Philippians 1:15-18
It’s the Message not the Messenger
Listen
Read
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Php 1:15–18.
Transcript
Please turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter one. And we'll be looking today specifically at verses 15 through 18, but we will read verses 1 through 18. Philippians chapter one and we'll be reading 1 through 18. It's on page 1042 of your Pew Bibles. Philippians chapter one. This is God's word and as always, it deserves your attention.
“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for all of you with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is a right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all part takers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I greatly long for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. For this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel. So it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God endures forever.
Have you ever been bored late at night and flip through the TV stations and you come to that TV station that you don't really wanna watch? The Christian, you know, the Christian TV station, the poorly produced Christian TV station. Well, there was one night we were flipping, or I don't even know where we were, I just vaguely remember flipping through the channels and stopped at one of these big name preachers. And this was a guy in our circles, that don't listen to this guy. And they were right for a lot of his theology. But I was amazed as I stopped, and I just gave him five seconds, news preaching the gospel. He was just preaching the gospel from John chapter three. And I thought, “Wow! When he stays close to the Bible, he's not too far off.”
And this might be a dangerous thing to say for a pastor to tell his congregation, but this is what Paul tells his congregation: When someone's preaching the Gospel, even if they're a fool, he's gonna rejoice, because the gospel is being proclaimed.
When the Bible, when the Biblical Gospel is being proclaimed, when it's being preached in its purity, when you hear Jesus Christ, your Savior, that gospel told back to you, you should have one response: Joy, Joy, Joy. When you hear Jesus Christ preached, you should have joy. But this is hard, right? There's a question here that Paul has read in verse 15. “Some preach Christ, even from envy and strife.” Okay, and then verse 16, “The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains.”
So Paul says that there are people who are just not preaching from good motives. Right? They’re even trying to hurt Paul in preaching. But how does Paul respond to that insincere, envious, jealous, hurtful type of motivation behind the preaching? What does he say in verse 18? “Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and in this, I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice.”
See, Christian, when you hear Jesus Christ preached, when you hear the good news proclaimed, even when it's out of bad motives, rejoice, rejoice. Be glad when you hear a preacher who does it with good motives as well. Whether in pretense or in truth, what's Paul's reaction? Rejoice.
And so your first point is, rejoice when you hear Jesus preached from good motives. Rejoice when you hear Jesus preached from good motives. This shouldn't be a surprising point to you, right? If you hear someone preaching and you know that their heart is for the Lord, they're not a “yes man”, they’re a God’s man, you know that that person is preaching the gospel and you're gonna rejoice. That's not a surprise to you.
And when it's saying here in verse 15, “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and strife, some also from goodwill.” This isn't trying to get the good will of men. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word eudokia, is translating a Hebrew word called ratson, and this is most commonly used, as seeking God's favor. God's good will towards them. So when the rabbi, Paul, is teaching the congregation here, he's saying, “These people aren't preaching to try to get people's favor. They're seeking the Lord's favor.” And when you see someone preaching, even if it's on TV, even if it's in a different denomination, and they're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ because they love God, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. God is being glorified because Jesus Christ being proclaimed. You should be happy when Jesus is preached from a confident love.
Look with me at verse 17. “But the latter,” this is those who are preaching from goodwill, “But the latter out of love.” This is their love for God, but more directly their love for the apostle. “But the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel.”
See, there's two different types of preachers that are going around the Roman area. And this isn't talking about heretics here. We'll get to the people who are teaching a false gospel in chapter four. These are Christians preaching the gospel, but their motivations are wrong. There's the good camp, and there's the bad camp. Right? Good motives and bad motives, but both of them are preaching a pure gospel of Jesus Christ. And here Paul is saying that there's in this good camp, those who are preaching the gospel. For those in verse 14, who preach without fear, that they're emboldened because of Paul's chains.
That's what we spent all last week looking at is that the chains of Paul, you would naturally want to turn away from it. If, you knew someone and they were in jail, what might you think? “Not a person I'm gonna follow.” And yet, when Paul is put in jail, what do the people do? Some turn their back on him but others begin to proclaim without fear, knowing that he was appointed for the defense of the Gospel. And they have more love for Paul. And this is what's being told to you today, is that when Jesus is preached out of a confident love, that his gospel has been defended in his word perfectly, that the Holy Spirit is with the people who are defending his word, God's glorified. We shouldn't turn our back on those who are fighting for the gospel. We should be rejoicing when people even are willing to go fight for the gospel.
There were people in this camp who were confident that Paul had the gospel. There were people who were confident of it. They knew it. They were sure about it. Paul was preaching the gospel. He was defending the Gospel. And because of his defense, because of his chains, because of his preaching, they could also then go out and they would preach with the same motives and that same truth that Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners.
