MMoD - Philippians 2:19-24
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Introduction
Introduction
Up until this point, Paul has really been communicating to the Philippians the necessity of having a mindset that is centered upon the gospel.
He pointed out very powerfully in chapter one that the promotion of the gospel should be the most important thing for believers in Christ.
And to explain the importance of the furtherance of the gospel, Paul really used his imprisonment to highlight that the furthering of the gospel was even more important than his own release from prison.
He says in , that true deliverance for him was not necessarily released from prison in a physical sense, but it was actually living a life that is unashamed of Christ and that is honoring to him, even if that means he needs to lay down his own life to do so.
(HONORING CHRIST = DELIVERANCE FROM SIN, PHYSICAL DELIVERANCE DOESN’T DEAL WITH THE SIN ISSUE)
(HONORING CHRIST = DELIVERANCE FROM SIN, PHYSICAL DELIVERANCE DOESN’T DEAL WITH THE SIN ISSUE)
After Paul kind of lays this out, he then gives the Philippians some strong exhortations concerning unity. He really presses them to strive towards unity as a church so that they as a whole might live worthy of the gospel of Christ. And this was to be done, as he mentions in chapter two by loving each other through encouragement, and by humbly serving each other and counting each other as more significant than themselves.
And to give us our great example of this kind of heart, Paul portrays Jesus as the humble servant who laid down his rights and his life for us and powerfully overcame sin and death.
Finally, as we just looked at in this last section, we really got to see an amazing glimpse and real-life model of a gospel-centered life. We got to look into the heart of Paul. We got to see his down-right passion for the furtherance of Christ, not only for his own life, but also for the Philippian church. His great desire for them was that they too might experience and join into this incredible joy that he himself had found in the gospel.
And this is going to lead us to our next text today.
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.
Now as we get into this section we are going to be introduced to a man by the name of Timothy
Timothy was first mentioned in the first verse of the epistle in the greeting of Paul, so we know that Timothy was connected to Paul, at least in the writing of the letter. But here in this text, we are going to glean a little deeper into the character of this man, and we’re also going to see his relationship to the Philippian church.
The thing I’d like to first point out is that Paul doesn’t seek to establish Timothy’s character to the Philippian church. He simply assumes that the Philippians were already well-aware of the man that Timothy was. (2:22)
Paul knew that the Philippian church had already seen the character of Timothy and that he had been and would continue to be a benefit to the body of believers there as they sought to grow in Christ
So I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but for the sake of the study, I’ll go ahead and ask a couple of questions, and hopefully try to shed some light into them. The first question is, “Who was Timothy?” and the second being, “what relationship did he have to Paul and the church in Philippi?”
And to get our first answer, we are going to need to first look back to the book of Acts chapter 16. And I’ll just kind of sum it up for you guys, so you don’t need to turn there.
At this point in Acts, the apostle Paul had just begun his second missionary journey along with a man named Silas. They began by traveling up through Syria, over into Cilicia which would have been the mid-southern end of modern day Turkey.
From there, they continued traveling west and approached the cities of Derbe and Lystra. It was there that Paul crossed paths with this young man by the name of Timothy.
From there he went from city to city until he finally came to Derbe and Lystra. It was there that Paul crossed paths with this young man by the name of Timothy.
Right off the bat in , we learn that Timothy was a disciple of Jesus and that he was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium.
2 Things about Timothy: 1st, He was a follower of Christ, and 2nd, had a good reputation amongst the believers there.
How important it is as those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, to have a strong testimony before the church.
And that’s something really key that we are going to see about this man Timothy.
He was extremely faithful to Paul and the work of the Lord throughout his life. And there are plenty of examples to show just how faithful Timothy was.
So Paul clearly was impressed by this man. He knew that Timothy loved Jesus and wanted to live his life for the work of the gospel, so he decided to take him along as a partner in the work.
And from there on, Paul, Silas and Timothy begin traveling from place to place spreading the gospel of Christ, and strengthening the churches in their faith.
And no doubt as they are working side-by-side in the ministry, Paul and Timothy begin to develop an incredibly deep bond centered around the gospel of Christ.
And no doubt, as they are experiencing all of
And I just think that reflects Paul’s theme in the book of Philippians so well of being partners in the gospel. We see that so beautifully portrayed in the bond between Paul and Timothy.
I would love to dive deeper into some of the incredible things that Paul and Timothy went through together on their journeys, but for the sake of time, let’s move to when they came to this city in Philippi.
About 500 Miles from Lystra, the crew finally made it to Philippi, and the church in Philippi was born.
So to answer our second question about Timothy’s relationship to the church in Philippi, let me just say that he had been with them from the very get-go, right there with the Apostle Paul.
