09/10/23 Philippians - Part 7 “Models of Service”

“Models of Service”

Philippians 2:19-30

It’s been said that ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’

In other words, when someone is tries to imitate someone else, it’s considered a compliment to that person.

I remember back around 1985 I was walking through a cattle barn at the Sauk County Fair with my uncle on a Friday night before the highly anticipated tractor pull – a tradition that I looked forward to every year.

….that was back when farmers actually pulled with tractors that were out doing fieldwork earlier in the day.

So, anyway, we were walking through one of the cattle barns and I happened to hear a song being played on a radio nearby.

My uncle was in a conversation with someone, but my 14-year-old mind was not tuned into the conversation, it was tuned into this song that I had never heard before.

It was a country song, but it didn’t sound the same as the country records and cassettes we had around the house of – artists like the Statler Brothers, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers.

Instead of a string orchestra in the background, it contained twin fiddles.

Instead of a smooth electric guitar, it featured the high lonesome cry of a steel guitar,

…and the vocal. I had no idea what the singer was singing about, but I was completely mesmerized by the sound of that Texas twang.

Well, after the song ended, the radio DJ came on and he identified the song and the singer: It was a tune called ‘Fool Hearted Memory’….from a brand new country music artist by the name of….George Strait.

From that moment on, I was an imitator of George Strait.

I began learning to play the guitar because George Strait played the guitar.

I began writing songs that sounded like George Strait songs.

I began buying western shirts because George Strait wore western shirts.

Later on, once I had my own band, I always wore a cowboy hat on stage because, well, George Strait wore a cowboy hat on stage.

I studied the timbre and inflections of George Strait’s voice so as to emulate it more accurately in my performances.

I was an imitator of George Strait, and inherent within that imitation was a great deal of flattery.

In today’s passage of scripture, we are introduced to two men who are infinitely better examples to imitate than any secular musical artist could ever be…no offense, George, but these guys have you beat. 😊

In verses 19-24, we are re-introduced to Timothy, and in verses 25-30 we are introduced to a man by the name of Epaphroditus.

Both of these men were wonderful examples of loyalty, integrity, humility, love, and servanthood – attributes that Paul has been instructing us to cultivate in our lives throughout the first two chapters of Philippians.

If you recall, we initially met Timothy back in Acts chapter 16.

Paul was on his second missionary journey and stayed for a brief time in Timothy’s hometown of Lystra. Timothy then joined Paul and Silas in their journey westward into Europe, including the city of Philippi – the church to whom the letter of Philippians was written some 10 years later.

Timothy had a unique home life as his mother, Eunice, was a Jewish believer and his father was an unbelieving Gentile of Greek origin – some of us can relate very well to this kind if upbringing!

By the time Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, he and Timothy had become close friends and co-workers in the faith.

Verse 19 (Philippians 2:19) of today’s passage tells us that Paul will soon be sending Timothy to Philippi – a journey of about 800 miles – in order to fellowship with dear friends in the Philippian church, most likely including Lydia and the Philippian jailor….remember them?

This wasn’t the first time Paul had sent Timothy on an ecclesiastical mission.

Timothy was a true road warrior, as Paul had also sent him to check in on churches in Corinth, Thessalonica, and Ephesus.

In verses 20 and 21 (Philippians 2:20-21) we begin to see what sets Timothy apart from other people whom Paul was associated with – and why Paul held Timothy in such high regard.

Paul says in verse 20 that there is “No one else like him.”

This is high praise – especially coming from Paul – the most revered and respected person alive throughout the entire Christian world at the time.

What attributes set Timothy apart from the crowd?

I see three of them in these verses. Timothy was:

1)     Reliable

2)     Thoughtful

3)     Loyal

We notice that Timothy was reliable as we see Paul continually sending him places when Paul could not go himself.

Paul could rely on Timothy because Timothy was faithful.

This is a quality that is severely deficient in our world today – is it not?

How many friends do you have that are truly reliable?

A recent survey disclosed that most Americans claim to have an average of 5 friends who they would classify as “reliable.”

These are people who will absolutely be there for you – no matter what you need them of them.

Many of us have so-called “Friends” on Facebook, right?

But If your basement is taking on water at 3:00 am, how many of your Facebook friends will come right over with a 5-gallon bucket ready to get to work?

‘Facebook Friends’ are very different from ‘Faithful Friends.’

Part of reliability also has to do with possessing a servant’s heart.

People who have a servant’s heart - they feed off the opportunity to do more serving!

People lacking a servant’s heart will complain about anything that takes them away from their self-centered agenda.

