Model Spiritual Servants: Timothy
Philippians 2:19-24
Let's open our Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. We're looking at verses 17 through 30 as the setting for our message. Philippians 2:17 to 30 presents to us three model spiritual servants. And we looked at the first one, Paul, last Lord's day. And today we'll look at the second one, Timothy. And next Lord's day we'll look at the third one by the name of the Epaphroditus.
Now this particular portion of Scripture is not profound theologically. It's not even a doctrinal passage, as such. It's not a difficult passage. There aren't any hidden treasures here. It's simple, straightforward. In fact, it's very practical. It is profound in the sense that I believe it presents to us a model for spiritual living, for spiritual virtue.
But as I viewed this passage and as I thought about it last night, just kind of meditating on what I would say to you as I refine my thoughts, I began to get the sort of...I don't know...sort of a warm and gracious, almost a lovely feeling about what I was learning from this young man, Timothy. It's not at all a threatening passage. It's not at all a sort of dunning kind of text. It presents to us the model of a young man like us who learned to live according to the pattern that God had established. And he becomes for us an example. He becomes for us a model, a pattern upon which we can trace our own life.
As we look at Timothy, let me just remind you of a great general principle that comes through in all three of these illustrations in this text. Thomas Brook said, "Example is the most powerful rhetoric." He's right. Many times as I speak to groups of pastors and church leaders, this week I had occasion to have a Master's Shepherds' Seminar in Albuquerque and another one in Phoenix. And as I speak to these groups of pastors and church leaders, I say to them this important basic statement. The single greatest tool of spiritual leadership is the power of an exemplary life. The single greatest tool of leadership is the power of an exemplary life.
And that's what we're seeing here. After many verses of duty, many verses that give us principle for living, we now have a model to follow. And I don't know about you but to me that is so helpful. You see, we tend to be creatures led more by pattern than precept. We are much better at following a pattern and a model than we are trying to live out a concept or a precept or a principle. And somebody might say, "Well what makes examples so powerful, why is it the single greatest tool of spiritual leadership? Why is it the most powerful rhetoric?"
And the answer is this, because example shows us what precepts can't. Examples show us what principles can't. What do I mean by that? Principles, precepts tell us our duty. That's all they can do. Principles and precepts tell us our duty, that's all they can do. Example assures us that that duty is possible because somebody is fleshing it out. If there were no one that I could look to as the model of spiritual virtue, I think I would probably say it's impossible. Wouldn't you? When you read the Scripture and when you endeavor to be obedient to all the precepts of the Word of God and you look at your own life and your own weakness and your own sin and your own failure, you might conclude this is impossible, I can't do it. You see, principle can only tell us our duty, it can't help us do it. But modeling and example can show us that such a duty is possible, it can be done. And we need other than Jesus Christ because although Christ is the perfect model, He is not like we are, He is not battling sin and the flesh and failure and weakness. And so we need somebody who puts flesh on principles, who puts life into precepts that we can pattern our life after.
And that is precisely Paul's purpose in this text. He had given sixteen verses of precept in this chapter. Verses 1 through 16 really lay out precepts...how we are to live, humbly, without complaining, working out our salvation with fear and trembling. We are to even be like Christ, "Have this mind in you which was in Christ." Very high lofty goals. "Look not on our own things but the things of others." "Love everybody the same way." These are very lofty goals. Never grumbling, never disputing, always with a healthy fear of God, always working out that inward salvation...duties, duties, duties.
And now, as if to say I know duties are limited, I know principles are limited. Let me show you pattern. Let me show you model. Let me show you example. Paul gives us three models of spiritual service...three models of how to live the Christian life...three models of how to serve God. First is Paul, second is Timothy and third is Epaphroditus.
And though they are distinct, they are in some sense all one because they all illustrate the same thing. They all illustrate selfless, humble, spiritual service. And yet in each case there are some nuances in their particular lives that make them unique. By the way, they were three close friends. They're all together in Rome as Paul is writing this epistle to the Philippians. Paul, of course, is the imprisoned Apostle. He is a prisoner in a private house. He is chained to a soldier. He is unhindered in his presentation of the gospel. And they give him liberty to work with his friends and so Timothy, his son in the faith is there, and Epaphroditus has come from Philippi to be with him because the Philippians are concerned about his situation and Epaphroditus brought some money to help support him and stayed in order to be a servant to him as well.
So these three men, three models of spiritual service, are really working together and their lives sort of intertwine, overflow and overlap and we could say that all three of them illustrate the same thing...humble, uncomplaining, working out of salvation in a virtuous way. And yet there are some distinctions that we have noted.
We looked at the first model last week, Paul, and we called him the sacrificial rejoicer. Look at verse 17 and 18. Paul, pointing to himself as an example, says, "Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. And you, too, I urge you in the same way and share your joy with me."
