I'm suffering in our lives church
we. We relate to it differently depending
on our temperament. Depending upon our ability or
maturity, the circumstances that have. Plagued us or been provided
to us. And though we may approach suffering
or look at it differently, one thing is true for all of God's
people. We have been empowered by the Gospel To deal with it
and to celebrate it uniquely. In unity. I know that it seems laborious. He's thinking we have talked
about suffering in some way ever since we started Philippians.
That's because that's the point of the letter. It's one of the
main characteristics that we see of Paul's writing to the
church in Philippi because he was suffering. They were suffering. And we are suffering. And so
if this is true, then there's no better letter for the church
than the letter to the Philippians when we consider how we must
suffer and for what purpose we suffer. I know that in our in
our culture today, and it is not. the way many of us think,
but in our culture today, as a majority, people look at suffering
as something that is a response to something that we fail to
do as individuals. Now, there is the suffering of
consequence. If we put our hand in a fire,
we do get burned. If we stick our fork into a light
socket, we do get shocked. So there is the suffering of
consequence. And in the same way, the suffering
of the saint in the world is a consequence, and it's a consequence
of just basically being in the world. And yet people still want
to say that when you experience suffering in your life as a Christian,
it's because you have failed to believe you failed to have
the faith that you needed to have. But yet whose faith was
greater than the faith of Paul? Whose faith was greater than
the faith of Peter? Whose faith was greater than
the faith of the Apostle James and John? Who each of these men,
plus thousands and thousands of others throughout the history
of the church, millions of men and women and children who have
suffered, who had a great faith, who never once looked into the
mirror of their soul and said, oh, what am I doing to deserve
such things? But rather, as we see the narrative,
teach us in the New Testament who said we are amazed and are
joyful that we were found worthy to suffer. But the world confused
is confused about suffering. We are going to suffer as the
world will also suffer. But the difference is, is that
our suffering is not worthless. Our suffering has purpose. Our
suffering is guaranteed to make us like Christ. It is guaranteed
to put into us a beautiful opportunity for worship. It is guaranteed
that our suffering will make us in the image of God through
the person of Jesus and as a partnership with the cross. It is something
that we need to ask ourselves is as we look at the human beings
whom God has used over the centuries, over the millennia. Is not Jesus
a human being also? And was not Jesus the one man
who had the greatest faith of all? And yet it did not spare
him the cross for it is for the cross that he came. It was for the suffering that
he was born into this world. It was because of the redemption
of his people that he purposed before there was a people to
come and redeem them. And so if Jesus, the God man,
would suffer with the greatest of faith, for the greatest of
purpose, for the greatest of glory, then we who are partnered
with him will also suffer. And in that, friends, we must
rejoice in that. We must find opportunity to see
that there is a reason for this life. There is a reason for every
stress, for every darkness, for every sickness. There is a purpose
under heaven that will always be for our good and that nothing
can change or dischannel or or disjoint or derail the purposes
of God in our suffering. Even when we are faithless, He
remains faithful. And so as I look at all of this
and where we are today is a good place to be in this letter. And
I'll tell you, as I say over and over again, friends, we do
not come to church. I've been trying to figure out
how to really change my verbiage on this issue. We are not in
a matter of attending church. We don't have to think in that
way, but that's what we've done as long as I've been alive. There's
no such thing as attending church. We gather as the church. And all throughout the New Testament
we see these things. We are to gather together. Do
not forsake the gathering together. The church is the people who
are the body of Christ, who have been bought by His blood, who
have been redeemed by the Word, and who have been secured by
the Spirit. and who are being kept by the
power of God into the day of redemption. We are the church.
And so where the church is, is where the church gathers. And
so if we want to talk about church attendance, we are really talking
about being in each other's lives on not only an ongoing basis,
but most importantly, gathering together for the sake of the
Word of God, for worship, for prayer, for corporate interests,
That sounds so materialistic. I mean the corporate body, our
interest with each other. And it's also puzzling to me
that even though we know that that each of us, if we're not
careful, we will fall and pray to the idea that we come to church
so that we can get what we need or that we can give what we need
to give to God. Without any consequence at all
as to what we are to the body as a whole. Without any thought
in any way as to why God calls the church to gather together
for the purpose of prayer and preaching and praise. And there's
a lot of discussion and debate through the years in my own life.
