in line to be able to advance the gospel. So, if I go back to my first question, have you thought about how the gospel reached you? And I don't just mean the first time you heard it or the first time that it actually reached you. Um, how did it get to you? Have you considered that? Like, was it your grandma? Was it your grandpa? Was it your mom? Was it your dad?

Was it your friend that invited you to church to Ohana Baptist Church? Did you consider how Ohana Baptist Church was started 40 almost 40 years ago? A man and a a husband and a wife surrendered their lives to start this church and they're still here with us. But did you consider how the gospel reached them? Did you consider how far the gospel had to travel to get to you? The word furtherance in the Bible means to go forward and to cut through. The gospel cut through all the junk just to get to you. Isn't that amazing? [snorts] Have you thought about how the gospel reach you for me? Um, missionaries have to travel across the ocean to bring the gospel to our people.

But I didn't actually accept the gospel until I came to Ohana. And ohana is where I received that gospel. But what's amazing is that the same gospel that Paul was in prison for and the same gospel that the church in Philippi received is the same gospel that we have. And because of that, if we have received it, then we should be also part of advancing it. So that would reach the next