I hope in the Lord Jesus to send
Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for
your warfare. For they all seek their own interests,
not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven
worth, how as a son with a father, he has served with me in the
gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him just as soon as I see
how it will go with me. And I trust in the Lord that
shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to
send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and
fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need. For
he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because
you have heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill, near to death,
but God had mercy on him, and not only him, but on me also,
lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to
send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again,
and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with
all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work
of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in
your service to me." Last week, we looked at the introduction
to this, verses 19 through 24, and we saw that Paul's passion
and compassion for the Philippian church was, I don't know, duplicated
and expressed through the person of Timothy. That Paul, even in
the depths of his suffering, had such a deep concern for the
Christians in Philippi that his suffering was minimalized. In
comparison, we continue to see this this reality as Paul begins
to say with great concern in his suffering. My prayer is for
you. I long for you. My affection
is that of Christ for you. Now, no time do we see Paul in
any of his writings specifically here whining and complaining. As a matter of fact, the antithesis
is true and that he shows through the writing to the Philippian
church that they are not to complain or to grumble, but in all things
rejoice so that it may be proven to the world that they are a
light among a twisted and crooked generation. Friends, if there's
never an opportunity for complaint when we're in the throes of suffering,
there it lies. We have great opportunity. And
I say this over and over again to the point that it seems as
though I'm not appreciative of my freedoms. But I will tell
you, as glad as I am to live in a great land like the United
States of America, to have the liberty to be offended. And have
the freedom, therefore, then to offend. We have allowed our
freedoms and our liberties to produce a a petty complaining
heart. And I think that as God's children,
though we are citizens of this great country with great liberty,
we also have the freedom to rejoice when we should complain. And
that is a God powered thing. And what I want you to see as
last week and this week is that Paul has given some great instruction,
some great commands for the church of Jesus Christ in the sense
of their suffering, in the midst of their suffering, how their
heart should be, how our mind should be, how our focus should
be, what our words should be, how we should deal with those
who persecute us, how we should consider their well-being, those
who hate us. How we should just let God be
the one who deals with these circumstances so that at the
end of the day we are not rejoicing in each other, but we are rejoicing
in Christ and His work with us. Maybe some of you can't relate
to this because there in your life there lies no suffering.
There's no harshness in your heart. There's no problems in
your mind. There's no burden in your soul.
I doubt that. I doubt that, as I've said probably about six
weeks ago, if we open the mic for everyone to give a reason
for their grief, we'd be here a week. We could light a candle
for every problem that we see in our lives and we could show
heat and light to the entire universe. There is never going
to be a day when our problems and our suffering ceases in this
side of eternity. And I would suggest that just
by example of the scripture and experience of life, that anyone
who would dare confess to you that there is no trouble in their
hearts and in there is no burden in their lives, most likely certainly
is lying. And worse is probably not a child
of God. For God has promised in his word,
not just once, not just twice, but in every writing, especially
of the New Testament, in every experience of history in the
Old Testament, that his people will suffer in this world because
the world and everything in it hates the gospel. That is so
contrary to what gets put on television, what gets put on
the radio. The difference is what's true and what's not true.
And what is true, as Paul tells young Timothy, like a child in
the faith listening to his father, he says, Timothy, anyone who
desires to live a godly life will be persecuted. Anyone who
has been raised with Christ surely has died with him. Anyone who
is to live for Christ in this world will suffer greatly for
his name. And I would just suggest to you to embrace that. When
he tells young Timothy to endure the suffering, what does that
mean? He says, don't look for a way out. Don't try to find
even prayers for it to be extinguished. For Paul himself prayed for God
to remove certain aspects of his suffering, specifically thorn
in the flesh, whoever or whatever that might have been. But Jesus
responds to Paul and says, my grace is sufficient. To understand
that in context, we see that Jesus was saying to Paul, I am
all you need in the midst of your pain. Embrace it. Embrace
me, because Jesus suffered. Paul shows that though he should
not have suffered, though he was not worthy of the suffering
and the wrath of God by guilt. He did that by the freedom of
his own desire to give glory to the father and to be propitiation
for all who believe, for anyone who come by faith to Christ,
anyone. And everyone who has faith. Friends,
as we look at this, then we see Paul telling us what we should
look like. And in last week, we looked at
Timothy. And in this week, we're going
to look back at Timothy and then look at Epaphroditus. These are
not just theoretical things that Paul is saying. These are not
just super powerful, supernatural experiences that Paul alone and
the apostles have been given. But the apostles and everyone
under their ministry is of the same spirit, of the same truth,
of the same gospel, with the same suffering, partnering with
the same grace. So that they can praise God for
his continued, immutable, unchanging mercy. And that's what Paul is
saying here. And I want you to see that it's
not a pickup. It's not a it's not a pickup to something new.
It's an expression of what has already been taught. This is
what God has done in you. Therefore, this is what God must.
