Kindred Servants

Philippians, and once again to
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Come to a passage which you can tell even by the
way the commentators treat it, betrays an attitude that is pretty
prevalent in the church, that there are really important passages
of Scripture and there are less important passages of Scripture. This is one of those passages
that so many commentators treat as a kind of a transitional passage,
that these are pastoral matters. They are, you know, perhaps not
the greatest for sermon usage, perhaps there’s not a
direct or clear message for the church. You can just see by way
of the way the great majority of commentators on this passage
that it is just not one of those really crucial passages. But
with that attitude or that mindset, to whatever degree it was true, I would contend. I think this
is a message that is for the church. I think there is a message,
a strong message here for the church. I think that there are
things spoken of in this passage that are so desperately lacking
in the church that it has enfeebled the church and made it weak and
largely ineffective. We would do well to pause as
we read even the most seemingly insignificant passage of Scripture
to see what we, by God’s grace, can glean from it. Because I
think that’s where we miss so much. I think there is a message here.
And it’s a message that the church does need to refocus on. The
characteristics, as I subtitled it, of a faithful Christian servants,
a servanthood to which we are all called. I think the biggest
hindrance to service in the church is the mindset that the paid
staff, whether you call them pastors or really whatever you
title them, the paid staff are the ones that do ministry. And
there is that mindset in even the best of churches. The tendency
to let go and kind of let the professionals, quote unquote,
take care of the work of the ministry. When Paul said that
we are, as the staff, the elders, the shepherds, the pastors, we
are merely the equipers of the saints for the work of service.
We’re all in this. We have all been called and equipped
for this great work. to participate in the great building
up of the church of Christ. And so Paul here gives, not unintentionally,
characteristics of faithful Christian servants. If you would look at this passage,
it’s not a transitional passage. It’s not an unimportant passage.
It’s not even a subordinate passage. This, I would say, is a crucial
passage for the church in our own day and age. Look at verse
19, if you would, of chapter two. But I hope in the Lord Jesus
to send Timothy to you shortly so that I may also 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 as soon as I see how things go with me
and I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall be coming
shortly. And I suppose that as you step
back from it, you can see how there are those that fell into
the thinking that this is perhaps just a transitional verse. In
a sense, it’s pastoral speak, letting people in on kind of
his plans, kind of his circumstances, what he plans to do by way of
an emissary to them as a church. You can understand, perhaps,
can’t you? Some came away from this passage thinking that it’s
less important, less crucial than some of the other great
passages in this book. But I think there is a message
there for the church, as I’ve suggested. But let’s go back
and look at this verse. He’s talking about his own circumstance
in light of the Philippian church who he dearly longs to minister
to. And yet finds himself unable
to be there personally and struggles to find a faithful servant to
go and to send there. Look at verse 19. I hope in the
Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I may be
encouraged when I learn of your condition. What a great way to
look at things. What a positive, what a way of
thinking the best of people. We don’t tend to operate that
way, do we? We tend to hold out our conclusion until we have
all the data. We really think the worst of
people until we hear otherwise. That’s our tendency. Not for
Paul. Paul couldn’t wait to be encouraged
at how he heard they were doing. We need to change our way of
thinking about people and things. We need to think the best of
them. The whole passage here, when
Paul says, but, looks all the way back, if you would, to verse
12 of that passage, which we considered several weeks ago. If you need to flip, do what
you need to do to flip as I flip. Go back to verse 12 of Philippians
chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2, Paul
said, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only. And so there is that thought,
not as in my presence, but now much more in my absence. There
is that thought that that presence is there and very real for the
Philippians and very well could be prolonged. We’ll talk about
in a moment. It looks all the way back to
that, but it also touches upon another thought that he had just
mentioned, the thought of being poured out as a drink offering.
So that absence is very real. And Paul says it very well could
be permanent Philippians. It could be permanent. And so
he desires to minister to them, even in the face of his own pending
martyrdom, even in the face that he may not get to see the Philippians
again. He wants them to know that he
is still seeking to minister to them. In chapter two, verse
17, as I said, he had spoken of the possibility of his death
being poured out as a drink offering. We spent some time on that. There,
his language suggests that it’s even probable. But the conviction
kind of vacillates throughout the entire book, as we’ll see
in a minute. And it currently seems to yield to the fact that
ultimately he will get to come face to face and see the Philippians.
