The Advancement of the Gospel

As we continue our series, though, on mission with Jesus, we're coming to the advancement of the gospel in Philippians 1, 12 through 18.

So in the late 1970s, there was a pastor in Romania named Joseph San.

And he was so focused on the gospel and preaching that ultimately he was imprisoned, beaten, and tortured multiple times under a communist rule there.

They did not want the gospel to spread.

And he talked about a time because he ultimately was released, and he has spoken and written about different situations he faced when he was imprisoned and interrogated.

And he talked about a time when he's interrogated by six men.

And he said to one of them, What is taking place here is not an encounter between you and me.

This is an encounter between my God and me.

My God is teaching me a lesson through you.

First of all, like, just incredible.

Like he's telling this to the guys that are beating him.

Like, I don't care what you do.

Um, my God is teaching me a lesson through you.

I do not know what it is.

Maybe he wants to teach me several lessons.

I only know, sirs, that you will do to me only what God wants you to do, and you will not go one inch further because you are only an instrument of my God.

Every day I saw, he said, those six pompous men as nothing more than my father's puppets.

Son again talked about an early interrogation where he had told an officer who was threatening to kill him, sir, let me explain how I see this happening.

Your supreme weapon is killing, my supreme weapon is dying.

Here's how it works.

You know that my sermons on tape, gives us an understanding of how long ago this was, my sermons on tape have spread all over the country of Romania.

If you kill me, those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood.

Everyone will know I died for my preaching, for the gospel.

And everyone who has one of those tapes will now pick that tape back up, they'll put it in their tape player, and they say, I'd better listen again to what this man preached because he really meant it.

He sealed it with his life.

So, sir, my sermons will speak ten times louder than before.

I will actually rejoice in the supreme victory if you kill me.

After I said this, the interrogator sent me home.

Another officer who was interrogating a pastor friend of his as well told him, We know that Mr.

San would love to be a martyr, but we're not that foolish to fulfill his wish.

He said, I stopped to consider the meaning of their statement.

I remembered how for many years I had been so afraid of dying.

I kept a low profile.

I hid away because I wanted so badly to live, I wasted my life in inactivity.

But now that I had placed my life on the altar and decided I was ready to die for the gospel, they were telling me they would not kill me.

I could go wherever I wanted in the country.

I could do whatever I wanted and preach the gospel wherever and knowing I was safe.

As long as I tried to save my life, he said, I was losing it.

Now that I was willing to lose it, I found it.

Joseph's son was so clearly focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ in preaching that he was okay with whatever God had in store for him.

Whether that was torture, being beaten, or being imprisoned, he was okay with it.

And when we come back to Philippians this morning, we come to this passage in Philippians 1, 12 through 18, and we see a very similar situation for the Apostle Paul.

Now we have to understand Philippians a little bit.

The theme of Philippians is joy, which is awesome, right?

Oh, that's great.

But then when we kind of dig in a little bit and we understand where the Apostle Paul pinned this letter from, it kind of is confusing.

He wrote it as he was imprisoned.

He's in prison and he's writing about joy.

And so when we come to this, uh we see that he was so focused on the gospel that he didn't care what happened to him.

As long as the gospel continued to spread and be believed in, then Paul was okay.

Which leads us to our first summary today in verses 12 through 14, and it's this the gospel advances through our circumstances.

The gospel advances through our circumstances.

Verse 12, the gospel is going forward.

There must have been some concern from the Philippian church because Paul's addressing them in verse 12 with this.

He's addressing, he's writing, he must have gotten word that they have concern for him because he's imprisoned, and so he's addressing what's going on.

He makes it very clear that what is happening to him is for the purpose of the gospel to advance.

What has happened to Paul though?

Verses 13, 14, and 17, he mentions his imprisonment.

You can imagine the situation here for the Philippian church.

They've heard about Paul, the one who brought the gospel to them, the one who they love and cherish, this man who brought them freedom and through the cross.

Not that he gave them salvation, but he brought the message of salvation to them.

Now he's imprisoned, and they have great concern over that.

Imagine someone you love, someone you care about, someone you know personally, maybe who's a missionary overseas, and one of your concerns will always be, especially depending on what area of the of the they are in the world, of the gospel being a hostile thing, the threats that they might have and how concerned you would be for them.

Our natural reaction would be one of concern.

And that's why he opens up with this letter with a greeting, and then he tells them how thankful he is to God for them.

He tells them how he prays for them, and then jumps right in to let them know that, hey, there is a purpose here.

I'm here in this terrible situation for the gospel to advance.

You see, Paul's imprisonment was being used by God so that people would come to saving faith through the power of the gospel.

Man intended something evil for Paul, but God intended something good.

But this is nothing new in the Bible for how God continually works.

If we go back to the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, and we come towards the end, we learn about Joseph and how his brothers, his own brothers, sold him into slavery, and he's taken down to Egypt, and he's imprisoned a couple times, and it's a terrible, and he rises out and then he's imprisoned again, and it's this terrible situation.

Ultimately rises to second in command in all of Egypt, and a famine comes along, and God uses Joseph to ultimately bring Israel down where they could flourish and grow, to where then we see the Exodus later on coming out of that.

