Philippians 2:19-30

Intro

Coco illustration?

Sending of Timothy and Epaphroditus

This was in order to serve the Philippian church

Both men marked by a genuine concern for the church above their own interests.

As Christians, our top priorities should be for the good of the church and not the self.

We are naturally committed to our own desires

Philippians 2:21 ESV

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

In fact, this has been a common theme throughout human history

Judges 21:25 ESV

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And we see how this selfishness in priorities affects the way we view church

2 Timothy 4:3–4 ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

People don’t want someone to tell them the truth anymore, they just want their ears tickled.

And doesn’t that show even in the way we consume news? If someone is a conservative, they watch Fox News. If someone is a liberal, they watch CNN. Neither of them watch for truth, they watch so that someone will tell them what they want to hear. And it makes sense, because this is the type of behavior that makes those networks a lot of money, but

A good pastor will never cave into that. Many pastors will cave because its the road to fame and success, but never trust someone who exclusively tells you what you want to hear.

We have a messed up view of what it means to care about someone: we think someone cares when they support all of our decisions no matter what, but that person cares more about themselves and how they are viewed than about your wellbeing. Someone who truly cares about you more than themselves will disagree with you and challenge you when you’re slipping up.

Timothy cares too much about the people to just tell them what they want to hear, and so Paul wants Timothy to go to them.

What could be said of you? Do you care about people more than yourself? Are you willing to sacrifice your own time, health, resources and comfort to care for others, even if it means things have to get a little awkward?

Not enough of us are willing to do these things because most of us are too preoccupied with ourselves; our time is our own and we like it that way. It shouldn't be so.

We Ought To Be People Committed To The Church

Philippians 2:20 ESV

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

Philippians 2:25–27 ESV

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.

Epaphroditus almost died on a missionary journey to assist Paul in prison, and he was more concerned about his home church than his own health!

And when God saved Epaphroditus from his illness, Paul considered that an answered prayer for Epaphroditus but also for himself because of how deeply Paul cared for him

Philippians 2:27 ESV

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.

Paul also had an incredibly close relationship with Timothy, calling Timothy his son

Philippians 2:22 ESV

But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

This shows the types of relationships fostered in the church. These aren’t men that are related by family trees, these aren’t men who grew up together or were even born near each other geographically, but these are men who were committed to each other and brought together by the blood of Christ. They fought for these relationships and they treasured them. They cared about each other and considered the other more significant than themselves.

This is a picture of where our priorities should be and what is possible when we are genuinely concerned for one another.

But it isn’t just that These men were committed to the church. Beyond that they were committed to Jesus

We Ought To Be People Committed To Jesus

Philippians 2:30 ESV

for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

And it is our commitment to Jesus above everything else that will cause us to be committed to the church.

You cannot separate the two, if one is committed to Christ one MUST be committed to the church.

1 John 2:9–10 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

Seeking the interests of Jesus Christ IS being genuinely concerned with the other members of the church

Philippians 2:20–21 ESV

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.

So you can’t say “I want a relationship with Jesus, not the church.” It doesn’t work that way! If you want to follow Christ and obey him, you will love the church because the church are his body, his chosen people that he sacrificed his own life for.

Christ’s sacrifice shows us the perfect example of this: willing to forfeit even his own life for the good of the church and the glory of God.

If an innocent man found pleasure in giving his life for the sake of vile sinners, how much more should we, who forfeited our lives in sin, be willing to use the gift of new life for the sake of God and his church?

We shouldn’t even have a life to offer in the first place, but Christ has given us a new life so that we can lay it down for one another, following in his footsteps.

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

If we want to be committed to Jesus, we have to be committed to the church. We need to break away from our self-centeredness and fight to prioritize others, showing genuine concern for all of them.

AND we need to honor those that do this well.

Philippians 2:29 ESV

So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men,

People to honor: John Paton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Andrew Brunson, Corrie Ten Boom, the kid that got made fun of for doing the right thing, and many many others who remain unnamed because their sacrifices have gone unappreciated. (Jesus!)

To be genuinely concerned for Jesus and for his church is going to call for a complete re-haul in how we approach life. This is going to be more than just lip-service, this is going to be sacrifice and reprioritizing everything.

This is a big call, but it’s one that is within our grasp when we rely on Jesus to give us strength. We need to ask God to change our hearts and our desires. We need to ask God to change us from De La Cruz to Hector. We need to ask God to change us from those who do what is right in our own eyes to those who do what is right in God’s eyes.

This is going to call us to action and change. This is going to call for us to give up little comforts and hobbies. This is going to call us to give up our free time sometimes. This is going to call us to rewire our brains and one day, it might call us to sacrifice everything for another. Paul was willing to do that, Epaphroditus was willing to do that, Jesus did that; will you?