Good morning. It is lovely to see you in this nice, sunshine and wind. We are continuing our study, the letter to the Philippians. Now, we're gonna be in chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 beginning in verse 19.
Jeffrey Heine:So if you would turn with me, in your Bibles, in your worship guide, if you don't have a worship guide or a Bible with you, it's, also, on our website, rccbirmingham.org. You can find, a phone friendly worship guide on there. We're gonna be looking at Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse 19, reading through 30. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
Jeffrey Heine:For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth. How as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me.
Jeffrey Heine:And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I thought it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill near to death, but god had mercy on him. And not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
Jeffrey Heine:I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Let's pray together.
Jeffrey Heine:Father, we come before you and we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth that your word offers us, and we ask, spirit, that you would make that truth real in our hearts and our minds this morning, that we would know Christ more deeply, that we would follow him and obey him with our whole hearts. And, lord, that we would trust and adore you. God, bless this time. Be near to us.
Jeffrey Heine:Draw near to us through your word and your spirit that we might behold Christ Jesus this morning. So speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray this in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. I love reading biographies, biographies of musicians, theologians, comedians, politicians, any kind.
Jeffrey Heine:I also enjoy autobiographies because they can be confessional and revealing, but a biography has the benefit of an outside observer. The biographer can say things about the subject that the person might not even realize about themselves. They can point out idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies that most people would not reveal about themselves. In the last few weeks, I've been reading a new biography on the 19th century Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard. Now every time that Joel Brooks gets to bring up Lord of the rings and an illustration, I get a credit for one sword in Kierkegaard.
Jeffrey Heine:It's, it's in my contract. So, but in this biography, we get this picture of a man battling within himself. There's this incredible tension between what Soren believes and what he experiences in day to day life. And what you realize is that His public writing, His groundbreaking contributions to existential philosophy are the result of this real life inner tension. It's a tension between what is believed and what is lived.
Jeffrey Heine:This is what a good biography does. Biographical writing roots us in the real world, in what is. It doesn't try to dress someone's life up as more than it was. It shows that real life tension. And that happens in our passage today.
Jeffrey Heine:We aren't dealing with theological imperatives or particular doctrinal instruction. No no one is going to pick a line from our passage this morning as a life verse. No one reads this passage over their child at a baby dedication. Rather, Paul is giving us a window into the every day. Most of life is not extraordinary.
Jeffrey Heine:It is not extraordinary moments of courage or pivotal decision making. Most of life is ordinary living. It's taking out the trash and folding the laundry. It's being stuck in traffic, making grocery lists. It's in those million little choices and million little moments that we are called to live our faith out and follow Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:This section of Philippians is a picture of one of those million little moments displaying ordinary life. The passage is considered a travelogue. In Karl Barth's commentary on the letter to the Philippians, he says quote, these verses contain no direct teaching, end quote. It was a very helpful commentary this week. This section reads more like a memo or a post it note that's attached to the important letter.
Jeffrey Heine:Here, Paul is explaining the travel plans for Timothy, Epaphroditus, and hopefully himself. And Paul is offering the reasoning behind those travel plans. And we have to be careful not to dress this up as more than it is. But we should follow the letter's progression and discern why Paul is talking about these things at this point in the letter, chapter 2. If we can figure that out, why it's happening here, I think we will have something really helpful and important for us to think about this morning.
Jeffrey Heine:Because no part of God's word, no matter how seemingly insignificant is without purpose. In the New Testament, we have many letters written by the Apostle Paul. And if you look at them kind of altogether, you start to realize numerous patterns. One pattern is that Paul regularly explains his travel plans at the end of the letter. So we need to ask, why is he breaking from that pattern here?
Jeffrey Heine:And I think there's one main reason why. At the beginning of the letter, Paul starts off with a greeting and a prayer for the Philippians. He prays that their love would abound and that they would keep growing in their trust and obedience to Jesus. Then Paul gives instructions on how the Philippians should live as followers of Jesus. And Paul offers Jesus as the chief example of how to live.