But Joseph tells his brothers in Genesis 50, 20, as for you, you meant evil against me, talking to his brothers, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people would be kept alive as they are today.

And so when we come back to Philippians 1 here, we see the confidence that Paul has in his situation that even though he's in prison, it's actually serving for the benefit of the gospel.

Let's pause for a moment.

I think a lot of us can find a valuable lesson here in verse 12 in our own lives.

Paul's passion for the advancement of the gospel is such that the difficulties he's facing right now, being in prison, being chained to a guard, is worth it for the gospel spreading to more and more people.

Let that sit in our minds for a moment.

Paul believed that no matter what happened to him, as long as more people followed Christ, it was worth it.

That was really challenging for me to think through.

Do we really believe this?

Can we actually say that no matter what would happen to me or my family or those who I love, as long as more people came to Christ, then okay, I'm good.

Paul truly believed this because later on in Philippians 1.21 he says, for the me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

If I live, then no matter what happens to me, people will hear about Jesus.

If I die, great, I'll be with Jesus.

It's like you can't do anything that makes Paul mad.

And that probably infuriated the people, right?

I'm gonna punch you.

Okay, gospel spread.

Fine, we'll kill you.

Okay, gospel will spread.

I'll get to be with Jesus.

Like, forget it.

Like, just never mind.

Like it's just so infuriating, and Paul's like, great.

The mindset that Paul has allows him to say to the church and Philippi, this is good.

Don't be concerned about me.

Share the gospel.

My imprisonment is being used for good.

And he goes on in verses 13 and 14 to show how this is taking place in two ways.

People are hearing the gospel and people are sharing the gospel.

Let's start in verse 13, how people are hearing the gospel.

He talks about the whole imperial guard and all the rest are hearing the gospel.

Paul is confident that the people he's around are hearing the gospel and it's being spread.

This is why he's there, because God is using him to spread the gospel throughout the whole Imperial Guard.

Who was the Imperial Guard?

They're a group of soldiers believed to be about 9,000 men.

And one of the worst responsibilities that they would have was they would actually be physically chained to a prisoner.

They would have to rotate and they'd be imprisoned.

Think about Paul's situation here.

Good for him.

He's not solitary confinement, he's not by himself.

Every single day, as they rotate, I don't know how many hours they spent, but every time a new one came along, Paul's like, here we go.

New one.

Here's the gospel.

And they started hearing the gospel.

Each person would hear it.

The prisoners would be chained to them.

This would have been the best part for Paul.

Paul makes it clear that it had become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard that this is why he was there.

You know how?

He told them.

Oh, you're chained to me?

You think this is bad?

No, I'm here for a reason.

The gospel.

And they probably, some of them probably hated it.

They probably punched him, probably hit him, because they could have.

It wouldn't have mattered what they did to him.

Like they were allowed to do these things.

We have no idea how many of these soldiers ended up professing faith in the gospel, but we do know that some actually did.

Because later on in Philippians 4 22, as Paul is writing his final greeting to the church at the end, he says, All of the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

Because you think about the imperial guard would rotate around.

They're going to be going up into the household.

And so the very one who's in charge of hating the gospel and wanting it to be squelched and squashed, people in his own home or working for him, and probably family are now professing faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God is using Paul to spread the gospel even into the ruler's home.

And then we get to verse 14, where now people are sharing the gospel.

As a result of Paul's imprisonment, there are believers, brothers and sisters in Christ, who their confidence is beginning to grow.

It's beginning to increase.

Boldness is taking over.

You see the same type of boldness with children trying something new, like jumping off of steps, right?

They want to jump off one step.

But what do they do?

They hold out their hand, they need you to help them, they kind of stumble, but then they realize I got this, and they go up to the second step, but I still need you.

And then the third.

And eventually I loved doing this when I was younger.

Like eight, nine, ten steps, how can we go?

And like it got terrible.

Um, but like there's this boldness that creeps in, it starts to take over.

And we see the same thing happening here in verse 14.

As they see this taking place and they hear Paul's joy, they go, Oh, it's not so bad.

I'm not imprisoned, I'm not tortured.

They were inspired by Paul here.

Throughout church history, this was the same way.

The more and more Christians were persecuted, the more the church spread.

I think it's interesting when we think about that and bring that into modern day.

Have we ever wondered why the church isn't growing in America?

You know where the largest church is?

The underground church in China.

Why?

Because they can't freely worship.

And so what does that do?

That draws people.

People are curious.

I was, I was at a uh when I was church planting at one point, I was at a network meeting with an individual who was a church planter in China.

So naturally I said, Oh, how do you like market?

How do you like get people to come?

Like, you know, he goes, Oh, we don't.

And I was like, what?

He goes, You can't.

He goes, we we even have to vet people for a while before we even mention Christianity or the gospel because people try to infiltrate churches there on from the government.

And so we have to be very cautious, but we're exploding.

People are coming left and right, and the church continues to grow.

Tertullian, an early church father from Africa who lived between 155 and 240 AD, he made this statement the oftener we are mowed down by you, the more in number we grow.

The blood of Christians is a seed.

What if you've ever heard something similar?

