CORNERSTONE CHURCH December 2, 2012

BEHIND THE SCENES: Epaphroditus, A Man of Courage :25–30

Introduction: Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms • I love church history. And one of my favorite events in church history that I would have loved to be at was when Martin Luther stood before the Diet at Worms. To be very clear, the Diet at Worms had nothing to do with not eating or with worms. It was a council that he stood before as he was being tried as a heretic in 1521. • Let me back up. Just over three years before this trial, he famously nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. His purpose in this was that he wanted the Roman to reform and to change its view on many issues, but at the heart of it was their view of justification by faith alone. The church had believed and taught that a person is justified by their works, not just by their faith. And Luther had taken a strong stand that the Scriptures say it is only by faith alone that a person can be made right in God’s eyes. • And so on January 5, 1521, Luther is excommunicated from the church and then is outlawed by Emperor Charles V. He is brought on trial as the Diet of Worms begins. The first part of the trial finds the accusers bringing a pile of books in front of Luther and asking whether they were his. Luther’s response: “The books are all mine, and I have written more.” • The court responds by saying, “Do you defend them all, or do you care to reject a part?” Luther answers, “This touches God and his Word. This affects the salvation of souls. Of this said, ‘He who denies me before men, him will I deny before my father.’ To say too little or too much would be dangerous. I beg you, give me time to think it over.” • The court adjourned for the day to give Luther one night to think about his answer. The next day, Luther comes back before the court and in one of the greatest recorded events in the history of the church, gives this answer: o “Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scriptures or by manifest reasoning I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s Word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen”

At the risk of his life, Luther had to stand firm to the truth of the Scriptures and to his savior Christ. There may not be many Martin Luther’s in the

1 history of the church, but there are numerous men and women who have had the resolve for truth and the as he had. We hear the stories of Luther, but we hardly ever hear the stories of countless men and women who have stood for the faith of Jesus Christ and have done extraordinary things for Christ at the risk of great personal loss.

This morning, we start a short series for the month of December that I am calling Behind the Scenes. It is my plan to look at some of the unknowns. I want to study some people that you might not have ever heard of. I want to investigate from the Scriptures, the lives of men and women whom God used behind the scenes as His agents for the building of His church.

But I hope it is not just a history lesson. As we study the lives of these men and women, I want us to see ourselves in their story. How can we find joy in being a supporting cast member of God’s story? Can there be joy in that? Can there be joy when nobody recognizes our efforts in the church? Can there be satisfaction in rewards given only by God and not by our friends? That’s what we want to investigate in the next several weeks.

Or maybe we could say it another way. It is easy for us to become fascinated with the generals in the church that we forget that the foot soldiers are the ones that move the front lines forward. Many people want to be on the stage, but it is the men and women, faithfully serving and never being recognized, that God uses to move and build the church.

And as I wanted to look at the lives of several individuals that are often not heard of, I couldn’t help but to start with a man by the name of Epaphroditus. His story is told by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:25–30 that we read earlier. One thing that I hope you caught as we read this passage is that he stands as an example or model of the type of person that we are called to honor or hold in high regard (vs. 29). This is the basis of our series.

Well, who was Epaphroditus? Well, we really do not know much. We know very little about his family or personal background. We do not know about his conversion. But there are a few assumptions that can be made. While it might seem strange to us, the name Epaphroditus was a common name—maybe like Matt or Steve in our culture.

It was actually a common name that came from the name of a Greek god, Aphrodite, who was the goddess of love and beauty. And this man is named after her. This might seem strange to us, but it really was not uncommon in the 1st Century Roman world. Now immediately, this tells me that he came from a pagan family. A Christian would never name a child like this. Of course, a first generation church isn't going to have any background in Christianity, so we can be sure that he came from a pagan family.

2 We do not know when, but at some point, he obviously converted from worshipping false gods to the one true God—Jesus Christ. We cannot know for sure, but if I were to guess, I would say that it happened when the Apostle Paul founded the church at (Acts 16). He was most likely one of the early converts and had been there from the beginning of the church.

While we are not told his testimony at a Christmas dinner (which you should come tonight to hear some), his life change was obviously powerful in the life of the Philippian church. We are not even told of what sort of gifts or ministries he had at the church of Philippi (was the greeter, did he take the offering, did he sing in the worship band—we simply do not know).

