The sermon text for this afternoon is Philippians chapter 2 verses 19-30. Philippians chapter 2 verses 19-30. The title of the sermon this afternoon is Freedom from Self. Freedom from Self. Hear the Word of the Lord. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Therefore, I hope to send him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly. But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need, because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard. because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon the preaching of the word this afternoon. Our father in heaven, once again, we implore you and ask your help. Help us as we sit under the preaching of your word. Would you grant that your word would go forth with power by the spirits that you would bless both the preaching and hearing of it? for your glory and for our good, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, freedom from self is the title of the sermon. You could also title it something like honor such men, as we have these two great examples set before us. And we'll give a short recap or summary of chapter 2, just to make sure that those things are staying close to our minds as we'll engage with some of the rest of the chapter in this afternoon's sermon. So in the second chapter of Philippians, Paul has given in the beginning of the chapter, the exhortation to selfless unity in verses one to four, you'll remember. And then he's given us the demonstrated that that selfless unity demonstrated from the life of Christ, who is the ultimate self giver. He gave himself up to the point of death for the sake of us and our salvation. And further, In verses 12 to 18, Paul gives further motivation to selfless unity and encouragement to the same. As we saw that he exhorted us, but then he also reminded us of who was at work in us. That it was God who was at work in us. That was our motivation. And now in this text, in our section today, Paul will show two exemplary characters who the Philippians know and respect. Here is a live look at what it looks like to prefer the gospel and to prefer one another. You could say here's feet on the ground right in front of you, men you know, you've seen, you've interacted with. Verse 19, Paul says, but I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. He hopes in the Lord Jesus, the exalted Lord he just discussed. who even now sits at the right hand of power. Paul does not depend on his own power, but the power of God in Christ, and he yields to the will of the same God concerning his circumstance. He's certain, first, that God is able to do it, confident and expectant that he will, but in the long run, eventually, he's uncertain, if you will, in a total sense, in regards to whether or not he will do it. And he says of Timothy in verse 20, for I have no one else of kindred spirits who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. The first phrase that will catch our attention is kindred spirits, or as it could be translated, like sold. He was like sold is how you could render it. Isapsoukas is the Greek term, and it's so unique that Paul basically made this word up to capture the idea. It occurs nowhere else in the Greek New Testament, and I don't even believe in other Greek literature. It's called a hapax legomenon. Said once is what that means. And Paul echoes verses three and four of chapter two here, if you noticed. Philippians 2, 3 to 4, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. Notice that Timothy has this outward looking mind. And notice again the structure. Verses 1 to 4, exhortation. Verses 5 to 11, Christ is supremely other-oriented. Verses 12 to 18, exhortation and encouragement. And now in our text, Timothy is imitating Christ right in front of us. He is following that pattern. We've been learning about following the pattern of sound words lately. Here is our pattern of sound living, of godliness. And he says that no one else is like Timothy. That's rather harsh language. No one else. All seek their own, he says. Is he talking about the brothers from chapter one that he had mentioned earlier who were giving him grief? Probably not. I think they're unnamed, and I think it's hyperbole. I think he's getting at the fact of how rare this type of one is. When he ponders those he knows in like positions, he cannot call up to mind any other who are so other-oriented, so gospel-oriented. Someone who, like himself, to live as Christ. He cannot find anyone else like this, like this Timothy. And Timothy is said to be genuinely concerned. He's sincere. He's open, if you will. How could we understand this? Think of what it's like to not be genuinely concerned. Perhaps just to be duty-bound. There's no sincerity or affection. Again, positively, I think we might say that Timothy was anxiously concerned for them. He's anxiously concerned. He's worried about them, and they can sense that. They ought to sense that. They could feel that. He leaned in when he was there. When someone is genuinely concerned for you, you just know it, right? And on the other hand, you can tell when a conversation is rushed, or when someone is not engaged, or when someone is distracted. You think of conversations that you've had where you've perhaps failed to do that, or perhaps you've noticed that the person you're talking to is not engaged, is not concerned. And it appears that Timothy is Paul's best friend. And it really ought to force us to ask the question of who are our closest companions? Who are your best pals? Are they those who imitate Christ? Paul is telling us here that those are the best companions you can have. Ferguson so delightfully says it here. He says concerning Timothy in this verse, such like Timothy have been delivered from the bondage of