Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #6: "The Joy of Faithful Service" (Phil 2:12-30)

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I hope you do take them and turn with me to philippians chapter 2 philippians and chapter number 2 philippians chapter number 2
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Philippians chapter number 2 and this afternoon we're going to be in verses 12 to 30 philippians chapter 2 verses 12 through 30 if you grabbed one of the
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Red hardback bibles that we give away That should be on page 10 41 10 41 philippians chapter 2
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And this afternoon we're going to be in verses 12 to 30. So philippians chapter 2 and verses 12
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Through to 30 page 10 41 in the red hardbacks that we give away
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It's our custom here redeemer as we do every week to stand when we come to this portion of our service We're reading god's word and we want to show reverence and respect for his word and we do that even with what we do with our bodies, so Philippians chapter 2 beginning in verse 12 and reading through to verse 30
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Brothers and sisters. These are god's words Therefore my dear friends just as you have always obeyed
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So now not only in my presence, but even more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
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For it is god who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose
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Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure Children of god who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation
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Among whom you shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the word of life
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Then I can boast in the day of christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith
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I am glad and rejoice with all of you In the same way, you should also be glad and rejoice with me
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Now I hope in the lord jesus to send timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you
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For I have no one else like -minded who would genuinely care about your interests All seek their own interests
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Not those of jesus christ But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with his father
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Therefore I hope to send him As soon as I see how things go with me. I'm confident in the lord that I Myself will also come soon
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But I considered it necessary to send to you a paphroditus my brother Coworker and fellow soldier as well as your messenger and minister to my need
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Since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you all heard that he was sick Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died
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However, god had mercy on him and not only on him But also on me so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow
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For this reason I am very eager to send him to you so that you may rejoice again when you see him
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And I may be less anxious Therefore welcome him in the lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor
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Because he came close to death for the work of christ Risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me
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Pray that god would bless the reading of his word and give us understanding as we come to study it
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I invite you to join with me as I pray ask for the lord's help and we come to his word.
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Let's pray together Well heavenly father we thank you so much for this day we thank you that you give us this precious gift of the lord's day to come together to fellowship to worship to put aside the distractions of life for a few moments and to Come into your presence and we ask that as we come now to the apex of our worship as we hear you
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Speak to us through your word We pray that your spirit would be at work opening eyes and opening ears and Providing fertile soil for your truth to be planted down deep in us father, it's our habit here at redeemer to pray for other local churches
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Week by week and this afternoon. We take a moment to pray especially for a church I was contacted by this a couple of weeks ago now
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Out in alturas california warner mountain bible church Small work at this stage seeking to plant a faithful bible teaching church out there in alturas
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Pray for the brothers and sisters there who are seeking to determine the lord's will about seeing this church planted we thank you for The church that's come alongside them grace bible church of bakersfield to provide initial help and support
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Lord we remember what your word says that the harvest is Plentiful, but the laborers are few
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So lord, we pray that you would send laborers lord. Send them somebody who can serve as their Regular teaching pastor their regular shepherd who can minister to them and to that community that so needs the gospel
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Father be with them. They've already met this morning in their worship But be with them throughout the rest of this week and be with us now as we come to your word
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For we ask it in jesus name and for his sake. Amen Please be seated
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This afternoon I want to speak to you from the subject the joy of faithful service the joy of faithful service
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One of the greatest christians that had the privilege of meeting Was a man named reg we just knew him at church as reg
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Reg wasn't a pastor or an elder. He didn't do any teaching at the church. He technically speaking wasn't even a deacon
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Uh, he didn't have a lot of flesh to him. Um, he basically wore the same three sweaters and the same three shirts in varying, you know combinations all the time
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He was about yay high Not an impressive human being as impressive human beings go
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Reg was what our church called a steward. Uh, basically he was an usher But like I said
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If you had ever seen reg not do not let his size or his rather simple
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Demeanor for you. I truly believe that that was one of the greatest believers. I ever had the privilege of meeting
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I would pull up to church on wednesday night, which was our bible study night and typically he was on the door
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He would welcome people and particularly if he knew you well, he'd want to talk I've always had the habit of getting to church half an hour early
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It's a personal thing. I like to do when I have the opportunity So I pull up early and he's usually on the door and no one else was well a few people were there
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But enough people hadn't come yet that we could sit and have a chat for a little bit before folks would stream in And one of the things
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I discovered about reg the more I got to know him was that reg had a true servant's heart
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You could ask this man to do anything for the church and his answer would be yes He was what one of my favorite bible teachers.
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Dr. Mike fabaris calls an at a pat person At a pat you may think what at a pat
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Anytime any place anything? You could ask him and his answer would be unhesitatingly yes
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Stack chairs. Yep mop floors. Yep. He had a hobby.
