Partners in the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I wanted to thank everyone for coming out to our Roadmap meeting yesterday. It was such a blessing to see so many people come out and show their commitment to the future of Radiance. As many of you know, there are a number of big changes coming to our church in this coming year, which many of us are probably used to by now. We may not be a lot of things as a church but one thing is we are never boring. In the nearly 10 years that I’ve been here, I’ve never been bored. And so our exciting journey continues here in 2022 and I’m confident that God will fulfill his purpose through all these transitions. I believe a large part of fulfilling our mission as a church here in San Francisco is understanding what it means to be partners in the gospel and how we are called to labor together for the kingdom. With that in mind, let’s go back to the book of Philippians and continue our study.
Text
Text
Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
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.
Body
Body
As we all know, the right leadership is critical for the longterm health and success of any organization including the church. In this passage, we see three levels of servant leadership in the early church that led to the incredible impact that it had in our world.
Paul - initiates the work of the gospel
Timothy - continues the work faithfully
Epaphroditus - completes the cycle of ministry
We know that the ministry of Paul was to break new ground in terms of reaching the Gentiles in some particularly difficult places, where preaching the gospel could be very hazardous. In fact, the city of Philippi was one of these dangerous places that God called the apostle Paul to go to
In the book of Acts, we see the trouble that Paul had with the people of this city and to say the least, it was not a good situation.
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.
At this point in the development of Christianity, it was still largely considered a subset of Judaism that advocated for practices that were contrary to Roman customs. One such custom was the worship of the emperor which was something that Jews and Christians with any sense of conviction would refuse to participate in. Clearly, judging by the reaction of the crowd, there is high degree of anti-semiticism and religious intolerance in this city. There is a reason why there was no synagogue and very few Jews to be found around this area. A lesser leader than Paul, would have left Philippi and not looked back but he knew that God had called him to serve the new believers there and to help them establish a church even in the fact of this violent opposition.
And one thing we know about Paul is that he never shied away from any danger or risk to his safety or to his health, if it meant he could better serve the family of God and he modeled this life for future Christian leaders to follow.
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
Many years ago, when I began to truly understand my calling as a pastor, these are the type of verses that the Lord convicted me of in order to be a leader that honors the Lord. I recognized that being spent for people’s souls is part of the hazards of the job and I’ve learned to gladly give all that I could. I’ve also come to believe that leaders should never be a burden to their congregations financially if at all possible because we never want to stumble people and be accused of doing the work of the gospel for financial gain. Think of how much that has destroyed the reputation of the church. This is why in the first couple of years as we started the church, I drove Lyft and Mira worked part-time at the Gap and we lived near Hunters Point. But more than just working hard or being good financial stewards, these are the types of sacrifices that a spiritual father makes for the family that he loves.
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned from Paul’s school of ministry is that being a spiritual father to the church is much harder than being a guide or a teacher and I think that is the one area that I’ve grown the most during my 10 years at Radiance. Protecting and caring for this church has been my priority these past few years and as I thought about the best interest of this family, I’ve been praying since last year about transitioning out of my role as the lead pastor. There are unforeseen situations in life, that keep you from serving and leading in the ways that you would like to. For Paul, it was being imprisoned and being unable to come and minister in person. In those circumstances, it’s a blessing to have the Timothy’s of this world to continue the work of the gospel without interruption. In our passage, Paul says four things about Timothy that qualifies him to be a minister of the gospel.
1. I have no one else like him. There is no one has qualified and no one who is like Paul to do the job.
2. Timothy is genuinely concerned about the welfare of the believers unlike so many others who may not authentically have their best interest of the church in mind. He naturally cares for people in the church and has the right disposition of a shepherd who can lead and protect the flock of God.
3. Timothy has been proven and tested over time. He is not a rookie minister though he might be young but rather he has shown himself to be faithful to the mission of Christ and to the people of God.
4. Finally, like a son with his father, Timothy has served with Paul in the work of the gospel. Timothy has shown himself to be someone who could work with the older generation of leaders and bridge this gap between two generations of Christians. Leaders get older and things happen in life and God raises Timothys to faithfully continue the work of the gospel.
