Mutual Encouragement (Philippians 2:19-30)

Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 through 30.

Philippians 2:19–30

Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be encouraged by news about you.

For I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests.

All seek their own interests, 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 a father.

Therefore I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.

I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

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.

Since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick.

Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died.

However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

For this reason I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him, and I may be less anxious.

Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, 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.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do every week, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that we have this, that each one of us has the ability to hold your word in our hands.

Lord, that is truly a gift.

Help us to never take advantage of that or to not take the opportunity to hear your voice through your word.

Lord, I pray today as we go through this passage that you would speak to each one of our hearts through your word.

That if there's anything that we need to hear, anything that you want to teach us, anything that you want to change inside of us, Lord, that we would come to you and be clay, Lord, moldable and shapeable, our hearts and our minds and our ears and our minds.

Would you do the work here this morning inside of each one of us?

And as a church as a whole, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So, so far in chapter two, we've seen the Holy Spirit through Paul address how the Philippian church should love, and then how they should think, and then how they should live out their salvation.

And today he's going to talk about encouragement quite a bit.

He'll tell the Philippian church how he hopes to encourage them, and he's also going to tell them how they have encouraged him.

You know, this really goes along with Paul's attitude that we've seen since chapter one.

He's Paul's the one that's in prison.

He's the one whose life is on the line.

He's the one that's awaiting trial, and he's the one trying to encourage them.

You know, last week we saw him go as far as encouraging them to rejoice if he was poured out as a drink offering on his sacrificial service.

You know, he's in a dark circumstance circumstance, yet he's caring for and encouraging them.

He's kind of flipping things around on them.

What Paul's doing in these passages today reminds me of sometimes I'll go and I'll do a hospital visitation, you know, if a church member's in church or something like that.

And I end up leaving the room more encouraged than when I went in.

And I went there to try and encourage them.

You know, I want to go pray for them, see what their needs are, you know, and just try to encourage them in any way that I can.

And then they end up asking me, like, how am I doing?

This happened to me a couple weeks ago.

Uh, they start asking, like, how I'm feeling, how they can be praying for me.

And I think that is what's really happening here with Paul and the Philippian church.

The church in Philippi says, hey, Epaphroditus, Paul's in prison in Rome.

Bring him this love offering to bless him and to minister to his needs and to encourage Paul while he's in prison.

Aphroditus gets there and Paul's like, How's everybody in Philippi?

How are you doing?

Is everything okay?

How can I be praying for you?

You know what?

Let me write you a letter to take back with you to encourage the church in the Lord.

I'm so thankful that you came.

You know, just all of this encouragement going back to Epaphroditus.

I think Paul really flipped the encouragement on Epaphroditus and the Philippian church.

And we're going to see the first signs of that in verse 19.

So look at verse 19 with me.

Now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be encouraged by news about you.

So this is Paul's desire.

If the Lord wills, this is what he plans to do, is to send Timothy to them.

Now, in 1 Timothy 1, and then also in our passage today, Paul calls him a son in the faith.

You know, that's an incredible relationship, isn't it?

For him to be able to say that.

And I'm sure that Paul loved having Timothy with him there in Rome and having that company for him.

But he's willing to send him for the sake of the Philippian church.

And as we'll see, he's willing to send his best in Timothy for the sake of God's kingdom.

Now, when we were in the year leading up to this church plant, to plant abide, we were still in that brainstorming phase over at Shoreline.

And our pastor over there from our sending church, Shoreline, that's Pastor Ed, he kept using that phrase with me the whole time.

We want to send our best.

You know, he would say, if we're gonna be ascending church, we need to be willing to send our best.

And he backed it up because he told me once Abide was looking like more and more of a reality, he told me, he says, pray about it.

He says, and then you can ask anybody in the church that you want to to go and plant that church.

Because he truly wanted to send his best, to bless a task at arrow.

You know, it's been our hope since day one to be a sending church that does the same thing that Shoreline did for us.

But that's a hard thing to do.

It's a hard thing to even want to do because it involves sacrifice, to say goodbye to key leaders and then depend on God to fill the voids that are left within the church.

But what I've learned is that when God is calling out to the mission field, to plan a church, whatever it might be, when God is calling out, he's also calling up from within the church.

You know, I've told you before, but since before our first Sunday meeting, when we first started having giving that was coming in to this church, we started setting aside 5% of everything that comes in to have a special fund in reserve for sending.

It's already set aside.

