Philippians 1:12–18 (Fettered Liberty)

We read Philippians 1:12–18 and learn why Paul sees prison as a platform for joy: the gospel keeps moving even when he cannot. We challenge ourselves to trade complaint for perspective and to practice a quiet, steady boldness that points people to Jesus in everyday trials. 
• Paul’s personal letter and the unity and humility it aims to form 
• Jim and Elizabeth Elliot as a picture of God bringing fruit from pain 
• “Fettered liberty” as the tension of chains and spiritual freedom 
• Paul’s surprising update that imprisonment advances the gospel 
• Confidence and boldness are spreading through believers who watch Paul 
• Mixed motives in preaching and why Paul still rejoices 
• How comfort and material lack can both distract us from God’s work 
• Quiet consistent boldness as daily discipleship rather than one dramatic moment 
• Questions about what our kids, coworkers, and friends learn from our attitude 

Share and Connect

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right. Good morning. I feel blessed to be here. It's a good day. It's a great day. It is the day the Lord has made, as we read from Psalms 18. But we are in Philippians, Philippians chapter 1. We're working our way through the entire book of Philippians. I'm having fun. I hope you are. I'm certainly as I study, it's it's just fun. I like it. And I hope I would like it.

Welcome And Philippians Context

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I'm a pastor. That should probably be something I enjoy doing is studying scripture. If not, probably be an issue. But we have up to this point, uh, we realize that Paul is writing a personal letter. Uh he's writing a letter to a church that he cares deeply about, and that church has some issues, which we will get to a little later in the book of Philippians. And we see that from the very beginning, in the very structure of how Paul is writing this letter, that he is laying out some things for us. He's laying out lessons and instruction and attitudes that will help solve the problems that the Philippian church is going through. And he is he's laying out unity, he's laying out humility, he's laying out service, he's laying out this call to follow his example as he follows Jesus. And it's all happening from the very beginning. We've read that his grace is this unifying presence, that we are all saints in his grace. And if we're all saints and all called out people, that's where we start. That the titles and the authoritative structures that we make don't matter as much when it comes to out church stuff, when we just boil it down to the fact that we all needed Jesus, and now we all have Jesus. Today we come to the body of the letter. Everything we've read up until this point was sort of just the intro stuff, and now we're coming to the body. And before we get into that, I wonder if any of you have ever heard of Jim and Elizabeth Elliott. Jim and Elizabeth Elliot. If you don't know, the most recent piece of media about them is from the movie uh from 2005 or 2006, The End of the Spear. End of the Spear. But basically, their missionary family. In the early 1950s,

Jim And Elizabeth Elliot’s Story

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Jim Elliott and his wife and his family and others, they served as missionaries in Ecuador, and they worked primarily with uh this tribal group of people and basically translating um the Bible into their language and planting churches for them. And during this process, Jim became increasingly burdened for a neighboring uh group of tribes uh called the uh Akuya, and they were an isolated tribe, and there was there was almost no interaction with the Western world with this tribe, and they were known to be very violent people, often killing outsiders. But Jim couldn't avoid it, he couldn't forget about it. And so Jim, with a group of other missionaries, decide to launch this operation to make contact with them. They do this pretty cool thing where they uh that they get this pilot, and he's also a Christian, and they fly around in circles with this bucket. This is this is sort of like engineering physics, but they fly around in circles in this airplane and put a bucket down, and they fly around in such a way that the bucket's stationary, and they put gifts in the bucket, and the people come and like put get the gifts out and put them in, and this goes on for a couple of weeks until they realize I think we can go down there and make contact with these people now. They've seen the plane, they're gonna see the plane land, they're gonna see it's around the plane, and so they go down and they land, and five days later, after they land, some things go wrong, and basically the men in this tribe go and they kill every single missionary. Right? But that story doesn't stop there. The story keeps going, and we see that Jim's wife and a few of the other wives don't give up on this tribe, despite the fact that the tribe just killed their husbands. And they go back and they do make contact, peaceful contact, and they live there, and they end up translating the Bible for them. They end up getting even some of the people who murdered their husbands saved. It's an astounding story. You you ought to go read about this. It's the Elliott family, Jim and Elizabeth Elliott. And and uh basically she wrote a book. It's called Through the Gates of Splendor, and it's a one of the best books you will ever read about missions work and about the heart of the gospel. Go read it. But it's a challenging story on multiple levels, right? That that first of all, the fact that there are missionaries in a foreign country, they're away from civilization, that that that's challenging by itself. The fact that this man was so driven to make contact with his people that they come up with a solution of the airplane and all this stuff, it it's it's a crazy thing. And then above and beyond that, that the passion and the understanding of the gospel from this wife, Elizabeth, to go back to the people who killed their husbands. It's just challenging. There's a passion here, and it's just amazing that we have this example of God producing something good out of something bad, and that's what we're reading about today in Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 18. Our image, our understanding of how things work often goes against what God does. In the midst of problems and pain, over and over again, God has revealed Himself to be able to produce great things from that. Philippians chapter 1,

