Lesson 4

QUALITIES OF A CHURCH

Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
COPYRIGHT 2004

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EVANGELIZING
(Phil. 1:12-18)

12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

12. But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things [which happened] unto me rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;

The classic Old Testament reference that relates here has always been an amazement to me. Joseph was sold into slavery by his siblings - I had a hard time when my brother gave me a hard time – I had trouble not wanting full and complete retribution and RIGHT NOW - Joseph when faced with the situation of later helping his siblings and family, simply told them that it all was for the best – of course giving God the glory. (Genesis 50.20 "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.")

Joseph that day set the standard for brotherly relationships on a very high plain, and we brothers in the flesh should take the same attitude with those problems that creep into family relationships. It ought to also set the standard for Christian brothers and their interpersonal relationships as well.

Paul wasn't worried about the problems in his life, he was just sitting back enjoying watching what God was doing with it all. "Furtherance of the gospel;" was the gain God was receiving from Paul's physical difficulties.

When things are going roughly and troubles are stacking up, remember that God gained much good from both Joseph's and Paul's hard times. What great things might be coming out of your hard times? Be sure to find Joseph's and Paul's attitude in life as soon as you can in your life.

No matter how bad it gets, no matter what comes along, it is for the best - in God's eyes.

Also take a moment to consider I Peter 3.14 "But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy [are ye]: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"

The phrase "have fallen out" is just a different way of saying "have turned out." as the Darby translation sets it forth. The word is normally translated "come." "Come unto the furtherance of the gospel;" would be the thought of the phrase.

13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other [places];

The term palace relates to the center of Roman army headquarters or the main hall. It also relates to the palace where the Roman officials resided and conducted business.

When the Roman's took over a country it was the custom to take over the main palace for the leaders to set up business. It is the Greek word praitorion.

The things that Paul was going through were bringing the Gospel unto the top places of government around him. How great is that? When is the last time you did anything that brought the good news to government officials near by? I trust that believers will soon begin living lives that will bring the good news to high officials.

This is certainly a need of our day. The ears of Washington are being bent by the homosexual activists, the ecological activists and all sorts of other activists, but where is the good news. They have all the bad news, it is time that they hear some good news for a change and I do mean the good news of Christ and salvation.

There seems to be some discussion as to what "palace" might mean. It is a general word relating to the leader’s house whether the generals tent of an army or the main palace of a country. The latter probably meant here for in 4.22 we read "All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." This indicates that the Gospel had gone even into the palace of Caesar.

14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

This is in stark contrast to the people around Paul in II Timothy when they were not willing to be counted with Paul in His bonds. (4.16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all [men] forsook me: [I pray God] that it may not be laid to their charge.")

I don't say this in a derogatory way, but this might relate to mob rule in the positive. It seems we humans are followers - when either good or bad comes along.

In the mob there is usually a leader that is going astray and others begin to follow him. Here we see Paul's example is giving confidence to other believers to do that which they ought.

So it is in churches. When a church leader gets excited about something the congregation usually follows in the good.

Years ago we were in a church that was really financially behind. They were several months behind in their gifts to missionaries. The mood of the meeting seemed to be "let's just forget what we haven't done and commit ourselves to keeping up from this point forward.

There was one deacon that was really convinced that they should honor their commitment and pay the owed gifts as well as keep up. The problem was that they were several thousand behind in their bills/gifts.

Before the meeting was over the congregation was right behind the deacon calling and voting to make up the deficiency and to keep up from that point on.

The congregation, within a month, had raised enough funds to make up the problem, and to give the mission fund a two thousand dollar excess for future plans.

May we all be such influences on those that follow us rather than the often negative influence that we can be.

I want to read the next three verses together. Fifteen introduces two types of people he is relating to; one sort of preacher without integrity and another with integrity.

15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: 16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: 17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.

15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:

We see two types of men - those that preach Christ for the wrong purpose and those that preach Christ for the proper purpose.

Many preach Christ today - many may even preach a good Gospel, but they preach to cause envy and strife.

Does this mean that anyone that suggests separating from those that live counter to the word are preaching strife - no. They are preaching Biblical principles.

One that preaches envy and strife is one that preaches in reaction to their own envy and normally they cause strife with that preaching.

Any preaching that is not just straight preaching of Christ will normally cause strife sooner or later.

Just what might preaching due to envy mean? This might be illustrated by a pastor that sees a particular ministry growing quickly. Due to his envy there might be two courses of action. It might be bringing false accusation against the fast growing ministry, or beginning to preach for results to increase the focus upon him rather than upon Christ.

Another possible situation could be someone that lacks financial adequacy. He might start preaching on giving in the hope of further income to the church and consequently to himself. I have to wonder if the prosperity gospel people do not have a little of this in their preaching today.

These preach that God does not want anyone to be poor, but it seems in many of these churches the pastor's Mercedes Benzes are financed on the backs of poor people that are giving more than they can afford to give.

God does not want us to give to our detriment but to give of His due and of our love.