This is what will come out of you because God has began it
and will continue the work, he says. And let me show you, it's
not just in me and not just in you, it's within all God's children
like Timothy. Now, Timothy was seen by everybody
that knew Paul as Paul's man. I mean, this is this is it. This
is Paul's right hand guy. He started with him as a young
man. He took him out of the culture in which he was in. He prepared
him. He mentored him. He was he would have been people
who knew Paul, knew Timothy. Let's put it that way. People
who knew Paul's writing had probably read the letters that were sent
to Timothy. Most definitely, they read the
letters that he sent to Timothy. And so they understood the type
of relationship that Paul had with Timothy. But yet still,
Paul was esteemed greater than Timothy, for Paul was the father,
Timothy was the son. But Paul has a really different
view of things like that, doesn't he? When we see Paul in his relationship
with Onesimus, the slave that was owned by Philemon, when we
see Paul coming into a contact with Onesimus and receiving the
gospel and becoming a believer in Jesus Christ, then all of
a sudden Onesimus confesses to Paul who he really is and why
he's running. Then what does Paul do? He says,
I know your owner, I know your master, and he's a brother with
us. I'll write him. And what does
Paul say to Philemon? Paul says to Philemon, when Onesimus
comes home. Act as though it's me coming
to your house, treat him as though he is your apostle. Your brother
in the Lord, because he is and no longer hold against him the
crime of abandonment, but treat him as a guest, not as property
as powerful. And I think in the same way,
we need to take a hard look at how we see our suffering, how
we see our ministry, how we see each other, how we see those
who stand against us, whether it be our in our homes or our
job and our church, our community, or whether we are how we see
our own flesh standing against us. We need to be careful to
realize that this is not a battle for us to win, but it is a battle
that Christ has already won, and we need to take note of that,
and more importantly, hold fast by faith to that. So let's review. Paul says, I
hope in the Lord Jesus, not I hope, not I wish, not I wish upon a
star to send Timothy and not that my hope is in Timothy, but
my hope is in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon.
In order that, why am I sending Timothy? Timothy is the man who
I have raised, who I have grown in the faith, who I've mentored
in the ministry, and yet I am sending him to you because it's
more important for you to have joy in ministry than for me to
have joy in ministry. So if I can't come, I will send
the next best thing, which is just as if I'm there. Keep that
in mind. This is review. I hope in the
Lord because I have a genuine concern for you. I have the affection
of Christ Jesus, Paul says in the first chapter of Philippians.
And then in doing so, Timothy also has a concern for you because
his concern for me and my well-being is because of his concern for
you and your well-being, because he knows that I'm necessary.
for your ministry, for your growth, for the planting of churches
in your city and cities like yours. So Timothy's heart is
not as much as a love for me as it is a love for Christ and
the work of Christ. So the people of Christ that
has an affection for Timothy or Timothy has an affection for
them. So in serving Paul, Timothy serves them, you see. And so
then because of that, he has proven his worth. Don't you hear
that for a second? I didn't really focus on that
last week. But Paul says that because Timothy has an affection
for you and he's willing to leave me to come to you so that you
may have joy, then he's proven his worth. He's proven his worth
to me and he's proven his worth to you. Timothy's proven his
worth. How as a son with a father, listen,
he has served with me in the gospel. Did you notice what's
not said there? Paul did not say Timothy's proven
his worth by serving me. Timothy's proven his worth by
doing all the things that I'm needing done. Timothy's proven
his worth by running the photocopier on Sunday morning. Timothy's
proven his worth by cleaning up after me and taking care of
my personal business and dealing. He didn't say Timothy's proven
his worth because he's become my intern. He said Timothy's
proven his worth because he has served with me in the gospel. And the reason I'm not coming
now is because my hands are chained to a wall. So Timothy's coming. So that
I can be there. And ultimately, so Christ can
be there. This particular text. Three months ago, rose something
out of me. I stood right here, this pulpit
about 830 in the morning. I just read the entire letter
to Philippians straight through. And I stopped here when I got
to the this little dialogue here, this little expose here of Epaphroditus
and Timothy. And I thought to myself, here
is what Paul, one of the main things that Paul is trying to
show us is that when we suffer alone, we waste it. When we minister alone, we waste
it, we waste our suffering when we do not engage our suffering
with the saints, that God has purposed his body to be together
to be the answer for our needs. In prayer and fellowship and
material things, whatever we need, we are to suffer together. And you'll see, interestingly,
when he starts to talk about Epaphroditus, how that looks
for the church. But Paul is not proud of Timothy
because he's such a workhorse. Paul is proud of Timothy because
he's a he's a giver. He's sacrifices whatever life
he had not to serve Paul, but to serve Christ. And he served
with Paul in the ministry, so that which Timothy was expected
to do, Paul was already doing. And Paul didn't stop doing so
that Timothy could sort of pick up. That's what the Department
of Transportation does. If I'm a supervisor, I stand
and watch. In the church, we get together,
we step on each other's toes. Oh, I'm sorry, you're already
standing here. Let me go a little bit down the road. But we're
doing the same work. A leader is one who is modeling
that which is expected and others go, I'm going to mimic him. It's
what Paul means when he says, follow me as I follow Christ.
