Philippians 2:17–30
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Well, good morning. It is difficult to put into words my gratitude for you. When I'm sitting here singing and worshiping, I'm flashing back to 15 years ago when my kids were small and we were trying to take them out this door to their classes after having tried to keep them quiet. and time passes so quickly. We learned so much being a part of this church. We went out from here to the mission field, and there's just so much to be thankful for. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for praying for us. You've been a big part of our work. I wonder if you've heard the phrase, the Chinese dream, the Chinese dream. China's supreme leader, President Xi Jinping, started using it as a slogan in 2012, as a part of his rise to power and as an expression of the
desire to see the country transformed, and especially to see hundreds of millions of people come into the middle class. He connected it to what he called the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. And I have to say, living in China for the past 25 years, it's been an amazing thing to witness. When I first went to China, every car on the road was a Volkswagen Santana because that was the taxi. There were only taxis, buses, and occasionally a private government car. Everyone else was on bicycles. When I went there to do student ministry, we had to be careful not to take the students to McDonald's because they would view that as an overwhelming expression of a financial outlay that they could never return. They didn't have any disposable income.
Half the country was living on less than five dollars a day, so President Xi's slogan really did capture the dreams of a generation. Now, of course, he was borrowing the concept from the American dream, not accidentally. After the opening of China to the West in the 1980s and 90s, people started drinking in American media in a huge way. So when I remember my first day on a college campus, I was going to meet some students. I knocked on their door. They opened their door.
There were 20 students in a room huddled around an impossibly small TV set watching an American sitcom, which I'm looking out at a relatively young crowd in many ways, but Growing Pains dubbed into Chinese. And I mean, listening to Kirk Cameron speak Chinese was hilarious to me. But they were watching in rapt attention this sitcom about a middle-class family doing middle-class things, and it was awesome to them. They were so poor. Helen Wong, in her book, The Chinese Dream, describes their perception this way. American middle-class people live in a villa with a two-car garage in the suburbs. In the front of the house, there's a green lawn.
They have two to three children and a dog. The husband goes out to work, and the wife stays at home taking care of the children. On weekends, they drive their SUVs to the countryside for barbecues and camping. Now, I don't imagine that any of those things are that big a deal to you. Living in Louisville, Kentucky, you probably take them for granted. And a couple of decades on now, material prosperity is flowing in China. Of course, you don't stop at a villa. It would be better to have two or three. It would be better to have a Tesla or a Hummer than an SUV. Trips to the countryside give way to trips around the globe. Probably the hardest thing for me to communicate about China is that it's not that different from the U.S. By and large, we have the same vision. We share the same material dreams. And I think that means something significant
for the two largest populations of Christians in the world. It means that you and I and our Chinese brothers and sisters are surrounded by swimming in the waters of constantly listening to the siren song of health, wealth, and happiness. You don't have to do anything for it to become the default, unnoticed operating system of your life.
It updates automatically. Stay safe. Keep yourself marketable. Protect yourself at all times. You only live once. There's a better future out there for you and your children. Allow yourself to flourish. Now, here's the challenging part. Not all of that is wrong or bad. There's nothing wrong with houses, suburbs, lawns, children, or dogs.
Nothing wrong with SUVs, barbecues, or camping. And many of those phrases I just named, taken the right way, in the right context, They have something pretty fine and human to say. Christians shouldn't necessarily be against any of them. And at the same time, I think they represent what is the greatest challenge to the church today. I think they're more dangerous than LGBTQ or CRT. They're more dangerous than compromising on biblical authority or sexual ethics.