It's because we've kind of paraphrased it today, where we will say things like, Well, Tertullian made the statement, the blood of the church, or the blood of the church is a seed, or the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church.

Right?

The more that Christians are killed, the more the church grows.

That's what Joseph San believed.

Go ahead, kill me.

Sprinkle my tapes, my sermons with blood.

Great.

People will pick it up, they're gonna listen to it.

I think sometimes here in America, we believe if things get easier, the gospel will spread.

It's not how it's worked in church history.

Doesn't how it worked in the Bible.

Yeah, do we want to live in a comfortable place?

Do I love living in America?

Yes, don't hear me say that.

I love America.

I love being here because it's easy.

I'm not faced with persecution like this.

But I think the church would probably grow if there was less and less Christian influence from a higher level here.

If there were threats, people would see the value in it and would want it because they would see how Christians respond.

True Christians.

Years ago, probably it was probably 10 or 12 years ago, an article came out on is the church dying?

And they were talking about the fact they were like, no, the church is actually strengthening.

What you're seeing is false believers are leaving.

The real Christians are rising up.

Elizabeth Elliott, the wife of Jim Elliott, who was killed by the Akka Indians, literally arrows in his back because he was trying to take the gospel into the tribe with a few other individuals.

Probably heard of Nate Saint as well, was one of them.

She ended up going back with her children shortly after that on a boat into that tribe.

She made the statement, there is nothing worth living for unless it is worth dying for.

And you know what happened?

The gospel spread throughout that tribe.

And one of the individuals, the individual who killed, I believe, was Nate Saint, became kind of like a grandfather to his uh his grandkids.

Like just this beautiful display of the gospel.

There's nothing worth living for unless it's worth dying for.

Paul believed this.

And when we come back to verse 14 now, we see the followers of Christ as a result of Paul's imprisonment have no fear.

There is boldness now to spread the word.

Why was this needed?

Because sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel during this time meant torture, beatings, and imprisonment.

Even death.

Like it was almost a guarantee.

But if Paul could go through this and he was okay with it, we can do it too.

Yet they were appointed to Paul, by Paul, to Jesus Christ.

That's why Paul was imprisoned for Jesus.

And as a result, the gospel is now spreading.

And we see this in our summaries in verses 15 through 18a.

The gospel advances despite our motives.

The gospel advances despite our motives.

In verses 15 through 18, we see two different motivations for sharing the gospel.

On the one hand, you have people who were sharing the gospel out of goodwill, right?

They wanted that, they had the desire for people to come to faith in Christ.

But then on the other hand, people are sharing the gospel from envy and rivalry, believing that the more they share it, the more difficult it's going to become for Paul.

We see this comparison in verses 15 through 17.

In verse 15, we learn both groups are preaching Christ.

Great.

It's awesome.

Can you imagine reading this from Paul and being like, wow, all these people are preaching Christ?

But then you read, wait, hold on.

What's happening?

Like, what's going on right now?

The first group Paul mentions is preaching Christ from envy and rivalry.

They're preaching Christ, verse 17, out of selfish ambition, thinking it's going to inflict him in his imprisonment.

They actually believe if they preach Christ, it's going to get worse.

They're very envious of Paul.

Why is envy so dangerous for the follower of Christ?

Because it takes our eyes off of the spiritual and puts our eyes on the earthly.

Richard Sibes was an Anglican theologian born in the 1500s.

He said this in his book, Glorious Freedom, about envy.

In spiritual things, there's no basis for envy.

For everyone may partake of everything.

In the things of this life there is envy because the more one has, the less another has.

But for more to partake of spiritual things is a matter of glory and excellency.

Basically, Richard Sibes was saying, and he's getting at this when we seek earthly things, envy creeps in because we want what others have.

But when we seek spiritual, godly things, then we glorify God because others have that when we don't.

You've ever talked to someone who's maturing in Christ, and you don't go, man, I'm so frustrated.

No, I want that.

Good for you.

Glory to God, you have that.

Glory to God, you're you're seeing how Christ is exposing your sin.

You understand a passage of scripture a little bit differently.

You go, wow, look at that text in context with the verses surrounding it.

It makes sense.

They're picking up on it.

Glory to God.

You're not envious of them.

Like you're excited for them and you're going, I want that, but not at their expense.

You're going, how do I get that?

Help me understand.

Help me grow in these things.

Because we're happy for others when they experience joy in Christ.

We're happy when someone experiences peace from God.

We're happy when someone finds comfort and satisfaction in the gospel.

We all want these things as well.

We want peace from God.

We want comfort and satisfaction through the gospel.

But let's think about this for ourselves.

How often have we become envious of others when they have some earthly good or thing we don't have?

It makes complete sense then that when our eyes are focused on godly spiritual things instead of earthly things, there's no envy.

There's only rejoicing that others are experiencing these things.

And I love having conversations with my wife when she discovers something differently in the passage of scripture.

She tells me I was studying this and I understood this and this, and it's just incredible to see that.

I rejoice in that.

I was listening to, I don't know if it was a podcast the other day or a sermon, and it made me think of her and how she is just growing in Christ and just this incredible picture of how blessed I truly am.

And I wasn't jealous of her going, I wish I grew more like that.

Like I was excited and envious of that.

