Timothy Example

Let's jump into Philippians 2, 19-24. We've got four verses that we're going to try to get through today. Brian, could you do me a favor and just grab me a cup of water, please? I'd appreciate that. Thank you very much. So we're going to be looking at Timothy this morning and the example that he is in this whole context of the book of Philippians. And I think what we'll do is just jump right in and just try to dovetail off of what we did last week. We'll do a little bit of review here, but let's just go ahead and familiarize ourselves with these four verses. And I'll read them, and you can just follow along in your Bible or up on the screen.

Paul's writing here says, 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. 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 see how things go with me and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.

So a little different in terms of some of the content that we've seen in the book of Philippians, it starts to get very plan-oriented and people-oriented and just really specific about things that Paul has on his mind with regards to how he wants to reach out. And so what we want to be able to do is remind ourselves a little bit quickly here about where we were last week But Paul is continuing this theme and really from chapter 1 verse 27 and all the verses following, Paul is gently, and I say gently because he's not hitting heavily a corrective kind of voice.

We don't see that in his writing here. He's not correcting the Philippians. He's encouraging their hearts towards the unity that they are to have with one another. We're going to talk a lot about that today. But as he's working with these believers, he's gently reminding them about the divisiveness that has happened in the Philippian church, those that have done things with the wrong motives, that were not like-minded, that were not of the same mind. And so he's gently encouraging them about how they are to continue to stay in unity, but he's also encouraging them to beware and to watch out for the divisiveness that has taken place and would likely continue to be the case for them. So Paul is working through that and by dealing with this theme of divisiveness and the unity that he's encouraging them to have, he's using examples. of how they should be looking out to the interests of others and not just their own.

And he uses four examples to drive home that point. And today we're going to be looking at this third example of Timothy. But if you remember from last week, we said that Paul was using, first of all, the foundational example of Christ and how he is the ultimate example of putting others first. And that we saw in chapter two, that he emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant.

There's a typo down there, 5 to 1. I don't know where that's coming from. There's actually a lot of... Yeah, I have to copy paste it and mess it up. So ignore that bottom part and refer to the ones last week. But in chapter 2, we did see that the previous verse is not too far back. It was verse 5, I believe.

"...emptied himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant." And then he moves on to his own example, and he says of himself that he was poured out as a drink-offering. Remember we talked about that last week, and how Paul's accompanying accompanying poured out as a drink offering was to what was the sacrifice that the Philippians were making? The sacrifice of? Faith. Faith, that's right. And that he was accompanying that sacrifice of faith by giving his own life ultimately to the sacrifice of the Philippians' faith and the result of that their service and their efforts there in Philippi.

Okay, so we saw that Paul considered himself as an example of putting others first as well. Hit others' interests ahead of his own. And then now we get to Timothy and we read that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel. We'll talk about that today. And then next week we'll look at, or weeks to follow, we'll look at Epaphrodites and how he too was an example in the same way of putting others first. This gives us a little bit of a background. We're looking at key individual personalities and how Paul is using those personalities to drive home these truths.

Looking at Timothy today and getting a little bit of a background here, this is a picture of Lystra. Lystra was a Roman colony, and it was founded around 6 BC, so around the time of Christ, this Roman colony was founded. And if you think about the interesting nature of Lystra, that's exactly where Timothy was, and it was a Roman colony. If you look at even some of the other things about Timothy, you will find that his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek and he lived in a Roman colony.

So this time period that Paul was doing his missionary work had very distinctive influences culturally and Paul had a similar background, didn't he? He was a Roman citizen, he was a Jew, and he was a missionary to the Gentiles and so he very much had to deal with this trifecta of culture and Belief and background and Timothy was very very similar in that way in terms of the influences that Influences that he had but we we actually learned of Timothy's Grow where he grew up in Acts 14 6 and 7 We don't we're not told specifically that he lived in Leicester, but we know in that first missionary journey of Paul that that he traveled through to Lystra. Here's a map of how Paul traveled in his first journey leaving from Antioch.

The blue is his outgoing and the red is his returning. So he goes out All around, here's Lystra, this is where Timothy was. Timothy's not mentioned as having been contacted by Paul in his first missionary journey, but he lived there. We find that out later. But then Paul goes to Derbe and he circles back. So he actually, on his first journey, passes through where Timothy lived twice in his first journey.

And then on his second journey, we're actually told that Here we got the long journey around. And so he goes through Derby coming from the other way this time and through Lystra and that's where we're actually told in Acts 16 1-3 that he picks up Timothy and finds him worthy to continue to serve alongside with him.

