Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 1 of 7 Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Philippians 2:19-24 In the movie Dead Poets Society, a new English teacher, Mr. Keating, tries to inspire his students to think for themselves and make up their own minds about the material they re being taught in school. He tells them that what really counts is not what their teachers think or what their text books tell them is true, but what they themselves think and believe and what comes out of their own hearts once their minds have been set free. I used to love that movie, and I used to think that Mr. Keating (played by Robin Williams) was the paragon of what it means to be an educator. When I was in seminary, though, my favorite professor ended up being almost the exact opposite of Mr. Keating. My ethics professor began the lecture on the first day of class by saying this: I m sure most of you have been told at some point in your lives that you should think for yourselves and make up your own minds. Well, I just want you to know before our class begins that I don t want you to think for yourselves; I want you to think like me. And I don t want you to make up your own minds, because you don t have minds worth making up until I get done shaping them. I m sure that sounds shocking, and that was part of his intent. But it s not too far off from something the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Philippians: Philippians 3:17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. Paul actually says this sort of thing in several of his letters: Imitate me, be like me, live as I do and as others like me do. It s not the sort of thing modern, independent Americans like us want to hear. But Paul is making an important point. To be a Christian does not come naturally. You aren t born knowing how, and it s not something you ll just figure out on your own. It s more like a language or a craft. You need teachers. You need examples to follow. You need other Christians who can show you how to be a Christian, who can pass down the way of Jesus to another generation. As we continue our sermon series on the book of Philippians today, we re looking at a short passage in which Paul lifts up Timothy, his partner in ministry as an example to follow so that the Christians in Philippi can learn to live a life worthy of the calling from someone who already does. Let s listen to how Paul commends Timothy in Philippians 2:19-24:
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 2 of 7 Philippians 2:19-24 19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. 20 I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But Timothy s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon. Now Paul has two purposes behind this passage. On its face, Paul is simply letting the Philippians know of his plans to send Timothy so that he can then report back to Paul about how they re doing. But there s a subtext to this in the way that Paul actually describes Timothy to the Philippians. He describes him in the very same terms that he had previously described the ideal Christian. At the beginning of chapter 2, Paul describes the humility and compassion of Christ, and he encourages the Philippian Christians to imitate those qualities among themselves. Now in talking about Timothy, he uses some of the very same key phrases. Let s take a look: Philippians 2:2 Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind Philippians 2:20 I have no one of the same mind like him Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:20f [He is] genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them look to their own interests, not to those of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:7 [Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave Philippians 2:22 [Timothy] has slaved with me in the work of the gospel. So, you see what Paul is doing: he s describing Timothy in the very same way that he had described the way all Christians ought to imitate Jesus. He s lifting up Timothy as an example of what every Christian should strive for. The reason he does this is that while he s in prison, he wants these newly converted Christians in Philippi to have an example what it looks like to live as a Christian. Since Paul can t be there with them right
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 3 of 7 now, he s going to send Timothy. And how do they know that they can trust Timothy to set the kind of example Paul would set? Listen again to how Paul describes his relationship with Timothy: Timothy s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. Like father, like son. Everything that Timothy knows he s learned from his father in the faith Paul. My daughter Lillian is at that really fun stage right now where she copies everything Mackenzie and I do. It s really cute and all, but it s also got me paranoid about what I do. The first time she grabbed the remote and pointed it at the TV I thought, Have I been watching that much TV? Kids make you realize that you ve got to be careful of the example you re setting because they re always watching, and they learn by copying what they see. That s where we get the phrase, like father, like son or like mother, like daughter. Kids learn more from watching the adults around them than they do from listening to the adults around them. Truth is, though, that s not just how kids learn; it s how we all learn, no matter what age we are. We re always learning from what we see others doing and in fact, it s the only way to learn some things. There s a real trend right now around self-teaching, especially among young adults. Some people even call themselves autodidacts, which means self-teachers. With all the information you can find online now, all the how-to videos on YouTube, it really is amazing how much you can teach yourself just from a quick Google search. When I was serving my last church, I had some car trouble. And, being a young adult myself, I decided I would try to diagnose the problem