There's a lot of things that still to this day, people who
well-meaning tried to mentor me and understanding ways of
gathering more people and assimilating more people. I've danced that
dance. I've sung that song. And it's
not what the Lord calls the church to do. But the Lord calls the
church to be what Paul has been talking about this entire first
or second chapter of Philippians. And so as we're here today, we
are here. It's not just you who are here,
it's we who are here and we are here together. And so as we start
this morning, I ask you to do several things. One, I ask you
to pray that God would give you a discerning heart and an open
eye so that you would see the reason for which you are hearing
what you are hearing today for you personally. Secondly, I want
you to pray that God would show you and reveal to you the vital
importance of being part of the body. And thirdly, I would like
for you to consider and pray as to how that really looks in
the lifelong journey as a people together. We come to preach and
to pray and to praise for the purpose of being a people who
journey together for the sake of the praise of the glorious
grace of God. And we are here not for ourselves, but for each
other. We are here for an audience.
I hate to say this because it's so cliche of one who is God who
looks down and as he sees his people working together in unity
with one spirit and one mind and one purpose and one message,
he is pleased with the work of his hands and he is exalted in
seeing the exaltation of his own self with the people that
he created to do such things. This is a dynamic paradigm shift
for the world that we live in. We live in an American ideology.
Even we who are sound in our faith, the Americanism and the
nationalism and the individualistic ideals that we harbor deep seated
in our hearts are hard to overcome completely. And so I say this
again, as I've said it over and over again, we are here today
and what I am doing to labor in this Word for your sake is
for your sake, not individually as much as it is corporately.
So that we do not internalize the preaching and think we have
done our spiritual duty. The only way our spiritual duty
is lived out is if that which is coming to us individually
through the preaching of the Word is effective in someone
else that's not us. who is part of this body. And
that's difficult. But that is what Paul has argued
here. Not one time anywhere. And you can say, well, that was
to the Philippians. Yes, but if that's the case, if there's
no transcending, absolute divine authority over the church today
through the letter of the Philippians, then we should tear it out. If
we are not to apply the principles that God has placed in these
letters in the New Testament, let's just quit. And let's let's
go back to the three point outline that actually gives us something
to hang on the refrigerator and do to exercise our human flesh
to please the Lord. It doesn't work that way. And so I sell this so that we
would be reminded. It's good for me to be reminded
that I'm not preaching to any one person. I'm not preaching
to any one family. I'm not preaching to the choir.
I am preaching God's word as he wrote it by the grace that
he gives. With the fear that if I screw
it up, that you will please correct me. So that we as the body will
mature so that we as the body would do the work of the ministry
so that we as the body friends, I'm in conversations right now
with three different people from three different congregations.
Within 30 minutes of here and the churches are in a wreck.
And do you know what people are jockeying for? To keep the things
that they do on the table, to keep the programs pushing into
the public eye. And all the while, it's at the
cost of the souls of people for whom Christ died. And that is
a tragedy. It is a tragedy and it is a ploy
of the devil and it is his work, not the Lord's. Thank God he
is sovereign over the work of the enemy. And that he does nothing
apart from God's granting and sending. Let's pray. Lord, oh, please, please, Lord,
if it pleases you, would you speak to us today? Would you
speak to our hearts and our ears that are spiritual, not flesh?
Father, would you help the children here, here? By the power of your
mercy and of your grace. Would you help our prayers change? Would you give us a vision? For
our lives, as we are the body, we us. And as we deal with our
own lives, let us never forget the lives of each other. Help
us to pray for one another. Help us to be concerned, not
out of fear, but Lord, out of faithfulness for each other's
burdens. And God, as we open your word
today, I thank you that you've given us this letter. So that
we might grow, that we might find our joy in your gospel. Together as your people. And
we pray this in Jesus' saving and powerful name. Amen. Philippians
chapter 2. Paul has thus far, all the way
from chapter 1 to chapter 2, verse 18, he has given some instruction. He's given some doctrinal teaching,
instruction about Christ, about the gospel, about the church,
about his own lot, about his own imprisonment, about his own
issues in ministry. He's shown some examples, if
you will, that help us to realize That what's going on in Paul's
life is the norm for the church of the first century. That it's
not just Paul having his little problems. It's that Paul and
everybody he touches has problems. I want you to hear that and I
want you to understand how significant it is for me to understand this. Everywhere Paul went, people
died. Every time they received the
message that Paul preached. It cost them everything. And
in in like manner around the world today, when Paul's gospel
and I say Paul's gospel and the apostolic gospel, when the gospel
of God is preached, people die. The only place we don't really
see that. Is when it's a false gospel preached. Because there is no persecution
to the false church. Why would there be? There is
no persecution against a false gospel. So if we see that and
we think to ourselves, well, the common denominator here is
Paul, Paul and the apostles, they're troublemakers, but they're
not. We see in Acts 19 where in Ephesus, where Timothy was
the chief elder, I use that term very lightly. That much. Problems. arose, great. Riots nearly took
place because what happened there is as Paul and the apostles preached
the gospel of Jesus, God saved a people who were blind and gave
them eyes to see. He saved the people who were
idol worshipers, who loved the creation rather than the creator.
