The Advancement of the Gospel

A few years ago, I was introduced to a pastor from the 1970s named Joseph San, who uh had a had a great desire and focus on the gospel.

And this was during a time period where uh in that country in Romania, they were under communist rule and they hated the gospel, they hated Christianity, they wanted nothing to do with the spread of that.

And so he talks about this time, he was actually being interrogated by six men.

And he went through this multiple times, being jailed, being beaten, being tortured, being uh investigated, and just going through this over and over again.

And he he talked about this encounter that he had with one of the men as he was going through this.

And he starts off by saying, This is an encounter between my God and me.

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 what you do to me will only be what God wants you to do, and you will only go as far as he lets you and not one inch further, because you are only an instrument of my God.

Every time he said, I saw these six pompous men, I viewed them as nothing more than my father's puppets.

He went on again to talk about an early interrogation where he tells an officer threatening to kill him, Sir, let me explain how I see this issue.

I love just the boldness here.

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

Here's how it works.

You know that my sermons on tape, that gives us a perspective of what time in history this was, have spread all over the country.

If you kill me, these sermons will be sprinkled by my blood.

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

And everyone who has one of those tapes will pick it up and say, I better listen to this again, what this man preached.

It must be really important because he sealed it with his life.

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

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

After I said this, the interrogator then sent him home.

He said, he went on to talk about another time where one of his pastor friends was also going through an interrogation.

And he came up in the conversation, and the uh the interrogator said to his pastor friend, We know that Mr.

Son would want nothing more and would love to be called a martyr, but we are not so foolish to fulfill his wish.

And he said, I stopped to consider the meaning of that statement.

He said, I remembered how for many years I had been afraid of dying.

I had kept a low profile because I wanted so badly to live.

He said, I had 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 not going to kill me.

He said, I could go wherever I wanted in the country and preach whatever I wanted, knowing I was safe.

And he said, as long as I tried to save my life, 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 that he was okay with whatever God had in store for him, including the scars on his back to prove the torture that he went through.

Whether that was torture or that was prison, Joseph's son was okay with it.

And when we come back to Philippians this morning and we continue on in our series on a colony of heaven, and we look at Philippians 1, 12 through 18, we see a very similar situation here for the Apostle Paul, the one who had written this letter from God to the church at Philippi.

Paul was so focused on the gospel that he did not care what happened to him as long as the gospel continued to spread and that people believed in Jesus.

Which leads us this morning to verses 12 through 14, where we see our first summary, which is the gospel advances through our circumstances.

The gospel advances through our circumstances.

In verse 12, we see that the gospel is going forward.

Now the church must have had some concern with Paul here because he is addressing it to them.

There's this concern of Paul's current situation, and Paul makes it very clear that what is taking place in his life is meant to advance the gospel.

He is well aware of this.

Because we have to remember Paul's situation, his circumstance currently, as we would read in verses 13, 14, and 17, that Paul is in prison during this time.

Not a cushy situation, but a terrible prison situation.

You can imagine here for the Philippian church the concern they would have for the individual who they probably at this stage really loved and valued as he had brought the gospel to them for them to hear for the very first time that the church was then built on.

And we can imagine this.

Our natural reaction of knowing anyone that we love and care for being in prison would cause us much concern.

We would be nervous, we would be stressed out and anxious for these individuals.

And so we see this, he's addressing this, and he opens up his letter first with a greeting, then he tells them how thankful to God he is for them, he prays for them, and then he jumps right in.

Listen, my circumstances naturally would cause a terrible situation, but guess what?

It's actually being used by God to advance the gospel.

Paul's imprisonment was for the advancement of the gospel.

Man intended something evil for Paul while God intended and meant it for good.

But the blessing we have is this is not the first time throughout church history or throughout the uh the Bible that we have the story of creation all the way to the end.

This is not the first time we've seen when man intended for evil, God intended for good.

If we go back to Genesis, we actually read about Joseph, who was sold by his brothers.

Sold by his brothers into slavery and spent years in prison.

And spent years as a slave in a terrible situation that God ultimately used to protect the people of Israel.