But either way, he wants them to know that he’s caring for
them. But I hope in the Lord Jesus
to send Timothy to you shortly. There wasn’t anyone else that
even came close for Paul In Paul’s mind, who would even be considered
for such a mission to go and to minister to what perhaps was
Paul’s favorite, his dearest church, the church that he had
been instrumental by God in establishing. The church that he speaks in
such great and glowing terms. Timothy. And Paul, as I said,
seeks to send Timothy, his most beloved fellow servant, to his
most beloved church. Paul had great affection for
Timothy, even as you course through the writings, most notably the
pastoral epistles, but even beyond those. Almost every time he speaks
of Timothy, it’s in just glowing terms. In 1 Timothy 1-2, he calls
him, my true child in the faith. We’ll come back to that thought
in a moment. My true child in the faith. Paul had been instrumental
not only in planting the Philippian church, he had been instrumental,
used by God in God’s grace, in imparting the gospel to Timothy
and in cultivating that growth of grace. He calls him in 2 Timothy
1-2, my beloved son. Not his literal son, but his
spiritual son in the faith. In 1 Corinthians 4-17, he calls
him my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. In Romans 16-21,
he calls him my fellow worker. Now he begins to elevate him
to the great status that Paul himself held. Timothy was with
Paul, as we’ve seen, not only in the establishment of the Philippian
church, but later on we see him in Acts 15. He’s with Paul in
Corinth. He is sent by Paul to Macedonia. He accompanies Paul on his return
trip to Jerusalem, stopping there on the shores near Ephesus to
call the elders to himself. Timothy is there with him. He
is associated ultimately with Paul in writing a great many
of the New Testament books. The book of Romans says that
essentially Timothy is there with Paul. Second Corinthians
1.1, Philippians 1.1, Colossians 1.1, both of the Thessalonian
epistles and Philemon all mention this companionship as being active,
that Timothy was there near with Paul. And Paul has a purpose
in mind for this little visit. We have a different idea of fellowship
in our day and age. It’s as I’ve said before, it’s
not it doesn’t even approach the kind of intimate fellowship
that the New Testament speaks of. We think of a visit as just
being a social kind of a thing, as if Timothy was just going
to drop in on them and they’d converse and catch up a little
bit. And then Timothy would be back on his way. This is a ministerial
visit. This is Timothy pouring all of
his heart and soul into the Philippian believers and they him and then
departing. The purpose is stated when Paul
says, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly
so that So that I could be encouraged. Paul couldn’t wait to hear more
news from the Philippian church. More news of the growth of grace
in their lives. More news in the way that they
were shining the light of the gospel to the darkened land of
Macedonia. More news of new converts to
Christ and more news of those who are growing in grace and
beginning to exercise their own giftedness. Paul couldn’t wait.
What a hopeful, as I said, and positive thought. What a way
to think the best about the saints. And if you think about it, it’s
not an all that farfetched thing to do. To look about you and
to think of any of the saints among whom you sit this morning
and to think that God has already begun a work within them. And
that five years from now, or 10 or 15, why shouldn’t we think
that the very God who began a work in them and has already been
seen as active within them will only increase that work in them? Paul couldn’t wait to hear what
great things God was doing in the saints of Philippi. And we
need to cultivate that same mindset. We need to be eager to hear about
the lives of the saints and eager to hear about the grace coursing
through the saints that we love. Timothy was sent, not only sent
to them for sent to them rather, but he was sent for them. In
essence, he was sent on their behalf. It was Paul’s way of
ministering to them to send to them Timothy. He was sent for
their good. He was going to go and encourage
their hearts and teach and nourish. But on his return visit, that
was all Paul’s. Paul was going to be the benefactor
when Timothy came back. Paul himself was going to be
cheered up and encouraged. Paul himself was going to be
nourished and heartened by what he heard from the lives of the
Philippians. and what God’s grace was doing
in their lives. Timothy would not only encourage
them by reports about Paul, and there was this mutual and intense
care and concern. Where do you see next week as
we begin to talk about Epaphroditus? You have this church that is
so concerned about Paul, and Paul is so concerned about his
church. Timothy would not only encourage
them by his reports about Paul and the whole gospel cause there
in the church of Rome, but upon his return would encourage Paul
with all that good news about the Philippian church. The purpose
of Timothy’s mission was to inform Paul ultimately about the condition
there in the Philippian church. And it was all positive. It was
the whole drift of the news. Paul was expecting to be positive. Look down at verse 23, where
he repeats this mission, as it were. Therefore, I hope to send
him immediately. It was of utmost importance that
Paul dispatch Timothy. That’s how badly he wanted them
to know how he was doing and he to discover how they were
faring. I hope to send him immediately
as soon as I know how things go with me and I trust in the
Lord that I myself shall be coming shortly. And when he says as
soon as I see, it’s kind of undefined. It could be a matter of days.