And because of that, immediately they weren't discipled. They
did not have to be assimilated into a class to learn how to
stop sinning. They didn't have to go to a place
where they studied the Sunday school's curriculum for a couple
of decades and then they became passionate about the gospel.
That moment. That day, that second, the very
next day, everything changed for the people who received the
gospel of Jesus. They saw the idols that were
50 billion miles long. They saw the wickedness of their
hearts in such an array that they wept. And they praised God
for His infinite mercy against their blind souls that they were
not able to see before He came to them with His gospel. And
Jesus Christ became the Lord of Lords and the God of gods
and the king of kings to all who believed in him. And so because
of that, no longer did the culture of those pagans succeed. Because the way that they made
their living was that everything that they did was centered around
the worship of false deities. Artemis of the Ephesians. Great
is Artemis of the Ephesians. And why they hated Paul that
day is because Paul was the one who brought the gospel to them
and the gospel changed their world. Because no longer were
the Christians caring at all about the economy of idolatry.
They didn't buy their idols. They didn't buy their incense.
They didn't buy their clothing for worship. They didn't give
their money to the pagan temples. They didn't provide their produce
and their goods to the market for the purpose of worshipping
a false god. They met in each other's homes
daily and they gathered together around the words of the apostles.
And they gathered together and prayed. And they began to tend
to each other's needs and grow and mature in worship. And then
they left those gatherings and they went out into the streets.
And when people say, don't you want to get your idols? You want
to get your little statues? I don't follow false gods anymore
because Paul and those men brought Jesus to us and we serve a risen
living God who is not just there for us to appease, but is there
that He has appeased His own wrath and given us eternal life. We don't need it. So people were
going bankrupt. The government was going bankrupt. The world was transformed and
the community was turned upside down. And so everybody who was
not in the faith, who was losing everything, got together and
said, we got to kill these boys. We've got to stop these people.
Do you know what that is exactly like? Exactly what happened to
Jesus. The very beginning weeks of his
ministry after his baptism in the very place where he was known
and loved. And he went in and he preached,
he didn't even preach, he just read. The prophets. And they were delighted to hear
the words, oh, what grace this man brings to us, what mercy,
how seasoned and pleasant is his is his voice to us. And Jesus
says, I'm not talking about you. God is pouring judgment out on
you, unbelievers who love what you have built in your religion,
the creation rather than the one who told you of himself,
the creator. And then immediately, first week
on the job, what did it say in the scripture in Luke 2? That
they purposed to stone him. But he left, he walked out among
them, for he had to preach the gospel in other places. Nothing's changed in 2,000 years. We are going to fit into the
exact puzzle piece as Jesus, as the apostles, the early church
fathers, as the martyrs, as these obscure people that we never
will ever know about until the day we're resurrected with Christ.
We are going to suffer the same way. When we desire to live a
godly life. If that is not your desire, then
Jesus cannot be your savior. Because it is the path for his
church. And Paul is saying that it is
for the sake of the church. He's told us what we should do,
how we should live, how our minds should be, how our attitudes
should be, the actions that should flow from our hearts and our
hands, where how we should deal with people who who hurt us.
Because Christ has done these things. This is the image of
Jesus as we walk the way he walked. How do we walk like Jesus helping
people across the street or dying for their for their calls, dying
for our enemies? Dying is not always physical.