Paul’s Chains Advance The Gospel

SPEAKER_00 5:30

verses 12 through 18. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. I'm not one to title a sermon, and by the way, can someone grab this and hand it out? Not that we can really pay attention to all these kids around here, but I'll keep one up here just for my this is just so that you have if you want something to look at. If you're tired of looking at my ugly mug, you can just look down at that paper and and listen and follow along. I'm not one to title a sermon. Um I very rarely do that, especially since I've stopped being a youth pastor. I used to do it pretty consistently just because I guess kids sort of can't remember a title at least. Don't really do that anymore. But there was a phrase as I studied and read through this that resonated with me. It's it's fettered liberty. Fettered liberty. If it's not a title, it is at least uh

Fettered Liberty And A New Lens

SPEAKER_00 7:04

an expression of the contents of these verses. And fettered means that that one has been bound. You're stuck, you can't move, you're you're chained up, you're not in control, and liberty implies freedom and implies control and and uh autonomy and self-governance. You you can do things on your own, and yet in the scripture, Paul's chains, his fetteredness, only works on the physical level, and there's still a liberty in what God is doing in the gospel. It's freely at work despite the chains of Paul. Paul's in prison. He's in prison, which is not a pleasant thing. And I know maybe he was under house arrest. He goes from house arrest to being in actual prison. It doesn't matter. And this this church, this Philippian church that cares deeply for him, has sent this man, Epiphradus, uh, with a gift to alleviate some of the problems that Paul was probably experiencing being in prison. If prison is bad now, what was prison like 2,000 years ago? Was prison a pleasant place, John, for the people who were in it? No. Even well-run prisons, not a great place. Think about 2,000 years ago, before they had social welfare or they cared about people. Pretty bad situation. And so there's some sympathy and worry and empathy that must have been these strong motivating factors for this Philippian church to care for Paul, this person that they loved. And we saw a glimpse of this last week. There's this deep mutual love and care between Paul and this church, and it's it's encouraging. I like it. They care. Paul cares, but Paul is fettered, he's trapped, he's stuck. We read through the last couple chapters of the book of Acts, and he was basically fettered the entire time, maybe not in chains, but he was not in control of his own destiny. But yet he didn't waste time. He was still influencing people, he was still having conversations, he was writing letters, he was having people visit him, he was still teaching. But above that, he still had grander plans for his life. He wanted to go to Rome. He wanted to get to Spain. And so for the last three years of the book of Acts, Paul is basically just stuck. He has no freedom, he has no liberty. And yet, Paul or God brought him to Rome where he wanted to go, even though Paul couldn't control that on his own, anyways, and yet that's where he ended up. God's faithful. It was this fettered condition that concerned the Philippian church. It was what was worrying them, it was what was concerning them, it was what inspired them to act on his behalf. And so, with apt uh attention, rapt attention, they await the return of this