It’s estimated that Paul, Timothy, and Silas visited Philippi around AD 50, and that Philippians was written somewhere around AD62, so Timothy had been involved with this church for close to 10 years.
So there really is no further need for Paul to explain who Timothy is. They clearly knew him. They clearly had a relationship with him.
He simply says,
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
Philippians 2:19
Paul’s ministry with the church in Philippi certainly didn’t end during his imprisonment, and he was absolutely grateful to have a man like Timothy who he could trust to be faithful in continuing the ministry towards them even while Paul was in chains.
And Paul had a yearning for this church. We see in chapter one that he yearned with the affections of Christ Jesus. And he certainly wasn’t going to give up on them. He wanted to be as intimately involved with them as possible, no matter what his situation might be. He wanted to hear about all that God was doing in their lives.
Just like Paul says back in chapter one, that “whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
And in God’s sovereign plan, Paul was currently hindered from visiting this church, but thank God had God had raised up a man in Timothy that Paul could trust to take the torch when he was physically unable to do anything.
Certainly could get a lot of application out of that
But notice now what Paul is going to say about Timothy in verse 20.
For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.
Philippians 2:20-
Timothy had been truly discipled by the apostle Paul. He began as a disciple in Lystra who was well-spoken of by the brother’s and sisters. But now in Timothy’s life, he was well-spoken of by one of the godliest men upon the face of the earth. What a blessing it would be to hear from someone like Paul that “I have no one like him.”
And that begs the question. How do your leaders speak of you? Of course what matters most is how the Lord speaks about us, but God has placed people in our lives to direct us in the path of godliness. And my question to you is, what would your mentors have to say about you?
Look at what Paul has to say to Timothy personally in 2 Timothy 3.
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
And multiple times throughout Paul’s other letters you see him referring to Timothy as a “fellow worker in the gospel,” Paul calls Timothy “faithful.” In , Paul says Timothy is “God’s co-worker in the gospel of Christ,” And there are plenty of other things that Paul has to say concerning this man Timothy.
When Timothy looked at Paul, he saw something that he found so worthy of following. He took the admonition of Paul seriously when Paul would say to “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”
And that right there was Timothy’s primary ambition, to be more like Christ. In everything that Timothy was and strived to be, you could sum it all up in that one statement. He wanted to know and be more like Christ.
Timothy saw Jesus
He was hungry for the Lord and saw such a Christ-like character in Paul that he was willing to spend his whole life learning from him. And that is why, in Timothy’s mind, Paul was so worthy to follow, because Paul above everything else, led Timothy to Jesus. We need more leaders in the church who aren’t going to seek after their own fame. We need leaders who will bring people to Christ.
The thing I’d like to first point out is that Paul doesn’t seek to establish Timothy’s character to the Philippian church. He simply assumes that the Philippians were already well-aware of the man that Timothy was. (2:22)
This is why Paul felt so confidently in Timothy, because he would be “genuinely concerned for the welfare” of these Philippians. He would be concerned for the same things that the Apostle Paul was, He would lead them to the Saviour.
Timothy had as long of a relationship with this church as Paul
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.
Paul knew that the Philippian church had already seen the character of Timothy and that he had been and would continue to be a benefit to the body of believers there as they sought to grow in Christ
Philippians 2:
So I don’t have all that much time left, but Paul goes on here to contrast the Character of Timothy to “them.”
So who is them?
The them is going all the way back to chapter 1:15-18 when Paul talks about those people who preach Christ from envy and rivalry, out of selfish ambition and not sincerely. These people that Paul were talking about in chapter one were not preaching Christ out of a genuine desire for people’s welfare. It was for their own selfish gain.
Paul knew that Timothy would not be coming to them with any hidden motives, He knew that Timothy was going to have pure motives and he trusted that the Philippians also felt the same way.
Paul says in verse 22 that Timothy “served” with him in the gospel. That was Timothy’s heart. He was a servant. He wasn’t doing ministry for anything he could get out of it. That has been clearly proven by the fact that Timothy was willing to go through so many hardships with Paul.
I mean you could look at all these different instances where Timothy was right there with Paul in the midst of suffering and persecution.
Timothy had passed the test of time, and the Philippians would have known this.
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.
So Paul loved the Philippians, and Timothy shared in that love and concern for them.
I love these verses because they aren’t all that Theological. There’s no major doctrines being set forth or anything like that. All Paul was doing for the most part was talking about this guy Timothy. But so often the best studies on theology aren’t those that are only intellectual. Timothy was a living theology, for he walked out the things that he believes.
So I was super encouraged by this man, and I think there is a lot to glean from him, especially for me as a younger man who desires to live a godly life.