self-obsession. Such have been delivered from the bondage of self-obsession. They are free to live in self-forgetfulness, full of Christ's grace, delighting to be the servants of others. Can you imagine putting that on your bumper sticker? Self-forgetfulness, free from the bondage of self-obsession. But such was Timothy, and such ought we to be, and such ought be the people we surround ourselves with. Verse 22, you know his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. They know. You know his proven worth. They know what kind of man he is. They're familiar with him. And this had become natural for Timothy to live for Christ in the gospel. It says, like a son to a father. It wasn't under compulsion. It wasn't something put on for a time. It was habitual. They saw it. They observed it. And the illustration given here is a son learning his father's trade over a long course of time. He eventually adopts the same minds and the same will as his father. Timothy has the same love for Christ and his church that Paul did. Because he is of one soul and one mind with Paul. That's what I believe is being communicated to us here. And again, he isn't serving for gain. Service done for your gain in any way, shape, or form isn't true service. Service for recognition, service to advance your preferences, to get control, to gain power, fame, honor, money, or whatever it is, is not true service. Looking out for others' interests and working for the advancement of the gospel is true service. Timothy had seen in Paul the image of Christ, and is now reflecting it, if you will. He saw Christ in Paul, and as a son to a father, as an apprentice, he follows him, he begins to imitate him, and now reflects the same Christ that Paul is reflecting. Imitate me as I imitate Christ, Paul says. That's what Timothy is doing here. A question we should ask ourselves is, can anyone say that about us? What is said about Timothy here? I had a friend who was an outstanding fisherman, a very tender and kind-hearted man. We would go fishing, and whenever we went fishing, he was always concerned for me. He always made sure I was set up for success. He always seemed to put me in the best position to catch fish, the best side of the boat, the best lure. He wanted me to catch fish. It seemed more than he did himself. If I got tangled, he'd have me use his rod while he got me situated again. I don't know what his situation is, whether he knows the Lord or not, or what his motives were, but it illustrates the point. As far as I knew, he was most concerned for my welfare anytime we were out fishing. And that's the impression we ought to leave on those we interact with. Are you genuinely concerned for the welfare of others? Again, I can think of conversations where far too often I become disengaged or distracted where I am not giving the greatest concern, am not giving genuine concern for the other. What a great vice that is. A great vice it is in our culture, distraction and not paying attention. It's seemingly acceptable in our culture to be distracted, but it ought not to be for us. Another way to think about it is, what does your fruit taste like? when you're around others. Not your own evaluation of yourself, but how others would evaluate you. What do they taste when they're around you, brothers and sisters? Verse 23 and 24, again, Timothy, Paul expresses his desire to immediately get Timothy there and himself there, and highly anticipates that that would be what the Lord would have them do. As we move into consideration of Epaphroditus, we'll consider him under three points, Paul's appraisal, Paul's concern, and Paul's praise. In verse 25, but I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need. Paul sees necessary to send Epaphroditus at once who is, I believe, the letter carrier, so he's going to carry the letter and he's going to visit them at once for two reasons. He says their joy, their mutual joy, and to relieve the concern and distress that both Paul and Epaphroditus had. And I would suppose we could assume the Philippians as well. And the second reason is to affirm Epaphroditus in their minds. That's the situation. Now to Epaphroditus. And Epaphroditus, you'll notice, is one like us. He's a brother, he's a worker, and he's a soldier. He's a brother. He's called out of a pagan home, as indicated by his name, and he's adopted into the family of God. Every one of us here has the same Gentile roots as this man, Epaphroditus. And we are all brothers with him and with Paul if we be in Christ today, all saints together in Christ. He's a brother and he's a fellow worker, and we are all fellow workers in gospel ministry as well. Our scripture reading from Romans 16 was a wonderful reminder of this, as Paul again and again not only called them his beloved, but his fellow labors or fellow workers. Yes, we have distinguished offices, we have distinguished gifts, but all are by nature of their calling brought into the work of gospel ministry. None is exempt. Some tend to see church like a drop in and get my spiritual fix and I'm out for the week. Sort of like fast food, yeah? And no, that ought not to be the way we think. We ought all to understand ourselves as co-laborers in the gospel. Sometimes that's as simple as laboring and praying for the ministries and the members of the church. And sometimes it calls us to be there physically. Whatever it is, we are all called to labor week in and week out in whatever our capacity is. And lastly, we are all soldiers enlisted in Christ's army. We are all in the battle of spiritual warfare immediately upon our conversion. And we freely enlist as Psalm 110 tells us. And part of that means standing for the gospel Standing for the truth even in the midst of persecution. We already looked at