Epaphroditus example
Philippians 2:25-30 · Roger Henderson · May 27, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926315395216

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well today we're going to do the last section of chapter 2 and this is an example of Epaphroditus. So could someone read this section for me? You can read from the overhead or just out of your Bible if you like or from their handout. But I thought it not necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and administered to my need, because he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow after sorrow. Therefore I have sent him with all more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Thank you.

So this section is going to talk about Epaphroditus and actually he turns out to be a pretty interesting person. Now if you've been in the class in previous weeks you notice there's kind of a pattern that we've been following here and let's just kind of go through that. This is a pattern that started back with the Lord Jesus earlier in chapter 2 It's basically the sacrifice of service. And so the example of Christ is back in verse 7, the A part. This is chapter 2, 7a.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant. So the word Jesus, even though he was God, became man and emptied himself and became as a bondservant, obedient to his father in all that he did. And that kind of traced into Paul. It says Paul in verse 17 in chapter 2, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifices and service of your faith. We went through and we studied that out. That's really kind of cool how he's poured out. He saw himself as a drink offering.

That kind of focuses back on the Old Testament. And it's on the sacrifice and service of your faith. So that's an interesting phraseology there. And then last week we talked about Timothy. In 22b it says that he served me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. So there was a closeness between Paul and Timothy.

And now we come down today to Epaphroditus. And the very last verse says, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was sufficient. So there's this pattern that we go through starting with the Lord Jesus and then Paul and then Timothy and Epaphroditus. And we're going to find out that Epaphroditus is quite an interesting person, quite an amazing person.

We're going to find out that he ministered. He was going from Paul to the Philippians and then coming back from the Philippians to Paul. And he was ministering to both groups. And you have to kind of read through carefully that passage. But Paul just commends him his sacrificial service, how he encouraged the Philippians and he was concerned about them, and how in return when he came back from the Philippians he brought their concerns to Paul and encouragement to Paul.

So both of them are all in there. So what I tried to do here, and it's not going to come too good out on your handout because I didn't have it in color, but I tried to put in here, just for clarity's sake, We have three parties here. We've got Paul, we've got the Philippians, and Paul's not with the Philippians, right? Where's Paul right now in this passage or in this section? We said that earlier on.

Is he in the spa right now enjoying himself and having a great time? No, he's in prison, right? He's in prison. So he's ministering to these people from prison. And it's just so amazing. He's writing these epistles. This is one of the prison epistles.

So we got Paul, we got the Philippians who he's ministering to from afar, and we have Epaphroditus. So I went in and I tried to put in, just for emphasis sake, so I put in here, so it says, but I, Paul, thought it was necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother. We're going to see here just shortly how he talks about, he gives a five-fold resume of who Epaphroditus is and it's pretty amazing, pretty amazing the closeness between those two men. So he says, he was your messenger and your minister to my needs because he Epaphroditus was longing for you all and was distressed because you have heard that he Epaphroditus was sick. So he was concerned about I was thinking about this. How would you feel if your children heard that you were sick and you were far away from them? Mom and dad are sick. Wow. They'd be really concerned.

They couldn't see you. There was no email, no text messaging, no iPads, iPods. No Skype. No Skype. No nothing. They may hear you and then six months later, maybe they hear another little piece of message and they have no idea. They could be dead. You have no idea. So that comes into play here. The lack of communication is very prevalent in here. And then 27, it says, for indeed, so he really was sick. For indeed, Epaphroditus was sick to the point of death. So it wasn't just a casual. He was very close to death.

But God had mercy on Epaphroditus. And Paul says, not only him, but God had mercy on me too. And so I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. We're going to look at that a little bit too. That's kind of an interesting phrase. Then 28, therefore I, Paul, have sent him Epaphroditus, all the more eager so that you, the Philippians, see him again. You may rejoice, and I may be less concerned about you. So not only was Epaphroditus concerned about them, Paul was concerned about them. So we've got two parties here, a family unit in a sense, and they're concerned about one another. What's happened? We don't have good communication. So it's really interesting.

Then down in 29, Paul says, Receive him Epaphroditus, then the Lord, with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard. Because he, Epaphroditus, came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. That last phrase is very interesting.

