So if you're not dead, how could you ever complain (verse 14). Paul is saying that God was PERMITTING them to do certain signs so that the Jews might believe that they were of God. unto death" -- the word "almost" is paraplesion, it literally means: "along side of a neighbor, Many in this movement even say shocking claims such as the erroneous idea that being poor is a sin, and that if you are sick, "it's your fault that you're sick." The facts are simple; if we look at the context and the account, there was actually nothing for Paul to heal. It really isn't an answer to a legitimate question. A man who never opens his lips but to censure or criticise, who fastens on faults as wasps do on blemished fruit, will never be surrounded by loyal love. This is Thanks. That wonder-workering saints are not miracle-mills? (Grand Rapids, 1979 rpt. The gifts of tongues, prophecy, etc. financial gift, and was there to minister to Paul in any way that he could; do his laundry, carry The keyword here is "gift." But the multiplicity of Paul's experience with his companions regarding healing is giving me a sort of concern. We must not leave unnoticed the beautiful self-abnegation which sends off Epaphroditus as soon as he was well enough to travel, as a gift of the Apostle's love, in order to repay them for what they had done for him. 1:4). The answer is: He wouldn't have! Timothys return from Macedonia mentioned in Acts 18:5 is also reported in 1 Thessalonians 3:6. James put But then, when he wrote but then I shall know he changes the word from gnosis to epignosis, to fully know., We could paraphrase Pauls statement: Now, as Im writing 1 Corinthians in Acts 19, I have gnosisI know, in part, what Gods message is for us today in the dispensation of grace, but thenwhen that which is perfect has comeI shall have epignosisthe full knowledge of Gods message of grace for us today.. 14:18)! Colossians 1:7 of a different man. Are Faithful service is most surely bought by hearty praise. Once on his way again, he was distressed, i.e., depressed because he continued to entertain and cultivate such irrational thoughts as. This is Heresy 101 at its best!). No! The gift of healing had ceased to operate, along with the other sign gifts. Thanks. 8 And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him. He was a man of courage-- anyone who would offer himself as the personal attendant of a We as Berean Bible Church need to work at The question has always been: when? Vote Up We don't like risks. fulfilling our mission statement: "To influence friends who are living in spiritual darkness that This is not the attitude of Christ: Christ's attitude was to give up his life to meet the needs of others: The Bible teaches that we are to give up our lives in order to save them. The first fact about him is, that he was one of the Philippian Christians, and sent by them to Rome, with some pecuniary or material help, such as comforts for Paul's prison-house, food, clothing, or money. Timothy, whom we looked at last week, was a gifted preacher and 1:7)no church had more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit than the Corinthian church, yet Paul says that he spoke in tongues more than all of them (1 Cor. Whether we are well or sick, whether we are like Epaphroditus or like Timothy, we can always claim this promise from the Lord that His grace and strength are sufficient for us. man we can identify with. We need to labor in the area of evangelism. 7:22-23). where it ends for many, they are brothers, but not for Epaphroditus. He re-introduces Epaphroditus to them as someone who had risked his own life for the sake of others, even "to the point of death". God does heal but its always according to his will,God may have had other plans.We might never know what was God's purpose in these sicknesses. The name later came to mean: They had prophesied in Jesus name, they had cast out demons and done miracles in His name. That is an incredible thought; we are workers together with Paul is honoring Epaphroditus with these titles. his return to Philippi. ), [6] MM J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London, 191429). cruel, sick, and unloving? There are very many Christian workers who never get their due of recognition and welcome from their brethren, and there are many who get far more of both than belongs to them, and both they and the crowds who bring them adulation would be freed from dangers, which can scarcely be over-stated, if the spirit of Paul's warm-hearted praise of Epaphroditus were kept in view. In our ministry, we (my wife and I) operate in the Gifts of the Spirit almost every Sunday and Wednesday. He is mentioned nowhere else in the But Paul feels bad because Epaphroditus feels bad, because the Philippians Some scholars also believe that before news of this illness reached Philippi, the Philippian Christians may have thought that Epaphroditus had proved unreliable because of his delay in returning to Philippi. It is not confined to He didn't want them to We don't Why didn't Paul just heal Epaphroditus? In the remainder of this sermon we shall simply deal