More dangerous than false teaching or even church conflict. those things are all dangerous, but they're also identifiable, discernible, confrontable. I believe that the greatest challenge you and I face as human beings living in the most affluent of times and affluent of countries is that we will grow comfortable, comfortable, secure, confident, and focused on making our lives just a little bit better. We can have our Christian faith too. We can keep it on the side, like it's in a little box. It's for Sundays. It's for special times and emergency situations. Maybe we treat it like a little plant that only needs watering once a week and you're good to go still there but your view of what it means is dimmed it's dulled
it's diminished you see the american dream and the chinese dream are alike death to a life of christian faithfulness the apostle paul wrote the book of philippians as a thank you letter to a supporting church it's why i thought it was fitting to open it with you this morning but he doesn't fill it with nice-sounding phrases and platitudes. He does write to say thank you, but more than that, he wants to challenge the church with a greater vision of Christian faithfulness. He wants to call them to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel and to press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God had called them heavenward in Christ Jesus. The last thing he wants for them, or for us, is to grow comfortable, to coast, or to compromise. So as a supported missionary of this church, I thought it fitting to open the book with you. I want to look at a passage right in the middle of the book. It's actually a section we
could easily overlook. I invite you to open your Bibles or turn to page 981 of the Pew Bible that's in front of you. It would be helpful for you to see it as we walk through it. The passage that we're looking at is something of a travelogue, some details of comings and goings. Paul needs to tell them about which of his associates he's going to send to them. So I think they're expecting Timothy. He's going to send Epaphroditus instead. He needs to tell them why. But in Paul's mind and in God's, nothing is wasted. So what this travelogue really presents us is the Christian life illustrated. If I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, how should I view myself, my life, my goals? What kind of a dream should I have? The main idea of the text before us today is that the joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ.
The joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ. And it's my prayer this morning that it will help all of us refresh a vision of what God calls us to be. So let's dive in number one and think about a sacrifice. and I'm thinking about Philippians 2, verses 17 and 18. Paul writes this, Even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Paul has just finished exhorting the church to work out their salvation, to grow in Christlikeness, which we call sanctification. And as he does so often in the letter, he links what he's saying to the day of Christ. He says that on the day of Christ, he wants to see that these saints have persevered in their faith, which will be a vindication of his ministry, his work. Because they stood firm, he would be able to say that all his labor and effort was worth it.
It wasn't for nothing. This makes him think again about his circumstances. He does this in chapter 1. oh yeah, I'm imprisoned, I'm on trial, my life is hanging in the balance, I might die here soon. That's what he's referring to in verse 17 when he says, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering. A drink offering was one of a number of offerings to God in the Old Testament, in addition to bringing an offering of the first fruits of their crops, grain offerings, and sacrificing animals as sin offerings to cover their sins. The Israelites were required to pour about a quart of wine onto these sacrifices. So you can read about that in Numbers 15.
So it's a required sacrifice, but in the Old Testament, it's not exactly clear what's the meaning of the drink offering, what it's symbolizing. But when we get to the New Testament, Jesus powerfully picks up the image the night before his crucifixion, the Last Supper. Remember there, he picks up a cup of wine and he says to his disciples, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. That's interesting because they're about to drink the cup the way you and I do when we take communion, but while we consume it, we're remembering that Jesus was consumed. We pour it in to remember that he poured it out. That which is life to us was death to him. So the drink offering is the physical life of Jesus poured out for the spiritual life of others. And that is what is necessary for you and I to have any hope
of going to heaven. If sin requires death, and it does, and if after death comes judgment, and it does, then what every one of us faces is death, judgment, and eternal conscious torment in hell. That's the judgment of God against human sin. The Bible's clear on that, and that's what we face unless someone who did not have a sin penalty to pay could take our place, could come and die and experience judgment in our place. That's what Jesus was saying he was doing, pouring out his life, emptying his cup so that our cup of life could be full. If you're here this morning, that's the most important thing for you to understand, that an offering was made for you that can cover your sin and give you life eternal.
But you're going to have to make a decision to turn away from your life of sin and trust in what he did for you. I pray that you will do that this morning. Now, Paul here is not saying that he's like Jesus and can pay for our sins. But he is saying that Jesus pouring out his life as a sacrifice is the pattern for his own life. When he says, even if I'm poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all. This is so interesting. There's a double sacrifice and offering going on. The Philippian church, which is the fruit of Paul's ministry, is an offering to God. And Paul himself, especially if he dies, He gets to be the accompanying drink offering that is poured over the top.
And that makes Paul glad and rejoice. And he thinks they should be glad and rejoice with him. Does that make sense? Wait, what? What kind of life dream is that? That's not exactly the American dream or the Chinese dream, is it? In his mind, he takes his life in his hands, as in a cup, and he pours it out. And he says, if this brings glory and honor to God, then I'm happy.
That's the dream, the great metaphor of his life, spilling his drink, which symbolizes his life. I take this precious thing, I pour it out in the service of my Lord. And by the way, this wasn't one zealous moment for Paul. This was the enduring metaphor for him. We know that because when we get to the last thing that he wrote in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering.
