The Happy Prisoner - Part B

There's always an obstacle involved. It's going forward, forward, forward, but in the midst of obstacles. So what Paul wants them to know is, I want you to know, brethren, that all that has happened to me, the incarcerations, the beatings, the mistrials, the further incarceration, none of that has stopped the advance of the Gospel. In fact, it cleared the way. It actually furthered it.

It made progress in it. You're sure to face tough circumstances when you work for God's kingdom, but in the end, it'll be all worth it. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can have the right perspective when you encounter obstacles doing God's work. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will give you the tools you need to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Helper. These are some of the names for the Holy Spirit found in the Bible. The Holy Spirit isn't a warm, fuzzy feeling or a vague cosmic force. He's a person who loves you, cares for you, and wants to empower you to be everything God calls you to be.

Here's Skip Heitzig. I think there's a lot of Christians who have heard the term Holy Spirit, obviously, but they have a very vague idea of who the Spirit of God is and what He's supposed to do in their lives. We want to help you better understand the Holy Spirit by sending you Expound, Holy Spirit, a DVD study from Pastor Skip. And for a limited time, we'll also send you a booklet by Lenya Heitzig called Empower, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts. Both resources are our way to say thanks for your gift of $25 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting you to God's life-changing truth.

Call now to request your copies of these resources, 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Philippians chapter one as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. You should know that Paul, he's in Rome. He always wanted to go to Rome.

It's part of his passion. He wrote to the Romans and he said, pray for me that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you. But that's not exactly what happened. Something bad happened to this man.

And here's what happened. After his third missionary journey, he goes back to Jerusalem. He's in the temple area with another fellow going through a ceremonial ritual. Some of the leaders spot Paul there.

They start a riot and they attack him. A Roman soldier arrests Paul, not to punish him, but to protect him from the mob. Takes Paul, is about to have Paul beaten.

Paul pulls his Roman citizenship card out, so you can't beat me, I'm a Roman citizen. So he is then taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea by the sea where he spends two years. And he goes through three trials in two years. He stands before Felix, he stands before Festus, he stands before Herod, Agrippa.

And after two years, he finally says, I'm done. This judicial process is crazy. I appeal my case to Caesar in Rome.

Every Roman citizen had that right. So they put him on a ship. It is not a cruise ship. It's not a princess cruise.

It is a prison cruise. And they put him on this boat, they send him to Rome. He almost doesn't make it to Rome. The ship sinks, he has to swim to shore. But he finally goes to Rome, where he's put in jail again. All of that is under this banner, but the things which happened to me. That's what he is referring to.

Now that set of circumstances is enough to change any Tigger into an Eeyore, pretty quickly. You know that incarceration will always challenge your joy. Restriction of any kind is a challenge to your joy. Confinement of any sort will challenge your joy. Some of you feel chained to a job.

It's a tyrant to you. Some of you feel chained to a relationship or a set of responsibilities you didn't see or responsibilities you didn't sign up for. And maybe because of that, your passion is gone.

It's dried up. This is not what you had in mind. You're thinking back to that moment when you finally said, I surrender my life to you, Jesus. And I don't know, it just means salvation. Maybe you came to the point after salvation where you said, now I'm going to get serious. I'm going to really live for Christ from this day forward.

But here you are today, and you're thinking back to that day. This is not what you had in mind that day. In fact, could it be, is it possible, that when you said, Lord, I surrender to your plan, that you said that like the couple who went to the architect and asked the architect to design a house for them, the architect discovered the couple already designed it for themselves, just wanted the architect to sanction it. Maybe when you said, Lord, I surrender my life to you, what you meant is, I surrender my will. I hope it is your will, Lord. Here are my plans for my life.

I just want your stamp on it because you must want what I want. And now you're going, this is not what I thought I signed up for. Well, Paul is about to say something very revolutionary.

This is where we really need to listen. So we move from his passion to his problems to his perspective. How does he view all that has happened to him?

