Epaphroditus - A Man Of Honor Or Shame? Series

Coming from this angle, you can see how people would see Epaphroditus not as a failure but really as a huge success. Someone who is worthy of a hero’s welcome. So Paul writes “Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. Risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.” He is not slamming the Philippians for not being able to help. He is saying hold this guy up because you guys couldn’t help for whatever reason, but he could. He was there. He risked his life. Sometimes translated as exposed himself to untold dangers really so that he could care for the needs of the apostle Paul, so he deserves a hero’s welcome. As a side note, thinking again about the name Aphrodite. Not only was Aphrodite the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, but she was also the goddess of gamblers. Some suspect that what Paul is doing here, as he often does, he is doing a little word play. When the Greeks were gambling and they wanted to have good luck called down, they would shout not Aphrodite but Epaphroditus. In other words send Aphrodite’s favor down so I would have good luck. What some people think is Paul is doing a little word play between Epaphroditus and this whole taking of a risk.

As I close, you can see the dilemma that we face when we come across these passages. It is very easy to interpret it one way or another depending on who you are talking to. That is why when we come to the passage, we always have to come in a posture of humility, realizing that the Holy Spirit might give us something totally different than the author’s original intent. Even though it is difficult to figure out which one of these would be the best one to pick, one thing is very clear. In both situations, Paul, as the leader of this church, he had the authority to give honor or take it away. To give honor or to give shame. When he chose in both situations to give honor, he was not only simply building up the individual, he was strengthening the whole church. Now as we prepare to go into our time of prayer what I would like to do as the minister of this church, I would like to pay honor to somebody in our church. Some of you know the lady by the name of Joanne Stuempges. She has been here for a long time. I honestly can say that I can call Joanne a sister in Christ. I can call her a fellow laborer because we have labored together in the cause of Christ. I can even call her a fellow soldier because I know we have both faced a lot of oppositions in the years past. But she has continued to serve faithfully for over 25 years in the children’s ministry. What I would like to do before I allow her to come up and you give her honor, I would like to show this brief little slideshow so that you can get a glimpse of her work in the past 25 years and really why she is someone deserving of this honor. (Slideshow shown.) Where is Joanne? Come on up. Don’t be shy. Do you want to make a speech or anything?

(Joanne speaking.) I just want to say that God gave me the talents and gave me the heartstrings for children and for that I give him the glory and all of you. Thanks.