And so that's a little bit of the background with regards to the time frame. We just back up here. And so I did mention that missionary journey at the bottom of this slide. So you can kind of reference back. But these two maps will help drive that home. You may not be able to actually read the type on it. So I wanted to review those. So here's a little bit of the timeline, thanks to Vern for putting this together. Here we've got the time of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, around 30 AD.

We see Paul converted in Acts 9. His first missionary journey around 45. He founded the church at Philippi at 16 around 48-ish, 50. And then we see him actually writing the book to the Philippians in 60.

And then, looking at the time when he picked up Timothy, is around 45 to 60 and so Paul and Timothy would have been working together for about 15 years is what we've kind of concluded with that. And so there's quite a time period and a background that these two guys have had. And so when Paul talks about Timothy, you can imagine that he's, you know, and you're going to see in these verses, he's talking about a very, very close companion. Someone that grew up in similar circumstances, not the same, but definitely had the same kinds of influences that he had to some degree, at least exposure to a lot of the same culture. And more than that, you'll find what they have in common is not so much where they came from or what cultures they were involved with, but their intensity for serving and teaching the Word of God. And you'll see that that's really where their companionship is most closely related.

So let's think a little bit about, let's just get a little bit of background. And like I said, these verses are a little bit more grounded in time and space and character. And so we're having to do a little bit of a different approach this time. But just to kind of get an idea, we've taken, you know, Italy.

Here you've got the Italy here and Jerusalem here. We've kind of spanned it out so that we can see. we're talking about Paul being in Rome and the Philippians being here in Philippi and of course there was a direct passage there but when Paul would send anyone to Philippi they would go around by foot on the Roman roads by foot all the way around the sea to the town of Philippi the people of Philippi and that in and of itself is estimated to be about a 40-day journey just to send someone from here to there. So what's 40 days from now, like July-ish, mid-July, is that about right, give or take? So if you get started walking today, You can be in Philippi by mid-July if you don't stop.

Not to mention the nature of this terrain. It's not only difficult, but this is Rome, and you're by yourself. You're Timothy, and you're by yourself. Maybe there were others with him, we don't know of it, but nonetheless there's dangers too. Any time we think about travel in biblical times, it's so different. It's like, we're going to go down the street and have time with an unbeliever and share with them and this kind of thing, or have fellowship with another group of believers across town. It's a long way, definitely a lot longer or tripper and further than what I was used to before moving to Denver. The commutes are bigger, but man, 30 minutes will get you clear across town and there you go. We're talking about 40 days here.

So that's a perspective. I mean, you think about just how the believers would have brought Timothy in once he got there. I mean, so tired and just worn out, but nonetheless excited to connect with them. So that's some of the background here. Let's break down these four verses into three sections. I think they do break down. It's a little difficult to see. The type is hard there.

But this is chapter 2, 19. So we see 19 in one section, 20 and 22 in another, and then we see 23 and 24 in another. And these three sections break down into patterns that I think are interesting. It's something that's a little bit unique about what Paul's doing here. So here we see in verse 19 this pattern of Sin Timothy and Paul wants to hear about it. And then we see in 20 and 22, Timothy's character contrasted with others. We have sending, and I want to hear Timothy's character and others' character, and then send Timothy, and I'm going to come with him.

So you have these kinds of patterns here, and if you look at verse 19, we'll just kind of see that there's a pattern at the end of that verse with another one in 20 and 22, and another one in 23 and 24. So just to read verse 19, 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, And then in verse 20, 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. So you see the parallel between You've got a pattern here and here, a pattern here, these two are related, and this one's distinct in the middle, and then you've got another pattern here and here. So in verse 23 and 24, Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me, and I trust in the Lord that I myself will be coming shortly.

So just to kind of look at the reflection and pattern of Paul's writing in here, you know, he's got this idea of, I'm going to send and I want to hear back. And don't forget, Timothy is like this and others are like that. And I want to send Timothy and I want to come too if everything goes well with my situation. And so you've got this kind of repetitive pattern here. And, you know, pattern in Scripture is what? What do we say about that when we see it? It's just drawing out importance, right? I mean, you see repetition here? It's something that's important and it bears repeating. And that's what Paul's doing.

The most repetitious part of this, I think, is the sending. The sending and wanting to come along. There's this idea of having community again, or having fellowship again, and Paul is wanting to make sure that all the details come together and hopefully, eventually, his own details will result in that coming and rejoining personally with the Philippian believers. This is something that we see through the New Testament writings of Paul. Paul is often assigning or sending for. It's interesting that you don't see a lot of solo things going on with Paul only. a relationship with Timothy that involves this assigning him to do things and sending him to go do things and sending for him to come back to do other things.

