Rejoicing in the Advancement of the Gospel
Sermon Series: Philippians
On Sunday evening, Pr. Jason Wredberg, lead pastor of Redeemer Bible Church, Minnetonka, MN, a church in the Pillar Network, posted about a wedding ceremony and baptism ceremony that he had conducted earlier that day. Let me read his post to you.
I had a crazy (and wonderful) experience today. We’ve had a couple attending church for several weeks, who came to us as an unmarried couple. They’ve been living together for 15 years. Through hearing the gospel in the services every week and a woman’s Bible study lesson on 1 Corinthians 7, the woman realized she was living in sin. They set up a meeting with me, and it was pretty clear that something amazing was happening in their lives. As we talked, we concluded that they had actually both become Christians in the last couple of weeks. This morning, I married them before the service and baptized them at the end of the service. Jesus is alive, and the gospel transforms.[1]
Such messages have the power to encourage us about the latent power of the gospel in the mundane activities of the church. If hearing this message did not bring joy to your heart, you need the gospel message. I am glad you are here today, and I invite you to tune into this message.
Our passage describes the joy in the advancement of the gospel amid trying circumstances. John MacArthur says, “The measure of a person’s spiritual character, the measure of their spiritual strength, and the measure of their spiritual maturity is what it takes to steal your joy.”[2] In our passage today, we encounter Paul, a man who never lost his joy despite everything that happened to him. Terrible things have happened to Paul. In this passage, he is imprisoned for his evangelistic zeal and may lose his life for the sake of the gospel.
His boldness in preaching the gospel to one and all brought about his calamity. He was called a nuisance because of his aggressive preaching—by aggressive, I mean non-stop. Instead of being ashamed that his actions landed him in prison, he rejoices. Can you imagine his audacity! Wherever he went, trouble followed because he did not keep his desire to proclaim Christ in check. He did not have the polished Christianity of many who will be in the pews of churches around the world this morning.
My prayer is that such polished Christianity would not be found in Cross Cultured Church. We know that Paul’s boldness, aggressiveness, and joy were all godly. He was not a fanatic but a faithful Christian. Members of Cross Cultured Church ought to desire to be like Paul—ready with the gospel, bold and unafraid.
Paul was not sure whether his friends, his brothers and sisters, in Philippi would be discouraged by the cross they had to bear because of the offense of the gospel. He knew that false teachers would love to disparage his ministry because he was in prison. He knew that they may be deterred from being evangelistic in their zeal because of the heavy price of shame that comes from preaching the gospel. So, he wanted them to know that he rejoiced in the advancement of the gospel, so that they, too, would rejoice in it.
Do you, too, share those fears that keep you from proclaiming Christ? Does hardship steal your joy? Would imprisonment, your own or that of one of your leaders, steal your joy? Is your joy tied to your perceived worth among people around you? Is your joy tied to the success of your ministry?
My aim this morning is to show you from this passage that Christ is the ground of the believer’s joy. To do so, I will take you through three steps. First, I will describe how the gospel advanced even when Paul was in chains. Second, I will explain why Paul rejoiced in the proclamation of the gospel. Third, I will prove that our joy in the gospel is because of Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord, would you be with me as I preach this text? Feed our souls. Cause us to magnify Christ in our lives. May we proclaim Christ with fearless boldness. Amen.
The Advancement of the Gospel
Paul was an intrepid evangelist. He traveled the known world evangelizing and planting churches. His opponents sought to get rid of him. Of course, the assumption is that if he were in prison, the gospel would get chained as well. However, Paul says, “Instead of getting chained, the gospel advanced” in Rome. Two things happened. First, everyone in the Praetorium and all the others learned that Paul was imprisoned for Christ. This does not merely mean that they thought that Paul was imprisoned because he was a religious preacher of a new and coming religion. We know from Paul’s prior imprisonments that when he is in prison, he spends time singing and praying. We know that he has visitors like Epaphroditus. We know that Paul is writing letters to churches from prison. Paul is not merely making his occupation known. Paul has a powerful prison ministry. He preaches to the guards and to the rest, presumably visitors, fellow captives, and anyone else whose ears are available to him. The gospel is in Paul’s mouth and anyone’s ears who come within earshot of Paul.
Second, Paul’s imprisonment does not silence those who were already preaching the gospel. Instead, Paul says they are all the more emboldened, becoming more confident. They did not begin preaching the gospel once Paul was arrested. They become more confident and more fearlessly bold. Jesus said that he would build his church. Those who trust Jesus’s words preach the gospel confidently. When they hear that a fellow preacher is arrested, they do not shut down in fear but pick up the pace. This is because their confidence is not in their ability to articulate the gospel but in the power of God to save the hearers through the gospel message.
Paul’s Joy: The Proclamation of Christ
This very fact, I believe, is why Paul rejoices in the proclamation of Christ. Paul does not give us his reasons for rejoicing that Christ is proclaimed (v. 18). Since the reason is unstated by Paul, it is reasonable to conclude that Paul was convinced that the proclamation of Christ is a good thing. He took joy in the fact that Christ is proclaimed. It becomes our duty to identify some of the reasons for this joy.
While we cannot prove that these are definitely the reasons why Paul rejoiced that Christ is proclaimed, we can search for such reasons that Paul cannot deny that bring him joy. I propose three reasons that Paul would agree with that bring joy to him when Christ is proclaimed.
