Joy in Adversity

Introduction

Our daughter Keely didn’t like school. Well, let me rephrase that. She didn’t like the first year of school. More properly, she hated the first year of school. For I don’t know how many successive days, the beginning of the kindergarten year. She cried incessantly. She cried at home in the morning. She cried at school so much so that desperate teachers and administrators would have to call us to come get her. And then she’d cry when she got home. She hated school. We tried everything. We bribed her.

Don’t judge me. We were at the end of our rope. One morning we gave her a pep talk slash reading the riot act. And we said, Keely, you’re going to school. We don’t, in fact, we’re not coming to get you today. So you will not cry. She looked up at us, all the color gone from her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, trembling, and said with a smile, okay. Unless Alicia cries, then I have to. And she tried her best to smile, a little fake smile, through her fear and sorrow. You ever feel like that? The Bible over and over again, old and new testament, tells us as God’s redeemed people that we’re to be happy. I lost count at the number of times and the number of synonyms that the Bible uses to tell us that.

Joy, rejoice, blessed, happy, content. Those words run throughout Scripture that tell us, you and I, that we’re to be happy. And so sometimes, if we’re honest, we stand there looking up at God with all the face color drained from our face, tears running down our cheeks, shaking, saying, Okay, Lord, I’m happy. Because sometimes life, or so it seems, doesn’t want you to be happy. Because life is full of adversity. In the book of Philippians, would you turn to Philippians chapter one with me again? We started last week a series that we’re going to do from the book of Philippi, not revolutionary in the sense that we’re going to talk about joy from this epistle. This series we’ve simply entitled Finding Joy in Our Lives. Maybe we should have titled it Making Joy in Our Lives, because it does have to be a choice.

We talked last week, you may remember, about the joy of fellowship. As Paul in this introduction to this letter told them, I have you in my mind, I have you in my heart, and I have you in my prayers. And we talked last week about the idea of finding joy in our fellowship. And I want to again encourage you to do at least two things. Number one, please, please be the joy in this fellowship. Be the reason that someone else smiles. Be the reason that someone else can find joy and happiness in their life. So be the joy in this fellowship. And then secondly, find the joy in this fellowship. Find it for yourself. It’s here. If you’ll seek it out and make that your priority.

And so we talked about the joy of fellowship. But Paul, if anybody could relate to adversity in life, it would be the Apostle Paul. Need I remind you where he is when he’s pinning this letter. He’s in prison, a Roman prison. Now, those circumstances will vacillate a little bit, but this sentence will eventually end in his death, historians tell us. And this is the long culmination of a life as a preacher of the gospel and apostle of Jesus Christ that included, remember in 2 Corinthians, stonings, beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, glore that have led him to this place, a prison. And it’s here that nearly 20 times in this short four-chapter letter will say joy. Rejoice in the Lord. And so Paul, highly qualified to speak on this subject, is going to talk to us about finding joy in adversity.

1. Obstacle or Opportunity?

The first thing is that we must see our obstacles in life as also maybe opportunities. Is it an obstacle or is it an opportunity? Look with me. Are you in Philippians chapter 1? Look at verses 12 and 13. The apostle says, but I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me. Now let’s pause again there. They knew. He didn’t have to do what he did to the Corinthians and go through that laundry list of what he had been through. He didn’t have to tell them where he was. Remember, we said last week in the joy of fellowship lesson that they had actually sent someone to him in Rome to meet his needs. They knew where he was.

As Roman citizens, they would have known what that was like. And let’s pause and just talk about that a little bit. I don’t know that there exist, despite sometimes our criticisms of it, I don’t know that there exist a nice prison. Some may be nicer than others, but none of us are signing up for any of them. First century Roman prisons were not nice. Historians try to piece together information about these prisons. Now, Paul may have had it a little bit easier, he being a Roman citizen, but it was still not a joy. And many times, if you were in a prison in the first century, that again, unlike today, if you ate, it wasn’t going to be at the behest of the Roman government. They didn’t have a cafeteria set up with cookers and uh with cooks and dietitians taking care of you.

Sometimes if you ate, somebody had from the outside had to bring you something to eat.

And Paul says, I want you to know, brethren, that the things that happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So that it’s become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. Talk about an optimist. You’re gonna talk about a glass half-full kind of guy. Paul sits in a Roman prison after a lifetime of beatings, seemingly, at least in some of his epistles he writes from this prison, knowing that he’s going to die as a result of these sentences. And he says, I want you to know that this is actually a good thing. It’s turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. And so this obstacle, and I don’t want to sugarcoat it, it wasn’t a good thing.