And we get Joseph's understanding of this in Genesis 50, 20, when he says this to his brothers later on, after he has the ability to take their lives if he wanted.

He says, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

And when we come back to Philippians 1, we see the confidence that Paul has in his situation that even though he's in prison, it's actually meant to advance the gospel.

Let's pause on this for a moment, though, personally, as we think through this.

There's an important lesson for all of us that we need to grasp in verse 12.

Paul's passion for the advancement of the gospel is such that the difficulties he's facing is worth it for the gospel spreading to more and more people.

Sit in that for a moment.

Paul believed that no matter what happened to him, no matter what he faced, it was worth it.

This was really, I know for me personally, it was really challenging to think through.

Do we really believe this?

Can we actually say that no matter what happens to me in this life, I am okay with it.

No matter what happens with my family, I am okay with it as long as more people follow Christ than good.

Paul truly believed this.

Later on, just a few verses later, and we're gonna see this next week.

But Paul says in Philippians 1.21, for to me to live as Christ and to die is gain.

If I live, then no matter what happens, great.

More people will hear about the gospel.

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

What can you do to me?

This mindset that Paul has allows him to be able to say to the church and Philippi, my imprisonment, guys, it's okay.

Calm down.

This is good.

And then he goes on in verses 13 through 14 to share how this is taking place in two ways.

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

Let's start with the first one.

People are hearing the gospel.

He mentions the whole imperial guard.

Paul is confident that God is using him, being imprisoned to bring more people to saving faith, and he mentions this is why he says, my imprisonment is for Christ, because God is using him to spread the gospel first to the whole imperial guard.

It's believed that an imperial guard would have been around 9,000 soldiers.

That's a lot of people.

And one of the least favorite responsibilities that we can read about from history for one of these soldiers would have been to be chained or attached to an inmate, a prisoner.

They hated it.

It was like the lowest of the low.

It was probably the entry-level job.

And Paul loved it.

He had a captive audience.

Literally, they could not go anywhere.

And we don't know exactly the conversations.

We're never let into some of these conversations, but you know where Paul would head in these conversations with these individuals.

Every time a new imperial guard was attached to him, it was an opportunity for him to share the gospel.

And Paul makes it clear that it had become known throughout the whole imperial guard that that's why he was there.

It was for Christ.

So it's spreading amongst these soldiers that this one prisoner believes he's there on purpose.

That's way different.

That's not normal.

We have no idea how many of these soldiers profess faith in the gospel, but we know that some did because later on in Philippians 4 22, as Paul is writing his final greeting and kind of his goodbye to them in this letter, he makes the statement, he says, All of the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

The gospel is spreading.

It's now infiltrating the very place that they wanted the gospel nowhere to be.

Then we get to verse 14, where now we see people are sharing the gospel.

So then, as a result of Paul's imprisonment, some of the brothers in Christ, their confidence is now increasing.

It is now growing.

As their confidence increases, the boldness is now taking over.

And I love this idea of this boldness as it grows.

And I think back to a lot of my stories or thinking goes to children, having four of them, and just you get a lot of content from that.

And I think of this idea of every one of our children, they were very cautious on steps and stairs initially, and you have to help them up.

And then they learn that they can jump down one with your hand, and then they want to go to two and then three, and they keep wanting to go up higher and higher.

And then they get to the point where they no longer need you, and they just start jumping, and you're like, well, I don't know, five steps?

Okay.

Um and their their confidence, it just continues to grow more and more and more.

Sammy, our youngest, she's now three, but from an early age, she discovered she could drop down uh on the edge of the couch and bounce off of her butt and land on her feet.

And the first time I saw it, I was like, oh my gosh, she's gonna die.

Um and then it was like, oh, there she goes.

Uh and it just became this normal thing and this boldness, but she was very nervous at first.

But the boldness continued to grow and it continued to take over.

And when we come back to Philippians 1.14, we say, we see this similar situation is happening.

Paul's imprisonment is causing this boldness to be stirred up in the brothers in Christ.

Now, what's interesting is throughout church history, this has always been the case.

