STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
9.6 - Finding Joy in Service, Pt 3
As Paul wraps up his teaching on having the servant mindset of Christ, he presents the Philippians with two men who exemplify service – Timothy and Epaphroditus.
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well, welcome back. Today in the studio with Noah. We've got the text open in the book of Philippians. We're in season nine. We've been making our way through a four chapter book. We're in chapter two of Philippians. We've had, or Paul the Apostle, has had some really good things to say to the church that he had a really close relationship with. Mm-hmm. Of course, we know where Paul was when he is writing this. He's in prison. Some of the things that he said back in chapter one, help us to appreciate that the things that he has said at this point, Noah, in chapter two, it's just what's all over. Chapter two is a concept of how to be a unified body of believers and the kind of characteristics and attitudes that are essential. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, the the unselfish mind. And we're gonna see that today. We got to about verse 19 of chapter two. So today we're gonna see two individuals that Paul mentions by name and there's really some good things he says about these two men and ways we can imitate them that are gonna help us to have the mind of Christ, to also help us to be very unselfish and committed in what we're trying to do to serve the Lord.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't think it's a coincidence that Paul, after he talks about, you know, the attitude of service and the mind of Christ, and finding joy in service of others, that Paul talks about his joy, we talked about that last time, his joy in serving. Mm-hmm. He says, even if I'm gonna be poured out as a drink offering, and then he immediately talks about these two men. Saying, you know, I want to send these men to you, or I'm going to send these men to you. I don't think that that's a coincidence. I think he's, he's lifting them up. In fact, at the end of chapter two, we see specifically with Epaphroditus that he. He explicitly says that Epaphroditus should be honored because of the work that he does. There's Right, he, he's, you know, it's kinda like I, I think of it from the parenting perspective. I know my parents did this with me, and I can see opportunities arising now for me to do it with my children. Where an older child that my child looks up to does something. You know, good, has a good attitude. Helps out, you know, takes initiative in, in serving somebody. And I, I kind of nudged, did you see how they, you know? Yeah. Did you see how they did that? That that's good. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's what Paul's kind of doing here at the end of
Paul:chapter two. Yeah. I love it. So for those. For those who probably are driving or they just can't have the text open in front of'em. I'm going to go ahead and read. I've got the new King James version. We're in Philippians two, so just hear the text as I read this and try to pull out and and hear specifically some key language that Paul will use to commend two men by the name of Timothy and Aphrodite. Philippians two, beginning in verse nine, Paul Rice. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I may also be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state for all. Seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know of Timothy's proven character that as a son with his father, he served me in the gospel. And therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me. But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly. Verse 25, yet I considered it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need since he was longing for you all and was distressed. Because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed, he was sick almost unto death, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but on me. Also, that I should have sorrow upon sorrow or less. I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Sorrow. Verse 28. Therefore, I sent him the more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice. And I may be less sorrowful, receive him. Therefore, in the Lord with all gladness hold such men in esteem because for the work of Christ, he came close to death, not regarding his life to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. Wow. What, what? Two amazing men that Paul mentions by name here.
Noah:Yeah. The way he describes Timothy here, since he was the first one that he mentions. The way that he describes him has always stuck out to me. I have no one like him. Mm-hmm. I think your translation said there's no one like-minded, right. Who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. So the, the highest praise that Paul offers regarding Timothy is his genuine care that he's concerned with the interests of Christ. And he's genuinely concerned with the interests of Christ. That's the contrast that he draws between Timothy and just the kind of the general other. Yeah. You know, there's Timothy and then there's everybody else. And Timothy, he seeks the interests of Christ Jesus. These other people, they seek their own interests. And so this kind of commendation, I mean, let it, I, I don't know how else to say it, but other than let, let it be said of me mm-hmm. That I, I can be described as having. Genuine concern for the interests of Christ.
Paul:Yeah. One translation of kindred spirit. Yeah. And it's interesting when Paul mentioned this language, he, he goes back to, to the relationship that he and Timothy had like a father son. Mm-hmm. I think about Caleb and I, you know, father son relationship and the same thing with you and your boys as they grow up. But what you're gonna discover Noah, as your boys grow up is more and more similarities. And, and that, and that kindred spirit, that relationship. So what that, what that naturally means in a very good, positive way is you'll watch your boys grow up and they'll have the same caring concern for a situation or a people. That they saw their father have.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:And that was the relationship between Paul and Timothy. But here's another thing. It's not in the text, but it's a principle I've jotted down because you've mentioned, and Paul does hear in Philippians too, about Timothy's genuine care about the church at Philippi, about people in general.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:How do you explain that? And here's what I'd written down. You have genuine con concern and care for people as a result of a genuine faith. Mm. Where did that genuine faith,'cause Paul talks about Timothy's genuine faith in second Timothy one five. Where did it come from? His mother and grandmother.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:Again, now, yes, in some measure from Paul.'cause Paul was mentoring him. Right. But people of genuine faith will have genuine concern. And that was Timothy.