and fix it myself. I put the symptoms into Google, watched a few videos on YouTube and thought I could handle it. So, I asked a mechanic in my church if I could order the parts through him, and he said that I could do that and I could even bring it into his shop and he d put it on the lift for me and let me use his tools. I thought that sounded great. When the part came in, I brought in my old 4Runner and he said, Okay, here s your part, you know what you re doing, right? I said, Yeah, I think so. He said, Well, you ve done one of these before, right? I said, No, not exactly. And he said, Then how do you know how to fix it? This was one of those moments when I regretted the words even as they were coming out of my mouth. I said, I googled it. He about doubled-over laughing, and I said, Okay, I know I m in over my head. Why don t I just leave it here with you and let the professional take care of it. But he said, Oh no, you can do it; after all, you googled it! I m not letting you get out of this one. He spent the rest of the day showing me how to fix my car. I realized as I watched him work, that there was no way I would have been able to do that job. But because he let me work with him on it, I actually ended up learning a lot about how my car that I never could have learned from Google. See, there are some things you just can t teach yourself and you just can t learn from reading or
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 4 of 7 even watching videos. There are some things you can only learn by watching and imitating a master at work. That s why Paul didn t just send the Philippians a set of instructions. If living a life Worthy of the Calling were just about getting the right information then Paul should have sent an instruction manual or a list of rules. But instead he sends an artfully written letter lifting up multiple examples of what it looks like to follow Christ, and he even plans to send Timothy himself someone in the flesh who can show them what this life looks like. That s the only way the faith can be passed down, in person, through relationships. The book of Acts tells us that Paul met Timothy when he was already a Christian. But he was young and had a lot to learn, so Paul took him under his wing and brought him along as he planted churches including this very church he s writing to in Philippi. Timothy is a fascinating figure who really doesn t get the kind of attention he deserves. After all, if I asked you who was the author of this letter to the Philippians, you d say Paul. But actually, Timothy is listed as a co-author with Paul in the very first verse. In fact, of the 13 letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament, six are co-authored with Timothy, and two others are personal letters from Paul to Timothy. So, it s safe to say that Timothy was Paul s protégé and partner in ministry. In addition to this passage, Paul refers to Timothy as his beloved son in multiple other letters. In fact, Timothy s mother and grandmother were believers, but it appears that his father was not. It s likely that Paul was a widower, but it doesn t appear that he had any children before his wife died. With Timothy leaving home at a young age and Paul taking him under his wing for so long, Paul was probably his closest father-figure, and Paul clearly loved Timothy like a son. What s the significance of all of this? I think Paul and Timothy give us a model for how we are supposed to help each other to grow in our faith today. When Paul wanted to help Timothy grow in his faith, he didn t just give him a book or tell him to sign up for a Bible class. He took him under his wing and showed him how it s done. He taught him like a parent teaches a child, like a master craftsman teaches an apprentice by demonstration, by working together, and even sharing their lives together. If you ask me, that s still how Christians are made and how we grow by following the example of other Christians who can show us the way to live worthy of the calling. Why did Paul see it as so important to send Timothy to Philippi? Timothy had been there before. Paul himself had been there before. Everything seemed to be going fine there. Just think of all the other good things Timothy could have been doing. Paul could have sent him out to plant new churches and make more Christians. Instead, he sends him to a relatively stable church who had already been able to learn the faith
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 5 of 7 from his example. But Paul doesn t see this as a waste because he knows that no matter how good of a start the Philippians had, if they didn t have a perpetual example to follow, they would always run the risk of being pulled away from the Christian life and into other ways of life. You can see even in this letter that Paul knew there would false teachers trying to lead them astray. There would be all their pagan friends trying to pull them back into their old lives. They needed someone who could keep their eyes on Jesus by modeling a Jesus-shaped life in their midst. Churches today run the same risk, of course. If we re not consciously providing examples of the kind of life we re called to, we re inevitably going to be pulled away from the faith into other ways of life. In school, on TV, in the workplace we re constantly being presented with examples of other kinds of life. We re being shown lives that are based on pride or greed or pleasure. And those take a toll on us if we aren t continually shown a different way to live here through the church. This is especially true for younger generations. If these are the examples they re getting outside the church, then telling them to just think for themselves is going to do no good. Telling them they need to make up their own minds about what is true and what is worth living for is only going to hurt them. In fact, I d say we re seeing that borne out right in front of us. My generation the millennials are leaving the church in droves. They re finding that they