Pauls Epistle to Colossians (24)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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We're in the last section of this epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Lord willing, we'll cover

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Colossians 4 beginning with verse 7 through the end, which is verse 18. And here the apostle identified not 9 but 10, and I found another one after I'd listed 9.

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There are 10 specific persons in his concluding statements in this epistle.

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And although Paul referenced them specifically, specific persons, nevertheless, we may learn from these words additional information regarding the church and how the apostle and others conducted the work of the ministry.

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Let's read the entire passage first. 1 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities.

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He is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

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And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother who is one of you, they will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

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Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions.

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If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice, he is the only man of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, to me.

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Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God, for I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

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Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house.

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And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the

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Laodiceans, and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the

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Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

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Remember my chains. Grace be with you. I differ a little bit from the way the

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ESV has, I really think it should be a new paragraph with verse 15, because of the subject matter, but you have an outline, before you have

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Paul's messengers listed or identified, verses 7 -9, and then secondly you have greetings from Paul's companions, verses 10 -14, and then beginning with verse 15 you have

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Paul's greetings to various friends. It is clearly a change. It ought to be a different paragraph division.

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I think the New King James translators did that, by the way, if I recall rightly. We want to take each of these persons in turn and consider what is said regarding them.

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And so first let's consider Paul's messengers, and the first one listed is Tychicus.

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He is a friend of the Apostle, first mentioned in verses 7 -9. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities.

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He is a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.

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And with him, Onesimus, I don't know why I'm having trouble with that, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

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Tychicus is mentioned. Paul had mentioned this man elsewhere, and in fact almost the same language he used of him in the last chapter of the

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Epistle to the Church at Ephesus. But that you also may know my affairs, and how

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I am doing, Tychicus, my beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you, whom

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I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that he may comfort your hearts.

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Same thing, isn't it, virtually? And the fact is, the Epistle to the

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Colossians was probably written at the same time as the Epistle to the Ephesians, and they both were delivered at the same time, or the same delivery, to each church, and Tychicus probably was the deliverer.

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And so this same word of encouragement, Paul had the same purpose of sending

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Tychicus both to the church at Ephesus as well as the church at Colossae. And so he was probably the carrier and deliverer of both

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Epistles. He may also have delivered an Epistle written to the church at Laodicea.

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And here, outside of the book of Revelation, the church of Laodicea is mentioned. Tychicus was a fellow worker of Paul who knew intimately and personally the nature and details of the apostolic ministry, and so he would be able to report accurately to the church at Colossae as well as Ephesus the news of Paul's ministry.

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Paul was in prison in Rome. He would also be able to represent Paul faithfully to the church, for Tychicus was a capable man in his own right in the work of the gospel ministry, for Paul described him as a faithful minister.

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And he could assign him the task, therefore, to comfort their hearts, not just report, but actually do ministry.

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He could bring a good word to these people on Paul's behalf. The word translated as minister here is the

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Greek word diakonos, which, of course, elsewhere is translated as deacon.

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Deacon probably shouldn't be here as an official office, but deacon simply means he's a minister, he's a servant, and here

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Paul commends him for that. And so he's a capable man, a faithful servant of Jesus Christ.

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Paul also mentioned or referenced Tychicus twice in his pastoral epistles to Timothy and to Titus.

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Be diligent to come to me quickly, this is Paul's instruction to Timothy, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, has departed for Thessalonica, Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia, only

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Luke is with me, get Mark and bring him with you, for he's useful to me for ministry, and here it is, and Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

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No doubt an allusion to what he wrote about in Colossians and Ephesians.

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And then also in Titus, when I send Artemis to you, or Tychicus, he didn't know which one he was going to send at that point, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

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And so Tychicus was a fellow servant of Paul, they knew one another well, worked with one another, and Paul regarded him as a faithful man.

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We also read of Tychicus in the book of Acts, and Luke was a traveling companion with Paul, and he wrote of men who were with them, and Tychicus traveled with Paul and Luke.

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And so we have in Acts 20, now when Paul had gone over that region, encourage him with many words, he came to Greece, stayed there three months, and when the

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Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia, that's the region on the northern end of the

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Peloponnesian Peninsula, Greece of course. Sopater, Berea, accompanied him to Asia, also

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Aristarchus, Secundus of the Thessalonians, Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and here to Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

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These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. And so here we read that Tychicus was from Asia, and this of course would have been

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Asia Minor. And I actually had a map that I thought I'd grabbed and copied rightly, and it was going to be right here for you to show you

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Asia Minor, which is just a western region of what is modern day Turkey. Probably within 300,

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Turkey is a wide country, it's over a thousand miles wide, but perhaps 250 miles of the west region is

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Asia Minor. And we see that Tychicus was from Asia, Asia Minor.