Like, how do I grow more?

She came home and she said, Oh, we've been challenged in the women's ministry to uh to memorize Romans 8.

I was like, oh man, I've really slacked on scripture memorization.

So I said, okay.

Well, instead of Romans 8, let me start with Romans 1.

And this week I've been trying to memorize Romans 1 and I've gotten through verse 12, and it's this excitement.

I wasn't jealous of her, I was like, oh, I want that.

So what do I do?

Memorize scripture.

It's not rocket science.

Like, just do it.

And I have found so much blessing from that this week.

This week at work has gotten way better.

I've I've become anxious about things at work of recent, like just stress, like everything on it.

And like this week, like problems rise up, and I'm like, all right, like let's figure it out, let's move on.

Like, but it wasn't driving me crazy.

And it's a result of all my woodwork, I'm just trying to memorize scripture, and I find the more I memorize, the more I dwell on it, and the more I go, why, why, why?

And it just and it's just this incredible moment.

I'm not more spiritual than any of you guys.

I have the same Holy Spirit.

Just this beautiful thing of we can we can be excited when others are growing in that.

And if they believe that if they preach the gospel, they preach Christ, it will make it worse for him, these people.

What's crazy though is that they were actually preaching Christ.

They're not preaching a false gospel, they're not preaching something different.

No, they're actually sharing the gospel.

If they were false teachers, do you not think Paul would have told us?

He didn't back down from an argument.

The guy loved, I mean, he's in prison.

Like, it's clear he didn't back down from stuff.

But they're not.

Both groups are preaching the gospel.

Now, their reason for preaching Christ I would not encourage.

Like, don't do that.

But they're still preaching Christ.

These individuals were not anti-Christ, they were anti-Paul.

And you know, the other side of that, you have the group who's preaching Christ out of love.

They love Paul, they love the gospel.

They knew that Paul was in prison for a reason.

So, yeah, I'm gonna do the same thing.

They knew that God had put Paul there for a purpose.

They knew that Paul knew this and understood this.

The other group that's preaching Christ out of envy did not understand that Paul knew that he was there for a reason.

He was happy to be there because the gospel is advancing.

They didn't understand that Paul believed God and had him in prison for a reason.

It did not matter to Paul whether he's in prison or not.

The gospel is being shared.

The location for Paul doesn't matter.

The gospel being shared did.

So if people are sharing the gospel, it makes it much worse for Paul.

Paul doesn't care because it wasn't about Paul.

It was about more people hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and following Christ.

This is why Paul could say in verse 18, what then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Only that in every way, Christ is proclaimed.

Paul's basically saying, I don't care about the motivations to share Christ.

Is Christ being proclaimed?

Answer that question.

Yep, that's what matters.

Paul is not caught up in the moment.

He sees the bigger picture.

He's not caught up in his circumstances he's currently in.

He has one goal in mind.

Listen to Philippians 3, 12 through 14.

Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own.

But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul was hyper focused.

His focus was Christ.

He also understood that because of this, it's a life of sacrifice.

Listen to Philippians 2 17.

Even if I To be poured out as a drink offering upon your sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Philippians 3, 10 through 11.

That I may know him in the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This is why Paul could believe that it didn't matter what happened to him.

It didn't matter if when others shared the gospel, it made it worse for him.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, Paul cared about Christ being proclaimed, and that's what made him rejoice.

That's why he had joy.

Once again, it's a great reminder that we can have joy, whether our lives are going the exact way we had planned and hoped when we were younger and dreamed of, or whether our life is terrible and the exact opposite of what we had hoped for.

Do you think Paul's life was the life that everyone dreams of?

We all talk about like, man, I wish I had like the boldness of Paul.

Like, we want all the good things that Paul had, but we don't want all the bad things, right?

The fact he was beaten how many times?

Shipwrecked, stranded.

I mean, there's a section of scripture where he talks and just lays it out of everything that happened to him.

It's like, hmm, like, yep, don't really want that.

No one hopes they're beaten and imprisoned multiple times.

But even in these circumstances, Paul rejoiced.

Why?

Because he's so focused on the gospel.

That's his goal.

That's his focus.

Which I think this is what brings us to our main idea this morning, and it's this focus on the gospel.

It's so easy to get distracted.

And we don't have to get like right, like focus on the gospel.

That's it.

Like, let's not make this like hyper-theological.

Like, it's focus on the gospel.

Like, a lot of times we have this picture of the gospel that it's like the entry point, and then we move on.

We mature from the gospel, right?

I love how Tim Keller says the gospel is not just the A, B, C's of Christianity, it's the A to Z.

We got to continually remind ourselves of the gospel over and over and over again.

That's what drives obedience.

Because if you want people to have a be obedient, focus on the heart, not the outward appearance.

Like forcing someone to do something does not change their heart.

I'm not saying don't have rules for your kids.

Like, yeah, that's great.

But guess what?

If you're only focused on their outward behavior and you're never trying to get to the heart and have the gospel change your child's heart, then it's all in vain.

Ridiculous.

I grew up in the church.

My dad was a pastor.

Did it for me.

Had lots of friends at Christian schools, homeschooled.

The moment they were out of the house, guess what?

Their hearts were never changed.

