SERMON TITLE: “WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?”

SERMON TEXT: Philippians 1:12-18

Making Christ known ought to be the highest priority of life.

INTRODUCTION: How do we make Him know?

I. THROUGH THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE GOSPEL - The advancement of the gospel should take priority over everything else, i.e., making Christ known. One writer said, “All other achievements and accomplishments pale into insignificance by comparison.” Paul wrote to his co-laborers at Philippi, these words...

“Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). 

It is interesting to note here that the word “advancement,” or “furtherance,” is a very vivid word (prokope in the Greek), and is used specifically to describe the progress of an army or expedition. The verb form of the word means, “to cut down in advance.” Picture in your mind a military expedition going through the jungle of Africa, cutting away the trees and undergrowth. That is the meaning of this verb. This was done so that the barriers would be broken down and the army could negotiate the jungle terrain freely.

For the Apostle Paul, his bonds/chains served to destroy the barriers. Therefore, the gospel could be proclaimed freely. Thus Paul’s imprisonment had opened doors so that the gospel could do its penetrating work.

In way of application, since it is life’s purpose to know Christ and to make Him known, this I believe is an appropriate question, “What are we doing to make Him known?” I am happy to report that even as I speak some forty church members, under David’s leadership, are in Jacksonville, advancing the gospel at the NFL Super Bowl festivities. Two weeks ago, I returned from a mission to India, having been sent out under the auspices of this church to advance the gospel. Like Paul, in this we can rejoice, and we will rejoice because the gospel is being preached. Yet, is there more that we can do to advance the gospel? I believe there is...

1. We can advance the gospel through personal witnessing.

2. We can advance the gospel through cooperate prayer.

3. We can advance the gospel through our tithes and offerings

4. We can advance the gospel through preaching the Word of God in the context of a dynamic worship service and through solid Bible teaching in Sunday School.

How do we make Christ known through the advancement of the gospel! Second...

How do we make Him known?

II. THROUGH ABNORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES - Certainly we are to make Christ known through the normal circumstances of life, but God can use trouble and suffering in unique ways in the spreading of the gospel. At the time Paul wrote his Philippian epistle, he was chained to a prison guard in a Roman prison. He makes reference to his chains in the following verses...

“For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me” (Philippians 1:7). 

“...and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Philippians 1:14). 

“The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment” (Philippians 1:17). 

“Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done” (Acts 21:33). 

That, my friends, is abnormal circumstances, yet Paul was making his Savior known even under those conditions. In fact, it was because of his chains that the Word of God was being spread as seen in verse 14...

“...and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Philippians 1:14). 

While lying flat on my back in an Omsk, Russian hospital, following a car crash, Michael and Nancy Bass were at a boys’ club, where I was scheduled to be, sharing the gospel at which time one-hundred and fifty boys prayed to receive Christ. What is so abnormal about that? It was that Michael had never delivered a sermon. I gave him a handful of sermon notes and said to Michael, “Go preach!” That was abnormal circumstances, yet Christ was being made known. One commentator on this passage wrote, “Although in prison, Paul saw good emerging from his suffering as others preached the gospel.” This writer goes on to say, “God can use our troubles and suffering to spread His gospel . . . The Spirit of God uses difficult events as opportunities to reveal His strength.”

It was Paul’s abnormal circumstance that had helped to advance the gospel...

“Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). 

Oswald Chambers had this to say about Paul, “The one passion of Paul’s life was to preach the gospel. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason–these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.” He further states that, “A true servant is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God.”

What about you and me? Do we view our abnormal circumstance as an opportunity to advance the gospel, or do we use the difficulties of life as an opportunity to complain? Again the in the words of Oswald Chambers, “We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered?” He goes on to add, “When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.”

Instead of complaining about his abnormal circumstances, Paul used his bonds to destroy the barriers. Making Christ known, for Paul, was the greatest of all responsibilities and the highest of all privileges.

How do we make Christ known?

III. THROUGH THE ABANDONMENT OF SELF - It was single-minded commitment that identified Paul as a disciple of Christ. Hear these words of Paul...

“So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else” (Philippians 1:13). 

Note the phrase, “. . . in chains for Christ”(v. 13). He was in literal chains, but he lived in total abandonment to Christ. It was in his letter to the Galatians that he wrote...

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

Not only did Paul speak of his bonds in Philippians, it was in Colossians as well that Paul speaks of his bonds for the sake of Christ...

“Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned” (Col. 4:3). 

“For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts” (Col. 4:8). 

Then in Philemon, he refers to himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ...

“Yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you--since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus” (Philemon 9). 

“Whom I wished to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel” (Philemon 13). 

Likewise, he speaks of himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ in Ephesians, and defines his chains in greater detail in the book of Acts...

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles” (Ephesians 3:1). 

For this reason, therefore, I requested to see you and to speak with you, for I am wearing this chain for the sake of the hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20). 

Not only was Paul physically chained to a Roman guard, his heart was chained to Jesus Christ, in total abandonment to Him.

Ambition can be a determent to abandonment. There were those in the church who were preaching Christ out of ambition... Paul wrote about them...

“The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment” (Philippians 1:17). 

Although he acknowledged the fact, that, even though Christ was being preached with false motives–He was being preached and in that Paul rejoiced, but that was one exception and not the rule. Later on he wrote...

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). 

Are you willing to abandon all selfish ambition in order to make Christ known?

CONCLUSION: What is the purpose of life? To know Christ and to make Him known. Before you can make Him known you have to know Him. Do you know Him as your personal Savior and Lord? Perhaps you know Him through a salvation experience, but you have never known Him in a relationship of abandonment. It was the desire of Paul’s heart to know Him, as indicated in his own words...

“...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11). 

Do you have a desire to know Christ in such a profound way as did Paul? This I can promise you, if you know Him as Paul knew Him, you will have no problem in making Him known. The choice is yours!!