Philippians 1:12-26

Hello church family! I pray that however this little message finds you today, that it would be an encouragement to you of the faithfulness of God and the hope that we have in Jesus. I want to invite you to read Philippians 1:12-26 with me and allow the Holy Spirit to encourage you and speak to your heart today.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE learning about history, about empires and civilizations, about great men and women that have gone before us. I love learning from their successes and failures, and I specifically love trying to understand the world and context they were living in. I especially love doing this with the bible. All too often we can find ourselves reading the bible, memorizing passages, looking for deep meaning in the words, and forgetting that there is much that can be learned simply by understanding its context in history. Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi is one of the most, if not the most joyful of his letters and if we hurry through reading it, we just might miss why that is so astounding.

Today, January 12th 2021, we are truly in a wild time in history with so much chaos and craziness happening around the world. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fear and worry about the future, and to live aware of the ugly stuff.

Flashback to the sixties… no, not “those” sixties, AD 60, when the beetles were still just bugs and tie dye was hardly cool. This was one of the most terrible times to be a follower of Christ in all of history. It was around this time that one of the most infamous emperors of Rome, Nero, had begun feeding Christians to lions, as well as using them as torches in his garden for dinner parties. This happens to be where the popular firework, a roman candle, gets its name. It was ugly, really ugly. So ugly that the early church would just refer to Nero as “the beast” because they didn’t want to utter his name. This is the context for the world Paul was living in; this is the world that persecuted and imprisoned him. And in a prison in Rome, is where he wrote the most joyful of his letters. THAT, is what is astounding about this letter.

Verse 12 - I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel…

I want to encourage you today, that whatever you’re facing, whatever you’re going through, whatever challenges and hardships, discouragement and pain, loss and suffering, know that GOD IS WITH YOU. God is a master at making good come out of bad, joy out of suffering, life from death, peace from chaos. Know this, that abiding in the faithful presence of God, trusting in the person of Jesus, even in the most terrible times, turns our pain into a proclamation of the gospel of hope… so that we can all say, “what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel!"

If you want, you can pray this with me today: God, you are good. Thank you that you are with me, and that you’ve made me a temple of your presence. In all that I am facing and may face today, I trust you. I trust that you are making all things work together for my good. I ask that you would make my life a spreader of the gospel today. Amen.

Grace and Peace to you today.