Philippians 2 (Part 3) :19-30 • Two faithful men

Philippians chapter 2 we're picking it up in verse 19 I'm going to read through the end of the chapter go ahead and follow along as I read it 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's proven worth how has 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 goes or excuse me 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 he has been distressed because you heard that he was ill indeed he was ill near to death but God had mercy on him and not only on him but also excuse me on 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 honours such men for he nearly died for the work of Christ risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me stop there let's pray Heavenly Father as always we open our hearts to you that we might hear your voice and that you might just open our hearts to understand through your spirit what you're saying in these verses to us and how we can apply them to our lives Lord we confess to you without your Holy Spirit it is impossible to read the scriptures and gain anything good we know Lord God it is only through the work of your spirit opening our eyes opening our hearts allowing us enabling us to receive your good word that it is beneficial to our hearts our spirits our souls so Lord we invite you to teach us today that we might hear your voice and we ask it in Jesus name Amen well in these final verses of Philippians chapter 2 Paul highlights the lives and the ministries of two people Timothy and it Pafford itis and so we're here to talk about these two men today beginning with Timothy Paul says I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you if in fact Paul was in Rome as we believe he was incarcerated there we know for certain the Timothy was there with him and Paul is expressing here that he needs Timothy to stay there until such time as he learns how the thing is going to go for him in terms of his port and and and so forth and then he says I hope to send Timothy to you in fact I am hopeful that I too will be able to come along before we start to talk a little bit about the the the attributes and attitudes that Paul highlights here from Timothy there's a statement that he makes here that I find very interesting and that is I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy that's an interesting phrase isn't it I don't know how often I've heard other people say that certainly not very often it sounds kind of strange to our ears I hope in the Lord Jesus descent I mean why didn't Paul just say I hope to send Timothy to you soon but he didn't he added something I hope in the Lord Jesus to send him so why did he say that here's why because that phrase I hope in the Lord Paul uses to communicate to his readers and to us that any plans or timing that he has for Timothy in the work of the ministry is ultimately subject to the lord's final directives and so what Paul is doing here is he's expressing an attitude of submission and an attitude of obedience to the ultimate purpose of God which you and I don't always know to be honest we don't always know what God's purpose is in a situation we don't always know what God's will is in a situation many times we struggle to figure out those of things and so in our language in our communication it is best to follow Paul's example and to say if it be the Lord's will if this is something God has if this is in his timing you know it rather than being dogmatic about it and making our own plans and saying this is what we're gonna do we're gonna go you know we need to reserve the final word for the one who is Lord of our lives you know James talks about this same attitude in his letter I'll put it up on the screen for you so you can see it James chapter 4 it says now listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city spend a year there you know our gonna carry on business we're gonna do some business there and we're gonna you know make some money he says listen you don't even know it's gonna happen tomorrow what is your life anyway he says you know it's it's basically like a mist a whiff of smoke that appears for a little while and it's gone vanishes so in light of that he says you and I ought to say if it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or that he says as it is when you simply assert your own will apart from the acknowledgment of God's timing he says you boast and brag in other words it's a way of simply saying I'm in charge I make my plans and he says at the root of it at the fundamental root of it that sort of attitude and that sort of expression he says is evil Wow I mean that's kind of like in your face but then again that's James but he's telling you and I a very important aspect of what it means to be under the lordship of Jesus Christ he's saying that when you have a sense in your life that Jesus is Lord of your life it's going to come out in your language but if you have a sense that you're in charge you are Lord you're on the throne and you make own plans that's gonna come out in your language to your language tells a lot about what's really going on inside your heart and that's why Paul says I hope in the Lord to send Timothy because everything is subject to the plans and the timing of the Lord if God wills you know we're gonna send Timothy if not you know hey Jesus is the one who taught us to actually pray this way here he is in the Garden of Gethsemane knowing that the cross is before him and what did he pray not what I will but what you will and that is for you and I this absolutely beautiful example of what it means to submit our lives to the Lord and in essence to say not what I want but what you want what you want is most important to me that's that those are hard things to say because I don't know about you but I'm pretty self willed and when I want something I want it bad and I've learned over the years it's usually easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission and so I'll go ahead and just kind of bust through the gates and do what I want to do and get what I want to get when I was sharing this in first service sue is sitting over here smiling because she knows exactly what I'm talking about you know when I want something you know it's like wow it's very very difficult for me to say if the Lord wills Lord if you want me to do this if you want me to go there if you want me to take this job if you want me to marry this person I got a lovely note from a gal who I've corresponded with in the past she born and raised in India she's now an airline flight attendant for an airline you know in in Qatar actually and and she she was sharing with me about you know there's a young man that she is you know was kind of planning on marrying but now has had some doubts you know that have kind of creeped in and that sort of thing I said yeah that's okay you know better to have them now oh yeah oh then later but I I said hey you gotta you got time you can pray about this you can wait on the Lord you can see Lord if it is your will for this to happen then then I pray that you would open the doors if it's not your will I pray that you'd close the doors when's the last time you prayed that prayer when it was a door you really wanted to be open to really to give the Lord permission to close that door that's hard I mean that's some of the hardest stuff you and I'll ever you know deal with not as I will you know but your will be done Wow and then Paul now goes on begins to speak about Timothy's heart for the Lord look at verse 20 with me in your Bible it says for I have no one like him speaking of Timothy he says who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare meaning the welfare of others he says in verse 21 for they all seek their own interests not those of Jesus Christ so these are pretty incredible things that Paul is saying about Timothy Timothy is first and foremost concerned about the welfare of others and he is also actively seeking to fulfill the purposes of his Lord and Savior and so Paul says I have no one like him he's an amazing guy you know and so we are kind of reminded yeah these are rare qualities very rare qualities because you see for you and I it's just and I think you'll agree with this it's so easy to become overwhelmed and engrossed in in my affairs in what's going on in my life you know what's happening to me and and and what's happening to me is is what's playing on the screen of my life and in my heart and mind and I don't see what's going on in your life you know and that's the vast majority of us let's just admit it you know we see our own lives pretty much exclusively and yet Paul says of Timothy now this is a man who is genuinely concerned about what's playing on the screen of other people's lives he's genuinely concerned about those people he really wants to be there to be in and to be an encouragement to those people and and and and yet you and I are kind of convicted by this whole discussion because we know how obsessed we can become by our own issues but here's what we don't often realize it's what happens in our lives when we become obsessed with all of the drama and all the stuff that's happening to me do you remember when Jesus told the parable of the sower and he said that a man went out to sow his field and he's telling obviously a word picture here and he cast the seed onto various different qualities of soil and you guys remember the parable some of it was rock hard which symbolized the word hitting a hard heart and some of it was soil that was filled with the seeds of weeds and that sort of thing and some of it fell on soil that was very shallow and there was a rocky you know kind of a area but just beneath the soil and and then some of it fell you know on good soil we usually think of that parable as describing kind of an evangelistic sort of a this is what happens when you go and talk to people and tell people about Jesus you understand here though that that is that's a picture also of what happens when a Christian hears the Word of God and has a particular heart condition that is going on in their lives that may be hardness afar you think Christians can't be hard in heart you think Christians can't be shallow you think Christians can't also be full of weedy you know sort of soil what did Jesus say he said when this when the seed the Word of God goes into the soil that is filled with all these seeds that would grow up and otherwise become weeds he says they end up choking out the plant and restricting its fruitfulness right keeps it from becoming fruitful okay what are what are the weeds what's that a picture of what did he say what did he tell us he said the weedy soil is a picture of an individual who hears the Word of God but the worries of this life choked it out they're so busy so constantly obsessed constantly dealing with what's going on in my life again what's playing on the screen of my life that the Word of God can't get in to become fruitful because it's being choked out by all these other concerns so you see when Paul talks about Timothy as a man who's concerned for others he's actually talking about a man whose heart is ripe for the Word of God to get in and bear fruit because the worries of this life the worries of his own issues have taken a backseat to the issues and the concerns of the kingdom of God what did Jesus tell us seek first the kingdom of God right make that your first priority and then all those other things that take up so much of our time and attention and create such drama those things will be taken care of along the way you just get your heart your eyes your focus on the things of the Lord put it on the kingdom of God be asking the Lord what do you have for me today what is your will for me today what is your direction for me today where do you want me to go who do you want me to talk to I know there's things going on in my life Lord but I know that if