Ministry Glasses - Philippians 2:25-30 Series

Philippians 2:25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs (lit: and your apostle and minister of my needs). 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. 29 Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.

Introduction

In the Lord

We are studying the final paragraph in Philippians 2 where Paul is explaining his plans about sending Timothy and Epaphroditus to Philippi.

Hendrickson: “Paul, the joyful servant of Jesus Christ, the optimistic prisoner, the humble cross-bearer, is also the thoughtful administrator. Even from his prison in Rome he manages in a masterly fashion the spiritual terrain entrusted to his care, so that we marvel at his practical wisdom, gracious consideration of the needs and feelings of others, and delightful unselfishness.”

Epaphroditus really wants to go back, but he doesn’t make that decision on his own. He waits for Paul to give him the green light. He was a man under authority. And so was Paul. Paul was under Christ’s authority. One thing we didn’t get to in the section on Timothy was when Paul twice says in the Lord when he talks about his plans.

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon,

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

When Paul says that phrase, in the Lord, he’s not just throwing that in to sound religious. He is making a point to affirm that his hopes and plans are all subject to the Lordship of Christ – his sovereign will. If you read Paul’s writings you will realize very quickly that this was how he lived his life. Every plan he ever made, every hope he ever carried in his heart, every desire was contingent on if it was in alignment with God’s will. He didn’t just make plans and then pray for God to bless them. His attitude was the same as that of Jesus in the garden – not my will, but your will be done. He cared supremely about God’s will, and he never wanted anything other than God’s will.

But let me offer a caution along that line. Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that submissiveness to God’s sovereign will means being resigned and passive and not really having any will of your own. So if you asked them, “What do you want to happen?” they say, “Oh, I don’t care. Whatever God wants to do is fine with me.” If you asked Paul what he wanted, he would never give an answer. He would definitely agree with the second part – “whatever God wants to do is fine with me,” but he would never say that first part (Oh, I don’t care - it doesn’t matter to me). Paul was totally submissive to God’s will, but he understood that when God wills something, very often the way God wills to get it done is by burdening someone’s heart with that thing until that person becomes so consumed with it that he or she prays for it, cries out to God for it, and runs, and labors, and works hard for it, mobilizes some people to help get it done, prays some more, bangs on the door of heaven, and pours himself or herself out getting it done. So the phrase, “It doesn’t really matter to me,” and the phrase, “Whatever God wants to do is fine with me” - those two phrases don’t go together. Total submissiveness to God’s will is a wonderful thing. Apathy, indifference, lack of passion – those are not good things. Paul wanted to visit Philippi, and you can bet, unless God totally slammed the doors on it, he was going to find a way to visit Philippi. This is how God’s will in ministry works.

Selfless Ministry

Paul has had a lot to say in this epistle about hard work in ministry – we have seen it several times already. And there is a reason for that. It is related to one of the main themes of the book. Paul wrote this book to help the Philippians understand how to live with selfless humility and unity. But you may have noticed that I titled this series in the second half of the chapter, Passionate Servanthood. The past five sermons have been all about serving in ministry. So which is it? Are we talking about selflessness and putting others interests ahead of your own? Or are we talking about serving in ministry? Or is it that the first half of the chapter is about selflessness and unity and putting others’ interests ahead of your own, and then in the second half of the chapter Paul shifts gears to another topic and begins teaching us about serving in ministry? The answer is this: putting others first, and serving in ministry are not parallel themes. They are the same theme, because the most fundamental way to show selflessness and putting others’ spiritual interests ahead of your own temporal interests is to serve passionately in ministry. Jesus put our interests ahead of his own, and he became what? A servant. The way he put others’ interests ahead of his own was through serving. Timothy put the Philippians interests ahead of his own – how? By serving in ministry. Epaphroditus – same thing. Paul – same thing. If you want to serve someone else’s best interests, there is no greater way to do that than to use your spiritual gift in the church serving in ministry, because nothing will do that person more good than for grace to gush forth from a healthy church. So it makes perfect sense that in a section on putting others’ needs ahead of your own, Paul would talk about laboring hard in ministry.