And there's this fellowship, this relationship with the two of these guys that go fairly deep into the scripture. We see quite a bit in Acts and in the book of 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Some examples there I've stated and you look at that, but the idea here is that there's a lot of activity going on with these two guys.

They're going back and forth and you're coming and going and you're assigning them to do this task and so forth. And so that's the nature of. of missionary service. It's at least two, if not more, regularly covering each other's back in different aspects of reaching different people groups. You see that regularly in settings of that nature. And why two? Why did they go in two? Why were these journeys carried out in twos? So they could edify each other. I would think that it would be very draining for one person I think the fellowship is so important. So fellowship, edification?

Probably protection too. Body system? And maybe Luke as well. Titus and Luke were part of his team too. Yeah, it wasn't just the two of them, but there were various teams and those teams were larger at times and lesser at times. Maybe accountability too.

Because since they were trained or under Paul in different manners, I think it would be a way to also kind of talk about what their teaching is. I think that's good. We've got edification, accountability, protection, helping one another. Also, you think about today in modern circumstances where you get a visiting teacher. They come in, they plug in their computer into the already existing cables and PowerPoints and everything. I'm looking at everything. It's like, just plug in and start talking. And maybe someone has to help you get a glass of water. Thank you, Brian.

But that's an example, I think, that is not the case for these guys. They did not walk into settings where everything was set up for them. Not only that, they didn't leave their job and have an end of the day and then all of a sudden start ministry or anything like that. I mean, these guys were making tents to pay their way. So here's Paul, Timothy, others helping actually raise some cash just to be able to make the 40-day trip across treacherous and dangerous lands. And they go into a setting that's not covered and bricked up and nice and neat. I mean they're going into settings where they probably have to stop for a time and help them accomplish something with cattle or sheep.

I mean, who knows what kinds of things that they had to do to help these believers out during the day just to be able to talk during the night and gather various types of just basics for keeping life and body and soul together. So think about that. These guys not only ministered together, but they just lived life. They would have had to fish and do the kinds of things that keep life together. Much different than the relationships that we have with one another, because we all go in different ways and join together underneath a very, very put-together roof. And we have our ministry, and then we go back and we go and live our life. These guys were living and breathing ministry together. I think it's easy, at least teachers and churches I've met in the past, to go through this in technical details and work out, well, this is how we ought to structure they had, and almost make it into dogma, which I don't think is the point.

There are certainly very practical, common-sense approaches to, you know, standing them out in teams and all this stuff, but that doesn't seem to be Paul's emphasis. It's on the cooperation, and just the fact that we're, you know, as Eddie talks about in Ephesians, we're all one body.

We all have, in Corinthians, we all have different functions, but the idea is that we work Yeah, there's practical decisions, and certainly there's going to be some type of almost bureaucratic type structure. But that's certainly not the point. Just so many times in my life I've seen people look at this, well this is what Paul and Timothy did, and so we ought to have the same type of structure, and ignore the differences in culture, ignore the differences in technology, and we have to do it this way, rather than just, well let's cooperate and allow God to work through us. to accomplish this task that he has for us. Yeah, I think there's definitely the kind of mimicry that we don't want to get. We want to catch the intention and the spirit of what's being said here and what is going on with this kind of fellowship of believers. I think of the idea of discipleship, and that's not the point here.

The sending and so forth that we see in Philippians is not necessarily about that, but it touches on the nature of the relationship And one thing, you know, I did want to mention is kind of the flip side of that. Not so much that we want to do it like Paul and Timothy did, but I see I see the whole discipleship slash, you know, older believer, younger believer relationship being very much in a classroom where you sit down and you attend a discipleship class and you go through these these these truths.

And, you know, that's what you do. And then you split up and you go your separate ways. And I think there is a place for just calling a younger believer aside you and taking him with you to the store. and just talking about life on the way to and from, come over and help me plant this tree. You know, come over and let's, you know, let's repaint the house or the fence or whatever.

There are situations like that, I think, that offer you the ability to talk about the Lord in a different setting. And that's similar to what these guys would have experienced. And I'm not saying that we should build a doctrine or a dogma around how discipleship should work. But I do think that it bears a little bit of attention in our own lives.

It's not just about coming to a structured location when we do ministry. Let's grab a younger believer and let's take them with us wherever we're going to go. Hey, just come along with me. No agenda. Let's just go and let's talk. And sometimes those are where the deepest ministry takes place in younger believers lives and for the older. I know that's what happened with me.

I've been fortunate enough to have folks pick me up, take me, get on the tractor and spend hours out in the field. And we didn't talk specifically and we didn't have an agenda about the word, but so much about the Lord came out in situations like that.