Because if you're following me and I'm not following Christ,
you're following me. You're doing not what Christ is doing, but
what I am doing. So as we do the work of the ministry,
no one who is a leader is not doing the work of the ministry.
These people are deplorable in the sight of God. And it's seemingly
what we see. We see Peter and even the writer
of Hebrews talks to the elders and the leaders of the church
to remember those who labor for you. Honor them who labor for
the joy of your soul, for the well-being of your salvation,
for the well-being of your heart. And labor then willingly. Work willingly. Yes, we all have
different roles, but none of us who are leaders, are we not
all leaders? Or to just say do without doing
ourselves, it doesn't work that way. Paul, of all people, if
the apostle of the apostles is demonstrating this, then oh,
certainly we should demonstrate this. We should recognize this.
Timothy was a nobody. Paul was a nobody. Who used to
be a somebody who on the road to Damascus became a nobody because
Christ took everything he'd ever worked for away from him. Like
that. But he gave him everything, all
spiritual blessings, everything. Christ himself propitiated for
Paul. And took away all the world that
was rotted and decaying and gave him everlasting life with glory
and hope. And praise. So Timothy is a proven. Worker, he studied to show himself
an approved worker, he's proven his worth because he has a proven
concern for you, Philippians. Imagine the conversation if Paul
would not have said this, had he said to young Timothy, Timothy,
you have been by my side. And you have served with me faithfully
in the gospel. And I need you to go to Philippi.
And Timothy goes, well, I don't want to leave you. Because where's
the glory in Philippi? The glory would be walking with
Paul, not being alone in Philippi. And also knowing that they didn't
want to see Timothy, they wanted or Epaphroditus, because my goodness,
they sent Epaphroditus to minister to Paul. They sent ministry resources
through Epaphroditus to Paul. And then Epaphroditus gets there,
supposed to be ministering to Paul and gets sick. You know what that looks like?
You know, it looks like in the church today. I can't believe
he's falling down the job. He went and he got depressed,
he got sick, something happened, car broke down, whatever happened,
something's happened. And Paul's suffering without
any concern for the messenger. I'm concerned with the mission
without any hope and faith in the sovereignty of God and at
all. Maybe God broke the car down. Maybe God gave him the
illness. After all, did not Jesus himself,
who loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, let Lazarus die after he heard
he was ill and near death? Therefore, because he loved Lazarus,
he stayed three more days. Why? So that he could be decomposing
when he got there. It's antithetical with our way
of thinking. Our individualism, our, I don't
know, our corporatism that we have in our culture. And Christ
has saved us from all that. We are one body, each individually
apart. And Timothy proved his worth.
Ultimately, through submission, I will go, I will go. I don't
have to be here with you, Paul, I will go to Philippi, I will
take your message, I will explain this letter to them, I will help
them mature and grow. and worship, because isn't that
why Paul wrote? I pray that you may grow, that
your love may abound more and more, that you may grow with
knowledge and discernment, ultimately praising God and everything that
that is happening with you. Not considering yourselves greater
than anybody else, but laying down all of your desires and
all of your rights for the sake of those who are around you,
for the sake of the joy of the church, laying down all that
you know you won't. Paul had a temp had a had a.
partner in Timothy that served with him in the gospel, not served
him in the gospel, but in serving with him, he did serve him. So
that's one of the unique things about it, when we serve Christ,
we do serve each other. And then as you're serving me
and I'm serving you and somebody else is serving you and you're
serving them and everybody's just out serving each other, all of
a sudden everybody is being served, everybody's being ministered
to, and we're not thinking about ourselves. And Paul wasn't thinking
about himself. And Paul was sending Timothy
to not think about himself, and he's sending Epaphroditus back
to his home and not thinking about himself. He's sending only those as a
point of understanding here. He didn't send some of those
who were just half hearted, who didn't care about the interest
of others, but only their own ministry. He didn't send them.
He didn't say to himself, well, you know what? We've got some
of these guys on the fringe out here. Let's give them an appointment and
maybe they'll get right. No. He only sent those who were
proven worthy. The same thing is true for people
who teach or people who preach, people who are on mission. People
who want to hold prayer meetings in their home or midweek Bible
studies in their home, they ought to be proven people. Not spiritually
impoverished people, and that may be if they start hosting
something, they'll grow in Christ, they need to be growing in Christ
lest they reproduce infants. That's why Paul even says to
Timothy, don't put your hands on a man except that he meet
this criteria. And when he starts to fail in
these areas, you better put your hands back on him, yank a knot
in him and get him back straight. But that's Timothy. Timothy had
a proven affection for Christ, evidence with his affection for
by his affection for the church, and now we come to Epaphroditus. And it may seem that this text
is a little bit It is a narrative in some sense, but we we can
very easily miss the application. But I don't want you to miss
the application. It's written for our good. It's
written for our purpose. It's written for our embrace. So bear with me. I've thought
it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, my fellow worker
and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need. Let's
look at that for a minute. How does Paul now talk about
Epaphroditus? Epaphroditus was a Philippian.