Now, as we dive into this, I'm just going to review, what is the theme of this letter? Joy. 16 times, 16 times in this letter, the word joy, the word rejoice, or the word rejoicing are found.

No less than 16 times. We've already seen the object of Paul's joy, the gospel. We've seen the challenge to Paul's joy, the things that happened, the prison, the beatings, et cetera.

Now, let me show you the reason for his joy. And they can all be summed up by a single word in verse 12, it's the word furtherance. But I want you to know, brethren, verse 12, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. 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, back to that word, furtherance.

You may have a Bible that doesn't say that. It might say advancement or advance or spread or progress. Those are all good translations. Mine says furtherance. The Greek word is prakape. And prakape means to advance or to make progress.

But it means something very, very unique. It means a forward movement in spite of obstacles. Obstacles are involved. It makes motion forward, but in the midst of obstacles. So the word prakape was used of pioneers cutting their way through brushwood, cutting the undergrowth away so you could go on it. It was also used for soldiers advancing through obstacles. It was also sometimes used as a nautical term for ships making headway while there was a headwind.

You get the idea? There's always an obstacle involved. It's going forward, forward, forward, but in the midst of obstacles. So what Paul wants them to know is, I want you to know, brethren, that all that has happened to me, the incarcerations, the beatings, the mistrials, the further incarcerations, none of that has stopped the advance of the gospel. In fact, it cleared the way. It actually furthered it.

It made progress in it. Now, I want you to see that. So look at verse 13. He's going to give you three ways the gospel is furthered. Number one, it is furthered for Roman soldiers. God's plan has been furthered for Roman soldiers.

Verse 13, so it has become evident. Now watch this, to the whole palace guard. Palace guard. The word is praetorion. We get the word praetorium from that. And the praetorium guard was the elite personal soldiers for the emperor. There was about 10,000 of them in the Roman Empire.

They were the bodyguards of the emperor. Now, Paul is incarcerated in Rome, so he is somehow attached to the palace. Now he's not in the palace. He's in a rented home, the book of Acts tells us. He's chained to a guard, 24 hours a day, in a rented house. But the people chained to him are the praetorium guard. That'd be like being chained to the secret service or to the CIA, that elite.

Now, let me just stop for a second. I believe, and I'm guessing, that somebody in the church of Rome, maybe when they got together for a prayer meeting of some kind, they got together and one of the prayers was something like this, Lord, you're doing such a great work here in Rome, but man, if there was any way possible that the praetorium elite guards of the emperor himself in Caesar's household could somehow hear the gospel. They are unreachable. I don't know how we could ever get the gospel to them. And God said, okay, I'll answer that prayer.

How? By Paul's chains. Now Paul's chained to them. Now think, think of what it was like to be chained to Paul the apostle for six hours.

That's how it worked. There's 24 hours a day, four soldiers chained six hours at a time to Paul. So Paul couldn't eat without being chained. He couldn't sleep without being chained. Everything he did 24 hours was chained to a guard. Now we often think, oh, Paul was in chains, but think of it the other way.

So was the soldier. Can you imagine what it's like to listen to Paul? What do you think Paul brought up during that six hours? The gospel, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel.

That's his passion. You couldn't shut him up. Have you ever shared with somebody in a conversation, you bring up the gospel, they don't like what you have to say, so they walk away? They can't walk away. Talk about a captive audience.

F.B. Meyer tries to paint the picture of what it would be like. He said, and I quote, at times the hired room would be thronged with people to whom the apostles spoke words of life. And after they withdrew, the enemy would, or the sentry, excuse me, the soldier, the sentry would sit beside him filled with many questions as to the meaning of the words which this strange prisoner spoke. At other times, especially at night, the soldiers and the apostle would be left to talk. And in those dark, lonely hours, the apostle would tell the soldier after soldier about his own proud career in early life, of his opposition to Christ, his ultimate conversion, and would make it clear that he was there as a prisoner, not for any crime, not because he raised a rebellion or a revolt, but because he believed that he whom the Roman soldiers had crucified under Pilate was the son of God and the savior of men. Now, what is the result of all of this chained to a Roman guard me? It means some of them got saved. I know that to be a fact because when he closes this letter, Philippians, in chapter 4, verse 22, almost tongue-in-cheek, he says, all the saints send you greetings, especially to the those who belong to Caesar's household.

