Roles Models Of Faithful Service Series

Role models are an interesting thing in today’s world. The people that we look too as examples in our society, and that children look too as they grow up, are not always ones that we SHOULD be looking up too. Charles Barkley in 1993 said, “I’m not a role model… just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” For the past 5 Sundays we have been studying Philippians, and we have covered a lot in the past 5 weeks. We have learned that no matter how long you have been a Christian, no matter where you are in your walk with Jesus, there is always room to grow, to go further and deeper, to be closer with Jesus, we have learned that the good news about Jesus overcomes all adversity, both in the first century church, and today for us as well. We learned that our conduct and our behavior matters as Christians, how we live as followers of Jesus preaches a message to the world, and whether that message is the gospel of Jesus, or something else, is up to us. We’ve what conduct worthy of the gospel looks like: Living humbly like Jesus, in unity of spirit and purpose as a church, doing everything without muttering or complaining, and allowing the Holy Spirit to complete his work in us as we submit in humility to God and his will and plan for his church, so that our light will shine in a world full of darkness, pain and hurt. And today, we are going to look at some examples of what this faithful service to God looks like in action, Role Models of Faithful Service, Timothy and Epaphroditus. We’ve landed this week in these personal remarks of Paul, and his plan to send these two men to Philippi. And what you will notice as we read through and learn about them, is that they were both exemplary examples of faithful service. While the role models of our society today are not really people that we should look up to as Christians, these two men are prime examples of what it means to live a life worthy of the gospel.

So let’s read this and finish out Chapter 2 this week, Philippians 2: 19-30: “If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the Good News. I hope to send him to you just as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me here. And I have confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon. Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. Welcome him in the Lord’s love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn’t do from far away”

So first of all, who are these men? Who are Timothy and Epaphroditus? Timothy was a friend, colleague, and travelling companion of the apostle Paul. He is first mentioned in Acts 16:1, “Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey.” So Timothy had a Jewish heritage, through his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, so he knew the Jewish scriptures well. He was very highly regarded in his home town of Lystra, and the neighboring town of Iconium, which was 29 km away. Most likely Timothy had become a Christian through the influence of his mother and the church elders in Lystra, who had probably been converted through Paul and Silas on their first missionary journey. So after Paul came back on his second missionary journey, Timothy went with Paul, and he became a nearly constant travelling companion of his. He is probably the best known of all of Paul’s coworkers. The book of Acts only mentions his name occasionally and doesn’t record all his movements like it does for Paul, but it is presumed that Timothy travelled with Paul from when he left Lystra in Acts 16, until Paul’s imprisonment at the end of his third missionary journey.