It could be weeks. It could be months. even years,
but the very top priority, as soon as Paul had a bearing on
how things were going, he wanted Timothy off on this mission. But note about this, as I said,
Paul isn’t just a depressed fatalist, as we’ve discussed in the past,
he believes fully that he’s going to be released and that he too
will be able to come and see the Philippians. This isn’t just
positive thinking. It isn’t just wishful thinking.
Paul fully believed that he would be released and we believe that
he was ultimately. 1 Corinthians 4.17 says it this
way, a parallel verse says, For this reason I have sent to you
Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and
he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as
I teach everywhere in every church. So, Paul in ministering to the
Philippians now is going second tier. But it’s the same ministry. It’s the same heart for the same
church. just with this faithful servant,
Timothy. Why Timothy? Why Timothy? And what is provided for us in
verses 20-22 really expand and expound upon the focus of this
very passage. It’s not just about Timothy.
Rather, these few verses, 20 through 22, frame the required
characteristics of a fruitful Christian ministry. By ministry,
I mean a team of people. If you’re going to have a group
of people together seeking to serve the Lord, they are in desperate
need of what is communicated in this passage. They’ve got
to have it. They’ve got to have it if they’re
really going to be used for the Lord effectively. These things
are so necessary. The Paul communicates to the
church by way of this passage, but these are the things that
are so necessary to see developed among them. As you will see,
these are the elements that are rare and even elusive to the
church. In some places, completely absent,
and therefore, the church struggles and is feeble and even fails. And these are elements that absolutely
must be cultivated if a ministry is not only to thrive, but to
be effective for the Lord. They must be there. And so I
want to look at this development of kindred servants, faithful
Christian servants with three little points here this morning.
First of all, those who serve the Lord must cultivate a like
minded care, a like minded care. Go again to verse 19. We’ll take
it as we go. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send
Timothy to you shortly so that I 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.” That is a tremendously sad statement. When you think of perhaps the
greatest city on earth in that day, and there was an active
movement of the gospel, the church in Rome could very easily be
said to be flourishing at this standpoint. And Paul looks around
on the landscape of Christian men at his disposal. And he says, I don’t have anyone.
I don’t have anyone else to send you. There was and there always is
a desperate need in the church of cultivating a kindredness,
a unity of heart and purpose and direction in ministry. A
togetherness for the gospel, if I can use a current phrase.
Paul says that with regards to Timothy, that is precisely what
he had. A kindred spirit. One that thought
like him and felt like him and worked with him. Perhaps you’ve
had a similar friend. I remember when we had our college
ministry. Whenever we would take on a project,
we had this deal where we would go and minister to shut-ins. and we would do practical care
and projects around the home. And I can remember working with
my friend Andy and we didn’t even, it was kind of a weird
thing, a guy thing. We didn’t even have to talk.
We don’t do, guys don’t do a lot of that anyway, but we didn’t
even have to talk. If I needed the hammer, I would
stick out my hand and Andy would hand me the hammer. And perhaps
others of us have had those kinds of people with whom we’ve worked.
That’s how Paul and Timothy worked. They were just in sync, spiritually
speaking. They were just together. They
were kindred spirits. And in the ministry, there must
be that if the ministry is to be successful, if the church
is to flourish, if your own particular ministry is to flourish, you
can’t be at cross purposes. You can’t have varying goals.
You can’t have little personalities and little factions developing
at all times. You have to be one. You have
to have kindred spirits. Literally, the word here means
of equal soul. So that no one else that Paul
could even think of had the same qualifications as Timothy, had
the same heart in tune with his own as Timothy did. The word
is used only here in the New Testament. The one place that
it’s used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
Old Testament, is a sad passage. It’s Psalm 55. Psalm 55, 13 speaks
of one of a familiar friend, a great and dear Christian, or
in that case, a godly brother who had just obliterated the
psalmist here. Look at Psalm 55, 13 says, But
it is you, a man my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. That’s the word there. There
is a familiarness in ministry that is absolutely needed. We ought to be in this church
the best of friends. There should be no unbeliever
with whom you are on some kind of friendship with that should
even approach your friendships and your kindredness with the
saints of this church. And it’s something that has to
be cultivated and developed. We should know each other’s hurts.
We should know each other’s strengths. We should know each other’s joys.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. That’s
what Paul said in Romans 12. But as I said, all too often
in the church, there is a sparsity of kindredness and ministry.