He was sent by the elders of Philippi to minister to the needs
of Paul, and he was just a messenger. Paul confesses that your messenger
for my ministry. Now I'm sending him back to you. You sent him as a messenger and
a minister. And guess what he is now? Now
he's my brother. He's always been his brother.
But Paul reflects in that way that Paphroditus is not just
some lackey that's been sending letters back and to and bringing
a bag of money and bringing clothes. He is my brother. He is vital
to the work of the church. He is the one for whom Christ
has died. And he's also my fellow worker,
and we don't know all the details of what happened with Epaphroditus
when he met with Paul, but we do know that for a long season
there, he was there with Paul and he was there longer than
he intended to be without even doing that, which he intended
to do much like Paul now when he went to Philippi and got imprisoned. Now and. Now under Roman guard
in prison awaiting his trial some two years later. And think
about what we would do if we had this master plan together
and all of a sudden everything sort of fell apart. What do we
do when my world is falling apart? This is falling apart. This is
not the way Paul says not to focus on these things at all.
But that the well, the best laid plans, unless God wills it will
fail. And the best outcome that comes
from these plans that fail is the perfect plan of a sovereign
God that we could not have accomplished no matter how many millennia
we would have been alive to organize it. So. That which happens. Is much better than that which
we planned to happen? Because it is God's purpose.
I don't know very many people who do a really good job of ministry
leadership when they're in jail. Well, we've got 20 guys that
we're going to train to be pastors and we've got 16 families. We're
going to change train to be missionaries and we've got all these guys
over here and we're going to meet every Tuesday and every Thursday
and then the first week out things go good and then you get locked
up. Now what? This is what God has planned,
so this is the plan. Now, what do we do? We don't
worry about where we are. We worry about what we've been
called to do. So wherever we are, we do that
which we've been called to do. I'm a firm believer, especially
when I read the Pauline epistles and I see them, that intimate
relationship that he had with Timothy and how he wrote to Timothy.
You know, when Barnabas and Paul divided Their ministry, when
I say divided, they didn't split under duress. They didn't split
on anger. They split under a dispute of where John Mark would go. John Mark. Mark. Where would he go? We don't think
he needs to go back with us, Paul would say, and Barnabas,
why I think he's essential to the future of where we're heading.
Well, guess what, then, if that's what God's convicted you to do
and this is what then we must not go together. You take John
and you go, John Mark, and you go this way and then I'm going
to go this way. And then he gets arrested. And then we see church plant
everywhere we go, we see the apostles being arrested and whipped
and be beaten, stoned. Paul being shipwrecked and everybody
with him. But then we see it the latter
days of Paul's ministry when he is really physically ill.
Luke, the writer of a majority of the New Testament in number,
quantity, a physician tending to the needs of Paul. Paul writes
to Timothy. And guess who's with Timothy?
John Mark. John Mark's with Timothy. And Paul says to Timothy, I am
cold, bring me A cloak. I left it there with you and
I need you to bring it with me and bring John Mark. He is vital. To the ministry. Hey. Now we
see God's plan that nobody could have put together. Coming to
fruition and guess what happens as Paul and others suffer in
prison. He calls them together. He says
something very interesting that the first time I read, I wept
in the floor. Because I saw the sovereignty
of God in such a way that I've never seen it before. And that
is in the minute details of life, the minute details of ministry.
When he says to Timothy, bring John Mark, he's vital. He's important
to me. Bring my cloak. I'm cold. You realize, and I think I said
this last week, that if you did not have friends and relatives
who were allowed to come in and minister to you, you would die
of starvation and illness in a prison in Rome. And by God's grace, all these
apostles, all these little disciples, all these ministers and elders
were allowed to come in and just engage with Paul. And Paul says
this, he says, bring the writing that we started and bring some
more paper. We have a lot to do. Friends, we're reading what Paul
wrote in prison. And because God changed Paul's
plan and put him in prison, the gospel came to us. Can you apply that in your life? Your messenger, Epaphroditus,
came to me and he ministered to my needs, but now he's a fellow
worker. And not just any old worker.
He's a soldier. He's a soldier. Let me give you
some let me give you some thoughts here. Are you a fellow worker
in the gospel? Not with me, not with each other,
but with Christ. Are you working for the purpose
of the gospel? You know what I see? Or maybe
I shouldn't tell you what I see because you see it, maybe you
can relate. I see as a whole in our world and in these United
States. That the most vibrant, exposed. Prolific ministry and preaching,
typically I'm saying this typically, it's not the rule, it's just
typical. are not focused on Christ or
the gospel or salvation, but focused on the minute, materialistic,
individualistic needs of humanity so that they can get their desires
for lust and materialism met. Which is no gospel. Which is being preached in pulpits
through the mouth of the enemy of God. That's harsh. No, that's Paul.
