[Generated Transcript]

As we come to Philippians 2, we’ll be reading from verses 19 to the end of the chapter, verse 30. As we’ve been going through Philippians What I’ve been trying to show is Paul kind of has three things he’s trying to apply to the church, and he does it over and over and over again.

And what he’s trying to communicate is how are they going to grow like Christ in the midst of opposition. And so he first touched on their humility. How are they striving for unity? By thinking of others more than themselves, by humbling their own hearts.

And then he talks about, well, how do you strive for obedience to Christ in the midst of persecution? How do you submit to what God has given you and suffer through that without grumbling, without disputing? What does godly obedience look like in persecution?

And now we’re not going to go to the third thing. He takes a little digression, and he gives two examples. He gives two examples of what he’s just talked about, and they actually will then serve as a bridge to what he’s going to talk about in his last point.

But you’ll see this because he introduces two people, first Timothy and then Epaphroditus. And if you read Paul’s letters, you’ll be used to him introducing people, but it’s almost always at the end of a letter, because he’s trying to make connections with people. Here, it’s right in the middle of his letter. So why is he doing this? It’s because these are people who serve as examples of what he’s just talked about to the church. And he says, you’re going to need to see them, because in seeing them, you’re going to see something about Christ that you really need to get into your heart, get into your mind. That’s what we’re going to read about here. Let me start in verse 19. This is God’s holy word.

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, 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. It’s the end of God’s Word.

As we see these two examples, what I want us to see is a heart and a mind that is set on Christ. In this day and age, you hear in Christian circles a lot of talk about being Christ-centered. And everyone wants to be Christ-centered. Every book wants to be Christ-centered. And every talk wants to be, how do we center this on Christ? And how do we center that on Christ?

This is Paul’s section on, let me show you people who are Christ-centered. I find often I’ll hear people talk about being Christ-centered. And it’s just, how do I connect what I was already going to do with a Christian thing? But I think as we look at these people, we’ll see lives who are dedicated and consumed by the person of Christ. And what we see as we examine their mind, their heart, is that we see that to have the heart of Christ, to be Christ-centered, is to have a heart that’s completely pursuing Christ. It’s for Christ. And I’ll get to that at the end. I’m going to split it up, just looking first at Timothy and Epaphroditus, and then draw out a few things from what we see. So as we turn to Timothy in verse 19, I want us to see the heart of Timothy.

Do you see what draws, what’s so special about him? Paul has such pride in this man. And what does he bring out about him? He says, he’s genuinely concerned for your welfare. This is the pride that he has in Timothy. He’s not thinking of himself, but he’s thinking of them. And then he says it another way, but he goes even deeper. Well, what separates him from other people? Well, they all seek their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ. Timothy has a heart that’s completely devoted for Christ. He puts Christ’s interests before his own. And because of that, he puts other people’s interests before his own.

Have you ever met someone who just characterizes this? where you talk with them and they’re not trying to just insert a story about their own life. You actually share something and you see, oh, you want to know more about me. You’re not just trying to share about yourself. You’re not just trying to pass the time. But you really care about something that hurt me. Or you’re really rejoicing with me when something good happened to me. I feel like I get glimpses of that, right, where you see, oh, there’s something completely different about this person. They’re oriented outward.

Now, the language that Paul uses is actually drawing from what he’s talked about before. having the same mind, having the same love. Because when Paul used that word, the same mind, it’s the same word that is translated in verse 20, I have no one like him. I have no one of the same mind as him. What does Timothy do? What is his mind?

It’s humility that counts others as more significant than himself. It’s the thing that he then drew out about Christ when he saw, well, he didn’t consider inequality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. So all of those things that we’ve covered the last few weeks, Paul then is saying, well, actually, this is a person who resembles that. He has done that himself. You talk with him, and he actually cares more about you than about himself. He cares more about you than telling you about himself. Timothy, Paul says, is like a son working with a father. Verse 22, you know Timothy’s proven worth.

How as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. What is Paul trying to draw out from that? Some of us may have young children and you think, so they need to be told a few times what to do? That’s not what Paul’s getting at. Look at the other side of your child where you’re working on something with him and you realize, oh, he’s just listening to what I’m saying.

He’s joining me in this work because he’s invested in me as a father. He wants to join me in what I’m doing. I’ll be doing some house project at home, plumbing or something like that. And my two oldest boys, and now my youngest too, he’s only a year and a half, but he wants to get in on everything.