But Paul said there was some good that came out of this bad, horrible, terrible, no good thing. Paul, as maybe only Paul could say, look what it’s done, not for me, but look what it’s done for the gospel. And look what it’s done for the souls of these Roman prison guards who might not have heard the gospel if not for me being thrown into this prison. Paul says it’s become apparent, it’s become known to them that my chains are in Christ. Here in other places, to the Galatian brethren, he talks about his chains. Many times Paul speaks of his imprisonment in terms of my chains. And again, historians give us some little information about this and the word itself, the word, the specific word that he uses there for chains, indicates what historians have verified for us, that not only was Paul in some prison cell, but at least a portion, a time of his imprisonment, he would have actually literally been chained to a prison guard.

And historians tell us they worked in about four to six-hour shifts of setting by the prisoner, in this case the apostle Paul, and being, we would say, handcuffed to that prisoner. You know what that prisoner got that prison guard got exposed to? Because he was chained to Paul. Remember, speaking of Philippi, remember in Acts chapter 16 when Paul was thrown into that Philippian jail. What were they doing? They were praying and singing and praising God. That prison guard got to see that. And hear that.

How many sermons? You talk about having a captive audience. There’s nothing better than having a captive audience who have to listen to your sermons. I’ve tried to convince the elders here that their souls on cruise ships that aren’t here in the gospel. And that I could be a missionary to those captive audiences and preach. But Paul was in a prison to his pardon the pun, to his captive audience, who had to sit there four to six hours a day, chained to him and hear Paul preach the gospel. Paul shows us that an obstacle can actually be seen as an opportunity. Find the true joy in the midst of suffering by seeing what good can come of this. How is this maybe making me better? How is this opening doors of opportunities for me to serve and to help others?

2. Suffering Can Turn Into Service

And that brings us to our next point. Look at verses 14 beginning. That suffering can turn into service. And it had done that for Paul. Look in 1 Philippians chapter 1, verse 14. And most, after talking about what this adversity had done for the furtherance of the gospel to those Praetorian guards, he says in verse 14, and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Now, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I’m appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, and yes, we’ll rejoice. Those are words. I’ll rejoice that I’m in prison. Why? Because there’s people here hearing the gospel that would have never heard it if I wasn’t a prisoner here. I’ll rejoice in this prison cell because I’m getting reports, Paul says, that there’s more preaching going on out there because I’m in here. Most of the brethren, he says, have, and isn’t it ironic the way it works this way, have been strengthened and emboldened by my chains. At first glance, you think it would do the opposite. Oh no, Paul’s in prison from preaching the gospel. Well, then I’m out. I’m not going to preach, I don’t want to go to prison.

But God put within us this almost defiance, a good defiance. That, oh yeah, you’re going to put him in prison. Then I’ll stand in the breach and I’ll take his place. And I’ll preach the gospel. And almost again in that defiance, saying, Come arrest me too.

They become bolder in their preaching of the gospel. And so Paul with a little grin on his face would say, then maybe it’s good that I’m here. What a powerful attitude. Because this is Paul, the apostle, Paul, who has now been sidelined. Oh, he’s still preaching to those Praetorian guards, but he’s not doing what he was doing in those missionary journeys in the book of Acts. And I don’t want to discount what the other Christians were doing. It says in Acts chapter 8 that Christians everywhere were preaching the gospel. And I don’t want to discount what the other apostles were doing, because the book of Acts just zeroes in upon the work of Paul, doesn’t tell us what Matthew and those other guys were doing. But don’t you get the sense that Paul was doing a lot?

Maybe more than any others.

And Paul, pardon the sports analogy, the quarterback, the star quarterback of the team, is on injured reserve. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing for the furtherance of the gospel. We would see that as a terrible thing. But Paul says, no. This has actually become a service to others. Others are preaching the gospel and preaching it more boldly. Now he says, now some of them don’t have the best motives. And that’s what’s ironic about this is Paul sees this, that not only is he being persecuted by the Roman government, who cares nothing about God and the gospel and those who believe in God and preach the gospel. But even his own brethren. We’re seeking, Paul says in the New King James translation, seeking to add affliction to my chains.

That word affliction in your translation may say different word, literally speaks the idea of friction. And I don’t know where Paul intentionally meant this or not, but they said they are adding friction to my chains. Paul is saying, not only am I wearing these shackles and these chains, but even some of my brethren are wanting to kind of twist and spin those to just make it worse. They’re adding affliction to that.