He didn't choose the word on at the mosque because he wanted
to be sarcastic. Which means to be cut off. That
if anybody preaches any other gospel, which is really no gospel,
they are forever cut off from Christ. And the gospel we see in the
book of Philippians is the only gospel of Jesus Christ. He who,
though he was equal with God, did not take equality with God,
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. a slave,
obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God highly
exalted him, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Now, y'all have that mind just
like that. That's your mind in Jesus Christ.
That was Paul's argument. That's the only gospel. That you see and savor and embrace
every moment of your life in that gospel, who is Jesus Christ
and know fully that because of that, we will suffer as Christ
suffers. You see why alternative gospels
in this world that are exploited everywhere we turn are so appealing
because it takes away the pain. And it produces a puny savior
that can barely stand. But that when he does stand,
he doesn't want us to stand with him because he just wants us
to have a happy life now. My friends, God does want us
to have a happy life now, but do you know what a happy life
now is? Forsaking everything else. I follow Christ. Look at the heart of and the
heart toward Epaphroditus. Paul says. I'm going to send
you to him, for he has been longing, look at the heart of Epaphroditus
for you all. We can understand that. Because
we've seen that already. Paul has already debated that
and argued that and shown that very clearly that those who are
born of God have an instantaneous, spontaneous, immediate synonyms,
supernatural affection for the church, not the stuff that the
church does for the people who are the body of Christ. It is
automatic. It is supernatural. It is absolute. There is an uncanny Unworldly. Powerful and mystical love that
the church has for each other. In spite of our differences,
in spite of our uniques, our uniqueness, in spite of our aggravation,
in spite of how we rub each other, we then come to the table with
an absolute affection. Because Christ has saved us and
given us his heart. Remember, it's the heart of Christ,
it's the mind of Christ, it's the righteousness of Christ,
ineffective on our part. It's given to us. That's what
salvation is, that's what grace is. We don't come to faith and
then. Spend 50 years. Trying to make
ourselves like Christ, we come to faith and spend 50 or 100
years becoming like Christ because he's working in us that way.
And it is a fight and it is a struggle and there is great responsibility,
as we saw Tuesday. But it is the work of God. And
God's people are people who claim to be God's people who do not
have a heart for God's people, something is drastically wrong.
Something is drastically ill proportionate, something is backwards. John would later say in his first
epistle that that type of living proves that someone is still
in darkness. Because our heart to our brethren,
if we're not patient with those who doubt what? Remember our
time in Jude? Be patient. Everybody's going to grow at
different rates and their maturity and their understanding. So we
got to be patient. If we're not patient, if we're
hateful, where's the gospel in us? Epaphroditus was sent by his
people to minister, to give needs and ministry to Paul, and all
he was thinking about is I long for my people. But it's not the only thing.
He wasn't just homesick. But why did he long for them
so much? And he has been distressed. You see, that's a weird word,
isn't it? It's a weird word. And Paul's going to use the word
anxious or sorrowful in a moment. And you're thinking, how do we
how do we reconcile these types of relationships with these emotions
if we're told to rejoice in all things? Well, we'll show you. Epaphroditus longs for you because
he has the same affection of Christ for you that I have with
all the affection of Christ. And I pray that your love may
abound more and more. This is the prayer by Paul for
the Philippian Christians, all of them. It's the prayer that
we should have for each other. It's the prayer that Epaphroditus
and Timothy had for the Philippians. And so here we see this heart
that loves them, and we see this heart that is distressed because
of them. Listen, he's been distressed
because you heard he was ill. You ever get that prayer request
over an email or Facebook or text message or in person? You
get the prayer request where somebody's ill, somebody's sick.
Man, there's a lot of sickness going on. And it could be anything
from a cold, a sinus infection, a bad back, a stubbed toe, a
broken arm, blindness, whatever it could be. But when someone
says to you they're dying, it has a little more gravity, doesn't
it? It isn't that we're not burdened for them, but we pray for them
periodically. We may go to the Lord in prayer
when we hear it, and then He'll remind us. And if we're organized
in our prayer life, we'll write it down and we'll pray for them
on a daily basis, an ongoing basis. And we pray for God to
intercede because we love them. and we're burdened when we hear
that they're ill. But this was not an ordinary illness. This
wasn't a tummy bug or dehydration. This wasn't something that could
lead to death. This was a deathly illness. And
Paul reminds them of that. He indeed was ill near to death. So they grieved more. They grieved
more because they realized it wasn't just sickness. It was
deathly sickness. It was something that was extremely
important, that if he was not healed, he would not live. He
was near death. And the only thing that could
come in between him and leaving this world is the hand of the
mercy of God. And so Epaphroditus, knowing
that his fellow Christians in Philippi were burdened by that,
he was burdened for them because they were burdened for him. It
reminds me of my grandmother's pastor at her funeral in 2005 when he preached the words of
his own testimony when she got breast cancer some 22 years prior
to her death. And he tells the story of him
walking into her bedroom and seeing her there on the bed after
her surgery. Kneeling down by her bed to talk
with her and to pray with her, and he was overwhelmed with grief.
