Living Illustrations: Philippians 2:19-30

Alright, well at this time I want to go ahead and dismiss our kids. So if you’re a 2nd thru 5th grader and you’ve been checked in you’re free to go ahead and head to the back. Your teachers are waiting for you there.

And parents, as a reminder, you will pick those children up at the Wetlands Building after the service.

But let’s go to the Lord in prayer together this morning.

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

”Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,“don’t harden your heart.

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Introduction

Modeling

With it being the second week of March, the weeds in my yard are in full bloom, which means yard care season is back.

Now to be clear, I gave up a long time ago on competing with the JONES’, and let’s just say I’ve “let my yard go.”

But I still have to edge every now and then, and mow the grass pretty regularly to avoid the dreaded HOA looking to fulfill their power trips.

But I don’t mind the work to be honest.

It gives me time to think, and having a vocation that is largely a mental effort, it feels good every now and then to work with my hands and see a finished product.

But there’s another reason I don’t mind yard work, and it’s this right here:

Slide

Everytime I go out to crank the mower, Denver my 3 year old is in my shadow ready to start up his bubble powered one.

And as I walk up and down the yard, Denver in like fashion makes his rows.

When I break for water, Denver breaks for water.

When I move to the back yard, Denver moves to the back yard.

But parents you know, this reality of cutting the grass, applies to just about everything doesn’t it?

Our kids are always watching, always copying.

It blows my mind, even for myself, that I’m becoming more and more like my dad the older I get.

Like the other day, I spent 5 minutes before leaving the house just turning off lights.

But what I’m describing here, is really a universal principle.

We tend to imitate those we spend time with.

Thoswe we look up to, those we follow.

And the same is true Spiritually.

I learned to read the Bible from a mentor I had in college.

I learned to pray from a missionary I looked up to on the mission field.

I learned to preach, from my pastor growing up, among others.

We tend to imitate those we spend time with. Those we look up to, those we follow.

Well in today’s text, Paul is going to put forward two individuals that he wants the church in Philippi to imitate.

Two people he wants them to look up to, and follow.

And at first glance, this text almost feels out of place.

At first read, it leads to question, “What’s the point of this passage...”

Because it seems just like a travel itinary. A draft of Paul’s future plans, but if we look at the context and look a little deeper, we actually see Paul is intentionally calling attention to two people becuase he wants us to follow their living illustrations.

So let’s understand the context.

Context

So far in the book of Philippians, we have the Apostle Paul writing to this little church in the Roman colony of Philippi, from prison in Rome.

He’s awaiting trial, and doesn’t know the verdict--- either release and life, or conviction and death.

And while in prison, this beloved church in Philippi sends one of their members, a man by the name of Epaphroditus to minister to Paul’s physical and felt needs, because the prison system of Rome isn’t like it is here in america.

The prisoners weren’t provided food and clothing, they were expected to provide for it themselves, or thru family and friends.

So Epaphroditus goes to minister to Paul, as well as to inform him about how things are going back home in the church.

And apparently, things were beginning to take a turn for the worse.

Persecution is on the rise externally,

and division is being stirred internally

So because Paul obviously can’t come to deal with these church matters, he’s planning to send two people, two living illustrations to the church to help them live out what he has thus far spelled out.

Timothy & Epaphroditis.

And he sends Epaphroditis first, and with him a letter, that letter being the Book of Philippians that we hold in our hand today.

And so far in that letter Paul has given them some good exhortation.

Let me review really quickly.

He has encouraged them for their partnership in the Gospel, and exhorted them to live lives worthy of that Gospel.

To strive side by side for the faith, to suffer with joy for the faith, and to love one another from humility not selfish conceit.

To avoid division within, by counting others more significant than themselves.

And the best way to drive home these points was to point them to JESUS CHRIST, our ultimate model and example, which he clearly did in Philippians 2:1-11.

And now in our text today he’s going to add 2 more living illustrations.

In our text today, Paul is telling the Philippians…

Hey, you want to see what this looks like? You want a better understanding of how to live lives worthy of the Gospel?

Look no further than to Timothy and Epaphroditus

So let’s read our text today, and then we can unpack it together.

Philippians 2:19–30 ESV

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 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 heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on 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.

Living Illustrations- Timothy and Epaphroditus.

And today I’ve tried to summarize their characteristics into two categories.

Their Commitment & Their Character.

We should see and seek to emulate, their commitment and their character.

First, let’s look at their commitment.

Commitment

First, he begins with Timothy

So who was this Timothy guy?