Paul had not died yet. But he had died. He even says
it, that it is not I who live, but Christ who lives within me. For I live this life by faith
in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. In like
manner, though we have the mind of Christ, we love the brethren. And we love the lost. And we
give our lives away for the sake of them. And He's given a lot
of things for us to mull over and to consider. in order that
our joy would be complete. That's the whole thing that Paul
wants for the church of Philippi. He wants them that as they're
pressed and as they're squeezed and as they're broken and as
they're crushed and as they're as they're confused and persecuted,
he wants out of that pressing to come the purest. Of oils,
the purest of worship, the purest of purpose, which is seen ultimately in their
joy. How is your joy this morning,
beloved? What what is sitting on the on
the mantle of your life that if you could just knock it off
into the fire, that you would feel a weight or a burden that
would leave and you think my joy is now better. Friends, the
church is not looking for a better joy. The church is seeking and
has found a complete joy. We're not we're not trying to
get better, we've got the best. And the heart of man is continually
producing idols that jockeys for position over Christ. By the Lord's grace. We've defeated
it. Because Christ is the victor. Now in verse 19 of two. Look
at these five verses. Well, six. He says, 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 welfare. For they all seek
their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know,
Timothy, has proven his worth. How 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. Now, I don't
know if you know anything about the construction of the apostolic
letters, but typically when they start saying stuff like this,
it's a conclusion to their letters. I hope to come to you. I'm going
to send so and so. Peace be with you. And it's over. And some higher critics of the
letter here to the Philippians would say, Paul, close this letter
out. Somebody else came in to fill
all this stuff. That's just baloney. Paul has already said he is certain
that he will be what freed of his imprisonment, that he might
continue to do work, but he's willing and able and eager to
die. But he knows that he's not going
to die this moment. And then he says, but you all
need to live this way and act this way and think this way and
believe this way and pray this way. This is what God has done
effectively. He began a good work in you is
faithful. It's working. So keep on doing
it so that you may grow, that your joy may be complete, that
you may may love each other with a great affection. Paul says,
I have the affection of Christ for you. And so now he's not
closing his letter. He's actually getting ready to
give two examples, first of Timothy and then of Epaphroditus. And
let me tell you, as excited as I have been about all of the
things in this letter, I will promise you that there is nothing
more jarring than these two sections of this letter for the sake of
the brethren. For the church. Because all of a sudden it's
not just principle in teaching with Christ as the example, but
it's explicit teaching with men as the example. Paul, see how
I've done as I follow Christ, you follow me now, Paul is saying,
I'm going to show you Timothy, who has accomplished what I've
just told you to do, and then I'm going to show you a path
for Adidas, who has also accomplished what I'm asking you to do. So
it's not an unrealistic thing. As a matter of fact, only those
who are accomplishing what I've told you must be accomplished
can actually do the work that I'm sending them to do, because
only we who are in Christ with the mind of Christ can even do
the ministry of Christ. That's why so many so-called
churches have so many so-called ministries that are very human.
Very human in their efforts, very human in their product,
very human in their measurement, very human. And that includes
the ministry of salvation. Of evangelism. Evidenced by the
number of baptisms or the goals therein of baptism. Or attendance or registration
or membership. Or expansion or number of campuses. big preaching heads. That's an
inside joke that none of you will get. So this rule. That Paul has given
now is going to be exemplified in Timothy and Epaphroditus.
He says throughout this letter already that we ought to pray
and rejoice in each other for each other. We ought to proclaim
Christ together to ourselves, to each other, to the lost. We
also need to be ultimately in love with the body of Christ
because we are ultimately in love with Christ. And in doing
so, this is having the mind of Christ. It's laying ourselves
down for the sake of the body as Christ laid himself down for
the sake of the body. It's rejoicing in the suffering
of Christ. It's rejoicing in our suffering as we suffer like
Christ has. It's rejoicing the suffering
of each other because we know that it is to a great end that
we will we will suffer. And it is rejoicing not only
in the suffering and that we partner with Christ and that
we partner together, but it's rejoicing in the fact that we
are the product of the work of God through Christ. So we rejoice
in that. So we rejoice in all these things
because we have one mind. We have one spirit. We have one
soul. We are one body with one mission and one message. And
one Messiah. And then he says these words,
I hope in the Lord. I hope in the Lord don't overlook
that. See what we do in our world is
that we say things so flippantly we come. Well, I pray to God
that this will work out. Lord Jesus, help me in this and
we could be talking about cutting up a watermelon. Is that really what we really
play praying or we really praying to Jesus? I would say that that's
the use of the Lord's name in vain. It is just like using a cursing
explicative with him. And when we're not talking to
him or talking about him to someone else, and we call about his titles,
his names, we are wasting, it's empty, it's meaningless. That's
what vain means. Do not use the name of your Lord in vain. And
if any of you have ridden a roller coaster, you've probably done
it. But you see the point. Sometimes we don't think too
hard about it. And because of that, we miss
things like this. Paul said, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send
Timothy to you soon. What does Paul want to do? He
wants to send Timothy to the Philippians. Why? Because he
needs they need some ministry. They need some encouragement.
They're distraught. They are they are they are worried
to death about what's going to happen to the church. They are
worried to death about what's going to happen to Paul. Our
leader is in jail and he's going to stand before the Caesar. What's
going to happen? What's going to happen to the
gospel? This is not just, oh, we love you, Paul. Here's a letter.
Get well soon. I mean, this is this is their lives. This is
the future. This is generational. These these
Christians are concerned. We read sometimes a little too
lightly and miss the gravity of these epistles. These weren't
just on occasion. Let me see what's happening and
let's catch up some. He says, I hope to send Timothy
to you soon so that I may be cheered by the news of you, so
I may receive back, so I may look at what's going on with
you and I may see the work of God and be cheered, have joy,
find satisfaction, be OK with what I hear. And Paul had problems enough
of his own, but his heart was not bound up in what he was dealing
with. His heart was bound to the people
to whom he had taken the gospel. Because if I were in prison facing
death, I would spend more time trying to write my lawyers than
I would the people of Philippi. Don't you think? Looking for an appeal. Paul didn't
want an appeal. He wanted to stand before Caesar
and tell him that he was not Caesar. He was not God. He was not King, but Christ was. And Paul's hope is not in Timothy.