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That was calligraphy Kind of a Unfortunately passing hobby, but actually a really cool one
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He was really good at it. Our church had the custom that for those who are members and regular attenders We would have communion cards showing that you're welcome to the lord's table
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Church held to close communion, which is a little different to how we do it here but nonetheless We'd have these cards for folks and he would
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By hand write everybody's names on these cards. You get them at the end of the year and reg was the one who did that One day
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I was just curious and I used to call him big man reg it was kind of our inside joke I'm gonna have to be my reg and I said reg
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Level with me like what's your secret? and He had a very thick
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South London accent that I can't replicate. I'm from East London. So we sound very different But he looked at me.
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He's like, what do you mean? I was like, why are you the way you are like? Seriously, I'm just curious why?
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He kind of laughed and when he kind of pulled himself together in that thick South London accent that I can't imitate he said
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Brother, i'm just serving the lord. I'm just serving the lord.
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I couldn't help but think of reg this week as I studied this passage because He like I said one of the greatest christians i've ever met and I think he embodies
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What I believe the passage in front of us philippians chapter 2 Verses 12 to 30 is all about if you really wanted to summarize this whole message in two words
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They're in the title of the sermon fateful service Fateful service.
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I ended up leaving that church and we fell out of contact I'm, not sure if reg is even still alive today. He was quite an older gentleman
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I should probably check in with some of my friends and ask But though I haven't spoken to reg in quite some time
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His example lingers with me because this was a man who embodied in my opinion the principles that you see here in this passage
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For those of you who are visiting we've been working our way through the letter to the philippians this summer just Passage by passage is what we typically do here at redeemer
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We work our way through books of the bible and we allow the point of the text and the shape of the text
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To determine the point of the sermon and the shape of the sermon So we've been working our way through philippians and in our last time together
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We talked about humility in verses 1 to 11 of this chapter We talked about this
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Idea of bringing yourself low for the purpose of serving others and I said it last week, but allow me to say it again if we think of humility primarily as just being really quiet and Being unassuming and out of the way
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If that's the only conception we have of humility Then we're actually going to miss what genuine humility is
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You see humility doesn't just manifest itself in being all quiet unassuming and out of the way actually true humility manifests itself
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In our willingness as god's people to serve god and to serve others
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I did say this last week. I talked about the towel and the basin You know,
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I call it the theology of the towel in the basin. Uh, it's recognizing that We are servants and we are the kinds of servants who if we were called upon should be willing to grab a towel in A basin kneel down and wash our brothers and sisters feet in service
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Unless we think well i'm i'm above that you can't possibly ask me to do that Well our lord jesus did that that's where I get that Phrase the theology of the towel in the basin from because that's what our lord jesus did
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In one sense we could tag this section the joy of discipleship because this is what discipleship really looks like Before it's programs and teaching and all of those things which
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I do think have their place first and foremost Discipleship is in light of who jesus is following after him in service
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Yes, disciples are learners, but they are more than learners They are learners who act on what they learn by serving
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And of course as with everything in the spiritual life Serving isn't easy
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Especially in a world that demands service But doesn't always expect people to offer it.
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You know, I mean when I say that We live in a culture that basically has discipled all of us unconsciously or consciously
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It's decided all of us in thinking that we are the ones who should be served Before we even bother to think about being able to serve others
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In his excellent book, I actually recommended it this week in the study guide that you should have In his excellent book improving yourself
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No pun intended Improving yourself the art of unselfish living Pastor truck swindle puts his ever wise finger on the issue
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Of the way he puts he says quote our world has become a large impersonal busy institution
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We are alienated from each other. Although more crowded than ever. We are lonelier than ever distant pushed together but uninvolved
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No longer do most neighbors visit across the backyard fence The well -manicured front lawn becomes the modern moat to keep the barbarians out there at bay
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Hoarding and flaunting have replaced sharing and caring. It's like we are occupying common space
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But have no common interests As if we're As I puts it as if we're on an elevator with rules like no talking smiling or eye contact allowed without written consent of the management of the
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Painful though it may be for us to admit here in this great land of america. We're losing touch with one another the motivation to help to encourage yes to serve our fellow man is waning
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Oh bear mine. He wrote that book in 1981 And for a book written written in 1981 swindle's words don't really require a lot of changing in 2023
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Service to others sad to say even in the church sometimes Is not high on the old social consciousness
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And so a passage like this becomes mission critical for god's people We need to think deeply about what this passage is teaching us
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How can we stay motivated to be faithful? And not just faithful but faithful servants in a world that doesn't value the need to serve
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Really what we're talking about this afternoon is kind of swimming upstream From where our world is from where our culture is from where even at times the church with a big c is
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Well, how can we stay motivated to be faithful servants in a world that doesn't value the need to serve?