So it's just an encouraging thing to think about fellowshipping on the run. I've heard the term discipleship on the run, and I'm personally a fan of it. I think that it's not limited to just sitting in front of one another at a coffee shop or whatever, but taking and going. And teaching them, you know, even life skills, things of that nature. These guys would have been there. I'm not to get off my soapbox, but that, you know, that in and of itself is something I see was taking place here. And it is interesting because I feel like we miss a lot of that today in ministry. So some thoughts there.

Let's look at the word, or the phrase, but I hope in the Lord Jesus. We see that in the beginning of verse 19. We see it again in verse 24. I keep getting those two mixed up today. Verse 19, verse 24, we see I hope in the Lord Jesus and I trust in the Lord. Both of these are related. Lord is only mentioned in 24, where in 19, Jesus is mentioned.

So there is that difference. But what's the difference between the word hope and the word trust here? Because both are being placed by Paul in the same location. So what's the difference between those two? Let's start with that. Look at the Greek here. So I hope in the Lord Jesus 19, trust in the Lord in 224. Two different words. that are related but not the same. The word hope there, ellipso, to hope, the New King James has it, trust, okay? And then the word trust is literally rendered out, have confidence in.

So the reasoning we can take from this is that while they're not statements of position and they're not prophecy about what Paul is saying he hopes to have happen, He's simply stating that my condition is grounded on the trust of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. He's saying the things that I make a decision about in my condition right here, right now, the things that I hope or trust or have confidence in are grounded and solidified in the personal Sovereignty of Jesus Christ and that's where he's saying, you know, I sure I'd hope to get out of these chains And I hope to come visit you and I hope to do these things But ultimately my hope is in the Lord Jesus and if that if those events fall within the sovereignty of God then so be it that's where it ultimately has and I I think that one of the things that comes out of this is and has come out with the situation of Paul this whole book of Philippians is he is in a really crummy situation and And he would hope that he was out of it. But yet, nonetheless, he sees the benefit of it and ultimately his hope is in the same place. And so, yeah, he wants to be there with those Philippian believers. But ultimately his hope is more in a more macro sense in the Lord Jesus. Does that make sense?

You know, I think about how Yeah, I think about how we use hope and how we have confidence in certain things. One of the phrases that I've caught myself getting a hold of and using quite a lot is, I hear about someone's situation, a fellow believer, and I say, well, I trust that's going to work out for you. You know, and and while what I have, you know what I'm saying? Have you have you heard that kind of phraseology or maybe use it yourself?

I'm just going to trust the Lord that that will work out for you. Ultimately, it's not so much trusting the Lord that that will work out, but trusting the Lord and having a hope that that is part of what God wants to do. But ultimately, our hope and trust is in Christ. And sometimes he doesn't do what we hope. Sometimes he doesn't do what we say we trust will happen for that believer.

You know what I'm saying? I trust that you're not going to have a difficult time finding this job. Go ahead. Actually, I'm not sure it's the same word as somebody has in the original, but in Romans 5, 5-5 is one of my favorite uses of the word hope. And I'm thinking it's the same word, but I'm not actually sure.

But in this case, God defines hope. When we hope in the Lord, his hope doesn't disappoint. From a human perspective, it may seem that way, but his hope is in the character of God. So it puts it in a different frame of reference. I think you touched on that already. And that's really cool. Our hope and our trust are in his sovereignty and what he has in mind, not in our Well, I'd like this to turn out that way, and that's what Paul's saying. This looks pretty terrible to the human mind, but hey, I'm trusting and hoping in the Lord. So, it says in 5.5, hope does not disappoint.

It is the same word. Is it the same word? I thought it was. Thank you. You guys just teamed up on me, and that was awesome. Yeah, it's not a hope so. No, if it is, it's a confidence placed in and that's exactly where Paul is at. Every one of his aspirations is still subject to the Lord. And it is the kind of hope that doesn't disappoint. I think those are good ways to add and definitely brings a little bit more to the picture of what Paul was saying here. Very good. I'm going to actually look that up here in a little bit.

Romans 5.5. Let's move on to the next phrase here. It's also, there's also similar ones. So we get to kind of hit now two birds with one stone several times through this particular lesson.

He says, I'm going to send Timothy to you shortly. And then also in 23, he says, send him immediately as soon as I see how things go with me. And so there's some relationship here. This idea of sending Timothy is something that Paul's intent is made clear twice in this passage, but his intent to send Timothy to Philippi very soon, and Paul himself would like to follow Timothy's visit with his own. So he's saying, I want to send him, but I'd like to come too. And he sees the benefit for the saints in Philippi from Timothy's ministry, and he wants to hear about that. He wants to be encouraged, he wants to get some information back from Timothy about the spiritual progress of the saints, but Paul's sinning of Timothy will wait until the outcome of Paul's legal appeal is known. And so he wants to go, at the most he wants to hear back, and at the best cases, you know, the best of cases, he wants to have his legal situation wrapped up all nice and tight so that he can go too. And I think it's really neat just to see how Paul has a really intense ultimate hope in Christ, but also an intense desire to get over there and be encouraged by these guys. You can imagine, I mean, is he encouraged in the Lord by sharing with the Praetorian Guard? Is he encouraged to see the Lord at work in that way?

