Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson overview of Philippians 1:12-26 "Joy of Adversity" for 9/12/21

hi sunday school teachers and bible study leaders welcome to our overview of the explore the bible lesson for september 12th 2021. it's philippians 1 verses 12 through 26 and given the title joy of adversity most of us know the name of john newton the former slave trader who was saved and later became the author of the great hymn amazing grace newton also served as a pastor and had a great ministry of counseling through letter writing to people all over england one of his letters he wrote to a miss delafield who had written to him about a problem in her life and he wrote about the joy that there was to be found in the lord he said and i quote with his presence in our hearts we might be comfortable and happy if shut up in one of the cells of nougat without it the most select company the most desirable opportunities proved but clouds without water that nougat or newgate that newton was referring to in that letter was perhaps the most infamous prison in all london he's saying if the lord's in your heart you can have joy even in that prison but if he's not you're not going to be happy in the most desirable place in the world well the apostle paul would second newton's advice there i believe the book of philippians is all about joy in fact if you look at the six lesson titles in this explore the bible series on philippians every lesson in this series uses the word joy it is certainly one of the themes of this book joy in different scenarios and seasons of life this week's lesson is on having joy in one of the most difficult times and that those are times of adversity this shows one a big contrast between the christian and the non-christian the the world says you can be happy if your circumstances are good but a christian like paul can have joy even when our circumstances are bad our focus passage begins in verse 12 where paul writes now i want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so paul talks about his circumstances here and of course his circumstances were that he was in prison for the gospel and yet he could have joy because he could see that the gospel was being spread even through those circumstances verse 13 specifically says my imprisonment in the cause of christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else the praetorian guard were the romans elite troops hand-picked by the emperor bodyguards for the roman emperor and paul said the gospel had gone to the whole praetorian guard now we need to understand the praetorian guard is not like 15 or 20 guys okay uh augustus set up nine cohorts of 500 soldiers each and then he increased them to 1 000 in each cohort now they only allowed three cohorts at any time to stay in rome so the military presence wouldn't be too great so you have no idea was it paul talking about the three cohorts or the nine cohorts or whatever but whatever the case we are talking about thousands of men who are in this praetorian guard who had heard the gospel through paul's imprisonment and then if that wasn't enough he added and to everyone else who knows how many people he was talking about here who had heard the gospel through his circumstances so paul could rightly find joy even in his difficult circumstances because he could see how the gospel was being spread through them this is a principle that we need to learn and apply god uses even our adverse circumstances to further the gospel and we as christians need to learn to find joy in that for a scriptural cross-reference on god using difficult circumstances to spread the gospel you might have your class turned to acts chapter 8. the context here it's right after stephen had been stoned for his faith and acts 8 1 says and on that day a great persecution began against the church in jerusalem they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria then if you go down to verse 4 it says therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word so this is just like paul in philippians 1. the circumstances of the early church which anyone would say of that persecution that these were not good circumstances they led to the greater progress of the gospel as they shared the gospel wherever they went so one question you might ask your class perhaps at this point have you ever had some circumstance in your life that somebody might say it was bad but that god used to share the gospel maybe it's you personally or maybe somebody you know had some bad circumstances but god used those circumstances to share the gospel i know when i got sick in 2012 with an illness that led me to have to resign my church and sell our possessions and our home and move and take a temporary thank god medical retirement uh it was what you call a bad time for me and my family yeah in that time i was writing on my blog about what was happening in this battle with pots and people all over the country who had the same illness were searching the internet and looking for information on it they found my website my articles about it which is also where all of my sermons are published so a whole lot of people who might never have read those sermons or might never have been exposed to the gospel did and it's ever wrote to me and commented about it because i was going through those difficult circumstances there's a family from the church we served in north carolina his little boy was hit by a large limb that fell while he was on a tree swing and he was rushed to the hospital with his life on the line thankfully he did survive months later he's still in a long slow process of recuperation it's just a horrific set of circumstances and any parent's nightmare and yet the mother of this little boy who sat with them there at the hospital the whole time had repeated opportunities to share the gospel literally dozens and hundreds of times to doctors and nurses and staff members and visitors and people on facebook the gospel was spread through these tragic circumstances you may have a story like that or no one you could share or some of your class members may have one that they can share about circumstances which allow them to share the gospel this is a reminder to us number one god causes everything to work together for good even our bad circumstances number two it's a reminder for us to look for the opportunities to share the gospel that god may be giving us in our circumstances remember we are not at the mercy of luck or fate or accidents we serve a sovereign god who is on the throne who is ordering events for his purposes so let's live in the light of that look for god's purposes what his purposes are in every circumstance in your life so uh we might take some time then to apply this to our times and and to our lives i mean think of this time of covet i mean covet is one of the big circumstances that that we're all in right now for one specific application you might ask can you think of some ways the gospel has been furthered through this time of covet doors that have been opened witness that has been given i know you and your class will have some examples i mean these videos that i'm doing right now right out of covet i'm totally doing them because of covet and god has blessed and multiplied that there's tons of other examples of good that has come even out of code and your your group can talk about these and make some application there but then challenge your class to consider something they may be going through right now and you can suggest you know maybe you are in some difficult circumstances right now and like we often do you've just been thinking about you know when's it's going to be over how can i get out of it but have you considered how god might want to use these difficult circumstances that you are in right now to share the gospel with somebody maybe a caregiver maybe a doctor or a nurse whatever these whoever these circumstances have brought into your life god has brought these people to give you an opportunity to share with them paul looked for those opportunities to share that came out of his circumstances and we need to do the same things one of the big lessons in the te in the text this week there's a whole lot more to share here in philippians 1 and i don't have a time today to share too much more i will say i have several sermons on philippians on on philippians chapter 1 on my blog www.shawneethomas.com and you can find some more exposition and illustrations and applications on several of those verses there but let me close with this you are not going to be able to have the kind of joy that paul had in the midst of his circumstances unless you have the kind of commitment that paul had in his circumstances and we find that commitment in verse 21 one of the best love verses in all the new testament for to me to live as christ and to die is gain paul could have the kind of joy that he did in his circumstances because he really did know jesus as his lord and savior so this may be the place where you share or review the gospel in your class this week so like john newton said paul could have joy in a prison like newgate or in rome because he had the lord's presence in his heart he was truly committed to jesus as his lord and savior he was truly committed to the spread of the gospel so even in his imprisonment he could have joy when he saw the gospel spread even at the cost of his pain we can have that same joy today if we'll have the same commitment to jesus that the apostle paul had and to the spreading of his gospel i think one good question you could ask your class here is this going back there to verse 21 and then applying it to you apply it to you how is it for me how is is how is for me to live christ how is for me to live christ for paul to say for me to live as christ meant as long as he was alive he'd be spreading the gospel can you really say challenge your class can you really say for for me to live as christ how is christ being proclaimed through you how is the gospel being spread through you and you might even talk yeah what are some specific ways that we can share the gospel through ministries through personal opportunities through mission trips through praying for the lost through our giving lots of different ways that we can be involved in sharing the gospel but then ask what are you doing where are you going with whom are you sharing for whom are you praying to be saved how much are you giving to spread the gospel how true is it for you that for to me to live is christ i think that's a certain question for us all well there's a whole lot here of course read this scripture through it's a great deal of chapter one pray about it just ask the lord to show you what your class needs how to apply these words to them this week i hope this helped you at least get started and point you in the right direction remember i'd love to go down the comment section on saturday night on saturday night and sunday morning pray for those teachers that i see there god bless you as you share his word this week

Channel: Shawn Thomas

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Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021