And they hate the gospel.

That's why we got to continually go back to the gospel.

The gospel should show so root in our hearts that it changes our behavior.

I'm not saying there's no behavior change.

We should strive for holiness, but it's flowing from the gospel.

If it's not about Christ, it doesn't matter.

It's so easy to have our focus diverted, though, and taken away from what we need to do.

Everything around us, guys, is vying for our attention.

Everything.

There are companies.

Literally, the purpose of higher-ups in companies is to figure out how to get you focused on their product and keep you buying it and stuck in it all the time.

Why?

Because they make more money.

It's not evil, it's a reality.

They're a business, they're there to make money.

Think about social media companies.

They literally utilize algorithms for the moment you click on something, guess what they're gonna do?

They're gonna feed you something similar over and over and over again.

Why?

Because you're interested in it.

You clicked on it.

And so they're just gonna keep feeding you this over and over and over again.

Studies have revealed that the constant stream of retweets, likes, and shares from social media sites cause the brain's reward area to trigger the same kind of chemical reaction seen with drugs like cocaine.

Our brains love to get something triggered.

We love to see a ding.

Like it's amazing, right?

It feels good.

Neuroscientists have compared social media interaction to a syringe of dopamine being injected straight into our bloodstream.

I'm not saying social media is wrong, right?

Like, great uses, great things.

We can connect with family, friends, people you used to know in the past, and wish people happy birthday, right?

Like, do all those things wherever.

But like the whole point of it is to keep you in it.

We can all relate to hopping onto whatever social media app we want, and we're like, I just need to sell someone happy birthday.

I just want to see this real quick, and then 15, 30, 60 minutes later, you're like, oh my gosh, what have I been doing?

Like, I'm just scrolling.

Because our focus has been diverted from what we intended originally to do in the app.

But then there's the other side of not being able to focus.

There's the side of focus where you can't get your mind off something you want or need to do.

Once again, take a child for as an example.

They're easy targets, right?

When a child decides they want something or need something, man, the type of focus they have.

If we could bottle up that type of focus, there's literally companies who are trying with nootropics and supplements and all that.

Like, they literally, there's millions of like probably billions of dollars in an industry that is clearly trying to help people focus in their daily task.

Like, if you just take the supplement, you can focus.

You can get more done in less time, right?

Children are phenomenal at this.

If we could bottle that up, think of all we could accomplish.

And Paul had this type of focus.

He was lasered in on the gospel.

It was always the gospel.

It didn't matter what happened to him.

Verse 12, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

His goal was that it would advance.

If we are to focus on anything, it must be important.

We have to ask ourselves the question: why is the gospel so important that Paul would be okay with whatever happened to him?

Because it was Paul's only hope in life or death.

That's why Paul could say in Philippians 1.21, for the meeting of his Christ to die is gain.

Look at the New City Catechism.

Question one: What is our only hope in life and death?

Answer that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.

It's so important.

This New City Catechism put that as number one.

The gospel is about Jesus.

But what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Sometimes we just throw the word gospel around.

We use phrases like, just believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But sometimes it's important to go back to the basics.

We always should be reminded of the basics.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4.

Paul says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you which you received in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Right at the beginning, I would remind you, he says, and that this is something we need to go back to over and over and over again.

Also, Paul mentions that he delivered the gospel message to them in the same way that the gospel message was delivered to him.

The gospel message has been handed down from one person to another.

We hear the gospel, that's what we believe the gospel.

And you're saying, well, it wasn't told to me, I read it in the Bible.

Okay, you heard it from the Bible, it was passed down.

Like the gospel is transferred from one individual to another over and over and over again.

There is a spiritual uh legacy that goes back from someone who shared the gospel with you, someone who shared them all the way back to guess what?

Probably Paul, or probably an early church father, or whoever it might be.

There's probably that if we only had that's a business idea.

If someone wants to start that.

Now you can figure out where your family's originally from, find out where your gospel family is originally from.

The gospel has been handed down from one another.

The gospel message is intended to be told to others.

This isn't a secret message that is held back to yourself.

It's not the secret cult that, like, no one really knows.

We don't talk about it.

Once you're in, you're in, but don't tell anyone.

Well, how do we get in?

Well, I don't know.

But it's meant to be told to others.

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

That is the heart of the gospel.

But why is the gospel so good?

It's right at the beginning of the heart of the gospel.

Christ died for our sins.

I don't think we fully grasp the gravity of sin in general, and even more our own sin.

Because if we think little of sin, then we will think little of Jesus and his death.

Why is sin so bad?

Because it's a rejection of God and his word.

It's a rejection of who God is.

Listen to Romans 6, 23.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sin is so evil that the reward for sin is death.

What we earn and deserve for sin is what?

It's death.

So what makes the gospel so good then?

We'll look back at Romans 6.23 again, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Even though we deserve death, the free gift of God is eternal life.

It's free to us, but costs God his Son, Jesus Christ his life.

This is why our focus must be on the gospel.

But some of us struggle to focus on the gospel.

And I believe there's two reasons why this is the case.

The first reason we struggle to focus on the gospel is this we think too little of sin.

We think too little of sin.

I'm not talking about glorifying sin.