The time has come for my departure. I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. So brothers and sisters, the question for us this morning is do we view our lives as a sacrifice. You might ask, do we have to? I mean, maybe it's just Paul and Jesus. Well, no, Romans 12, 1 presents it to us as basic Christianity. Beloved, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
It's your spiritual act of worship. Now, how do we do that? Let's think about what this means. Well, you start by realizing you don't have anything that you didn't receive your very life your days are a gift from god you take your life and you just give it back to him as a glad offering this keeps you from living life like a person who's walking around at a party trying to avoid spilling their drink we can live that way if we're not careful so standing for christ in the workplace it might be a career limiting move if you take that that even small bold step this next week and and out yourself as a christian and try to have a conversation with that person god has put in your life it might get weird awkward they might not want to be your friend that's okay as a drink offering. Spending your free time on building relationships with non-Christians to try to
show them the love of Christ opens you up to disappointment. It does. It's okay as a drink offering. Your involvement in a local church is one long pouring out of yourself. That's okay as a drink offering so do you view yourself as a sacrifice to be poured out young people do you you recognize that as you're in school as you're growing up as you head off to college you're going to be presented alternate visions of your life maximizing your potential bringing glory to your family making yourself look good in the eyes of the culture around you those are alternate visions from this? Do you view yourself as an offering? So we're to view our life as a sacrifice. That's the first illustration of the Christian life here. I want to press on and think about a second way we're to view ourselves. Let's keep reading in verse 19. 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.
So these verses are about Timothy. He's a traveling companion of Paul. He was converted on Paul's first missionary journey, becomes one of Paul's closest partners in ministry. At times, he's the one who stays behind when Paul gets kicked out, like in Berea. Other times, like here, he's the one sent to check up on the Philippian church, or at least that had happened at least once before with Timothy. I think the Philippian church is probably hoping that if Paul can't come, at least it'll be Timothy. And what he's telling them is it's not going to be either of them. It's going to be Epaphroditus. That's what he's explaining here. Now, one observation I think we can make from these few verses is about prayer and planning. I want you to notice that the fact that Paul is an apostle and that he's writing inspired scripture doesn't mean he knows the future.
So twice there we read, I hope in the Lord Jesus. You notice that there, verse 19, and then again in verse 23, I hope. Verse 24, he says, I trust I will be able to come soon. But he doesn't know what's going to happen, just like we don't know what's going to happen. But then notice that he hopes in the Lord Jesus, and he trusts in the Lord. I don't think those are throwaway lines in any way. He's not saying them to sound spiritual. He means that he places his desires, his plans, his hopes in the Lord's hands.
His hopes and his plans don't stand alone, like we read in James 4. We should not be boastful about saying we're going to do X or Y or Z, but instead we're going to say, if the Lord wills. It's the same idea here. There's nothing wrong with hoping and planning for your future as you look out on the unknown even as my family is doing now we we have hopes we have plans but we've got to place them in the lord's hands all of us do so make sure your your trust is in the lord but back to timothy paul's partner in ministry see there in verse 22 it says he has served with me in the gospel. What does it mean to serve in the gospel, to be a servant-hearted Christian? I think there are three lessons we can take from Timothy. Number one, you care more about others than you care about yourself. Look at verse 20. He's unique to Paul because of
what he cares about. I have no one like him, or perhaps better translated, I have nobody as like-minded as him. How? Well, in being genuinely concerned for your welfare, cares about your welfare. Timothy gets it, that what really matters is how the church is doing, not how the missionary band is doing. That's what he cares about, and you can tell he cares about others. My brother John, my youngest brother, was converted as an adult about 10 years ago.
He says we had a pivotal conversation that I can't remember. He was a compulsive gamer. He would play video games all day and all night. After a 12-hour stretch of playing video games, he says that I said to him, you are what you care about. That doesn't sound like something I would say, but he says that's what I said. You are what you care about. I think the Spirit probably told him it. It caused him to lay down the controller and pick up a Bible.
But that's true. You know, we're defined by what we care about. All Timothy seems to care about is how other people are doing their welfare. That's what makes him like-minded with Paul and with the Lord Jesus. So, beloved, what do you care about? Do you care about the spiritual well-being of the people around you? Is that what you're praying for? Is that what you're trying to bend your time, your disposable time to spend on?