person that they have sent off to learn about Paul's troubles, to bring him a gift to help him. And yet, when they read the letter, when they hear the letter read to them, what they don't read, what they don't hear is Paul's concerns about himself. That's why they sent help in the first place. They wanted an update. And Paul sends an update, just not the one they were expecting. They don't receive news of his loneliness, his abuse, his physical pains, maybe his complaints about hunger, his annoyance at not being able to do what he wants to do, any illnesses that often might characterize imprisonment 2,000 years ago. No, Paul ignores all that. He doesn't mention that at all. He opens the body of the message of this letter with the news of the gospel's condition. And it's good news. He tells them, I know that this might be surprising, but everything that's happening to me is advancing the gospel. It's advancing the gospel. The gospel is moving freely. I am fettered, but the gospel is at liberty to move and is in fact moving because of my imprisonment. Put yourself in the sandals of the Philippians. So I did there, the sandals, they weren't wearing shoes. Slide your sandals on, your chacos, whatever is popular these days for sandals, flip-flops, and put yourself in the position. Thank you. I like it. Put yourself in their position. And they're reading this for the first time or even the 31st time. And just as a human, you expect a human response from Paul, right? This is a regular personal letter. But instead, what they are receiving is a new perspective. It's a different kind of attitude. It's a theological statement of the faithfulness and the power of God in the midst of problems and pains. Yes, I'm imprisoned. But the people that I am with, people who are in the royal palace, are starting to note the reason I am here is because of the gospel and because of Jesus, which is astounding that they're making that connection. These are pagans we're talking about here. They didn't know anything about the crucifixion, but they know something now. Yes, I'm in prison, but the local church, they're with me and they're walking with me, and walking through this with me. And as they watch me, they are emboldened to share the gospel like they've never been before. The gospel is moving and they are preaching with urgency. Because I am fettered. Again, I think fettered liberty is an appropriate title for this collection of verses. And I'll just go ahead and tell you from a personal perspective, reading this, I can attest to the theological spiritual reality that Paul is drawing out in this scripture. I've had things happen in my life as a Christian where I look back on and know that God moved in that painful moment to advance the gospel, and it brought, it brings me great joy and encouragement knowing that he does that. Maybe it didn't happen the same way it happened for Paul, but many times in my worst moments were some of the most powerful times of God's ministry in my life for myself and for the people around me. I don't think we should be surprised by this. I don't think we should be surprised by Paul's attitude here and his words. We've seen it at work in his life over and over again in the book of Acts. And even beyond Paul, there are hints and symbols and signs of this type of faith and this type of response all throughout Scripture. All throughout Scripture. It was out of a genocide, infanticide of children that God literally raised out Moses to be a deliverer for his people. It was

