Proven Worth

Good morning.

My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the assistant pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.

And it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

A special welcome if you are new or visiting with us.

We're glad you're here.

And we're glad you're here not because you are filling a seat,

but because we are following Jesus together as one community.

And we're convinced that because of Jesus,

there is no one so good that they don't need God's grace,

and no one so bad that they can't have it.

And so God has something to say to all of us,

and all of us need to hear what God has to say to us in his word.

Now, if you have been with us for a while,

you know that we're going through the book of Philippians.

And as I've said before, Philippians is a letter.

And it's a letter written to a church.

It's a church very similar to our church in a city very similar to our city.

And I've said that, but I haven't talked a lot about the mechanics of the fact that it's a letter.

So we've said that it's a letter over and over.

I've talked about what's going on in Philippi,

but we haven't talked about the letter part of the letter until now.

And so how do you think a letter would make it from one place in the ancient world to another?

Did Paul take out an envelope and stick this letter into it

and then stick a Roman stamp on it and send it to Philippi?

He did not.

As advanced as the Roman Empire was, they did not have that kind of postal service and system.

So they had great roads, but people had to carry letters from one place to another.

And so we're going to learn about some letter logistics today.

We're going to hear about a man named Timothy and a man named Epaphroditus.

And the reason we're going to hear about them is because Paul needs to tell the Philippian church

some very practical things.

Epaphroditus was from the Philippian church, and he traveled from Philippi to Rome.

And he did that for two reasons.

One, to give Paul a financial gift, which we'll talk about in a few weeks when we get to chapter 4.

Paul needed money. He was in prison.

The Philippian church supported him.

That was part of their partnership with him in the gospel.

But Epaphroditus was also sent to help Paul.

Paul is in house arrest in Rome.

And so they think, here's this great founder of our church.

Not only does he need financial resources,

he also needs someone who can come alongside him and assist him.

And so Paul has two main points that he wants to communicate to the Philippians here.

One, my friend Timothy is going to stay with me.

And point two, Epaphroditus, who you sent to help me,

I'm going to send him back to you instead of letting him help me.

So that's the point of this passage.

So we can end the sermon, we can go home.

Right?

No.

The question is, what do we learn from logistics like this?

What do we learn from these simple details,

these practical details about Paul,

and the fact that he has a friend coming to him,

the fact that someone needs to carry a letter,

the fact that there's all these logistics involved.

So many of you know that I go hiking a lot.

It's one of my favorite things to do here in Colorado Springs.

That'll be one of my first answers if you ask me what I do

when I'm not preaching and working here at Cheyenne Mountain.

And one of my favorite places to go is Cheyenne Mountain State Park,

which is just 10 minutes south of here.

Yeah?

And if you go on, if you're like me and you've done a lot of exploring,

you're familiar with the, I don't do directions super well.

If you're like me, if you've explored,

you're familiar with all the different trails.

And if you go on the Sundance Trail,

you know there's lots of different signs that you'll see as you go along,

nature signs telling you about different animals.

And my favorite sign is on the Sundance Trail,

and it talks about what animals do in the winter.

So there's different strategies animals have.

The bears hibernate.

Apparently the beetles hibernate too.

I didn't know that.

But if you go to the park, you'll see a lot of deer.

And there are mule deer apparently.

And the mule deer, they don't hibernate.

They migrate.

And so there's a little sidebar that talks about the mule deer

and what they do, and it says this.

Young deer learn the route to their winter range

by following their elders.

Then generally use the same route every year.

And so the point is this.

Remember last week we asked, how do we grow as Christians?

And we saw that it's God that works and wills in us.

And one of the ways that we grow as Christians

is by following other people who know the route.

One of the ways we grow as Christians

is by following other people who know the route.

And so explicitly, Paul is telling us about Epaphroditus and Timothy

because of the logistics of his letter.

But implicitly, they serve here as his sermon illustrations.

So Paul's been preaching this sermon through a letter

to the church in Philippi.

He hasn't used really any illustrations yet,

except we heard about the lights and the stars.

That was sort of an illustration.

But he doesn't need to tell us about these people

at this point in the letter, right?

He could have told us at the beginning.

He could have told us at the end.

But he presents Timothy and Epaphroditus to us

right after he's told us about the need for humility,

the need to grow as Christians.

And so we first saw Christ as our example

at the beginning of chapter 2.

And now Timothy and Epaphroditus

are going to serve as examples as well.

And so our question is this.