I sit and focus on them and I focus exclusively on what's happening in my life I know what's gonna happen the worries and the cares of this life are gonna choke out the Word of God and I'm not going to be truly fruitful in the kingdom and I want very much to be fruitful so I ask you Lord to help me to look past my own issues to see what's going on in other people's lives to pray for other people to be thinking about other people the concerns that are happening in their lives you know it's interesting when Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy the one he's talking about here he actually makes a kind of a neat Word picture about this very attitude let me show you this on the screen he says no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs why because he wants to please his commanding officer again that's a word picture describing an individual who has entered into the military and when they're in the military Paul says essentially they want to be focused on what the military demands of them during that time and not all focused and and and and and distracted by affairs that are beyond the scope of their military commitment right so obviously we're talking about a soldier that's you and me when he refers to civilian affairs he's talking about the affairs of this world and of course the commanding officer is Jesus Christ and so he's basically saying here no believer wants to become so obsessed and so fractured by all the affairs of this world that he is no longer able to serve his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but that's what happens all the time doesn't it and believe you me the enemy knows how to make you ineffective for the kingdom of God and that is to get you completely self focused get you completely turned inward looking at you looking at what's happening to you he knows oh he knows and he knows what but buttons to push to get you there and he believed me he knows my buttons too very well it's a constant challenge as believers it's a constant you know challenge to keep our eyes on Jesus and his will and his purpose and his kingdom you know I love the fact that Timothy was the kind of man who looked to the Lord Paul goes on verse 22 look with me there he says but you know Timothy's proven worth how has the son with a father he has served with me in the gospel you know you read this statement by the Apostle Paul and you kind of wonder who all was Timothy his son no he wasn't and and what Paul is saying here is not that he's his biological son but that he's his son in the faith and Paul had discipled timothean and and brought him up to a place of his place of service and so forth and you'll notice that Paul says here as the son in the faith he's proven himself he's proved him self and those are pretty incredible words coming from the Apostle Paul because you know following the Apostle Paul was no easy thing because the kind of stuff he went through was no easy thing let me remind you of kind of some of the stuff that Paul dealt with his in his ministry this is from 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Paul writes five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned literally guys picked up rocks and threw him at him three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers danger from robbers danger from my own people danger from Gentiles danger in the city danger in the wilderness I get tired just reading this list danger at sea danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night how many of you loved to go through sleepless nights in hunger and thirst we take so much for granted running down to the grocery store or getting a bottle of water somewhere it just wasn't available many times he says often without food in cold and exposure I mean doesn't that sound fun and yet what does Paul say about Timothy he's proven himself in other words he came along and he lasted good grief I can't go camping without my travel trailer I mean if I don't have my microwave and my shower you know I'm a mess and I think of what these guys had to go through in their service to Jesus Christ and for the Apostle Paul to say Stu somebody he's proven he's proven himself he stuck with it you know we know of another story we know that there was a very young man by the name of John Mark who was the nephew of Barnabas who came along with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey and he was scared and he didn't last and he left they got about halfway into the thing and he was like I'm going home this is too much now you know he was a young man later on we know that he matured and the Lord used him in some very powerful ways toward the end of his life Paul makes some very loving statements about John Mark in fact he says he's useful to me in my ministry much later on but about Timothy he says he has proven himself and the reason that Paul is saying this to the to the Philippians is because he wants to highlight for them this kind of this level of devotion Timothy is an example and guys we need godly examples we need selfless examples of people don't we we need to be able to look you know the writer of Hebrews when you read through that wonderful letter he talks about people who've been through the worst of circumstances and who stood by faith in the Lord and you know what he calls them he calls them a great cloud of witnesses I love that phrase we need a cloud of witnesses you know I was thinking to myself about the last 150 years and the cloud of witnesses that that the Lord has has given us you know I think of men like George Mueller who went into England and started just picking up orphans taking care of them in some of the most incredibly challenging circumstances more recently I think of men like Billy Graham you know and just their his tireless efforts to get the gospel out to the Lost I think about women like Corrie ten Boom who came out of a German prison camp and instead of just lick her wounds