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Well, here's my big idea for this message. We don't remember anything else. I have to say remember this We show the greatness of god in salvation by faithfully serving the lord and serving
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One another real simple We show the greatness of god in salvation by faithfully serving the lord and serving one another
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We cannot say that we are those who have experienced the grace of god in salvation if that grace that we have received
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Doesn't turn us from being inward facing people to outward facing people and seeking to serve one another
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And so I believe this text is going to teach us that we show the greatness of god in salvation by faithfully serving the lord and serving one another
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For the rest of our time I want to consider two Apostolic directives paul's going to give us two big directives out of this text two apostolic directives for growing in faithful service to god and to others
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I I imagine that if you're a believer here You want to serve the lord and you want to serve the lord faithfully?
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Well, how can we do that? And do that?
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Well, I think paul's going to give us some advice here that I think is pretty helpful So I want us to consider two apostolic directives for growing in faithful service to god and to others if you
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Or I want to be the kinds of faithful servants who serve god and others we should start by well
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First of all seeking to develop the attitude of faithful servants We should start by wanting to develop the attitude of faithful servants
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Before we can get to the business of faithful service We have to make sure we've got our thinking straight when it comes to what faithful service is
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You know, it's kind of like deciding to do a diy project and just thinking I want to pick up a hammer and some nails
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Just go straight to work without actually planning what it is. You're trying to do You know if we're going to be faithful servants, it starts with developing the right attitude
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And in the passage before us in verses 12 through 16 paul's going to Essentially give us two parts to the attitude of faithful servants the way we know the two parts is because they're the two commands in verses 12 and We'll see in verse 14
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Consider first of all with me if we're going to develop the attitude of faithful servants First of all faithful servants are committed to a growing and maturing faith
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Faithful servants are committed to a growing and maturing faith verses 12 and 13
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We've already seen this those of you who've been here as we've walked through Philippians paul has been gone from the church at philippi this roman colony
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He's been gone from this church for quite some time He was involved in starting this church, but time has passed and he's not been there in a while.
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In fact, he's writing from prison But as we've seen already in philippians Uh while paul had been gone.
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This was not a church that kind of got idle In chapter one, we saw that they were strong in gospel partnership hand joining in hand together for the gospel's sake
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They were strong in gospel advance seeing the gospel leave the full walls of the church
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So to speak and go out into the world and they were strong in gospel progress pursuing growth in the gospel as god's people
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And if these guys were in school we would say that the report card is looking healthy
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It's looking strong at this point And yet for all the good that they were doing
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Paul really doesn't give them any opportunity to my mom used to use this phrase all the time to rest on their laurels
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You know what? I mean when I say that You know, it's not a phrase we use often today I think my mom used to love using it when we were growing up this idea of oh i've you know
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I've done something good. I can just relax now because I did this one thing She would say no don't you say no, no, no, you don't get to just rest on your laurels
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And that was the same for this church. Look at what paul says in verse 12 He says therefore my dear friends
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Just as you have always obeyed told you the report card was looking strong Just as you have always obeyed.
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So now Not only in my presence, but even more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
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Work out your own salvation a phrase that has been incredibly misunderstood
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By all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons If you grew up in churches or been around christians who believe that you can lose your salvation.
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This is one of the texts they go to Emphasizing the fear and trembling part
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But I actually don't think this passage is that complicated. Yes It's very easily misunderstood, but it doesn't have to be
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Once you let the text speak for itself Mind if I share a quick bible study tip with you
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Those of you who are in our summer seminar have already heard this tip from me already but if you're not
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When you study the bible observation paying close attention to what the text says is more than half the battle
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For understanding any complicated passage. The first thing is just to read it a few times And not just read it read it and pay close attention to what's going on What does this passage?
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What does this verse say? And what does it not say? Well, really we need to ask an answer and i'm gonna make this very quick we need to ask and answer three questions
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To understand what paul's getting at once we understand this the rest of this gets very very simple very quickly The three questions you need to ask are what does paul mean when he says work out to your own salvation
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That's the main command here. So you kind of need to figure out what this phrase work out these two words.
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What does that mean? The second question is well when paul says salvation, what does he mean?
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And third why does he say it's worked out in fear and trembling? So what does paul mean when he says work out your own salvation
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What is the salvation he's talking about here and why is it worked out in fear and trembling?
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Well, let's again take our time for just a moment work through these three questions number one What does he mean when he says work out your own salvation?
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Well, those two words are actually one word in the original language bible wasn't written in english It's written in greek. So you typically want to go back and look at what the original language says and when you do
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The word means to cause a state or condition to bring about to produce to create.
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Okay. Well that All right kind of gives us an answer The next thing you typically want to do is how is this word used because greek was not a special language
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That's written for the bible. It was a language that people spoke. They use this language all the time So you can go back and look at how other people use this word
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And when you do that, this gets a little more interesting There was a roman poet his name was strabo s -t -r -a -b -o strabo
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He uses the word that's here that's translated workout He used it to describe the process of working an iron mine for its more for its ore.