16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

It seems that some of those opposing Paul were trying to increase Paul's afflictions or troubles.

This gives insight into the preaching of envy specifically - it would seem that some were envious of Paul's ministry and wanted him out of the way - tends to back up the thought of our first illustration.

It is clear that both are preaching the Gospel, so both are believers. Any conclusion about the verse needs to have this as a basic understanding.

17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.

On the other hand there are some that preach Christ out of a pure heart and they know that Paul's ministry is God's business not theirs.

Oh, how many times have I seen good men run off from churches because they are having a good ministry with people. Church leaders can fall into envy way too easily.

A pastor had a church with a large group of senior citizens in the congregation. He would ask young men to work with the people but as soon as the men built bridges to the seniors the pastor would become aggravated with the success and run the young men off.

This happened four times before the man finally was moved into a higher position within the organization. This is typical if you haven't observed it yet. When someone becomes a problem they move them into higher positions. My first experience of this was when a pastor whose son was living in adultery and not willing to confront his son resigned from his church and was promptly hired as president of a local seminary.

Typical - if someone can't make it as a pastor move him into higher positions or have him teach in a college or seminary. Never mind the sin he is in, never mind the wrecked lives he leaves behind, never mind the split churches.

18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

Some that were preaching Christ were doing it for wrong purposes or with wrong motives, yet Paul rejoiced because Christ was being preached.

Some might suggest that this is a passage that would teach that anyone preaching Christ should be a joy to us - even with false doctrine with it.

I don't think that would be supported here. I believe that Paul is talking about one that is presenting Christ correctly for the wrong purpose/motive. Not that they are teaching false doctrine with it.

One might wonder how you could preach Christ with a wrong purpose.

It is obvious this text relates to the previous verses (fifteen and following), but how were they preaching Christ - how could they present Christ correctly but with the wrong purpose/motive?

The word translated pretense relates to doing something for a pretended cause. Thus they might preach Christ, but not because they wanted to preach Christ but to gain some other goal.

This would require that they know how to preach Christ properly - at the very least the knowledge of the Gospel.

Is it possible that the men saw the great impact Paul was having on people and they wanted to do the same and started preaching Christ - not that they were previously? This would fit the pretending idea.

Or how about the possibility that they saw some of their students going to see Paul and getting excited about preaching Christ, so to maintain their students they started preaching to be like Paul.

Paul knew what they were doing, but didn't care, for Christ was being preached.

Not only will he rejoice, he will rejoice in the future as well. I have had things happen that were such a blessing at the time - and thinking back at a future date find the occurrence still a great blessing.

Now, think of someone preaching Christ in the hope of causing you trouble and God using it for His good purpose anyway - what a blessing to remember! In fact in my mind what a crack up! They are trying to to be trouble and God turns it into good. How revolting is that?

19. Jamieson, Fausett and Brown mention that the phrase "This shall turn out to my salvation," is a direct quote from Job 13.16 in the Septuagint which was a Greek translation of the Old Testament in Paul's time. They also mention "The Greek intimately joins the two nouns together, by having but one preposition and one article: "Through your prayer and (the consequent) supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (obtained for me through your prayer).""

1. Pity these poor lost guards that were around Paul. They were a captive audience even though Paul was the captive. They were going to hear the word, like it or not.

2. I was wondering how Paul could be so cool about people using him some how as a pretense to preach Christ for a wrong motivation. How could he not speak out against their falsehood?

Well, the answer is most simple. It was all about Christ in his life. He served Christ, he lived for Christ, and he did all he did for Christ. He lived as if his entire purpose in life was Christ. They were preaching Christ, no matter if it was about him; it was Christ that was getting the glory. If Paul had allowed himself pride of life he most likely would have spoken out against their false motives.

Are there ways that we can do this in the church today? I firmly believe many churches have this as their mind set. They preach and witness to bring in numbers and dollars, rather than out of a genuine love for lost people. Christ sent us to disciple - nothing more, and nothing less. To disciple to gain numbers or dollars is a false purpose of witness even though it is a great result for God.

Someone going on calling because someone shamed them into it from the pulpit might be a similar situation. You aren't going because God burdened your heart for the lost, but because the pastor burdened your guilt for not going calling.

My, are we not full of trouble in the church today? God will gain the glory, but we will loose the reward and satisfaction of serving Him properly when we stand before Him.

3. In verse fourteen Paul says "more bold to speak the word without fear." If you have a translation other than the King James you probably see "speak the word of god" which is the way it appears in a number of texts, just not the texts that the King James was based on.

In my opinion, "of god" is the specific implication so I don't see a major problem either way. I trust the King James only brethren won't view this as glossing over an error in the manuscripts, but I see very little difference either way. I may well be corrected soon :-) Please be gentle.

4. Verse sixteen or seventeen, depending on which translation you have, mentions that the incorrect preachers were trying to cause Paul trouble in prison. The King James translates it as follows "supposing to add affliction to my bonds."