I want to ask you guys what you think that is. How could Paul, you know, he's saying, he commands Epaphroditus, but he says, he says, actually I'm getting ahead here a little bit. Let's just leave it alone for right now. Okay, so let's go on and look at the first verse here. It says, but I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus. So who is Epaphroditus? Is the first question.

And how often do we see him in scripture? That's one of the things. The only other place He only occurs in Philippians. There's actually another gentleman called Epaphras, which I want to look at too just a little bit. But I don't think it's the same gentleman. I think they're different people ministering to different churches.

So Epaphroditus shows up also in chapter 4, verse 18. Could someone read that for me? Philippians 4, 18. But I have all and abound, I am full, having received Epaphroditus, the things which were sent from you, an odor and sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God." So here he is, Epaphroditus being the messenger, and he commends him for that again. So those are the two places, what we have here in verse 25, and then also in 418.

Those are the two places. So he said, I thought it were considered necessary to send to send to you Epaphroditus. And this word necessary is the idea. It's a necessity. And there's a couple other verses that are spiritual and moral necessity. Let's look at a couple other passages that use that word. In Philippians, actually back in chapter 1. Philippians 1, 24. We see that word occurring in verse 24. Could someone read, let's see, how about 23 and 24 in chapter 1? Could someone read that? We covered this earlier. I am torn between the two.

I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. So using the same idea, it's necessary, Paul says, to remain on in the Bible. He says it's necessary here, and we're going to ask the question here in a second, why was it necessary?

And then in 2 Corinthians 9.5, let's look at that, 2 Corinthians 9.5. And this uses the same word. So what I try to do in many of these passages, I try to find the same word used in another context that maybe will amplify the meaning of the word. So that's what I'm trying to do here.

So in 2 Corinthians 9.5, could someone read that passage? So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange before you their previously promised bountiful gift, that the same might be ready as the bountiful gift. Thank you. Thank you. OK. All right.

So Paul sees this as a necessity. So the question is, why did Paul think it was a necessity? And actually, the answer is in the context. We've already read the answer. So does someone have the answer? Or would like to put forth an answer? It's in the context, not of this verse, but in the context we read. so people could see that he was healthy and doing alright. Okay, okay. Actually, the answer kind of shows up here, I think, in 26.

It says, because, kind of twofold, he was longing for you all and that was speaking of the Philippians, and was distressed because you have heard of their sickness. I think that's why Paul said it was necessary. Because he was longing, so he had a longing for them, and he was concerned about them being distressed because he was sick. So I think that's kind of the answer to that question.

Don't you think it's also often necessary and unnecessary that we personally see the need, and somebody else sees the need, And then between the two and the Holy Spirit, the need is met, which kind of happened here. Right, well actually, obviously Epaphroditus saw a need, he had a longing, but Paul saw that too. And the congregation also, because the congregation gave to the person who was capable. So all three parties were obviously seeking what the Lord had them do, it seems like, and they were concerned about one another. And we see all that interaction going on.

And that's very... That's how we... Yeah. Well, verse 30 gives us a hint, too. There could be another reason, right? And that's the service to Paul himself. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And that's where we kind of see this interaction, Paul serving them, ministering to them, and then, you know, Paphroditus is sort of the go-to guy. He's going both ways. He'll serve from Paul to the Philippians or the reverse. So that's really kind of neat. Okay, good. So now we kind of go on to, I mentioned his five-point resume. First of all, he says, he's my brother.

Actually, I have not realized this, but Adel Foss, many times it's translated brethren, but really it has this idea of the same womb. If you think about it, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who have been born again, that concept carries over beautifully. So we have the same origin, as Mike likes to say, His life is now our life. We have the same history as the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's such an endearing term. He's my brother from the same womb. And that's such a really neat way. So he starts off with that. I think he refers to Timothy the same way, doesn't he?

Let's just check on that. Actually, I didn't really do it. I'll be doing that next week because we're doing a survey of the whole chapter 2. But I didn't really try to contrast between Timothy and... Timothy, my brother? Does he say, my brother? Well, actually, it's not here. I think actually it's in other places he does that. I'm my own son in the faith. Right. And Titus also, I think. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. OK. We'll maybe track that down next week. OK. All right.