Wink, wink. Isn't that great? Some of those soldiers who were unreachable got reached, and there's only one way they could, by being chained to a Christian. So the incarceration, the suffering that Paul experienced, it furthered God's plan for Roman soldiers.

But there's a second I want you to notice. It furthered God's plan for Roman citizens. Go back to verse 13. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. You know, Paul didn't just write words without meaning.

He didn't say, I just need to fill that sentence in, so I'll just put to the rest. It means something. He was chained to soldiers, but it's become evident to not only them, but to the rest. What does that mean?

Here's what it means. Paul was under house arrest, we're told in Acts 28. House arrest meant that there were certain freedoms the prisoner had. He lived in a house, but chained to a soldier 24-7. He could not leave the house, but people could come and visit him. So Acts 28 tells us that Jewish leaders came to visit him, Christian leaders came to visit him, citizens of Rome came to visit him.

Acts 28 says, for two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Now listen to these words. Boldly and without hindrance, he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing.

Here's the principle, don't miss this principle. The longest period of Paul's incarceration was the greatest period of Paul's impact. Staggering. The longest period of Paul's incarceration was the greatest period of Paul's impact. In other words, Paul's confinement was God's assignment. That prison became his pulpit. Oh, and by the way, just a little FYI, Paul wasn't just being chained to a soldier and giving Bible studies to people.

He spent a lot of time writing books. The very book you are reading was written during that time. Ephesians, written during that time. Philippians, during that time. Colossians, during this prison stay. Philemon, those four prison epistles, all written during this time. And he's having Bible studies at the expense of the Roman government.

How cool is that? There was never an issue back then with the separation of church and state. They paid for it and he preached. Now, here's what I'm wondering. The next time you are tempted to think that I'm stuck with this job, hate it, but I'm stuck here. Or you think I am shackled to this desk or I am imprisoned by this person. You know, you could see it as an opportunity.

Not an incarceration, an opportunity. If, if, and only if, your passion is the gospel. I'll guarantee you, if your passion is not the gospel, it's just an inconvenience to you. It's just a horrible, bitter experience of suffering. Why would God allow it?

Unless you see it as an opportunity. If you see it as an opportunity and it's your passion to preach the gospel, you'll see it as a pulpit. You'll see it as a way to get the gospel out. So Paul's suffering, his jail sentence, was an opportunity for the furtherance of God's plan for Roman soldiers.

It furthered God's plan for Roman citizens. And finally, we'll close with this, it furthered God's plan, listen, for reluctant saints. Reluctant saints. I find there's a lot of reluctant saints.

I find them all over the place. Just a little ashamed of the gospel, a little reluctant to say anything that they believe. So verse 14 is about that. And most of the brethren in the Lord, those are fellow believers, having become confident by my chains, my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Now you know what that tells me? That tells me that people in Rome, Christians in Rome, were scared to say anything. They were timid. They were frightened to announce, I'm following Jesus Christ.

He's my Lord and Savior. Here's my testimony. They were afraid. And understandably, Paul ended up in jail.

They could too. But in watching and hearing about Paul being so bold and unhindered to soldiers and to people who visit him, the citizens of Rome, they started thinking differently. They started having thoughts like, if God can use Paul in jail, God can certainly use me out of jail.

So they became a little more bold. And so they're not in prison. Paul is. They're citizens that live out there in Rome, live in that house, this house, the Roman Forum, work in that market. So now these citizens who can go out are emboldened by Paul, who's stuck in prison, and now they're reaching the kind of people that Paul couldn't reach. So it furthered God's plan for these reluctant saints. So think of it.

Instead of seeing those prison guards as a nuisance or those prison chains as a hindrance, Paul saw them all as a furtherance. What a perspective. I'm sure that I'm speaking to people right now who are feeling chained to something.