Overwhelmed with grief. And he just began to weep. For
there was a sister and brother that were dear to him, and he
did not know what to do. Believe it or not, nobody's an
expert in grieving. And what blew his mind is that
he showed up to her house to minister to her and he lost it. And he was burdened in such a
way that he could no longer provide any ministry. And what blew him
away was he looked up and he saw after just a few moments
that my grandmother had put her hand on his head and was praying
for him. In the same way, the Philippian
Christians were so burdened for Epaphroditus that they were unable
to minister. He's going to die? What are we going to do? Epaphroditus,
in need of ministry, was so concerned for their burden that all he
could think about was ministering to them. And it wasn't like,
let's FaceTime. Look, I'm up. Show my Facebook
post. Let's talk on the phone. No,
they had to go. And that's why I think we can
do as much as we can in our world. It's easy to stay in touch. But
in this day, there was only one way to be in touch. Write a letter
or show up. And it wasn't popping on an airplane
or strolling down on a bicycle, I mean, camel. Or foot. Mostly foot. Let's walk. I want to show you because you've
been so burdened. These people in Philippi had
a heart for Epaphroditus, which proved their salvation. They had a heart for Paul. Paul
had a heart for them. Epaphroditus had a heart for
them. You see how that works? This is what the church is supposed
to be foundationally. A people for God's glory, ministering,
giving, weeping, rejoicing. We don't get together as a people
so we can get what we got coming from God. We've got it already.
And if it's not enough for you, you have nothing else to get.
And there's no hope for you in this world. Christ alone is the
greatest treasure, and the suffering that comes with him is the greatest
joy because it is temporary. Peter writes it very eloquently. Though you may suffer for a little
while, it is for the sake of your faith, though tested like
gold by fire that perishes, it will endure and it will produce
a joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory. What? Like Paul to the Corinthians
in 2nd Corinthians 4. We're crushed. We're perplexed. Always giving, being given over
to death in the body, but being alive in Christ, the body's wasting
away, but the spirit is being renewed day by day. This is the true reality of who
the church is and what real ministry is. And so as we study and as we
pray these things for ourselves and God continues to bring extreme
suffering in our midst, I say hallelujah. While others would look on and
say, God's not in that, God is so in it, God is in it. God knits together cancer cells. For his glory. God causes Man's sin to work
out for their good. For his greater purpose. God brings repentance and salvation
to the darkest of souls. God brings freedom from addiction
and bigotry. And he takes marriages that there's
no way to fix, and he puts them at the cross. The church heard he was ill and
they were burdened. So he was burdened because they
were burdened. So he was longing to see them
so that he could relieve their burden and see that he was in
good spirits and in good health. He was a partner with Christ
in that Epaphroditus and the Philippians and Paul and Timothy,
they were partners with Christ. They partnered with Christ in
suffering. They partnered with Christ and
suffering as Christ suffered, so does his people suffer. And
they were suffering for the sake of the gospel because of their
faith. Paul's suffering could have ended
in just one second. You know what? I'm a Roman citizen
and I'm sorry I stepped across the line. I won't preach this
stuff anymore. You don't have anything to worry
about and just gone someplace else and done his ministry there.
Because it was illegal to do it where he was. He could have
started a whole system of underground churches that could have flourished
for 500 years and nobody had known the difference. That had
snagged a few of them, but no public display of persecution. But that isn't what God's people
do when they're called to do the other. Sometimes God calls
people like we have missionaries around the world today that are
underground. That's great. But the church can't remain underground.
Because the church is the light. And so there will come a time
where all that light will shine. And God will allow the light
to shine so greatly that the haters of the light. Will persecute
it and kill it, but the church will not die. Epaphroditus partner in the suffering
of Christ because he almost died, why? Paul says it right there. Indeed, he was ill near to death,
but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but also on
me, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Look at verse 29 is what I meant
to look at. Or 30, for he nearly died for
the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking
in your service to me. Epaphroditus pardoned the suffering
of Christ because he nearly died for the sake of the gospel ministry.