Noah:Yeah, that, that is a really good point. Well, and so let's, let's take that a little step further here as we continue to see what Paul says about Timothy in this context. So you have genuine faith, which leads to genuine concern, and that is borne out in genuine. Trustworthiness. Hmm. Let's put it that way. Mm-hmm. Paul valued Timothy not only because Timothy was like-minded to him, was of the same spirit as him, but because Timothy shared these concerns and acted on these concerns in a way that Paul could trust, right. And Paul knows that the Philippians can also trust. Timothy. So because Timothy has the faith that he has, which leads him to have the same concern and care that he ought to have, then his actions become trustworthy because he acts on that faith and he acts on that concern. And Paul says to the Philippians, you know him. Mm-hmm. You know that he is proven. I, I think that, again, such strong language that let, that I, I just wanna say, let it be said of me. Noah is trustworthy. He's proven. You know how he has labored. And by the way, for those listening, I'm not saying now you need to say those things about me. What I'm saying is, let me act in such a way, live in such a way that that could be true, right? This is certainly such a, such a great example, this trustworthiness,
Paul:right? I mean, you're gonna, you're gonna send a man to a church that has a reputation. And rightfully so. He's proven he's deserving of that reputation. The verse 22, proven character or other translations, you know, his proven worth. Paul is saying, I don't even have to tell you church, right? What kind of man he is now he has. He has a special interest in you. But go back. I wanna read verse 21, 22 again, verses 21, 22, for they all talking about Timothy, they all seek after their own interests. Not those of Christ Jesus. But you know, of Timothy's proven character or worth that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel, like a child serving his father. So beyond the, the obvious. Of proven character and worth. Paul contrast Timothy with perhaps others that Paul would not send and the church would not want him to send, right? Because they didn't have the same selfless spirit that Timothy did. But he connects Timothy's unselfishness with the concept of he, he's serving the Lord Christ.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And you know, people. People who are serving Christ demonstrate that by serving. Other people. Yes. He's serving those in the best interest of the Philippian Church because he's a servant of Christ.
Noah:Yes. Which I think is a, is kind of a good summary of, of where Paul goes when he says, you know, I hope therefore, all of this in mind, all of this about Timothy in mind. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it'll go with me and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. So he's saying essentially I wanna send him ahead. He's been serving alongside me. Mm-hmm. Now he's going to come serve alongside you, right? Same spirit, same mission, same message. But now he's gonna be working alongside you. And and as you said just a moment ago, that's going to entail that he's also going to be serving them. Can't serve God without serving God's people.
Paul:Right. All right, before we move on to a pastor, you got anything on Timothy? I wanna mention something before you. You go for I miss this. I did. So a small thing, but maybe not a small thing. In verse 19, Paul says, regarding Timothy, I trust in the Lord. Timothy in verse 24, Paul says, I trust in the Lord that I myself will get to come to you shortly. Whereas Paul, he's in prison. Yeah, in both cases, when he's mentioning travel plans. Desires what, what I would like to do in both cases with regard to Timothy and Paul himself. He, he intentionally uses the language I trust in the Lord. Yeah. I think he's trying to tell something to the church at Philippi.
Noah:Yeah, that's a good observation. You know sometimes there's a, a bit of humor surrounding, people will say something and they'll say it a little bit tongue in cheek, you know, something like, Lord will and the creek don't rise. Right? Yeah. And, and they'll, and they'll point to, I think a lot of times, point to James, you know. Instead, you ought to say, right, right. If the Lord wills. And the fact is James says that for a reason, he's speaking to, to our heart and who, where we're placing our trust. Right. And I have no problem with people saying, Lord willing, in the creek don't rise. That's fine. I, I say it sometimes, so I better be okay with it, but I, I think what we see here is a real life example of the principle in James. Where is Paul putting his trust, his trust in his future, his trust in Timothy's future, his trust in the future of the church in Philippi. It's not in him. Mm-hmm. It's not in the work that he's accomplishing. It's that he's accomplished. He is, he trusts that the Lord will work through him, and the Lord will work through Timothy, and the Lord will work through the church in Philippi for his ends. And Paul's happy to leave the trust right there.