Absolutely. And there's a huge encouragement that comes from sharing with an unbeliever and having them accept the message of the gospel. That is like one of the most amazing privileges that we have. But Paul is saying something here that's really unique, I think. And it's not only that he counts it such an amazing thing to be able to participate. in the message of the gospel to not only be able to communicate that, but throughout this book he talks about, it's your partnership with me in this that gives me such great encouragement and I want to see you.

It's been a long time. And so he's saying, yes, there's encouragement in this situation, but man, he just longs to be back with these guys and hear about what's going on with them and hear about how they have labored with God doing the laboring in the message of the gospel. It's really cool. Yeah.

Well, I think too, you know, you're talking about just a time period You know, we can call somebody or text somebody. Yeah, I mean there's there's always a way to maintain contact whereas back then they just didn't have any of it. The letters were what they had and hearing messages from other believers. And here he's saying, I want to know again on the phone.

I want to go have coffee with you guys. And I want you to break it down. Break it down. Tell me about the last many years. And tell me about what happened when this went bad and how the Lord unified you in like-mindedness. Because that's a huge theme here we're about to get to. I want to hear about it.

You can just imagine. and him imagining from prison there, you know, what it would be like to just finally get back with the Philippian believers and have that connection again. I think it's really neat. It's something that's a very hallmark of Christianity is the unity of the brethren. Something very special.

I look at a lot of the Eastern mysticism and a lot of the things that I come into confrontation with on a regular basis. It's all self. It is 100% self-actualization. It's about you finding peace on your own. It's about you getting away and getting in touch with you.

And Paul's saying, I don't want to be away. I want to get back. I want to hang out with you. And I want our focus and hope to be all centered on our Lord and Savior. And I want to spend time talking about how we are like-minded like that. It's not about how you have your secret experiences and I have mine and wow. It's about we have the same. Lord, we have the same God, and we have intimate relationships with Him, and I want to talk to you about that.

And that's so different than what we see in Eastern mysticism and a lot of the varying modifications of it. Well, that's even something a lot of the charismatic movement misses. You're speaking in tongues, and you have this private love language with God, or however they describe it. It's about the individual rather than the corporate fellowship and worship, which is the emphasis of the New Testament. And so even a lot of Christianity misses out on that. unity in the fellowship of the saints.

Yep, I think you're right. And I think one of the questions we should ask is how are we missing out too? I mean, this passage bears us asking that as well, even as privileged as we are here. What are other ways that we can each individually be led of the Lord to to grow in unity. Continue to grow. I mean, is he done with us? No. He's still at work.

So, those are things that we can think of in our own situation as well. This word encouraged, I really think this is a really cool word. I spent some time with it quite a bit. Prepare for this one. The Greek word here, to be of good character, but essentially it's made up of two different parts, the you and the suke. And so, the you being well and the suke being soul, spirit, surrendered, sometimes, you know, I think of the well with my soul.

That's really what this word says in almost literal form, which is kind of cool. This is the only place that this word is used in the entire New Testament, and there's a reason why he might have used that, and this is a little bit of a speculation, but I think it does have some good ties when you look at the original language a bit here. But this word encouraged, and I double-checked this, triple-checked it, I couldn't find the actual rendering in this way anywhere else in the New Testament.

But there are two words that Paul uses throughout previous verses and in future verses. This word sukos and phreno. We've talked about phreno quite a bit in previous verses. 2, 5, verse 5, and in those verses, and we've also touched on Sukkot as well, Philippians 1.27, 2.2, and 2.20, we talked about that. Why don't we just take a second here, and Roger, if you'll grab 1.27, and Wayne, if you'll grab chapter 2, verse 2, and Debbie, maybe you'll do 2.20. I caught somebody off guard. I'm sorry.

That's okay. We'll get her. That's the one thing about these digital tools is they don't flip as fast as these good old pages. They're like, hold on, the Internet's not working. I have that problem too. I really do. Okay, go ahead. 127, only 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, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. I practice this and I just still can't get it. There's going to be a day where it's going to roll off my tongue, but it's not today. When you're with the Lord.

