Rev. David Holwick ZF PHILIPPIANS
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 1, 2017
Philippians 1:12-19
LEMONS TO LEMONADE
I. What was the most productive time of your life?
A. What were the circumstances?
1) For me, it has been times of pressure and opposition.
2) I know it is the same for many of you - hard times give
you the most growth.
a) Breaking a long-term relationship, changing jobs, bad
health, precarious finances, death of a loved one...
b) Hard times make or break you - easy-going times are
for coasting.
B. Paul knew all about hard times.
1) The Philippians were well aware he was in prison.
a) The Roman justice system was very severe, as Paul
would find out soon enough.
b) Maybe they figured he was a goner.
2) Paul had a different perspective.
a) He knows they are pessimistic and see it as a defeat.
1> Notice the language he uses - "what has happened
to me has actually served to advance the gospel."
2> This is the opposite of how they saw it.
b) But Paul is not going down, he is going forward.
C. Maybe you are in a hard time right now.
1) We all know about the sorrow that Ed and Kathie are
feeling over Karen's tragic death.
2) Others have been touched by death this week - Lee
lost an aunt who was more like a big sister to her.
3) Glenn is in the hospital and is feeling very down.
4) Betty is fighting for custody of her granddaughters,
fearing an abusive dad will get them instead.
5) This week I heard of a friend (not in this church) who
seemed to have beat cancer, but spots have just been
detected in his lungs.
6) Some have serious concerns about their children, or are
way behind on their bills.
II. What is God's perspective on what you are going through?
A. You might be thinking, He is the one who is dishing it out!
1) Maybe he is even enjoying my suffering.
2) If you dig deeper you might find that hard times will change
you for the better, and make you a more complete person.
B. Don't get sidetracked by worshipping your problems.
1) Some worship problems more sincerely than they worship Lord.
a) Their lives revolve around difficulties.
b) They fixate on the negatives and can talk about nothing
else.
2) Others ignore problems.
a) Real Christians don't have problems.
b) They pretend everything is rosy, when it definitely is
not.
C. God wants us to put our problems in the right perspective.
1) Our problems and suffering are real.
a) Some Eastern religions say it is just a figment of your
imagination, but Christians don't.
b) Pain is real.
c) When Jesus was hanged on a cross, it hurt. It killed
him.
2) We should realize that God has allowed the problem.
a) Human circumstances lie in God's hands.
3) Hard times can make us more knowledgeable and useful for him.
a) God doesn't just work IN SPITE of our circumstances,
but THROUGH them.
b) Paul saw evidence of this in his own life.
III. Paul faced difficult circumstances.
A. It is easier to witness for Christ in some places than others.
1) Witnessing in IHOP.
I had an astounding experience this week.
The Leonards and the Salmons took me out to IHOP for
my birthday breakfast.
I got a Senior Sampler for under $6.00 - nothing but the
best for your pastor.
2) We had a very cheerful waitress, and when the bill came,
Grant picked it up.
When the waitress came back for it, he told her she had
to answer a question before he would pay her.
She looked intensely at him, and he asked, "If you
were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?"
She immediately answered, "I think so. I believe in God."
She had been brought up in church, but she admitted she
had drifted away in recent years.
There was a lot about God she had questions about.
Grant told her salvation was more than believing in God,
it required making a commitment to Jesus.
He has to be your Lord and Savior.
A few minutes later, she was kneeling on the floor and
repeating the Sinner's Prayer after Grant.
I was speechless.
I am a real wimp when it comes to witnessing in public.
Sharing Christ behind a pulpit in church - much easier!
B. Prison is harder than IHOP.
1) Paul is probably imprisoned in Rome, toward the end of his
ministry.
a) Most likely, after the events in the book of Acts.
b) Acts ends with Paul under house arrest, witnessing to
Roman Jews who were allowed to visit him.
c) Here, he is locked up with an elite unit of soldiers,
the imperial guard.
2) Paul was in a hard place.
a) He had much less freedom than before.
b) He couldn't visit his churches.
C. But something great came from it.
1) He was able to witness to all these soldiers.
a) The prisoner made them his captive audience.
b) If he had been free, he wouldn't have been able to do
this.
2) A second benefit: other Christians became bold.
a) First-century Christians were timid, just like us.
b) After all, they were outnumbered a million to one.
c) Previously, Paul's effectiveness got them off hook.