He was not just ill, but he became ill because of something that
happened to him in his service to the gospel. What else should we expect? But
that. Some people would suggest, wow,
Philippians is really let's get over to chapter four, verse 13,
so we can have some hope, we got hope already that we're partnering
with Christ. We have hope already that what
is going on in our lives, each of us individually, in our families,
with our friends amongst us as a body is for the great purpose
of God sanctifying us so that we might rejoice in him alone,
not in our own provision, not in our own ministry, but in the
work of God as he is working in us and through us toward a
common goal. He was not just ill, but ill
near to death for the sake of the gospel. But he wasn't just
a partner in the suffering of Christ. He was partner in the
grace of Christ. Here's our. It was a part of the grace of
Christ because God had mercy. God had mercy on Christ. Not
because he needed mercy for forgiveness of sin, for he had no sin, but
he became sin that we might be the righteousness of God. But
God gave mercy to Christ that he promised him eternal life,
resurrection. Glorification. And God gave him
the grace to endure the cross as he looked past it. And so
Epaphroditus, Paul, Timothy, we, the Philippian Christians,
all of us, we partner in the sovereignty of Christ, but we
also partner in the grace of Christ. Look at that. Verse 27,
the latter part. But God had mercy on him. Not
only on him, but also on me, lest I should have sorrow upon
sorrow. When I see those words and I
understand the Semitic style of writing, when we see that
repetition, that recapitulation of a particular word, the first
thing that pops into my mind, I hear the Ohana gospel, John's
gospel. And I hear where we see and from
his fullness, we all receive grace upon grace. From Moses,
we receive the law. But from Christ, we receive grace,
mercy. Grace and Paul is saying, had
God not had mercy on Epaphroditus, he would have died and your joy
would have been a little lacking or you would have sorrow. And
it sounds contradictory because Paul says that my prayers, that
your joy would be the full list, that it would be complete and
everything. So what is he talking about here? Let's let's think about it for
a moment. We're partnering the grace of
God. God had mercy on both of them, and it was God's mercy
in their physical suffering. God miraculously healed Epaphroditus. And so to send Epaphroditus back
to Philippi would be for the praise of God's glorious grace.
Yes, they would be glad to see Epaphroditus, for they had a
supernatural affection for him that far superseded the affection
of humanity. But most importantly, they would
worship God because of his absolute mercy in this temporal season
of Epaphroditus life. He would eventually die because
he's not alive in the flesh today, but he does live forever in Christ. So that the mercy of God is seen
with his mercy and suffering, but most importantly, the mercy
of God is celebrated eternally because of his mercy and salvation.
because being saved in the flesh, just like Lazarus being commanded
in his decomposing body to come out of the grave and he waddles
out still bound by the grave clothes. And Jesus says to him,
unbind him and let him go. Yet he still had to face death
in the flesh for the wages of sin is death. No man, except
for a few exceptions, has has will not face physical death.
Jesus himself faced physical death. Because he suffered. A penalty that was not due Him.
The wrath of God, the death of the flesh is the wage of sin. And yet, when we die, we live. The mercy of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. Jesus Christ is where we are
atoned. It is where we meet with God.
It is where we become like Christ. Christ is our righteousness. And that what that's what it
means as we look back on this letter, when Paul says to live
is Christ and to die is far better to live as Christ and that everything
I have in the fiber of my soul, even my suffering is for the
sake of Christ, that I partner with him in suffering. But ultimately,
the greatest partnering of grace is when I do die in this flesh
and I stand face to face with my savior. That is the greatest
prize. and that nothing, nothing in
this world could hold a candle to it. As a matter of fact, everything
else that I would long for in this world that does not give
glory and praise and honor to Jesus is worthless. It's wasted. It's what John talks about in
his first epistle, the things of the world, the lust of the
eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of possessions. The
pride of life, whatever your translation might say, these
are wasting away for they are rotting, nothing idols. And our love for those things
are gone because our love for Christ has been manifest in us
through the power of his Holy Spirit, through the gospel, through
the word to be received by faith. And what does Paul say? These
men are coming to you. So honor them, rejoice in their
coming. Let's very quickly look at what
that looks like. He says, I'm eager to send to
you. Epaphroditus. For your joy. For your lightened burden, so
that you may rejoice. Why at seeing him again? and that I may be less anxious.
So receive Him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for
He nearly died for the work of Christ, risking His life to complete
what was lacking in Your service to Me." This rejoicing is not
in Epaphroditus. This rejoicing is not in Paul.
This rejoicing is not in, yay, look, we get our friend back.
This rejoicing is in Christ and Christ alone. This is the church
in Philippi praising God and worshiping God with gladness
because of his great mercy in the life of Epaphroditus, because
of his great mercy in the life of Paul, because of his continued
working out in them their salvation, doing the work that he started
and he's faithful to complete that Paul's already proclaimed
the very introduction to the letter. We see that this rejoicing
is because that some people in Philippi felt that he was going
to die so that they would rejoice in seeing that he was going to
live. And then some people in Philippi would not rejoice as
much in seeing Epaphroditus, though they would say, we're
glad to see you, we're glad that you're OK, but we sent you to minister
to Paul, why are you home? Why are you back here when we
sent you there to minister to Paul? Why would you come back
now? You're better. You should stay and do what we
ask you to do because you've you've delivered the ministry
we sent to you with you to him. And then you got sick and almost
died. So now you've got to make up what you didn't work. Paul
says he made up what they didn't do. And some people would say they
should stay and minister to Paul instead of coming home for a
parade. For a banquet. That's why Paul says rejoice
and then honor him. Honor him, receive him permanently back
into your fold. Give him a place of honor. Give
him a role. Let him serve there. Because this honor is inclusive
of support, prayer, and an opportunity for worship together with the
saints. Honor him because that is receiving the Lord's work
when you honor. The product of the Lord's work.