Jeffrey Heine:Christ humbled Himself. He put the needs of others before Himself and He obeyed the Father, even unto death on the cross. Now Paul is giving them 2 more examples of Christ like living, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Look at the way Paul describes Timothy in verse 19. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
Jeffrey Heine:For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ, but you know Timothy's proven worth. How as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. Paul is going on at length to describe the Christ like example of Timothy.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, there is no one like him, no one else who would be so genuinely concerned for the welfare of the Christians in Philippi. This echoes back to Paul's call to the Philippians to put others' needs ahead of their own. Paul says Timothy does this. Here's an example of someone, a regular person, a real life follower of Jesus, that the Philippians know and they trust, He lives like this. He lives His faith in ordinary life.
Jeffrey Heine:And not only that, the Philippians will benefit from Timothy's Christ like behavior and they would do well to emulate him. He lives out what he claims to believe. Timothy is being held up in contrast to those people in Philippi who are causing problems in the church community. They're causing problems with their selfishness. And in contrasting these people with Timothy, Paul is calling out those who do not live what they say they believe.
Jeffrey Heine:He's calling them to follow Christ, not only in their believing, but also in their living. Paul then describes his hope to send Timothy soon. As soon as Paul knows the outcome of his imprisonment and trial, he will send Timothy to Philippi. Paul holds Timothy up as this example of humility and service. And the Philippians have seen this firsthand in Timothy.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul says, you know Timothy's proven worth. He serves alongside like a son to a father. Timothy is an example of what a humble Christ follower is like and he will put the interests of Jesus and his brothers and sisters ahead of his own concerns. Alright, next, let's look at the way Paul describes Epaphroditus. Verse 25, I thought it necessary to send to you, Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need.
Jeffrey Heine:The Philippians would have been very surprised to see Epaphroditus back so soon. He was sent by the Philippian church to carry a letter to Paul and to serve with him, to stay with him while Paul is imprisoned. That's what Paul meant by saying, messenger and minister to my need. And later in the passage, he describes that Epaphroditus is, he has risked his life to complete what was lacking. What was lacking.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, what's meant there, what was lacking was physical presence. Physical presence. He's not diminishing the gifts that the Philippians sent. He's saying that the one thing that they were lacking was presence and Epaphroditus was going to go and be with him, stay with him, serve him while he was in prison. But on the journey, Epaphroditus became sick and he nearly died.
Jeffrey Heine:And Paul says, God had mercy on Epaphroditus and He healed him. He also says that God had mercy on him because he would have been so full of sorrow if Epaphroditus had died. And Paul wants to make sure. He wants to make sure that Epaphroditus is welcomed back and not chastised for failing to fulfill his mission, to stay much longer and serve Paul. Epaphroditus had been longing terribly to return home to Philippi.
Jeffrey Heine:If you think back to the book of Acts, which we studied, about a year ago or so, the accounts of Paul's missionary journeys, Epaphroditus sounds a lot like Mark. When Mark became homesick and left the missionary journey early, but Paul is handling this situation very differently than he did with Mark, much more graciously. With Mark, Paul was so mission minded that he was harsh and stubborn. But now with Epaphroditus, we see a compassion and a fatherly defense. Again, Paul uses Epaphroditus as an example of what it means to put the interest of Christ and of other people ahead of your own concerns.