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And this is also the region of course where Ephesus was and Colossae was located, as well as Laodicea.

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And so Tychicus was probably converted under Paul's ministry when Paul had served in Ephesus for two years.

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We read of that period of ministry in Acts 19, when some were hardened, did not believe, but spoke evil of the way before the multitude, that's the

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Christian way. He departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

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And this continued for two years. This is in Ephesus, so that all who dwelt in Asia, there it is, that's

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Asia Minor, heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And I suspect

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Tychicus was among those who heard the word of God, who dwelt in Asia. Paul described

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Tychicus as a beloved brother. They served the Lord and the Lord's people together. There was a companionship, a close affinity with one another and the

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Lord. And often these are the richest kinds of friendships that Christians may have.

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Is that not right? Those who serve the Lord together in a fallen world, they work together for the furtherance of the gospel.

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Paul could call him, my beloved brother. You know, we read of Paul being alone in Second Timothy at the end of his life and whatnot.

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But aside from that, Paul always had a group of faithful people around him.

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And he listed these men and women as well that were part of his team, really, that were so faithful, who brought encouragement to him and who, whom he could have confidence.

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I could send this man to you and I know he will comfort your hearts rightly. He's going to be able to impart truth to you rightly.

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Those are good folks to have, to have around you. Well, secondly, we have

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Onesimus mentioned, and perhaps this is one person of the most interest in the list.

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And so we have again him mentioned in verses seven through nine, which we've already read, for not only was

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Tychicus sent by Paul, but with him, Onesimus, verse nine, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.

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Onesimus was from the Church of Colossae. He was one of you. And he's described as a faithful and beloved brother.

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Paul knew this man and trusted him. Their hearts were knit together. Onesimus' affection and commitment to the apostle was a tried relationship, for it was while Paul was in prison that Onesimus proved himself to be a faithful brother, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.

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And Onesimus was with him. We read that Onesimus was one of the members of the

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Church of Colossae. Paul declared this. Onesimus was a citizen of Colossae, even a member of the household where the

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Church of Colossae most likely met every Lord's Day. And yet Onesimus was never converted, even though he was probably in that church week after week after week.

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You probably recognize Onesimus due to the epistle of Paul that principally speaks to him, and that's of course the epistle to Philemon.

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This is Onesimus, the runaway slave, and we mentioned that Paul wrote

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Colossians and Ephesians at the same time. He also wrote the letter to Philemon, and Onesimus was with that letter being delivered into the hand of Philemon at the

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Church of Colossae. And so the subject of this letter to Philemon was, of course, the return of Onesimus, his runaway slave.

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And we'll not read all of it, but there are a number of verses in Philemon that describe this, where Paul is appealing to Philemon, who is no doubt the wealthy house owner in whose house the

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Church met. He's the principal leader of the Church. And Paul writes,

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You see, he was a slave owned by Philemon. And this in no way, of course, substantiates slavery, but this depicts how

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Christians operated within that system. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the

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Lord. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.

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That's a pretty powerful appeal, isn't it? But if he's wrong you or owes you anything, put that on my account.

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I, Paul, am writing with you my own hand, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides.

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Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord, refresh my heart in the Lord, and in obedience

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I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. But meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers

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I shall be granted to you. How could Philemon have possibly ignored death or failed to follow through?

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All the piles of appeals, strong appeals upon one another, gracious appeals, but it was clear what

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Philemon had to do. Now again, Paul wrote this letter at the same time he'd written his epistle to the

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Church of Colossae, and so although Paul had been bound, however, his gospel was not bound, and so his message of salvation through Jesus Christ found a home in the heart of this runaway slave from Colossae.

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This is a wonderful story of conversion. Although Onesimus had become very helpful to Paul, Paul thought it necessary for this slave to return to his master, and so he sent him along with his letter to make his reception with his master a favorable one.

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This could have been a difficult reunion, for Onesimus was not only a runaway slave, a runaway property, but he had also probably been a thief when he ran away.

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Paul hints at this in verse 18, but if he has wronged you, and you recall I mentioned how in the

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Greek language these conditional sentences imply different degrees of probability, it's almost like you could read, if he has wronged you, and I know he has wronged you, or owes you anything, and I know he owes you something, put that on my account.

