427—2 HOW TO PICK APART YOUR PREACHERJuly 2, 1978
Henry F. Kulp
Philippians 2: 16 – 27 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
I praise God every day that He has given me the opportunity of being a pastor-teacher. I don’t think there is anything else in the world that I’d rather do than what I am doing right now—it has been a wonderful privilege to preach the Gospel and to minister to people. I am thankful God has given me the opportunity that I can spend hours studying the Word of God, so that I can teach it to others. I can truly say, the Word of God thrills my heart and it is so satisfying as one has the privilege of studying and preaching.
1/ In the next few weeks I would like to study this portion of Scripture with you and study three different pastor-teachers. I want to study God’s estimation of these three men. We titled our message, “How to Pick Apart Your Pastor”.
I hear many people say, our pastor is a good man, but…or, our minister is an excellent preacher but…or, our pastor has a wonderful personality but…there is always something about him they don’t like. He is a good Bible teacher, but he is a poor evangelist. He is a good preacher, but a poor pastor. He is good with the older folks, but not with younger folks. I hear this constantly because I have the opportunity of preaching in many different churches. I would like you to see what God has to say about the pastor-teacher.
2/ There are three pastors here as we have said. First, there is Paul, then there is Timothy, then there is Epaphroditus, and surely we learn much from these three men of God. There are two verses that go together.
Philippians 2: 15 -16 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
To get an understanding of Paul and his ministry we have to see these two verses. Here we are called the sons of God, Literally the children of God. His people are His children, and I want you to see something—God is proud of them.
Job 1: 6 - 8 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Satan here comes to talk to God, but God does the speaking first, and He says, “Have you considered my servant Job?” Notice, the devil did not point Job out, he wouldn’t dare to. God pointed him out with great pride, I think. God said to Satan, Did you see Job? And he said, Yes, I know all about Job, and he asked for permission to try Job.
Here we have God calling us the children of God. The devil still accuses us after God points down here to us as He did to job, and He says, These are my sons, these are my children, have you seen them? And the devil says, Yes, let me touch them, just let me get a hold of them, and so God, through Paul, says here that we may be blameless and harmless children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.
3/ We have to see what is behind the scenes here. Paul is instructing those at Philippi, and he is telling them how to live as children of God.
4/ Verse 16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
God has chosen us to be bearers of His Word. Notice, we are not simply to send Bibles out, we have got to go with the Book. God’s order is for his children to hold forth the Word of Life. That is the only way to really do the work of God.
5/ The best illustration of this I know is the Statue of Liberty. As you know I had a church in Brooklyn in the Bay Ridge section at one time, and in those days, during the night, she held forth the light in the darkness, and the statue could not be seen, you could only see the light, and that is exactly what God wants. God has given us the Book to hold out to a lost world in darkness—it is the Word of Life, He has put it in our hands and we are God’s children. The world has no other light.
6/ Then notice, it is the Word of Life. Why? Because it is a living thing. It is the only living thing in this world of death. You can look on this world and see that everything you behold dies, everything that grows dies. Everything that is manufactured crumbles away.
7/ Yes, the Bible is a living thing, and God has put it in our hands. He says be careful how you live when you hold forth the Word of Life.
8/ Now we come to the very important part, Holding forth the Word of Life that I, Paul, may rejoice in the day of Christ. Paul always had that day in view. Everything he did was for that day, and he said this to the Philippians, If you accomplish this, I will be glad in that great day of Christ. Paul had taught them the Word of God, and now, I am sure it was a great joy to Paul that this assembly, so far, had been true to God. He did not have to reprove them for anything, and he could say, if you continue as you are, I’ll rejoice in the day of Christ, and I’ll not have run in vain, neither labored in vain.
9/ You contrast this with the Corinthian church and there he found much sin to be reproved. At Colosse he found bad doctrine. He had to correct things in most of the churches, but not at Philippi. Here we have a chance to look into the heart of this great man of God, the Apostle Paul—the Apostle to the Gentiles.
10/ We can see here that he had taught the Word faithfully, and he loved his people and he wanted those that he had taught to live according to God’s will. He was interested in these people, they were upon his heart.
11/ I heard a man say, one time, We are not saved only to go to Heaven. And I told him he was wrong. I said that is exactly what we are saved for. God wants us in Heaven. God saved us because he wants us there, and the molding, and the cutting and sharpening, the training is all done with Heaven in view.