The more Christians were persecuted because of Christ, the more the gospel of Jesus Christ would spread.

The more people became emboldened by this.

Tertullian, who was an early church father from Africa, who was lived between the time period of 155 and 240 AD, he made this statement.

He said, The oftener we are mowed down by you, the more in number we grow.

The blood of Christians is seed.

What Tertullian was saying is every time a Christian's blood was shed for Christ, seeds were then planted for the gospel.

You can read some fascinating stories of the early church, uh, those who were martyrs, who went to the stake and were burned alive, in the stories about those people, how they stood, and then it just emboldened others to take the gospel and spread the gospel.

Elizabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliot, who we understand was uh one of the individuals who went to the Akka Indians and they were massacred for trying to take the gospel to them, literally arrows in their backs and were killed.

And Elizabeth Elliot then takes her child back into the tribe, ultimately, where we know the gospel spread, and these people rejoiced in Jesus.

But Elizabeth Elliot made this statement.

She said, There is nothing worth living for unless it is worth dying for.

When we come back to verse 14, now we see the followers of Christ as a result of Paul's imprisonment.

They begin to have no fear.

There is boldness to speak the word.

But why was that needed?

Because at this time period, if you were to profess faith in the gospel, if you were to preach the gospel message, it was more than likely imprisonment or even death.

But if Paul could go through this, then it was all okay.

And they watched him go through this over and over again.

Better yet, they were pointed by Paul to Jesus Christ.

That's why Paul was imprisoned.

He was imprisoned for Christ.

And as a result, the gospel was advancing.

As we continue on, look at the summary of verses 15 through 18.

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 those sharing the gospel out of goodwill and a desire to see people come to faith in Christ.

On the other hand, you see people sharing the gospel from envy and rivalry, actually thinking it's going to make life harder for Paul.

So Paul is giving us this compare and contrast of the two different groups of people.

And in verses 15 through 17, we see this comparison.

Verse 15, we learn that both groups are preaching Christ.

Amazing.

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

That's incredible.

But then you continue on reading, you're like, whoa, what's going on here?

What is happening?

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

They are preaching Christ, verse 17, out of selfish ambition and thinking that it will afflict Paul in his imprisonment.

They actually believe that if they do this, it's going to make it worse on Paul.

What we learn about this is they're actually jealous of Paul.

There is envy in their lives over the ministry and success that Paul has had for sharing the gospel.

Now, why is envy so dangerous for the follower of Christ?

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

Richard Sibes was an Anglican theologian born in the 1500s, and he made this statement in his book entitled Glorious Freedom about the very topic of envy.

He says, in spiritual things there is no basis for envy, for everyone may partake of everything.

In the things of this life there is envy, but 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, what Richard Sibes was getting at is when we seek earthly things, envy begins to creep in because we want what others have.

We're not satisfied that someone has something more than me or someone has something better than me.

I want what they have.

But when we seek spiritual, godly things, then we can glorify God when others have what we desire as well.

Why?

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

We are happy when someone has peace from God.

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

No, we all want these things as well.

We all want peace.

We all want comfort and satisfaction from God.

We all want these things, but let's think about this for ourselves.

How often have you, have I, have we become envious of others when they have some earthly good that we do not have?

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

There is no jealousy.

There is only rejoicing in seeing others experience what we want.

But when our eyes are focused opposite of that, on earthly things, then we become envious.

We become jealous.

When we look at the group who preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, we see that they were jealous of Paul and his ministry, and they believe that if they preach Christ, it will make it worse for him.

What's crazy though is they're actually preaching Christ.

Let's be clear about that.

They are preaching Christ.

They aren't false teachers sharing a false gospel.

No, they're actually sharing the gospel.

If these were false teachers, you believe, because we have it in other cases in the New Testament where Paul is writing, that Paul would have called them out as false teachers.

They are not false teachers.

Both groups were preaching the gospel.

Now, the reason for preaching Christ I would not encourage, but they still are proclaiming Christ.

The bottom line is they were not anti-Christ, they were anti-Paul.

But then on the other side, you have the group who are preaching Christ out of love.