First, the gospel offers salvation to those who believe. When the gospel is preached, it lays out propositionally the message of the Bible, teaching that man’s greatest problem is that he is a sinner, guilty before God, liable to God’s judgment, and under God’s wrath. Moreover, it also teaches him that there is salvation through faith in Jesus, the Son of God who became man, suffering and dying in place of those who put their trust in him. This gospel is clearly laid out when proclaiming Christ.
Second, not only does the gospel message magnify Jesus as Lord and Savior, but it also brings grace to the hearer, which he may freely receive to believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is at work wherever the Gospel is preached, ready to save. The grace of God enables belief in the person by the Holy Spirit. This is why the gospel message is the power of salvation to those who believe. It is not the articulation of the preacher but the power of God that saves through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, Paul rejoices that Christ is proclaimed.
Third, God does not merely forgive a person who puts their faith in Jesus, but also transforms them. He completes the good work he has begun in them and will one day glorify them and grant them to live with him forever. The transforming work of the gospel makes a thief no longer steal but work with his hands and be generous toward God’s work and the needy. The transforming work of the gospel makes a murderer and persecutor a witness for Jesus. The transforming work of the gospel makes the believer increasingly Christ-like through the thick and thin of life’s experiences.
Paul rejoices that Christ is proclaimed because these result in the glory and praise of God (v. 11). While these are not an exhaustive list, they are some reasons why Paul rejoiced in the proclamation of Christ.
Our Joy in the Gospel
Now we turn to our joy in the gospel. Here, I will prove that our joy is grounded in Christ. First, we will turn to Jesus’s description of the gospel. Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven as a treasure and a pearl of great value in Matt 13:44–46. Those who discover these sell everything they have to obtain this treasure or pearl of great value. I first heard these parables as a high school boy, or maybe a little earlier. These parables confounded me. If a person sells everything to acquire a small parcel of land for the treasure, then the treasure must be such that it can buy him a lot more, is what I thought. So, this parable made some sense. However, the next parable suggests that the collector now has nothing but this super-expensive pearl and no roof to sleep under let alone a place to store the pearl.
If, on the one hand, it seemed absurd to the young non-Christian me, the matter got a bit more complicated for an older Christian me. As a Christian, I wondered how the kingdom of heaven could be purchased, since clearly one enters it by God’s grace.
These twin problems kept me from seeing the point of the parables. Both these parables describe the kingdom of heaven as worth more than everything else we possess. Further, the first parable suggests that the discovery of the kingdom brings joy to the discoverer.
So, the point is not a material return-on-investment conversation. Nor is the conversation about paying for salvation. It is about the great value of the kingdom of heaven. The great joy in discovering the kingdom of heaven. Those who possess this treasure or pearl of great price will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (cf. Matt 13:43). They will not be thrown into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (see Matt 13:42). Receiving the gospel brings great joy.
It is this gospel that Jesus came proclaiming: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is the one through whom we may enter into the kingdom of heaven. He is the way. He is the gate. Our joy in the gospel is because we enter into the joy of the kingdom; the ground, the basis of that joy is Jesus. He makes it possible for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
However, I need to show you that Christ is the ground for joy from Phil 1:12–18. First, consider the issues that Paul faced. His circumstances were not favorable. Next, consider the motives that the preachers had. Not all preached from good motives. Paul rejoiced that Christ is proclaimed independent of circumstances and motives. Therefore, it must be that his joy is grounded in an unchanging and sufficient reality—the proclamation of Christ.
The object of the proclamation—and thus the cause of rejoicing—is Christ himself. The circumstances, motive, or even outcomes are not the cause of rejoicing. Thus, Christ is the unchanging and sufficient reality that causes Paul to rejoice.
Further, if joy persists regardless of chains and corruptions, then its ground must be something unchanging and sufficient—Christ.
Therefore, Christ himself is the ground of Paul’s joy. Christ alone is the ground of the believer’s joy. Looking anywhere else for joy is pointless.
Conclusion
What you believe about the advancement of the gospel will determine whether or not you will rejoice in the advancement of the gospel. If you consider godly boldness as calamity, godly aggressiveness as a nuisance, godly joyfulness as an offense, then you will not be able to rejoice. When you love Jesus and recognize that the gospel is the proclamation of Christ, then you will rejoice in the advancement of the gospel. When you rejoice in the advancement of the gospel, you will strengthen all godly boldness, honorably vindicate all godly aggressiveness, and esteem godly joyfulness.
May those who make efforts to share the gospel among us receive your every encouragement. May those who are shamelessly bold and those who are urgent in sharing the gospel be esteemed highly among us. May our joy in the proclamation of Christ be evident and contagious.
MacArthur, John F. “Joy in Spite of Trouble.” Grace to You, 26 June 1998. https://www.gty.org/sermons/50-7/joy-in-spite-of-trouble.
Wredberg, Jason. “A Crazy (and Wonderful) Experience Today.” Facebook, 5 April 2026. https://www.facebook.com/jason.wredberg/posts/pfbid01TdVHUozeNrAX1H1s5DBzrgkbC9NonFGBLfWifcSVWVqvgDzx7ukMYgF41F2MPHdl.
[1] Jason Wredberg, “A Crazy (and Wonderful) Experience Today,” Facebook, 5 April 2026, https://www.facebook.com/jason.wredberg/posts/pfbid01TdVHUozeNrAX1H1s5DBzrgkbC9NonFGBLfWifcSVWVqvgDzx7ukMYgF41F2MPHdl.
[2] John F. MacArthur, “Joy in Spite of Trouble,” Grace to You, 26 June 1998, https://www.gty.org/sermons/50-7/joy-in-spite-of-trouble.