Paul:Yeah, I love it. I love it. So I've, I've jotted this down. So Philippians two, when we're talking about Timothy, number one, be like Timothy, you've mentioned that. Yeah. Imitate his character. Number two, raise a Timothy. You know, mom and mom, grandma, dad, invest the work in it. You gotta live it. You gotta model it, but you have to also teach it and then mentor. Find somebody to mentor. I mean, Timothy is where he is in in his life. Yes, it's his faith, it's his choice, his decision. But Paul had a big part in that. Look out today, men find a young man. Like a Timothy and nurture him, nurture that faith so that when you're gone, you've got someone on someone else that can carry on the good work.
Noah:Yeah. And, and Paul's mentoring of Timothy was not exclusive. We also see a, a similar, maybe not quite as close relationship, but a similar relationship between Paul and Titus. Mm-hmm. And and when he is writing. Later, you know, in, in Titus, he says, older men train younger men and older women train younger women. So, just as a reminder, this is an exclusive to the men out there. Don't, for looking for people to mentor women. Find younger women. And help them. Train them. Teach them, counsel them. Right,
Paul:right. All right. Moving into, so, so Paul says, until Timothy is sent to you and until Paul trusts in the Lord, he'll be released and then Paul can, until Paul can get to them, Paul says, okay, I'm, I'm sending a ROIs to you. Yeah. Love how he mentions a paphitis.
Noah:Yeah. Again, his description of him, he says, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and there just keeps being and, and your messenger and minister to my needs. So we get a little bit of a peek here into'cause. We're not given the full narrative of exactly what happened. Right. So we're, we're trying to connect the dots, but what appears to be the case is that Epaphroditus came from the Philippian church. Mm-hmm. In order to bring a message and to serve Paul in his. Imprisonment. And now Paul is saying, I'm sending him back.
Paul:Right.
Noah:But what's clear is he, it's not, this is not like returning a product to Amazon, this situation.
Paul:Right. This is,
Noah:in fact, this is the opposite. Yes. Paul would much rather keep him with, with him. He's, he has been greatly blessed by a paphitis that becomes very clear. But he says he's your messenger and he's your minister to my needs. Right? So a paphitis got to represent the church in Philippi. To Paul and his imprisonment, which is a really beautiful picture. A beautiful relationship to try to unpack.
Paul:Yeah. You know, I love how you mentioned how he's described in verse 25. You know, brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier. I'm gonna give you a different trans different translation in verse 25. That reads noticeably different, and then explain to you why I prefer this translation.
Noah:Okay.
Paul:This translation in verse 25 says, he is a true brother, a faithful worker. Now listen to this. And a courageous soldier, somebody says, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Toss that translation out because they added the word courageous before a soldier. Yes they did. Yes they did. But this is the key point. Notice what Paul says about him in verses 29 and 30. He told'em in verse 29, you need to honor men like a paphitis. Yeah. Now verse 30 of Philippians two, because he almost died for the work of Christ risking his life. To make up for the help that you could not give me, risking his life. That's why I like courageous in front of soldier, because I don't think we should miss that. We're all, in some sense, soldiers, we're in the Lord's army, we're servants serving the Lord's purposes, but. Not all of us have the courage that Aphrodite has had. Yeah. And I'm not trying to be critical and indict someone. I'm, I'm telling you, that's a rare thing. We think, well, everybody's got it. Not everybody's gonna risk their life, you know? So while Paul, in the context of Philippians two had been saying things to the church. You know, in verses three and four about unselfishness and how to serve one another and how to have the mind of Christ, Epaphroditus took that to a point that he was willing to endure danger and hardship. To serve the, the needs and the necessities of the Apostle Paul on behalf of the Philippian church. He nearly died. Now, again, like you said, we don't have the script. I don't know right. What all was involved in that, but he was willing and did risk his life. Yeah.