This group knew that Paul was in prison for the defense of the gospel.

They knew that God had put Paul in this situation for a purpose, and they knew that Paul knew this and understood this.

They had comfort in that.

The other group was preaching out of envy and rivalry.

They didn't understand.

They couldn't imagine that Paul actually believed he was there for a reason.

They don't understand that Paul believed God could do that to him.

It did not matter to Paul, though, whether he was in prison or not, as long as the gospel was being shared and then Paul was doing what God had called him to do.

The location for Paul didn't matter.

The gospel being shared did.

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

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

It was about more and more people hearing the gospel and believing in the gospel and their lives being changed.

And 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, whether it's for false reasons or truth, Christ is proclaimed.

Paul is basically saying here, I don't care what the motivations are.

Are people hearing the gospel?

Good.

That's what matters.

Paul is not caught up in the moment, though, either.

He's not caught up in his current circumstances.

He sees the bigger picture.

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 for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul was focused.

His focus was on Christ.

Paul understood that this also meant a life of sacrifice.

Listen to Philippians 2.17.

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

Philippians 3, 10 through 11, that I may know him and 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 of Jesus Christ, it made it worse for him.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, Paul cared about Christ being proclaimed in that he rejoiced.

Once again, this is a great reminder that we can have joy whether our lives are amazing and going the exact way we had planned and hoped, or the opposite.

Our life is miserable and it's going the exact opposite of all of our dreams, all of our hopes, all the goals we set out when we were younger.

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

Church and Philippi are like, that's what I'm striving for.

Wait, Paul, wait, that's not the life I wanted.

No one hopes that they will be beaten and imprisoned multiple times.

But even in these circumstances, Paul could rejoice.

Why?

Because he was focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Which brings us to our main idea this morning.

Our main idea is this: focus on the gospel.

It's very easy to get distracted in this day and age.

It's very easy to have your focus diverted or taken away from what you need to do.

Everything around us is vying for our attention.

Everything is being designed and created to capture our attention and keep us focused on what they want.

Literally, there are companies that have conversations on how can we keep people focused on what we have more than anything else.

The easiest example of this today in our culture is social media.

Social media companies literally are utilizing algorithms that they're creating and they're gathering data on to capture our attention, to keep us focused on what they feed us.

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 reactions seen with drugs like cocaine.

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

Now, I'm not saying that no one should utilize social media.

I'm not ripping on social media, not at all.

There are some great benefits to social media.

But we can all relate to that pull and that urge that when you open up that social media app and you start scrolling, it starts feeding you exactly what you want.

Chelsea is always like, I don't really care for the videos that you show me in your feed on animals hunting other animals in the safari.

And it's like they just I'm like, they just keep coming.

I don't I don't know what to do.

And and like they just keep coming.

And it's like all of a sudden, 15, 30, 60 minutes in, you realize, what have I been doing?

I've gone to a lot of websites because I'm interested in a lot of products, but like, but it's just we're constantly being intended to to and and pushed to be fed what they want us to see.

And our focus is being stolen, it's being diverted.

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.

And I go back to that example of a child.

How many of you have ever been around a child who locks in on something?

And it's not going to change until they get it or they figure out a way to get it.

They focus in.

And if you and I could have that type of a focus that a child has when they lock in on something, think about what you could accomplish.

Well, Paul had this type of focus that was locked in.

He zeroed in on that.

His focus was always the gospel, and 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.

Paul's focus was always the gospel, that the gospel would advance.

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

And we have to ask ourselves the question: why is the gospel so important that Paul was okay with whatever happened to him?

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

That's why you could say later in Philippians 1.21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Look at the New City Catechism.

Question one.

What is our only hope in life and death?

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

The gospel is about Jesus.

But what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

I think we can throw around that word, the gospel, or that phrase, the gospel of Jesus Christ, just very flippantly at times, where we just we kind of need to be reminded and go back to the basics as an encouragement of what the gospel is.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4.

This is what 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, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Paul says right at the beginning, I would remind you.

Meaning 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 he had received it.

The gospel message is intended to be handed off to another person.