As we are following people who know the route,

what type of people should we follow?

Who should we look to as leaders in our congregation?

Who should we look to as people

that we want to learn from and emulate?

We're going to see from Timothy and Epaphroditus here

exactly the sort of people that we're going to go after.

Who do we want to learn the route from

so that we can follow it year by year?

We're in the book of Philippians.

We're in chapter 2 and we're going to start on verse 19.

It's going to be in your worship guide as well,

pretty close to the back.

And remember that this is God's word.

And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold,

even the finest gold.

And it is sweeter than honey,

even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.

And so we're going to read it now.

Please read with me starting at 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.

Verse 23.

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.

Verse 25.

I have thought it necessary to send to you,

Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker

and fellow soldier,

and your messenger and minister to my need.

For he has been longing for you all

and has been distressed

because you heard that he was ill.

Indeed, he was ill, near to death.

But God had mercy on him,

and not only on him but on me also,

lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Verse 28.

I am the more eager to send him therefore

that you may rejoice at seeing him again

and that I may be less anxious.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy

and honor such men.

For he nearly died for the work of Christ,

risking his life to complete

what was lacking in your service to me.

Please pray with me

as we come to this portion of God's word.

Amen.

Dear Father in heaven,

we thank you for a sunny day,

for the sun that reminds us

that you are the one who provides us

with everything we need.

You're the one who sustains us.

We thank you for your word,

which we need to know you and your ways.

And we thank you that you've given it to us.

We ask that you would help us to understand,

that you would send your Holy Spirit

to do what we would otherwise be unable to do,

and that's to hear from you.

We ask all these things in the name of your Son.

Amen.

So who should we follow?

What type of people do we want to be looking to

and looking after?

Paul cuts to the chase pretty quickly.

He says he's going to send Timothy to them soon,

but not right away in verse 21.

And then we find out why right away in verse 20,

excuse me, verse 19,

and then verses 20 and 21.

He says,

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.

Does this sound familiar at all?

Remember we talked at the beginning of chapter 2

about Paul's command to seek the interests of others

above your own interests.

And here he says,

Timothy does just that.

He's genuinely concerned for your welfare.

He doesn't seek his own interests.

He seeks those of Jesus Christ.

He is, as we've talked about before,

Timothy is a question person,

not an answer person.

Timothy's the kind of person who's shown

that he cares about others more than himself.

He's willing to put the needs of the community first.

And he's done this for such a long time

that he has proven worth in verse 22.

Now what do we make of the fact that he says,

I have no one like him?

Is Timothy the only person

that Paul knows who models this character?

Is the only person in the church

who's able to seek other people's interests above his own?

Well, we find out in the very next section

that we also have Epaphroditus.

So Paul is clearly not saying literally

there's no one like Timothy.

He's using hyperbole here,

but he's making the point

that this is something that's rare.

It's rare to find someone

who's interested in others rather than themselves.

I had a professor who loved to teach about conflict,

and he talked a lot about the conflict

that would happen between people

who have very different personalities.

And he would go through

all different types of personality tests

and explain how this person

with this kind of way of viewing the world

would come into conflict with another person.

But then he would always provide this one caveat.

He would say,

but character trumps personality every time.

And then he would pause again.

And he would say,

but unfortunately,

character is in short supply.

And so what Paul is saying is this

when he talks about Timothy.

Character is in short supply.

It is rare.

It is difficult.

It's hard to find someone like Timothy

who's really willing to put the interests of others

above his own interests.

And so that's why he's the example here.

That's why Paul is talking about his character

and his life,

the fact that he's proven over time

that he is willing to sacrifice and to serve.

When I was in seminary,

so I have two professor stories for you today.

I already gave you the first one.

I had a professor who told several times

about his time in seminary.

He had a fellow classmate of his

and this classmate was incredibly dedicated.

And so when it came time for graduation,

you know, they give out the award.

Someone gets the theology award.

Someone else gets the church history award.

Someone else gets the Bible award.

And this student ran all of them.

He ran the whole track.

He won every single award.

So there was not a single award left for anyone else.

So of course people envied him.

They were impressed by him.

They admired him.

After graduation, the next week,

this student's wife filed for divorce.

And I'm not excusing his wife.

I'm not saying that was the right thing for her to do.

But the point of the story was this.

Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient.

This student knew a lot of facts about Jesus.

He had a lot of things in his head.

He dedicated himself to memorizing and understanding.

But he had revealed in the way he'd behaved as a husband and a father

that he did not understand anything about Jesus.