Noah:Yeah. I, I think that another thing that these few verses kind of help us see is what Christian relationships. Should look like in a lot of different ways. So ROIs came as a servant. Paul valued him as a fellow worker. ROIs we're told there in verse 26 has been longing for the church in Philippi. And he's worried because he had fallen ill and he had recovered, but all the Philippians knew was that he was sick unto death. Mm-hmm. And now he's concerned because they're still concerned and he's okay now. We see this kind of intricate web of everyone is. Showing concern for one another, right? The Philippians showed concern for Paul by sending Epaphroditus Epaphroditus labored alongside Paul, and served Paul because he cared, but he also missed the people in Philippi. He longed to go back and so he was making a sacrifice just by being there. And they were worried about his health and he was worried about their concern for him. And it, it just creates this very intricate. Kind of intersection of, of service and care. And again, we come back to this idea of finding joy in service. These were people that were intent on showing genuine care like Timothy and, and finding joy in service like Epaphroditus did. And that's in, in some way. That's what we all need to be. Aspiring to exhibit in our relationships.
Paul:Mm. Yeah man, that kind of stings when I hear you say that, because I mean, you're a hundred percent right that he was distressed. He, he nearly dies. He's sick near to death. Paul makes a point. God showed him mercy. This man lives.'cause God says, I, you're gonna live. Right. That's God's prerogative. It was act of mercy. But he nearly dies. But he's distressed because he's getting better. But he wants the, the people in Church of Philippi to know I'm, I'm okay. He's more concerned about them than he is his own self. Right. And if I'm nearly, if I nearly died, this is where I told you, it stings a bit. If I nearly die for the cause of Christ, I'm, I'm looking for a little, maybe not a whole lot, but to be honest, a little bit of the brethren saying. What an honorable, courageous guy. You, I wish we had more people like this guy who nearly dies and puts his life on instead. He's not thinking that way. He's thinking about them. And like you said, man, that's the humility. Yeah, that's what Paul was talking about. In humility, consider others better than yourself. Verse three, verse four. Each one of you don't just look out on your own towards your own interest, the interest of others, and then let this attitude be in you. Which was in Christ Jesus and he, and he mentions to men, now Epaphroditus, that was who they were.
Noah:Yeah. Yep. And Paul, Paul holds them up as an example, honor such men. He says in verse 29, honor Such men. Men like this. And I think sometimes we get, I sometimes we get turned around in the idea of, well, we can't show somebody too much honor or might go to their head, you know, we're afraid we're gonna start inflating their ego and that kind of thing. And Paul's point is not that we need to constantly be. You know, talking these people up. But the thing is, as, as a community, as a group, what values do we want to encourage in people? Mm-hmm. And how can we expect to encourage them in people if we don't, or if we aren't willing to point at at a set of actions or a set of attitudes and say, that is honorable, that's honorable. We need, we need to act like that more. It's not about the person. It's about the spirit in which they are doing these things. It's the, them having the mind of Christ. In the end, the glory is for God, not for the person. But we can expect to encourage that type of attitude and that behavior if we're not willing to stand up and say, that's honorable.
Paul:Yeah. I, I, I, I really appreciate you mentioning that Paul does here in Philippians two. I've said this before and I understand there's judgment and we can go to an extreme. But I've used Philippians four in the example of a ROIs, and what Paul does to, to help local churches understand there is a sense in which it is helpful and beneficial and biblical to mention people by name. Because you're saying to the church, we need to show honor to this person.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:And and I, I think that's beneficial in raising the next generation to understand. We don't know what role Apras had in the church. You're messenger, I don't know. Clearly we we're supposed to hold in high esteem Shepherds, but, but I'm not saying Epaphroditus was. We don't know. But the point is. Paul says, I want you to show him honor and, and give him the honor that is due that esteem. It's, it's important to Paul. It's should be important to us.
Noah:Yep. Yep. Well, we're running up on the end of our time here, so we'll wrap up chapter two here, and we'll pick up in chapter three. Next episode. Next week. When Paul says, finally. And then he continues writing for two chapters. That's,
Paul:that's what we do.
Noah:Yep. That's what Paul's do. That's what, that's what he says. Some of us
Paul:go to the floor and preach another five or 10 minutes.
Noah:So looking forward to next week. Looking forward to getting into Philippians chapter three. Just, this is such a powerful letter. This is such a encouraging book. There's so many ways to find joy. In the truth of God's word. And Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, is such a good example of that. So my prayer for you, if you're listening along with us, my prayer for you over the next week is that you too can find joy and service, that you can find opportunities to to have the mind of Christ, to exhibit that in your life and to surround yourself with people who continue to do the same. And until next week, I pray that you stand strong.
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