And when you hear that type of preaching, that type of confident preaching, where you, again, we're going to get into this more in the second point, this isn't something popular to say from especially RP pulpits. But even when you hear it from a different denomination and somebody is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and they are confidently proclaiming the word of God, you say, “Yes and Amen. Praise God.” His word isn't contained to these four walls. There should be those who have joy when we go to another congregation. When we're out vacationing and we hear the gospel preached, it should be a joy to us, that we're not alone in this beautiful truth of Jesus saving sinners like us. When you hear strong, confident, loving, preaching of the glory of Jesus Christ, we should be filled with joy.
But it must be that it's being proclaimed in truth; be filled with joy. Be happy when Christ is preached. In truth, right? Paul isn't hiding the truth of the gospel, is he? No. Paul is unabashedly, unashamedly, openly preaching the gospel, even to Roman guards. He's standing behind the truth, even though it might take him to Caesar and be killed. It was okay. He was gonna openly proclaim the truth.
And so you should be asking yourself whenever you flip on the TV and you find a televangelist, whenever you turn on the radio and you are hearing somebody proclaim, whenever you go on vacation you should be asking yourself, “Does this line up?” You should be a Berean. Go back to your scriptures. Is this the Jesus Christ that I know from the Bible? Is this the gospel of the good news? And if it is rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. It's a beautiful thing that we have communion outside of just our little church. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing that the Lord gives us to rejoice because our spirit, knows when the spirit is speaking, don't you? When you hear the gospel preached, you know it in your own heart like, “Oh, good. I'm not in enemy territory.”
You know what that's like, right? You go into a church and you don't know do they actually believe the Bible? Is this just something they start with and then go somewhere else? Is this just a pep talk? Right? And you kind of have to walk on eggshells for a few minutes trying to figure out is this an orthodox place? Is this a safe place for me to be sitting and listening and learning? And then after you sit there for a few minutes and you realize, “Oh, these people really love Jesus.” And you are able to go, “Oh, good, I'm able to soak this in.” Rejoice when Jesus Christ is preached in good motives.
But then the harder ones. The second point is rejoice when you hear Jesus preached, even when the preacher might have bad motives. Rejoice not in the bad motives of the preacher, but in the truth of Jesus Christ being preached. It would be a horrible thing if the gospel was only true, if the pastor had 100% pure motives or a 100% pure heart, because the gospel would not be effective because there isn't one minister in this world who has completely pure motives. No one is without sin. No, not one.
Rejoice when you hear Jesus preached, even from bad motives. Because there are petty and jealous preachers. Did you know that? There are petty and jealous preachers. Look with me at verse 15. “Some indeed preach Christ.” They're preaching Christ, even from envy and strife.
There's a term when you go to seminary, and if you pick up pastoral books, it's called ministry jealousy. And there's a little book that sits just on the side of my desk that I pick up every few days in the study. It’s a book, written by a man with a Greek name I can't remember. But a handbook for young pastors, and he's got just one chapter in there. It's called “Avoiding ministry jealousy” or as he calls it, “Don't Giraffe Neck.” Don't giraffe neck, because ministers are sinners. I hope you know that you guys called a sinner. So has every other church.
And ministers specifically have a hard time with ministry jealousy. They always want a bigger church. I shouldn't say always; that's bad. But there's a temptation, the bigger church, the better ministry. Oh, this church is doing that. We wish we could do these things. Oh, I wish I had the type of story that Paul had. Oh, I wish I had the type of support that Paul gets from the Philippians. Oh, I wish that I could go on all these missionary trips like Paul does. There are people who are preaching Christ out of envy and jealousy for Paul's ministry. And it didn't end back then. It's definitely a big problem in the 21st century. That's for certain. But the gospel is still true, even when it's spoken by sinful and jealous preachers.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Paul says here, in no uncertain terms, “Some indeed preach Christ.” They are preaching Christ, and even when we might suspect that there's an impure motive behind it, guess what? People can still be saved by the message because it's the message that saves not the messenger. It is a message that saves, not the messenger. It is the word of God that comes and changes the hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by any pastor’s eloquence or motives.
There's still something to be happy about. One of my favorite stories, turn back in your Bibles real quick with me to Numbers chapter 22. One of my favorite stories in the Bible. This is how I know that the Lord can still use me. Numbers chapter 22, we’ll be starting to read on page 143. There's a king named Balak and they're wandering the wilderness. And Balak doesn't want Israel to go through his land. He thinks they're gonna lick up the land. They're going to soak everything up. And so he calls their prophet, their witch doctor, Balaam. And he wants Balaam to say a curse on the Israelites.
But it's amazing what happens. God doesn't allow him to do that. But Numbers 22 verse 22, “Then God's anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him.” This is against Balaam, that prophet. “And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. Now the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road. Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again. Then the Angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she laid down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Then the Lord opened the mouth,” this is amazing. “Then the Lord opened the mouth of that donkey. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey. And she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?’”
