Vision Values: Missions Training & Sending

Sending is not an event. It is a culture. Philippians 2:19–30

Before Bible Reading

Do ya’ll have a minute?

• We gave our attention to the verse last week on Easter. Luke 24:47 “47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
• We do not get the right nor should we ever desire to extract or repurposed the commands of our Lord.
• Screen: Repentance and Remissions. AMEN!
• Screen: Jerusalem and ALL NATIONS. AMEN!

Will we all need personal jets?

• More pictures or Easter around the World

Illustration: Examples of obedience in going and sending among Us (Holts to Luther and all of us)

What do all these people have in common - they need you, there church, in their lives.

Tonight we will vote on giving to several porjects. Today I am asking for more. I am asking for you to be all in the preparing, sending, and caring of those we send.

SLIDE of Projects

Today’s Passage: Philippians 2:19–30

Big Idea: A sending church forms people with genuine concern, sends them with full commitment, and celebrates those who go.

1. The church that sends well forms people who genuinely care.
2. The church that sends well models sacrificial love before it sends people to live it.
3. The church that sends well must also know how to receive.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

A. Feel the weight of where Paul is sitting

1. No freedom of movement. No ability to travel. No way to go where the mission needs him.
2. And yet from chains he was involved in a global missionary enterprise — sending people, writing letters, directing the work

B. His chains did not stop the mission — they just changed how it moved

1. Instead of Paul going — he sends Timothy
2. Instead of Paul visiting — he sends Epaphroditus back
3. The mission does not require Paul's presence. It requires the right people.

One thing worth saying once and not belaboring

Not everyone in this room is called to leave for a foreign field vocationally — and the Bible never wastes a verse saying so

Because that disclaimer is obvious — the Bible does not spend time on it

C. Question — think before you answer

1. If you had to send someone to the hardest place you know — who would you send?

Don’t say you mother-in-law

1. Not who volunteers. Not who seems excited.
2. Who would you actually trust with that assignment?
3. Why that person? What have you watched them do when it was hard and no one was watching?

College football coach asked a question about ice cream and wanted to see if there was a hesitation.

I. THE CHURCH THAT SENDS WELL FORMS PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY CARE. (vv. 19–22)

1. A Non-Negotiable for Servants We Send

Philippians 2:20 “20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.”

1. Likeminded — Paul is saying Timothy is uniquely aligned with him in how he serves others
2. Not just aligned in theology — aligned at the level of concern, burden, and care
3. “Naturally” - The kind of care that is the same whether anyone is watching or not

2. A Convicting Contrast

Philippians 2:21 “21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”

1. Paul does not say most. He says all.
2. Believers. Co-laborers. Gospel people.
3. Living for themselves — not maliciously, just ordinarily
4. That is the sting of the verse. It is not a critique of the world. It is a diagnostic of the church.
5. Timothy is an exception — and the question worth asking is: Ehat made him the exception?

3. Tested and Proven

Philippians 2:22 “22 But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.”

1. The word proof here means tested and approved
2. Like metal put through fire to verify its genuineness.
3. The Philippians know this proof firsthand — Paul is not asking them to take his word for it
4. Timothy's concern has been verified by what he has walked through alongside Paul
5. Notice how that verification happened — as a son with a father
6. Formation language — intentional, relational, sustained over time
7. Formation should always come before sending. Always.

Application for Us

What does means for how we think about concern?

1. Verse 21 is not primarily a rebuke — it is a diagnostic.
2. The question is not whether people are self-focused. Of course they are. So is everyone.
3. The question is: Are we a church where that gets confronted and transformed?

CAMP HALE

• In 1942 the Army faced a specific problem — German troops were entrenched high in the mountains of Italy and flatland soldiers could not fight there
• They recruited skiers, mountaineers, and outdoorsmen and built Camp Hale in Colorado at 9,200 feet elevation in brutal winter conditions
• Training was so severe that the D-Series maneuvers hospitalized over 30 percent of participants with frostbite, snow-blindness, exhaustion, and broken bones — the Army actually considered disbanding the division
• They kept training because commanders understood one thing — you cannot train men for the mountain in the valley
• In February 1945 the troops climbed the icy ridge of Riva Ridge at night in dropping temperatures — the Germans never saw them coming because they could not imagine anyone trained well enough to do what those men did
• The environment did not just test character. It formed it. That is what Paul understood about Timothy.