Well, According to Scripture, Timothy was the son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. And his jewish mother, and grandmother had shared their Jewish scriptures with him from infancy, so when Paul came through Lystra and Derbe the first time, apparently all 3 of them recognized Christ as the Messiah, which is why Paul often calls him “my true son in the faith.” (1 Tim 1:2).

But on Paul’s second trip through Lystra, according to Acts 16:1, Timothy joined Paul as a missionary apprentice.

Timothy was probably no older than late teens, or early twenties when he joined Paul’s missionary team, but his reputation of a committed disciples was already well established.

Acts 16:2 “He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.”

Now for Paul to invite anybody on a missionary journey, was a big deal, because as we see in Acts 15, Paul wasn’t too pleased with his first apprentice John Mark.

So what was so special about Timothy?

Well to start, it was his commitment.

First and foremost his commitment to the Lord!

In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul writes about Timothy’s sincere faith.

Many translations say a genuine faith, or a true faith, and what it’s communicating is that Timothy’s faith was without hypocrisy.

He didn’t speak Christianese, and yet live like the devil.

He wasn’t somebody on Sunday, and somebody else on Monday.

No his faith was genuine, it was true, it was real.

Timothy was all in. 2 Tim 3:14 says, he had firmly believed the gospel.

He was fully aware of who Christ was, what Christ had come to accomplish, and his response to the Good News of Christ was to live a life that honored Jesus.

Timothy was committed to the Lord.

He might have been young, but he was a LIVING ILLUSTRATION for the church in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Timothy was committed to the Lord, and he was also committed to the Lord’s Church.

When Paul needed someone to represnet him to the church in Corinth, he sent Timothy.

When Ephesus needed a Pastor, he sent Timothy.

And here, while imprisoned in Rome, and the church in Philippi needs help… he sends Timothy.

Timothy, was Committed.

Epaphroditus

The same is true for Epaphroditus

Philippians 2:25 “I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother...”

Unlike Timothy who was a spiritual convert, and consequently a spiritual son to Paul. Epaphroditus, probably came to faith in Christ under the ministry of another, so Paul refers to him as a brother.

And this is remarkeable, because Paul was a Jew but Epaphroditus was a Greek Gentile.

But when the Good News of Jesus Christ breaks in, it breaks down worldly dividing walls of hostility and reconciles us all to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, took former enemies, Jew and Gentile, and now made brothers.

Epaphroditus was committed to the Lord.

Philippians 2:28–30 “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.”

Apparently, while on the 800 mile trek (1 way), Epaphroditus came down with a grave illness.

So sick in fact, that he was near death.

But Epaphroditus didn’t turn around. He was all in. Committed to the Lord, and committed to the work of the church.

Church, these men were committed to God as seen in their commitment to serving the God and serving God’s church.

We would do well to emulate, such living illustrations.

Both of them.

TImothy went on to become a pretty well known figure.

Two letters are in the NT are written to him specifically, and we know that he held a public and formal position as a Pastor in the New Testament church.

He had a platform, and he was called to faithfully serve the Lord from the platform.

And history says he faithfully performed that duty, until his martyrdom for his faith in 95 A.D.

Timothy, is an incredible illustration of someone who lived sold out in their commitment to the Lord

The truth is, when we talk about or think about living illustrations of people committed to the Lord, we tend to think about people like Timothy.

Professionals. Those in full-time, vocational ministry.

Somebody extraordinary, who accomplishes extraordinary feats for God.

Somebody sensational, who expressing sensational gifts of God.

So we usually look for examples, with big brands and big platforms, and big followings.

We read their blogs, subscribe to their podcasts, and buy their books.

We love living illustrations like Timothy.

But if we were honest, we don’t think much of people like Epaphroditus.

I mean, if it weren’t for this mention and one more in Phil 4:18, we’d never know about the guy.

He served in no public capacity, wasn’t a pastor, and was by no means a professional.

He was a layman, probably worked port logistics, or engineering, or finance. Maybe he was a teacher, or worked in medicine.

He wasn’t tasked with fixing the division, rebuking false teachers, or setting the church in order.

His only responsibility was to deliver some money and materials to Paul, and then deliver a letter back to Philippi.

A glorified errand boy.

And yet Paul calls him “brother… fellow worker… & fellow soldier...”

And if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t even have this inspired, letter of Scripture

We would have “To Live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

We wouldn’t have “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We wouldn’t have “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving make your requests known to God!”

Church here’s all I’m tyring to say is don’t overlook the tremendous Kingdom impact of seeming inconsequential or unimportant actions performed in commitment to Christ!