That's right. It'll be perfect. We'll speak Greek. We might be speaking Greek. We'll speak in tongues. So, chapter 2, verse 2. Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. United in spirit. Okay, same sukos there. It's a part of that word that we're looking at. And 220? Or I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. Kindred spirit, sukos. We're actually going to see that in a minute.

So we're going to look at this individually on its own. That gives us a little bit of a running start into that, but the word phaneo also, the mindset that we see throughout the book, they're there. So Paul could be combining words of themes that he's had in the scripture in this one unique instance of the word. So, the idea here is this single-souled, or single-minded, or single-spirited, okay? That's different ways that it's rendered out. But it's a single-mindedness, and I'm just loving that theme throughout this book. It just comes over and over and over again, this one-mindedness, same-mindedness.

We're going to look at that. And that's seen here in verse 20. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. Okay, we just read that. And the word sukos there, kindred spirit, that's what we're going to look at. And it's rendered here a little bit differently in the New King James Version, excuse me, it's not said kindred spirit, it's called like-minded.

I like them both. I like kindred spirit. We used kindred spirit as an example the other day. I think Debbie, it was you that brought up when you meet somebody and you just have a unique, instant connection as a believer. And we called it a kindred spirit.

I think we're going to be able to add to that a little bit more by looking at this exact word. So in this particular case, this word in the Greek, isosukon, how do you say that? Someone read what I wrote up there. I can't read what I wrote. Isapsukon. Isapsukon. Does that sound right, Roy?

See, Vern told me, he's like, you don't need to put the Greek in there anymore. Vern said, don't put the Greek. I was like, well, I don't have any funny pictures. So the only way I'm going to get any kind of laughing is if I'm trying to pronounce Greek.

But Iso and Sucos, Again, in this word it breaks down to those two derivatives and the idea here is being same or equal sold. So when we're saying kindred spirit, we're same sold, we're equally sold. And in Philippians 1.27, we talked about that. He urged that the saints in Philippi be one-souled.

And 2.2, together-souled, right here.

And 2.20, same-souled.

I just think that's really cool. That's one of the unique things about Christianity. It's not about you finding your own and spending exorbitant amounts of time figuring out your own soul, your divine soul, as they would say. It's about having a together and same soul in Christ.

It seems like there's even one out front saying we're like-minded. This is even one step beyond that. It says that we have a common source in our Savior. I mean, it's that level up. You may have like-mindedness with somebody in your profession. We're both mathematicians or both engineers or whatever it might be, but when you say you're like soul, that's a And that's really deep. That's a deep kind of relationship. And that's what's going on here. It's a good point.

It's something that the word like-minded doesn't quite bear. Isopsoukan. That's the word. Iso is a prefix in Latin and in Greek that means the same, actually. So it's equal-minded. It's not even like, it's equal. And that's consistent with what Thayer has to say. Iso, equal. We must be able to say soulmate. But how much more in the Lord? It's just another level up. We're all from different professions. We might say we don't have the same commonality of mindset and professions. But in the Lord, we have a like-soulness.

An isopsicon. If you knew how to pronounce it right. It's unique. I mean, this is a unique word. And we can't quite, I mean, there's not an English equivalent that quite means exactly the way it says. We don't have a word like that. So we have to crunch two together, same sold.

Sounds a little weird, but it's just interesting. I'm into branding and things of that nature. So when I see a word that's unique and one that kind of has its own unique message, you know, that is not equal to anything else, you know, this has got its own little, Very branding to it. It's neat. You know, Paul used it specifically right here. It's pretty cool. Just like the word for encouragement. That's how I like finding those things.

So they show them to me, whatever. Genuinely. OK, so he's he's not only saying that he he and Paul, Paul and Timothy are same sold or equal sold. He's also saying that there's a sincerely or a genuine nature to Timothy's character. I think this is really cool too. This word is based on a word meaning legitimately born, the genuine article, of an eight character, the real thing. How about we say that in other ways in today's speak. You're the real deal. You're the... You're the cat's meow. You're the cat's meow. Today's? I still use today's. Maybe I will use that too. Timothy was the cat's meow.

Okay, yeah, you're legit you're you're you're the real deal, you know coke is the real thing and Timothy's the real deal Yeah, there's lots of different ways we say that but Paul was Paul was trying to communicate that you know, he's genuine Down-to-earth very real honest sincere character he he is a He's not the kind of guy that you gotta wonder about. Or maybe he's not quite what he presents himself to be. Paul's saying, on my account, you know, he's a one-of-a-kind, genuine, legitimate kind of guy. And in 1 Timothy 1-2, Paul begins his writing.