We do not know if he was rich or if he was famous in the city of Philippi. We do not know if the world would have looked at him with success or disgust. Even in the church, he probably did not perform great revival services nor did he plant numerous churches or influenced governments for Christianity. As far as we know, he did not write books, or was well known for his theological expertise. At this point, you might be wondering, “Well, what do we know about him?” Well, what it is, and we are about to dive in, was enough for Paul to tell us to honor men like him.

As Paul writes this very joyful and personal letter to the church of Philippi, he tells them in vs. 19–24 of his plans to send to them Timothy very soon as a sort of check up on them. Timothy was one of his closest friends and often traveled on behalf of Paul to check in on churches. Then he would report back to Paul what was going on in their life.

Then in vs. 25, Paul tells them that he is going to send back to them Epaphroditus. This is why you need to read the Bible with a bit of curiosity. When I read this, I immediately think: Why was he with Paul? As we piece things together, the story goes something like this:

At some point, news reached the Philippian people that Paul had actually been arrested and put in prison. Paul writes this letter chained to a Roman guard on either side of him. While he might have had some freedom for people to come into the house and visit him, he was still in the middle of a two-year incarceration.

The in Philippi loved Paul deeply. And they wanted to help. They wanted to send a special gift to him. They knew that he could no longer work to earn his own living, therefore, he needed their support for ministry, they wanted to send him money. So the Philippians collected sacrificially a special gift of love. In 4:18, Paul calls this gift a “fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.”

But there was only one problem. There were no wire transfers. Nobody had a PayPal account. No Western Union. If they were to give him money, someone

3 had to take it to him. This is where we meet Epaphroditus. And what we come to find out is that this was not a simple delivery ministry. The Philippian church had instructed him to not only deliver the money, but to stay and become a personal servant of Paul, to help him take care of his personal needs. And this delivery of this gift almost cost Epaphroditus his life.

And now on the back end, Paul says that he is sending him back. Paul might not know when he can get to them or when he might be able to send Timothy, so he sends Epaphroditus right away to them. He is probably the carrier of this letter to the church and the people are instructed to receive him in the Lord with all joy (2:29).

Wrapped up in that entire story we find a man who Paul said is worthy to be held in high regard. In many ways, Epaphroditus stands as an example of a man of honor. If there were one character quality that I admire in this man, I would have to say that it is courage. He was not scared to do something that not many people would have wanted to do. He found glory and joy in being a mailman of an important message to Paul and from Paul.

What does courage mean to you? How do you know if you have it? Do you know when you see it? As I read this, I believe in the description of Epaphroditus’ life, the Apostle Paul gives us several qualities of a person with courage. That is what I want to look at this morning in our remaining time.

Vs. 25  What was it that Paul called Epaphroditus? He calls him his “brother.” To call Epaphroditus a brother might not seem as a real surprise to us, it is probably assumed that he is a believer and therefore a part of the family of God. But I wonder if there is more going on here than that. This leads me to this: The first quality of a person with courage is that THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO LIVE A GODLY LIFE.

For Paul to refer to this man as his brother would have meant that Paul knew of his spiritual condition. He had witnessed his commitment to Christ. He had heard from his mouth concerning his spiritual condition. Maybe he had even seen him minister the truth of the gospel to the soldiers he was with. Paul had seen in this man a form of godliness that moved Paul to call him his brother. This is not some flippant remark, like we use when we say goodbye to someone. This statement shows what Paul thought of Epaphroditus.

In fact, I think that this is more than just a reference to him being a fellow Christian, but is meant to show the deep, close, personal relationship and affection that Paul had for him. Over the time they had spent with each other, maybe spurred on because of what Epaphroditus had done for Paul, they had developed such a close relationship with each other.

The term for brother carries the idea of “camaraderie, friendship, affection, or feelings.” Paul is saying first of all to the church at Philippi that Epaphroditus

4 not only shared a common life in Christ but was also a loved brother. Paul is like saying, “I have affection for him; he is my comrade; he is my friend.”

The Philippian church would never have sent a man to work in close proximity with the Apostle Paul unless he was most eminently representative of godliness of that congregation. We can assume that they would not of wanted to put anybody suspect very close to the Apostle Paul who may well have been the most discerning human being that ever lived and who could see through anyone. And so we can be fairly certain that Epaphroditus was a man of genuine spiritual virtue, a man of depth in terms of his love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a godly MAN!

Godliness demands courage. It says that you are willing to put the things of Christ above the things of the world. It says that you are willing place the temporary things of this world behind the eternal reality of relationships and people and God. What does it mean to be a godly man or woman? How would you know it if you saw it?