I'm not talking about dwelling upon sin.

I'm not having a realistic mindset of the gravity of sin and how terrible it really is.

We don't really, a lot of times, believe that sin is that bad.

It's just little, it's not that big a deal.

Whenever we don't believe that something terrible is really that bad, it leaves us vulnerable.

Take the example of a child who doesn't understand the concept of heat and how dangerous heat can be.

A few years ago, Chelsea, I was I was at work and Chelsea called me because she had just finished cooking something on the stove, moved it off, and uh, and then little Liam came along and he decided to put his little fingers up on top of the stove, and instantly they were singed and burned.

We had to take him to urgent care, special cream, like all this stuff, whatever, and he didn't understand the concept of heat.

We've all been around a child when they're near a fire.

How nerve-wracking that is.

They don't understand how much damage that fire can be.

Children don't understand the concept of how dangerous it can be at all.

And sometimes this is our attitude when it comes to sin.

We know that sin might be dangerous, but how dangerous can it really be?

How bad is sin really at the end of the day?

Have you ever thought about the destructiveness of sin and what it does, the damage it does?

Really considered how sin destroys everything, how it could start with such a small thing but grow into such a massive issue.

Years ago, I lived when I was younger, I lived in Flagstaff, Arizona.

And we had four seasons out of the year, 100 inches of snow every winter, and uh typically during the summer and spring, it'd get pretty dry.

And so there was always danger of forest fires.

And I can remember playing in a baseball game and behind me, watching, I saw my parents saw pictures of planes flying over the mountains behind me in the background.

I'm out like playing shortstop, and planes are flying over, dropping like the orange stuff to put out the fire.

And after all was said and done, it all started because two little kids were playing with a match.

Something so little.

This is just a match.

The damage, planes flying in, firefighters coming in and fighting this fire, people evacuating from their homes, their homes are burning down, the destruction that took place, and this is what sin is like.

I heard someone say at one point that every tombstone you see, every grave marker is a result of sin.

I'm not saying that person died because of a sinful act.

I'm saying as a result of sin, death entered the world.

And so every time you see a cemetery or a grave marker, it's a reminder that death really exists because of sin.

For the wages of sin is death.

I've read it somewhere between 105 and 120 people die every minute around the world.

Because of death, because of sin.

Sin makes life miserable.

Every crime, stabbing, murder, rape, gossip, slander, affair, hateful word, lie, I could go on and on and on, all a result of sin.

All because we think too little of sin.

We don't really believe sin is that bad.

But then on the flip side, some of us, we don't, we think too little of Jesus.

We think too little of Jesus.

We need to, we a lot of times what we do is we we segment out Jesus' life and we think of him in very specific ways.

Like we think back to when he was a baby and oh, it's just a cute little baby.

And we don't realize or think about how everything was created through him.

Or maybe we try to focus on his obscure childhood and we go, like, I wonder what he did.

Like, there's there's time in his life we don't know what he did.

Like, did he do miracles?

Didn't we know that's not true because it's not in the Bible, but we try to dwell on it and we're like, I wonder what he did, and we just try to come up with reasons and why.

Or we focus only on how he loved people and we start to think of Jesus as this happy-go-lucky guy.

Look, he's just so nice.

Or we focus only on Jesus flipping tables and we can't reconcile how a God could do that and then but but be loving at the same time.

Maybe we think of Jesus hanging on the cross and then we can't understand how powerful he was.

Well, if he's really that powerful, why would he let them do that?

Maybe we only think of Jesus as in heaven right now at the right hand of God, and we don't live as if Jesus is walking with us through this life.

You see, when we only look at Jesus and focus on single attributes about him or times in his life, then we miss all that Christ really is.

We then can't reconcile how Jesus, who is loving, also demands holiness.

This is why people living in blatant sin can say things like, Well, Jesus is love.

I can do whatever I want, I can live how I want.

I mean, if you've never talked to someone who, I'm not talking about non-believers.

Let's remember, their eyes are blinded, they don't understand what they're doing, right?

Let's get that out of the way.

Believers, though, their eyes are opened.

When they're walking in blatant sin, you can be in a conversation with them, and they literally will justify the sin they're in.

Well, it's okay because, like, whatever they want to say.

And you're like, what?

Nope, doesn't matter.

I'm okay doing it.

This is why we allow culture to decide what is sin and what isn't sin.

And then we see this in the church today.

The church has allowed culture to influence what the church should believe and do, all because we think too little of Jesus.

And it boils down to the fact that we fear man more than we fear God.

When we fear man more than God, we will conform to what the culture says is good and evil, not what God calls good and evil.

But when we understand the gravity of sin and how bad sin really is, it will drive us to a great Savior.

It will drive us to believe how great Jesus truly is.

Why do you think the apostle Paul was willing to go through what he went?

Because Jesus was a cool guy?

No, Jesus was everything.

When we continue to grasp and believe how great Jesus is, it will help us to focus on the gospel.

But not only is Jesus great, he actually shows us what focusing on the gospel looks like when he rebukes Peter for trying to stop him from going to the cross.

We see this with what Jesus focused on.

This is our gospel conviction this morning.

Jesus focused on his death and resurrection so we can focus on the gospel.