He says, To Timothy, my true Gnesios, child in the faith. Genesios. Genesios. Genesios. Yeah, that's how it's said. Genesios. True, genuine, child in the faith. That's what he's saying in 1 Timothy. So he uses this word again here in 2 Timothy to talk about Timothy. And because of that genuineness, it says that his genuineness is going to result in what? a concern, a concern for them.

In other words, I'm not going to send you a guy that's all wrapped up in himself or wrapped up in something else. He's a one-of-a-kind, genuine, honest kind of guy and because of that, he's going to care about you and I want him to be there with you and that's why. And I have no one else like that who is same-souled like me. There's no one else like that. that will care for you in a way that you need to be cared for. And that's what Paul's driving home.

And then in verse 21, for they all seek after their own interests, not for those of Christ. So anyone else that could be sent or that would go and potentially be concerned about the welfare of the Philippians would have whose interests in mind? And that's the whole point of these passages that we've been looking at the last few weeks, is that it's others first. And that comes out of an intimacy with Christ alone.

And I was telling my daughter this morning, she had a little fit about her wanting to do things her way, and I said, so focused on yourself and not the interest of others, your brother in this case, you know that that's an instance where sin is at work in your mind. It's challenging you to not trust Christ, because when you're trusting Christ, others are first, and it's a natural life to live. When you serve others, you know that you're walking with the Lord, because that's just not how we roll by ourselves. Is there a way to fake serving others? You bet. There's always a fake one. But that's not what, that's not the kind of thing that Paul was talking about with Timothy.

There was a genuineness and a same soul that was founded in their relationship with the Lord and having looked back just to the previous example of Christ and having emptied himself out and that Christ does the working. 2.13. Somebody read 2.13 again. where it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do in His good pleasure. So when God's doing the working, that's where the serving others comes out of.

And that's the tie that we have here. This isn't a law. This isn't something that, you know, we need to be seeing serving, you know, at the soup kitchen more often. That's not what we're saying here. What we need to be doing is beholding the Lord through His Word and as a result, Paul's saying, there will be a consistent example of Christ in you as you serve others. We talked about the terms above reproach, blameless. Children of God are examples of things that Paul says will be seen of you when God does the working through you and as a result you serve others, you'll be a light in a dark place, he also says. So Philippians 2, 3-4 we've already looked at.

Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. That can't be done in the flesh. It doesn't exist. It only exists when Christ does the living. and you serve others, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. That's a tall order. We talked about how tall that is. Without the Lord Jesus doing that through us, as we abide and rest in Him, there is no such thing. Everything else is just a fake effort.

That's not what Timothy was, because he will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. He was letting the Lord, he was allowing by faith the Lord to do the serving. And he will seek out the interest of Christ, not like the other people that Paul is referring to.

So remember, he's got to make this 40 day trip by foot, and he's going to be genuinely concerned for them through that whole trip. Yeah, is this really worth it? You know, you think he didn't deal with some potential temptation? I'm sure he did. I mean, the shoes weren't like what we have today. You know, Mike's Nike, fancy Nike shoes were just were not the thing for Timothy.

So no, that's good. So verse 22, but you know of his proven worth. Again, it goes back to This idea of he's known by experience. This word know is not just a casual knowing, it's a knowing by experience. And I looked at other instances where this word is used. It gets pretty deep. It really does. This kind of knowledge is deep, deep, intimate, and in some cases physical knowledge of another person.

And that's what he's saying here is that you know, you Philippians, you know with experience his proven character. So the believers at Philippi had spent personal time with Timothy and Paul did not have to introduce him or explain who he was. So they knew of his character, they knew the kind of guy that he was. And in Acts we see that he was a part of those journeys through Philippi. The verb is present, active, indicative, and so they were knowing this is a fact about Timothy as of Paul's time of writing. So it's right here, right now, indicative. You know about it. Right when you get this letter, you know of his proven worth. So it's personal. Proven worth. The evidence are proof that something is genuine.

And it's closely related to the word dokimas in Philippians 1.10. Someone read 1.10? Don't laugh. Don't you laugh in the back. Just because I said doki. It's what it is. It's dokimas. Dokime dokimas.

Philippians 1.10. Someone. So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Okay, so you may be able to, what's it say after that? Discern. Discern what is best.

Okay, so here we have the word dokimas in Philippians 1.10 and it means that Timothy had been tested and had been shown by that testing to be approved by reason of passing the test that his character had been demonstrated by being tested.

Just reading that. He's passed the test of having proven who he was. He's the real deal. And that's what Paul's saying. I'm not sending you someone that's unqualified. Okay? He's qualified. And he's proven it such. They served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Second part of verse 22. So this word does mean to serve, but the verb Paul uses is the service of an own slave, not that of a hired or voluntary slave.