Most importantly, let me say it means: OBEDIENCE. I find it interesting that we live in a world, in a community that says that you can live however you want to live. But I am telling you that the Bible says that if you are saved, if you are a regenerated person, obedience will become part of your life. It is one of the indicators that you are a brother or sister in Christ. A life shaped like Christ is one of the indicators of godliness.

 Ephesians 2:8–10  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

How can you know if a person is godly? By their obedience. But are any of us perfect? No, which is why I believe that the Scriptures are clear that the godly person is not just a person who has a walk of obedience, but is someone who is sensitive tot heir sin. And we can know them by their response to their sin. We are all going to fall and sin. If you are perfect, then you are not human. We all sin. But the godly person will be seen as a person who responds in a godly manner to their sin.

Have you ever wondered why David was called a man after God’s own heart? He was an adulterer. He was a liar. He was a murderer. He was a coveter. But he was also known as a repenter. God cares greatly about the sins that you commit, but he cares more about how you respond to your sins. Your response to sin and confrontation of those sins will show you and the people around you more about your spiritual condition than maybe anything else.

5 I can just well imagine that Epaphroditus is just living his life. He is just doing his thing and the church notices something about the man that he would be perfect for a job to go and take this money to Paul. That means he is trustworthy. He was a man of integrity. He was available and did not hold onto his earthly things. He considered his walk of obedience, his godliness to be more important than the comfortability of his life.

But courage doesn’t stop there. Not only is a person with courage not afraid to live a godly life, but also THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO SERVE CHRIST RADICALLY. If you will also notice in vs. 25, the Apostle Paul not only calls him his brother, but also his fellow worker. This was a title Paul used of someone who would come alongside of him and work with him in the extension of the gospel. He is not only a brother with Paul, he is a worker with him as well.

He was a man who was chosen by the Philippian church as a man who they knew would have been willing to give his life away in service to someone like the Apostle Paul. Maybe this is where the deep-rooted bond of brotherhood came into reality between these men. They were workers together, not just any sort of work, but work for the Gospel. He was the person behind the scenes wanting to make sure that everything is taken care of so that Paul would be able to be freed up to speak and preach the gospel as best as he can.

He was a serving man; he had a servant’s heart. Look at the end of vs. 25. Paul slightly changes his tone from what Epaphroditus was to him to what he was for the people of Philippi. He was their messenger. He was one sent on behalf of the congregation to perform a given task. And what was the task? To go and take the special gift that the church had raised to be given to Paul to try and take care of Paul and then to go and be with Paul to be his helper.

So what was the need that Paul had? We have already mentioned it, but certainly, the need was financial. Why did Paul need money? Simply, Paul needed money in order to survive life in prison.

“In a culture where prisoners were not cared for by the state, but whose ‘necessities’ for life (especially food) had to be supplied by friends and relatives, this is no small thing that they have done. They have thus offered priestly service (to God is implied) by their sending Epaphroditus with the gift necessary for him to sustain life in prison.”1

Can you imagine that level of service? What if the church selected you and said, “We want you to take this special offering over to our friend that is being held captive. It is going to be a several week journey, the travel is going to be difficult. There are no Hyatt’s or Hilton’s for you to stay in and no airlines for you to travel. And when you get there we want you to stay with him and become his servant and do anything you can to make him feel better.

1 Fee, Gordon D. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. NICNT. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 276. 6 And oh, by the way, the reason why we want you to go is the same reason why he is being held captive, so that he can be freed up to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is a good chance that he might even be put to death for what he is preaching. So go there and associate yourself with his message.”

Can you imagine that level of courage that would take? That is radical service. Would you do it? This radical serving man is willing to do anything for Christ and His church. He is quite a remarkable man—unselfish, humble, sympathetic, compassionate, godly and a true servant.

But with that in mind, go back to verse 25 and look at the beginning of the verse. Before all that commendation, verse 25, “I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus.” Some people might have thought: “Well why are you sending him back? He was just built up to be the most incredible helper and servant around. Why would you send him back?”

Somebody might speculate: “Well, has he been unfaithful?” It doesn’t’ appear so. Others might think: “Oh, he's homesick. He's homesick for his wife and family and some good food.” Doesn’t appear so. So what is it? There must be an answer to why Paul is sending this godly man of service back home. For his sake, if he just shows up and delivers the Philippian letter and it doesn’t say anything about him, the church is going to question what he is doing and think that he failed them. They are going to say, “What are you doing here, we sent you to see Paul through the end and why are you back?”