Jeffrey Heine:That is why Epaphroditus traveled to Paul in prison to care for his concerns. And now, his return to Philippi is there, to care for his brothers and sisters who have been so worried about him. And notice how Paul talks about his own plans. Paul puts the interest of Epaphroditus ahead of his own by sending him back to Philippi instead of keeping him as an assistant. And further, Paul makes his plans for the future, express explicitly contingent on the Lord's will.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's consider that for a moment. In Paul's common, everyday ordinary planning, Paul knows that his life is not his own. His life, all of it, belongs to Christ and he submits to the Lord. Do you do that? I don't mean just tagging the phrase, if the Lord wills after everything we say, but in your heart, really meaning it, submitting your plans, desires, hopes, even the most mundane to the direction and will of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Is it a surrendered heart, a surrendered mindset that recognizes your faith in Christ covers every aspect of your life, no matter how seemingly insignificant. Here, Paul demonstrates in ordinary life, what we read in proverbs 16:9, which says, the heart of a person plans their way, but the Lord establishes their step. Paul plans with his heart, but he knows the Lord alone establishes his steps. He hopes, he desires to be with the Philippians soon, but he acknowledge, he acknowledges both to himself and to the Philippians that his hopes and his desires are surrendered to the interests of Christ. Throughout this passage to the Philippians, Paul is showing them that the things believed are to become the things lived.
Jeffrey Heine:Timothy, Epaphroditus, and Paul, they're following Jesus. His lordship over all of life is evidenced in their humility and submission to Christ. If you'll permit me to talk about another Danish German philosopher, 2 in one sermon I know, but, this time for the 20th century, Hans Georg Gadamer wrote in his pivotal work, Truth and Method, quote, what man needs is not just the persistent posing of ultimate questions, but the sense of what is feasible, what is possible, what is correct here and now. The philosopher of all people must be aware of the tension between what he claims to achieve and the reality in which he finds himself. So what does that mean for us?
Jeffrey Heine:We must be aware of the tension between what we claim to believe and the reality in which we live. Our faith cannot simply exist as mere thoughts, as theological ideas we agree with. Our faith must show up in our living. What does your faith look like on the ground lived out? Paul wrote earlier in this letter that we are to bear the fruit of Christ's righteousness in our daily lives.
Jeffrey Heine:So is your faith bearing fruit? That is the real tension we must reckon with as followers of Jesus. We must reckon with the tension of what we believe about Jesus and how we live as His followers. This tension is that our beliefs don't always match our living. There's a real tension in our believing in Christ and our following Christ, or as Paul put it to the Philippians, to live with Christ's interests ahead of our own.
Jeffrey Heine:The tension is only resolved when our belief in Christ manifests in our following Christ, when His interests are our primary objective, even in the smallest seemingly insignificant moments of life. Any biographer of mine would have to reckon with the tension between what I claim to believe and how I live in the day to day life. That is because it is not easy to live out what you say you believe. I get it wrong a lot. I get lazy and distracted.
Jeffrey Heine:I get selfish and self consumed. I get discouraged and cold hearted. The 12th century monk Bernard of Clervaux was once asked about this problem of failing to live in the faith of Christ. He was asked because the person was worried that their failure and coldness of heart might mean that they weren't a true Christian and that their salvation might not be secured. And Bernard responded by saying, quote, a hardened heart belongs only to him who does not know his heart is hard.
Jeffrey Heine:When we are concerned for our coldness, it is because of the yearning God has put there. We are not rejected by God, end quote. Bernard of Clervaux makes a distinction between a coldness of heart and a hardened heart. He says that a heart that believes in Jesus and experiences failures of not living out what they believe, that heart can turn cold. But a cold heart is not a hardened heart that is set against the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Bernard says that your care over your cold heart, your sorrow over the incongruence of what you say you believe in your day to day living, that concern was put there by God. A hardened heart does not care about the tension or about failing to follow Jesus. A hardened heart does not mourn sin or disobedience. Your care over your lack of humility, your care over your lack of obeying Jesus, that care is evidence of the presence and grace of God in your life. And that should warm your heart.