So secondly, he says, and what I did here is that if you look at the way in the English, it says, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier. Well, you could, since my modifies all those, you could put my in front of each of those. So I just, to make it more to the point maybe, he's my brother, my fellow worker, that fellow workers idea of a co-worker a co-companion in labor and I have found some other verses that kind of you know there and here's what I kind of found and you kind of alluded to that Paul had a a large group of folks that he called that were working with him and getting the gospel out and he talks about them as my fellow workers or co-workers so let's look at And we're going to find about Timothy here shortly, too. Let's look at Romans chapter 16. And you can find quite a bit if you trace through this word. Just trace through the word co-worker. And it's great. These days with computers, you can find out. I used to do it with the concordance by hand. It took a long time. It's a lot faster with a computer. Concordance can take a long time. So let's look at chapter 16. and verses, verse 3 and verse 9. Could someone read verse 3 and verse 9 in chapter 16 of Romans? Greetings to Briska and Aquila, my fellow laborers in the work of Christ Jesus. And verse 9?

Yes. To Urban, my fellow laborer in Christ, and to my dear Stycus, That's good, Roy, I'll take it. I'm glad you're reading it. And he says, you know, my beloved, yeah, okay. And actually, no, we didn't actually read it, but right below what Roy just read there was he says, I lost it here, in verse four, who for my life risk their own necks. So the idea of brothers giving their lives for one another, risking their lives was not uncommon in Paul's day. There were women here too.

Oh yeah, I agree. I know brothers in English means both. You've got to make sure we understand. Okay, that's good. Let's look also in 1621, there's another one. It says, Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you and so does Well, let's see. Lucius and Jason and the last one, my concern. Anyway, so the point is fellow workers was a term that Paul used for a large body of folks that were co-workers with him in getting out the gospel. So he, Apaphroditus was one of those. And there's actually Titus and Philemon was another one. And then he says, my fellow soldier. So not only is my brother, my fellow worker, my fellow soldier.

This idea of suffering hardships for Christ. And so there's a cool verse for that. Let's look in 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 2.3. 2 Timothy 2.3. So I can read that. It says, suffering hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. That's kind of interesting. So we all can see ourselves in that.

As we get the message of who Christ is and what he's done, there's an aspect of hardship and suffering for him as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, of Christ Jesus. And then he has two additional points on his resume. He says, he's your messenger. He's a Philippians messenger. And this is kind of interesting.

This is the word apostolos for apostle. Normally, or maybe the more common use of apostle is one who saw the Lord Jesus in person, saw him face to face. And that included Paul. He didn't see him at the same time as the other disciples. But actually, there's a larger context where They will, especially like in Acts, they'll describe other people who were getting the message of the gospel out as being apostles. And one of those examples is in Acts 14. So let's look at that. Acts 14. And is it the same word? It is the same word. As the other apostles.

Apostolos. Apostolos. Or actually, I think it's apostolos. In the Greek it's apostolos or apostles. Apostolos, okay. Okay, Acts 14. And could someone read 4 and 14 in chapter 14? But the multitude of the city was divided, and part held with the Jews and part with the apostles. That almost sounds like it's the apostles. That's what I think. Okay, and go down to 14. The same chapter? Yes, 14, 14. That's when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of. They rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out. So you look at 14, you look at 4 and you say well, you know, and I have some other ones too. So what I kind of found was that actually Sometimes other people that work with the Apostles were called Apostles in a general term. Even though technically you could argue that they were not Apostles in the technical sense of the word.

I've never heard that. Please tell me something I've never heard. Check me out. I can give you more verses. I don't have them all down here. That's one of the things I found out as I went through this. So Roy, does that remind you of a conversation we had a few nights ago? We were discussing this at length on Friday night at Romans 1 actually. Okay. We agreed. Okay.

It's specific sometimes and more general at other times. Praise the Lord. That's what Roy says. It must be right. The term that we were talking about though. Talk about heresy. It was a different term. It was Apostleship. Okay. Was the term that we were talking about. Where an Apostleship. Right. It seems like a very, but Bob says it's the same word, but it is translated in Romans as apostleship. Okay. So apostleship. appears to be a more broad term. I agree with you.