We haven't sent a missionary yet, we haven't sent a church planner yet, but it's sitting there in hopes that we would be able to send people out, not just send them out, but send them well.

We want to encourage that attitude of sending out, and we want those that are sent to be encouraged.

And that's what we see Paul doing here.

He's sending out his best, he's sending out Timothy, he's sacrificing, having him there in Rome to send him to Philippi.

You know, and it makes sense though, because Timothy's already been to Philippi before.

So he's familiar with that church.

For sure we know he was with Paul on his second missionary journey when Paul planted the church in Philippi.

On Paul's third missionary journey, we know they go through Macedonia, so probably hit up Philippi again, so that's most likely the second time he was there.

And you can see Paul's desire is not only to bless them with Timothy now, but also to hear back on how Philippi is doing.

And what's interesting is he's so confident in their faith, the Philippian church faith and their faithfulness, that he expected the news back to him would be good.

He expected that it's going to be good news.

It says it right there.

He expected that the news back would encourage him.

Remember, this wasn't one of Paul's problem churches that we see in the New Testament.

This was a mutually encouraging church between Philippi and Paul.

And so he loved hearing updates about how well they were actually doing.

Doesn't mean they were a perfect church because those don't exist.

We'll see that they did have some spats that he's going to be addressing, but they were healthy.

And they were a church that was on the part of sending Paul and supporting Paul along the way.

Now, regarding Timothy, look at what Paul has to say next in verse 20.

He says, For I have no one else like-minded or equal-souled.

I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests.

Paul regarded Timothy with a lot of respect and with a lot of trust.

He knew Timothy loved this church as much as he did.

He knew Timothy loved this church and placed their needs above his own needs.

He loved this church so much, really, that like that he loved the church like Paul.

And we already saw that Paul loved the church with the affection of Jesus Christ.

And for Paul to speak this highly of somebody, I think it really means a lot.

Because if you think of Paul's sacrifice and his mindset, the way that he is just sold out and how he lives out his actions for Christ.

And then he calls Timothy like-minded, equal in soul.

In 2 Timothy 3 10, Paul says of Timothy, but you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance.

That's a lot, isn't it?

When you think of all that Paul has done and all that Paul has sacrificed, that's a lot right there.

You know, disciples in the faith should grow to be like their discipler, shouldn't they?

As much as they are imitating Christ, they should grow to be like their discipler.

You know, Paul has this in Timothy.

And I'm sure that this was probably a long process before Timothy arrived at this area where Paul could say these things about him.

But Timothy was shadowing Paul.

He was learning from him.

He was just watching how he interacted in everyday life, and so much so that he became like-souled, like-minded with Paul.

And then Paul here contrasts Timothy with the others.

Look at verse 21.

All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

So Timothy is not perfected, obviously, but he's come to a place of spiritual maturity where he's placing the interests of others in the church above his own.

He's come to a place of deep maturity in Christ.

But the others?

Not so much, says in 21 here.

And this is most likely just referring to the church that's in Rome, the church that's around Paul in this time.

And Paul hasn't been able to find a person that cares more about the interests of others more than their own.

He hasn't been able to find somebody that's going to drop everything and head to Philippi to encourage them and to bring word back to Paul, really kind of like a short-term missions trip.

And this may be a reflection of the struggles that the Roman church was still going through.

Because Paul evidently thinks that some of them should be sent out.

If you just look at this, whether that's short-term or long term.

But those individuals don't think so, at least yet.

They're too concerned with their own interests, and they're not hearing the call of the Lord because of that.

But not Timothy.

Look at what he says about him in verse 22.

But you know his proven character, because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father.

Again, we see Paul use familial language in this letter.

You know, for the kids that are here, that means like family titles: son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother.

We see that a lot in this letter.

We see this a lot when he's referring to Timothy.

And here he says that Timothy is like a son.

Timothy might be the disciple that Paul's most proud of.

You know, this is a guy after his own heart, as far as the passion that he has for the gospel, as far as planting churches, raising up disciples, encouraging churches that are already establishing.

Timothy really has a pastor's heart.

And he gets mentioned actually in 12 of Paul's letters.

That's a lot.

And he uses familial language when he's speaking about this guy.

You know, as a son, as we just saw, in the ministry of the gospel.

And this all took place through discipleship, through him just being with Paul and learning from him, imitating Paul as Paul imitates Christ.