How might their incorrect attitudes/purposes have caused him problems in prison? By adding to the crowds coming to him? By causing confusion as to the Gospel?

Since Paul was satisfied that their Gospel was right on, that would not be the "affliction" in my mind.

Jamieson, Fausett, and Brown suggest: "Their thought was, that taking the opportunity of my being laid aside, they would exalt themselves by their Judaizing preaching, and depreciate me and my preaching, and so cause me trouble of spirit in my bonds; they thought that I, like themselves, sought my own glory, and so would be mortified at their success over mine."

I would suggest that this is a good possibility; however I would not think that these were Judaizers since Paul thought that their Gospel was Christ honoring.

They further suggest that the motivation was to draw attention away from Paul, now that he was in prison, to them as the reason that the Gospel was spreading as it was at the time. Again, this seems like a good possibility.

5. I am not one to look to rewards in heaven, but one must wonder. Since Paul had a proper attitude, and since the Gospel seemed to be progressing, even if it was through wrong motivation toward Paul, will Paul gain the reward? I rather expect this might well be the case.

Even if we don't gain a reward for having a proper attitude, we ought to have one.

Endeavor to see God's point of view rather than your own. It will help you not get upset with the wrongs of others. It might be good to review your own motivations in what you do as well. You might have some false motives as well.

6. We often think of Paul's house arrest as pretty plush for the day and indeed it was a lot better than the prison itself, however consider being chained to a man twenty-four hours a day. You sleep with the man, you eat with the man, you do everything with the man chained to you.

He listens to every word you say, notices every facial expression you make and is free to report such to his higher officials.

How many of us could allow our Christianity to be scrutinized that closely? How many of us would come up looking like a real Christian? How many of us could stand to be held to that high a standard?

We need to live as if we were chained to a guard. We need to be held to that standard because it is the standard for a Christian. We ought to live our lives as if every word were being recorded for our coming trial.

Why not put this situation to your television viewing. Would you like your guard and maybe the guard’s bosses knowing what you watch on television? Would you be proud of your viewing habits or would you change them quickly?

7. We have the introduction of "envy" into ministry in verse fifteen. Might we say, "Pastoral Envy" or might we also suggest "Layman Envy?"

Seldom do we see this sort of thing in our pastors or congregations, after all who is going to advertise that they are envious of someone else, we all know we as individuals are the "greatest." Who is going to rise during prayer request time and ask for prayer to rid themselves of envy? Not many I am sure.

This is a problem not only in the pastors, but in all areas of Christian life. Envy between teachers, envy between leaders and envy between every other sort of classification in a church.

I have mentioned before a church that was extremely behind in their mission commitments and were struggling to pay other bills. It should be related that the missions committee brought forth ideas that raised the deficit plus extra. Shortly after the successful struggle toward financial sanity, it was rumored that some in the finance committee thought it should have been them that was running the campaign to catch up in missions giving.

WHO CARES WHO DOES WHAT? God gets the glory and that is the focus no matter who does what! Let us put that in a different light. "I want to glorify God more than you do!" "I want to gain the glory for glorifying God.? No, we wouldn't make such statements, but isn't that what the outcome of envy is?

After all, if there is no envy, there is little care about who is doing what as long as everyone is doing for God. God should be our focus, yet envy concentrates our focus onto the material personal realm and how others view us.

Back to pastoral envy for a moment. One of the main causes of pastors having feelings of envy relate to numbers in their church. If you are in a small church that isn't going anywhere and you go to a conference and hear of other pastors seeing great growth .... you know the story.

Here is just a point of illustration. Many years ago a small church pastor in Idaho invited a small boy to Sunday school. The boy came and heard the gospel. After understanding the gospel the boy accepted the Lord and began attending church on a regular basis.

This small church pastor could have focused on numbers, but rejected that idea and focused on souls. He became a great soul winner though I am sure you have never heard of him. The fact that you would not know him is proof that envy was not stirring him to self glory.

Shift ahead many years skipping the many trials and tribulations of life and today we find that the pastor is still winning souls, but a little slower now since he is in his 90's and using a walker. He still wins people to the Lord in the care home. The little boy is long grown and has started several churches including one fairly large one; he has started a mission to reach one of the many ethnic groups in our land and is busy in several other ministries including pastoring a church.

You see if your focus is on God He can use you in great ways, you don't have to pump yourself up, you don't have to toot your own horn you just need to be yourself - God designed you - you just need to do what God has for you to do - He is directing you - and let HIM GAIN THE GLORY and leave all that envy stuff to others that will spin and squirm to make themselves great.

Yes, the great preacher may be remembered from generation to generation and the plodder may fade from memory shortly after his death, but think of the eternal reality that is set into motion by each individual. Think of the eternal reward of the faithful servant in comparison to the self centered man that builds to see his name inflated.

It is a worn illustration, but it is God's. Would you rather watch wood, hay and stubble burning when you meet Christ or would you rather see the precious ones of life that you have assisted in their journey into Christ's presence?