for the rest of her life gave the rest of her life to transfer the Lord and to go wherever the Lord called her to tell the people that Jesus can be with you in the darkest places of life I think of women like Johnny Erickson tada who after being paralyzed from the neck down devoted the rest of her life and still continues today to tell people how Jesus Christ is Lord even in the tragedies and the most difficult things that life can present to us I've had opportunity on a couple of occasions to hear Johnny Erickson Tata speak at various things but the the point is these people become for us this wonderful cloud of witnesses of what it means to live for Jesus selflessly to to to to commit ourselves to his agenda his purpose to the kingdom of God and so forth but Timothy isn't the only example given here notice in verse 25 Paul says 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 Wow again this is a this is a big thing for the Apostle Paul in light of what we read he kind of went through the challenges he went through in his ministry he calls it Pafford itis my brother my fellow soldier you know my fellow worker the Pafford itis was a man who was willing to risk it you know to serve the Lord and to give up his own comfort and so forth and and Paul goes on to speak of in verse 26 how he wants to send him home now he says he's been longing for you all and he's been distressed because you heard that he was ill and indeed he was ill near to death as a matter of fact but God had mercy on him and not only on him but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow meaning I'm already in prison and and you know the the difficulties of that are enough and then to add the death of app aphrodite's but you know he says God was God was merciful word had gotten back the believers in Philippi that a Pafford itis had become ill and now he was longing to go home to assure them that that he was okay and and Paul says here you know that that he he was a man who who was willing to to risk you know that sort of a thing look at how he ends this thing verse 28 he says 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 he says receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor men or such men by the way that's why we're talking about Timothy in app aphrodite's today because Paul says right here to honor such men and that's why we're bringing out their character traits and their attitudes in their heart for the Lord because these men should be honored in our hearing because it's an encouragement to you and I to live the same way and so he says look look what he says in verse 30 speaking of a Pafford itis he says for he nearly died for the work of Christ risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me and that's the heart right there he was willing to risk his life do you know why he was willing to risk his life because it wasn't his life it didn't belong to him he'd been purchased he'd been bought by Jesus Christ on the cross through his blood and now he belonged to the Lord and when you understand the implications of what it means to belong to the Lord you recognize this is not my life didn't belong to me my things this is not my money this is not my car I mean the Lord gives me stewardship of these things but they belong to him because I belong to him and he can do with them whatever he wishes and he can do with me whatever he wishes it's his life right you guys remember when John beheld the revelation of the throne of God and he said that he saw these these elders around the throne and and he spoke of the crowns that they wore and how when they worshiped the Lord they cast their crowns before the Lord that's a that's a word picture for you and I have taking what God has given us and just laying it down God's given us gifts talents abilities resources a physical body the breath in our lungs and he's waiting for you and I will lay it down instead of using it for our own purposes to give it to him and to say Lord this is I'm yours if that isn't isn't that our isn't that the way we worship Him didn't Paul say in light of all this or in view of God's mercy let us offer ourselves as living sacrifices holy holy it's pleasing to God offering yourself as a living sacrifice which he says is your spiritual act of worship we know what our physical act of worship is singing clapping our hands may be raising our hands stand up sit down whatever you know the Lord might lay upon you to do that's physical what's your spiritual act of worship Jesus I'm yours my life is yours to offer yourself as a sacrifice means that you're willing to hop up on the altar and to die to self that Christ might live through you that's why Paul calls it a living sacrifice and it's the opposite of what the way the world tells you to live the world tells you and I to live for me for my needs my concerns my life right God's Word says live for him fact as we saw last week Jesus actually said to us if you seek to save your life you'll actually end up losing it but if you lose your life for my sake you will find it let me show you a wonderful passage and we'll get ready to close with this from first John chapter 3 verse 16 John writes this by this we know love how that he laid his life laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers wow it's pretty powerful stuff I mean forget about just not being selfish here he says lay down your life lay down your life for your brothers and sisters in Christ be willing to lay down your life am I willing to do that are you well that's something we have to go to the Lord with and and ask don't we but our lives have been given to us and all that we have has been given to us that we might lay it down and let him be Lord of it you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 11,502

Rating: 4.8202248 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: -t-GacP5g4E

Length: 30min 16sec (1816 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018