As a messenger, as opposed to the apostle. Right. But this word does talk about other people that are not... Barnabas was not one of the... Right. Anyway, and there's other ones I can... Well, that's good. I'm glad that you guys have the cooperation there. It makes me feel good. Let's see here. I heard yours. I have two. Two. Okay, so let's go on.

And then lastly, your minister, the Philippians minister to my needs. Now here's the reverse situation. Here's the ministry coming back to Paul from the Philippians via Epaphroditus. And that's the part that I hadn't really thought much about that until I started going through this passage.

It's really kind of cool. And Paul recognizes that and says, wow, that's really neat. So it's literally the servants of God to Paul. And actually, Weiss had a really kind of neat translation for that. His are kind of wordy, and sometimes Weiss is back in the 40s.

So it says, you're ambassador to me, whom you entrusted as a mission, and he Epaphroditus, who is a sacred way ministered to my needs. It's a little hard to read, but anyway. Epaphroditus was ministering to Paul on behalf of the Philippians. That's kind of the bottom line. And there's actually another verse that uses this word minister here. And let's look at that. It's back in Romans again. And it might add a little bit of additional things to the idea of ministry or minister. Romans 14. I'm sorry, Romans 15. Okay, 15 and 16.

So if someone has that, would you mind reading it? to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So that verse 16 kind of captured, I think, some of this idea, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God. So that's kind of all wrapped up in your minister to my needs. It's kind of a cool thing there.

Alright, so let's go on to verse 26. This was the reason, actually right here, because or since And that points back to what we just talked about that's one of the reasons why it was necessary Because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you have heard he was sick So he was longing for you all Some translate this homesick homesickness, but I found it a little bit stronger than that So it's this word which I can't pronounce at the moment To long for greatly to yearn and Actually we had it back in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 8. So if someone has that, would they mind reading that? Sometimes I had homesickness and I thought it seems a little weak.

This is a real long heat. And then the one in Thessalonians is longing to see you just as we also long to see you. So this is an intense longing. And actually, another interesting thing is this is in the present tense. So this is something that was continually going on. He was continually longing to see them.

As you might with your family, you might, boy, I really miss my children, or I miss my dad, whatever it is. I really miss him. And Paul saw that in Epaphroditus, apparently. Okay, then secondly, the second point is he was distressed. He not only had this intense longing, he was distressed. To be much troubled and distressed. And this wasn't just a a mild distress, because the other places this word is used, it was used with the word Jesus in the garden when he became distressed. And I said, wow, that distress, not a casual distress, he was very distressed. In Matthew 26, 37, could someone read that? And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Right, right. And it's repeated in Mark, the same kind of thing.

So this distress, So Epaphroditus, and Paul recognized that, was longing for these people and was very distressed. And the reason, it gives you the answer here in the rest of the verse, because you heard that he was sick. He was afraid, they thought, well, maybe he's not with us anymore. Maybe the Lord's taking him home.

It doesn't say that. And the idea of sick here was without strength, powerless. And the passage there in Mark is probably the best one. It's actually a word for sick because it says in that verse in 6.56 in Mark it says, and he Christ entered the village, and so on, and they were laying the sick in the market. So it basically means sick.

Any thoughts before we go on? I think back at Philippians 1 Paul said, for me to live is Christ and die is gain. I mean, Epaphroditus apparently, his work wasn't done yet, right? So he was sick unto death, but yet, for me to live is Christ, which is exemplified. He never says, gee, Epaphroditus, if he left it was going to be with the Lord, but that's assumed based on what he previously said.

Right. And then also I was kind of looking at some people's comments on different things, and they said, well, you know, in some situations Paul would heal people, but apparently it wasn't the Lord's will. I mean, He didn't heal him of the sickness. He let him come close to the point of death. That was God's purpose. We've been healing at a distance. This isn't going to your clinic visit, right? See, and I have discovered as I'm getting old, because I've hit 85, that I've just assumed being glory. I've just assumed being glory. And God has kept me here kicking and screaming Yeah, keep it up.

You know, I deal with people 20 to 35 who are, oh boy, and it's so difficult learning their vocabulary and what they do that I just soon be home. And I can understand. Absolutely, absolutely. But I didn't understand that at 40. No, that's a good point, that's a good point.