That’s because so many people have a variance of agendas, great
variety of agendas. Everybody wants to accomplish
different things and we cannot seem to work together. We cannot
seem to put the two together. We want what we want and we’ve
touched upon this a thousand different ways already. There
is strife because of it. There is self promotion. that
if we don’t take up our agenda, who will? And so there is this
mindset that develops that it’s me first in the church. There are varying priorities.
There is disunified thought and disunified thinking. There is
doctrinal confusion and doctrinal differences, even doctrinal error.
And all of that mitigates against this most necessary prerequisite
in the church for ministerial success. And that is a kindredness
of heart. A kindredness of purpose. I’m sure each of us in our church
experiences can look back over the landscape of the churches
in which we’ve been involved. You’ve got your own anecdotes.
I know I’ve got mine. In Paul’s case, there were a
hundred different things going on. There were people who were
already preaching the gospel with impure motives, as we’ve
already seen. We know that there were people,
whether they were saved or not, we know that there were people
that were just needling Paul with their own agenda. They were
glad that he was imprisoned. They hoped to heap difficulty
on him with even the way they were going about things. Scripture
talks about this at almost every book in the New Testament talks
about disunity in the church. From a personal standpoint, we
certainly have known it in every church we’ve seen, we’ve seen
those with their own agenda. We were talking with some of
God’s people this very week, we were talking about people
who are kind of the controllers of the church. I remember when
I was in seminary, they told me, beware of the one who meets
you at the train station. That’s why I drove to Fort Collins. They said, beware of the one
who meets you at the train station. He’s the power broker. He’s the
one really who runs the church. It doesn’t matter what your title
is. Doesn’t matter what kind of board
you have or what kind of governing structure the church has. Beware
of the one who meets you at the train station. And we saw him.
We saw him at several of the churches we’ve served. I can remember being in a meeting.
I shared that this week. I remember being in a meeting
and we were talking about some policy and principle, biblical
principle. And somebody said, well, you
know, boy, so-and-so isn’t going to like this. They’re big givers
as if that makes any difference in the world. And I can remember
saying, how do you know what and how much they give and what
does it matter? There are those in the church
with their own agendas. There are those in the church
with their own plans. They are not concerned about
a kindredness. They’re not concerned even about
the success and flourishing of the church because all they want
to see is their own agenda, their own plan advanced. One faithful Puritan said it
this way, when two or more are called to labor together in arduous
and delicate work, and that is the gospel ministry. Trey and
I have spoken. We liken our relationship to
a marriage relationship. We just don’t wear a ring. When
two or more are called to labor in an arduous and delicate work,
all of them having a deep sense of personal responsibility, Difficulties
of necessity constantly arise. Whatever we do as Christians
together is going to be fraught with difficulty because we’re
human and because life is hard. Difficulties of necessity constantly
arise, which an isolated worker does not encounter. An isolated
worker goes about doing whatever he wants. But it’s not God’s
design, as we’ve seen. And in a kind of work such as
any of the forms of labor in the gospel, in which success
depends largely on the existence of affection and confidence between
the laborers and those whom they desire to influence for Christ,
It is obvious that extreme watchfulness, self-restraint, largeness of
spirit, delicateness of feeling are needed in men working conjointly.”
Did you hear what he said? You absolutely have to have a
watchfulness. You have to watch for your own
tendencies. This is exactly what Paul told
Timothy. Beware of those youthful lusts.
And he wasn’t talking about what impure things necessarily that
Timothy might look upon. The impure lusts there, the things
that so often trouble youthful men are power and prestige and
the desire to have their own way and their own will advanced. Paul said, you’ve got to be watchful.
You’ve got to exercise self-restraint. It’s not just about you. It’s
not just about your own way. You’ve got to have a largeness
of spirit that when you’re offended, you forgive. You forgive knowing
your brother for who he is, just like you forgive your wife. We
forgive one another. We work together because the
goal is in mind. It’s the advance of the gospel.
A largeness of spirit. A delicateness
of feeling that we know, we’ve got to remember constantly that
we’re clumsy, oafs. That we have a tendency to offend
everyone around us. And that we’ve got to be watchful
of that and mindful and sensitive to the fact that we do that. But for Timothy and for Paul,
that kindredness is well developed. The kindredness was there. They
had been watchful. They had stepped on each other.