Paul's hope is not in his plan to send Timothy. Paul's hope
is not in Timothy's ministry to the Philippians. Paul's hope
is in the Lord Jesus. But we are we are unable to really
slow down enough. And even an exposition, if we're
not in tune, if we're not praying, it's easy just to run right over
it. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy. And let's talk
about Timothy and let's preach about Timothy. No, Paul's focus
here is his hope is in the Lord Jesus. That Timothy would come. I want to send Timothy to you,
and I hope in the Lord that that will take place. All that I do
because was Paul Paul's plan wasn't to be in prison. But it
was the plan of God for him, Paul's plan was to send Timothy,
and if it was necessary and essential for the church in Philippi, then
the Lord alone would send him. Imagine the suspicion of those
like Luke and Timothy and Epaphroditus and others who were there to
minister to Paul during his imprisonments. It's a lot different than we
know about prison today. There were actual people. When Paul writes
to Timothy, Luke is with him. Tending to his sickness because
Luke was a physician, he was a doctor. It's much different. So like
house arrest, if you will, and some some aspects of of Paul's
waiting. It's not always the case. It
was a house arrest in Philippi. It was a house arrest when he
was stoned. But for some sense of the season, they would allow
people's friends and families to come and feed them and tend
to them, and it wasn't like we have today. You didn't have anybody. You just didn't get tended to.
It's rotted to death and died in prison. I think. I'm sure there were
some well-meaning people who would tend to somebody, but from
the way I look at it in antiquity, that's what happened. But Paul
wants Timothy to come because he feels it necessary for their
joy and for his joy. To the praise of God, to the
praise of Christ, that the Lord is their hope. so that he may
find joy in the report. Now, I find this interesting
for several reasons. Paul knows that God has done
the work. Paul rejoices in knowing that
Paul, that God has saved these Philippian Christians and Paul
is satisfied in the purpose of God in their suffering. So why
does Paul need another report to get more joy? I don't know. Are you satisfied that everyone
in this room is born again? Are you satisfied that even though
we may be born again, that when we go through trials, you just
know in the back of your mind that the Lord has it? Yeah, I'm
cool. I'm in full joy. I don't need
to hear that so and so came out of the dark. No, we want to hear. Why? Not because we worry that it's
not going to be for their good, but we love to rejoice together
in our suffering, especially when God carries us through it,
that he get the glory for it. And that not is that not what
he's already said to the glory of God, the father? So Paul is looking for ultimate
unified and and global, if you will. And I say that lightly,
it's not necessarily global, but worship. He wants to worship
Christ with the Philippian Christians. What better way to do it than
to go visit them and then rejoice? But guess what? Paul can't go.
He can't go. And it's easy, he's already said,
obey all the more in my absence rather than in my presence. You've
got to press into doing what I say do. And a lot of times
these local churches, these small congregations, they wanted the
apostles to come and explain their letters. What do you mean
here? Have the mind of God. We get
the point, but how do we do that? Because it's not exhaustive.
It's not 600 pages. It's one. The letter to the Philippines
will fit on one piece of paper. It's one page. And yet we're going to preach
it for a year, it seems. So the joy that he's looking
for is to send someone who is just as qualified as he is, who
is just as holy as he is, who is just as justified as he is,
who is just as authoritative as he is, so that when Paul sends
Timothy, Timothy not only goes in place of Paul, but Timothy
is as efficient as Paul. Because Timothy is living out
what Paul is telling the Philippian Christians to do. And so Timothy
is going. And then not only will they be
able to see what Paul's talking about, they'll be able to see
a picture of Paul's life. You see that. And I'm going to
tell you that we need to probably just say, oh, you'll preach a
second sermon on this text next week, but let's not let's just
make a point and move on. As we see ministry after ministry,
teacher after teacher, leader after leader, In our world, it
is very easy. To begin to worship that teacher. That ministry, that church, that
pastor. Oh, that that's that's the person
I want to hear teach. You know what, if exposition
is exposition, then the truth that come from it should be identical. Paul. Wanted to go to Philippi,
the Philippians would have loved to have seen Paul that would
have satisfied their heart. But just as able. There goes Timothy. And because
Timothy was sent to Philippi, Paul was in Philippi. Did you
hear that? How's that, because we're one
body. And when the Lord, through his word, sends us and we minister
through the words of Christ, not only is all the body together,
we're two or more together. Christ is where we're there with
them also. It's not a mystery. It's really too simplistic if
you think about it. The authority of Paul as an apostle
Continues through Timothy and Timothy was not an apostle. How?