The gospel is not given to each individual to hold as a secret or to hide it away.

It is meant, it was always meant to be passed on and told to others.

So what was 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, according to the scriptures.

That is the heart of the gospel.

That's it.

So why is the gospel so good?

It's right at the beginning of the heart of the gospel that Christ died for our sins.

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

And if we think too little of sin and we think little of Jesus and a sacrificial death, why is sin so bad?

Because it's a rejection of who of God and who He is.

Look at 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 what?

Is death.

What we earn and what we deserve for sin is death.

So what makes the gospel so good then?

Look back at Romans 6.23.

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 in Christ our Lord.

It is 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.

We don't really believe sin is that bad.

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

Take a child, for example, again.

When you think about the concept of heat and how dangerous it is.

A few years back, Chelsea had just finished cooking something on top of the stove, and Liam came along and decided that he was going to reach up and touch that stovetop.

An instant burn, instant trip to the urgent care to get this taken care of and get this figured out.

Now the burner was no longer on.

It wasn't red hot at this point, but the instant impact of putting his little hand on a burner that was still hot burned his little fingers.

We've all been around a fire with young children.

You have to constantly pull them back.

Oh, hold on, hold on.

That heat that will burn you.

That could end your life.

That could cause major problems for you.

Children don't always understand the concept of how dangerous fire can be.

And sometimes this is the same attitude we have with 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?

Really considered how sin destroys everyone.

I heard someone at one point make the statement, they said, every single tombstone, every single grave marker that is in the world is a result of sin.

Why?

Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death.

They estimate that between 105 and 120 people die every single minute around the world.

Guess what?

That's because of sin.

It's not just death, though.

Sin makes life miserable.

Every single crime, every stabbing, every murder, every rape, every gossip, every slander, every affair, every hateful word, every time a person walks into a building and starts shooting, that's all a result of sin.

It's a rejection of the gospel.

And it's all because we think too little of sin.

We don't really believe sin is that bad.

But then some of us, we think too little of Jesus.

We think too little of Jesus.

We tend to segment out Jesus' life and think of him only in those specific ways.

For example, we might think of Jesus as this sweet little baby and forget that he actually created everything.

Maybe we focus on his obscure child and we try to come up with theories of what Jesus did as a child, how he maybe healed a bird or whatever it might be.

We try to come up with these things and we focus on how he loved people and start to think of Jesus more as this happy-go-lucky guy.

Or we focus on Jesus flipping tables and we can't reconcile how such a loving guy could do that.

Maybe we only look at Jesus on the cross and we think he has no power.

Maybe we only think of Jesus in heaven at the right hand of God and we don't live as if Jesus is right with us every single day, every single minute, no matter where we are.

And when we look at Jesus and only believe in one attribute of Christ, then we will miss all that Christ is.

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

It's not one or the other.

It's both.

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

Therefore, I'll just continue living in my own sin.

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

And then we're actually seeing this creep into the church as well.

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

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

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

This is why this week, as this monumental moment of Roe v.

Wade being overturned, you have people who have professed to believe in Christ also say, I can't believe this is happening.

Brother or sister, you need to look at Christ because he does care about this.

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.

It will drive us to fear God more than we fear man.

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 being focused on the gospel looks like when he rebukes Peter from trying to stop him to go to the cross.

And we see this with what Jesus focused on today.

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

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

Listen to that interaction between Jesus and Peter in Matthew 16, 21 through 23 on the screen.

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

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

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

You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

Look at Jesus' focus here in Matthew 16.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples what?

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

He's letting his disciples prepare and know for what his future holds.

His focus was clear.

This is what he must do.

Why?

Because sin demands a payment.

After Adam and Eve reject God and eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God takes animal skins and covers their guilt and their shame.

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

Why?

As an atonement, as payment for sin.

But here is what makes Jesus' sacrifice so much better than all of those sacrifices that were made before him.

Look at Hebrews 10, 11 through 14.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ has offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat 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.

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

Because the heart of the gospel, 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 to live for all of eternity with Himself and the new heavens and new earth.

But how does that impact us today?

