SERIES: Philippians: Cheerful Sounds from a Jail Cell
Shopping for Heroes
SPEAKER: Brad Harpe
Introduction: It seems that often in our search for heroes, we look for flash, glamour, and notoriety. In today’s passage Paul presents us with two heroes of a different kind—heroes whose names were not common household words in their time but who are nevertheless worthy of honor, esteem, and emulation by believers of all ages.
Examining the options
I asked my wife, “Robin, who are some of the earliest heroes in your life that you remember and that you wanted to be like?” She said the earliest hero she could remember was Zoro. “I really liked Zoro, he was a cool guy.” The only problem was Zoro was a man and Robin was a little girl. So, Robin didn’t take on the name Zoro for herself; she called herself Zena. That was close enough and sounded feminine. And what she did is to wear a little mask and a cape, and she ran around the neighborhood doing good deeds. Her parents wouldn’t let her have a sword, so it didn’t last too long, probably two weeks. Because after all, you can’t do too many powerful good deeds without a sword.
As I thought back about my own heroes, one of my earliest as a young boy growing up in the San Francisco Bay area was, of course, Willie Mays. I was a great fan of the Giants. (Although, I did root for the Cardinals after the Giants lost to them last year). Willie Mays was an incredible person. He was a man of incredible athletic skill. He had a smile that wouldn’t quit. Little kids used to go to the ballpark, and we would run down to the railing in the front. Willie Mays would always be right out there next to the railing, and he’d be signing autographs while the other guys were practicing. Signing baseballs, signing anything. He was always smiling. He was always happy. He was the “say hey kid.” Everybody loved Willie Mays. He was a great guy.
You know, choosing heroes doesn’t stop when we are children but continues into adulthood. I keep some of the heroes from my past, but I continue to find new ones. Heroes are wonderful because they inspire us, they give us hope, they give us goals to shoot for, and generally they make us feel good about life.
Jesus told stories about heroes. We call them parables. He told stories about men and women who were heroic (and some who were not so heroic), with the idea that we would choose some of the good ones to be our heroes.
In the second chapter of Philippians, Paul has urged us on to some heroic behavior with his admonitions to a self-sacrificing life. He has told us to put the needs of others above ourselves, to live in unity and love, and to care for one another. And then he proceeds to place before us in verses 6-11 the ultimate super-hero, Jesus. He was the man who, more than any other human being, perfectly represented what Paul urges us to be in this passage. He was perfect in submission, perfect in love, and perfect in his placing of other people before himself. It’s an awe-inspiring picture, but I think Paul knows that it can also be a bit overwhelming to this struggling Philippian church, for the picture of Jesus is one to which they can never perfectly obtain. So, he decides to send them a couple of low-profile heroes about whom we will talk today, Timothy and Epaphroditus, not only so he can hear how the Philippians are doing, but so the church can be encouraged by these very down-to-earth men of God.
I’ve entitled this message, “Shopping for Heroes,” not only because we all need to have heroes, but because, in light of this passage, I think many of us need to reevaluate the people that we choose for our heroes, and how we go about choosing them.
First, what I would like for us to do is to spend a few minutes examining the options. What are the options out there for choosing heroes? What kind of people can we choose? The first category is what I call the stereotype hero.
The sterotype hero. I don’t believe there is anything inherently bad with having heroes that fall into this category, for most of these types of heroes are a normal part of life for us, and they change according to our interests and as we grow older. As young children, we tend to choose heroes from the superhero or the comic book genre, the Supermans, the Captain Americas, and the Thors.
As we get older, we begin to choose heroes from the real world. One of the most common targets of hero worship is the professional athlete. We choose an athlete in a sport that interests us, possibly someone who plays in our hometown, and then we begin to dream about being just like him. We imagine cracking a home run like Jack Clark. Or we imagine smashing a forehand like Martina Navratilova.
And, as Christian adults, we often search for heroes in the Christian world, which can be good for us. But many of the heroes we choose tend to fall into this category of the stereotype hero, the same category as the athlete and the comic book superhero. Let me mention just a couple of examples. One of our favorite superheroes is that of the celebrity turned Christian. It makes us feel so good to see a person of such high profile, whom the rest of the world places u on a pedestal, and see him or her turn to Jesus Christ. It’s wonderful. You see someone like that, and you say, “Wow, did you know that such and such a person is a believer? Isn’t it great? It’s exciting.”
Somehow, we seem to think that validates our faith. You see, world? This person who is put on a pedestal by all of you—this person claims to have Jesus Christ as Lord. It’s good. It makes us feel good. I can think of some of these types who have filled that bill in my life—back in the 70’s, B.J .Thomas, one of the great pop stars, and more recently Charles Colson who was rocketed to fame through the Watergate scandal. And even Bob Dylan, the free speech, free love, free everything dissident of the 1970’s, who once made a profession of faith.