Because Timothy was going to go and help them understand this
letter. Help them live it out. Help them worship and pray. Help
them grow in joy. Those sent by Paul. Went with the authority of Paul. They went with the presence of
Paul. They went with the power of Paul. Why? He's already told
us why, because they shared the same gospel. They shared the
same preaching, they shared the same doctrine, they shared the
same life in Christ, the same gospel. Do we share the same
gospel? Why do you think church discipline
is necessary? Because when one of us does things
in our lives in a public manner. Not only does it cause division
amongst the church, but it causes a wrong picture of each other. And not only that. It defames
the name of our savior. so that those who are Christ
who are filled the Spirit of God are called out not by the
preachers, the elders, but whoever. If a cat happens to get up to
the podium and now out some Bible, guess what? We are subject to
it. Why? Because the words of Christ
have authority over all humanity. Every knee Every time. No matter who yields. So in that same way. Paul said
when he wrote, it was Christ who commanded. When Timothy went
and instructed, it was Paul who instructed, who was Christ instructing. So if you were I teach Paul. By way of Timothy. Then Paul
and the apostles have authority over what's being taught and
the people who hear it must obey it because Christ has commanded.
The word of God, no matter who speaks it, if it is the word
of God and not a twisted mess. If we are subject to it. And let me tell you that I believe
we should be more subject to the word of God given from us
to us than we are to what we see on TV. Or what we might listen
to Dr. Piper say, or what we may read
from a Puritan. Why? They don't know us. And not one time has any of those
men ever prayed for you. But I pray for you. And you pray
for you. And we pray for each other. And
so if our brother or sister in the church gives us the word
and we ignore it, but yet we hear it on the radio and we obey
it, what does that say about us? It says we don't understand
the very significance of Paul's teaching here. And not just here,
but other places, especially to the letter of the Ephesians. We are to do the work of the
ministry, we are to preach the gospel, we are to be subject
to one another. In the church. Through the authority
of the word and right after that, it says wives submit to your
husband. Church submit to each other. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands submit to Christ. For
this is the picture of the gospel. This is the mind of Christ. This
is what we've done. This is the microscopic picture
of the macrocosmic reality of Christ in the church. This is
why God created the world and Adam and Eve and put the family
institution in play. This is what it means for one
man and one woman to have one flesh. Christ is the head. What is the head without a body?
Decapitated. Christ bought his church and
he will not lose her. And his authority as the word
as their head, you know what the word head is and in Greek
and Ross, you know what the English translation of that is husband. Christ is our husband. He turns
us, he moves us, he thinks for us, he's our wisdom. And Christ
is each of our wisdom. And we as the body must look
to him. We have the same gospel. Timothy
was able to go to Philippi, and it's just as if Paul was there.
Are you able to go into the world in which you live and it be that
anybody in your church is there with you? He's able to go because they
share the same gospel, they also share the same mission and purpose.
Timothy wasn't going to get his own ministry started. Timothy
wasn't going to plant his own church. What Paul's church, it was Christ
Church, Paul had absolute authority over the church because Paul
was an apostle, Timothy was not, but because Timothy was sent
by Paul, Timothy had authority over the church and ended up
becoming an elder in Ephesus. He wasn't going for his own mission.
He wasn't going for his own purpose. He was going for the purpose
of for which Christ died that Christ may be exalted. There's
a it's not even a fine line, but there's a fine line between
idolatry and ministry. And the way we do church in America,
the way we plant churches in America, it's real easy to succumb
to the desires of wanting to be famous and big and well thought
of. Friends, beware those who speak
well of you, Jesus said. When the world loves you unconditionally,
you're living like they are. What's that mean? The world puts
up with wickedness. The world embraces sinfulness.
The world exploits blasphemy, but rejects anything that's pious. Why? Because they hate us. What
do we do in return? We die for them. Timothy went as if Paul were
going. Because they share the same gospel,
they share the same mission and purpose, they share the same
spirit. It's Christ who goes. It's the
Lord who is there when his word is there with his people. And
ultimately, they share the same affection for Christ and for
his church. And what does it look like? Look
at this, look at verse 21. For they all seek their own interests,
but Timothy, he's the only one I have that will be genuinely,
genuinely concerned for your welfare. Others will seek their
own interests. I could expound on that, but
you know what that looks like. Not the interest of Jesus Christ. What are the interests of Paul?