Let me give you an example. You may be a mother. You've given up a career. You went to college for that career. You quit your career. Now you're devoted to raising children at home.

All of that investment is sort of not being used. And you may feel like many do, I'm in prison here. Let me encourage you with the example of Susanna Wesley. Susanna Wesley had 19 children.

Do you think she ever felt confined? 19 kids. Last week on the platform we had a mom who had eight children, another one who had 10 children. Susanna Wesley had 19 kids. She was often feeling very constricted, but she had two sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley who shook the British Isles with the gospel.

One is a preacher, one is a hymn writer. By her imprisonment, she furthered the gospel. Maybe you feel chained to a job or a career. Now it could be that you're even successful in your job, successful in your career. In fact, the more successful you get, you're feeling more imprisoned. You're sort of stuck here. You have to produce more and more and more. And so you think thoughts like, well, I'd love to do more for Christ, but I'm stuck here and I'm very successful and I've got to keep this going.

I have employees and I have responsibilities. Let me encourage you with the story of J.C. Penney, who made an enormous amount of money in his corporation. Still does, even though he's long gone. J.C. Penney, a Christian businessman who felt sort of imprisoned by what he did, but decided, well, he could give the money away to gospel work. So get this, 90% of his income he gave away. He kept and lived on 10%. Now, most Christians give away 10%. That's their tithe. They live on 90%.

He decided, I'll reverse that I can live happily and I make a lot of money. I can live on 10%. I'll give 90% away to those people preaching the gospel. He used that confinement, so to speak, to get the gospel out. Maybe you feel chained to a sick bed. You're not here, but you're going to hear this message in a hospital or a convalescent home.

You feel chained to a bed, imprisoned within those four walls. Let me encourage you with the story of Charlotte Elliot, who was an invalid. Charlotte Elliot, as an invalid, wrote 150 hymns.

Some have become very famous. The most famous one was sung at all the Billy Graham Crusades, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. And that thou bids me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

I come. Written while Charlotte Elliot was an invalid and couldn't get out. And perhaps this message is going to be heard by a prisoner, I mean, a real prisoner in a prison cell. We get letters from all over the country where prisoners will tune into the radio broadcast and they'll write. Let me encourage you, maybe you came to faith in Christ if you're a prisoner and you're hearing this message. You came to faith in Christ while you were in prison. Understand this, Martin Luther translated the Bible in jail in the Wartburg prison in Germany. Then there's the story of John Bunyan. You know, John Bunyan was a preacher in England and he was fiery and he saw great results and so they arrested him and put him in the bed for jail. He didn't stop preaching there. He shouted so loud that his voice could be heard over the walls and people would gather outside the walls to listen to him.

And so they thought, I can't have this and they put him in solitary confinement deep below in the dungeon. And so he decided to write and he wrote Pilgrim's Progress there. Millions of people, millions of people have been inspired by that book.

I like to read it at least once a year. So let me conclude with this. Maybe, just maybe, you could be a happy prisoner. I can't do anything for your shackles.

Health, circumstances may restrict you. They do, all of us, at some point. But maybe you could become a happy prisoner. Not a sappy prisoner. Not, woe is me, life's a bummer. Not a scrappy prisoner where you're fighting and lashing out at people. But a happy prisoner.

Worked for Paul. And I dare say, this larger than life figure named Paul the Apostle, had it far worse than I've ever had it. And I've had loss in my life, you have had loss in your life. I'm feeling restrictions of all kinds as my age increases. And one day it will increase to the point where I won't be able to do what I did. But like Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, I'm in these chains but the word of God is not chained. There's always a way, if and only if, that's your passion.

That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series Technicolor Joy. Right now we want to share about an exciting opportunity you have to take your knowledge of God's word even deeper. It's never too late to start taking classes in biblical studies. Here's Calvary College student Timothy. Calvary College was an answer to prayer for me.

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Thank you. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how the apostle Paul handled conflict in the body of Christ and how you can be a part of uniting the church. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.