They just come down, can we help you, dad? Can we do that? They’re not trying to get some other end to it. They’re not trying to have their own agenda. It’s not like an employee where you’re trying to figure out, well, our goals cohere for now, but at some point, he’s going to want to start his own business, or he’s going to want to do his own thing. Well, as a son working with his father, he just wants to join in his father’s work. I want to see what you’re doing and how can I help you? Can I hold this wrench? Can I turn that? Can I try this? What’s going to be helpful to you?

Paul describes Timothy in that way. As a son with a father, he served. He wasn’t trying to get something for himself. He wasn’t trying to… He served. He was a servant. The same way that Christ was a servant for his father. He’s drawing these parallels to see, oh, this is the sort of characteristic that the mind that Paul had. The same mind that he pointed at with Christ. Timothy characterizes this mind.

And then he goes on in verse 25 to see, sorry, before I get to that, I want to point out one more thing. Paul values this so much in two things. At the beginning of verse 19, he says, I hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you soon. Well, why is he not sending Timothy right now? You get to the end in verse 23. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. Paul says, you need to see this man, but he’s so valuable to me, I can’t give him up yet.

We know that Paul’s in some great difficulty. He’s contemplating what would be better for me, life or death. There’s probably some trial right on the horizon. And he says, I need Timothy to help get me through that. That’s how much Paul values this sort of mindset. I know that he really cares about me. I know he’s not thinking about himself. And so in my great trial that I’m about to go through, I need a friend like that. So much so that I know he would help you, but I need him here for a little longer. And then as soon as I can release him, I’m going to send him to you.

That’s how valuable that mind is. The humility, the esteeming others more significant than yourself. Do you see how valuable that is to Paul? And how valuable it is when you’ve seen that in your own life, when you’ve met someone like that? Okay, if we turn to Epaphroditus, I want you to see his spirit. He says, Paul says, 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.

Do you see how he just piles on all of these titles? He has all of these praises to give him. Look, I am Paul, I’m an apostle of Christ. I’ve been doing church planting for a long time, but let me tell you all the good things about Epaphroditus. He’s a fellow worker. More than that, he’s a fellow soldier with me. He’s walking right side by side with me.

Now, Epaphroditus was sent by the Philippian church to him to help him out, which means that he doesn’t have the length of time with Timothy. Timothy traveled with Paul. Paul got to know him over a long period of time. Epaphroditus is a meeting. For some, there was some briefer period of time he got to know him, but look at how highly he esteems Epaphroditus.

Something really stands out as this guy is valuable. He’s a fellow worker. He’s a fellow soldier. We are side by side in the work of the ministry. And then here’s how valuable he is to you. He’s your messenger. You might have a footnote there. What they translate as messengers is underneath that the same word that is used for apostle. It’s someone that they sent with a mission to complete their work for them of ministry. He’s doing your work for you at a distance. And he’s been a minister to me of my need. Paul values this man, even though he’s only known him for a shorter amount of time, because of something in Epaphroditus. I’m wetting your appetite.

What does he get to? He says that, first, Epaphroditus has been longing for them, and he wants to go back, because he’s distressed about them. But what is he distressed about? He’s distressed because they heard that he was ill. So in Epaphroditus’ ministry, as he’s going to serve Paul, there was some great sickness that he had. That actually, it says, he was near to death. Verse 27. Indeed, he was ill. He was near to death.

But what is Epaphroditus’ mindset in all of that? I need to get back home so I can get healed? No, I need to get back home because they’re worried that I might have died. Isn’t that a strange thing? This man just died, but he’s worried because they are worried about him dying. That’s more of his concern. Indeed, he was ill near to death. What does Paul see in that? He sees a spirit. He was willing to reach the point of death and still his concern is for the church. Well, what are they gonna think? Are they gonna be burdened by this? I should get back and help them now too.

He’s just run to get Paul and it’ll say at the end, he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Epaphroditus is heading out on a mission from Philippi to do a certain work And he almost dies doing that work. And then his thought coming out of that is, I gotta rush back the other way, because they need to be comforted over there.

Now, we don’t get a lot about what was the sickness, but I think there’s a detail that’s important. In verse 30, it says, he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. There’s something of volition in that. He didn’t just go on a trip and then he got sick.

And Paul said, well, he almost died for this work. But there was some sort of choice that Epaphroditus made that warrants the phrase, he risked his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Now, we might think of going on a mission trip. We’re going to go and encourage these missionaries.

It’s not that. Maybe you get sick there, and maybe something really bad happens to you or one of your kids, and there’s always that risk when you’re traveling. But what’s here seems to be something stronger. It’s almost like he had a point where he saw, this could get worse.

