Three Humble Men
Philippians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
text: Philippians 2:17-30
17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing.
20 I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs.
21 For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.
23 So I hope to send him as soon as I see what happens with me.
24 And I trust in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
25 But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.
26 For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
27 He was sick indeed, nearly unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.
28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less anxious.
29 Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him,
30 because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.
PRAY
Introduction:
Paul started off this chapter reminding us of our need for humility in our attitude toward God and others. We must think like Jesus, considering others more important than ourselves, looking out for the interests of others, sacrificing our comforts and conveniences for their good, as Jesus did for us. Jesus is the greatest example of humility and sacrificial love, but it is helpful for us to have other examples as well. Chapter 2 ends with the examples of three humble, godly men who faithfully served the Lord by serving the Philippian believers.
Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus are all examples of the humble, loving, sacrificial service that Christ has shown us and that He calls us to live in too.
We’ll look at each one individually and then consider the things that they share in common that we should seek to imitate in our lives.
Paul’s Sacrificial Service
Paul’s Sacrificial Service
(17-19; 23-25)
17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
In v. 17 Paul uses the OT imagery of sacrifices in worship. In this imagery, the Philippian believers are the sacrificial offering being offered to the Lord, and Paul is the drink offering that accompanies the sacrifice.
Drink offerings were usually wine or other fermented drinks that were offered along with other offerings - sometimes a sin offering, a peace offering, or other offerings. There were special bowls and pitchers made for the purpose of making these drink offerings, and they accompanied many of the other offerings. In a sense, it seems that they made the other offerings complete.
This offering requires a sacrifice of course. Just like the other sacrifices, they were to give their best portions to the LORD, and so it was a personal and costly sacrifice, and this demonstrated faith in God’s goodness and provision as well as love and worship toward Him.
Paul sees his own life that way. He is being poured out as a drink offering alongside the offering of the Philippians and their faith. They are Paul’s offering to the Lord, and Paul himself is the accompanying drink offering being poured out to complete the sacrifice.
For Paul, this involved the sacrifice of his time and energy in taking the gospel to the Philippians, and the physical suffering that he endured in Philippi. At this point in his life, it also involves the very real possibility of dying to complete his life’s work of spreading the gospel. That’s what he tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6-7
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Paul’s life is being poured out as a drink offering, completing the worship offering of the Philippians and all the other churches he has started. Paul’s part is almost over, because he is about to die.
But Paul is not afraid of death. What is his attitude in Philippians 2:17?
But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
He says, I’m suffering, and maybe even about to die. Even if I die, though, he says, the sacrifice of my life is an offering of worship to the Lord, and it is for the good of the Philippians, because God used Paul’s ministry to bring about and strengthen their faith. And how does Paul respond?
I rejoice. I am glad. I am thrilled that God would use my life for His good purposes.
And he wants the Philippians to rejoice as well. He doesn’t want them to be sad about the possibility of Paul’s death, but to rejoice in the good work that God accomplished through Paul’s ministry. So he tells them,
So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Just as I rejoice, you also should rejoice. Find joy because you know that suffering is a tool that God uses to accomplish His good purposes.
We should not seek to escape suffering at all costs. (We shouldn’t go looking for it either!) But when it comes (and it will), we should embrace suffering as a good gift from God, knowing and trusting God’s promises that He is working all things for our good, to make us more like Christ.
We need to learn to think this way. Suffering in our own lives and in the lives of other believers is serving God’s good purposes, and we need to find joy as we endure suffering. The more we trust God, the more joy we will have, regardless of our circumstances and whatever suffering we might go through.
As Paul indicates in v. 23, he didn’t know yet what would happen at his trial.
So I hope to send him as soon as I see what happens with me.
His hope was that God would spare his life and he would be able to visit the Philippians again, as he says in Phil 2:24
And I trust in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
As far as we know, God did grant this desire, though Paul did lay down his life not much later.
But in the midst of his suffering and uncertainty, Paul was willing to give up something else. Timothy and Epaphroditus had both served as amazing companions to Paul in ministry, and I don’t doubt that they were a great comfort and encouragement to him in his imprisonment.
But Paul loved the Philippians believers so much that he was willing to give up the company of both Timothy and Epaphroditus so that they could visit the Philippians.
Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing.
But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.
This was the selfless love of Paul. He cared more about the Philippians than about himself and his own comforts.
Timothy’s Sacrificial Service
Timothy’s Sacrificial Service
(19-23)
Timothy was a lot like Paul. He had learned a lot from Paul in ministry, and according to Paul’s own testimony, Timothy’s selfless love was just like Paul’s.
19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing.
20 I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs.
21 For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.
23 So I hope to send him as soon as I see what happens with me.
v. 20 tells us that Timothy was one who genuinely cared for the needs of the Philippians. Paul says that this selfless love is a rare quality.
20 I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs. 21 For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
“I have nobody else like him”; “all the others look after their own interests”
But Timothy’s focus was on serving the Lord. Paul told us in 1:1 that he and Timothy were servants or slaves of Christ Jesus. Now he shows what that looks like in action.
Timothy was committed to Jesus Christ and His purposes. And because of his commitment to Jesus Christ, he genuinely cared about the Philippians and looked out for their interests above his own. He had learned this servant hearted attitude from Paul, because he had the opportunity to travel with Paul and serve with him for the advance of the gospel, as Paul says in v. 22.
22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.
Epaphroditus’s Sacrificial Service
Epaphroditus’s Sacrificial Service
(25-30)
Epaphroditus is the third man mentioned in this section, and we don’t know much about him except what’s mentioned here.
25 But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.
26 For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
27 He was sick indeed, nearly unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.
28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less anxious.
29 Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him,
30 because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.
Paul uses several words to describe him in v. 25:
25 But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.
my brother
my fellow worker
my fellow soldier
your messenger
your minister to my needs
These descriptions tell us a lot about him: he is a believer, a brother in Christ; he is someone who has served the Lord together with Paul, giving great effort to the advance of the gospel; he belongs to the Philippians church, and he was sent by them to serve Paul during his imprisonment. Clearly he is a man committed to the Lord and His purposes, a hard worker and a servant hearted man.
Notice what Paul says in v. 26:
For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
Just as Paul longed to be back with the Philippians, so does Epaphroditus. But the 2nd part of this verse is what is amazing.
He is distressed because you heard that he was ill.
Not, he is distressed because he is sick. But he is distressed because you found out that he is sick. He’s not moping about, woe is me, poor me, I’m sick and suffering. When we’re sick, we like people to know we’re sick so they can feel sorry for us. But not Epaphroditus.
His love for the Philippians is so great that he’s more concerned for them than for himself, even though he’s the one suffering more. This is humble, servant hearted love.
V. 27 & 30 both tell us that he nearly died serving the Lord. God chose to spare his life, and this was a great cause of joy for Paul and the Philippians.
27 He was sick indeed, nearly unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.
30 because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.
Paul holds him up as an example to admire and to imitate:
Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him,
Such examples of humble, servant hearted loving sacrifice are rare, and Paul commends him to them as someone worthy of honor.
What do we learn from the examples of these three men?
Significant sacrifice, including personal loss and potentially death
Upward focus on God and serving Him for His glory
Outward focus on meeting the needs of others
Joy in serving others
Following the example of Christ
What does this mean for our lives?
Live for God’s glory - we are His servants; our lives belong to Him
Embrace suffering as part of God’s good plan for us
Humbly look out for the interests of others above your own
Realize that joy does not come from focusing on yourself, but on God and others.
Imitate Christ
Give thanks for godly examples