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Excuse me So if you're familiar with mining you typically Have this large amount of rocks within them is the ore for the metal precious metal you want
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But you can't just obviously take the whole mountain and just use it. You've got to get the ore out of it You've got to extract the ore from the mine.
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That was the word that was used here And it became pretty well known in paul's day for that meaning for extracting the value out of something
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So when paul says here that we are to work out our in fact, he says work out your own salvation
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He's telling you to not work for your salvation, which you can't by the way The good news of the gospel is that you couldn't work for your salvation
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You were dead ephesians chapter 2 and so god gave new life through the gospel That through the coming of the lord
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Jesus who lived the life that we couldn't live who died a death that we should have died through him
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We can have eternal life. We cannot work for our salvation because we were dead in our trespasses and sins
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Our salvation is something god could only do And since that's the case you can't work for your salvation which again is not what paul says paul says you are to work out your salvation
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You are to get all the value out of your salvation That can be got
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That's what he means here well, then that begs a second question, so Not only do we need to work out our salvation.
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But what does salvation mean here? And again here we need to be careful
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Because salvation in the bible can mean different things depending on the context Sometimes in the bible salvation can mean what happens when you are saved from the penalty of your sins
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So the punishment that your sins deserve God saves you from that that's typically in the past tense
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The fancy term that theologians use is justification the fact that we are declared righteous
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So sometimes the bible uses salvation in the past sense or you could put it like this the way in which we have been saved
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But then there is salvation in the present tense if in the past we are saved from the penalty of sin
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In the present we are being saved from the power of it
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Technical term that theologians use sanctification being made more like jesus That the hold of sin over us is being gradually more and more over the course of a lifetime broken imperfectly this life to be sure
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But we are being saved from the power of it as paul says elsewhere Sin does not have dominion over you if you are a christian
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And then there is the future sense of salvation so we're saved from the penalty of sin in the past the power of sin in the present and the
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Presence of sin we will be saved from In the future when either jesus comes to get us or we go to him when we die the technical term for that is glorification
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That we enter into glory And that's a future sense.
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We will be saved So the question becomes what is paul talking about here?
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Is it the past? Is it the present or is it the future? I think the context really beginning all the way back in chapter 1 verse 27 makes it clear
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He's not talking about the past And he's not talking about the future He's talking about god's work of making us more and more like jesus or to use the technical term sanctification
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God is god is the one who sanctifies us. We can't sanctify ourselves We don't make ourselves sanctified, but we do respond to that work of sanctification in obedience
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And we have to get that order right it's not I make myself holy No, god is making you holy and you respond to that work.
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He is doing in obedience And so when paul says here work out your own salvation
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He is referring to work out this work that god is doing extract all the value you can out of his work of making you
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More and more like jesus everyone tracking with me so far Okay, good
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So what does it mean to work out your salvation? What is salvation here? My third question? What is it? Why does paul use this language of fear and trembling?
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This is where people kind of camp see fear and trembling because if you're not careful you can lose it calm down, please
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First of all, my bible tells me the christian has no fear of eternal condemnation none
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And if you need a bible verse for that romans chapter 8 verse 1 Therefore there is there
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Make sure I get this right therefore there is now no for those who are in christ jesus
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So no, the christian has no fear. In fact, we'll see it later on in our reading of first john He's going to say explicitly that the christian has no fear in terms of condemnation.
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Why because they know the love of god So he can't mean that because that would contradict other passages in the bible
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No, the fear and trembling here i'm going to argue is not fear and trembling because of judgment But it's reverence for who god is
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And for what he has said in his word In fact paul a few times is going to allude to the old testament in this text.
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This is one of them If you're taking notes isaiah 66 2 talks about the person that god draws near to as one who trembles at his word
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Not out of fear, but out of reverence The fear and trembling here is not oh i'm afraid if I don't do this god won't love me
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Let's be clear if you are in jesus christ god loves you with an everlasting love No, no, no, that's not the reason for fear and trembling here fear could be translated as respect or reverence
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It's a proper understanding of who god is And who we are in light of who god is
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And so you put all that together And paul is essentially saying in this verse Philippian christians, you're doing a wonderful job
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But don't stop Keep on getting all of the value you can out of this work of Sanctification that god is doing this work of making you more like jesus that god is doing get everything you can out of that And before I go on I would be remiss.
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I want to talk to the faith family here for just a moment I would be remiss if I didn't ask do you fully grasp the weight of this?
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I know i've just said it but let us sit with you for just a moment think on it for just a minute with me Do you fully get what paul is saying in these few words
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I mean, let me make it more specific Are we and I say we because this text is both individual and specific
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Individual, excuse me and corporate. That's what I wanted to say individual and corporate It's speaking to individual people and it's speaking to the church as a group
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Are we? Actively seeking to take every opportunity to grow
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To quote peter second peter 318 to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord.