I am risking my life, and he chose to do it anyway. Do you see that? That was his spirit. the spirit of Epaphroditus. What was he risking his life for? He was risking his life to complete the work that the church had started. Do you see that? So, the church at Philippi had this great heart.

We want to serve Paul. We want to help him in his… We have money to give maybe. We want to encourage him in his ministry. They can’t do that unless if someone actually went there and brought that ministry, brought that money. And so Epaphroditus says, I’ll do that. And then somewhere along that journey, there was some point where he realized, oh, this may cost me my life to finish that work. So imagine you send a team out to go and encourage one of your missionaries.

They really have a downtime. And then they get on the plane. They get really sick. And they still have somewhere to go. And they think, I might die on this trip. Do I get a plane back, or do I keep going? And your team says, oh, we’re going to keep going. Now, you might hear that story and think, that’s the wrong decision, right? We’ll go visit him another time. Whether that’s the right or wrong decision for you guys, I don’t know.

But Epaphroditus reached a certain point in his trip where he said, for me to complete this work, it may cost me my life. And I’m willing to do that. He’s not just risking his life to save someone else’s life. He’s saying, okay, the work of Christ’s church to do this service to Paul is worth more than my life. Isn’t that amazing?

That’s the spirit that Epaphroditus has. And then after doing this work, that he did well apparently, he then turns around and says, now I gotta rush back to Philippi because they are distressed too. There’s a spirit in Epaphroditus that, like Timothy, is seeing others as more significant than himself. But something slightly different is he’s seeing the work of Christ as more significant than himself. He’s willing to give up his own life because he says, this, this is really valuable. this work that the Church of Philippi is doing, this work that Paul is doing that I’m going to be able to encourage him in, this is really valuable. So valuable it’s worth risking my life over. That’s the spirit of Epaphroditus. And so we see the heart of Timothy, the mind of Timothy, and then Epaphroditus’ spirit, and both of them come together as they see something is more important than themselves. Something is worth more than their own life and their own interests.

Now, I want to draw out three things in a longer sort of application section. The first thing is, I want you to see the simplicity of this. I’m sure as you’re thinking, you’re trying to think of good examples, and hopefully you have some good examples of it. Do you see that what Paul brings out as really standing out to him is a really simple thing? What was different about Timothy? What stands out about Timothy?

He seeks others’ interests, and that’s it. It has all of these implications and all these effects throughout Paul’s ministry, but he points to just one thing. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” That’s the one thing that he sees as different. That’s the one thing that really matters.

But it goes even deeper. You know Timothy’s proven, oh sorry, they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. So what is really different about Timothy? It’s not just that he cares about others and asks good questions in a secular sort of way. The reason he does that is because he actually cares about Christ. he has a heart for Christ. And he says, OK, the glory and work of Christ, the interests of Christ, are actually more important than my own.

Now, I’m sure we’ve all come to that spot, if we’re believers, where we’ve come to Christ and seen, wow, I’m nothing. Christ is everything for me. and then slowly our own interests start to interject themselves, right? Oh, I can serve Christ and get these things that I’m hoping for. And I know that it’s confusing in this situation, but because sometimes our interests do align. But then look for those moments in your life where you realize, oh, this is gonna cost me something. Am I gonna pick my own interests or try and find a compromise? Or are my interests for Christ?

And Paul says what separates Timothy is he seeks Christ’s interests, not his own. And when you talk to him, you know it because he seeks your interests, right? It’s just something really simple, a really simple difference. But Paul says this makes all the difference for him. This is why he needs him here with Paul through this trial. What about Epaphroditus? Epaphroditus has all of this praise he pepped on him. You can see almost the glory that would be praised on Epaphroditus.

Oh, you almost died in your mission work. You almost died serving someone. You were the one who volunteered to go and take our trip to go and do this. But Paul is pointing at that to point at something in his heart. What’s the spirit? It’s really simple. Well, he valued Christ more than his own life. He says, oh, the glory of Christ and the work of Christ’s church is more important than my own life. Epaphroditus would have had the same thing if that opportunity had never come. That’s just his heart. You don’t need to do it, but you need to have a heart that’s willing to do it. Do you see?

It’s just that small difference that Paul says this is what’s so valuable about him. Because he valued the work of Christ. In whatever role that you have, a big role in the church or a small role in the church, Are you valuing the work of Christ? Are you valuing it more than your own work? Are you valuing it more than…

Because what Paul is saying is, this is the right way to view things. This isn’t a sermon telling you what to do. You need to do what Epaphroditus did. He’s not criticizing anyone in Philippi. They may have the exact same heart, the same spirit. He just had the opportunity to show it.