You know, if you're mature in the faith and you don't have somebody like Timothy in your life or haven't in the past, where you can say, This is my spiritual son, this is my spiritual daughter, I want to challenge you to make that your goal.

To have somebody that you have discipled and poured into you where you can call them a son or daughter in the ministry of the gospel.

One of the pastors that I pray with every week, he continuously prays for gray-haired disciplers in his church.

You know, if you have gray hair, not physically, but spiritually, but if you have gray hairs in the faith, who are you pouring into?

You know, like Paul does to Timothy.

Or maybe you're younger in the faith and you want to have a spiritual father or a spiritual mother like Paul is to Timothy.

You know, to be a mentor in the faith.

You know, sometimes the word disciple can be like, oh, I don't know what that means.

Mentor's okay, we can use that word.

But sometimes we just need to sit down with somebody that has lived in our life phase and can speak godly wisdom into our life.

If that's you, I want you to just look around for those that are mature in the faith in this church.

Look at somebody that you admire.

You know, if you have kids, find somebody whose kids, or how do I say this, who have kids that you want your kids to turn out like.

And just start asking questions to them.

It could be here, it could be over coffee, you know, whatever it might be.

But just sit down with somebody that has gray hair in the faith and start talking life.

Start praying for each other, to start talking scripture and just start to glean from those people.

There's a lot of people in this church that have a lot to offer our younger generation.

So just start meeting up, both sides.

Find people to pour into and find people to pour into you if you're younger in the faith.

I believe everybody needs a Paul, and everybody needs a Timothy as we're making this walk, this journey of following Jesus Christ.

And if you have kids at home, you're already in this relationship right now.

You have little Timothy's, and you are their Paul spiritually speaking.

So disciple them well.

Now look at verse 23.

Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.

Paul's waiting for something.

It's probably referring to his trial and the verdict that's going to come from that before he sends Timothy off.

So he's waiting for that.

Look at verse 24.

I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

So Paul had two imprisonments in Rome.

I believe this is the first.

And then he was out of prison for about two years in between those sentences.

Um, and scripture doesn't say a lot about what he did in between those imprisonments.

You know, Acts ends with Paul's imprisonment in Rome, but by looking at some letters that he wrote, like in 1 Timothy, he may have made it back to Philippi.

We don't know for sure.

But he lets them know he really wants to see them again if the Lord wills.

He loves this church.

He's so encouraged by them, he wants to spend more time with them.

Verse 25, um, now he moves on to Epaphroditus.

It says, But I considered it necessary to send you Ephroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need.

Aphroditus was sent from Philippi to Rome to minister to Paul.

To close the distance gap between Paul and the church in Philippi.

And it seems Paul has found another like-minded, like-souled servant in Epaphroditus.

Look at the words that he uses.

Brother, you know, another familial word that he uses.

Co-worker.

So, not employee.

He calls them a co-worker in Christ and fellow soldier.

They're fighting the good fight together.

They're shoulder to shoulder in battle together.

You know, Paul's setting things up right here to talk about how the Philippian church should honor Epaphroditus when he gets back, but we're going to get to that in a second.

First, let's talk a little more about Epaphroditus.

You know, he reminds me in a way, and I already said this, but of a short-term missionary.

He went not to take selfies with poor people and put it on Instagram or whatever, not to feel good about himself because, you know, he went away for a week.

But he went to go encourage the missionaries that were already on location.

To encourage them, to help them, to build them up, to provide for some of their practical needs and to strengthen them in the Lord.

Paphroditus most likely brought Paul some financial support, maybe some supplies or clothing that he needed, something like that, to minister to Paul.

And now Paul sees it as necessary to send him back.

Why?

Well, look at verse 26.

Since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick.

Think about this.

It's kind of funny.

Bad news travels fast, doesn't it?

I want to show you this map.

So, this is Philippi over here, this is Rome over here.

That's quite a distance.

Paphroditus goes from Philippi to Rome, he gets sick, word travels back to Philippi, they find out, and the word travels back to Rome that Philippi knows that he's sick in Rome.

That, as the crow flies, that's 750 miles.

Think about how the distance of that, of how fast that bad news had traveled.

That's the same distance from a Tascadero to Albuquerque.

That's a long distance.

If he's on foot, if he's on boat, maybe both.

That's a long distance for news to travel there and then to travel back that quickly.

So Epaphroditus starts getting distressed.

That they're distressed.

And this isn't a word, this word distress isn't a word that we should take lightly.