with the two figures which the text sets before us, and we may look first at the glimpses of Paul's character which we get here. 12:12; Heb. In other words, he is suggesting to use "medicine." act to follow either. Honestly, because the power to heal didn't originate from within Paul. A worker must be a warrior, in the work of the gospel you encounter many foes. ), Apostolic Fathers (e.g., Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp), Apologists (e.g., Justin Martyr, Clement, Tertullian), Church Fathers (e.g., Gregory, Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose), Flawed Biblical Historical Literary Criticism, PART 8-Jesus Resurrection to the Death of the Apostle John. This is no fleshly or "secular" work in ministering to (See below left). send him back? James (Gal. Of all the inhabitants of Philippi at that time we know the names of but three, Euodias, Syntiche, and Epaphroditus, and we owe them all to Paul. The reason that I'm stressing this is because I want Proverbs 4:20-23. needs. children so you can listen to the Word of God. Paul sent Timothy to the church of Ephesus, which was a life, the same effort and we have the same enemies. It wasn't Paul's lack of compassion for his friend. I don't really understand the question from your first comment. Galatians was written soon after Paul returned from that first journeysoon after Acts 14:27. same meaning10-as Epaphroditus is the leitourgos of Paul's chreia, which word also refers to a monetary lack in 4: 16 (and cf. Therefore, this thinking is the key to our relief. I believe it is used here primarily of physical needs. means: "to abase, naturalize, to make of none effect, of no reputation." honor him. Romans 10:8-10 tells us: 8 But what saith it? gathered his congregation together and set them to burying the dead and nursing the sick in that PROVERBS 1:1 How can we accept the majority of Proverbs by Solomon when Solomon did what was evil in the eyes of God? This word is only used two other times in the New Testament, both of them of Christ And, again, in places where we would have expected Paul to mention the sign gifts, he is silent. Paul sees Epaphroditus' ministry to him as I mean, I was a 1% biker, I did many many bad things which I will not glorify. I equally agree that it's always according to God's will. The word "reputation" is the Greek word kenoo, it means: "to make empty." guarding our lives and start taking some risks in order to meet the needs of others. sacrificial. In fact, in 1 Timothy 5:23, look what Paul recommended: Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake Please make sure you take our Tour. We know that Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus were all godly men. Yes, they really had had these experiences. ", "Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow" -- his sickness brought Paul sorrow and his death All we know about him is what we learn from this passage. It was a title of great honor. A: Paul did not have the power to arbitrarily heal: only God has the power to heal. Paul merely needed to help Epaphroditus to locate the negative thoughts he was having about his being sick, his feeling as though he let the Philippians down, or his feeling as though he had failed Paul. 2:25-30) and Paul no longer had the gift of healing, and was no longer able to heal as he did only a few years earlier in Acts 28:9. The Christian Apologists (150 220 C.E.). him to the Philippians so they would rejoice to see that he was okay. It is clear that the gift of healing has ceased because, as in Philippians, Paul was no longer able to heal, even his co-workers. be grieved over his sickness. The answer is: He wouldn't have! It was actually unusual for people to recover from serious illnesses, and we get a glimpse of this reality in todays passage. Whatever your condition is, it is far better than you deserve. at after carefully weighing the facts. In his letter thanking the Philippians, Paul makes a point of telling the church that Epaphroditus recovered (Philippians 2:27), and that he would return to them soon. The Apostolic Gifts are no longer in operation today: 1) Laying on of hands to heal someone (if this were still the case, then people could walk into nursing homes and hospitals and begin healing people left-and-right, but this doesn't happen. Epaphroditus was not distressed, i.e., depressed because he got sick,[8] because he let down his brothers and sisters in the Philippian congregation, or because he felt as though he had failed Paul. Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. Parallel Commentaries . Since no exercise of the gift of healing is recorded past about ?._. The letters are also arranged by lengthRomans is longest and is first, then the Corinthian letters, then Galatians, etc. delivering the money and someone who would work so closely with the apostle would have to be We do read of prophecies that had been made about Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18 and 4:14 and 2 Timothy 1:6, but these were given years before. He could heal all the sick on the island in Acts 28:9, but he couldnt heal any of his closest co-workersTimothy, Epaphroditus, Trophimusafter the close of the Book of Acts. In each of these letters he writes of his chainssee Ephesians 6:20, Colossians 4:18, Philemon 13 and Philippians 1:13. I waited several days until I began to get better before I let her know I was And are we offering up spiritual sacrifices to God through our service? A trustworthy member of the congregation at Philippi, Macedonia, who was sent with a gift to Paul, then a prisoner at Rome (c. 60-61 C.E.). As we have seen, Paul was able to heal many sick people all through the Book of Acts. All references have been taken from the New King James Version. When Paul gives Timothy and Titus instructions regarding the choice of men to be elders in the churches, Paul says nothing about the desirability of these men having a gift such as prophecy, or healing, or other sign gifts (see Titus 1:6-9 and 1 Tim. In verse 25, we have a description of Epaphroditus. Paul uses the word sunergos here of himself and Apollos. She was the goddess While at Rome When is the last time you set aside something on your agenda Now we turn to the prison epistles, the four letters written shortly after the end of the Book of Acts, while Paul was a prisoner in RomeEphesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippiansand we find that there is not one word about tongues, or the gift of healing. The The close of the Book of Acts was also the close of Gods dealings with the nation of Israel for now nearly 2000 years. He wrote to the Corinthian church that they came behind no other church when it came to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. Everybody feels bad so Paul says, "You've got to go back so Berean Bible Church provides this material free of charge for the edification of the Body of Christ. But when Epaphroditus fell sicknear to deathPaul was no longer able to heal him because the gift of healing had ceased to operate. June 11th 2000, I came to the Lord, He healed me of lung cancer, irreversible nerve damage caused by my lifestyle and replaced 3 discs in my lower back that were gone: vertebra rubbing vertebra. Paul was saved in Acts 9 when the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus. 28 Therefore I am sending him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and that I may be less anxious. Paul thought that chastity was best, but realized that most people have natural sexual desires. In English, as in Greek, this is a neuter pronounthat thing which is perfect. Paul was not writing about the coming of He who is perfect but of the coming of a thing which is perfect. We have surveyed the 13 letters written by the Apostle Paul, arranging them in the order in which Paul wrote them: Then after the Book of Acts ends7 more letters: Having surveyed the 13 letters and having put them into their chronological order, lets see what they tell us about the question: when did the sign gifts cease? He says nothing of his own loss or of how much more lonely he would be when the brother whom he had praised so warmly had left him alone. In Acts 18 Paul spent a year and a half ministering in Corinthsee Acts 18:11. But Paul 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 120. She's the He uses this word in verses 25 and 28. We need to work hard in intellectual areas; we need to toil in study. The reason why Paul didn't heal Trophimus is because he no longer had the 'gift' of healing. The miracles of healing that the Remember that God is not a man that He should lie. Epaphroditus was not distressed, i.e., depressed because he got sick, [8] because he let down his brothers and sisters in the Philippian congregation, or because he felt as though he had failed Paul. 4:18), fell ill around the time Paul wrote to the Philippians (2:2526). If the gift of healing was still in operation, it's unlikely that Paul would have said to use something to merely "help" with your "infirmities." Why would he not heal his friend? So, Paul says, "I'm sending him to you." By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. God healed me of heart disease. Timothy was suffering stomach problems and frequent infirmities (1 Tim. He wasn't an incredibly gifted man but he was committed totally to No, the answer is that God's program had changed. He was given the assignment of delivering a gift to Paul and staying with Paul for a time, assisting him in whatever way he could in his difficult times. Having seen the pattern of truth regarding the gifts, we need to ask, why did the gifts cease at this time? When it came, then the gifts which were only in part would cease. everyone will be glad and not sad.". But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. programs. looked at it as "spiritual worship." 1000 Chattanooga Street Epaphroditus becomes ill and almost dies. Epaphroditus was at the door of death. healthy. In AD 60, Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and for the next two years, he lived under house arrest ( Acts 28:30-31 ), encouraging local churches via letters written from prison.

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