And when I think of these four statements that Paul makes about Timothy, I’m grateful that we have a Timothy in our church, one who has served with me as a son serves with his father. There is no one that Mira and I trust more to take this church where it needs to go than Andy and Jane. They have proven themselves through the years, they genuinely care for the people of this church, and I know of no one else like him who understands this congregation and shares my heart for what we can become.
But as important as these first two levels might be for the church, there is a third type of leadership that is far more important. We may marvel at the level of courage and sacrifice Paul was willing to make for the sake of the gospel but what is even more amazing is the perspective that the apostle Paul had on what his sacrifices actually meant. Verse 17 summarizes the type of servant that Paul was because even as he is in jail and possibly preparing to be executed for preaching the gospel, Paul says these unimaginable words.
Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
In any religious system, the drink offering is always secondary to the main sacrifice. In the Roman world, for a meal that is offered to your god, the animal sacrifice is the primary offering and the wine that is poured on it is simply an addition. And so even as Paul is getting ready to be martyred, he’s essentially telling these believers, your unwavering faith in these difficult times is the main sacrifice to God, the greater sacrifice on which his life is simply a secondary offering. And what’s even more amazing is the fact that Paul rejoices in the opportunity to be even a secondary part of this greater offering to God.
Now before we accuse Paul of being given to superlatives and giving underserved flattery, Paul is not one to do such things. I think our PC generation is overly good at flattering each other but had no such problem. His evaluation of the believers in this church is well deserved. Consider some of these verses that describes this congregation at Philippi.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
And what we read is that this help isn’t just financial or in prayer but it also comes in the person of Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus is one of the lay leaders raised in the church of Philippi. Probably a local convert who matured and grew in the church and became a beloved representative of the church. And of all the people that Paul mentions in his letters, there is no one that seems to get as much attention and honor as this man for obvious reasons. Just as Paul risked his life to minister to the believers in the Philippian church, Epaphroditus returned that love by risking his life to minister to his friend and pastor in his great time of need. In jail and obviously needing some care, the Philippian church sent their own to minister to Paul and to care for him. In a time when travel was dangerous and bad for your health, it seems that Epaphroditus got deathly sick, almost to the point of dying just so that he could go and serve Paul in prison. It’s really remarkable the type of love that the early Christians shared with one another. Though they were spread out through the Middle East and Europe, though they probably only saw each other for a couple of months, every few years, they loved each deeply and were willing to pay the highest price to serve one another.
For these reasons Paul describes his relationship with Epaphroditus in 5 terms that define what a mature Christian relationships in the church.
1. Brother or Sister
2. Coworkers for Christ
3. Fellow Soldiers
4. Messenger
5. Minister
Conclusion
The last two statements give a window into Paul’s view of ministry. Just as Paul was a messenger and minister to the people in the church, here were times, probably many times when he needed a message from the church and to have his wounds ministered to from those in the church. Men and women like Epaphroditus completes this cycle of ministry because true ministry cannot just flow in one direction. We are all called to be what Henri Nouwen describes as wounded healers. And I say this completes the cycle of ministry because any church than can call itself mature has to be able to grow these level of believers in house. You do realize that the early church didn’t just go out and hire staff, God raised these leaders from their own churches. (Be careful for paying for ministry, because the ministry of God cannot be bought with any amount of money. Paying for ministry gives the illusion that the person you hire is some expert of sorts who has his life together. People who generally go into ministry are deeply broken people).
Ministry was never to be uni-directional. I help you but I don’t need any of your help. It has been said that trust is built up more when you ask for help as opposed to when just give help. Why? It shows vulnerability. When people give the illusion that they are invulnerable and that everything is perfect in their lives, that is an immediate obstacle to trust. In contrast, those who show their weaknesses allow those around them to put down their guard and interact more honestly. Even Jesus did that well, asking his disciples to pray for him and openly weeping before them. Henry Cloud points out that in God’s design of man, He created tears to come out of our eyes so that others could look into our eyes and be drawn into deeper, more trusting relationships. Madeleine L’Engle likewise writes, “When we were children, we used to think that we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability…To be alive is to be vulnerable.”