But Paul says it is necessary to send them Epaphroditus. In spite of all of these qualities and in spite of the fact that he is my brother whom I love, he is my coworker whom I need, he is my fellow soldier who fights the battle with me, I'm sending him back.

Vs. 26  Paul is sending him back because he was longing for you all. This is not a statement of being homesick. He was longing for them and was distressed. Why was he distressed? Because the Philippian people had heard that he was sick. Let’s put this together. He is sick to his stomach because he heard that the people of Philippi had heard of his sickness and he knew that they would be worried about him . . . so he became even more distressed.

It would be like this. When is the last time you got completely disoriented and restless and totally distressed because you knew somebody was feeling bad about your situation? And your distress was directly related to the fact not that you were having a difficult situation but that they were having a difficult time with your situation. Now that will show you the depth of love, the depth of the servant heart that he had. That will show you the bond that he had with his own people. Paul continues to explain in even more detail . . .

7 Vs. 27  Paul tells us that he came close to the point of death in his sickness. We are not told what he had, but simply that he became so extremely sick that Paul says he almost died. So here is the picture: Paul is sending him home because Epaphroditus is distressed because his friends and family and people in the church had heard that he was sick. He was not distressed that he was sick, but that they were upset that he was sick.

I mean, this is not a normal guy. He loved the people at his church so radically, and cared for their needs so emphatically, that he does not want them to be distressed over his sickness that nearly cost him his life. When we are sick, we want people to make a bid deal. We want people to feel for us. We want to be catered to. But not Epaphroditus. Even when he was at the bottom, he was pouring out for others. He was concerned about their needs.

Maybe this is why Paul says this man is worthy to be honored. He was so courageous that he lived a life so focused on others instead of himself, that he broke the trends of selfishness. And the story continues . . .

Vs. 28  Paul tells them that he is sending him as soon as he can so that the Philippians people would see him and rejoice and feel better knowing that he is okay. Then Paul would be okay. They felt bad which made Epaphroditus feel bad which made Paul feel bad. But going home, it would make the people feel better, make Epaphroditus feel better, and Paul would feel better. That doesn’t make sense to us in our culture of selfishness, but a heart of ministry that puts people over programs, might see this sort of problem.

This leads us to the last point we need to make this morning. Not only is the person of courage not afraid to live a godly life and to serve radically; but also THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO RISK PHYSICAL DANGER FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST.

Look back at vs. 25. Paul says that he is a “brother”, “fellow worker”, and finally a “fellow soldier.” Now we are starting to see a very specific designation of what Paul thought of Epaphroditus. This was a military term used to describe those who would fight side by side in a battle.

Epaphroditus is called a fellow soldier of Paul’s in the cause of Christ. Here we see a man who for the cause of the gospel was willing to face conflicts, perhaps adversaries, and maybe even some imprisonment because of his association with Paul. This dear associate of Paul’s not only experienced the joys of ministry with Paul, but also the sufferings that come with it.

He was a man of great courage because he knew exactly what he was walking into. There was no question in his mind how the Roman government felt about Paul. That was obvious for everyone to see. It was imminently possible that Paul could lose his life because he was, after all, a prisoner and there was consideration about whether or not he should continue to live since he was 8 bringing the heresy of Christianity into the Roman world. And if in fact Paul's life were taken away, it would probably be a matter of course for them to at least consider taking the lives of those who served alongside of him. So he well knew the risk involved.

He was not scared to lose his life or what might happen to him. He just knew that he wanted to serve Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a soldier. When the darts started to fly, there you had Epaphroditus standing firm, wielding his weapons for the Lord Jesus Christ. This redefines courage for us. If we were honest, we think we are courageous when we take our Bible to work and let people see it.

Or we think we are being courageous when we bow our heads for five seconds at lunch when we are in public. Or for us, it might be a big step to tell our neighbors and friends that we “go to church.” Or it might even mean that we “talk about God.” These are all steps of things that probably take some courage. But I think its time to stop being wimps for Christ. It’s about time to start taking stands for the gospel!

But let’s take it a step further. Being courageous is not just about what you do, but probably more about the heart and motives. It is being unafraid about people knowing anything about you. It is the boldness to tell others everything that you know about Christ and not worrying about the outcome. It is the audacity to lovingly call people to repentance even if that means you lose a friendship. It means that your message means more than your life means to you.

Maybe you think, “That’s good for Epaphroditus, but I am not a soldier. I do not get into the real battle.” Let me remind you that if you are a Christian, you are in the battle. You do not get to choose to be a soldier or not, you are.