Here is the connection to our passage:

The Army did not send those men to Italy and hope they would figure out the cold when they got there. They put them in the cold first. They trained them in the hardest version of what they would face — not because it was comfortable, but because commanders understood a principle that Paul understood about Timothy:

The environment does not just test character. It forms it.

The diagnostic question for this church

1. Not a program. Not a missions class. An environment.
2. The same environment Paul built around Timothy — proximity, shared suffering, sustained relationship

Caring is not complicated — it is just rare

1. It is finding out what someone is carrying and getting under it with them
2. That is what Timothy had. That is what a sending church builds in everyone — not just the sent ones.

TRANSITION: Now Paul turns to Epaphroditus. And notice something structural before we read.

• Paul has just spent four verses vouching for a man the Philippians have never met — Timothy.
• Now he turns to a man they know very well — a man they sent themselves.
• Two different situations. But the same careful pastoral work.
• A sending church must be as intentional about who it sends and how we receive them back.
• But before we get to the return — we need to understand where Epaphroditus came from. Because what he did on the field did not appear out of nowhere. It was modeled in him before he ever left.

II. THE CHURCH THAT SENDS WELL MODELS SACRIFICIAL LOVE BEFORE IT SENDS PEOPLE TO LIVE IT. (vv. 25–27, 30)

Philippians 2:25–27, 30

A. The example of the church that sent him.

1. Look at who Epaphroditus is before you look at what he did

Philippians 2:25 “25 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.”

1. He is not a professional trained missionary as far as we know
2. He is a member of the church at Philippi — their man, their representative "Your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants" (v. 25)
3. He came from a specific community with a specific culture

2. The church at Philippi had a culture of sacrificial giving

1. Paul tells us elsewhere in this same letter — they gave to his mission when no other church would
2. Not once. Repeatedly. At personal cost.
3. "Even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity" (Phil. 4:16)
4. This is not a church that believed in missions from a distance
5. This is a church that had already been modeling what it looks like to give everything
6. Epaphroditus grew up in that culture. He was formed by it.
7. He did not develop his posture on the boat to Rome. He brought it with him.
8. The church modeled sacrificial love before it ever sent anyone to live it.

B. The sent one lived it out

1. Each word is an escalation.

Philippians 2:25 “25 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.”

1. Brother — family. Belonging. You are mine and I am yours.
2. Companion in labour — shared effort. We have pulled the same rope.
3. Fellowsoldier — warfare. We have been in actual conflict together.

2. The priestly word — his service was an act of worship

Philippians 2:25 “25 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.”

b. The word ministered is a priestly word — used for priests serving at the altar

c. Epaphroditus's service was not logistics — it was an act of worship

d. The sending was a priestly offering made to God

e. When this church sends someone it is not a novelty — it is an offering

3. He offered his life for the cause

Philippians 2:27 “27 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.”

1. Do not read past this. Nigh unto death means what it says.
2. He came to serve Paul and nearly did not come back

4. Not regarding his life

Philippians 2:30 “30 Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.”

1. He did not protect himself. He did not calculate an exit.
2. He went all the way in — because that is what he had seen his church do.
3. The phrase "your lack of service" is not a criticism of the Philippians
4. There was a gap created by distance — they wanted to serve Paul but could not reach him
5. Epaphroditus crossed that gap — he carried the church's love into a place the church could not go
6. He embodied what his community had been modeling — all the way to the edge of death

This is why every Fall we unaplogetically ask you to help fund the mission. We are asking those among us to give their lives. We should give the same. Work is a great way to turn time into a portable form of currency. I heard of a man who worked on an assembly line who would say, “I am not working in Mexico for the next hour along my friends there.”

The Moravians

• In the 18th century Moravian believers sold themselves into slavery to reach enslaved people in the Caribbean — but they did not arrive at that decision alone
• They came from Herrnhut — a community that had been praying without ceasing and giving sacrificially for years before anyone sailed anywhere
• When the ship left harbor two young men called back to their families on shore — "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering"
• They were not heroic individuals making a dramatic decision — they were faithful members of a church that had already been living that way — Epaphroditus is the same story — Philippi modeled it and he lived it

Application for us

1. A sending culture is not built by challenging people to be more committed — it is built by being a community where sacrifice is already the normal pattern
2. The question for us is not whether we believe in missions — the question is what are we giving our people before they go — are we sending them somewhere they have never been or further into something they already know

TRANSITION: The church models sacrificial love. The sent one lives it on the field. But now Epaphroditus is coming home. And Paul does not leave the reception to chance. He commands it. He shapes it. He tells the Philippians exactly what to do when their man walks back through the door. Because a church that models sacrifice for the sending must also model something for the return.