God Brings Good From Pain

SPEAKER_00 14:00

from the youngest and the overlooked that God raised out a king in David. In the book of Judges and in the historical books and in the prophecy, we see over and over again that it was because of problems and in tribulations and in issues that God does these spectacular miracles that we stand on today to be encouragement to us. The very lives of Elijah and Elisha are spectacular because they are happening not in good times but in bad times. And so over and over again in the Old Testament, we see that God reaches into pain and brings forth deliverance. Reaches into problems and brings forth these amazing things. And we get to the New Testament. And the ultimate bad thing to have happened, the death of Jesus, bursts forth the gospel. Out of evil is produced our salvation. Out of this death is produced something good. And by the way, Jesus' own earthly lineage is full of brokenness, hurt, pain, prostitutes, and foreigners. And out of that mess, Jesus is birthed forth. And so why are we surprised that when pain happens, when tribulation is happening around us, that God is still moving and working, that He's still faithful. And here, Paul, in alignment with a suffering savior, because we serve a suffering savior, announces that this horrible situation is actually surprisingly, unexpectedly producing good fruit. And the Philippians, the way this scripture reads, are going to read this in a surprising manner. They're surprised by hope, they're surprised by this good news. The enemy rejoices in our pains and our failures, but he's not learned yet that God is still God and God is still good, even in the midst of the worst moments of our life. And even the small bad moments. Right? We all have bad days. And even in those bad days, if we correct our attitude, there is a chance that we might see God working and doing something good if we're paying attention. Which is part of what Paul is trying to draw out for the Philippians church. It's the same thing that needs to be drawn out for us. It's a change in perspective, it's a change in how you view existence. Paul says, in fact, even the people who are around me who wish to mock me or use my imprisonment for their own gain, they're proclaiming the gospel. And we'll talk about this in more detail next week, but Paul has no choice but to rejoice. Paul is fettered. But the gospel is free. Paul is not in a position of blessing, but he's rejoicing. The Lord's moving anyways. I might be suffering, but what is God doing? I might be struggling with this relationship, but what can God do in that relationship despite of the struggle? I might be in a painful situation. I might be walking through some situations that I don't know how I'm going to make it to the other side. But the gospel is still moving through the problems and the pain to reach others because ultimately that's what it's all about is reaching others. I might not have all the resources I want. I might be living in lack, but the gospel is still being proclaimed in my life, and if that's happening, that's enough to rejoice. What a different perspective. We need that perspective. We get so tied up in things that don't matter. Even as a church, not just this church, but any church. We get distracted by good things. And listen, God can use material blessings. He has used the North American church mightily in his plan. He has. Blessings are not a problem. Blessings are not

Don’t Measure God By Comfort

SPEAKER_00 18:05

a reason to think you're doing something wrong. Blessings are good. Just don't get distracted by them. We often limit what God can do based on the material blessings he has given us. And that's just not how it works sometimes when we read scripture. If only we had a better building. If only we could afford this or that. If only we could pay some staff members, if only we had more money to give to this program or that program, to this missionary. Good things, by the way, not bad things, not evil things at all. Very good and healthy things for churches to think about and want and pray for. But it's the only, the only part that messes us up. Because even when we don't have those things, we've got to recognize that God is working in the lack. He's working in the in the in the not haves of our situation. Even when things don't seem like and don't look like we want them to look like, if we are following God's will and we're doing what we are called to do, God is being glorified and the gospel is being shared, and that's what ultimately matters. And God's working through that. And on a personal level, outside of a church or organizational setting, we need to hear this too. We fixate on our problems, we fixate and get distracted by what we have and what we don't have and what we think we can do and what we don't think we can do. We just get trapped into our own little bubble of concern. We come up with our own ways to sort of verify: is God with me? Is God blessing me? Is God gifting me to do this? And if it doesn't look like certain things are happening a certain way, we sort of get ourselves stuck in this negativity and stuck in this situation where we are missing the blessings that God is doing that might not look like material blessings. In the midst of your lack, in the midst of your insecurity, in the midst of your problems, we serve a God who has over and over and over again revealed himself to be faithful to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask, think, or imagine. That's the God we serve. It's not a prosperity gospel in the material sense, it's a prosperity gospel in the sense that God is in control. And even if we are losing our lives, he is prospering. Amen. That's a prosperity gospel. Now, does God throw in some other blessings along the way sometimes? Yes. And praise God for it. But ultimately, his prosperity of the gospel supersedes our comfortableness, supersedes the situations that we are walking through. And I want that reality woven into my life so that so that I don't know. I just want to see it in action in my life. I want to see it in action in your life. I want people to look at my life and be encouraged and have boldness. Does that make sense? Paul calls out the fact that he is an example. He's in this terrible situation. And people look at his life and experience him in this situation, which is not pleasant. And out of his faithfulness and God's faithfulness to him, good things start happening. I want my children to see this at work in my life. I want my children to see that I prioritize the success and prosperity of the gospel over any situation that I might face. I want them to be fixated, like I'm fixated on the gospel at work in their life. So that in sickness, in health, in blessings, and in lack, in pain, in trials, and tribulations, when they look at me, they're not seeing me being overwhelmed by the problems of life. They're seeing me fixated on the gospel in the midst of those things. I want them to have that mindset a mindset of prosperity of the gospel above all else. I want them to see God's faithfulness at work through my attitude.