Don’t let the selection of your living illustrations simply be based on famousness, instead look for faithfulness!

Don’t be too enamored by some extraordinary, and overlook the ordinary life of commitment to Christ.

Epaphroditus was just faithfully committed.

And Paul says, “HONOR SUCH Men and Women!!”

Watch them! Observe Them! Emulate them! Those are to be our models.

LIsten to this beautiful quote by the late preacher Fred Craddock,

He writes, “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others… to pay the ultimate price for martyrdom— I’ll do it! I’m ready Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory!

“We think giving our all to the Lord is taking a $1000 bill and laying it on the table--- “Here’s my life Lord. I’m giving it all.”

“But the reality for most of is is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in that $1000 bill for quarters. And we go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there.

“Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s just done in little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.”

“It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by ltitle over the long haul.”

Sure, we need illustrations like Paul and Timothy, but don’t overlook the Epaphroditus’.

And I believe we have a lot of Epaphroditus’s in this church.

People who have strived, and worked to be faithfully married. Learning to love, and communicate, and commit their marraiges to the Lord Jesus.

People who have labored, ungloriously in the parenting and raising of their children. Disciplining, and discpling, and don’t forget pleading with God for their families.

People who have worked faithfully in their careers, seeking to show Christ in their work places day after day after day after day.

People who have served the church, void of ego, inviting people into their homes, babysitting for our military and single mothers, mowing the yards of our widows, etc.

Church my encouragement to you today is two fold:

Find people like Epaphroditus, people within this church, that you can model your life after.

And become people like Epaphroditus, who commit their lives to the Lord, giving out quarters over the long haul.

Character

But a Living Illustraion of a life worthy of the Gospel, isn’t just a person committed to the Lord, but a person who demonstrates that committment faithfully, over time, and to do that requires you to be a person of chracter.

And this is so difficult for us, because character is formed, not microwaved. It’s grown and developed, not manufactured and produced.

It takes time, and it is not easy

And because it doesn’t happen overnight, we all too easily fall into the trap of trading character, for reputation!

We build reputation, and ignore character.

Legendary coach John Wooden once said, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

So often what holds us back from being living illustrations, is we want perception not process.

We want others to think we’re worthy models, all while avoiding what it takes to become the real thing.

This is a reason why famous, or platformed christians make poor models.

We see their content, and their following, but we don’t know them. Do we?

We act like we do, and even talk like we do, but we don’t know who they are when nobody is watching.

We don’t know what they’re like as husbands or wives, sons or daughters, or fathers and mothers, or employers and teammates?

Now to be clear they may be, people of character, but we don’t know…

It’s Instagram Influence.

You know what I’m talking about. This doesn’t just apply to Professional Pastors or Ministers.

Anybody can build a reputation.

You see that friend from your past post all those incredible pictures and quotes about godly parenting, and immediately presume to think “they have it all together” They are a good model parent for me.

But let me let you know a little secret… nobody posts the live action shot of them screaming at their children!

All you see is the filtered content that builds reputation.

This is terrifying for me.

You see, I stand up here week after week, and you all walk away thinking you know me.

Because of my profession and platform, I have a reputation of being a living illustration…

But the proof is in the proverbial pudding, at home.

Do my kids see that who I am on Sunday is exactly who I was on Saturday?

Does my wife, know I”m a person of character not just reputation.

Do those that I work with day in and day out, believe that my sermons preached with my life, or just my lips?

All I’m saying is that it’s all too easy to confuse reputation for character.

But the church of Jesus Christ is not built by people of reputation, but people of character.

And here Paul is telling the Philippians that if they really want to know what it looks like to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked world, or what it looks like to live lives worthy of the gospel, look for people of character.

Look for people like Timothy and Epaphroditus.

They were people of character.

Developed with the same means & Evidenced with the same result.

Same Mean

So what are the means God used to develop both of these living illustrations?

You’re not going to like this… but it’s Suffering

Romans 5:3–4 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,

James says, “trials of various kinds produces endurance!” And what does endurance produce? Character!

That greek word for character is “a provenness”.

Who someone is… is proven, not when everything is going great, but the exact opposite. When we suffer.

But when we suffer, and endure that suffering by holding out faith in Christ, it develops a strength of character, it proves the commitment to Christ that we confess.

And young Timothy was a person of character

Philippians 2:22 “But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.”

When Paul took Timothy on as an apprentice in Lystra, I can just picture Timothy being all in! Committed! Ready to lay his life down!