Another favorite hero image is that of the high-profile preacher, evangelist, or Christian writer. How easy it is to make heroes of the Chuck Swindolls, the John MacArthurs, the Ruth Bell Grahams, the D. James Kennedys, and others of our day. These people seem to have great insight into the Word and a lifestyle that gives us encouragement and motivates us. But there are some problems with choosing these types of heroes. Don’t get me wrong. The point is not that we need to question their sincerity or spirituality. Most of them have solid walks with Jesus Christ that are valuable for us to to emulate and to be inspired by. But several problems arise from the process of choosing heroes exclusively from the high-profile stereotype category.
The problem of appearance. You see, celebrity almost automatically implies distance. The greater fame to which someone attains, the greater audience that they reach, and in reaching that audience, the greater distance most fans must keep from that person. And as we are a great distance from our heroes, we receive shallow and sometimes unjustified pictures of who they really are. Celebrity also means that we are seeing a picture specifically designed to create a certain impact. That’s not true with all the high-profile Christian heroes that we see, but with some of them it is. Sometimes, unfortunately, the public picture is very different from the private. We found that to be the case in a number of situations recently.
The problem of attainability. It didn’t take me too long as a young boy to realize I would never be like Willie Mays. I didn’t have the long legs, I didn’t have the eye, I didn’t have the hand-eye coordination, and I didn’t have the strength. I would never be like Willie Mays. And such is the case of most heroes from the stereotype category. We look at them and realize we will never be exactly like that type of person. You know, in many cases that’s okay. I didn’t quit playing baseball once I realized I would never be like Willie Mays. I could still go on playing and still go on having a good time.
It’s fine to realize that we will never be like some of our heroes. But what happens if all our heroes come from this unobtainable category? If the only preachers I listened to were like Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, and Bill Hybels, I would think that I had to be as good as they are to be powerfully used by God. But you know, the ministry of such superheroes is usually not obtainable even by persons who have great gifts. I need some heroes who demonstrate for me the type of life that is obtainable. I need some normal persons to be heroes in my life.
The problem of accountability. Scripture says that we are to be accountable to one another, but frankly heroes in the stereotype category, the superheroes, often tend to rise above the level of accountability. We’ve seen that recently. Jimmie Swaggart wasn’t accountable even to his own denomination. Bob Dylan wasn’t accountable, as he recently placed his Christian faith into the maze of other faiths.
A different kind of hero
Today I want to talk about a different kind of hero. It’s the one Paul talks about in Philippians 2. Though he has presented us with the qualities of the ultimate superhero, Jesus Christ, and has urged us to live like Him, he goes on to describe for us examples of two heroes who are definitely not from the stereotype category. They are Timothy and Epaphroditus. Let’s turn our attention to our Scripture text for today, Philippians 2:19-30:
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. 29 So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.
Timothy: the gentle but genuine hero (19-24). Timothy was the child of a Greek father and a devout Jewish mother. He met Paul in Lystra on Paul’s first missionary journey. Paul met him again on his second journey through Lystra and Derbe, and Timothy went with him. He was with Paul when he was imprisoned and beaten in Philippi and jailed with Silas. Timothy’s name appears with Paul more than that of anyone else in Scripture. Timothy was Paul’s right-hand man in founding most of the churches in Macedonia.
Timothy had some weaknesses. Sometimes he was timid. In 2 Tim. 1:6-8, Paul writes to him, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline.” Apparently, Timothy was the kind of person who sometimes backed away from the job he needed to be doing and didn’t carry through on the commitment that he needed to make. And Paul had to urge Timothy to get going, not be so timid, nor be afraid, to get in there and work. He also had some physical disabilities. In I Tim. 5:23, Paul urges Timothy to take some wine for his frequent stomach ailments.
Timothy was a normal guy, but he had some great strengths as well. You see, Timothy was willing to leave the security of job and family to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was Paul’s companion and messenger through the good days and through most of the days which were difficult. Jesus said to his disciples, “Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” And they left their jobs and their families to wander around Judea and the rest of Israel with Jesus to spread the gospel and to follow the master, a commitment very few people are willing to make. But it was one that Timothy was willing to make. He was willing to pay the price.
Another strength of Timothy we see in this passage is his genuine concern for the welfare of others. Timothy’s concern for this Philippian church, even though it wasn’t his hometown, is not just a mental concern. Timothy is willing to make a 1600-mile round trip trek to go back to Philippi to encourage them and then to bring back to Paul word of how they were doing. That would be a major trip in our day; imagine it in the day when people walked everywhere. Timothy was willing to make that trip. That’s the kind of concern that he had for these people.
