Phil 2: 17 –30 Communion
Intro: Philippians is the epistle of Joy – Paul has been
talking about having Joy even in the mist of trials ( He is currently in
prison)
A)SINGLE MIND – For me to live is Christ - Thinking of Christ
SUBMITTED MIND – Let this mind be in you – Thinking like Christ
B) Now as Paul was sitting in his Prison cell in Rome – he knew that there was a potential that he would be executed
1)
And in v.17 He makes
an interesting statement concerning his life – pick up there tonight – look at
in light of Communion
17 Yes, and if (SINCE) I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service
of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same reason you
also be glad and rejoice with me.
C) Paul says I am being poured out as a drink offering – that is how he viewed his life – as a Sacrifice to be poured out by the Lord
1)
great perspective – Before a service w/ the Worship
team –Lord pour us out as an offering to you –
bless your People
Now in order to be constantly being Poured out – you have
to be being filled – Our goal in life – Continually filled by the HS / then
Poured out
A)That
was Paul’s perspective – Great way to live – We come here tonight and Poured
out in Worship as an offering of Praise
B)
And as we are being poured out – we ask the Lord to fill us afresh w/ His Holy
Spirit !!!
1)
So tomorrow as we go
to School & as we go to work – we Pray again Lord
let me be poured out for you today { to be a Blessing for others
C) Now what comes out is determined by what is being put in !!!!
1) Someone comes to my house for dinner & they want some Sun Tea / but there is nothing in the Jar { DISAPPOINTED
2)
OLD &
STALE – GROSSED OUT
D) Paul was filling his life w/ the Lord & the things of
the Lord – and the Result – Jesus was flowing out of Paul
2 Cor. 2: 14 Now thanks be to God who always leads
us in triumph in Christ,& through us diffuses the fragrance of His
knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among
those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we
are the aroma of death leading to death,& to the other the aroma of life
leading to life.
E) Aroma of life to those who believe – Blessing to them – Aroma of death
to those who reject – Convicting them on their Sin
So what is being put in determines what is coming out the
kind of offering your life is going to resemble
A)So if you are pouring into your life/ TV movies / Soaps / Mags / that is what come out
B) If I am filling my mind with strictly worldly info – that is going to be what is coming out of my life –
1) Paul said WE ARE THE FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST – what fragrance would
mark your life ? –
C)
So Paul viewed His life as
an offering - A continual Sacrifice
D)
And when we consider what Jesus did for us as the Ultimate Drink offering who
was poured out for us
1)
Who was emptied of His
glory & Power in becoming a Man – Brutal beating where He shed His perfect
sinless blood
E)
When the Spear pierced His heart – Mixture of Blood & water came out –
signifying that He died of a Broken heart –
1)
When we consider what
He did for us – that He was the Ultimate Sacrifice – Is
there anything less that we can do for Him ?
Now Paul closes this Chapter by mentioning two men who were
examples of such a Sacrificial life – Timothy & Ephaphroditus
A)What he shares about them gives us insight into ministry ! First lets consider Timothy – Read v. 19-24
B) Paul met Timothy in Derbe on his first missionary Journey – it was at that time that Timothy was Probably converted
1)
By the time that Paul
returned there on his 2nd Missionary Journey Timothy had grown so
much in the Lord { Paul asked him to come along
C)
Paul took this young man under his wing – MENTOR – or a Discipler
1)
Paul tells us several
commendable things here about Timothy –
1st that He
was Likeminded :
20For I have no one like-minded, who will
sincerely care for your state
A)Paul
gives Timothy the highest Possible Compliment here – that he was likeminded
B)
Paul was concerned about the church at Philippi and wanted to send someone to
convey that same concern
C)
Now There were certainly hundreds of Christians in Rome (Paul greets twenty-six
of them by name in Rom. 16);
1) yet No one that Paul felt was like-Minded
D)
Timothy thought like Paul – approached life the same way that Paul did
1)
Paul said that his
life was all about Christ – for me to live is
Christ that is how Timothy
viewed life as well
E)
Thinking of Christ and Thinking like Christ {His Concern was the cause of
Christ & the People of God !!!!
Paul said of Timothy that he would sincerely Care for their
souls –
A)Sincere in his concern & affection – Sincerity = W/out Wax – He wasn’t a Phony{ I was just thinking about you{ No you weren’t
B)
He was not interested in “winning friends and
influencing people”; he was genuinely interested in their physical and
spiritual welfare.
1) He wanted to make sure that the sheep
were being taken care of
2nd He was Selfless 21For all seek their own, not the
things which are of Christ Jesus.
A) We have noted already in Ch.1 how there were Divisive factions in the Church at Rome – Men serving from Selfish ambition
B) This is one of the tragedies of the Modern church /There are so many
people who just want to argue & debate
1)
Some do it so much
that they divert time, energy, and concern away from the things that matter
most.
2) Endless
Disputes – { Steve Shine { No bearing on Salvation
D)
Timothy was not interested in promoting any party or supporting any divisive
cause.
1)
He was interested only
in the spiritual condition of God’s people,- He wanted to give them Christ
3rd He was a Man of Proven Character 22But you know his
proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the
gospel.