Listen to Matthew 16, 21 through 23.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the first day be raised.

Peter took him aside, begins to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from me, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

But he, being Jesus, turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.

You are a hindrance to me.

You're trying to divert my attention.

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

Look how Jesus' focus in Matthew 16.

From that time, Jesus began to focus on what?

That he would suffer many things, that he would uh be killed and on the third day be raised.

He's letting his disciples know what his future holds.

His focus was clear.

Because he didn't get caught off guard by Rome.

He's headed there for a reason.

He allows them to do this.

His focus was clear.

This is what he must do.

Why?

Because sin demands a payment.

After Adam and Eve reject God, they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What does God do?

He takes skins from an animal that he kills and he clothes them.

He covers up their guilt and their shame.

Over and over again in the Old Testament, you can read about the sacrifices that God's people have to make over and over and over again.

Why?

Because payment is needed for sin.

But here is what makes Jesus a sacrifice so much better than every sacrifice that came before him.

Look at Hebrews 10, 11 through 14.

And every priest stands daily at his service.

Now capture that for a moment.

Priests were not allowed to sit down, offering what?

Repeatedly the same sacrifices, which man can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

See the difference?

Jesus makes the final sacrifice and sits down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And this is incredible.

This is why we not only can focus on the gospel, but should focus on the gospel.

Because at the heart of the gospel is a perfect Savior who is Jesus Christ, one who paid the final payment for sin, one who has made it possible for us to live for all of eternity with him in the new heavens and the new earth.

But the question we must ask is how does this impact us today?

Yeah, it's great.

I'm excited about the new heavens and the new earth, but we're not just like so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good.

Like, it changes us today.

How does this impact us living as those who are on mission with Jesus?

This is our gospel vision.

Gospel focus changes our viewpoints.

Gospel focus changes our viewpoints.

First of all, it changes how we view Jesus Christ.

We need to start with God, then ourselves, and then man.

That's how I truly think.

The problem is a lot of times we start with ourselves.

We start with what we want.

We want to see things get better, so we're going to do our way.

Nope, start with God.

He has a plan.

You don't need to help him out in that way.

Pretty sure he's got it covered.

He's going to use you, but you're not going to influence his plan in that way.

You're not changing his mind.

You're not going to, oh, if we just do it this way, we're going to make God's plan even better.

We're not Peter, who Jesus called Satan.

It changes how we view Jesus Christ.

Listen to Philippians 2, 5 through 11.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself.

By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is God who took on flesh.

He became a servant.

He didn't give up any of his deity.

He was fully God and fully man.

He becomes a servant.

He lives here on earth perfectly.

He's beaten, tortured, mocked, spit on, killed in one of the most painful ways to die, suffocation on a cross.

A lot of times we focus on the nails, which is terrible.

But the purpose of the nails through his feet and through his hands was so he could not lift himself up.

No one could lift themselves up so they could breathe.

And what would they do?

The pain was so anguishing they would just hang and suffocate.

Suffocation on a cross.

But here's the difference between Jesus and every other religious leader that people have followed and claim to follow.

Let me just tell you right now, if you are influenced by anyone today who is not ultimate focus is Christ, turn away from them.

If they have plans other than Christ, turn away from them.

If their goal and their focus is not Christ, turn away from them.

Jesus has the name that is above every name.

One day every knee will bow, including Satan and all of his demons.

It doesn't mean they are believing in the sense of that they love him, but they will be forced to bow because of who he is.

One day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, all to the glory of God the Father.

And when we focus on the gospel and we understand that God the Father sent God the Son through life and death for his His glory and our good.

And then we get to live through the power of God the Holy Spirit.

This changes how we view God.

And then we move to ourselves.

Secondly, gospel focus then changes how we view ourselves.

Remember Philippians 1:1.

Philippians 1:1

Paul is writing, he's addressing who in the letter?

To all the saints in Christ Jesus.

So if you are in Christ Jesus and you profess faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are now a saint.

You have been called by God and set apart.

You're no longer a slave to sin.

Listen to 1 John 3 9.

No one born of God makes us practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him.

And he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

We are able to live this way now and focus in this way because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, helping us to go on in the same patterns and to correct the patterns of sin.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Did you hear that?

In Christ, you are a new creation.

The old has passed away.

You're no longer just a sinner saved by grace.

You are now a saint in Christ.

And then we go outward.

Gospel focus changes how we view others.

When you think about people, there's only two categories.

Now, in America and the world, we like to categorize, we have lots of categories of people.

But really, according to the Bible, there's only two categories of people: those who are followers of Christ and those who aren't.

That's it.

That's it.

Look at Colossians 1.21.

We're going to look at first who aren't followers of Christ.

And you who once were alienated in hostile mind doing evil deeds.

As a result of sin before Christ, we are estranged from God.

We are his enemy.

Meaning we need to be reconciled through the gospel back to God.

So how does gospel focus change how we view others who are not followers of Christ?

It means our goal is not to see them as our enemies.

They're not our enemies.

They're enemies of God who need to be reconciled through faith in Jesus Christ.

Like we need to stop taking pot shots at people who are not followers of Christ.

Why do we expect anything different?

It's ridiculous.