unknown 22:05

Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

What is our attitude when we face trials and tribulations? What are we how are we responding to these things? How do our children see us respond to these things? How do our friends see us respond to these things? How does our family see us respond to these things? How do our coworkers see us respond to the problems and tribulations of life, even the very small ones? How are my kids seeing me respond to traffic? Okay? It's a small thing, right? But it matters. It matters. By the way, if you don't understand, I'm calling myself out. It matters. 2,000 years later. I read this and I'm inspired to be bolder. And I just don't know, I don't know if you recognize this, but if you are bold for Christ, it never returns void. Right? We might think we're wasting our time sometimes stepping out for Jesus. And I promise you, even though with our earthly eyes, we might not see the results that perhaps we expect, you don't know what's happening. Jim and Elizabeth Elliott obviously display a bit of loud boldness for the gospel. It's a loud boldness. He's a martyr. He's a modern martyr. He died for the sake of the gospel. Elizabeth is a she's a, for lack of a better word, she's a saint, right? She she stepped into this horrible situation and kept working for the gospel. It's right, it's bold, it's loud. And I'm gonna go and tell you that might not be us. That might not be our calling necessarily. You might not have a loud boldness for the gospel. We might not be ever placed in that situation. So what are we going to do? Be discouraged by that? No. No, here's what I mean. You don't have to yell, yell about Jesus to somebody to be bold for the gospel. Now, sometimes it might work to yell at somebody about Jesus. I'm not saying don't do that. If God says go yell at a person about Jesus, just go do it, right? But sometimes that's not what we're called to do. Sometimes you're not called to be a martyr. Sometimes you're called to be a disciple.

Quiet Consistent Boldness

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Here's what I mean. Sometimes we get fixated, especially if you're a student of history and a student of Christianity. We look at all the disciples, we look at all the missionaries and all the people, and they lost their lives for the gospel. Well, we don't experience that. We haven't experienced that in a long, long time. And so you might think, well, how can I really serve God boldly if I can't make the ultimate sacrifice? Well, here's the reality: you make the ultimate sacrifice every day to crucify yourself and live for Christ. Maybe God's not calling you to die one time, maybe he's calling you to die every single day to your own sinful desires. That's what I call quiet and consistent boldness in the gospel. Right? Sometimes you're not called to go be a martyr, sometimes you're called to stop cursing. You're not called to go be a martyr, you're called to give more in church. You're not called to be a martyr, you're called to be more kind to the people around you. Sometimes it seems almost easier to have the one binary choice, yes or no, for the gospel, than it is the everyday nuance of living a disciple life. I look at the Elliott family, and it's encouraging and it's challenging, and there's clearly a level of passion and boldness and encouragement and sacrifice wrapped in their story. And we might never exactly connect with that, and I sort of pray we don't, because that means some stuff has gone wrong in this country. But it doesn't mean we're still not called to a boldness, a quiet boldness, encourage. We might not have to face down spears. But sometimes we face down metaphysical and emotional and habitual spears that want to destroy us. And the question is, are we going to say yes to the gospel whenever we're looking at something we're not supposed to be looking at? Are we going to say yes to the gospel whenever we're being disrespectful to our spouse? It's just as powerful, it's just as bold to say yes to the gospel in those moments than it is to say yes to the gospel when you're facing down a literal spear. It's a quiet and steady boldness that ends up producing the same results as the Elliott family's boldness. In the normalcy of your life, you're called to be a disciple. In the normalcy of your day-to-day, you are called to die to self. And in the everyday normalcy of the trials and tribulations that we are guaranteed to go through, you're called to hold on to what God can do because it will produce results. I've said this before, I'll say it again. People got saved at my brother's funeral. Because my family, my mother, myself, and some of the others decided that we were going to respond in a way that brought glory to God. We didn't ignore the pain or the suffering. We didn't ignore the, I guess, the heaviness of the moment, but we just knew the story wasn't over and it changed that moment for others as well. Mike Morrow.