Here in this church, we are extremely blessed to have many people who display a servant’s heart.

There are people who volunteer for outreach ministries such as the Potter’s Meal, the Drive-Thru Food Distribution, VBS, camp, Sunday School, etc.

We have people in this church who sacrifice their time every week cleaning this facility and caring for the church grounds.

We have people in this church who make it a priority to visit shut-ins and assist others with projects around the their house.

Having servants’ heart is part of what being a Christian is all about.

In Matthew chapter 24 verses 45-51 Jesus teaches about reliability through the parable of two servants.

One servant is reliable as he diligently attends to his master’s instructions – and is rewarded with more responsibility when his master comes back.

While the other servant disregards his master’s instructions and is subsequently punished when the master returns.

Faithfulness opens the door to more fruitfulness!

In the following chapter of Matthew (Chapter 25) Jesus tells another parable about a master who leaves his money with servants to invest as they see fit.

The servants who actually spent time investing their master’s money wisely were rewarded with more opportunity to serve their master with greater responsibilities – while the lazy servant who hid his master’s money in the ground is scolded for not serving the master with any effort or personal sacrifice.

It’s important to serve – and to serve reliably.

Timothy was also thoughtful.

Verse 20 (Philippians 2:20) tells us that Timothy took a “Genuine interest” in the welfare of others.

In other words, Timothy wasn’t fake.

So many people (Including people in the church) put on a fake façade – they think it’s necessary to always appear happy or emotionally stable, when the truth is maybe they are barely holding it together – we’ve all been there.

Folks, we need to take off the masks.

If there is any place we can be real with each other, it should be right here with other believers. We are all going through many of the same struggles, trials, and temptations.

This is one reason why we are offering the new men’s basecamp opportunity. We need to be real and honest with each other. We need to take a genuine interest in each other’s lives – just as Timothy did.

Timothy really cared for – and about – the well-being of others.

We are all either consistently serving ourselves, or we are consistently serving others.

To put it another way, we are either living at the address of Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” ……. Or we are living at the address of Philippians 2:21 “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

If I had each of your names on my phone and asked GPS to direct me to your spiritual house – would it take me to Philippians 1:21 or Philippians 2:21

Only God knows where you live – make sure you live at Philippians 1:21

Finally, Timothy was loyal.

In Verse 22 (Philippians 2:22) Paul says that Timothy has “Proved himself” serving with Paul, his father in the faith, for many years.

By the time the letter of Philippians was written, Timothy had served alongside Paul in ministry for over a decade.

Time was needed for Timothy to prove his loyalty to Paul and to doing the work of being an ambassador for Jesus.

Timothy’s loyalty was shown over and over again as, over the years, Paul repeatedly sent him to various churches and each time, Timothy successfully completed his assigned task.

That word consistency keeps coming up when describing someone like Timothy – and proving oneself to be consistent inherently takes time.

This is why Paul says in his letter to Timothy that a leader in the church “Must not be a recent convert” (1 Timothy 3:6) and that “They must first be tested, and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as Deacons.” (1 Timothy 3:10)

Ever notice how the church has a tendency to immediately provide a platform for celebrities who claim to have converted to Christianity?

Many times, these people are given the opportunity to immediately give authoritative speeches concerning their faith with the full blessing of a certain church or denomination.

In other words, because of their high-profile status, they are put on a fast-track to authority regarding the church. Paul tells us not to do this.

People, including celebrities, need time to prove themselves to be faithful, loyal followers of Jesus Christ before being given any kind of leadership role in the church.

Otherwise, if their professed faith turns out to be like the seed that fell on the rocky, shallow soil in the parable of the Sower in Matthew chapter 13, their imminent abandonment of the faith in which they had previously aligned themselves will just cause the church to incur unwarranted scrutiny.

Verses 25-30 of today’s passage talk about another faithful friend of Paul’s – his name is Epaphroditus.

Honestly, we don’t know nearly as much about Epaphroditus as compared to Timothy – but we do know that he came to Rome from the church in Philippi to assist Paul during his incarceration there.

Like Timothy, Epaphroditus was most likely born and educated in the Greek culture and, as far as we know, was not looked to as an official leader in the Philippian church.

Epaphroditus was simply a faithful servant of his savior who wanted to show his love for Jesus through a selfless act of service – one that would require him to travel the 800 miles from Philippi to Rome (On foot, by the way – there were no planes, trains, or automobiles in the first century AD!)

It would have taken Epaphroditus three weeks to make this journey if he walked 12 hours a day at a pace of 3 miles per hour.