Paul says to them, I see my life as an offering, a drink offering poured out on top of your sacrificial offering, and I do with great joy. His selfless, humble, uncomplaining, working out of salvation was a way of life, and he saw it as a sacrifice and a joyous one at that. So we call him the sacrificial rejoicer. And we kind of reduced it down to one very important principle, ultimate joy comes from the ultimate offering of one's life to the will of God. It isn't just service God desires, it is humble, uncomplaining service with sacrifice and joy. And Paul is the model of that. Humble, without complaint and joyful in his sacrifice.
Now from the sort of sacrificial rejoicer, or humble rejoicer, if we can call Paul that, let's go to the second model, Timothy. We'll call him the single-minded sympathizer, just to give him a title. And I want to take you through verses 19 to 24. Again it's not theological. It's not real deep and profound stuff. It's just practical, it's a lovely portrait of a wonderful servant of Christ who can act as a model for us to follow to take duty and put it into a context in which we say, "That's possible...that's possible, he did it, I can do it, for he is as like passions as we are, as was Paul, as is Epaphroditus," whom we'll meet next week.
Now, let's look at verse 19 and meet Timothy the single-minded sympathizer. "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." We'll stop at that point.
Paul would loved to have gone to Philippi himself. There's no question about that because he had such a relationship with the people. They loved him, he loved them. They had a bond that was really wonderful and rich. In fact, every time he thinks about them it is with joy, chapter 1 verse 3. "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you." Verse 4, "Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all." Down in verse 8 he says, "God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." He had a great, great loving affectionate compassion for these people, did Paul.
In chapter 2 and verse 24 he says, "I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall be coming shortly." He calls them in chapter 4 verse 1, "My beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, my beloved." He's almost effusive about his affection for them.
Because of this affection he wants to come and see them. And as I noted in chapter 2 verse 24, he believes that shortly he'll be able to do that. That is certainly his heart's desire. Back in chapter 1 verse 25 he said, "I know I shall remain," that is in this world and not die, "and continue with you all for your progress." That's interesting...for your progress. That tells us there was another element in his wanting to be with the Philippians. It wasn't just fellowship. It wasn't just love. It wasn't just affection. It was also spiritual progress. While he was a prisoner at Rome and while he may have been a little bit melancholy as he thought about the affection he had for these Philippians, he was also pretty astute in his mind and he realized that he needed to be there, not just for the sake of fellowship but also for the sake of their spiritual progress. They had some real needs.
For example, look at chapter 1 verse 27. He says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Now the first thing we would note is that there was a bit of discord among those people in Philippi. We don't know the extent of it but there was some disharmony there and there was need for greater unity.
Chapter 2 verse 1 affirms it. He says, "If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." Here he's calling for humility. He's calling for unity. He's calling for oneness. He's calling for loving each other the same, and so forth.
You go over to chapter 4 and we get a little more specific look at maybe one of the problems. In verse 2 he says, "I urge," and he names two women, "Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true comrade, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel," and so forth. He wants somebody to get two cantankerous, fighting women together to bring accord where there is discord.
So, Paul desired to be with the Philippians not only for the sake of affection but for the sake of spiritual progress in the matter of unity. And there was one other thing on his mind and that is that the Philippian church was being attacked by some theological opposition. In chapter 1 again verse 28 says, "In no way be alarmed by your opponents." Striving together for the faith of the gospel indicates that there was a war going on about the faith of the gospel. As some opponents were coming in teaching false doctrine, the fact that they opposed the gospel, he says in verse 28, is a sign of destruction for them. Then in verse 29 he reminds them, "It has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me." In other words, this is to be expected. You've been called to suffer. You're being attacked. There are those who are coming with false doctrine, opponents and enemies. Obviously under this attack he was concerned that they have an adequate and appropriate response to that. So that was another reason that he would have desired to be with them.
In chapter 3 verse 2 he gets very direct. He says, "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision." Down in verse 18 he says, "Many walk of whom I've told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."
So there were some humanistic, materialistic, false teaching people who were attacking the church. And Paul was greatly concerned that the church was in upheaval about this. I think that's why in chapter 4 he says in verse 6, "Be anxious for nothing," and in verse 7 reminds them of the peace of God which surpasses comprehension.
So he wanted to be them for affection's sake. He wanted to be with them for spiritual progress sake...spiritual progress having to do with the issue of unity internally and the issue of doctrine externally and fighting against the opponents of the faith who were coming against them, not only in terms of what they taught but in a persecuting effort as well.
Now because he had such a strong desire to help the Philippians out of love, and because at the time he was a prisoner, he had no recourse other than to send someone else. And so verse 19 he says, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you." Obviously Timothy then is going to carry Paul's mission. He will carry Paul's affection. He will carry his message and effort toward unity and toward doctrinal clarity and strength against persecution. That's why he wants him to go.