For the Philippians, we've already heard it. A way of reminder,
here they are, their spiritual joy, their spiritual growth,
their spiritual endurance to hold to the end, the spiritual
birth of those who are not in the church. The spiritual purpose
and suffering and ultimately, again, being repetitive, their
joy. I want you to be this way, I
want you to see it, I want you to have the joy that comes only
from Christ. And it'd be real easy to just sort of because
I've got thoughts and philosophies and not just that theological
points. And in the way I look at this
and what it means for the church and we'll see it in due time.
You can already see it, we believe that right understanding of God's
word ultimately speaks to how we live and act and do ministry. Right doctrine produces right
living. We are living together as a church, as the body, as
a local congregation. So if we're not learning correctly,
we're not living correctly. And if we're learning correctly
and not living correctly, then we've got a bigger problem. So
what is the outcome? Well, I think there's some principles
for us to clearly see in this letter thus far. I just want
to pause here. I'm not going to get into Paphroditus. I'm
not going to talk anymore about Timothy. I want you to hear these principles
that Paul has already taught thus far that we see clearly. It's not exhaustive. It's just
five that point to where we are. Number one, the church body is
the focus of ministry. Paul wrote to the church of Philippi,
not the lost. He didn't write to the leaders.
He didn't write to the government. He didn't write to the community.
He didn't write to the civil servants. He wrote to the Christians. To the elders and the deacons
and all the saints in Philippi. So that the ministry that Paul
prescribes is to the church. It's not a benevolence ministry,
it's not a community service ministry. The church and its
ministry is for the sake of the church in this writing. It's clear, there's no argument
there. Second, each person who comprises
the body at Philippi is essential to the body at Philippi. And therefore, and we get that
we're all one body, many parts. And if one part doesn't do its
job, the whole body suffers. I don't care how healthy you
are and how great of an athlete you are, if your pinky toe gets
smashed, you're worthless. You can feel your heartbeat down
there. We can feel our heartbeat when
one of us is not walking with the Lord. We can feel our heartbeat
and pulse in that injury when one of us is suffering in flesh.
It affects us all. And it may not affect you because
you may not know everything that's going on. But let me tell you something.
And this sounds this sounds mystical. But I know truthfully that Romans
chapter eight teaches that God purposes us to pray sometimes
when we don't even know why. And we'll wake up in the middle
of the night and pray with somebody on our minds. And if you tell
me that God spoke to you through the microwave, we're going to
have some talks. But having inside your mind, somebody coming to
your heart and you praying for them is the work of God. And
you may think, I don't know, I'm just going to pray for him.
And a few days later, you find out that something's going on.
That's how God works. So don't ignore those things.
Pray. The devil's not going to prompt
you to pray for people. It's not going to happen. So because each person is essential
to the body, no part of the body is instructed apart from the
body. So Paul's not writing to a person here. He's writing to
a people here so that we all can be instructed for the sake
of each other. Thirdly, ministry of the church
is always to the body, as I've said, for the purpose of the
body. And it is individually and it is corporately at the
same time, because if I minister to you, then I'm ministering
to y'all. And vice versa, if you minister
even through prayer for one saint in this room, you are ministering
to the whole of the membership of our fellowship. Therefore, fifthly. Worship,
learning, gathering as the church, as we've seen, is the product
of God's grace. It's the product. It's not the
program of the church. It's the product of Christ. What
does that mean? That's what he produced. He produced
it. So then now have six. So then so then. In order to fulfill this purpose,
you have to be with the body. In order to be with the body. The New Testament shows that
one of the primary evidences of regeneration is one's connection
with the local church. In worship, learning and care. Concern. Fellowship is not gathering
around a chicken dinner. Fellowship is on your face in
your living room when you don't know what else you're going to
do. Wherever you cry, shower is a
good place to cry because you're already wet. Scripture also explicitly reveals
that the Lord only Listen, only uses the body to minister to
the body. What I mean by that, I said that
a year ago and something similar and someone said, well, that
sounds a little Romanistic. Now, God's grace is only given through
his church. Rocks don't preach the gospel.
And bushes don't catch on fire for us to hear God's word. If
we, the church, aren't taking the word of God to each other,
there's no ministry there. If we're not praying for each
other, there's no ministry there. If you want help, don't call
1-800-HELP-ME. Call your brother or sister. Unless that's their phone number.
Then call it. The body ministers to the body.
I don't believe that parachurch organizations should minister
to the church. I don't believe that hierarchies of denominational
leaders should minister and have effect any effect over the church.
I don't believe that missions, groups and organizations should
should have anything to do with the ministry of the church. They
surely should not be teaching it or leading it or governing
it. The body of Christ. And how we
see our politics, and I know some denominations have different
politics, I'm not talking about the politics, I'm talking about these organizations. who come in and go, oh, we've
got the answer for you. Let's make war. Let me teach you how
to pray. Here's a nine-day video session about how to make war.
