James Richards

Details

Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

06 April 2025

Bible References

• Philippians 2:25-30
• Philippians 4:15

Audio MP3 PDF

Epaphroditus.

Philippians 2:25. Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and the one who ministered to my need, since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick, for indeed he was sick almost unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem, because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what is lacking in your service toward me.

So, just one more time. So we see at points in Paul's ministry that he was a tent maker. He provided, it says, at certain times, for his own needs and for the needs of his companions, that they would not be a burden on the individuals they were ministering to. He worked with his own hands by day and ministered at night. But now when he finds himself in prison or jail, his circumstances have changed.

He is no longer able to provide for his own needs. And that where the Philippians came in with Epaphroditus, we see in chapter four of the same book of Philippians, this ministry that the Philippians had toward Paul in his ministry. In chapter 4, verse 15 it says, now you, Philippians, know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.

Indeed I have all, and am bound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you. A sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory. By Christ Jesus.

You can imagine Paul in the circumstances he found himself in in prison. He wrote to Timothy one day before winter, be diligent to come to me before winter, and bring the cloak that I left there, that he in jail has real needs, that he is unable to provide for himself. And now Epaphroditus is sent by the Philippians to minister to the needs of Paul, and Paul is full having received those things. I can testify here that in the land of abundance that it was different in Honduras. It was A different life that we lived down there.

And the food we ate and the clothes we had are not the same that we have here. And it was a beautiful thing when someone thought to send something or to give a gift, even a good meal was such a welcome benefit. After eating what we became accustomed to, after wearing what we became accustomed to, it was such a beautiful thing and a sacrifice. An aroma that was sweet to us, that was very well appreciated. Okay, and verse 25.

But Ephroditus needs to be sent back. Okay, There is the way I'm going to try to do this. There is in gifts in the ministry. We were looking this morning in Corinthians, it says that first of all there were apostles and second prophets and third evangelists. It seems as if there is some sort of a higher gift that has more authority over people.

But then there are what may be what appear to be lower but more common gifts, gifts of helps and different things of service. And it appears that that Ephroditus has this gift of giving through the Philippian Church. But even though these gifts may have different levels of authority, Paul has something to say to Ephroditus and to us, I believe, about the individuals like, probably like the majority of you and I, who have what may be not the first gift or the second gift, maybe the third gift, that may be a lower gift. But to those people like you and I, Paul has something to say first of all about the verse, verse 25. Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my needs.

So here we are, a man who was sent by the Philippian Church. His ministry is to share those things that the Philippians had gathered with Paul. And Paul speaks of Epaphroditus as a fellow worker, that they are involved in the same ministry. Though the act of ministering that they present to people may be different, the ministry that they share is the same. He calls him a fellow worker.

This brings to mind that is in Timothy Paul. Let me just read. It talks about encouraging Timothy in the ministry and how to be an effective ministry. One of the things that Paul says about Epaphroditus, that he was a fellow worker.

In chapter two, verse six, it says the hard working farmer must be first to partake of the crops. He is described as a fellow worker. And it says that he should in some versions, or must in others, partake of the crop. The hard working farmer needs to be able to participate in that which he is attempting to produce. Right.

I just like the little saying that says that, you know, you should distrust us skinny cook. Right. That if they don't like to eat food, there might be a problem with their cooking. Right.

Sorry. Maybe not. Maybe that wasn't a good example.

All right. But there is a sense that an individual who works for the benefit of something else should take sustenance from what they're trying to produce. That a farmer who is trying to produce a crop for someone else should also be the individual who recognized the benefit of that crop for them own self. An individual who goes out to just help other people with the Gospel isn't the same as an individual who has personally been impacted with the gospel. First, the hard working farmer must be a partaker of that spiritual work before he can really share it with others.

If so many people think we want to go to the mission field and there we're going to learn to be an effective minister. Right? No, we become effective ministers where God places us and then he sends us out to the position that he has made for us. The time to learn and and enjoy is where we currently are. Aphroditus, even though his ministry may appear small, has already learned to be a fellow worker.