In Ephesians 6:10–17, the believer is told to put on the armor of God that he will be able to extinguish and battle not against “flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

In 2 Timothy 2:3–4, the Christian is compared to a soldier when Paul wrote to Timothy and said: “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”

Somehow I think that the idea of being a soldier for Christ has lost its effect in our society today. Let’s get really personal: What if someone told you that you could go and minister and serve in Afghanistan to some missionaries that were under arrest for their views of Christ. Or how about if you could go into Baghdad to be apart of a ministry today to those who are lost. Maybe we

9 would think: let’s wait till it’s safer right? That’s not what Epaphroditus did or would have said. Look at how Paul describes his courage:

Vs. 29–30  Why are we to hold men like him in high regard? It is because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to serve someone else. Epaphroditus was not even afraid of dying for the cause of Christ. What would you be willing to risk your life for? You wife? Family? Many stop there, if there . . . for the gospel? For Jesus?

What was it that brought him close to death? Paul describes it as the work of Christ. Here we find a really cool play on words. Paul says that he almost died, “risking his life . . .” This is a term that means to roll the dice. It means to gamble. It means to expose yourself to danger. And that’s what he did. He was so loyal and faithful and sacrificial . . . so humble, so uncomplaining that he put his life on the line in an effort to do what the Philippians wanted done on behalf of Paul. He gave his life away.

This word for “risking life” came to have some interesting usages in the early days of Christianity. In the days of the early church after the era, there was an association of men and women who got together and took the name "The Parabalani" which meant "The Gamblers." They took as their hero Epaphroditus who gambled with his life. And it was their aim and their mission to visit the prisoners, to visit the sick, especially those with infectious, dangerous, communicable diseases. It was their mission to unhesitatingly, unflinchingly and boldly proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in every environment without any hesitation. And they called themselves, "The Parabalani, The Gamblers."

It is also interesting to note that in A.D. 252 the city of Carthage had a terrible plague and the heathen were so frightened of the germs that were in the bodies of the dead that they literally bagged them somehow and hurled them out of the city, not wanting to touch them for burial.

Cyprian, an early church Father and a Christian bishop, gathered the congregation of the believing church together and the church members took their bodies and in a gracious act of human kindness buried the dead bodies of the plague-stricken people. And according to the historians as well, they nursed even the sick people, coming close enough to them to touch them in that plague-infested city, risking their lives to save some in the city and God used them as a tremendous potential, as a tremendous force really to reach people for Christ because of their love.

So whether you are talking about the Parabalani, Cyprian, or Epaphroditus, you see people who were willing to risk their lives for the sake of Christ. He wasn’t doing this in order to gain his own empire. He wasn’t in it for the popularity. He wasn’t doing this for the money. Epaphroditus was a humble,

10 behind the scenes guy who was willing to gamble his life for the sake of somebody rather than himself.

I began this morning telling you about the courage of Martin Luther. Let me end with the story on one man you probably have not heard of. His name was John G. Patton.2 He was a missionary to the South Pacific, the New Hebrides. It was islands of pagan cannibals with no Christian influence. In fact, all that Patton and others in England knew was that fifteen years prior, John Williams & James Harris, missionaries from the London Missionary Society, landed there to evangelize the island and they were killed and eaten within the year.

When it was found out that Patton was bound and determined to evangelize this island for Christ, he received much criticism and chastisement from people calling him stupid and foolish. Here is how he responded to one man:

“Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the great day of my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”3

Can you imagine that? What was really interesting about Patton was what he left. He was a missionary in urban Glasgow and saw amazing results of his missionary endeavors. He was leaving a fruitful ministry against the recommendations of all his friends to pursue a risky missions endeavor in a land filled with cannibals. He was willing to risk everything!

He first went there in 1858, at the age of 33, with his pregnant wife, Mary. They arrived on November 5, 1858, and their baby was born in February, 1859. Within a month, both his wife and his son were dead with fever. In sorrow, he digs two graves and buries them. For four more years he continues to minister to these people in the shadow of their graves.

He returns to England and gets remarried to Margaret, then returns back to the Islands for another round of mission work. This time they ministered together for 41 years. They learned the language and built orphanages. Margaret trained the women in sewing & reading. Within fifteen years, they saw almost the entire island turn to Jesus.

Why? Because of courage. Because like Epaphroditus, he was willing to live a godly life, serve others radically, and risk physical danger for the sake of Christ. Will you?

2 Piper, John. Filling up the Afflictions of Christ. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009) 3 Ibid., 58. 11