Jeffrey Heine:I once had the privilege of meeting the Franciscan monk, Brother, Father Benedicte Groeschel. And when I was with him, he said, do not forget that your desire to desire God pleases God. How is that so? Because that desire to desire God was put in your heart by God himself. That tension between your believing in Christ and your following Christ, it's not an evidence that God is against you.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's evidence that he has awakened your spirit and is transforming you to be more and more like his son, our savior, Jesus. At the end of Philippians chapter 2, Paul gives examples of 2 men who are sinners, who often fail, but they are being transformed by God and striving to live out their faith in Christ. They strive to put the interest of Christ and their brothers and sisters above their own. The mind of Christ, His humility is showing up in the normal day to day life. What has this pandemic revealed to you about your heart?
Jeffrey Heine:About the health and vitality of your faith? You've been disrupted from routine, from community, from preference, but this is where we find ourselves. This is the reality in which we all live. The bigger question isn't when can we change our circumstances? It is how are we living our faith here and now?
Jeffrey Heine:If your faith has resolved over the past year to exist only as a thing that you intellectually agree with and not shown up in how you live, I beg you to consider whether or not you actually believe these things at all. Suppose the COVID protocols or personal preferences or personalities or politics have become your go to reasons for not engaging in Sunday worship or with your home group or bible reading or prayer. In that case, I beg you to consider if your heart is growing cold. I'm not talking about workspace salvation. I'm talking about lived faith here and now in the reality in which we find ourselves.
Jeffrey Heine:It's working out our faith in fear and trembling. Is your faith simply an agreement with the idea of Jesus or is it a faith lived in Jesus? Is your faith simply ideas that you agree with, opinions you like, a worldview that you appreciate, stories you enjoy, doctrines you can argue, traditions you prefer? Does it exist primarily in your thinking? To borrow from James k a Smith, we are not only thinking things, we are living.
Jeffrey Heine:We are bodies that live and act. We choose and decide. We feel and we do. Faith must live. When the apostle Paul was in Athens after his first visit to Philippi, he spoke in the gathering place at the Acropolis and said this, the God who made the world and everything in it Being Lord of heaven and earth, he does not live in temples made by men, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything.
Jeffrey Heine:Since he himself gives to all humankind life and breath and everything, and God made from one man every nation of humankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place and that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. In God, we live and move and have our being. Your faith in Christ is not only what you think about Jesus, but living in Him, moving in Him, having your being in Him. It's having the interests of Christ and those of your brothers and sisters ahead of your own.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the mind of Christ, His humility. That is the antidote to our cold hearts. He is the relief of the tension between our believing and our living. It manifests in the way that we treat the people around us because his life is in our living. The tension is relieved and doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in Christ's humility, counting others more significant than ourselves.
Jeffrey Heine:It comes in putting the interest of Christ above our own. The grace of God meets us in the tension of our believing and our living. The spirit reminds us that we are not redeemed through our own living, but through the life of Christ. And because our redemption is not a result of our living, our obedience takes on a completely different purpose. It's a purpose of worship.
Jeffrey Heine:Praising God that we are saved not through our obedience, but through the obedience of Jesus. And in Him, we live and move and have our being. It doesn't have to be a distance between our confession and our living and there shouldn't be. Rather, there should be a complex interweaving of what we confess to believe and how we strive to follow Jesus in the normal, seemingly insignificant day to day. We see this in Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:We see this in Timothy. We see this in Epaphroditus. It isn't impossible or unrealistic. These men sought to put the interest of Christ above their own. And in doing so, every step of following Jesus was a step not only of obedience but of worship.
Jeffrey Heine:And that is a life worthy of our emulation. Let's pray. Holy God, we come before you and we ask that you would speak tenderly to our hearts. I pray specifically for anyone here who feels that coldness of heart. Maybe they felt it for a long time.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, would you warm their heart and strengthen them to know that they care about you. They care about their disobedience. They care about their salvation. They care about following Jesus because you have put it in their hearts to care. May they be strengthened and find the resolve to follow you today.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, god, we thank you for this time, and we pray that you would lead us in your truth. Change us, confront us, and transform us that we might be more like our savior and our king in whose name we pray these things.