Our Sunday Evening Message for April 7, 2024: 

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                                   "Making The Unknown Known"

                                        Text:  Philippians 1: 12-18

In our Sunday Evening service, we have taken on a new study. We will like to walk you through the Epistle of Philippians. It is only four chapters long, but rich in encouragement in living a fruitful Christian life.  We will approach this study in an expository manner breaking down each verse so that we can understand the Scriptures.

 

In this text, Paul is addressing a great concern that the church of Philippi had for his ministry. They were afraid that Paul's imprisonment in Rome was hindering his work as a missionary. Paul assure them in this letter the opposite is true. His imprisonment has not hindered the gospel, but has advanced it.

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The word "furtherance" (v.12) means "to go before to prepare for the work to be done."  In other words, it is Paul's imprisonment through God's sovereignty that has allowed the gospel to get to Rome in a way that the gospel would have never had gone before.

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Paul's attitude is that he serves a God that can turn opposition into opportunity. Boy, what an attitude! Only if the church of today could have that kind of faith. It would be amazing to see what God could do in our midst. To the Apostle Paul,  it did not matter whether he was in prison or on the mission field. He did not mind the dungeon if he could see a Roman jailer and his family come to Christ.

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Lehman Strauss, a pastor and Bible teacher of the past, says it the best when he says, "Here is the key to the problem of life's adversities. it is the attitude of the heart. It is not God giving me what I desire, but rather it is my attitude in accepting what God sends."  This is the attitude of Paul in these verses.

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Paul uses the word "manifest"(v.13) to describe how God had used his imprisonment to advance the gospel in Rome.This word translated from the Greek means "making the unknown known." Through Paul's imprisonment the gospel became known to the soldiers in the Roman palace in a way that they had never known before.

 

We should remember that no trouble can come in our life that will hinder the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel becomes the mighty comforter in time of trouble for those who know the Lord as their Savior.                              

 

 

 

                                                     Pastor Michael R. Martin

 

 

 

 

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