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Jesus christ I said I wanted to get specific to our body One of the things that we've if you don't know this go back on our youtube channel
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You can watch our state of the fellowship from last february One of the things we've said is we want to make a pillar of the culture here at redeemer
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Is a culture of every member equipping and training part of that is fueled by texts like this
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But we want to extract all the value we can
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Out of what god has so graciously worked in as a number of commentators I read this week put it we work out what god has worked in So again speaking specifically to the faith family here.
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Are you taking every opportunity that the church provides for this? We've had a number of them
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Fellas, we have a monthly bible study. It's on a break for the summer, but we typically have a monthly bible study Ladies, I know your bible study is still going on for the summer
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Redeemer you is coming back in the fall our Purposeful training time where we're working through matters of doctrine and christian practice so that we can be better equipped
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Um, we keep a literature table at the back there. You may think i'm not the big reader type Well, that's why we keep the stuff on there for the most part really short
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What if you said i'm going to take one of those booklets back there and once a month i'm just going to take one a Month and just work my way through it
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I've said before that our our aim here at redeemer is not to create a community of spiritual eggheads
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You know what? I mean when I say eggheads Like really really smart people who are kind of fragile and can't do much of anything
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No, we we want to be a people who are getting all the value out of god's work that we can
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Because And why does paul start here? He's talking about service. Why here simple because you can't serve if you're not growing
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This is a weighty imperative It's a weighty command. You can't do this on your own
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But god knows that and so there's paul. So look at what he says in verse 13 So he says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling verse 12
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For it is god who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good pleasure
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The word for is working is literally what we got word energy from that god is the energizing one who
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Energizes and gives us the power both. Look at what he says both to will and to work according to his good pleasure
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God gives us both the desire for a growing and maturing faith and the ability
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To do what is necessary to achieve growth and maturity In a very real sense no christian can this may sound harsh but bear with me
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No christian can say well god isn't giving me what I need to grow Can't say that because god is giving you everything
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So hebrews 13 we often use it as a closing benediction here in our services Hebrews 13, you know may the god of peace who brought the lord.
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Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep That one that we often use remember how the second half of that goes may he equip you with everything good to do his will
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Working in us same word that's used here working in us what is pleasing in his sight Peter says in second peter one
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That after he says grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of god and our lord Jesus christ He says his divine power who god's divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness
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Through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness You see the the question of spiritual growth is never does god want me to grow the answer is always yes
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Uh, the question is never does god want me to grow he wants you to grow even more than you want to grow No, the question is never does god want me to go?
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The question is what will I do with what god has given me for my growth?
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He gives us his word. He gives us his spirit He gives us the means of grace one of which we're gonna partake of at the end of our service
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He gives us all the benefits of being united to christ And the question becomes what will we do to extract all of the value out of those glorious deposits
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And so paul calls the philippians to a growing maturing faith and that growing Maturing faith leads to being number two there being committed to a joyful public witness
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Being committed to a joyful public witness Verse 14 through to the middle of verse 16 is one thought
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It looks like that even in our english translation. He kind of just says things and add things. It's all one thought The one thought begins with a foundational command in verse 14
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So you see that there in verse 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing by the way
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Some of your translations will say without grumbling or complaining complaining is really not the word here. There's a word for that That's not this one
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It's not grumbling and complaining it's grumbling and arguing is where we get our word dialogue from You see servant -hearted people have neither the time nor the heart for grumbling by the way grumbling here carries this idea of One dictionary put like this behind the scenes talk expressing an internal dissatisfaction we've all done this at some point you're kind of just The the original word carries this idea of sort of a low -pitched mumble to yourself
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I'm not happy but i'm talking to myself about how i'm not happy Paul says you don't have time for grumbling or you don't have time for arguing
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He says do everything without grumbling and arguing and there are important reasons for not becoming grumblers and arguers if you will verse 15
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Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure Children of god who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world
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By holding firm to the word of life, then I can boast in the day of christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing you see the christian who has the attitude of a faithful servant chooses the joy of service over the pain of grumbling and arguing because doing so Elevates our witness
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Look at how paul describes. He says that we become blameless and pure not in a sinless perfection sense
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That's not what he means when he says this but in the sense that As the people of god live in this kind of way, there are no accusations that can be thrown at us that stick
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People can say whatever they want. But if you aren't doing it, none of the accusations stick don't they?
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So he says we become blameless and pure He says that we show ourselves to be children of god who are faultless in a world that is crooked and perverted
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I told you paul kind of eluded the old testament a few times. This is another one um, if you're taking notes deuteronomy 32 and 5
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Uses the exact same language to talk about the children of israel But paul says you're not like that And most important of all he says that you see that there the middle of verse 15
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Among whom you shine you shine, excuse me like stars in the world another old testament illusion daniel chapter 12
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That those who win souls will be like those who shine like stars in the firmament daniel Well, the angel tells daniel we shine like stars
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In a world that is dark as night. We are small lights pointing people to the greater light
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And all of this is possible. You see it there the end of Uh verse middle of verse 16.