Not only was Timothy willing to go the distance, but he was willing to return to a town where he had been persecuted and where the church was presently being persecuted. The word translated “genuine interest” is an interesting word. It carries the idea of anxiety. In fact, it’s the same word that is used later in Philippians 4:6, where Paul says to “be anxious for nothing” concerning one’s own personal life. Yet this is the very same word that is used of Timothy in the sense that he was so concerned that he felt anxiety inside of him that they be encouraged in their time of persecution. Imagine the times that you have felt anxiety in your life over maybe an exam that you had to take in ten minutes, or maybe a child that is out late. That feeling in your stomach is the kind of feeling Timothy had for these Philippian believers. How often do we feel that about our fellow believers?
Another strength of Timothy is that he had proven himself. Timothy had a track record. Paul said, “Look. He’s been through difficult times with me, and he’s made it. He pressed on through. He hasn’t failed. He hasn’t buckled under the pressure.” One of the great tragedies that occurs around heroes is when we choose a celebrity—someone who is a high-profile person already—and they become a Christian, and then we immediately catapult them into the spotlight. And we say, “Now, you’ve been a Christian for three hours and four minutes; you need to take the message of Jesus Christ to the world.” And what so often happens is that the pressure is too much. And these celebrities buckle under the pressure that the normal Christian life demands. Timothy proved himself over time, and he didn’t buckle underneath.
Finally, Timothy was strong in his willingness to submit to others. Notice, Paul says that Timothy spread the gospel with him, as a son to a father. Timothy was willing to submit himself to Paul and to his leadership. You see, Timothy wasn’t hungry for the spotlight. Timothy cared about one thing—that the message of life in Jesus Christ would be spread to others and that they would be built up in it, not that the spotlight would be placed on him in the process.
Next, let’s take a look at …
Epaphroditus, the selfless and sacrificial hero. Epaphroditus was a member of the church in Philippi. He was sent by the congregation to Paul during his imprisonment. He brought him a gift, probably of supplies and money to help Paul. Epaphroditus became very sick while he was there and in fact, he almost died. It is probably Epaphroditus who is bringing this letter back to the Philippian church. Notice with me Paul’s description of Epaphroditus.
First, he calls him “brother.” Now, “brother” is a normal term in our day. And for those of us who have grown up in the Christian atmosphere, it is a very common word. We know what it means above and beyond family. It means a connection between those who are in the family of Jesus Christ. And it’s a good word. But it was a very new word in the time of Roman culture and the early church. In the Christian sense, “brother” was something that they had not seen before, for society in that day involved great separation with clear categories. There were categories of slaves and free; of Greeks and Romans; of Jew and Gentile; of aristocrats and plebians; of citizens and soldiers. The word “brother” in the Christian sense in the early church was one that bridged all of those gaps and brought those categories together. Paul says Epaphroditus is the kind of person who bridges gaps; who takes the differences that exist—sometimes great differences between people in the family of Jesus Christ–and brings unity.
Second, he calls him, “fellow worker.” Epaphroditus was willing to work hard for the gospel. Often in the church today, we hear the question “How can the church work for me? How is the church going to benefit me if I come here? What can I get out of it? “ But how often do we hear the question, “How can I serve Jesus Christ through the church? I’m ready to work. What can I do here?” That was Epaphroditus’s attitude, even to the point of great sickness.
Paul calls him, third, a “fellow soldier.” Epaphroditus saw the Christian life as a battle for the gospel with victories to be won. It seems so often when we think of the Christian life as a battle for the gospel, we think of the mission field, and we think of the jungle where a great missionary is doing battle to bring the gospel to that lost tribe that has never heard of Jesus Christ. But friends, the battle for the gospel is with you and me, and the battle line is that white picket fence that stands between your house and the house of your neighbors. It’s the little partition that stands between you at your work terminal and the person next to you at his computer. It’s the armrest that stands between you and the person next to you on the plane. Those are the battlelines for the gospel. Epaphroditus was ready to do battle to bring that message to people.
Finally, Paul calls him “a messenger and a caretaker.” Again, we see someone who is willing to do the low-profile job in an undesirable location. Epaphroditus was not destined to get great fame for what he was about to do by leaving Philippi and going to Paul and being a messenger, but he was willing to do it because it was for the kingdom of God.
The man who came into my life as a young person and really turned me around for Jesus Christ was an incredible guy. In college, he was the fourth-ranked discus thrower in the nation. He had the spotlight on him athletically. He was one of the most sought-after youth speakers in California in the early and mid 1970’s. And one day, this guy decided that he wanted to go somewhere where the spotlight wasn’t on him anymore. And he went to a town of 600 or 800 people up in Oregon. He’s still there. He’s got a church of 2,000 in that town. Not many people will ever know about Applegate Christian Fellowship in Applegate, Oregon. But he told me the other day—he said, “Brad, the only thing that makes a difference in life and has valuable is doing things for the kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter where the spotlight falls, and it doesn’t matter where you are doing it. Being willing to pay the price for the kingdom with your actions is the only thing that matters.”