I think as you get older you realize, well Lord I, you know, thank you for the life you've given me, thank you that I know you, that I know where I'm going, that I have this Sure hope, and I'm ready. Just tell me when. Roger? Yes, go ahead. I was thinking that he got well, and he must have really gotten well, because you don't send somebody who is still weak on the kind of journey they had to make.

I know, and I think actually, how long would it take, 40 days? Jim kind of traced it out last week. It's not like a little casual stroll around the park. It's not like it's going to be easy either. out in the elements all the time for 40 days, that's a long...

Well, do we know that Epaphroditus was in Rome? I don't know. The question is where is he when he's talking about that. I don't know. If you guys can... I'd be happy to listen to that. I'm not sure I know. He talks about him It would almost mean that he'd have to be, because the way he communicated with people, he wasn't going to be able to have immediate communication unless he was in Rome.

It sounds like he was ministering to Paul at some point. It's not like he could be in some other town. Paul could have sent him a message through someone else. Right. Someone thought he had an apartment close to where the prison was and he would go there. I mean, I've seen people, you know, this is all kind of just, you know, speculation, but they said, well, he obviously had contact with Paul, so somehow he was close.

He told him what was happening in the Philippine church. So next part. So this talks about the sickness. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. So he was sick to the point of death or literally coming near to death. Okay, coming near to death. But God had mercy on him.

So I just kind of went back and kind of thinking about, you know, grace and mercy and we, you know, talk about those terms a lot. So what would you say, what would you say, here's what, here's what mercy is. Mercy basically is God seeing or literally the term itself is there's a need on the part of the one who receives it, and the ability on the part of the one who gives it to meet that need. So in scripture, we see mercy and grace used in different contexts.

A lot of times it's in terms of salvation, but in this case it's used a little bit different. This isn't for salvation. This is for restoring him to health. This is kind of God's attitude toward a need. There was a need here. I'm sure there was prayer about this and he met that need. And that's God's mercy. God's grace, as we've talked about many times, we live in God's grace.

That's how he operates. He doesn't operate by law, he operates by grace. So grace is how he operates. He gives us salvation based upon his son, not upon our merit at all. Grace is how God's operating. Mercy is an action he takes within the sphere of grace. And then Paul says it was not only on him, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. So I didn't have a whole lot to... So what do you think the sorrow upon sorrow is all about? And once again, we don't have a lot of...

We know that Paul was in prison. We know that there were difficulties there. And you know, and it seems like from this context here, he was concerned about the Philippians, he was concerned about Epaphroditus. So that kind of stuff, that multiplying on top of another, it seemed like he was referring to that, but it's hard. And what's interesting, I think, is that Paul never talks about, in a negative way, that he's in prison. No, he never does.

It's always about the body. His sorrow is really that he can't being with the body. He can't minister. It's never about his situation. That's a good point. In his own, whatever's going on with him. So that's what I would think the sorrow upon sorrow is. Not only Aphrodite's, but also the fact that he can't personally be with her. That's a good point. I like that. And then no one would be able to go and minister to the body. No, that's great. I like that. That's good. That certainly fits within what's being said in this context. That's great.

All right, so now we talked about where Aphrodite was, so he's going to send him, so he has to be somewhere he can tell him. I'm going to send you a text message. Therefore, I have sent him. all the more eager, as pointed out, he must have recovered pretty well, he's ready to go, all the more eager, so that when he sees you, so that when you see him again, you may rejoice and may be less concerned, I didn't read that right, and I, Paul, may be less concerned about you. Okay, all right, so, therefore I have sent him all the more eager, and eager is this idea of, zeal, earnest zeal. Let's see, I had a verse for that.

So let's look at 2 Timothy here for a second. In the context, let's read 15-18, 2 Timothy 1, 15-18. This Thou knowest, this is the Old King James, This Thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, poor Paul, of whom Patroclus and Hermodinus, the Lord give mercy unto the house of Ornithos, whatever he is, I call him John, for he refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me."