He had the knowledge.

Factually.

But he had no real knowledge.

And it's not that knowledge isn't important.

It's necessary, but it's not sufficient.

Christian maturity does not come from winning awards in Bible knowledge.

It comes from selflessness.

When he says here,

I have no one like Timothy,

we could translate that as like-minded.

It's similar language to what we saw at the beginning of chapter 2.

I have no one who has the same mind as Timothy does.

And remember we talked about before

that this same mind is not that they agree about everything theologically.

We would assume that Paul has trained Timothy,

that Timothy agrees with Paul.

But it's that they have the same mind relationally.

They have the same mind towards other people and towards self-sacrifice.

It's possible to know the gospel factually,

but not know the gospel.

And we've already seen that in chapter 1.

Remember Paul told us that there were people

who were preaching the gospel accurately,

but they were doing it out of envy and ambition and selfishness.

Remember he said in verses 12 through 14,

he said they're preaching the gospel out of ambition and conceit,

but I praise God because the gospel is being preached.

And so we already have this category

that it's possible to know the facts about God,

but not to know God.

It's preaching the gospel accurately

versus living the gospel accurately.

And Timothy here has demonstrated through his selflessness

over time

that he knows the gospel.

He knows about Jesus' sacrifice

because he sacrifices.

That's the proof that he understands

the reality of Jesus and his death

and his resurrection.

There was recently an interview

with a man who's become famous just recently.

His name's Jordan Peterson.

I am not advocating his teaching by quoting him, by the way.

He has many things to say.

He's right about many things.

He's very wrong about many things.

And, spoiler,

most of what he says about the Bible

is very, very wrong.

Okay?

So I'm not endorsing him in any way,

but he had this fascinating quote recently.

A few months ago,

he was on Firing Line on PBS,

and the interviewer, Margaret Hoover, asked him this.

She said,

I want to ask you about your personal faith.

Christians who watch you

have listened closely over the last two years

about whether you self-identify as a Christian or not.

And just to provide some background,

Jordan Peterson has a lot of things to say about the Bible.

Most of them are wrong,

but since he has so much to say,

people are wondering about whether he's a Christian.

And here was his answer.

People think that what they believe

is what they say they believe.

I don't believe that.

I believe that what people believe

is what they act out.

And so I said,

I act as if God exists.

That's a sufficient statement

as far as I'm concerned.

You know, what's the old saying?

By their fruits, you shall know them.

Same idea, right?

It's a matter of action

and a matter of commitment.

And so as wrong as he is on many things,

Jordan Peterson has caught on to something

that what we believe is not so much

what we say we believe

is what we act we believe.

And this, again,

is not to pit knowledge against belief.

Jordan Peterson is not right

in saying that it's okay

not to tell people where he stands, right?

But he has hit something that's true,

which is that it's our actions

that reveal our beliefs

more than anything else.

And so that is what Paul is telling us

about Timothy.

Timothy's actions have revealed his beliefs.

And that's why we're told

he has proven worth.

And so if you remember last week,

we asked,

how is it that we're able to obey?

What does God do?

And we saw that he gives us

a new will,

a new ability to obey.

But one of the ways he does that,

some of that is through his spirit's work

directly in our hearts,

but a lot of it is from the people around us.

Paul's presenting Timothy and Epaphroditus here

as people that the Philippian church

can follow after.

And so part of God's work in our lives,

part of his working and willing

that we saw in verses 12 and 13

is the people who are around us right now.

God has provided people who know the route

that we can follow.

We can learn from those with proven worth.

And so if you want to learn

how to be an encourager,

then you should probably spend some time

with Paula Johnson.

If you want to learn

how to have empathy and compassion

for other people,

you're probably going to need

to spend more time with Mark Fairbrother

and Harvey Carlson.

If you want to learn

what it's like to persevere

and have faith,

then you should probably go

to Mary Vincent's Bible study.

Part of God's grace for us,

his ways that he enables us

and empowers us

is the people around us.

He gives us his spirit,

but he also gives us his church.

He gives us Timothys and Epaphrodituses

that we can learn the route.

We can learn the way

to walk as Christians.

And this is also why we need the church.

So sometimes you'll hear people

say something like this,

you know,

I have a Bible study

that I really enjoy

and I really like,

and you know,

that's really my church.

That's where I get my fellowship.

Those people are the,

I don't need to be somewhere

on a Sunday morning.