You might say, I'm not qualified to disciple anyone. You might feel that way. But what if you define discipling others as trying to do them spiritual good? Trying to encourage them where they're at with God's Word by praying with them, by asking them how they are doing. Who could you do that with even just this next week? The first mark of a servant, they care about others. But notice a second thing we're told about Timothy. This is something we're told by contrast in verse 21. Number two, you don't seek your own interests.
Look there at verse 21, they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. I was thinking, who are they and how would they feel about Paul writing this? Apparently, Paul looks around and he sees a lot of self-seeking, seeking their own interests. It's just a way to describe selfish ambition, self-centeredness. Now, that might sound bad until you realize it's the default setting, all of our hearts, right? I wake up in the morning hoping to get my coffee and breakfast and that the members of my family will make things smooth for me.
Seeking your own interests comes as natural as breathing to fallen human beings. What Timothy is doing is supernatural the interests he cares about are the interests of the lord the interests of jesus christ his name his word his honor his church so caring about others first secondly not seeking your own interest notice a third thing about timothy proven worth proven worth verse 22 paul says they know timothy's proven worth and how as a son serving with a father. He served with him in the gospel. Now, what does he mean by proven worth? Well, he means that this others-centered, not seeking his own interest, but the interest of the Lord kind of serving is something that Timothy has shown over time. It wasn't just once for a little while. He persevered in serving this way and now has this quality that Paul calls proven worth.
he has that reputation young people have to this this is what you want to strive for you want to strive for a reputation of being a servant you serve this year you serve next year five years from now ten years from now you're still there serving people that that's street cred that you want you you can't post it on instagram there's no tiktok video i'm aware of that you could make about it. It's just something that your community has got to say, yeah, that person is still there serving.
They always are. I've got no one else like her. I've got nobody else like him. So that's our profile of a servant. Cares about others. Seeks the interests of others over time to a place of proven worth. Can you see how this vision of the Christian life is being rounded out here? A sacrifice and now a servant.
Let's continue on and think thirdly about a soldier. Pick it up in verse 25. I 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's 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'm the more eager to send him, therefore, so that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.
So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Epaphroditus apparently was a member of the church in Philippi. He was chosen to take this monetary gift to Paul, who desperately needs it to survive in prison. So Paul has been carrying out his ministry from prison.
But the realities of being jailed in those days meant that if someone didn't bring him money, He could not buy food. He would not be provided for. He wasn't going to be able to continue. So this mission to take Paul money was important and not easy in that day and age. It's at least a 700-mile journey by land, plus an 80-mile sea voyage, if that's the path he took. He's got to protect money, which is probably coins in a bag.
No easy job. Somewhere on the journey, Epaphroditus gets very sick. You can see that there in verse 27. Paul says he was near death. We don't know the details, but we know it was on the journey because in verse 30 we're told he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. Don't be confused by that last phrase. He just means that he was lacking the needed support, the money. And until Epaphroditus gets to Paul with the money, the mission is incomplete.
Well, Epaphroditus didn't turn back after he got sick. At risk to himself, to his very life, he pushes himself to finish the job. And while he does so, he's worried because he knows word of his illness has gotten back to his home church. And his concern is that they might think he didn't finish the job. They won't know that until this letter gets back to them. Now, we don't know if Paul has worked with Epaphroditus before. He isn't mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament.
But don't miss the description there in verse 25. He says, my brother, my fellow worker, and fellow soldier. The first is what Paul would call a fellow Christian, my brother. The second is a smaller group. Fellow workers were those that joined his missionary journeys. It's a special group. But that third one is even more rare, fellow soldier. He only uses it twice. Here in Philemon, he says it about Archippus.
But Paul does say to Timothy that the Christian life should be thought of this way in 2 Timothy 2. Join with me in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Paul says Epaphroditus was a fellow soldier because he endured hardship in his unswerving commitment to pleasing his commanding officer.
I wonder if you think of the Christian life as a war. It clearly is. Our battle is not against people. It's against our own flesh. It's against the world system opposed to God. and against what the New Testament calls the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. But there's no question it's a battle from beginning to end. If you're going to go into battle, you better go in intending to be a good soldier.
You better be braced for the conflict. You better be ready for it, clear on who the commanding officer is, understanding what you're fighting for, willing to endure hardship, and not focused on civilian affairs. Now, there are civilian affairs to be tended to, of course. There's housework to do and bills to be paid and schedules to be maintained. But a soldier resolves not to be entangled in them. They cannot keep him or her from the battle.