And what Christ is valuing is do you have that heart of service? And he sees that in the Philippi church, but he says this is what exemplified it. So what Paul values are simple things. What do you value about Christ? How do you value that in relation to yourself? Even the things that you truly value about your life. The second thing is the scarcity. Paul says in verse 20 about Timothy, I have no one like him.

Doesn’t that, did that strike you when I read it? When I was reading that passage? Something stands out about Timothy and Paul has this whole band of missionaries. And they’re doing work and he’s gonna praise them in this letter and other letters. And yet he says, I have no one like Timothy.

And then points to a really simple thing. Who’ll be genuinely concerned for your welfare. That has just struck me for a few years now, just that one phrase. What seems to us is a really simple thing, to care for someone else more than us, and how scarce it is, how scarce it was for Paul, right? I have no one like him, who actually does this.

And I look at my own heart and think, that’s true for me. I have moments where it’s like, ah, I did well then, I think in that conversation I was caring about them. But would I describe the course of my life as genuinely concerned for others’ welfare? No, I think I make vacations there. I make a quick trip over there and then settle back at home.

How scarce that is. And Paul recognizes that, and he says, this is unique, Timothy’s mind. The same mind that Christ had, but even in the church, to have it to the extent that Timothy has it, is unique. May this not be unique among us. May we strive to just have that simple change, right? And to value that in other people. is that thing you value. Oh, they actually care about other people. That’s the thing that stands out about somebody.

Epaphroditus, it’s not mentioned, but I think you see how rare that is. If the elders came up after service and said, okay, we have some missionaries that need encouragement. There’s like a 30% chance you’ll die. Who’s willing to go? I doubt there’d be a few hands raised, right? Epaphroditus was willing to risk his life. He didn’t value his life as much as he valued the work of Christ. That’s the spirit of Epaphroditus.

And I think we often think of risk and we think of, okay, well I’m willing to go as long as there’s a certain level of sort of this guarantee. And then there’s a certain risk that you’re then not willing to take. Now, what I’m not saying is you should go and risk your life at any opportunity.

Because there’s all these other obligations God has given you to value. You’re raising kids, you’re taking care of family, you’re supporting your wife. You have obligations that God has given you. But what is the thing motivating you to not go somewhere? To not risk your life? What is the thing? Is it because, well, I do value Christ’s word, or my life more than that? How do you value your life? I don’t think it takes much to convince us that this is scarce. But it is hard to see. It’s hard to really know someone’s heart, isn’t it?

Because we read stories of missionaries who went out and they were willing to die and they did martyrdoms, but you don’t know the reason that they did that. We also have stories of missionaries who did great work and abandoned their families at home. Who did great work and then fell into apostasy.

And so the fact that you go and do something that risks your life is not what Paul’s getting at. But what Paul is bringing out is he loved the church and the work of Christ’s church, the work that Christ was doing in the world more than his own life. That could have been true for others in Philippi as well, even though they didn’t go in the rest of their lives.

And Paul says that’s just as praiseworthy. But see how it’s exemplified in Epaphroditus. Now, I talked before about, look how much Paul values Timothy in his work. Now, look how valuable he views the scarcity. He’s going to send these people to Philippi because he says, it’s one thing to talk about it. It’s one thing to be able to point at an example. You need to see these people face to face. OK? He’s going to send Timothy when he really needs him and say, this is scarce, but you need to see him in the flesh. You need to talk to a guy who really cares about your life, who really cares about Christ’s interests. You need to talk to Epaphroditus and understand his mindset.

Why would he press on in that trip when he knew it may cost him his life? What was his value of the work that you had sent him on? And maybe some in the church would grow and see, wow, I gave a few hundred dollars to that. But when that guy came back and I talked to him and saw how much he valued it, I realized, wow, that was way more important than I thought. That work that we did had real impact.

When you see someone and you actually meet them and talk to them and you see a life that is lived that way, it’s infectious. You see, oh, that’s what a heart that’s transformed by Christ is. And so it’s scarce, but when you see it, you need to grab onto it. When you see someone that exemplifies this, grab onto them.

Dig into their mind, dig into their heart and spirit, and see, well, how do I see Christ the same way as you? How do I make decisions the way that you make decisions? Because Paul’s willing to send both these people all the way back. He says, you don’t just need to hear about what they’ve done. Hear about their heart. You need to experience it. You need to see it. So the application from knowing it’s scarce is not to be depressed with yourself. Here’s where I don’t measure up.

It’s that when you see it, run after it. Grab onto that person. Chase after them. And try and learn as much as you can from that person, okay? You know it’s scarce and if you let it slip through your fingers, you don’t know when you’re going to see it again. Okay? It’s scarce.

