Ordinary Radicals

Introduction

I know that yall like to call me old and like to call my unc, but one of the things that helps me do my job best is I am young.

I graduated high school in 2022, so that means I have not been out of high school for even 4 years.

I graduated college early, so I only went to college for 3 years, which just means I can relate better.

Seniors, think about when you were in the 8th grade, that is the comparison of where you are at to me.

So, this helps me. When you guys say stuff, I get it! I have been there before, and it wasn’t 20 years ago.

So when you are going through issues with going through a breakup, I can say been there before,

If its about homework, I can say yup, I’ve been there

Making a college decision, been there before.

So when you are sitting there doing your algebra wondering where in the real world am I going to do this?

Why do I need the quadratic formula?

The “log” button on your calculator, I don’t even remember what that means, and it doesn’t help me do taxes.

Why do I need long division when I have chatGPT or a calculator.

Just know as someone who just graduated college, I feel your pain.

Sometimes we question why some of the things we learn are required.

And if I am being honest with you, I opened up my Bible Thursday morning after last Wednesday to start prepping for this lesson and went, this just seems like a waste of time.

Was like why is this passage even in here.

It just seems filler.

I was thinking about having to do papers that were a certain length while in school and thats how I felt

Paul had to get to his four chapter criteria, he was writing by hand so he couldn’t go back and double space, so he wrote this passage.

Like Philippians has all these verses that will benefit your life if you memorize them, they are deep, rich, theological, then we get this text…

This text is just a travel log.

Of two guys who with Paul and are traveling to Philippi.

I read this and was like Timothy is going to walk 900 miles to Philippi and Epaphroditus is who Paul sent to deliver this letter.

Okay, next passage please.

Like why not talk about the big dogs of the faith.

Lets dive deep into Jesus,

Lets get into Moses,

Abraham,

Paul

Peter

But really Timothy and Epaphroditus?

Then it hit me.

Oh, thats me.

Im not a Pastor of a 10,000 person church, I’m not the next up and coming theologian thats going to write all these fancy books, I am boring just like these guys.

I am from a 3,000 person town surrounded by corn fields that you’ve never heard of, and have a Bible degree from a school that yall probably wouldn’t know about if you didn’t live in Springfield.

But God doesn't need us to be a big shot.

He needs us to be ordinary people who are obedient to him.

It took a second for me to see it and I hope you guys do to.

That is why God wanted this to be in the Bible.

Because most of the time, that’s how God works.

We are going to see that…

The Gospel Advances through Ordinary People

I usually split the passage up and read it chunk by chunk, but today we are going to take the whole thing at once.

Philippians 2:19–30 CSB

Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests; all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon. But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus—my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need— since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious. Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Look at this passage!

Paul just introduces Timothy and Epaphroditus like normal dudes.

He doesn’t say hey look at these guys who are

Apostles,

Miracle workers.

Just these radical guys,

Rather, he says look at these guys who are

My brothers,

My co-workers

caring Christians

and who are kind of just ordinary.

This whole section just feels normal.

Travel plans for these guys.

Health updates,

Details of when they are going to be there.

But what we should know is…

God changes the world through ordinary people in ordinary moments.

Let’s look back at Philippians 2 and see how Paul has been setting this up.

The begining of Philippians 2 we talked about Christ humbling himself, we had the ladder and said Christ came down the ladder and humbled himself to death on a cross.

And we said, hey be like Jesus! Be willing to die for your faith, and we were all thinking man thats a big task.

Then we saw last week that we are to work out our salvations, we are to train our faith.

And we are like Paul seems to have it together, work out your faith, be like him.

But he is also a giant of the faith, the greatest missionary ever.

Now we see this week, we see how this can be done through every day people.

It is about obedience.

Every day, small things, detail matter.

Its simple.

The Gospel is simple, but it doesnt mean that it is easy.

We have to know that we are nothing without Christ.

We are lost in our sins. We need a savior.

Jesus died on the cross and if we put our faith in him he will cleanse us of those sins.

We all need that!

Many of us have done that and if you haven’t I pray that you will today.

But once we do this, we have to live for him.

Day by day.

But life is too short to get Jesus wrong.

It is too short to not live for him.

And this passage is going to show is that if we do the things that God says and he is going to use you.

This is what these guys are doing.

They just know God, they know His Word, and they obey it.

God uses ordinary people who will take the next small obedient step.

We look at the 12 apostles, we see Paul, we see Jesus, we see people who die for their faith.

And we want to be like them.

We see them and go man they gave Christ everything.

But what Paul is saying is so did these two men.

You see the famous Pastors, leading the largest churches, these healthy churches, and go man look how God is using them.

But God can also be using the gravel road Baptist church of 25 people,

It is not always about what we see.

Another Pastor said it like this:

We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $l,000 bill and laying it on the table—“Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.” But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.” Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those 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 little over the long haul.”

Its day by day, step by step.

So lets dive into each of these guys for a few minutes and see how they did this.

The Example of Timothy (vv. 19-24)

We already read the whole passage, so I am just going to summarize and read a few of the verses here in a little bit.

Paul says hey I have this younger guy who is like a son to me.