And we're going, oh, it's a movie. Nobody wants to hear the Bible.
Let's make a movie and call it War Room. Google it when you
get home. It's opening in theaters very
soon. Deplorable. You want to start a movie about
praying? Fine. but there's a whole curriculum that's going to strengthen
the prayers of the church. You know what's going to strengthen
the prayers of the church? I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, always, in every prayer of mine for you all making my
prayer with joy because of your partnership with the gospel from
the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that He
who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this
way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all
partakers of me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the
defense and the confirmation of the gospel. For God is my
witness, how I yearn for all of you with affection of Jesus
Christ, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and
more with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what
is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus
to the glory and to the praise of God. And if that word doesn't
pause us and purpose us to pray, there's nothing else that's going
to. But because this is true, because
these things are true, these things are result. So if ministry is lacking in
one's life, it is because either the body is failing to do what
it should do to that person or for that person, or that person
is refusing what is available to them. That is why non attendance. It's
the last time I want to use that word ever. Non attendance. In the local fellowship of the
church. Non gathering. For non providential
reasons. Is an action that results in
church discipline? Everywhere we see it in the New
Testament. It is the litmus test. If you look in the book of Hebrews
and you see where it says it is therefore impossible. To bring
these people to repentance. Do you know the context of that
they fail to gather together? They no longer show up when the
church comes together. That's what it means. But I was sick. OK, good. Stay
home. Well, I had a vacation. Great.
I had a wedding. All right. I was just depressed. Well, we love you anyway. Week
after week and month after month, it's an issue of discipline,
because if you don't have a heart to be with the fellowship of
the saints, you don't have the heart of Christ. That's just
legalism, I said nothing about that saving you. I said that's
the fruit of your salvation. And you cannot imagine. What mortal, mortal horror would
break out into the communities of faith if people practice church
discipline the way they should? And you know the beauty of it? Most of you never see it take
place. You cannot even obey God in prayer
if you do not gather together as the church. The preaching of the Word of
God is for the benefit of the body. as it benefits each part. Moving the body through the Word
of God to maturity. This is a corporate fruit. Corporate
meaning togetherness. And anything that gets in the
way of that should be punted out of bounds. Thrown away. Burned. And so then, so what? So what? Well, the outcome of
true Ministry of truly being united. Why did he sin? And some of the stuff that I'm
saying today is really proven when we look at what we'll see
next week with the path of Titus. Just look at it for a second. Verse 24, I trusted the Lord
shortly, I myself also come. Verse 25, 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. Look
at verse 26, this is why. For he has been longing for you
all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Do you hear that? I don't want
to get into something else. Epaphroditus longed to see the
people of Philippi because he was burdened that they were burdened
for him. So he wants to show up and say,
I'm better so that they can have joy. Where is that? That's the work
of Christ for his people. That's the work of the gospel.
Friends, we're not here to do church stuff. Being in worship on the Lord's
Day is not a an obligation. It's a celebration. Because our joy is tied to Christ. And Christ is tied to his body,
so therefore we are the body and our joy is complete in Christ
when we are together and hoping him together and ministering
him together and work for him together for the sake of his
name. Paul's desire was to come to the church so that he may
continue to see and work for their joy, which is founded and
proven through their life together, which is a reflection of the
image and the work of Christ and Timothy. As a surrogate. Is the fruit of Paul's ministry.
If you don't know much about Timothy, you should read about
Timothy. But Timothy is the fruit of Paul's
ministry, not for the sake of Timothy. Paul did not mentor
Timothy for Timothy. Paul mentored Timothy for Philippi
and for Ephesus. And for grace, truth. And Paul mentors us so that we
can mentor each other. Because Christ is our wisdom.
And his grace is given through his word that we might be a people
for God's glory by his grace. Let's pray. Thank you so much, Father. Thank you so much for your word
to us, for your. Joy. In us. For your glory. With us. Help us to grow. To suffer well,
to endure to the end, to put away all of our worldly worries
and to minister to each other. So that you would be worshipped
and praised for the work that we do because it is your hand
and your voice and your prayers. That are working through us. And father, I thank you that
your gospel is perfect. And as we've heard your word
today, we do not lose sight. That this is possible because
Christ lowered himself. to satisfy your judgment because
of our sinfulness against us. Jesus took our guilt so that
we would be forgiven. God, give us continued joy in
that. Plant that in the hearts of those
who do not know it, that it may be not just knowledge, but truth
and life to them. As we pray these things in Jesus'
name, Amen.