Thus we are introduced to Timothy. Notice how Paul frames what he says. "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy." I like that. I hope would not be enough for Paul because everything he hoped for had to be submitted to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. That little phrase "in the Lord Jesus" simply means consistent with His will, His purpose, His person, His plan, just that, in accord with His will. Paul never did anything. That's the baseline, that's the bottom line in Christian experience. The goal of the believer is to fill out the will of God, to do what God wants him to do. And so, you live in constant submission to the will of God, and we should always say, "I hope in the Lord Jesus, I trust in the Lord Jesus to do this or that."
Paul never wanted to act independently of his Master's desires. He submitted all of his plans to the Lord. The Lord was sovereign. Everything was submitted to the Lord. That was the bottom line in his life. And by the way, this is not a stock phrase like "if the Lord is willing," sort of slapped on the end, tacked on in an unthinking way. Nor is it some especially self-abnegating phrase indicating that Paul hasn't got any clue about what his future is and doesn't have any idea of what's coming and so he just sort of pushes it off to the Lord. It's not that either.
It's simply to say I make plans and I make strategies and I set goals but they are all subject to the sovereign Lord under whose leadership I live. That's the only way to live, to live in a confident trust in the sovereignty of God. So he says I hope in the Lord Jesus, that is if the Lord Jesus wills it and if the Lord Jesus wants it, and it's consistent with His person and plan, to send Timothy.
Do we need to remind you about Timothy? Have we not already known enough about him in 1 and 2 Timothy? I'm sure we have, but just a few things. He was a native either of Derbe or Lystra, two little towns in the are we know as Galatia. His mother was a Jew by the name of Eunice, his grandmother, Lois. His father was a Greek so he had a Jewish mother and a Greek father and thus he was able to meet those two sort of colliding cultures, Judaism and Hellenistic Greek culture. Obviously he had not been circumcised. He had to be circumcised, but he had not been circumcised and as a consequence to that its indication that probably he was educated in Greek culture and Greek circles formally. So informally he was educated by his mother and his grandmother from whom he learned the doctrines of salvation, as Paul tells us in his epistle to him. From his father and the culture of the Greeks, he learned that world and that perspective. So he was eminently qualified to go with Paul into the Greek world to bear the message of Jesus Christ.
We don't know when he was converted to Christianity. We don't know the details about it. We know by the time Paul met him in Acts 16 he had already become a Christian and was such a proven young man that Paul said, "I want to take him with me." He became Paul's protege. I don't know if you know how extensively he was a part of Paul's life. He speaks of him as his son in the Lord, his son in the faith, his true child. He speaks of him as his brother and his coworker and his fellow servant and his fellow slave. He was with Paul in Philippi, he was with him in Thessalonica, he was with him in Berea, he was with him in Corinth, he was with him in Ephesus, he is with him here in Rome as he writes this. He was associated with Paul in the writing of some of his epistles...such as 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians, Colossians, Philippians. And when Paul wrote to the Romans, Timothy was there as well.
He was of great use to Paul because he was so willing to do anything Paul ever wanted him to do. Paul could send him somewhere, he would go. Paul could take him with him, he would go. Paul could leave him somewhere, he would stay. And always faithful to fulfill that which God had given him to do. A message in the hands of Timothy would be as safe as it was in the hands of Paul because Timothy was truly his protege.
The Philippians knew him, too, because he had been Philippi from the very beginning. He was taken up by Paul in Acts 16. Later in the sixteenth chapter the church at Philippi was founded, Timothy was surely there at the very founding of the church. And so they knew Timothy as long as they had known Paul. And certainly next to Timothy he must have been their second favorite. So he was the right choice. And Paul was very anxious to send him because of his concern.
Notice the word in verse 19 is the word "shortly." Quickly. How quickly? Well he has to qualify that down in verse 23. "I hope to send him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me." The only thing that was restraining Paul at the moment was the fact that he had some personal matters to which Timothy must give his attention. You say, "What were they?" Well, we don't know. It might have been some personal thing in the life of Paul. It might have been some ministry that he was engaged in on behalf of Paul. Now Paul was a prisoner but he could preach and teach concerning the things of Christ without being hindered. That's why so many people in Caesar's household were being saved, as the end of the epistle indicates. And so there must have been many duties to bring people to him, to assemble them, to follow up the people who came to name the name of Jesus Christ. And Timothy, along with Epaphroditus, would have been very busy.
So there were some specific reasons why he says I'll send him shortly and in verse 23, "I'll send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me." Some think he meant as soon as I hear the outcome of my trial so that I can send him with the news about whether I've been released or whether I'm to be beheaded. But nonetheless he delays for a short while because of some pressing need before he will send Timothy.
The purpose of sending Timothy is given also in verse 19. "So that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition." He was sen