But it wasn’t long there in Philippi in Acts 16, that he watched his spiritual father, dragged into public, attacked, stripped, and beaten with rods!

Can you imagine what a shock that must have been for the young protege!?

Uhhhhh… What did I just sign up for!?

But guess what… Timothy didn’t leave. He didn’t get out of dodge. He stayed. He endured. He remained committed!

And the rest of his ministry was laced with trials and difficulties, and here Paul says, “oh he’s proven his value.” he has served with me through thick and thin.

He was a person of character!

I’ll never forget, the week before we moved to North Africa to begin our career as missionaries, a man about 10 years older, who had served in the middle east came up to me at this wedding and said, “I heard you’re going to North Africa… man that’s going to be hard.”

To which I replied, “Yea, well no sacrifice is to great for he who sacrificed all for me!”

YUUUUCCCCKKKK.

But that man just said, “Well, you’ll see....” And walked away

And i was so offended! How dare he question my committment!

But he wasn’t questioning my commitment, just my character. He knew from experience, that commitment to the Lord is only sustainable with a person of character.

And nothing produces character, quite like suffering.

And it’s the same with Epaphroditus.

Philippians 2:30 “for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.”

800 miles one way is a journey for a healthy person, but this sickness tested Epaphroditus.

He suffered, nearly to the point of death, but praise be to God that his suffering just produced in him a steadfastness, and that steadfastness character!

The Means God uses to develop our character is Suffering.

Church don’t waste your suffering.

God is using it to form Christ in you, to develop your character, so that you can sustain your commitment!

And as he does, it will be evidenced in the same result.

Same Result

And what is it… well, its humility.

As the famous quote by C.S Lewis goes, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

Commitment without character is an attempt at vain glory.

Expressing our willingness to lay it all down to follow Christ, is an expression of our willingness.

The subject, the object is US. It’s what I”M willing to do.

But when God utilizes suffering to form character, humility is produced.

We think of ourselves less, and consequently we begin thinking of others more.

We become what Paul had just earlier exhorted men and women who, Philippians 2:3–4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Look at what Paul says about Timothy, Philippians 2:20 “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.”

He goes on Philippians 2:21 “For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

Paul had already referenced this in Phil 1:15-17, but apparently there were preachers and pastors in Rome who sought to expand their own ministries and reputations now that the Apostle Paul was out of the way.

They preached Christ out of selfish ambition. It was all about them. And their influence. And hearing themselvs talk.

But not TIMOTHY!

His interest wasn’t self, but the church of Jesus Christ.

That’s a person of character, and that’s someone worth emulating.

Same with Epaphroditus

Philippians 2:26 “for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.”

Do you see the deep humility and self-forgetfulness of this man?

He was about to die. Sick as a dog. And instead of having a pity party, or visualizing some hero welcome if somehow he makes it through this…

He’s concerned about the the church. Concerned they’ve caught wind of his illness, and that it’s leading them to worry. Leading to church to be anxious.

And he doesn’t want that, so he longs to return to ease their anxiety!

No thought of self at all, just a true and genuine concern for others above himself.

Church, that is a person of character, and we should seek to emulate those who are concerend with the interest of others, and not their own.

Conclusion

So who are you using as your living illustrations?

Are they people of Commitment?

Genuinely committed to the Lord?

Are they people who live their lives to be spent in the service of the Lord? Quarters deposited, over the course of time?

Are they people of character?

Have they suffered well? Endured? Been steadfast?

Are they humble? Or do they talk about themselves and perform duties that only further themselves?

Because don’t mistake it:

The Church of Jesus Christ is always built and sustained by people of Commitment and People of Character.

They are those who shine as lights in the crooked world.

They are those who live lives worthy of the Gospel.

& they should be our living illustrations.

Communion

But today I think it would be great to close by remembering our ultimate example, our ultimate model Jesus Christ in the taking of communion.

So if you’re serving communion go ahead and make your way, and you can start passing out those elements.

Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is a sacrament of the church and is reserved for those who identify with what these elements represnt.

so if you’re not a christian this morning, I’d like to kindly request you let these elements pass you by.

But Communion is something we practice as a local church once a month, as a ILLUSTRATION of the Gospel of Jesus.

It’s a visible picture, of what Jesus has done and accomplished for us.

The broken bread is a symbol of Jesus broken body on the cross.

The juice is a symbol of Jesus blood shed for us on the cross.

And in those two symbols we are reminded that we are saved, forgiven, and reconciled to God through Christ and Christ alone.

So take a moment, and I’ll come back up to lead us through this together.