Too many preachers. Who feel like at least that they’ve been mistreated by their own brethren? And they became bitter and quit preaching. And some, I’m sad to say, even became so bitter that they just quit Christ. And that’s easy to do. And Paul could have done that. But this Mr. Ray of sunshine turned things around and said, yes, they’re just preaching the gospel out of envy. And they’re doing it somehow to pour salt in my wounds. But on some level that’s okay. Because at least they’re preaching the gospel. And it took this attitude to get there. And it’s really not about me. It’s about the gospel being preached. Our suffering can turn into service to others. And I’ve witnessed that as well. I saw a sign that said, lost dog.

And had a picture of the little dog. It said, lost dog. Three-legged. Has a broken tail, missing one ear, and has the mange. And he answers to lucky. And I’ve kind of known some people like that. I’ve known some people that just had the hardest of times. But they had such a wonderful attitude. When I was in college, I worked in a kind of an internship one summer with Brother Bob Waldron at the church in Hansville, Alabama. And Bob assigned me to go out to some of the members and to kind of maybe encourage them. And one of the ladies there, I’ll never forget her. Her husband was suffering with Alzheimer’s. And he was in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s. And so it had pretty much confined her to home 24-7.

She was his sole caregiver. Everything needed her attention. And his form of Alzheimer’s was, in my opinion, the worst form of Alzheimer’s because he was mean. And it never failed, every visit I went to visit her, he would cuss her out terribly. And she would apologize so sweetly and say, I know you didn’t know him, but that’s not him. She said, in 50 plus years of marriage, I never heard a foul word. Not one cuss word. But now I hear them every day. And they’re all directed at me. Her health was failing because of her age. But every time I went to visit her, she would serve me homemade cake. I started out as a skinny preacher. It’s y’all’s fault. She would serve me the biggest wedge of the most delicious homemade cake, and she would talk to me.

3. Is It Going to Be Doubt or Trust?

And every visit, I would be leaving that house and walking to my car going, I forgot to encourage her. Because she was so busy encouraging me. Every visit, I left there on cloud nine because she had done something, said something, showed something that just encouraged me. She had you turned her suffering into service. And sometimes that service is just simply, I’ve been through it. Let me help you as you go through it now. Because there’s nobody can help you through dark times as much as somebody who’s been through dark times. And Paul found joy in life because he turned suffering to service, a service to others. And the last point is, is it going to be doubt or trust? Paul didn’t sit there in those long, dark, what could have been very depressing moments in that prison cell and began to doubt God.

In fact, not only did he not doubt God, he trusted in God. And not only did he trust God, but it seems to me, reading this epistle and his other prison epistles, that his trust in God grew exponentially. He trusted in God, and because he trusted in God, and he allowed the deep dark moments of his life to cause that trust to grow, that is why he could see joy in life. Because he trusted God. Look with me, beginning in verse 19. And I want to emphasize some of the language Paul uses. He says in verse 19 of Philippians 1, for I know. I know. He didn’t say I think. Or maybe. Or it could be. Paul begins by saying, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

According to, look at some words in verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be ashamed. But with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. Now, Paul says, I know this is going to work out all right. I know that I’m going to be delivered. I know that I’m not going to be ashamed in this. Now, wait a minute, Paul. You’re not going to be delivered. Oh, Paul got out of kind of a furlough for a little while, but he’s going back into prison and he’s going to die. So, Paul, you thought you knew, but you didn’t know. You didn’t get delivered. You didn’t get delivered permanently from this prison cell.

But didn’t he? There’s more than one way to be delivered. Paul was delivered in the greatest way from that prison cell. But he was also delivered in the sense that, as he said in that next verse, that it didn’t bring him shame. There was nothing for him to be ashamed of. And so he was delivered while he was still in that prison cell. And then he was finally delivered. When he left this suffering.

Whether he was on the mountain or in the darkest, scariest valley. Not fake.

Joy. But real. Inward, abiding joy, because he trusted in God. What would he tell his Roman brethren? Romans chapter 8, verse 28, one of the most memorized and cross-stitched verses in all the Bible. All things work together for good to those who love the Lord. Paul believed that. Paul lived that. So I might be sitting in the prison cell today. I might be in a dark moment in my life. And I might feel like I’m chained to a prison guard under the sentence of death. And even the people I love come to visit me, not to see to me, not to bring me food and a pillow, but they come to visit me just to twist the chains to make it worse. And I can still find joy.

Because I can say with Paul, I trust the next chapter. I trust the next chapter because I know the author.

Conclusion

Would you find that joy this morning? It comes in, ironically, in emptying ourselves and being filled with the love, the hope, and the joy of Jesus Christ. You can have that true abiding joy through the good and the bad times. Only, only if you find every spiritual blessing that’s in Christ Jesus. Would you repent of your sins this morning? Empty yourself of self, confess Christ, and be baptized, putting on Him this very morning? If you would do that and find that true abiding joy, would you do it right now as together we stand and as we sing?