Not only did Epaphroditus make the journey to Rome, but he was also willing to stay there and assist Paul for however long it took.

Verse 27 of today’s passage (Philippians 2:27) informs us that while in Rome, Epaphroditus became seriously ill, so much so that Paul considered it to be an intervention from God that Epaphroditus survived.

The text says that “God had mercy on him.”

Whenever we see God spare someone’s life, it’s a reflection of His mercy.

The idea of mercy always involves God withholding the punishment for sin.

If you really think about it, God shows all of us mercy every day.

Romans 3:23 reminds us that we have all sinned….

Romans 6:23 then tells us that “The wages of sin is death”

Think about this: If God were not merciful, we would all be dead – physically and spiritually.

Folks, Sin is that devastating!

The two blind men in Matthew chapter 9 who begged Jesus to restore their sight realized that their only hope was through His mercy – in fact, their first plea was for mercy, not for healing.

The text reads: “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

These men understood that mercy was a prerequisite to physical healing.

In fact, this initial plea for mercy from individuals needing physical healing can be seen in all of these instances from scripture:

1)     The ten Lepers in Luke chapter 17

2)     The Canaanite woman in Matthew chapter 15

3)     The man with the deranged son in Matthew chapter 17

4)     And the blind beggar Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10 (And Luke chapter 18)

All of these individuals recognized their need for spiritual healing first, and then asked for physical healing.

This is how we should approach physical healing as well.

First and foremost, we need to long for spiritual healing – for God’s mercy to pour over our lives – and then, if it be His will, the physical healing will also occur.

Keep in mind, this isn’t some sort of magical formula to complete health and prosperity.

There are many devout believers who get sick, and they sincerely ask God for mercy, but God’s perfect plan is to refrain from stepping in and delivering them from their physical infirmities….remember Paul’s ‘Thorn in the flesh’?

We have all known, or have heard about, mature believers who have succumbed to serious illness at an age that we perceive to be ‘too young’, right?

I’m willing to bet that most of you even know of children who have passed away from cancer or were involved in a tragic accident of some kind that ended up taking their life…

These things grieve us, and if we are honest with ourselves, we often wonder why God would allow these “unfair” things to happen.

The age-old question of ‘why bad things happen to good people’ is indeed a difficult puzzle to piece together…at least from our perspective.

In fact, it is this reality that proves to be a stumbling block to many who might otherwise submit to God in repentance.

Our daughter Lindsay is a pediatric nurse at the Marshfield clinic where she often deals with very sick children – some of whom will never see their next birthday…these are heart-wrenching situations.

When people ask Lindsay how she reconciles this reality with her faith, she gives an answer that involves perspective.

When it comes to humanity, we can either look at life with a perspective of what we think we deserve – or we can look at life with a perspective of what the Bible says we deserve.

Folks, this isn’t an easy topic to preach on, but I have to convey the message that we see in scripture…and that message is this: since we have all sinned against a righteous and holy God, the only thing we deserve in life is physical and spiritual death – every single one of us.

Yes, our God is that Holy & Righteous!

Now…why God seems to convey life-extending mercy differently to different people – it’s way above my paygrade to answer that question.

But what I do know is that every minute we have on this earth is a gift of mercy from an abundantly merciful God.

Epaphroditus knew this – and he lived his life in such a way as to make the most of every opportunity to serve his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, I must ask you this question this morning – have you taken full advantage of the mercy that God has extended to you?

While you have breath in your lungs, Have you made the most important decision that you could ever make in your life?

Have you repented of your sins and, in faith, turned to Jesus who can save you from the eternally devastating effects of sin?

…And if you’ve already given your life to Christ and are living in obedience to him, the next question is this: ‘are you seizing every opportunity to serve your savior with the time he has given you?’

Epaphroditus did.

Epaphroditus was like so many of us. He didn’t seem to be a highly esteemed church leader; we are not told that he was particularly gifted in any certain area – but he stepped up to serve when the need arose.

Brothers and Sisters, it’s about perspective.

If you look at every minute as something deserved, you will never understand the abundant mercy of God.

But if you look at every minute as an undeserved gift, you will begin to understand the abundant mercy of God.

Timothy and Epaphroditus understood this abundant mercy – and they lived their lives in accordance with this transformative knowledge.

Let us emulate the lives of these two faithful men, and in so doing, display our love and eternal gratitude to our heavenly Father.

A heavenly Father who loves us so much that he sent His son to die on a cross in order to provide the opportunity for a happy ending to what would have otherwise been an utterly hopeless situation.

Let’s Pray.