And Balaam goes into a conversation with the donkey. But I'm not sure the last time you've seen the donkey next door start talking to you. If you do, come talk to me. I want to go meet that donkey. “And Balaam said to the donkey, ‘Because you have abused me. I wish there was a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you.’ So the donkey said to Balaam, ‘Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?’ And he said, ‘No.’ Then the Lord open Balaam’s eyes and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in His hand, and he bowed his head and fell on his face.”
If the Lord can use a donkey to speak, He can surely use a stupid, sinful, ill motivated pastor to preach the gospel. Because it is not the messenger. It is the message that saves. If God can open the mouth of a donkey and say, “You're gonna die, you idiot!” God can use the simplest of pastors to say, “Repent, because the blood of Jesus Christ will save you.” Even if that guy's a money hungry, pride loving man. If Christ is preached, we rejoice. Because it's not the messenger, its the message that saves. We're saved by the hearing of the preached word, not the man preaching the word.
And this has always been a hard thing in the church. There's always been a difficulty with this, because what happens often in the church is when somebody is ordained as a pastor, they’re often given this the sense of authority. Maybe this sense of “Oh, this person is to be revered,” Right? Don't call me Reverend. Just call me Bryan. There's a certain amount of pride, and this is why, in our ordination vows, vow number seven is specifically about: as far as you know, are there any hidden motivation behind why you want to become a pastor? So our denomination makes every pastor answer that. Are you sure you're doing this out of pure motives? Not because of pride, not because you won a title. Not because you want authority, not because you just like talking in front of people. But is it because you love the gospel of Jesus Christ and his people.
Because there's ill motives. Every sinful person who speaks is gonna have some tinge behind it. But God's word stands forever. So even when you hear someone preach, they might have ill motives. If they're preaching the gospel, you rejoice. And again, I say, rejoice, rejoice!
The early church dealt with this issue of if the pastor isn't of good motives, and if the pastor isn't a holy man, does his preaching, or especially, what if he baptized you? Are you still baptized? There is a whole issue with that when the church was facing persecution in North Africa, there was a whole sect that came out of the church, it was called Donatism. And the Donatists thought that our pastor has bowed to the Romans. The Romans were persecuting. The Romans were saying you had to sacrifice to the emperor, you had to actually say that Caesar is Lord.
And so some would do it just so they wouldn't get their heads cut off, where they wouldn't be persecuted. Some of them would even buy fake certificates. They would lie and pay someone to give them a forgery and say, “Oh, yeah, I actually did that,” when they didn't. So they would rather lie than stand up for the truth. Some of the pastor's just said “see ya, sayonara,” and fled. But when the church went back to the scriptures to search this very point, that even your baptism is not dependent on the person who was baptizing you. It's never tied to a sinful man. But our gospel is tied to a sinless man. A sinless God-man Jesus Christ, who you should be looking towards.
So indeed, when someone is preaching, even out of envy, even out of jealousy, even out of strife, Paul is not a stranger here. This is the amazing thing, right? Paul in verse 16, “The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains.” This is the idea as if you were handcuffed and someone took the handcuffs and tightened them down a couple more notches. Paul is saying, “they're hurting me.” They're preaching because they want to hurt me. They’re, preaching out of envy and out of strife and out of insincere motives. And what does he do? I'm gonna rejoice because they're actually preaching Jesus. I don't care. They can hurt me. They can be jealous. That can be envious. They can be strife-full. Whatever. I'm going to rejoice, because Jesus is being proclaimed, because people are being saved. Because Hell's gates are being stormed and the Kingdom is advancing. Rejoice, rejoice.
Be a Berean. When you when you hear those preachers preach, go back to the scriptures, try to find out what's good and what's not good. But if Christ is being preached put a smile on your face and sing with your heart full of joy. Ask yourself, “Is this the Jesus Christ that I know? Is this my prophet? Is this my priest? Is this the king that the scriptures give?”
And if it is lining up with what the scriptures tell, rejoice, rejoice. Rejoice when you hear Jesus Christ preached from good motives and rejoice even when you hear Jesus Christ preached from insincerity, because the message saves, because the Holy Spirit is real. Rejoice, Christian! Rejoice! There ain't nothing that's going to keep back that message. Not even a sinful, stupid preacher. Rejoice! You got a good God who works.
Let's pray. “Oh God, we thank you so much for your message. We thank you that Lord, you work by the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, we pray that you would even work in our own hearts. But I pray that you would work in us even when we might have insincere motives. Lord, that when we speak the word without fear, your message goes out. And even when we speak the word with fear, sinners are saved. Do this work, we pray, because you've promised it. In Jesus's name. Amen.