They had forgiven one another. They had developed that kindredness
that comes with time and with effort. One described it in these
terms, that grand simplicity of unselfishness, the mellow
Christian wisdom, the exquisite patience and gentleness of the
apostle, fitted most pleasantly in with charming meekness and
humility and unselfishness and affection in his young friend,
so that the relation they bore to each other was one greatly
and growingly helpful to both. And might I add to their ministry. So Paul says that kindred spirits
in the church are sparse. They were in his day. They are
in our day. And the missing element, the
thing most that most illustrates this sad state of affairs was
the sparsity of men who really cared. Look at the passage. I have no one else. of kindred spirit who will genuinely
be concerned for your welfare. There are those that will buy
books. There are those that will go
to conferences. There are those that will go
to school. There are those that will do all these things. But
there are very few who really care for the welfare of the church.
There are so many that are caught up in some doctrinal error. There
are so many that just don’t care. Look at the passage again when
he says, genuinely, it literally is naturally by natural instinct. There are those and it speaks
of that kind of care that a mother would give to a child, that a
father would render to his own children. It is that familial
kind of care and concern and love. He says, you know what? There’s so many of you. There’s
so many of you out there that don’t even have the love of a
common family, much less the family of God itself. Timothy’s interest wasn’t forced.
Timothy’s interest and care for the Philippians wasn’t feigned.
It wasn’t pretend. It was natural. He naturally
loved these people. He was there when the people
came to Christ on the riverside. He was there. He had been there
a number of times ministering faithfully to them, and he was
concerned. The word there, interesting word
to be used here, and it’s one of those words in Scripture,
and there are several of them that can be used in a good way
or in a bad way. And this is one of those words.
The word lust can be used in a very bad way, but it can be
used in a very good way of an intense and eager desire. Paul
said, if you desire the eldership, if you lust for the eldership,
it’s a good thing for which you desire. And this word, to be
concerned, it’s a good thing that it’s an intense concern.
It literally speaks of a division in the anxious mind. Something
that tears at your mind. You can’t even focus. You’re
so concerned. That’s how focused and concerned
Paul was for the Philippian church and Timothy likewise. It’s an
intense thought for others. As you see in Scripture, there’s
a right and a wrong anxiety. And that’s how the word’s used.
The word’s used in Matthew 6. For this reason, I say to you,
do not be worried about your life. Don’t have an intense concern
about your life as to what you will eat or drink or for your
body as to what you will put on. Isn’t life more than food
and the body more than clothing? And that’s how this word is used
in Scripture, good and bad. Speaks of an anxious thought,
being anxiously careful. The passages that I read show
that the Word sometimes expresses good feeling of intense concern
in the case of Timothy and Paul, and a feeling that becomes wrong
and misdirected in the case of Matthew chapter 6. But the quality,
the care, the level of care and concern that Timothy had for
them is exactly that which Paul’s care approached. It was a care
that proceeded from a natural parental love. In other words,
there wasn’t anyone that would care for them in such a fatherly
way as Paul did. And Timothy would have that kind
of feeling and concern for the Christians. That’s when Paul
says he lacked a kindred spirit. He lacked anybody who really
even cared. We know that in our day and age,
don’t we? Christ said the harvest is plentiful, but the workers
are few. And we know that in our day and age, don’t we? There
are many who will say that they care and say that they love God
and say that they want to serve the church. But the reality is
sometimes we just don’t care. There are several other points
of concern that Paul will touch upon We’ll pick those up next Lord’s
Day. But Paul said, the bottom line, there are things
there are things missing in this church in Rome. There are things
missing in the church. There are things missing in the
church today, and let’s be honest, there are even things missing
in our own church. The first and foremost thing that must
be cultivated among us is that kindredness of spirit, that like
mindedness of purpose and that like minded care for one another.
We should be the most caring of one another. Let’s pray for
God’s grace in that regard. Our merciful God, And you know that I speak to
a church that is so much better than most with
regards to their care of one another, their concern, their
active love that flows from a natural love for one another, a cultivated
love by God’s grace that operates much like a family, caring and
reaching out. Father, we pray, we desire our
ministry to flourish, not for our own advancement, not for
our own glory, but for the cause of Christ. That many in this
city and in the surrounding cities would come to know our Savior. Because of how we love each other,
how we care for each other, how we serve each other, that they
would see in us such a strong kindredness of spirit and purpose,
that our goals are the same, our agendas are the same, our
loves are the same, that they would be drawn to it
and that they would come to inquire and that they would come to know
the Savior who has changed our hearts and saved our own souls. Father, we ask your blessing
of grace as we seek to serve you in that regard. May you be
glorified in developing a kindredness in this body like we’ve never
known. We thank you and we praise you.
It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.