re aimless, devoid of purpose, and lonely. They have passion and lofty ambitions, but they don t know where to direct their energy. They re moving out later, marrying later, having kids later. They re generally growing up slower. They re moving from city to city, job to job. The world is their oyster, but they have no idea how to crack it. Now, I have a theory for this. I m sure it s just a part of the picture, but I think this is the result of a generation that was told from birth, You can be whoever you want, think whatever you want, do whatever you want. We ve been told that we can pursue anything we want, but we ve never been told what s actually worth pursuing. I realize that must sound awfully negative, but I think it s actually an exciting opportunity for the church. I think the church is uniquely positioned to say to this generation what Paul said to his generation: You want purpose? You want meaning? Well, we can give you a life worth pursuing, and we ll even show you how to pursue it. We know what you were created for, because we know your Creator, and we d like to introduce you. Believe it or not, this is exactly what we re doing for the next generation through Vacation Bible School this week. As you can see from this set and from the musical performance, VBS is going to be a lot of fun. But don t let that trick you into thinking it s
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 6 of 7 not serious business. In Paul s second letter to Timothy, he praises Timothy s mother and grandmother for teaching Timothy the Bible from a young age. He says: 2 Timothy 3:14-15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. We hope every child who comes through Vacation Bible School this week has fun and makes friends. Far more than that, though, we hope that they will come to know and love the sacred Word of God that is able to instruct them for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. We want them to see through this church that there is a life worth living, a life God is calling them to, a life that leads to salvation. Obviously, one week of VBS isn t going to do it alone. Just like Paul knew the Philippians would need an ongoing example to follow, I think we as a church need to think about how we re providing ongoing examples of the life we re called to in Christ. Each and every one of you has a part to play in this. So just take a moment to ask yourself, who is your Paul and who is your Timothy? I feel pretty confident that anyone who has come to put their faith in Christ can point to a person or persons who served as the Paul to your Timothy, who gave you an example to follow and inspired you to give your life to Christ. Who would you say taught you the faith like a spiritual father or mother. And how did they teach you? Did you learn more from what they said or from how they lived? If you re like me, you ve got more Pauls than you can count. In addition to my own parents, I learned what a Christian marriage looked like from a childhood friend s parents, watching how they respected each other and encouraged each other s faith. I learned what Christian stewardship looked like by seeing others who weren t well off but were generous nonetheless. I learned Christian hospitality by being welcomed into the homes of other Christians and being truly made to feel at home. So, who is your Paul, and how did they model the faith for you? Now the second question is just as important and might be harder to answer: Who is your Timothy? Who are you taking under your wing in order to show them a life Worthy of the Calling? For many of you, the answer might be no one. And if that s the case, then I want to challenge you to ask who could become your Timothy? It doesn t even have to be someone young, they might just be young in their faith. But if you ve discovered a life Worthy of the Calling, then surely that s something you want to pass on to others. I can assure you there are plenty of others dying to see it.
Worthy of the Calling Like Father, Like Son Page 7 of 7 What would it look like for you to begin passing down your faith and your life in Christ to others? For most of you it s not going to mean starting a Bible study or teaching a class. It s simply going to mean including others in your life and ministry. It s going to mean welcoming others into your home to show them what it means to always have a home they can return to. It s going to mean inviting someone to come with you as you serve at the soup kitchen, so that they can see what Christian service looks like. It s going to mean coming alongside some struggling parents to show them what it s like to be a part of a bigger family in Christ. It s going to be as different for each of you as your lives are different from each other s. But it s what we re all called to do to the extent that we can do it. Conclusion Today is, of course, Father s Day, which is always a good chance for fathers to reflect on what kind of legacy they re going to leave with and through their children. But this morning we ve been reflecting on what it means to be a spiritual father with spiritual children. So, fathers, I want you to ask yourself what kind of spiritual legacy your leaving with your spiritual children. In 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:2 What you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. Everything that Paul had passed down to Timothy, he wanted Timothy to then pass down to others. Don t you want that kind of spiritual legacy? Take this day to consider who you will pass down a life worthy of the calling to the next generation. Life Application Questions: 1. Who is your Paul? Who has made a significant impact on your life as a Christian? 2. How did that person or those persons teach you what it means to be a Christian? Was it more through words or actions? 3. Who is your Timothy? Is there anyone who looks to you to learn what it means to live as a Christian? 4. How can you leave a spiritual legacy like Paul to a new generation of Christians?