12/ Verse 17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
Here Paul says, if I am offered up—literally he is thinking of the drink offering, because the original said, If I be poured out as a sacrifice for you, I am glad. It is not a nice thing to die as a sacrifice. A sacrifice has to suffer, and Paul said, I’ll be glad to be a sacrifice poured out for you. How he loved these people, they were upon his heart. A pastor has to love his people—willing to be a sacrifice for his people.
13/ Paul, I believe is contemplating the possibility that his service for the Lord may result in his martyrdom, in the loss of his life. He therefore contemplates what would be his reaction if he would be like a drink offering to be poured out, for the Word. Offered, is literally to be POURED OUT it is a figure of speech. It may be that he is spending his life, pouring it out for people like the folks at Philippi.
14/ Verse 18 For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
Like Paul, the church at Philippi rejoiced in its sacrifice, for it was ready to be used for the glory of the God, to be sacrificed for the glory of God. Willing to suffer for Jesus Christ, even to die to achieve the will of God.
15/ Verse 19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
But I trust, I trust—L-PEED- ZOE and it means in the Greek, TO ANTICIPATE.
L-PEED-ZOE is a word that can mean different things. In the present tense it means to anticipate, in the perfect tense it means to have confidence, in the aorist tense it means to have expectation, and since here it is the present tense he says, I anticipate something.
16/ In the Lord, to send Timothy shortly unto you. A key in this phrase, TO SEND –PEM-POE—To send as a courier, to send on an errand, or send on a mission. So he anticipates to send Timothy on an errand, on a mission.
17/ SHORTLY, Here is another key WITHOUT DELAY, WITH GREAT URGENCY. What is the urgency? Epaphroditus is seriously ill, he is dying at that very moment. He doesn’t die, but Paul could see that he could die, so it was necessary to send someone to Philippi to act as Pastor-teacher until Epaphroditus either gets well, or dies. Recovers.
18/ So this introduces Timothy to us.Then we have the word, ”that” and this introduces a purpose clause that I may be of good comfort. GOOD COMFORT is in the Greek U-SUE-KEH-O. U means good or well – SUE-KEH-O means, it is the basic word for soul, so it should be translated to have a good soul, to have tranquility of soul.
19/ Again, we see Paul’s love for these people. Here we see Paul’s concern for the Philippian church.
20/ Notice, a pastor-teacher of a congregation should be responsible for them. Paul started this church at Philippi—Acts 16 and so he cared what happened to them. He wanted to have tranquility of soul concerning them but he didn’t have it because at that time he didn’t know their present state, it was unknown to him. So he sent Timothy, and here is the second reason—to find out their state so he might have tranquility of soul concerning them.
21/ Now we come to the third reason why Timothy is being sent.
Verse 20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
The word, like-minded, is E-SO-SUE-KOSE E-so means equal and sue-kose means soul, so it means equal soul like Paul at that time, in his seminary there at Rome while he was in prison he had no one like Timothy. Timothy had caught the burden that Paul had—he was equal-souled with Paul. He felt a responsibility for those who were saved.
22/ I Samuel 18: 1 - 4 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.
Here is a great example of what I am talking about. I am sure you are well acquainted with the story of David and Jonathan. David had been out and met Goliath, and Saul had decided to keep David near him, and when Jonathan, the son of Saul, had met David and talked with him they became knit together as one, and the Scripture says, Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because that he, that is Jonathan, loved him, that is David as his own soul.—that is deep love, it is deeper than friendship.
23/ I Samuel 18: 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.
Notice this verse, for the one he loved he stripped himself of all and gave him everything. He loved David and wanted to make David, like himself, a child of the King. He wanted him to have what he had.
24/ That is the love that Paul had in his soul for the Philippians and this is the love that Timothy had also, for he was like Paul. Paul is saying here, If I send Timothy, I know he will be really interested in you, for I know if he finds he can do something for you, he will not spare himself, because he is like-minded with me, or liked-souled with me, and he will care for you as though I was with you myself.
I Corinthians 13: 4 - 13 Charity (LOVE) suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (LOVE)
Love covers a multitude of sins.
AMEN
Ref: 07/02/1978 / 427-2 HOW TO PICK APART YOUR PREACHER / 02/27/2021
No comments:
Post a Comment