It’s worth a thousand plus mile journey for Timothy to go over there and see the Philippian church. And for Paul to send him there and say, I just want you to experience this man and see a heart that’s transformed. Someone who has the same mind as Christ. And that’s the third point where I want to end, is seeing what is so unique is not looking at Timothy and saying, I want to be like Timothy. But you’re seeing someone who’s transformed by Christ.

It says, I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. Well, we all want to care for others more than ourselves. But how does he get there? Because they all seek their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ. Timothy cares about Christ’s interests.

He’s seen who Christ is, and he realizes how valuable he is. But also, the language that Paul is using and the things that he’s writing are all things that are coming out of the Christ hymn, when it says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. So when he says, have the same mind, I have no one like him. Well, the same mind is the mind of Christ. Timothy has taken on the Christ in him and says, I want to be like Christ.

Because when you see Christ, the only way he has brought salvation to the world, the only way that he continues to work is because he was willing to submit to the Father, right? Because he valued the concerns of others more than himself. He, though he was in charge of everything and could command anything he wanted, he became obedient to his Father and served his Father’s interests. So to have a heart, the heart of Christ, for us, is to have a heart for Christ.

Do you want to have the same heart that Christ has? Well, how are you pursuing Christ’s interests? like Timothy, do you have that same mindset which says, okay, my interests are not worth what I often value them as. How do I pursue someone else’s interests because that’s of real value? How do I pursue Christ’s interests? That’s what’s really important. We see it first in Christ because he came to earth and said, how do I pursue the Father’s interests? How do I look to him?

You see the same thing with Epaphroditus. It says that he nearly died for the work of Christ, but you may have a footnote in your Bible and it says, he drew near to the point of death for the work of Christ. It’s drawing that phrase exactly from what he described about Christ versus before.

He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And says, well, Epaphroditus lived that out. He cared so much for Christ and the work of Christ that he also was willing to do the work of God to the point of death. But God had mercy on him and saved him. Christ was willing to do the work of God to the point of actually dying. And so Epaphroditus is looking to Christ and saying, if this work is God’s work, Christ was willing to die for it. And so I’m willing to die for this too. And he risked his life to complete Christ’s work for the church.

Do you see that? They’re not just looking and seeing it in like a legalistic way of, well, we’re supposed to be willing to give up our life, so we’re going to go and do that. Or we’re supposed to think of others, so I’ll ask more questions. But they’re both looking at Christ and saying, how do I have the mind of Christ? And then it just comes out in their life.

This makes sense because I know who Christ is. This is the heart of Christ. This is the thing that I wrestled with in going through the Christ hymn of, it just doesn’t make sense to us, right? That the Son of God, with all power and authority, would have a humble heart, would have a heart of obedience and submission and care more for others than himself, when he deserves all glory and honor. That’s the heart of Christ. And how much more is this the heart of, or how much more should it be the heart of us when we actually don’t have power and authority and glory?

He does. We should be looking to Christ’s interests. The concern for others in Timothy becomes because he’s concerned for Christ. The reason Epaphroditus was willing to give up his life to complete a task from the church was because he saw it as Christ’s work. And he said, Christ’s work is worth giving up my life for. We should value the work of Christ to that extent. Do you see how valuable Christ is?

Again, this is not to bring condemnation or conviction, but say, look around you. Where do you see it? Where can you grow to see it? Find those people. Ask someone out to lunch this week. Talk to them after church. Set up some meetings. Where do you see it, and how do you grow into this?

This is how we need to see Christ. Because Christ is this valuable. The only way we are freed from our sins is because this is Christ’s heart. And this is what he’s welcomed us into. Let’s praise God for that. Let’s come to him in prayer. Lord, how big and magnificent is your heart.

When we were sinners, Christ died for us. When the Jews were sinners, he pursued them on earth. And he received mocking and shame and insults. But he loved them and pursued them. When we were sinners, he pursued us. And he gave his life as a ransom for many. He valued the work of God in the gospel more than his own life.

We pray that, first of all, we would grow in appreciating that, in meditating on that truth. And would you conform our heart to the heart of Christ? Would we not be looking to our own interests, but looking to the welfare of others? That we wouldn’t be seeking our own interests, but seeking that of Christ, and even to the extent of not valuing our own lives more than we value Christ, Christ’s life, Christ’s work. Pray that you would enlighten our mind to know how this applies to us and to see your truth, not just in a way of doing more, but would you change our mindset to see Christ correctly? because he is worthy of all praise and glory. When we say that, help us to know it and to feel it. We pray this in Christ’s name, amen.