30th June 2025

30th June 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 2:19-24 focus v19)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Expectations vs reality. Our expectations, the beliefs we hold about how things should turn out are one thing while reality is what actually happens and there can be a massive gap between the two that can lead to disappointment and frustration, especially when our expectations are influenced by unrealistic portrayals in media or past experiences. It has happened to all of us, when the expectations we have are one thing and the reality is totally different. From the expectation when we’re out for a meal of how good that steak is going to be and it arrives and instead of serving it just the way you like it, its as tough as an old boot, the expectation that you’re going to manage to do something productive today with the reality that things always get in the way, the expectation that were going to live to we reach one hundred be fit and healthy and the reality for most is that that is wishful thinking. 


The church in Philippi had an expectation that Paul would send Timothy to them. After all they had sent Epaphroditus to him with a monetary gift from the congregation which we can conclude from what Paul said at the beginning of chapter one and later in chapter four (Phl 1:3-5, 4:10-20). It seems that they assumed from what Paul says here that Timothy would be sent and Epaphroditus would remain with Paul.


For obvious reasons Paul himself could not go but he is going to send Timothy to them soon. Now this is as if to say that he is going to send Timothy as soon as possible and not immediately. Look down to v23 where Paul says that ‘I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me’. The reason why Paul didn’t send him immediately is because Timothy was doing all that he could to help Paul with his legal affairs and so important was he in this task that he didn’t want to send him until he knew the result of his trial. So Paul was going to send Epaphroditus to them, then as soon as possible Timothy with the expectation that then Epaphroditus would return to Paul and he is hopeful that he would be cheered when he received news about them. 


Are we those who if Paul was writing to he would be cheered when he received news about us, or would he be filled with sadness that we have ignored the often plain teaching of scripture? God’s word will often get under our skin, it should, Hebrews 4 reminds us that; …the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb 4:12–13).


So what is it for us, are we those who will hear, who will live in response to what we read and hear, or will we try to persuade ourselves that that doesn’t speak to me, thinking that we’re already finished our apprenticeship and fully qualified we’ve nothing left to learn? Think to the temptation of Satan to our first parents, when he said to Eve, “Did God really say” and that is often how we are trying to live, and sure now we know better don’t we? 


The church had the expectation that Paul would send Timothy to them and they were going to be disappointed because their expectations were one thing but the reality was something different, Paul still needed Philippi. Yet the clear expectation from the teaching of scripture is that for God’s people we live in response to who he is and what he has done. We hear his word and respond with our lives, that means as those who claim Christ as our own that we should be those respond to what we read and hear rightly. Paul expected to be cheered when he received news about the church in Philippi, I hope it would be the same for you and I.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q8 How doth God execute his decrees?
A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.
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