Why Was Paul Not Afraid of the Wicked Emperor Nero?

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30 minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay once again good to have everybody back, this is our fourth half hour and as they say we're out of here. So those of you joining us on television again we just want you to know we're an informal Bible study. We don't attack anybody, and we're not going to try to run anyone down, we're just going to simply show what does the Bible really say. And not only what it says, but what it doesn't say. Because I've found over the years so many people think it says something. You know I made mention of one of our meetings out in North Carolina, and I had taught a group that I don't suppose most of them had ever heard of me before. But after the class any number of them came up and said, you know I never knew this was in my Bible. Well that's not unusual, but this is what we like to do, and it just thrills me that we can show people things that are in here they never saw before, and then also show them the things that aren't in here that they think are. So anyway if you're interested in any of our past programs remember that all the programs from Genesis 1-1 up until where we are now in Philippians are available on the videotape, the audio tape, as well as in the little printed booklets. So if you're interested in those materials for home Bible study, for your own, or for Sunday school, prisons, we've got a lot of them going out to prison inmates. So you just give us a call or write to us. Okay I think that's all for now, and we're ready to go back where we left off in Philippians chapter 1, verse 17. Now again for those of you who missed the first half hour or two, you want to remember that Paul is writing from a Roman prison just outside the Praetorium guard in Rome, right next door to the palace of Nero, and remember Nero was probably the most wicked, wicked emperor world leader that ever lived. He made Hitler look like a Sunday school teacher. I was reading in some secular material just the other day that the horrible immoral practices that Nero would force his people in servitude was such that the ordinary civilized person wouldn't put on paper. Now I don't know what it would have been, but you can use your own imagination, but that was Nero. He was beyond. Well I'll tell you what he did. First off, he murdered his wife so that he could marry Popopea, who was a proselyte of Judaism who of course encouraged all the activity against the Apostle Paul, because you know how the Jewish people felt about Paul's apostleship. Not only did he murder his wife in order to marry Popopea, but he murdered his stepson, and he murdered his own mother, and that of course was just only a part of the personality of Nero. So you want to remember that for Paul to make inroads into a government headed up by a man like that, no wonder he was thrilled. No wonder he could say, I'm ready to be offered. If it's time for me to go, I'm ready, and if not, I'll carry on, because he was. He was experiencing the salvation of these Romans all the way into the very elite part of the Roman government. So now then continuing on in chapter 1, verse 17, he said, But the other of love, now remember our closing remarks were that he said some people were actually promoting his gospel in order to hopefully bring even more harm to him. But he said, it doesn't matter as long as people heard the gospel of the grace of God. So he said, verse 16, the one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, in other words just for the purpose of making it harder on the apostles condition in prison, and not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love. I mean there were actually people now under all those horrible circumstances of Nero's persecution which is going to grow intensely worse, but the other of love knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Now what do you suppose he was talking about when he got his time in court? You know I think the apostle Paul just cherished those moments before King Agrippa and Festus, and that's why he appealed to Rome, because Rome of course was proud of their judicial system. They weren't as complete a democracy as we are today, but they were a republic remember, and they were proud of their judicial system. Their laws were fair, and they as we hope to be did not declare anyone guilty until he was proven guilty, or as we put it, innocent until proven guilty. And so Paul I think was just almost relishing another opportunity to come into a judge and jury situation, where he could use the power of the Holy Spirit to just unload on these Roman magistrates. And so he says, I'm set, I'm ready for the defense of the gospel. Now you want to remember, that's the only reason he was in prison. He hadn't fomented any sedition, he hadn't instrumentally been active in overthrowing Rome, he hadn't been causing any bad remarks about Nero or even the gods and goddesses of mythology. All he had been doing was preaching Christ crucified, that's all. But when it would transform the lives of the makers of idols, such as up there in Ephesus the silversmiths, it got him in trouble. But the only thing he was guilty of was preaching the gospel, and he couldn't help it. Every place he went, he was constantly proclaiming Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Now let's look at verse 18, and see what it says. Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice. Nothing thrilled the heart of that apostle more than to hear of someone saved, especially in Caesar's household. I hope you all realize, Caesar was just a title, like we would use king or president. Nero was the Caesar of this hour. One of the other nasty Caesars, if I remember right, was Claudius. There were several that were far worse than the rest of them. But they were all Caesars, but they were just simply in the title, and so Nero at this time is the Caesar. Now let's look at verse 19, and see what it says. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer in the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Now we've got to stop again, because Paul thinks that all this activity is going to bring about his own salvation. Why? You know that Paul knew that long before now. He had his salvation, it was secure by his faith, but what he's talking about is the outworking of it all. Let's read it again. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer in the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Now I'm going to read between the lines, and I may be as wrong as wrong can be, but I think he was confident that with the prayers of the saints, and with his own ability to meet the magistrates, and the judge, and the jury of Rome, that he would gain his freedom. And that's what he was saying, your prayers are going to bring about my salvation. Not his spiritual salvation, but his actually being set free. Now of course some people think he was. You read some of your writers, and it's almost 50-50. Some people think that at this particular time when he took his defense of the Gospel, that he actually gained his freedom, and they call it the two imprisonments. And then after being free for a year or two, and some feel that it was during that time he went to Spain, and I don't agree with it. I think it was just one, but if he did, he may have had a year or two of freedom. But whatever, if he did indeed gain his freedom, then certainly this verse is apropos, that it was the result of the prayers of the saints. And listen, don't ever sell the prayers of the saints short. Iris and I don't. My there's nothing that we revel in more than all of our travel, now we just came back of course from 5000 miles, and to know that we've got people praying for us every day all over the country. And we know that prayer works, in the same way with this ministry. My we would have never dreamed we'd go beyond Tulsa, Oklahoma in 6 months, and we'd be a dead duck and we'd be out of here. Well here we are, now you know it's still growing, and it's the prayers of the saints. Now that's all there is to it. Ok, let's move on. Verse 20. Ephesians 2. "...according to my earnest expectation, and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death." In other words, His constant day in and day out testimony amongst these Romans. That reminds me of a verse, and I imagine some of you thought of it as we were reading. Go back to Romans 1, verse 16. Romans 1, verse 16. My, you know, I try to go slow, and I try to give time, and yet I get a letter once in a while, saying, don't go so fast, I can't keep up with you, so I'll have to try to slow it down a little bit, and give you time to find these references. But Romans 1, verse 16, where Paul writes, Romans 1, verse 16. "...for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to how many, every one that believeth." No conditions, it doesn't say you have to be baptized, you've got to do this, and you've got to do that, you've got to cross the ocean, you've got to gather a million dollars, that would really make it go, wouldn't it? My, if we could put a price on salvation, the world would flock to it. But it isn't, it's free, and it's to anyone who will believe it. So he's not ashamed of that gospel, "...for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, plus nothing." And then of course to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now you come all the way back to Philippians, which is probably written several years later, he's still of the same mindset, he's not ashamed of the gospel, he's not ashamed of the fact that he's been in prison more times than any of us would like to think of, and all for the sake of the gospel. He never broke the law, he never did anything that was worthy of arrest and imprisonment, but my goodness, how many times! And so here he is, "...not ashamed, but that with all boldness, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." Now I don't put a lot of stock on secular things concerning this, but I have read that when Paul was a few feet from where they were going to behead him, he actually ran the last few steps to lay his head on the block. Now that seems a little far-fetched, but it wouldn't surprise me. I mean this is how anxious he was to give his life for the sake of the gospel, and always remember that grace is sufficient. If it should come our way, then the grace of God will overwhelm us, even as it did for him. Now verse 21 says it all, doesn't it? Oh, when he realized that there was nothing more he could do to promote the gospel, when he was convinced that his time was finished, that God had done everything with him that he wanted to do, now what is he? He is so ready to go, and he says to die is gain. Now you know we've got it so good, isn't it? That's our problem. We've got it so good, until maybe we're on the deathbed with a horrible, painful cancer or something. I'm sure that would change our mind, but most of us in our average existence, we've got it so good, we're not really anxious to die. I'm not either, no I don't want to see death, I hate death. Now I'm anxious for the rapture, I wish it would take place today, because that's going to be a real easy way out of it all. That's going to be tremendous, I don't have to lay in a hospital bed or a nursing home or anything like that, it's just going to be suddenly a whole new body and everything for eternity. But death, no, I don't like death. But this man, he was so ready to die, because it is to gain Christ. But on the other hand, or the flip side, if I live in the flesh, if God sees fit to let him continue on, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I choose, I know not. Why? Verse next, for I am in a strait, he's just literally confined between these two desires. I am in a strait between two possibilities. The desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Of course it would be better than a Roman prison. But on the other hand, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Now I don't know how many times you or other people out there think about it, but have you ever tried to think of the circumstances that these new believers found themselves in, such as up at Philippi and Ephesus and so forth? Here they are just recently out of idolatrous paganism, with all of its excesses. And those of you who've been over there, and I'm sure some of you have been, and you see the evidence of the gross immorality everywhere you look, such as in Pompeii and Corinth and so forth. How these people came out of that by simple faith in Paul's gospel, and then immediately were confronted with persecution and the threat of torture. How did they maintain their faith and grow in it? Because until Paul began his letters, which like I usually point out is probably around 58 AD, or about five or six years before he writes his prison, they had no written New Testament to go by. They couldn't read the New Testament and take comfort from it. And you want to remember, the average Gentile certainly didn't have the Old Testament. That was pretty much confined to the synagogues and to the rabbi. So you see, those Gentile believers, they just didn't have a lot going for them, except the power of the Holy Spirit to keep them. And so this is why he writes that, yes, it was more needful for these people to keep this man, that he would hopefully be released, and he could once again make the circle. So let's see, what's the verse I'm thinking of? Second Corinthians, come back with me, I'll find it. Second Corinthians chapter 11, and let's just drop in at verse 22. You remember when I taught the Corinthian letters, I was always emphasizing that Paul had to defend his apostleship, especially to the Corinthians, because they were putting him down and saying, well, we'd rather follow Peter. Others said, no, we're going to follow Christ. After all, he proved who he