When you rejoice in Christ, you honor Christ, when you honor
the one who serves Christ. We do not honor others above
others. We do not have favoritism. And
I think this shows a lot of Paul's heart, because in reality, they
would much rather see Paul. And he tells them, I'm coming,
but before I come, I'm going to give you real ministry through
Timothy. I'm going to give you real rejoicing
and worship by sending Epaphroditus back to you. Because what they've
done for me is invaluable. And now that what they need to
do is minister to you, because that is far much more important
than ministry to me. He says that in Philippians 4.
I don't need anything else from anybody. I don't need your money. I don't need your, you know,
he says, pray for me, but I don't need your presence. I don't need
anything because I can do all this. I can endure all this suffering
with Christ. I can do all things in Christ.
That's the context of this. So I'm sending everything that
was given to me by the grace of Jesus Christ, the ministers
of the gospel to my needs. I'm giving to you. I need them,
but you need them more. I'm suffering, but I've got to
get out of here so that your joy may be full. I need prayer,
but don't worry about what I need, I'm praying for you. This is
Paul. And Paul says, and Timothy and
Epaphroditus are just like me, their hearts are in line, their
minds are in line, their souls are in line, their ministry are
exactly the way I'm working and doing. And so you receive them
and honor them and rejoice in Christ that they've come to you. So we don't honor others above
another. Paul's needs were not more important than the joy of
the church in Philippi. Paul's individual needs were
not more important than the holiness of the church in Philippi. Remember that our ministry to
each other is temporal. It's not going to last. But the
ministry of God's grace through us is eternal. And you know what
it really looks like. You know, the basis, the foundation,
the rock, the material of hope that undergirds every fiber of
what ministry is. So blow your mind. God's word. Every piece of ministry, no matter
how. Materialistic it needs to be.
If it's not given. In the context of the word of
God, it is absolutely temporal. And if we see Paul's writing
to the Corinthian church where he where they're arguing about
Apollos and all this other stuff, and he says this, listen. We
watered. planted and watered and God gave
the growth and somebody else came along and harvested it and
all this kind of stuff. He said, but here's the deal. If you don't
build your ministry with the same material as the foundation,
who is Jesus Christ and his word, then it's going to be burned
up and it's nowhere to be found. The word of God is the ultimate
ministry to each other. Because what if we can't meet
each other's needs? Is there no ministry to be had?
Was. Were the Philippians really meeting
ministry needs for Paul? Was Paul really, though he sent
two people to Philippi, really meeting the absolute physical,
emotional needs of the Philippians? No, but God's word with them
met them all. And ultimately, our ministry,
if not through the Word of God, is non-sufficient. Paul was cared for by the Philippians.
Paul was cared for by Timothy. Paul was cared for by Epaphroditus. Then Paul cared for them all
at the same time. And then Epaphroditus and Timothy would care for the
Philippians. And it was just a really good season. Timothy went so that he might
give clarity to Paul's instructions. Epaphroditus went so that what
Paul wrote in this letter to the Philippians church could
be evidenced visibly before them. And the Philippians could do
more and more ministry for Paul. Except to pray. And to rejoice. And to receive. The brethren
and to honor the Lord. And that's all the ministry that
Paul needed. Why? Because that's what he wanted. He didn't care
about getting out of jail, eating, having clothes. He cared about
their joy and the power of the gospel and the planting of the
church in Philippi as it continued to grow and more and more people
who were condemned to death came to life. God sent others from the church
to minister to the church. And as one goes, all are there. And as one cannot go, God provides
another. There's a lot to learn in that. But we are one body. And we live for one purpose.
And that is to praise the glorious grace of God. Is that your heart? Is that the
song of your soul? Friends, for anyone who is born
of God, it is the song of their soul. Even if it's way in the
background, you know it's there. But if it's not there at all,
maybe, maybe your faith isn't in the gospel of Jesus Christ
at all. Maybe your faith is just in doing moral things or being
part of ministry. Maybe your hope is that you're
in Christ because you're amongst the people of God. Well, the
writer of Hebrews says that's a dangerous place to be without
faith. Because sometimes God will draw a line in the sand
of time and say no more. Will not allow you to see anymore.
You've seen long enough. Will you believe in the gospel
of Jesus this day and every day for your life to come? Let's
pray. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,
Father. For these seemingly insignificant
places in Scripture that we can often overlook, thank you, Lord,
for showing us some great truth, evidences of your power in the
lives of real people. These aren't parables, Lord.
These are pictures of people for whom Christ has died that
by faith they have been born again. By the grace that you've
given through your word. Father, help us to worship you
in a greater way as we contemplate the reality that during this
season of uncertain life with Paul and the apostles in the
first church. You worked all that out for your
great divine purpose so that these letters. Could bring the
gospel to us. Help us to be obedient and compassionate
children to take this gospel to the world. And to minister
to each other with the same word, the same word that gave us life
eternal. Can give us satisfaction and
hope in the darkness that seems to shroud this world. Father,
we praise You that You are amazing and powerful and worthy to be
praised. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.