Distressed here is the same word used in Matthew 26, 37.

When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, and it says, taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

It's the same word that we see for distress in our passage today.

He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.

So Paphroditus is really concerned about Philippi right now.

He has that same concern as Paul.

Not so much for himself, but concerned to put the church back in Philippi at ease.

And Paul's been doing that since chapter one.

And we get a little more here in verse 27.

It says, Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died.

However, God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

You know, it's interesting that Epaphroditus was with Paul.

And he wasn't healed miraculously.

Have you thought about that before?

You know, at one point in Acts 11 or 19, verses 11 through 12, it says, God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hand, so that even facecloths or aprons that he had touched, uh, that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

So why didn't Paul just give him a hanky?

Here, touch this, you'll be fine.

Well, look back at that verse behind me.

What's the first part of verse 11?

God was performing.

You know, sometimes God chooses not to heal miraculously.

I'm sure Paul prayed for it and prayed for him and for relief and for healing, but we never know what God's plan is in sickness or in illness, or in healing, or in not healing.

But we do know he's good.

We do know that he's perfect.

We do know that he loves us more than anything else.

He wants what's best for us and he knows what's best for us, but he desires us to trust him in all things, in sickness and in healing.

But though God didn't heal Ephroditis miraculously, Paul still saw him getting better after being on the brink of death, and he saw that as God's mercy on him.

For reasons God only knows.

But he allowed Epaphroditus to go through this on a mission trip.

Anyone been sick on a mission trip before?

I have.

It was not fun.

But maybe, you know, God allowed this so people could read about it 2,000 years later.

Like we are right now.

But in God's mercy, he didn't allow him to die.

And Paul calls this not only mercy on apaphroditis, but mercy on him as well.

Paul's been through so much, and he's in prison right now.

Can you imagine how he would feel if the guy that was sent to bless and minister to him, who he considered a brother, died on that trip?

Sorrow upon sorrow.

And I think it's important to point out, because we've been talking about this so much in Philippians, about contentment, that contentment doesn't mean being stoic.

Paul's content and he feels deeply.

Contentment doesn't mean that we don't have feelings, that we don't have emotions, or that we shouldn't show those things.

Jesus felt deeply.

He's called a man of sorrows and a suffering servant.

You know, one of those two questions that we've been asking ourselves since day one in Philippians is am I content in maintaining the joy of the Lord in every circumstance?

You can have the joy of the Lord and be experiencing emotions like sorrow at the same time.

You know, I love the example we have in David and the Psalms.

Psalm 13 is a great example of this.

Read it on your own if you get a chance.

But David starts Psalm 13 by pouring out his heart to the Lord, talking about anxious concerns, agony of mind, and his enemies rejoicing because they have shaken him.

But the last two verses of Psalm 13, he says, But I have trusted in your faithful love.

So he reminds himself of God's faithfulness.

My heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

So he knows God will be victorious, and so he chooses to rejoice.

And he says, I will sing to the Lord because he has treated me generously.

Again, he chooses to sing to the Lord because of how God has treated him.

He's not praising God and rejoicing because of his circumstance.

He's praising and rejoicing in his circumstance.

When Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi, after the beatings and the and the whippings that at least Paul got, the public shame that they went through, the bogus imprisonment, what were they doing about midnight in their cell?

Singing hymns to the Lord, it says.

Probably still in excruciating pain from what they went through over those whippings and their beatings.

All that to say, it's okay to have sorrow and feelings and emotions.

It's what we do with those that's important.

Like David, we need to turn it all back to the Lord.

Whatever the circumstances, remember his faithfulness and continue to rejoice in his proven goodness in our life over and over and over again.

But for Paul, he didn't end up with sorrow upon sorrow, at least at that time with Epaphroditus, because he got better.

So look at verse 28.

For this reason, I'm very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him, and I may be less anxious.

Again, sacrificial love from Paul here.

He loved having Epaphroditus with him.

But he was anxious to get him back to Philippi for the sake of the Philippian church.

He was sacrificing his own comfort for theirs, once again.

Look at verse 29.

Therefore, welcome him and the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor.

He did such a great job ministering to Paul, and now his mission was complete, and Paul's just passing this on.

Hey guys, he did a wonderful job.

And it's okay to honor people that have laid down their life for the sake of the gospel, just like Ephroditis here.

Honor them, yes.

Glorify them, absolutely not.

We only give glory to God regardless of how great God is through somebody.