was. And then along comes Apollos, who was quite the order, and highly educated, and so he won a few. And so some said, no, we'll follow Apollos, and then some said, no, we're going to stay with Paul. So he's always defending his apostleship, that he was not an imposter, that he was in verity the true apostle of the Gentiles. So drop in at 2 Corinthians 11, verse 22. And so he's in reference, of course, to the twelve back there in Jerusalem, who some said that they were the only ones with authority. So he says, are they Hebrews? Well, so am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? Now he says, I speak as a fool. So he's humbling himself. I am, what, more. I am more the minister of Christ than they were. And here's the reason, in labors more abundant. Now you want to remember, scripturally, we have no account of the twelve ever leaving in ministry the area of Jerusalem. See, now I had a letter from a gentleman that I'm quite sure was from the Catholic Persuasion, because I have a lot of those folks as my listeners, and he said that he couldn't agree with me that I'd made the statement that Peter had never visited any Gentile cities, and I didn't say that. I said he had no ministry. See, now I know he visited Antioch in Galatians chapter 2. I'm sure he visited Rome. I'm sure he might have visited other places. But he had, according to this book, no ministry, except to the Jew. And so consequently, even though those twelve men were all martyred, they didn't suffer the years of privation that this man did. Okay, now look what he says. Are they ministers? Verse 23. I speak as a fool. I am more. I am more. Why? In labors more abundant, in stripes, that is, whippings, above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Now what he means by that, of course, is near death. He was already made reference, a program or two back, that at Philippi he was sick nigh unto death. In Ephesus he seemingly escaped with his life, because he said he escaped the beasts in Ephesus Now I don't think it meant that he was in the Colosseum and had to fight off the lions, but it was just the beasts of the pagan world. But he was in near death, and then of course stoned up there in Derbe and Lystra. So he says, "...in deaths often. Of the Jews he received forty stripes, save one, five times. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep, that is, in the Mediterranean waters. In journeyings often, in perils of waters and robbers, my own countrymen, perils of the heathen, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren. Weariness, painfulness, watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings, cold, nakedness. And then here it comes, the biggest burden of all was the concern for the churches." Isn't that amazing? Verse 28, "...beside those things that without that which cometh upon me daily, every day, the care or the concern of all the churches." Now again remember, like I said in the last half hour, the churches in Paul's days weren't great big edifices with a great big organization and a big budget. They were just little small groups, probably meeting in homes, a dozen or two. But they were precious in Paul's sight, and he knew the pressure that they were all under, and so he was constantly aware of and concerned about those little groups of believers that he had established. And so all the other suffering, horrible as it was, did not press him down as much as the care or the concern for these little cells of believers that he had established. Now if we can come back for the next few minutes to Philippians chapter 1 again. Verse 24, re-reading it, "...nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." In other words, to encourage them, to keep them from falling back into their pagan practices, to keep them ready for persecution or death, if and when it should come. Now verse 25, "...and having this confidence that God was in it all, that everything that fell out to his daily happenings were in the providence of God, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance, and again the word, joy of faith, in spite of all the hardships." And always remember that this guy had so much on which his memory could constantly feed. Number one, when he was a Jewish religious zealot, what did he do to the Jewish believers? Tortured them, threw them into prison, saw to it that they were put to death, and he couldn't arrest them fast enough to satisfy that ravenous appetite of religious fervor. And so that was constantly on his mind, how he persecuted those early believers. Then to meet the Lord on the road to Damascus, what an experience that must have been! To find out that the God of glory was the same one that he thought he was stamping out, Jesus of Nazareth was the Jehovah that he worshipped. Now listen, that was something that would knock anybody's socks off, wasn't it? And he never forgot it. And then he moves on, and all the converts coming out of paganism, and how he could see their lives just cleaned up, and brought out a gross immorality, and became living examples of faith. Even those Roman soldiers, oh I'm sure that as the praetorium guards would come in, they could almost sense that higher level of morality that was an aura around the apostle Paul. And they knew that here was something not so much the man, but the God whom he served. And so I'm sure that all of these things just flooded the man's memory, and it would all give rise to a furtherance of his joy. And so he would say, verse 26, "...and that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me, by my coming to you again." So what's he looking forward to? Getting out of prison. He was pretty confident that he was going to beat the rap, and that's why he was so ready for his defense. And he honestly hoped that the day would come. Now like I say, some feel he did, and some do not think so, but whatever. Now verse 27, "...only," he says, "...let your conversation," now we always have to be careful, in some places the word conversation means citizenship, like it does back in chapter 3, but here it means manner of living. "...let your manner of living, your lifestyle, be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." That's all that counted. He didn't worry about how much food they had to eat. He didn't worry about how many Cadillacs they had in their garage. All Paul was concerned about is their faith, that which would prepare them for eternity. But oh, we're living in such a materialistic age, that we just sort of are programmed to equate everything with the material. Oh yeah, I'll be spiritual if it'll give me material blessings. Listen, that's not in here. That's not in here. Somebody wrote the other day, they got a kick when I made the statement, I'll never tell you to send me 50 bucks so that you can get 1,000, because that's not in here. That is not the work of Scripture, and so it's our faith in the gospel. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.