I can't believe they do that.

They're blinded.

They don't know any different.

Like, are you shocked?

Like, give me a like, quit it.

You know what they need?

They need you to pray for them.

That's right.

Well, I'll never meet them.

I don't know.

The Holy Spirit's pretty powerful.

He raises people from the dead, changes people's lives.

Like, you don't need to meet them.

You can pray for them.

Well, it's a waste of time.

No, it's not.

You want them to be in hell for eternity?

Some of us do, if we're real honest with ourselves, deep down.

We would prefer people in pop culture, actors, actresses, wealthy people, because they have what we don't have.

You know what they have?

Misery.

That's why they continue to do what they do.

They're striving to be right with God even though they don't know it.

Because everyone has that desire within them to know God.

They just don't know it.

They're blinded.

So what do we do?

We pray for them.

That God would draw them to Himself.

If you do know them personally, that you would pray that God would give you opportunities.

Like if you truly trusted in Christ, you'd be broken over the fact they're driving themselves to hell.

But no, let's just take pot shots.

How they're terrible influences.

I don't expect a female pop culture person to be influencing my daughter.

Christ should be.

And I get it.

Avoid them.

Whatever.

Like, pray for that person.

Do we really care that people are going to hell?

If you believe that there is no way a person could ever trust in Christ because of how they live, then you don't understand the gospel yourself because you don't understand you had nothing to do with believing in the gospel either.

Jesus saved you.

You didn't earn it.

It's a gift.

You deserve the gospel just as much as any other person who's sprinting to hell right now because of the way they're living.

Don't get caught up in the lie that someone is too far gone and can never believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Just recently, a Latin American like rapper, I don't know what you'd consider him, like, live in a concert in Spanish, professes faith in the gospel that his life has now changed.

And I was like, literally, his career is over.

But glory to God, if that's true.

I don't know.

We'll see.

But incredible.

That's what the gospel will do to someone.

Someone who you're like, that person would never believe in the gospel.

Well, on stage, he professed faith in the gospel and did a pretty good job.

Better than a lot of us sometimes.

We should look for ways to build relationships with those not in Christ so we have more opportunities to talk to them about the gospel.

But then there's the other group of people, those who are followers of Christ.

How does the gospel focus, being so focused on the gospel, change the way we view fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Changes how we talk about them.

Man, if you go in Christian culture right now, the way women are talked about is like terrible, disgusting.

Last time I checked, sin was passed down through Adam.

Now don't get me wrong, women are sinful, men are sinful.

But like, give me a break.

Maybe pray for your sister in Christ.

Maybe pray for your brother in Christ.

It's exhausting watching people take pot shots at other fellows followers of Christ.

We're so hateful towards one another.

If you're a different person online than you are in real life with what you say to people, shame on you.

May God convict you if you take pot shots at people and so hateful.

Listen to Philippians 1, 3 through 5.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from first day until now.

Now hear me out.

I'm not saying we need to partner with every Christian organization.

Yes, there are differences.

Yes, there are theological differences that we do not align on.

But guess what?

We can also pray that the gospel would spread through those.

He joyfully prays for them, thanking God for their partnership with the gospel.

We should joyfully pray for one another and thank God for each other.

We're not solo followers of Christ.

We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ to be brought into the church.

Listen to Philippians 1, 9 through 10.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

We should also pray for one another, that our love would continue to grow and our discernment would continue to increase.

One final thing.

Are men and women not both given the same Holy Spirit?

You know how much discernment I get from my wife?

How brilliant she really is?

How much she challenges me.

Told the first service she recently mentioned the women's ministry has challenged all the women to memorize Romans 8.

Oh man, I have not been focusing on scripture memorization for a long time.

And you know what that did?

As I watched her start to memorize Romans 8, I went, I can do that too.

Some of you gone, oh, scripture, man, that's hard.

It is hard.

Guess what?

I've been starting with Romans 1, and just since Monday night, I've gotten through verse 12 of Romans 1, 1 through 12.

And you know what?

I'm constantly thinking about it.

I have to.

That's the only way to memorize scripture.

It's hard work.

But you know what I find?

The past few mornings, first thing that pops into my mind is, oh, what am I?

Okay, Romans 1, 1 is sorry.

Paul, a servant of Christ, who's called me an apostle.

Like, that's the first thing that pops into my mind.

Like it's incredible.

Like the benefits I've received from that this week, and you know why?

Because I was spurred on by my wife.

Encourage one another.

When our gospel focus continues to grow and increase, we will be able to imitate Paul the way he imitated Christ.

We will rejoice and be grateful for whatever happens to us as long as the gospel advances.

Why?

So that all may know the joy of his salvation.

That is the goal.

And when we focus on the gospel, we will be reminded of the one who made the gospel possible, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is why.

This is why, guys, this is the mission we have.

This is why we are sent on mission to make disciples and plant churches.

Because when we focus on the gospel, person after person will come to faith in Christ.

And guess what?

This building will overflow.

We'll be saturated with gospel mission groups, and we'll have to plant churches.

There's no other thing to do.

We're not going to build massive buildings.

We're going to plant churches.

That's the goal.

We'll have no other ability but to plant churches.

Let's pray.