If we just jump ahead to the new heavens and the earth, we miss how the gospel actually changes our lives right now.

How does the gospel and having a focus on the gospel impact us living as a colony of heaven today?

And here's where we see this: the gospel focus changes our viewpoints.

Gospel focus changes our viewpoints.

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

We have to start with him.

We start with who Jesus is and what he says about himself.

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 and being born in the likeness of man 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 him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is God who took on human flesh.

He becomes a servant.

He lives here on earth perfectly.

He was beaten, tortured, mocked, spit on, and killed in one of the most terrible ways to die, suffocation on a cross.

But here's the difference between Jesus and every other religious leader that people have claimed to follow or believed in.

Jesus has the name that is above every name.

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

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

And when we focus on the gospel and understand that God the Father sent God the Son to go through life and death for his glory and our good, and that we then get to live through the through God the Holy Spirit, through his power, this changes how we view God.

This changes how we view Christ.

Secondly, gospel focus changes how we view ourselves.

Remember in Philippians 1:1 who Paul was writing to.

Philippians 1:1

He's writing this letter to all the saints in Christ Jesus.

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

You have been called by God and you have been set apart.

You are no longer a slave to sin.

Listen to 1 John 3.9.

No one born of God makes a 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 because we now have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, helping us to not go on with the same patterns of sin in our own lives and that practice of sinning.

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 Jesus, you are a new creation.

I think sometimes we need to hear that.

You do have the power through the Spirit to be changed and not go on in the same patterns of sin.

Sometimes you might sit there though and struggle and go, I don't know how this is ever going to change.

Call out to God for help.

He will change you.

He will take away those desires.

You are not stuck in your desires.

You are a new creation.

Behold, the new has come.

You are no longer just a sinner saved by grace.

You are now a saint in Christ.

And then finally, we see the gospel focus changes how we view others.

When we think about others, there are only two categories of people: those who are followers of Christ and those who are not followers of Christ.

First, let's think about those who aren't followers of Christ.

If you listen to Colossians 1.21, Paul also says, And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.

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

Meaning reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ needs to take place in our lives, before, in their lives.

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

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

The greatest thing you can do this week, because after Roe v.

Wade was overturned, man, if you spend any time on social media, it was a firestorm of hate.

Geared at someone who was excited.

We couldn't even rejoice in it without coming across as terrible people.

And it would be very easy in that moment to go, these are my enemies.

I need to crush them.

No, no, they're not your enemies.

They're enemies of God who need reconciliation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as a result, the first thing we should do is we should begin to pray to God that He would draw them to Himself and that we would have opportunities to share the gospel with them.

If you believe there is no way a person could believe in the gospel, then you are forgetting your own conversion to faith in Jesus Christ that you did not earn it and it was a gift.

You deserve the gospel just as much as anybody else does.

So don't get caught up in the lie that someone is too far gone and would never actually profess faith in the gospel.

Look for ways to build relationships with those not in Christ so you have more opportunities to talk to them about Christ.

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

How does gospel focus change the way we view fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Well, how did Paul pray for the followers of Christ in Philippi?

Listen to Philippians 1, 3 through 5.

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

He joyfully prayed for them, thanking God for their partnership in the gospel.

We should joyfully pray for one another.

We should thank God for one another.

We are not solo followers of Christ.

We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, brought into fellowship with one another.

When you hear someone say it's just me and Jesus, correct them.

No, it's not.

You are brought into fellowship with one another.

You are a part of the church, the body of Christ.

You can't do this on your own.

You need other brothers and sisters.

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 excellence, so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

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

You and I need more and more discernment.

Truth right now in the church is being blended with culture.

They say some great, uh, beautiful things about the gospel, and then they weave something in really kind of strange, kind of weird, and you're left going, well, maybe it's okay.

We need to grow in our discernment.

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

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

And when our focus on the gospel, we will be reminded of the one who made the gospel possible.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Remember those two things.

His role is our Lord and Savior.

He saved us to rule over us, he didn't save us to leave us.

This is when a colony of heaven continues to expand here on this earth.

Let's pray.