A)Note this Paul doesn’t say that Timothy was a Proven teacher / or a Proven Counselor / Proven Evangelist/ Proven Character
C) D. L. Moody once said that character was "what
a man is in the dark";
D)
Character reveals
Itself in the hidden things of everyday life as well as the
dramatic things of public ministry
Phillips Brooks
gave the Yale Lectures in 1876‑77, and in them he defined preparation for
ministry as "nothing less than the making of a man."
A)He
said: we
may have talent, training, experience, reputation, and personality, but if we
don’t have character we don’t
have anything, for the foundation for ministry is character.
B)
Robert Murray M'Cheyne wrote to his missionary friend Daniel Edwards in 1840: It is not great talents God blesses so much as great
likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is
an awful weapon in the hand of God.'
C) You know sometimes we place a whole lot of Importance of Achievement & Numbers / amount of ministry someone is involved w/
1) Character is way more important than all of that
D) It has been said that if your branches go out farther than your roots go deep you are going to topple over
1) depth is where Character is produced - Not in how busy you are that matters but how deep
E) Timothy had a depth in his life w/ Christ that resulted in his having a Proven Character
Result he was blessed 23Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how
it goes with me. 24But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also
come shortly.
A)What a Blessing that Timothy was looked at as the Replacement for the Apostle Paul- Paul’s Substitute {Pastor Chuck – Fill in for me
B) When Paul sends Timothy, he sends his best, a man who showed a pastor’s
heart, that has greater concern for his sheep than himself.
Next Ephaphroditus – Note 3 things
1st He was a balanced Christian (v. 25). Paul refers to Ephapoditus in 3 ways
25Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus,
my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one
who ministered to my need;
A)Paul calls Ephaphoditus. “My brother, and FELLOW WORKER , and fellow-soldier.”
B) My brother speaks of the sweet bond of fellowship that they shared
1)
Ephaphoditus was not
just there to serve w/ Paul – but he was his friend / there was a Bond – a
sweet communion they shared
C)
Fellow Worker – speaks of the fact that they were serving the Lord together – Paul
didn’t view himself as higher than Ephaphoditus
1)
They were serving
together { They were a team – Huge blessing to have in ministry. Team mentality
– we are doing this together !!
D)
Fellow Solider – Paul had in Ephaphoditus. Someone that he could
count on to hold up his arms in the battle
1) Someone that he knew was going to be by his side - I knew that you
would come
The fact that Paul referred to Ephaphoditus in these 3 ways
speaks of the Balance he had in his life
A)Balance is
important in the Christian life. Some people emphasize “fellowship” so much
that they forget the furtherance of the Gospel.
B)Some
Churches don’t see beyond their own four walls –
1) Others are so involved in defending the “faith of
the Gospel” that they neglect building fellowship with other believers.
C) There is plenty of Evangelism going on but no
building up of the body 1)
Epaphroditus did not fall into either of these traps. He was like Neh. who
rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem w/ a sword in one hand & a trowel in the
other D)You cannot build with a sword nor
battle with a trowel! It takes both to get the Lord’s work accomplished.
1) There are those who like to serve but they don’t like to fellowship
They don’t like to be taught/ they like to teach – Bob H
E) Ephaphoditus. Was balanced -
2nd He was a burdened Christian (vv. 26-27, 30).
26since he was longing
for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27For
indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on
him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 30because
for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to
supply what was lacking in your service toward me.
A)Longed for them = Earnestly desired to see them – Distressed = full of heaviness – { They heard he was sick -
B)
Like Timothy, Epaphroditus was concerned about others. To begin with, he was
concerned about Paul.
1)When
he heard that Paul was a prisoner in Rome, he volunteered to make that long,
dangerous trip to Rome to be at Paul’s side to assist him.
C)
He carried the church’s love gift with him, protecting it with his own life.
1)
He did it all coming
close to death – not regarding his own life
The
ancient Greek phrase not regarding his life
uses a gambler’s word that meant to risk everything on
the roll of the dice. Paul says
that for the sake of Jesus Christ, Epaphroditus was willing to gamble
everything.
D)In
the days of the Early Church there was an association of men and women who
called themselves the gamblers, taken
from this same ancient Greek word.
It was their aim to visit the prisoners and the sick,
especially those who were ill with dangerous and infectious diseases.
A)Often,
when plague struck a city, the heathen threw the dead bodies into the streets
and fled in terror.
B)
But the gamblers buried the dead and
helped the sick the best they could, and so risked their lives to show the love
of Jesus.
1) That was what Epapharoditus did to help
Paul
C)Our
churches today need men and women who are burdened for
missions and for those in difficult places of Christian service.
1) The problem in our churches,” states one missionary
leader, “is that we have too many spectators and not enough participants.”
D)
Some Churches build a Huge home force – think about the great guys we have sent out { John Randles / Bob Brown’s / Mark
Orosco/ LA Nelsons / Jim Stewarts / Scott Cunningham / Many others before them
Ephaphoditus. Was burdened for Paul & others who needed
to hear about Jesus But this man was also burdened for his own home
church.
A)After
arriving in Rome, he became very ill. In fact, he almost died.
B)This
delayed his return to Philippi, and the people there became concerned about
him.
1) But Epaphroditus was not burdened about himself; he was burdened over the people in Philippi because they were worried about him!
3rd He was a blessed Christian (vv. 28-30).
28Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you
may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. 29Receive him therefore in
the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; 30because
for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to
supply what was lacking in your service toward me.