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He says by holding firm to the word of life The way in which we're able to live in this kind of way is we're able to live in this kind of way by our witness by our holding forth by our
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Proclaiming the word of life as one writer puts it in contrast to complaining christians should be defending and proclaiming the word of life
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Don't turn loose of god's word in the dark culture and don't stop proclaiming it to a perverse culture
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Let the word of christ dwelling you richly so that it will permeate your heart and spill out in praise and proclamation
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That's what Being a joyful public witness looks like And again, can
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I encourage you that this is possible not because of you but because of what god does by his spirit Remember what we read it is god who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure now on the off chance that And I imagine this would have been the case for the philippians too as it is for all of us on the off chance
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You think that wow, this sounds kind of special like this sounds like really special christianity
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Well paul gives us some flesh and blood examples examples that the philippians knew well And actually we're going to learn something from those examples too because Not only do we need to develop the attitude of faithful servants
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But if we're going to be the kind of servants who find joy in serving god and serving others faithfully then we're going to need to imitate the example of faithful servants
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We'll need to imitate the example of faithful servants
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Three people are mentioned in verse 16 right down to the end of our passage Three people there's paul
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There's timothy and apathroditus Paul timothy and apathroditus and each of them teach us something about faithful service empowered by god and his spirit
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Those of you who were here when we looked at philippians 2 1 to 4 these men are living embodiments of that So bear that in mind
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As we talk about each of these men, how is it that faithful servants live and what from their example should we imitate?
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Well, first of all faithful servants are people of joyful sacrifice Faithful servants are people of joyful sacrifice so the
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The first example we get in this passage is paul himself And look at verse 16 He says then
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As we are holding firm to the word of life Then I can boast in the day of christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing
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But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith I am glad and rejoice with all of you
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In the same way. You should also be glad and rejoice with me
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By the philippians living in this kind of way They would ensure that paul could stand before the lord on that final day with confidence
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We talked about this already so i'm not going to labor that point too much But paul doesn't just talk about blessing in the future he talks about blessing in the present
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You think where do I get that from verse 17? He says but even if I am poured out and actually it's a present tense.
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I am being poured out Some people say that paul's talking here about his possible death.
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I don't think that's what he's talking about here I think he's talking about his experience in jail at this moment
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He says he's being poured out as a drink offering in the ancient world This actually goes back all the way to israel when sacrifices were offered
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What what was often done with some sacrifices was that wine would be poured on top of the existing sacrifice
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In essence paul is saying You are sacrificing you've sacrificed for me
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We will see in chapter four They gave a financial offering to paul to help him in his imprisonment You have sacrificed for me and guess what like a drink offering on top of your sacrifice i'm being sacrificed, too
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And so paul could find joy in this and he could call the philippians to the same
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And so faithful servants are people of joyful sacrifice, but they're also people devoted to spiritual care
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They're also people devoted to spiritual care The second example we get in this passage is one of paul's
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I like to call him his special ops agents One of paul's black ops guys when there was a problem or there was a church that needed trading out.
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He could send this person In fact Timothy has two books In your new testament that are named after him because paul wrote them to him while he was serving
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And so paul says in verse 19 now I hope in the lord jesus to send timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you
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For I have no one else verse 20 Like -minded who will genuinely care about your interests timothy demonstrated a
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Commitment to the growth and care of those connected to him He cared for paul with such affection that paul multiple times
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In the new testament will call him a son He cared for the philippians so much that he was willing to go on a trip
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Let's assume that timothy is with paul at this moment. He's one of paul's visitors. We can come and go From rome to philippi is a trip of several hundred miles
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But he's willing to make a journey of several hundred miles just to care for the spiritual needs of the church in philippi
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But there's a sadness that tinges this little section. Do you see in verse 21? For I have no one else like -minded who would genuinely care about your interests
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All seek their own interests not those of jesus christ
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Do you feel the sadness of paul in this moment when he writes these words?
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Think about this. This is the supposed to be the heyday of the church if you will This is the early church the thing we read in the book of acts and we all look up to and rightfully so It's the age of the apostle of the apostles.
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Excuse me. It's the age of signs and wonders It's the age of the greatest movement of the holy spirit in the earth really since creation
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This should not be happening and yet it was You might be able to cut us some slack 2 000 years removed from this thing
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But this was the problem even in the days of the early church Remember, we said that philippians is written by ad -61.
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It's only been about 30 years Even in this spiritual climate where the apostles are present where the holy spirit is active in a powerful foundational way
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There were still some people who were only concerned with themselves and theirs
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At time i'd make the point that the problem of not serving is not a time and place thing.