And you might recall in Philippians 1.1 how he uses the term bondservants, doulos. We're bondservants of Jesus Christ.

This has the same root as the way that Timothy served with Paul. And it's interesting, they did it in a kind of father-son relationship. That's how he relates the serving. I think that's pretty cool. How does a son serve a father? You know, is it in bondage, enforced? Well, it's definitely 100% focused, but it's different. It's familial. You know, there's a family relationship serving that's going on here that Paul's talking about.

So Timothy would be sent as a representative of a spiritual father, Paul being same-souled as Timothy and having been approved by Tess, and that should read Timothy there, not Paul. It was common in the New Testament times for a disciple to be called a son and his teacher as a father. You think about that relationship again. I was talking about how we disciple one another and how we minister to one another. Think about it in the context of you being a father to a son and taking them along. them catching many of the things that they need to catch and learn instead of just being told. It's taught by doing things together and Paul and Timothy would have had similar, or not similar, but they would have had those kinds of experiences where Timothy would have grown and he would have proven his character based on the things that he had learned and put into faith and ultimately the Lord doing the action of it. But there's something to clarify in this verse.

Interesting that he has it says that he has served with me and I've got limited on time here So I'm going to try to work through it pardon my speed through this but though Paul does compare his relationship with Timothy as father and son Paul writes here of Timothy serving with him and so they are both bond servants of Christ and We saw that in Philippians 1 1 so that Timothy is not serving Paul, but Christ and that's what's interesting. I is that they're serving together the same person. And yes, there is a father-son relationship, so there's an older and a younger, and so there is that kind of personal hierarchy there of relationship, but ultimately, Timothy, you don't serve me.

You serve the Lord, just as I serve the Lord. I happen to be further along in the faith and I'm teaching you. I'm also an apostle. So that kind of qualifies me. But nonetheless, come alongside me and let's serve the Lord together. And that's where Paul was saying that he had had that experience of Timothy serving with him. I think it's pretty cool. verse 24, and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.

So what Paul was saying here in the Greek here, you break it down Apo and Harao, away from and look. So he's not saying, I see. The way that it comes across actually is back up here. So it says, as soon as I see. In other words, I've been looking over here and now I've had to take my attention away from it and look to my own situation for the time. So there's a looking away from and onto a new location.

So where was Paul's attention prior to him having to look at his own situation? He's sending Timothy because Timothy is also looking at their situation and he's concerned about them. So here he's so concerned about the Philippians and now he's saying, now I'm having to take my look and gaze and stare off of you and put it on myself for a time to see how my situation might end up so that I can turn my gaze and attention back to you at some future point in time, which I really want to do. And since I can't do it yet, Timothy's coming to do it for me.

Yeah, it's kind of neat. Here is the idea of Paul having his attention focused most intensively on the needs of the saints in Philippi. So let's do the Expanded and Explained. I've got to thank Vern for this. I love how he not only brings just the Expanded, at least you can get the Expanded and Explained versions of this stuff, but it doesn't bear the New Testament understanding of identification, and Vern always brings that in. And so it's just been really encouraging to my heart as I expand and try to translate these verses to see how He reads that bigger picture of identification into it where it is appropriate. So let's read here the word he expanded and explained translation.

For all the others except for Timothy seek after their own personal interests rather than the ultimate spiritual concerns of others in view of who Christ Jesus is and our eternal position in him. But you know by personal experience Timothy's tested and examined proven character that as a devoted child with his father he served as a holy owned bond servant making his will entirely subject to Christ right alongside me for the past 12 years. Therefore I hope, which hope is subject to the will of the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you immediately upon my turning my attention from being focused upon you so as to see how things go with my legal proceedings and being optimistic about my circumstances I have confidence subject to the will of the Lord that I also will be coming to visit you shortly as well following Timothy's visit to you. So there's a lot of position and intimacy with Christ packed into Paul's communication with the Philippians and also his relationship with Timothy.

So again, just very rich in so many of the truths that I think would encourage unity. And that's really the point here. And sorry we didn't get to dialogue a little bit more at the end of this one. Four verses is a lot, not to mention I'm a little wordy at times too.

Let's pray. Well we just thank you so much for the truth that we see here in the book of Philippians and just your encouragement through the Apostle Paul for a same-souled unity amongst one another that we would together while in different places in our lives serve the same God and that is the Lord Jesus and as we focus and trust in you where we find our hope and our trusts rendered and subject to all that you are and know that it is not a disappointing hope and that Lord we can rest in you knowing that your control over every situation is personal and it is based on grace and love and we just thank you for it. Just pray now for a good time for the rest of this morning for Vern Vern's teaching and for our heart to just continue To grow and be taught by your your spirit. That's your name. We pray Amen