I'm in a college group,

you know,

with these other college students

and we worship together

on Tuesday nights,

and that's where my spiritual needs

get met.

But you know,

it's surprising how much

those groups look exactly like you.

People who are similar to you

probably believe the same things as you.

Where are you going to find

Timothy and Epaphroditus?

Where are you going to find

people who are different from you?

People who are different

in terms of their age

and their life stage.

People who are different

in terms of their knowledge

and experience.

It's going to be here in the church.

One of the things I love

about our church here

at Cheyenne Mountain

is the diversity we have

of ages and generations

and experiences.

When you come to a church,

you don't get to self-select

the people who are going to be

the Christians who walk alongside you.

But you get to come

where there's a group of people,

many of whom have walked the route

for a long, long time.

They have what Paul says here,

they have proven worth.

Verse 22.

You know Timothy's proven worth.

He has shown again and again

that he's the type of person

you should follow.

He's the type of person

you can learn from and model.

And so who should we follow?

What should we be looking for?

Who should we model ourselves after?

Who are the leaders of our church?

We should be looking for Timothys.

We should be looking for people

who give up,

who are willing to put others

above themselves

that are willing to lose.

If you know the qualifications

for church officers

that Paul gives in 1 Timothy 3,

there is basically one qualification

that has to do with any gift.

And that's the ability to teach

and it's the knowledge of right doctrine.

Every single qualification

he gives besides that

is a qualification of character.

That it is character,

not gifts,

that ultimately determine God's leaders.

And so if we're wondering

who we should follow,

it's the people of proven worth.

Those whose character

has revealed what they believe.

They have proved themselves

through their selflessness

rather than their rightness.

They proved themselves

through their selflessness

rather than their rightness.

Timothy is not the only person here.

We have Epaphroditus in verse 25.

And Epaphroditus gets a lot of titles.

Did you notice that?

Did you notice all the names

Paul gives him?

I have thought it necessary

to send to you Epaphroditus,

my brother and fellow worker

and fellow soldier

and your messenger

and minister to my need.

In other words,

Epaphroditus is a team player

kind of guy.

Epaphroditus is a fellow worker,

a fellow soldier.

He's someone who works

alongside other people.

Epaphroditus is not a lone ranger

going out on God's mission

by himself.

He's someone who's worked

side by side with people in Philippi

and he's worked side by side with Paul.

And so Paul commends him for that.

And then we see Epaphroditus' love

and concern for the rest of the church.

He's been longing for the church

in Philippi, verse 26.

Background information,

Epaphroditus got very, very sick

as we see her on his way

to deliver the letter to Paul.

So part of the reason

he's sending Epaphroditus back

is everyone in Philippi

heard that Epaphroditus almost died

and so they've been praying for him.

They're concerned about him.

They want to see him.

And so Paul's modeling

selflessness as well.

This man Epaphroditus

who was sent to help him,

he out of his concern

for the church in Philippi

sends him back

so that they can be reunited

with Epaphroditus

and know that he's well.

And we find out

that when he comes back,

verse 28,

they're going to rejoice

at seeing him.

And so they should receive him

in the Lord

with all joy and honor him

because he risked his life

to complete what was lacking

in your service to me.

And so Epaphroditus here

is also modeling

the sacrifice that we saw

in Philippians 2,

Philippians 2:5–11

verses 5 through 11

about Christ.

There's an echo of language here

that Christ gave up his life

for the sake of others.

And here Epaphroditus

almost lost his life.

That Epaphroditus too

is a fellowship kind of guy.

I've told you before

that the book of Philippians

is about partnership

in the gospel.

Epaphroditus is a partnership

kind of guy.

So Timothy is a sacrifice

kind of guy.

He's a selflessness

kind of guy.

Epaphroditus is a partnership

kind of guy.

He sacrifices as well,

but he is eager to work with

and alongside other people.

And so who do we follow?

What are we looking for?

We're looking for Timothys

who are selfless,

but we're also looking

for Epaphroditus'

who are workers,

who are partners,

people who work alongside

and with other people.

Those are the individuals

that God has given us

in our church

to learn from

and grow.

And so on the one hand,

we see Epaphroditus and Timothy

as our models here, right?

They're selfless

and partner kind of people.

But it might feel like here

that this is similar

to what we talked about

last week.

Remember we talked about

the lifting the car feeling,

the feeling that Christian obedience

is lifting a car

with no jack.

it's this great impossible task

that God's calling us

to things we're unable to do.