So far, this passage has basically been a narrative passage. It’s been talking to us about Timothy and Epaphroditus. But at the end of the passage, in verses 29 and 30, Paul gives us the only exhortation in this passage; the only admonition. He says they should welcome Epaphroditus in the Lord with great joy and honor because “he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help that they could not give him.”
Making a choice
Two primary qualifications (29-30) I think in this passage Paul is encouraging the Philippian church and encouraging us to make some choices about who our heroes should be. And in making choices of heroes, there are two primary qualifications. First, is a life completely given to Jesus Christ.
A life given to Christ. Both Timothy and Epaphroditus in this early church age knew that to walk the road with Paul for the gospel could possibly mean the end of their own lives. But they were willing to pay the price because the gospel was that valuable to them. Jesus said to a number of people in his life that the cost was high. He told the rich young ruler to give away all he had to the poor. He said to a man who wanted to bury his father that he couldn’t if he wanted to follow Him. And the issue was not just money or family loyalty, the issue was willingness to give everything in life to Jesus Christ. You see, Timothy and Epaphroditus are normal guys, they’re just like you and me. But he difference between them and many of us is that Timothy and Epaphroditus were willing to pay the ultimate price. They knew that Christ had an ultimate claim on their lives. In their humanity, they failed sometimes, but their commitment stood the test of time.
A life lived for others. The second qualification is a life lived for others—Timothy in his anxiety for the Philippians; Epaphroditus in his commitment to Paul’s needs. In the early church, there was a society built on this passage that named themselves the “riskers.” And the riskers’ job was to visit the sick and the imprisoned because both of those meant taking on personal risk to themselves. And yet this type of attitude is what they saw was necessary if one was to be committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Finally, after making a choice about who are heroes are, we need to make a commitment.
Making a commitment
Admiration vs. emulation. There are two commitments in choosing a hero. One is admiration and the other is emulation. Admiration is great. In fact, Paul encourages people to admire people like Epaphroditus and Timothy. He says, “Give them great honor.” Look at them and say, “These people are great.’ They’ve done great things for Jesus Christ.” But beyond that, Paul urges us, I think, to be like them. The highest form of admiration and honor for a hero is to seek to be like them. Paul said of Timothy that he was as a son to his father. Timothy wanted to be like Paul, his hero in the gospel.
The key to this passage is that these heroes, Timothy and Epaphroditus, unlike the superheroes of our youth, are living lives that can be lived by any of us. Because the key to their life is not any special talent or gift, but an unrelenting commitment to Jesus Christ in every area of life and service to other believers. In fact, to find heroes, we don’t have to look to TV. We don’t have to look to the writers of many books or to ballparks. The heroes are right here. They are sitting around you. They are the people in this room whom you can see if you’ll just be observant. People who are committed to serving Jesus Christ with their lives in difficulty and in hardship, failing, and yet getting back up and saying, “Lord, I won’t let failure keep me down. I’m going to be committed to Jesus Christ with my life and I’m going to act like it.”
There was a low-profile hero in my life at an early age. His name was Reuben. Reuben had a low-profile job with a low-profile home and a pretty low-profile life. He was not the favorite of a lot of people. But from the time he was my Sunday school teacher in 5th grade, Rueben said to me, “Brad, God can do something through your life.” And so, from that point on, all the way through college, Rueben prayed for me every day. And whenever I would come back from college, he would run up to me and grab me and he’d say, “What’s God doing in your life? Is He using you?” \Reuben was one of my heroes. He taught me about the persistence of prayer, and he kept me accountable to Jesus Christ.
We need to choose heroes like Reuben. I hope you can open your eyes and look around at the body of believers that is here. Choose some of the high-profile heroes—they’re good. But choose some ordinary heroes also. Watch the people around you and see how they serve Jesus Christ even when life is tough. And say, Lord, help me to be like that person. Help me to have that kind of commitment.
Last week, in this pulpit we saw a hero, Ed Ollie. He’s a hero not because of his breathtaking deeds in Mexico, but because he’s totally sold out to Jesus Christ in every situation, willing to risk his reputation, his future, and even his life to serve Jesus Christ. Who are your heroes? Let’s pray that God will open our eyes to some normal people who are heroes around us, people that we can be like.
Prayer: Father, I pray that as this passage speaks to us about two low-profile heroes, you will stir us to see one another, to watch one another live our lives committed to you, and to help each other become heroes for Jesus Christ. Amen.
DATE: July 31, 1988
Tags:
Heroes
Accountability
Commitment