Do you want 18? That's fine. Basically it says, the Lord granted you to find mercy. That's just fine. Okay, so 17 is the one that has the word I'm looking for here. It says, he eagerly searched for me. So this shows that this was, you know, that Epaphroditus was eager. He was eager to go and tell the Philippians that he was OK and communicate with them.

So two-point purpose. First point is when he sees him again, you may rejoice. And then the second point is that I may be less concerned or sorrowful about you. One's for the Philippians and one's for Paul. Here we go. He's the go-to guy. He takes care of both camps. He's going to encourage Paul. He'll be less concerned. The Philippians are going to be rejoicing. Actually, just stop for a second.

We're going to see here in Philippians, and actually toward the end, Bob, I kind of had some special topics in here, and one of them is the two words rejoice, joy and rejoicing, and looking at those two words. So here we see the word rejoicing. It's a verb, and we see it early on in Philippians, in Philippians 1.18, and it kind of sprinkles through the entire book about rejoicing in the Lord. In Loan 18 it says, What then, only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. In this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. So rejoicing is an abundance of joy. Whereas joy is a noun and it describes, I'm joyful because I'm in the Lord. So there's noun and verbs in view there.

So there's a two-point purpose of sending him. that the Philippians will rejoice and Paul will be less concerned or less sorrowful. And then here's some instructions to the Philippians. He says, so Paul's writing, it's funny, he's going to send a papyrus with a message to tell them how they should feel about what's happened. It's kind of interesting. Two instructions, okay?

Receive him in the Lord with all joy. And I guess you would say that's probably, you know, he was the the person that everyone trusted. So if I had a letter that said, this is what Paul says about me, then I'd say, okay, he has good words about you, then we can trust you. So he says, receive him in the Lord with all joy. So here's the word joy that I mentioned earlier.

And the idea of receiving is to accept Entertain, not in the sense of, you know, have a party, but entertain, being hospitable, I think is probably a better idea. And let's see, what did I have in, so let's look at Romans 16, what, Romans 16 comes up quite a bit today. Romans 16, one and two. Okay.

It says, I commend to you my sister, Phoebe, who is a servant of the church, which is that place, that you receive her in the Lord. Now here it is, you receive her in the Lord. So it's kind of neat. It's like, if you receive them in the Lord, since you're of the same womb, the same person, you receive them as a brother or sister in Christ. You receive them as a believer, basically. So that's kind of what I was searching for, receive them in the Lord, or receive them and there's other ones who receive him in Christ and so on. Secondly, hold men like him in high regard. High regard is held in honor, precious, dear, and the first Peter one is I think probably the best one.

First Peter 2.4. So Bob can be a little bit faster, he's the last time I'm watching him here.

So does someone have 1 Peter 2.4? To him coming as unto a living stone, disallowed in deed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Right, so basically precious. So there to regard, Aphrodite says, highly regarded, he's precious in God's sight.

And then lastly he says, because, and here's the reason, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. So this is why they should carry out Paul's words. He came close to death for the work of Christ. So what I kind of found is there's the idea that We're talking about the ministry of the saints to unbelievers, or to believers.

And sometimes it's called the work of Christ. There's other terminology. So I was able to kind of search on just, if you search on the work of Christ, you only get this verse. But if you search on the work of, I got a couple of other things. There's like the work of an evangelist, the work of the Lord. So you see there's other connectives in there. that he came close to death for God's work. It might be called the work of Christ. It might be called the work of the Lord. And those verses kind of talk about that. The Corinthians one is the work of the Lord. And the Timothy one is about the work of an evangelist.

And then lastly here, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. And so he's speaking here of the Philippians service to me. And you think, wow, how could they have service to him and they're here and he's there. So complete is the idea to fill up, to completely fill up. And actually what's interesting is that there's a verse that we talk about sometimes. Filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. Does someone remember that verse?

So what do you think? Do you think this is a negative statement or a positive statement? Risking your life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Is he saying, well, Philippians, boy, you guys, you know, you got a 40-day journey, but you didn't get with it. You didn't get out there on that road and get here and give me refreshments, you know. Is he really on their case, or is he saying something different? I mean, at different times, I look through that and say, well, is this a negative? Or is he saying, well, I'm going to give away my answer. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange OK, that's not exactly it.

