It is great to have you with us for this final episode in Series 1 of the book of Philippians. I hope that you have been following all the episodes to see how Paul is talking to the church. 

Recap and Background 

In this final episode, the theme is 'Teamwork in the Kingdom'. We get an amazing insight into Paul's friendships and partnerships in the gospel because this passage, the final section in chapter 2 of Philippians, is all about his co-workers. He tells us quite a lot about Timothy, whom he has been working with for many years, and Epaphroditus, a member of the Philippian church who came to help him in Rome.There are many things we can learn from their stories. 

Timothy

We have a lot of information about Timothy, and it starts in the Book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas set out in Acts 13 on their first missionary journey. They travelled around a province called Asia Minor, which we now call Southern Turkey, where they were at the time. They came to a city called Lystra on their first journey. Here Paul performed a remarkable healing ministry, and many people became believers in the gospel. The church was formed in Lystra very quickly. Amongst those converts was a young man called Timothy, his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. We hear about them in other parts of the New Testament too. They were Jewish and Paul, Timothy's father was non-Jewish or Gentile, but Timothy had been taught the Old Testament by his mother and grandmother. When Paul came to Lystra and explained the gospel of Jesus Christ, Timothy, his mother and grandmother were all persuaded. They had been in the synagogue worshipping, and they joined the church community that started in the city right at the very beginning. Timothy was a very young man at this stage – maybe a late teenager. 

 A short time later, Paul came back to Lystra a second time on his second missionary journey. He was wanting to encourage the church and strengthen it and Timothy was there in the congregation. Paul noticed Timothy, and how well he was progressing in his faith. He noticed how all the other members of the church said what a good and mature person he was and what a responsible young man he was. Paul made a big decision – he requested Timothy to leave his hometown in Lystra, to leave his family and travel with Paul because he needed helpers and companions as he travelled around evangelising and planting churches. That was an enormous request to make of Timothy, and he must have been really shocked that Paul would want him to uproot himself from his community and start travelling with him. Although we don't exactly know what happened in Timothy's mind, we do know that he decided to go with Paul and he became one of his main travelling companions and co-workers for many years afterwards.  

This letter is written many years later, and Timothy is with Paul in Philippi. In the years between, Timothy has spent many months and years travelling from place to place with Paul. He endured very difficult conditions. He saw the opposition that Paul faced, and he was with him all the way through - in difficult circumstances and in good circumstances. Sometimes Paul sent Timothy to represent him in different places. He had been to Corinth to represent Paul there, and now Paul wanted to send him to Philippi to represent his teaching and tell them his news. 

Timothy was an amazing man - one of those people in the New Testament who keeps appearing from time to time, but we don't really know very much about him. He was obviously a servant of the gospel, willing to serve Paul and a very good friend of Paul. Paul describes himself as like a father to Timothy: ‘Timothy is my son in the faith’ He was one of his most trustworthy companions and must have looked after money, travel plans and Paul's property, such as his scrolls which he left in different places. Paul could trust Timothy. Paul, in fact says here, 'I have no one else like him. No one is trustworthy and reliable and gifted as Timothy’ - an incredibly unselfish man who was able to teach, to lead, to encourage and to represent Paul. 

 Later, we find that Timothy is sent by Paul to the city of Ephesus to lead that church in a very difficult situation when false teachers had got into the church and corrupted it. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy, which we know as 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, when he told Timothy all the things he needed to do in Ephesus to sort out the problems in the Ephesian church. Timothy took on this very difficult responsibility on behalf of Paul, who at that time was in prison.  

 From Hebrews 13: 23, we know that Timothy ended up in prison suffering for the gospel and was subsequently released from prison. So here Paul is talking about one of his best friends, one of his closest co-workers, and he was saying to the Philippians, 'I'm going to send Timothy to you to encourage you, to make a connection with you.' That was a big decision for Paul, - a big sacrifice - because he was under house arrest in Rome, and Timothy was helping him in that situation, but Paul decided, 'No, Timothy needs to go to Philippi.' 

 There are some forms of Christian ministry which are there to help the preachers and the teachers and the pastors and the evangelists, and they are very important people, but we often forget them. We think about the people who are famous, who are popular, who are standing in pulpits, who are leading churches on Sundays but there are often people alongside them who are very important and make things happen. You might be that kind of person. If you are, think of Timothy as an example. 

 Epaphroditus 

The other person in our episode today is Epaphroditus.  Epaphroditus was a member of the Philippian church who had been sent by them to Paul to help him while he was under house arrest in Rome. 
 
What an amazing story. The background is that when the Philippians heard that Paul was under house arrest in Rome and very short of help and resources, they decided to take up a special collection of money in the church in Philippi, and they chose a trusted man within the congregation called Epaphroditus, and gave the money to him and told him to go to Rome, and spend as long as he needed, and look after Paul, their friend the Apostle who planted the church about 10 years previously. So Epaphroditus carried a large amount of money by sea on his journey, from what is now northern Greece, to Rome in Italy. He must have found himself somewhere to live because he probably wouldn't be allowed by the Roman authorities to live in the house that Paul rented.  He used the money to buy things for Paul and would visit him regularly and support him and arrange things for him. Epaphroditus did a wonderful job for Paul. 