What we're given here is a picture of a good soldier. Paul wants the Philippian church to receive Epaphroditus back with joy, and he says that they should honor such men. The reason you honor good soldiers is that they inspire other soldiers. June 28th is a special day. It's my wife's birthday, but I'm thinking about June 28th, 1810. Adoniram Judson was a young man attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts General Association of Congregational Churches.
Afterwards, he had lunch at the home of Ann Haseltine, 21-year-old pastor's daughter, and he was smitten by her dark eyes, her curling hair, and her vivacious manner. It's only about a month later that he writes an astonishing letter to her father asking for her hand in marriage. but including his intention to go abroad as America's first overseas missionary.
So any young man in a similar situation might want to take note here. This is how you talk to the dad. I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world, whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life, whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.
Can you consent to all this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing and immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God. That's a good soldier. But I wonder if you think the metaphor is more fitting for men than for women. Perhaps in the world of military combat, that might be true.
I certainly hope that our sons are ready to be soldiers if the need arises. But in the history of the church, some of the best soldiers were women. Anne Housetine Judson was the best of the best. Listen to what this 21-year-old, vibrant, talented young woman with curling hair writes in her journal after considering the proposal of this young, aspiring missionary. I have at length come to the conclusion that if nothing in providence appears to prevent, I must spend my days in a heathen land.
I'm a creature of God, and he has an undoubted right to do with me as seemeth good in his sight. I rejoice that I am in his hands, that he is everywhere present, and can protect me in one place as well as in another. He has my heart in his hands. And when I'm called to face danger, to pass through scenes of terror and distress. He can inspire me with fortitude and enable me to trust in him. Jesus is faithful. His promises are precious.
Were it not for these considerations, I would, with my present prospects, sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen. Nor do I yet know that I shall have a single female companion. But whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God and be prepared to spend an eternity in his presence. If ever there was a good soldier, Anne Haseltine Judson was.
Now look, I know that Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus are full-time Christian workers. And I just added the illustrations of Adoniram and Anne Judson, the first missionaries to go abroad from the U.S. And I don't mean to say that this applies to a special category of Christian. What did Ann say there? Whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God.
It doesn't really matter what you do. Every single one of us is called to endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter if you're young or old or in the middle. It doesn't matter if you're a school teacher or a student or an electrician. Life is war because heaven and hell are real. And so is the battle between the forces of darkness and the kingdom of light. So here, I think, we have this glorious, full-orbed picture of the Christian life, a sacrifice poured out to God, a servant of all, a soldier of the Lord.
Is that your dream this morning? Now, it would be easy for us to finish the passage with a bracing call to face your duty with obedience and faith and those are definitely things we should do but if we did that I think we'd be missing something essential here all three of those images are real but they're sobering they're humbling they're challenging maybe we could assume that they're a bit depressing what's the attitude with which the apostle faced them look back up at verse 17 even if i am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial offering of your faith i'm sobered humbled challenged depressed no he says i'm glad and rejoice with you all
oh and you you should be glad and rejoice with me why is paul glad i'm sure that modern psychology would render a diagnosis here not take a lesson i mean a man on death row who has reason to expect that he's about to die in a squalid place why would he be rejoicing he's either in denial or not in full possession of his faculties but of course you and i know paul knows what he's saying he remembers with joy what his savior did he didn't live trying not to spill his drink no he poured it out for the good of all he he didn't come to be served but to serve to give his life as a ransom for many and as for soldier do you remember when he set his face like flint to go to jerusalem to conquer sin satan and death
he was our good soldier and all of them fell before the son of god so paul is glad he gets to follow in the footsteps of jesus he's also glad because by faith christ jesus victory is his and it's ours, too, if we trust in him. So he knows to live is Christ and to die is gain. So we say the joyful Christian should view themselves as a sacrifice, a servant, and a soldier of Christ.
Let's pray together. Father, you've been so good to us in so many ways. as we gather this morning to remember what you did for us on the cross we also remember your resurrection from the dead and the hope of eternal life that is ours in him so would you encourage us and would you give us a renewed vision a renewed dream of living for you as faithfully as we can all the way until you call us home we pray these things in Jesus name Amen