And we've talked about

the fact that

the traditionally religious person

says be good like I'm good.

It could feel a little bit

like Paul is saying,

okay, Timothy and Epaphroditus,

be good like they're good.

And it's the non-religious person

that says there is no good, right,

or find your own good.

But it's the gospel,

it's the gospel person

that's able to say,

no one is good,

only Jesus is good.

And so what Paul is saying here

is not that we pull ourselves up

by the bootstraps

to be like Timothy and Epaphroditus.

But Timothy and Epaphroditus

are examples of God

at work in people's lives.

First of all,

willing and working.

So if we want to know,

you know, there's lots of answers

we could give to the question

of how do we know God's real?

There are philosophical answers

we could give about

why does God exist?

And many of those are good and helpful.

But we also have

a relational community answer

that we can know God is real

and he's at work

when we see the lives around us

of people who have walked with God

for a long time.

And they can tell us,

hey, I used to be like this,

but now I've changed.

And the reason I've changed

is because God is at work.

And so what we see in Timothy

and Epaphroditus

are not these models

that we simply pull ourselves up

to meet.

But we see examples,

encouragements

that God really is at work.

He really does change people's lives.

He's done it for Timothy

and Epaphroditus.

And secondly,

he doesn't ask us

to walk the walk

of obedience alone

by ourselves.

He never asks us

to pull ourselves up

by our bootstraps.

But he gives us

Timothys and Epaphrodituses

to walk with us.

And so God's grace

comes to us

not just as he gives us

his spirit

to change our desires

and our abilities,

but his grace

comes to us

as he gives us

each other

as examples,

as models,

as encouragers

to help

along the way.

I can't imagine

that we would

do anything

but gain

from Timothy

if you were here

right now.

Here's a man

who's willing

to give himself up

anything he can do

for other people.

Timothy wouldn't be

someone to come alongside

and say,

be good like I'm good.

Timothy would be someone

who would be giving himself

to others saying,

no one is good

but Jesus is good

and I'm going to come

with you and walk with you.

And so that's what we do

as a church here.

That is how God works

in our lives.

And so that is why

we're not saying

be good like Timothy

and Epaphroditus

are good.

But Timothy

and Epaphroditus

show us

that Jesus is good.

They show us

the reality

that he has

in people's lives

that they have seen

what we saw

in verses 6 and 11

that Jesus gave up

his life

and that has changed

them as well.

In 2009

the naturalist

Tristan Gouley

went on a journey

in the Libyan Sahara

and he had two

nomads with him

who were guides

and he's kind

of a tracker

and so he asked

them,

he had two fears.

One,

he was going

to lose them

in the desert

in the Sahara

and his other fear

was that he would

run into danger.

And so at one point

he talked to

the older of the guide,

the guide's name

was Amgar

and he asked him

how am I not

going to lose you?

How am I going

to know

if there's danger?

So the guide

lifted up his foot

and showed him

the tracks

on the bottom

of his shoe

and then he pointed

to the tracks

in the sand

and he said

now

you will never

lose me.

And then later

along as they were

going he pointed

to some wavy lines

in the sand

which were the tracks

the pattern

left by a snake

that had been going

through the desert.

And he said

do you see those?

Now

you will have

no bad surprises.

And so Amgar

he never lost

Tristan never lost

Amgar in the desert

he just kept following

in his footsteps

knowing the distinctive

mark of his shoes

in the sand.

Brothers and sisters

as we're looking

and seeking

to live the Christian

life together

we look to the

distinctive mark

of those around us

who are selfless

and partners.

God gives us

to them

gives us to each other

to help us along the way

and show us

the route

so that we

will never get lost.

And so that as we

stick close

to those tracks

and they stick

close to God

we can make it

through

together.

and so those

are the tracks

that we follow.

Those are the people

we model ourselves

after.

Those are the people

we look to

as our leaders.

That's the grace

that God has given us

as we walk together

as one community

following Jesus

together.

Please pray with me.

Dear Father in Heaven

we thank you

for the grace

that you give to us.

First of all

the grace in your son

who came

and died for us

who gave up his life

but secondly

in the grace

of each other

that you've given to us

you've given us

the gift of the church.

You've given us

saints who have

proven their worth

who have walked

for a long time

and shown

that they truly

know you.

And so we ask

that you would give us

the desire

and the ability

to follow them

more and more.

We ask that you'd

build us and grow us

together

here as one community.

We ask all these things

in the name of your son.

Amen.

Please stand

for our closing hymn.