The Mind of Christ on Display
Notes
Transcript
Role Models and Examples
Role Models and Examples
How many of us know the right things to do, and yet very rarely do them? How many of us know how what we see and hear affects us and yet rarely show the self restraint needed to purify our minds?
On March 10, 2010 Raina Kelley wrote an article for Newsweek entitled, “Why Athletes Aren’t Role Models.” In the article she goes on to site the fall of many high profile athletes who inspired a generation of children. Ben Roethlisberger had just made headlines for his lack of character. Tiger woods and his promiscuity had just come to light. And for many of us we desire to have people to look up to and aspire to be like, but it seems that those worthy of modeling our lives after are becoming fewer and farther between.
Right now, who do you see as a role model? Who exemplifies the life and character you desire to have?
Perhaps in our western world we have downgraded the importance of character and integrity for the pursuit of power, money, control, and comfort. We don’t want to emulate someone because they might end up failing.
What in life is worth fighting for? What in the end will you look back on and think, I am so glad I put in the effort to do (fill in the blank)…keep my marriage, raise grounded children, be a great neighbor...
What about your spiritual development? Do we have a plan on how we want to grow? Or do we just expect that God will change us in his time?
Have we forgotten the importance of , that we are to work as God works. grace is not opposed to effort.
Do we not have goals for work? Do you not have plans you are enacting for your home, and your vacations, and so on?
What about role models and examples in the faith? What does your spiritual work out plan look like?
Think about this truth…our kids end up acting like us because they grow up around us, mimicking what we do. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Say it another way, worship happens when we become what someone else is. Kids want to be like their parents and since character is both taught and caught, it makes since why our kids end up behaving like us.
Think about how you pray? Who did you hear praying growing up? Who did you spend most time with praying? Do you use words and phrases similar to them?
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.
21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.
23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me,
24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.
25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need,
26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.
27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.
29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men,
30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.
20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.
Timothy: Interested in Others
Timothy: Interested in Others
But the other reason is that Timothy himself reflects Paul’s attitude exactly: he “takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (2:20)
Timothy illustrates the altruistic attitude Paul desired the Philippians to have, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others (2:4).
Paul uses the adjective equal-soul (isopsychos) to highlight Timothy’s most important quality: I have no one else of equal soul, no one else of the same mind, no one else with a kindred spirit.
The adjectival form of this word genuine refers to “one who is considered a valid member of a family, legitimate, true.”
Some leaders live to be admired, to be praised. Without ever being so crass as to say so, they give the impression that the church exists and flourishes primarily because of their gifts, and the least the church can do in return is offer constant adulation. But that is not Timothy’s attitude. He lives for them; he is genuinely interested in their well-being.
Emulate those who are interested in the well-being of others, not in their own. Be on the alert for Christians who really do exemplify this basic Christian attitude, this habit of helpfulness.
In the ancient world, before the industrial revolution, most sons ended up doing vocationally what their fathers did. If your father was a farmer, the chances were very high that you would become a farmer; if your father was a baker, most likely you would become a baker. And your primary apprenticeship was to your father; it was your Dad who taught you the tricks of the trade, who gradually taught you all he knew, and, step by step, increased your load of knowledgeable responsibility.
In the ancient world, children observed their parents working and learned the trade by working alongside them. But my children do not accompany me to the seminary where I teach.
Timothy serves as a Christ-like example for the church to show what a Christ-like character looks like in everyday life.
Epaphroditus: Sacrifice
Epaphroditus: Sacrifice
When Epaphroditus almost died because he risked his life in the service of Christ (2:30), he mirrored Christ, who took the very nature of a servant and was obedient unto death (2:7–8).
The willingness of Epaphroditus to risk his life to the point of almost dying in the service of others made him another shining example of one who had the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had (2:5)
Before explaining the necessity of sending Epaphroditus, Paul honors him by giving him five titles: my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.
Epaphroditus was an “apostle” sent by the church on a specific mission to take care of Paul’s needs. Paul is not using the word apostle with the special sense applied only to the “foundation-laying preachers of the gospel, missionaries and church founders possessing the full authority of Christ.”430
The term “servant” refers in a general sense to “one engaged in administrative or cultic service,” such as an official serving in the government () or a priest fulfilling religious duties (Christ the true High Priest; ), and in a special sense to “one engaged in personal service, aide, assistant.”432
As Paul’s brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, Epaphroditus was able to make up for the service that the Philippians themselves were unable to give (2:30).
The first reason is Epaphroditus’s need: for he longs for all of you (v. 26); the second reason is the Philippians’ need: so that when you see him again you may be glad (v. 28).
The same Paul who exclaimed that to die is gain (1:21), promised the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (4:7), and had learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (4:12), nevertheless tells his readers how the emotion of sorrow almost overwhelmed him—“wave upon wave of grief.”450
An entertaining interpretation suggests that Paul coined the word risked with the sense of gambling as a wordplay on the name of Epaphroditus. According to this interpretation, the name of Epaphroditus means favorite of Aphrodite, the goddess of fortune, and his name was pronounced by gamblers when they threw the dice as a good luck charm: “hoping by this ‘invocation’ to be blessed with a gambler’s luck in the throw of the dice because the divine hand was behind it.”
Epaphroditus did not make his own safety and security his number one priority; he courageously risked everything, including his own life, to fulfill the mission given to him.
Whom Should We Follow?
Whom Should We Follow?
Of course, much is said on all these topics in Scripture; many believers will find their lives shaped simply by reading and rereading Scripture. Nor would I want to minimize the powerful, inner work of the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit most commonly uses means, and those means include the modeling that more experienced Christians offer.
So the question is not whether we shall learn from others by conscious and unconscious mimicry, but what we shall learn and from whom we shall learn it.
So whom should we follow? Which Christians should be our models