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It's a heart thing And the human heart remains unchanged in thousands of years I mean, we shouldn't be too surprised
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Paul felt the need to talk about this earlier. Remember philippians 2 4 everyone should look not to his own interests
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But rather to the interests of others Clearly, this was a problem, but paul could count on timothy timothy was not one of these people
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This was a man. You see how paul describes him verse 22 He says but you know his proven character
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Because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father in an age where Paul makes it sound like the majority of people
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Were more consumed with their own interests. There were a faithful few timothy being one of them Who was committed to the care and the concerns of this church in philippi because that's what faithful servants do
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Faithful servants are people of joyful sacrifice. They're people devoted to spiritual care and they're people of selfless dedication people of selfless dedication
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Any basketball fans in the room? If you're a basketball fan if I use the expression six man at a year, you know what
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I mean when I say that Not quite as well known as a starters, but a guy can come off the bench and put up numbers
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One of my favorite basketball players of all time manu ginobili was one of these people Who Wasn't a starter wasn't necessarily good enough to be a starter, but you can come off the bench and pull off numbers
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I consider this man. We're about to talk about one of my biblical six men of the year
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Epaphroditus verse 25 But I considered it necessary to send you epaphroditus my brother co -worker and fellow soldier as well as your messenger and minister to my need
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Paul mentions this man epaphroditus. Did you catch that? He uses five different titles to describe him Calls him a brother co -worker a fellow soldier
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The messenger from the church at philippi it would appear epaphroditus took the gift from the church in philippi to paul in rome
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And he says that he was a minister to my need I mean, that's quite the job description
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And it would appear that in fulfilling that job description epaphroditus got some kind of illness In fact, it was illness so bad that he almost died
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Now in this moment if he said, you know what? I need a personal day He would not be wrong
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I mean, he would be perfectly within bounds and yet in this moment where In this moment, we're taking a personal day or two would not be a problem
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It would be the most reasonable thing to do. What does he do? Where is his focus? Look at verse 26
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He said I verse 25 I considered it necessary to send you epaphroditus 26 Since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick
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Am I the only person when
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I read this text again this weekend? I was like Wait, what? That should be the other way around Epaphroditus is the one who was like on his deathbed at one point
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Apparently he recovered But But surely the philippians should be the ones who are worried
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Epaphroditus not being worried about the philippians would be perfectly justified in this moment. He's a little preoccupied and he's almost as though Epaphroditus is like i'm sick, but i'm not that sick.
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I mean he was when paul says verse 27
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Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, god had mercy on him and not also on him but also on me
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So that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow in god's providence Epaphroditus recovered paul clearly would have been hurt by this
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And so he says i'm eager to send him back to you. Bye so that you guys can rejoice
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Of course, they would clearly this was their brother note the selfless level of dedication
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He's willing to go convey this gift and in the process of doing so he is sick and yet in this moment
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His thoughts are not for himself. Therefore his brother and his sister And I love what paul says in verse 29
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He says therefore welcome him in the lord with great joy
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And hold people like him in honor Because he came close to death for the work of christ risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me
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No, no way in this text. We get the sense that epaphroditus is doing this because he wants honor and yet being a servant
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Brought him honor. Does that sound familiar to anyone? If not, allow me to make the connection here
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Doesn't that sound a lot like? the lord jesus Who gave up the majesty of heaven to be born on the earth?
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Who multiple times says I didn't come to do my own will I came to do the father's will he constantly put himself in the second place
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And yet as a result of his obedience, he received the greatest honor of all Epaphroditus isn't doing what jesus did but in a sense he's doing what jesus did and as a result
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Him being a servant actually brought him honor And those are your three examples paul timothy and epaphroditus
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Powerful pictures of what faithful service to god and to others what that looks like But something gripped me this week.
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Allow me to get this off and i'll be done Something gripped me this week and let me warn you advance
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I might swing a little bit if you know what I mean when I say that But I promise you it's coming from a loving place
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But I want you to think about something with me for a moment As I worked this text as I sat with it in my study this week a question
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Started in the back of my mind and it just kept coming up and kept coming up in fact in my study notes
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Which are not the same thing I preach from but in my study notes I wrote this just to make sure I didn't forget it the question that kept coming to me was
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Where are these kinds of folks? today Let me not ask where the pools are because that's a pressure none of us can live up to so let me know
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Let me exempt paul paul. You can take the bench on this one The way I wrote the question was where are the timothy's and the epaphroditus is today?
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Some of you have heard me talk about this if you haven't let me share it with you a couple of weeks ago I I got well,
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I said a couple of weeks ago, maybe almost a month ago now Two months two months ago.
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I got an email from a ministry that I follow and pray for and in this email
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The first thing that got my attention was a headline The headline said i'm just going to read it to you
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The headline said it was from christianity today. I generally don't read christianity today, but occasionally they print something's actually worth reading
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The headline said One in four pastors plan to retire by 2030
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We're in 2023 so I made that seven years As I began to read the article
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In fact, I saw it and I immediately printed a copy and as a pdf and kept it because I thought yeah
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I'm going to need this in future The information was even more stark than the headline
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So the barna group those of you who've been around church long enough. You've heard barna polls. George barna is a pollster He's very good at this thing.
