Sunday, April 24th, 2011

Strong Men Who Care

Just this past week a woman was raped in the Denver airport; people walk by through the concourse and did nothing.

The woman said, “I was appalled that I was going through something so brutal, and they kept walking. There’s no security there to yell out to. This was going on for almost ten minutes, and nobody was doing anything.”

Many people today don’t care-about anyone but themselves. But
strong men are men who care. Here in Philip. 2 we’ve seen some examples of amazing men who care more about others than themselves.

In the 1st 11 verses we saw the ultimate Man, Jesus Christ, who humbled himself, who stepped down, who emptied Himself for us. No one exemplifies v. 3 more than Jesus. No one exemplifies “in humility of mind esteeming others better than themselves” more than Christ.

In the verses 12-18, we have another amazing example, the apostle Paul. He lived his life to be a bright light in a dark world. He poured himself out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of their faith.

Talk about strong men who cared about others. You couldn’t have any greater examples.

And maybe you say “That’s a hard act to follow-Jesus and Paul. How can I ever compete with that?”

“I’m just a young person. I’m just a young Christian. I’m just a layperson. I’ll never be a great evangelist or missionary like the Apostle Paul. Certainly I’ll never preach and teach and heal like Jesus Christ. They are so far out of my league. This isn’t inspiring. It’s discouraging.”

Paul finishes out chapter two giving us two more examples-of two ordinary young men-nothing special, no extreme gifts or talents. One’s a young pastor. One’s just a layman. Yet Paul says, “These guys are just like me. They’re making a difference for Christ’s kingdom.”

You may say “I can never be an apostle Paul. I can obviously never be Jesus Christ.”

But you can be a Timothy. You can be an Epaphroditus.

This evening, we’re going to look at the example of two strong men who care.