Painful Moments That Bear Fruit

SPEAKER_00 27:39

He listens to this sermon, some uh the podcast some sometimes. And I I think that my brother's life and the way that he experienced suffering and the way that my mother and I experienced suffering, I think that's one of the ways the Holy Spirit, I don't know, encouraged him to connect with God in a way, and now he's on fire for God. This is years later at this point. And he's serving God. And part of it was birthed out of pain. And he had his own pain in his own life, and he's serving God, and glory was produced from it. So whether we have a Jim Elliott moment, whether we have something something in between, or whether it's something as simple as just having the right attitude, when someone cuts you off in the grocery store, your boldness to have faith in a God who can do something in every moment, if we do that as a church, we don't have to have an evangelism program. We don't have to have a sidewalk Sunday school, which I love by the way. We don't have to have a VBS, which I love, by the way. We don't have to be able to have a food bank, which I want to do one day. We don't have to be able to clothe the hungry or the meek yet, which I want to do. But if we just have this attitude ingrained into who we are, we will start heading in the right direction and letting people understand there is something about this Jesus guy that I've got to get into my life. I want to join Christ's suffering as a privilege.

unknown 29:14

Right?

SPEAKER_00 29:15

We have a suffering king. Paul was joining in the suffering of Christ and his imprisonment. And every day, in big and small ways, I want to join in that suffering with rejoicing, knowing that out of it, God can produce something brilliant for somebody. Be challenged this morning. Every moment's an opportunity, every pain can be a blessing, every tribulation can turn into triumph. Let it stir up into an attitude that just, I don't know, just gives you some grit, some spiritual grit to keep going. So that when people look at us and they care for us and they come to us in our time of pain and they ask us how we're doing, they are surprised by our response that we are bragging on God's faithfulness. Like Paul in the Philippian church. Amen. If you look at your little notes I gave you, I've got some little things through here I want to end with and then we'll pray. But as you go home, as you think about this week, I want you to name one struggle you'd usually only complain about and ask, how could the gospel move through this? Whatever, I don't know what it is. Relational problem, financial problem, health problem. It doesn't matter. I want you to think about something that you would normally complain about, be bummed out about, and reflect on how

Weekly Challenges And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 30:48

might God be working through this to do something good. I want you to identify one person who's who is watching you or watching how you handle a hard thing. What are you teaching them? For me, this is real easy. I got kids, we all got kids. Every one of us got kids in here. When they look at us, how are they seeing us respond to life? Okay? How are your coworkers seeing you respond to life? Pick someone, one person, a family member, it doesn't matter. Someone that you spend some time with, that you're around, that you rub elbows with, how are they seeing you exist? And then some final commands here. I want you to I want you to pray about picking one quiet active boldness this week. A prayer when you don't want to pray, a conversation you don't want to have, a faithful word to someone who needs encouragement. And and do it. I know many of you, you read the Bible already, you pray already. I'm talking about going the extra step and praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal something for you to do outside of the norm for your life. Okay? And then just as a bonus, I really think you all should pick up um the the story of The Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliott, and you should read it. If not, at least, at least Wikipedia it, okay? Get the Cliff Notes version of it. It'll encourage you in your life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you're good and you're great. Once again, I pray that you'd be with those who are sick at home. Help them, encourage them, strengthen them. I pray that they would even right now sense your Holy Spirit and comfort. Pray for this nation. I pray that you would calm things down, that you would bring peace, joy, and happiness and thriving, and that we would use those blessings for your glory and for your honor. And Lord, I pray right now as we face life that we would understand and believe and know that you are faithful. And I pray that out of that faithfulness you would produce good fruit. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, and we all said together Amen.