1> Now that he was locked up, they realized they
had to do it themselves.
2> Modern churches sometimes realize this, too.
The Church in Mozambique has seen phenomenal growth in
the last few decades in spite of concerted persecution.
Dinis Sengulane, a church leader in Mozambique, was by
an English interviewer to explain the reasons for the
incredible growth.
This was his reply:
"In 1979 we had our churches closed.
Some of them were reopened in 1984 and in June 1988 the
government reopened all the remaining churches.
But when we reopened we had a problem because we could
not fit everybody in.
Many people had become Christians in spite of the churches
being closed.
"We had decided that in response to the problems we faced
then, each one of us should pray and fast on the first
Friday of the month...
and each person should aim to bring at least one other
person to Christ each year."
Sermon #21188
IV. Paul faced difficult people.
A. Some Christians gave him a hard time.
1) While he was imprisoned, these men jumped into the limelight.
2) He felt they were preaching for the wrong reason.
a) He attributes it to selfish ambition.
(like many politicians?)
b) They wanted more influence at Paul's expense.
B. What kind of Christians were they?
1) Many think they were heretics, false Christians.
a) Evangelist Marjoe in the 1970's.
b) Got rich preaching the gospel but didn't believe it.
2) Most of Paul's opponents probably weren't fakes like this.
a) They are said to preach Christ and are included with
the "brothers" (never said of heretics).
b) It is not their content, but their attitude and spirit.
3) Insincere Christians.
a) Personal ambition cloaked in religious garb.
b) Continual problem in church - it is too human.
1> Think Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.
2> It is easy to take your eyes off Christ.
C. Paul's focus.
1) He could have resorted to criticizing them, but doesn't.
2) He was fierce when the gospel was perverted, or Jesus was
attacked, but passive when the attacks were personal.
3) He looks beyond the messengers and sees that Christ is
still being preached.
a) For the personal stuff, he left it with God.
b) Are you able to do that?
D. Don't let people get your eyes off Jesus.
It was a 99 degree September day in San Antonio.
Two women were running around a car in near hysteria.
One was a mother, the other an aunt.
The object of their frenzy was a 10-month-old baby accidentally
locked inside the car.
A neighbor attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger.
But soon the infant was turning purple and had foam coming
from her mouth.
It had become a life-or-death situation when Fred Arriola, a
wrecker driver, arrived on the scene.
He grabbed a hammer and smashed the back window of the car to
set her free.
Was he proclaimed a hero?
He said, "The lady was mad at me because I broke the window.
I just thought, What's more important - the baby or the window?"
#1907
Christians too often focus on the window...
Come to understand what is truly important, and focus on that.
To Paul, the paramount thing is to lift up the Lord Jesus.
How much of a priority is that for you?
V. Paul had confidence in his deliverance.
A. Deliverance can be taken a couple of ways.
1) He could have expected to be released from prison.
2) He could have expected to be released from this world.
a) (more on this, next week)
b) Either way, he expected good things to happen soon.
B. Christians can take the long view.
Dr. Paul S. Rees tells about a professor at Union Theological
Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
One day, while lecturing, the professor quoted Romans 8:28:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him..."
In the discussion that followed, one of his students said,
"But, professor, you don't believe that all things work
together for good - all the pain and suffering and misery
- do you?"
His reply was: "The things in themselves may not be good, but
God can make them work together for good."
Before that day was over, the professor's wife was killed in
an automobile accident.
The professor himself was left a cripple.
When the president of the seminary visited him the teacher said,
"Tell my students that Romans 8:28 still holds good."
Before a year passed, the professor died and on his tombstone
was inscribed Romans 8:28:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him..."
#65926
1) Expect God to bring about good in your life.
2) Even the hardest events can sharpen you and even bless you.
3) Don't give up on the Lord, but give him your praise.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1907 “The Baby Or the Window?” by Ray Tiemann, Fredericksburg, Texas;
Leadership, June 1990.
#65926 “The Verse Still Holds,” D G K, sermon “Resurrection Assurance,”
November 29, 1987; <link>.
Sermon #21188 “Standing Firm,” by Rev. Stephen Sizer, Christ Church of
Virginia Water, England; <link>. Abe Kudra Collection.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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