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He's been doing it for a while and a barna group poll of evangelical pastors 16 of protestant pastors we would be protestant in the broad sense of the term
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He said 16 of protestant pastors are under the age of 40 that statistically didn't bother me so much
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Okay, not the worst stat ever The average age for a pastor at present is 52
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Okay This is where I start to get worried. It turns out that barna has done this poll before he did it 30 years ago 1993
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I was two years old when he asked his questions in 1993 33 percent of pastors were under 40
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The average age was 44 The article went on 75 percent of pastors.
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That's three over four 75 percent said it is becoming harder to find mature young christians who want to become pastors
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The same pastors polled 77 percent said we are concerned with the quality of future christian 77 percent
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Now if I do the math So one in four plans to retire by 2030
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Okay, 25 that's a big number And of the number who are planning to retire
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The vast majority are concerned about the next generation.
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That's a problem That might not bother you maybe it shouldn't bother you, but it does bother me
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Because I read the article and the article rang true I sit in pastors meetings a lot and I hear the conversations about the lack of men forget age for a moment
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Just human beings of an xy chromosomal persuasion Call them waldo.
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We can't find them And it's not like we don't have resources One could argue the church in america has the most theological and training resources of any nation in the world in history
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I've done this illustration before On my phone. I have logos bible software. It's what I use for my personal and sermon prep
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I have 15 000 books on my phone That's more books than i've ever owned in my life and i've owned a lot of books in my life
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It's not that we don't have the resource It's not that we don't have the time because let's be honest. We find time for everything else that we love.
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Don't we? So, where are they? Kofi, I don't want to be a pastor.
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Okay, okay My question will be very simply who said only pastors need training and equipping remember this
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Past may yeah, it was april and may we read through A book called the trellis in the vine and our growth groups here at redeemer.
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There was a reason we did that It's not by accident that book was not written by americans was written by australians
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I listened to them do an interview a few weeks ago the authors of the book And they said something um as the book caught fire as it did back in 2012 when it was released
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They started being invited over to the us by church after church after church In fact, they started a ministry vine growers
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To basically implement the principles of that book in churches across the country and around the world
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And one thing they said was it became very apparent to us as aussies
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Because I said they're australian That this is foreign to the church in america The idea that every christian needs to be trained so they can be this these kinds of people
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And while i'm not foolish enough to believe that our little churches are sole answers to the problem that's arrogance I do think we can be part of the solution.
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That's one of the reasons it's embedded in our culture here We want to train every christian to serve the lord with everything they have
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Like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon at a pat anytime anyplace anything to be that kind of person requires training and equipping
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What kinds of christians need this the father who wants to lead his family in family worship actually needs to know his bible
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So he can teach his bible There's a debate those of you who are on social media
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There's been a debate raging for the last couple of months should women learn theology I think it's the stupidest conversation that's ever been had in my opinion
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Of course they should The mother who wants to raise her kids needs to know not just how to sew dresses and bake cookies
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She needs to be like lois and eunice. Oh, by the way, those were timothy's mother and grandmother Paul said you learn the scriptures from them first timothy chapter three
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Second timothy chapter three, excuse me Ladies need to be schooled in the word of god as well so they can school these youngins
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Thinking broader than that the church needs small group leaders and lay bible as a church with a big c the church
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Across this country. It's very apparent These small group leaders and lay bible teachers and evangelists folks who can lead a prayer meeting folks who can coordinate service projects there are so many needs that the body of christ in this nation has and the question
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I have as I Labor over this text this week the question that would not let me go. It might be an uncomfortable one, but I ask it again
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Where are the timothy's and the apathroditises? I don't have an answer for that question
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I'm, not a prophet need the son of a prophet I I don't know how to answer that question
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But what joy are we missing out on? Because we're missing this kind of servant heartedness father
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Father, it's easy for us to live in an age where We can be more easily served than ever
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To lose sight of the fact that you have called us to be servants You've called all of us in Whatever area of life you've placed us in to be servants and for some of us that service may end up being more
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Vocational and focused but lord. My prayer is simply this That whether we're thinking of service in the general sense or service in the more specific word ministry sense
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Regardless of what that looks like as people who have experienced the grace of god in salvation
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Would you work in us? A desire to extract all the value out of what you've placed in us
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Father would you help us that we would become the kind of body that is
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Training and equipping people for gospel service in all of life Not just to be pastors and elders
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But to be competent in the scriptures so that they can serve You and serve your people in any area without fear
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And father we thank you that we can even with heaviness like this
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We we can pray this knowing that this is your will and so you will indeed answer And so father my simple prayer is that lord even as we pray knowing that you will answer