III. The church that sends well must also know how to receive. (vv. 28–30)

Philippians 2:28–30

1. The command in verse 29 — read every word

Philippians 2:29 “29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:”

1. Receive him — active, intentional, prepared welcome
2. In the Lord — this reception is a spiritual act not just a social one
3. With all gladness — not muted, not polite, not obligatory
4. All gladness — the full weight of joy. Everything you have.

2. Notice what Paul does not do

1. He does not assume the Philippians will receive Epaphroditus well
2. He commands it — which tells us something important
3. A church can send people beautifully and receive them poorly
4. Paul will not let that happen to Epaphroditus

I have allowed that to happen to others and by God’s grace never want to let that happen again.

3. The “therefore” connects back to what Epaphroditus gave

1. Why receive him with all gladness? Because of what he gave.
2. He nearly died for the work of Christ
3. God brought him back — that itself is mercy worth celebrating

4. Paul's careful word — “such men”

1. Hold such in reputation — plural
2. Paul is not just talking about Epaphroditus
3. He is establishing a posture the church holds toward everyone who goes
4. Triumph or exhaustion
5. Long fruitful term or difficult shortened season
6. Furlough or permanent return
7. Change in ministry or change in health
8. All of them. Always. The church that sends well knows how to receive them all.

THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE

Let me ask you a question. What is the most dangerous place for a missionary? Is it the unreached people group in a closed country? The village with no outside infrastructure? The inner city? The jungle, the refugee camp, the context where Christianity is illegal and the cost is real? All of those are genuinely dangerous. But many who have worked in missions will tell you the answer is none of the above. The most dangerous place for a missionary is often furlough.

Questions we need to consider?

Over the last week I have written down some great questions asked about our missionaries and the world they are doing.

Here is some questions about the work we are to be doing.

1. When someone comes home on furlough or in a ministry transition — what do they find here?
2. Do they find we where paying attention while they were gone?

From missionary journal of Judson wrote: "I thought they loved me, and they would scarcely have known it if I had died. All through our troubles, I was comforted with the thought that the brethren in Maulmain and America were praying for us, and they have never once thought of us."

1. Do they find community that says: We see you, we honor you, what you gave was precious?

Conclusion

A. Paul does not start with Timothy or Epaphroditus — he starts with Jesus.

Philippians 2:6–7 “6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”

• He is the original sent one and he modeled everything we have talked about this morning.
• He formed concern for others by taking on flesh and dwelling among us.
• He modeled sacrificial love by going all the way to the cross without regarding his life.
• And the Father received him well — "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:9)

B. And then Peter stands at Pentecost and tells us why.

Acts 2:24 “24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

• Death had no claim on the author of life.
• What looked like the end was always the only possible outcome.
• We send because we belong to the one death could not hold.

C. That changes everything about how we respond.

• When someone says I feel called to go — of course you do.
• When someone moves toward the need — of course you do.
• When someone gives beyond what is comfortable — of course you do.
• We are not impressive — we belong to the one death could not hold.

D. This is who we are.

1. We form people with genuine concern.
2. We model sacrificial love before we send people to live it.
3. We receive those who return with all gladness and show them honor.

Sending is not an event — it is a culture born the moment death discovered it could not hold Him.

THREE RESPONSES TO TODAY'S SERMON

1. For those who have never received what Christ offers

• Everything we have described this morning begins with receiving
• God commands you to receive his Son the same way Paul commanded Philippi to receive Epaphroditus
• "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31)
• The most important sending decision you will ever make is whether you will receive him today

1. For those who are part of this sending church

• Ask yourself honestly — am I part of building this culture or am I a passenger in it
• Giving, praying, forming, and receiving are all part of the circle and every one of us has a role
• Take one specific step toward one of our sent ones this week — write a letter, send a message, ask a question that shows you have been paying attention
• Hold the rope with both hands

1. For those who sense a call to go

• If something in this text stirred something in you today do not dismiss it — that stirring is worth a conversation
• We are not looking for people who are merely excited — we are looking for people whose concern for others has been forming over time
• "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8)
• If that is your prayer today tell someone — the sending process begins with a conversation