SHARING THE GOSPEL THROUGH ADVERSITY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

Philippians 1:12-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Imagine this.

You have enjoyed freedom most of your life and have been able to travel from point-to-point at the Lord’s moving to share the Gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, with others. It hasn’t been easy and the journey has presented more than a few challenges but God had always brought you through.

But then something unbelievable happened.

You were imprisoned for simply telling others about the eternal life that came from believing in Jesus, the only Son of God who sent Him to save mankind.

This is what happened to the Apostle Paul.

So what did Paul do while incarcerated?

He didn’t give up his work for the cause of Christ, that’s for sure. Rather, he showed how we can share the Gospel always, even in the midst of adversity.

As we see in today’s verses from our continuing study of the first chapter of Philippians, Paul testifies to the miraculous Gospel work God was doing through him while in chains. The Apostle didn’t surrender to his difficult circumstances. Rather, he saw them as an opportunity to help those around him get saved.

In other words (and I borrow from a modern day phrase), Paul took the lemons (hardship) he was given and made lemonade (a positive) from them.

Just as the Jewish religious leaders believed that killing Jesus would stop the new covenant He preached to all who would hear only to find out their acts only led to the Gospel spreading, the imprisonment of Paul didn’t hinder his Gospel efforts. Conversely, Paul lets the Philippian Christians know that the Gospel had been advanced with the salvation message made clear to the “whole palace guard and to everyone else”. As a result of this, the sharing of the good news of Jesus while in chains, “most of the brothers and sisters”, a referral to other Christian believers Paul had developed into evangelists, had “become confident in the Lord” and “dare(d) all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear”.

With this, we see that Paul’s incarceration didn’t serve as a deterrent to the spreading of the good news of salvation. Rather, it became a motivator for other believers to carry on the work of Paul while he was in chains.

So why did Paul share all this with the Philippians? And what do these words mean to us today?

Paul knew that persecution would come on the Christians in Philippi. Christianity was still a fledgling religion, up against opposing belief systems that had been in place far longer. As Philippian Christ believers continued to share the Gospel, there would be pushback and this resistance could even lead to danger. We definitely see that this happened during Paul’s missionary journeys.

Paul wanted to encourage and inspire the Philippian Christians to stand strong for the cause of Christ, no matter what might come. If he would be successful in sharing the Gospel while in prison, they could be as well, no matter what adversity might come.

As for us today, Christianity is coming under attack more and more every day. As liberalism continues to take center stage, the values of Christianity will be more and more in opposition to secular ideals.

Could we get to the place where a person might be put in prison simply for sharing the Gospel with others?

It seems unimaginable in any country that would profess itself to stand on principles of freedom but the Bible paints a bleak picture about the spiritual state of the world when Jesus returns and it’s not pretty. Today, in many parts of our world, people are being imprisoned and even killed while carrying out Jesus’ Great Commission. We shouldn’t lose sight of this as we read about the first century hardships of the first Christian evangelists.

In the end translation, there will always be resistance and adversity associated with the sharing of the Gospel and this is why there will always be a need for these words from Paul, written not just for the Philippians but any Christians who may be facing hardship for the cause of Christ.

In the midst of persecution, Christians can follow the Apostle’s lead and see adverse circumstances as a blessing and not a curse. God will make the way for us to bring His plan of salvation to others if we just keep our hope, faith, and trust in Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com