this in chapter 1 of Philippians. Not ducking away when there may be suffering. We haven't really experienced any kind of suffering here in America in the 20th and 21st century. We ought to pray. I was thinking about that this week. I haven't prayed this way in a while. We ought to pray that the Lord would keep us if persecution were to come. Do you ever think about that? It could come very quickly. We saw what happened in Canada just as of late. Lord, would you prepare me, even now, to be ready to die a martyr if you would call me to that? You know, as Americans, we're so prone to take up arms and defend our liberties, and there may be a time for that. But there's also a time when that would not be the appropriate thing to do. Philippians 1 says we are granted to suffer. Remember, that's a gift of God, is to suffer for the gospel's sake. And verses 26-28 show us Paul's concern. because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick for indeed he was sick to the point of death but God had mercy on him and not on him only but also on me so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you here's the situation Epaphroditus is sent out to do missionary work and he gets sick What tends to be the response to such apparent failure in ministry work of whatever sort, especially missionary work, the tendency might be for folks to think, well, maybe he just wasn't cut out for that kind of service. Maybe not spoken out loud, but a sense that such a one was a spiritual failure. I think that's what's going on here. And I believe Paul is giving this glowing report to guard against such thinking. And rather, to the contrary, rather than a spiritual failure, honor such a one. Imitate such a one. We see that mission work in the Christian life is much more messy here, much more difficult. That's what Paul is communicating to us here. It's much more, as Ferguson says, much more rugged and stretched. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Most recently, there was a missionary family that went out from Minneapolis. This is about a few years ago. And it was not even a year into their ministry there that their boy, a two or three-year-old boy, was severely burned in a kitchen accident and was in critical condition, was in the hospital fighting for his life for some months. They couldn't get him out of the country. They finally got him from one country to another country with better care. And then finally, after a long road of what seemed like months, got him back to the United States. So here they are, these missionaries sent out to proclaim the gospel, and for the six, you know, out of the first eight months there, they're there fighting for their boy's life. Is that a failure? Was this family, was this mission strip a failure? By no means. They're serving missionaries for the cause of advancing the gospel. Certainly their labors were not in vain. Certainly it wasn't a waste of time and certainly they weren't failures. And that's how Paul wants them to view Epaphroditus. He doesn't want him to come there and for people to be saying things under their breath about him. Receive such a one with honor is what he says. And if you need further convincing that this is the norm for the Christian life, just read the Beatitudes. if you need to be reminded of the Bible's vocabulary on the Christian experience. And so, as we mentioned, Paul gives high praise to Epaphroditus. See, Paul's on house arrest here. And when you were on house arrest in Roman imprisonment, you had no necessities taken care of by the Roman guard. You had no food arraignment. You would be potentially in danger of freezing to death or starving to death. No doubt, many did. This is why Epaphroditus' help is so important and so worthy of high honor in terms of what he risked, what he took to do. And the comment at the end is not a backhanded comment. He's not saying what was deficient in your service to me. I think he's just simply saying you weren't able to do it. And Epaphroditus came through and fulfilled what was lacking in your guy's desire. I believe they desired to help him. So in conclusion, I hope that you have been as blessed and as challenged by Philippians as I have so far. I see so much in my own mind and heart where Christ needs to be formed in me. I'm so thankful for this epistle, and I anticipate the Spirit working those graces of selfless service in me and in us all in the days ahead. God is at work in us, and He will do it, brothers and sisters. We have the mind of Christ. We ought to call upon the Lord, that by the power of the Spirit we would more and more put on the mind of Christ. Let that be our prayer this week. And we'll conclude with a quote from Maxie Dunham on this passage. Maxie Dunham. Summarizing this passage says that that is the fellowship of servants. Those who have in them the mind of Christ, who emptied himself and became a servant. This is what the Christian faith does for us. It leads us out of ourselves, freeing us from ourselves, binding us to Christ and to our brothers and sisters. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this text of scripture before us. We thank you for these two servants who are great examples or a great encouragement to us to go forward in the Christian life, desiring and pleading with you that we might more and more Just as they were, be conformed to the image of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Would you give us, as we have seen something of the glory of the gospel this afternoon, to be more and more transformed from one degree of glory to the next as we go into the next week. Give us to put on this selfless unity as you've called us to do and as we're privileged and graced to do. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.