He has also learned to be a fellow soldier. That Paul in Timothy also describes himself as or encourages Timothy to be a soldier who not entangles himself with the affairs of this world, who lays down his own personal ideas and program and desire for the sake of the one who has called him as a soldier. Jesus Christ calls us into his ministry as a soldier under his command. Ephroditus, even though his ministry may appear small to us, has engaged in that ministry as a soldier with Christ under his authority. This was an individual who was sent out in verse 25 from the Philippian Church in order to minister to Paul.

All right. Verse 26, it says, since he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick, here Aphiditus has become sick and Paul has the need to send him back for the sake of the Philippians. This is not the only time this has happened. If you remember, in Philemon, he was also, when he had met and then possibly been responsible for converting Philemon, he felt it was necessary to send Philemon back to his master. I might have got those names mixed up.

I'm not sure if I did or not. Even though he wanted to keep him there for the sake of Philemon's master doing what's right, even though it may not be what he wants for Himself. Verse 27, it says, for indeed he was sick almost to death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. So here in this circumstance where Philemon had come to Paul, sorry, Ephroditus comes to Paul, he gets sick. He gets sick, a sickness that was almost to death.

It says that God had mercy on him. I just want to bring out just a couple little things that we go along that I think are important not to run over. First of all, when an individual is sick, it is an act of mercy. When God heals that person, right? It is not anything deserved that every healing that any individual has ever experienced is an act of God's great mercy.

So much so that even if you go, that every breath that a human is able to breathe and fill their lungs with is a gift of mercy by God to individuals. Sometimes in our healthful or strong state, we begin to feel that we deserve that which we currently have without recognizing that, no, this is actually a gift of God. And sometimes we go even further in thinking that the healing that God gives as a result of his mercy is actually one that we deserve. And we sometimes, if we're not healed in the way that we want to be or think others should be, we ended up taking or casting a certain light upon God for withholding that. But if there's a recognition, know that every breath that comes from God, good thing, every healing is an act of mercy on God, from God, on us.

Another thing, in verse 27, it says, lest I should have sorrow on sorrow. This mercy that God demonstrated, not only to Aphroditus and Paul, kept him from having sorrow upon sorrow. We see that one thing about Saul is that there was sorrow in him. And we think, sometimes why would I want to follow in the steps of an individual who hurt so much, had so much sorrow and pain? Paul says back in Romans, I tell you the truth, I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart for my brethren the Jews, because I want them to be saved.

Here he says sorrow upon sorrow in the end of Second Corinthians. He goes on to list the physical infirmities and difficulties that he has experienced. And you thought, why in the world would I want that kind of life, the great burden for the churches that he experienced. But I believe what Paul is saying, because later he is going to say, rejoice in the Lord always. That the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, that we see those two things as opposite, but in reality they are necessary for each other.

That no one can really experience true joy unless they've experienced sorrow. No one can really appreciate being and having unless you have been without. No one can experience the real beauty of food unless you've been hungry. No one can really appreciate the wonder of having a sound physical body unless your body has been damaged or hurt in some way. And I would like to say, even though we look so sometimes, or we portray a picture of the attitude of serving Christ as one is sorrowful and maybe boring or hurtful in some way, I'd like to say the only way there is to actually enjoy life is to experience sorrow.

The only way to know true fullness is. Is to have an emptiness in us in some way. I know that in Honduras, living in a way that is not necessarily the same as what we have here. You come back. I remember one day we went over to the mainland and my dad has been communicating with a man named Enrique Escobar.

And he served meatloaf. Meatloaf. And I was absolutely astonished. We're going to eat this much meat just as a meal. We're just going to eat it.

It's just an amazing thought that this is real. We're going to eat this after having been hungry. The beauty of that meat. And here Paul, even though he has sorrow upon sorrow, he is the one actually able to experience Joy. In verse 28 we had a picture of us.