Now, I want us to think about Ephroditus's character, though.

He was trusted enough to carry the Philippian support to Paul.

He was brave enough and tough enough to take the trip, to risk his own life to deliver that support.

Again, think about the miles, think about the danger, regardless of which way he went.

He was sacrificial enough to give of his own time, and unlike the Romans, put the interests of others above his own.

He's caring about others so much that he's willing to travel back after he just had this brush with death so that they wouldn't worry about him, to settle them down.

And he's obviously well revered by Paul, which I don't think is an easy task.

So Paul tells this church, hey, honor this guy.

What he has done is noble.

What he has done is a job well done.

It's okay to honor those who have placed others above themselves, like Paul and like Timothy and like Epaphroditus.

Worship them?

No.

Pray to them?

Absolutely not.

But honor them for a job well done.

Absolutely.

It's encouraged here.

And here's why.

Verse 30.

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.

This kind of sounds like a backhanded compliment, doesn't it?

At first pass.

Lacking in your ministry to me.

But it's not.

What was lacking in their ministry to Paul was the distance between those two cities, the Philippi and Rome.

They couldn't minister to Paul as much as they would like to, or as timely as they would like to, because of that distance.

So they sent Epaphroditus to close that gap for them and represent them.

And then he almost died over it.

You know, if we look at Paul, if we look at Timothy and Epaphroditus, they're mutual encouragers, all three of them.

And the commonality that they have that we see in this short section of Scripture is putting others first.

So much so that they don't want others to even be distressed about them.

They don't want them to be worried about them, even when things aren't going great in their own circumstances.

They're going to great lengths in this passage to make sure that others are encouraged and that others' interests are placed above their own.

I mean, Paul's in prison.

He's like, hey guys, even if I die, rejoice that it was for the sacrificial service of the gospel.

And then Epaphroditus, getting up from his deathbed.

You know, I've got to get back to Philippi to tell them that I'm okay so they will stop worrying about me.

And then we have Timothy.

It's like, hey, send me, Paul.

I'll take a long and dangerous journey to encourage the church in Philippi and place their needs above my own.

So here's the question today for us.

Are we placing others above ourselves?

Are we taking encouraging one another seriously?

I think we could all use more encouragement, couldn't we?

Don't raise your hand, but does anybody feel like they could really use some encouragement this morning?

I think it would be most of us.

You know, and I'm not talking about flattery.

And our encouragement ultimately needs to come from the Lord.

But God often chooses to use us to give that encouragement to each other.

And can I just say, last week's pastor's appreciation was incredible, it was so encouraging to all of the elders.

God used so many of you to encourage all of us.

So I just want to say thank you.

All the kind words, like they really meant the world to me.

You know, I had my card on my desk all week, and I'd only read about five or so comments a day, you know, just taking them little by little, first thing in the morning.

And it was invigorating to start my morning with encouragement like that.

So I want to encourage you, if you have contact with a friend or just anybody on the mission field, just shoot them a short, encouraging note this week.

You know, the mission field could be a really lonely place.

And if you notice anyone doing something honorable around here, just let them know how much you appreciate them.

And last, I think let's be known as a church that puts others first.

You know, I think we already do a good job with this, but let's continue to grow in that way as a church body.

To put others first and to encourage one another when we see honorable things and sacrifices taking place for the sake of the gospel.

You please pray with me.

God, you were so good.

You loved us first.

You loved us so much that you gave your one and only Son, so that through faith in him we can spend eternity with you.

We thank you for that love that you have given us and that you've shown to us over and over and over again.

We thank you for these examples that we see in Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, of putting others first, of loving you so much, that we have a ready yes on our lips for whatever you ask.

Lord, if that's just to strike up a conversation with somebody, if that's to go on a short-term missions trip, to go out to the mission field, to plant a church, whatever the calling is, how great, well, they're all great if they're your calling, Lord.

But I pray, Lord, that we would have a ready yes for whatever it is you ask us to do next.

That we would be faithful and that we would choose to put others' needs within this church and within other churches above our own.

Would you please show us how to live this out as we saw last week, to live out our salvation in that way.

Lord, we know that it can only come from you, as we talked about last week.

Lord, you provide the power.

But I pray that we would seek you for that, for strength, for the energy, for the power that we need to live out our salvation, and that we would be able to live it out in this way that we saw today.

God, we love you so much, and we thank you that you loved us first.

In Jesus' name, amen.