 Here is another example of an interesting type of worker in the Kingdom, somebody who is a helper, who loves helping people. In fact, there is a powerful spiritual gift of 'helps', of serving, that God gives to many Christians. It is to enable the Kingdom to grow by supporting people who are leading the way. Epaphroditus was somebody like that. We don't think he was a preacher or a pastor or an elder in the church there, as far as we can tell. He was a reliable member of the church who was willing to give his time and travel to another country and spend time with Paul and help him for as long as was needed. That was a wonderful comfort to Paul until something terrible happened to Epaphroditus; he became ill, so ill that he nearly died. This caused Paul great anxiety, distress and shock. He prayed that his friend Epaphroditus wouldn't die having given so much and having come from his own country over to Rome and spent all this time with Paul maybe many months. Paul didn't want him to die there; that was a terrible thought. By God's grace, Epaphroditus recovered. But what was his illness? We don't exactly know, but we do know from the historical records that cities at this time often suffered from bubonic plague and other viruses that would spread very quickly and for which there was no medical help. People could be killed in their hundreds and their thousands as plague spread through the cramped urban conditions of cities like Rome. There are many historical incidences of thousands of people dying of plague quite suddenly. So, it is possible that this is one of the causes of Epaphroditus' illness. He became very, very sick but he recovered, and when he recovered Paul made the important decision to send him back to Philippi, to help the Philippians. Paul speaks of Epaphroditus in very affectionate terms: ‘he is my brother, my co-worker, my fellow soldier.’  

 Paul had a gift of making friends. This is obvious from his writings because he refers to so many people very affectionately who he met, and stayed with - people who helped him, who were co-workers with him, or who travelled with him, or had given him financial gifts - all sorts of people. Paul didn't fall out with his fellow workers very often. Occasionally there were points of tension as with Barnabas in the early days but, generally speaking, Paul had long term deep friendships with people that he worked with. Epaphroditus was one of those people; it appears that when he got to know Paul, they became very close. One of the things that draws Christians together is being on the same mission; it can create a sense of bonding and excitement - we are on this same mission together.That is exactly what happened between Epaphroditus and Paul. Epaphroditus was obviously a pastoral man - practical, a true servant, and willing to take risks. He left his home city, went to the imperial capital in Rome, and had to sort his life out there, set himself up and help Paul. He was a man of real quality. 

Reflections 

The power of friendship and co-working together is very important. We need to find people we can work with for the Kingdom. Maybe it is evangelising your street or a ministry in in your church. It may be in prayer; we need to find people to pray together with. It may be in some form of Christian leadership. Finding those people is really important, and nourishing those close relationships can produce tremendous energy for the Kingdom. 

 The second reflection is: here is a very good example of cross-cultural mission. Paul came from the city of Tarsus in the province of Cilicia, and he was wholly Jewish. Timothy came from a different province, from the city of Lystra, and he was half Jewish. Epaphroditus came from a different country, - from the city of Philippi, Macedonia in northern Greece, and he was a Gentile. So, we have a Jew, a half Jew and half Gentile, and a Gentile working together.They were working across their cultures. They came from different places; and had different backgrounds, but they came together to work for the Kingdom of God. They became a very strong team. Sometimes that is how God leads our churches; we find that we can work with people from different cultures who come and help us in our mission, or we are helping them in their cultures, and that produces real strength for the Kingdom. Paul was often involved in cross-cultural mission like that. 

 Another lesson is the importance of teamwork. In some of our cultures in the world today, we are used to the church leader being in a very exalted, or honoured, position and it is difficult to form a team around that church leader, but Paul always invited strong teams around him that could achieve a lot for the Kingdom. 

 My final point of reflection concerns, the use of an interesting word in this passage- in verse 25, Epaphroditus is described as "the messenger" of the Philippians. The word messenger also means representative, but the word in the Greek language is ‘apostle’ - the same word that is used to talk about the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the Twelve, Paul and James, Barnabas and the other few Apostles who were called by Jesus Christ, either in his earthly life or in the period of his resurrection. They were the founders of the Church. The same word appears in a different context here. In the New Testament, we find the Apostles of Jesus Christ - those founding Apostles in the first generation - and we find apostles of the church - people who are representatives of the church sent on a mission. The mission could be anything; it could be planting or overseeing churches; it could be helping the poor; or in this case it was Epaphroditus helping Paul. He was the messenger of the church. This word 'messenger' is used in the same way in 2 Corinthians 8: 23, speaking of a group of men who were commissioned by the churches in Macedonia to carry a financial gift from there to Judea. They were the messengers of the church; they were the representatives of the church; they were the apostles of the church sent out. So, we have the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the initial group in the first generation, and we have apostles or messengers of the church sent on mission by the local church to advance the Kingdom of God. 

 At this point, we come to the end of Series 1. Thank you very much for joining us for this series, and I hope that you will continue into Series 2, as we continue to look at other teaching and themes that Paul brings out in the last two chapters of this amazing book.