You're filling up the sufferings of Christ. So he says believers are actually filling up the sufferings of Christ, which is a remarkable thing. In the work of service, God's service, I feel very sorry for any individual who thinks she can do it all by him or herself, because it is a collective. I'm going to go way back to old Billy Graham. He had a whole contingency of support groups. And none of us, well excuse me, I have never in my lifetime completed a service without help from some other workers. Not just the Holy Spirit of God, but I don't think of it as a deficiency. My personal opinion. I was just thinking that it's more I don't think it's negative.

Okay. Because the Philippians aren't with him and can't serve him in the same way that Epaphroditus could because he was there. Right. So that it's just that difference. Right. I like that. I came to think at the end, I thought, well, it looks like to me that Epaphroditus was their speaker or the representative to Paul. So Paul recognizes that and he says, Hey, you guys wanted to serve me and help me and Epaphroditus was the person that did that on your behalf. And he filled it up, it was okay. And so it's not a negative, he's just recognizing how it worked out.

What is the Greek word for deficient? I knew you were going to ask that. Actually, Bob can tell us, right? I just wonder what the real word is. Well, mine says, to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me. Yeah, when you see that word deficient, it sounds quite negative. It is a negative, but they just didn't show up. You get a report card and you say, Johnny's deficient in spelling. You say, oh, you can't spell too well. I know. This is saying, no, apaphroditis. You couldn't go there, but on your behalf he was there and he filled up what you'd like to have served me even more. But he filled the gaps. He was the gap filler, if you will.

You know, an interesting parallel verse is one I just came across in Colossians 1.24, because it reflects the rejoicing, by the way, in the sufferings. Let me see if I can pull it in. Here it is. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you. that rejoicing in sufferings is really an appalling principle. It's a principle for all of us in the Lord. And fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body which is the church.

Colossians 1.24. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body which is the church. You could argue the same thing. You could say, well, Was Christ, that he didn't do his full job? I mean, you could argue it that way and say, no, he did his full job. But in his plan, he allowed us to be part of that and to have the privilege of suffering for him.

And most people don't look at suffering as a privilege. They look at it as a suffering. Until you went to Hal Molloy's clips. Yes, I know. Rejoice in suffering. I know. That's good. All suffering is grievous for a time, isn't that right? It seems grievous for a time, but there's a further glory, I can't think of the rest of the verse.

God Himself. And that carries on into the next verse there, where it says, because for the work of Christ, the work originates from Christ, it's because for the work of Christ He was naive to death. In other words, He was in the process of Christ's work that he became near unto death. That's really what this is saying, that he was involved in letting Christ's word go through him, and he came near unto death because of that, or in the process of it. I don't know how we can say that we're filling up the sufferings of Christ without it being known that Christ's suffering is every good news. Christ offers, I mean, it's against him that that is directed.

Because the work originates from him. Well, a tremendous verse is on the, when Paul was struck down on the road to, anyway, Christ says to him, why do you persecute? Christ to the person, why do you persecute me? You think, I didn't persecute you, I persecuted these people that believed in you. No, you don't get the point. You persecute, it's like you said, and that fits in with the suffering. That's the sufferings of Christ that are being filled up, it seems like. Anything that we can learn from the revelation the Holy Spirit gives us of Christ is that He is very personal. He is here now in this room listening to every word we say. As a man in spirit, He's here. Sometimes we forget how close he is.

Yeah, I think you do. That's good, Roy. Okay, well next week we're going to do a review of all of Chapter 2, which all these reviews are challenging. So what we'll do, we'll try to hit the high spots. You know, it's a tremendous chapter, and Chapter 3 is on the horizon here, which is going to be wonderful. Actually, Jeremy is going to start teaching with us here. It's starting in Chapter 3, so that's going to be kind of neat.

Jeremy Doan, so we're looking forward to that. Jim and I and Bob, we're going to carry on. Thanks for all your questions and comments. It's wonderful. I don't have to teach the class. You guys, I have such great observations. It makes it easy. Thank you. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in the Lord Jesus. it's his life Lord and it's his purpose and his work has been pointed out that that's being accomplished Lord and we thank you that you've allowed us to be part of that and that your your will be carried out as you see fit father in Christ's name amen