Therefore I send him the more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less sorrowful. We're going to move on to Finish in verse 29 and 30. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such men in esteem. Because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what is lacking in your service toward me. Here we see Paul is calling for the church in Philippi to receive this individual Epaphroditus with all esteem, even though his ministry may not had been that kind.

That is in the forefront. Paul is asking to hold such men in esteem. I think it's important for us to recognize in our own church and our own body that there are individuals we should be holding in esteem that sometimes slip below the radar. So I'd just like to talk about that just for a minute. I'm going to go back to Matthew.

We're going to get a picture of this and kind of finish up the idea. In Matthew chapter 10, it says, he who receives you, receives me. And he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. So here we have what appears to be insignificant ministry happening. And Jesus is comparing and dictating that those individuals who partake in the ministry together are going to share in the rewards of that ministry together. Even though one may appear lower in gifts than the other, that is not always the viewpoint in human's life. But also in the Christian church we exalt people and give certain people esteem more than others.

James, recognizing that tendency, said, look, if there comes into your assembly one wearing fine clothes who appears to be worthy of more esteem, that we show that person favoritism by putting them in a good spot. But another person who appears to be a less esteem, we say, hey, you sit here in the lowly spot. Your position is more insignificant than the other. There is a danger to be like David's men. If you remember after Ziklag was destroyed, that place where David had found a town to dwell while he was living in the land of the Philistines, he had come back and there found his city destroyed, his wives, his children and everything taken captive.

They went in pursuit of the Amalekites who had raided their city while they were gone. And it was an exhausting pursuit. Some of the army that was under his command couldn't cross a brook to continue pursuing the Amalekites. And as a result, David left them there with the baggage. There ended up being a great victory.

The stronger ones crossed the river, found the Amalekites and recovered all. When they came back there, they found with all the spoil crossed back over the brooks. And it says, I think something like this. The evil and wicked men said, we are not going to share of the spoils of war with those who were too weak to cross the river, right? They were left out.

But David said no, and he made it a statute in all Israel that those who stayed with the baggage were worth the same as mount as those who actually participated in the fighting. And if we have entered into this, there may be different positions or levels of authority or different works being happening, but because we're participating in the same ministry, there should be the same recognition and blessing on anybody who partakes of it that creates a body where there is no schism or a level, but all people using their gifts for the benefit of edifying or building up the body of Christ. We need to be careful as individuals that we are recognizing all the levels of God's gifting that he gives to people and that work that they put in in that level of ministry and not solely focus on our presentable parts. No, he's saying, look, even the unpresentable parts, we show them greater amount of care. And so Paul I think here is giving us an example over an individual who probably who may not have had a super high amount of intelligence.

Maybe he was just the only person to run the errand and take the gift to Paul. But Paul, whatever his mental, physical or spiritual state, Paul is singling him out as a person in worthy of esteem because he participated in the ministry and that calling which God has given to him. How much more so that he was even willing to continue that ministry in despite of his sickness. And so my encouragement, first of all in this church just I think everyone should be so extraordinarily grateful for the amount of people willing to serve in this church. It's really a blessing that different people taking different amounts or types of a load make the burden easier on the whole body and results in a body growing up into the fullness of Jesus Christ.

But how much more so when people do it at the expense, like Paul says, of their own life, that that sacrifice should be recognized and rewarded. There are individuals in this church that have gone at the expense of their own life, even at the expense of their own health, their own time to serve this body.

It's a blessing. They should be recognized and held in esteem. When you see people serving the body of Christ, ultimately it means they are serving you and I's spiritual benefit. They are working behind the scenes to see that you and I might have a greater spiritual benefit. To pass by them unnoticed or being unwilling to share with them, I think is a very grievous and biblical sin.

And so my encouragement for you and I through this message, if you don't get anything else, is to look and see at those people who are serving the body of Christ here in compeit. Let's recognize them, hold them up in esteem for that work. There's different elders who are working behind their scenes. There's people working in the sound ministry, there's people working all over, and some of them at a great expense to their own selves, to their own health, to their own time. So let's pray.