I am going to send him to you guys here soon.

Just let me see a little more about where my trial for my court case is going, then he will be on his way.

but the reason for him coming is so he will return back to me with all the ministry that you are doing and we will be encouraged.

But look about what Paul says, verse 20

Philippians 2:20 ESV

For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

Image seeing that, “I have no one else like him”

Your pride starts to get there, and he is like sweet Paul is going to hype me up and say no one else preaches like he does, no one is as Godly as he is.

But he goes:

He’s good at caring for people.

But really,

People who genuinely care are rare.

This is why Paul says this about Timothy.

People have lost their care.

Everyone can care about people. It is not hard.

Until it is inconvenient to you.

Until it costs us something.

Think about telling someone you will pray for them.

You say a prayer because you care about them.

But then we get busy.

Someone who cares about them is going to follow up

Ask them how they are doing,

and maybe not just a week down the road, but also in the upcoming months.

Because it is so easy to look at our selves and our busy lives,

to care about us

Insert Slides with verses

This is why Paul says people seek this own interests.

Philippians 2:21 “all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

But Paul says this to say hey people do this, but Timothy is different.

because remember what Paul called us to live like earlier in this chapter.

Second Slide

Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.”

You live in one of two realities, seeking Christ (Phil. 2:3) or seeking self (Phil. 2:21).

and it doesn’t take a super hero.

Timothy is just chipping away, decision by decision, day by day.

I mean the best thing that he is good at is being there for people.

That’s not special.

But it is obedient to God, doing what he says.

Once again, God will change the world radically through obedience.

We just have to be willing to make the small decisions when it is hard.

Because Timothy has done this over and over and over again.

So Paul says he has proven himself.

Now let’s go to Epaphroditus.

The Example of Epaphroditus (vv. 25-30)

Okay, so at least we know who Timothy is.

Like we learn more about him when Paul writes to him again in the books 1 and 2 Timothy.

But who is Epaphroditus?

We only see him in Philippians. There is one other verse at the end of the book that we see him and it tells us what he was doing.

So Paul being in prison was not working, did not have any money, and Paul was actually clear, he did not want to be paid.

Yet, he still needed money to live.

So he partnered with churches that would give him enough money to live.

We as a church still do this to this day.

We support individual missionaries.

We as a church give to this thing through the Southern Baptist Convention called the Cooperative program that goes to help ministries and church plants.

So Epaphroditus is from Philippi.

And the church there raised some money and wanted to give it to Paul.

So they said, who wants to travel the 900 miles to take it to him.

It was estimated that it would take 6-8 weeks to get there with traveling every day.

Then you had to come back, so they said who wants to go?

Anyone willing to drop there lives for 4 months?

I don’t know about y’all but I don’t think I’m the one to raise my hand.

I don’t think Mikaela is going to approve.

but Epaphroditus shows us that

Your willingness to say yes to God when it is hard it worship.

He said here I am, send me.

I will go

Because I know that Paul is doing so much work for the kingdom.

Again, he is an ordinary dude.

Like Timothy is a Pastor in training.

This guy is just a mail carrier, yet he impacts the Kingdom so much.

It doesn’t matter what job you chose in life, you can still be faithful to the Lord.

This is what Epaphroditus does.

He gets 7 verses in the Bible because he decides to say yes and start walking.

Anyone could have went, but no one wants to say yes when it is inconvenient.

But the people in Philippi were kinda starting to get worried,

because he had been gone a while and had not come back.

Im not sure how much money he was carrying, but you start to worry if he got robbed.

but the Philippians got news somehow, the letter does not say how, but they go news that he was sick.

Paul says he was sick to the point of death.

It says it was only God’s mercy that saved him.

We do not know how he survived, but when know God had his hand on him.

It shows is that his body was breaking down, but he faith wasn’t.

He kept pushing until he got to Paul.

We see that he recovers.

but he risked his life for the sake of the Gospel.

Verse 30 says that.

He exposed himself to danger.

to 1800 miles of travel, not knowing if he was going to make it or not.

Showing that he was willing to do anything for the gospel.

So then Paul writes this letter, gives it Epaphroditus and he delivered it back to the Church in Philippi.

They are told to welcome him back because he was risking his life for the work of Christ.

so

We see the examples of Timothy and Epaphorditus.

Two ordinary dudes seeking the Lord.

and because of the God uses them in radical ways.

Ordinary Radicals don’t Seek the Spotlight, they Seek faithfulness.

When you die and your life is described, how will your legacy read?

Will people say you lived a radical life?

I dont mean were you famous.

Were you rich

Or were you successful.

Will people say you were a person who sought Christ and others instead of yourself.

Were you

Consistant

Faithful

and willing?

Timothy and Epaphorditus saw the humility of Christ and decided that they would say yes to obedience.

So like we talked about earlier.

It is not about cashing in your $1,000 all at once.

It is about the 50 cents at a time.

It is about taking the next small step

serving when no one is looking

When no one is going to notice or recognize you.

saying yes to something when it is inconvenient to.

The Kingdom of God will not be built by celebrities,

It will be built by ordinary people who refuse to quit.

(pause and repeat)

Go and be that person.