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And so Paul's labor in the gospel found one of God's elect in this slave,

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Onesimus. In some ways, Onesimus was typical of God's elect. He was not a wise man after the flesh,

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Onesimus was not a mighty man in stature, he was not a noble one of the earth, no, he was like most of God's elect, as Paul described us.

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In 1 Corinthians 1, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.

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God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. The base things of the world, things which are despised,

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God has chosen things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. And here's the purpose clause, for what purpose?

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So that no flesh should glory in its presence. Salvation is brought to us in such a way, nobody can take credit for it, you have to give it all, all the glory to God.

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And so Onesimus was a runaway slave and thief, and yet he was an object of God's sovereign electing grace, as Charles Spurgeon once aptly described

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Onesimus. He ran away from Colossae, and therefore, in thinking that he would be less likely to be discovered by the ministers of justice, he sought the city of Rome.

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That's where runaway slaves went, because half the population of the city was slaves and you could hide real easily around them.

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There in those back slums, Onesimus would go and hide, for among those gangs of thieves which infested the imperial city, he would not be known or heard of anymore.

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So he thought, and he could live the free and easy life of a thief. And yet mark you, the

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Lord looked out of heaven with an eye of love, and set that eye on Onesimus. Were there no free men that God must elect a slave?

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Were there no faithful servants that he must choose the one who had embezzled his master's money?

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Were there none of the educated and polite that he must look upon a barbarian? Were there none among the moral and the excellent that infinite love should fix itself upon this degraded being who is now mixed up with the very scum of society?

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And yet eternal love, which passed by kings and princes, and left

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Pharisees and Sadducees, philosophers and Magi, to stumble in the dark as they chose, fixed its eyes upon this poor benighted creature that he might be made a vessel of honor fit for the master's use.

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I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, rose -like thunder from the cross of Calvary, and from the mount which selected such a one as Onesimus.

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Amen. Of course, God's word teaches the wondrous doctrine of election.

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God has chosen certain persons from fallen humanity to be recipients of his salvation, having chosen them before creation in Christ, not based on any foreseen condition or response of them, but solely due to his own good pleasure, according to the purpose of his creation.

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It wasn't because he saw Onesimus restored that he chose him. He saw

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Onesimus as a sinner and purposed to restore him so that no flesh would glory in his presence.

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Election, of course, follows the understanding of man's total depravity or total inability to come to God, so left on his own, even after having been instructed, admonished, persuaded, pleaded with,

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Onesimus would still choose to reject God's rule over him. He was in church, heard the word of God taught, the paphras had taught, probably prayed over this man.

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He was never converted, though, at Colossae. And of course, the reason was

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Onesimus was dead, incapable, and unwilling to do the things God commanded him, and so the salvation that would come to Onesimus must originate outside of him.

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It wasn't going to come forth from him. And so we have God's election unto salvation.

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Now although certainly God's election of some means passing over others, he did in the scriptures positively unto salvation, not to damnation.

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The scriptures do not say God chose some for damnation, no, he chose some for election unto salvation.

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He chose them for salvation. As the 1st London Confession, which is a good confession, we affirm that as Jesus Christ never intended to give remission of sins and eternal life unto any but his sheep, so these sheep only have their sins washed away in the blood of Christ, the vessels of wrath, as they are none of Christ's sheep, nor ever believe in him.

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So they have not the blood of Christ sprinkled upon them, neither are partakers of him, and therefore have all their sins remaining upon them, and are not saved by Christ from any of them under any consideration whatsoever, but must lie under the intolerable burden of them eternally.

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And the truth of this appears unto us by the light of these scriptures compared together. In other words, if you go to heaven, it is because of God's grace.

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If you go to hell, it is because of your sin. People don't go to hell because God didn't choose them to salvation.

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They go to hell because they choose to love and live in sin. Now, the

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Bible, in addition to speaking of election, speaks of predestination, and although frequently these are used synonymously, they are really not the same.

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Election speaks of God's choice of people. Predestination speaks of the end or purpose for which

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God chose them. He elected them, and he predestinated his elect to become something.

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Predestination describes God's design for the ones he chose. He predestined them to be conformed to the image of his

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Son, to become his adopted sons, and to be to the praise of his glory. Each one of those speaks of predestination.

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God had elected Onesimus in eternity past to become one of his own, and he destined Onesimus to become conformed to the image of his

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Son. And until God's purpose of salvation had begun to be seen in this man, reconciliation and fellowship with his

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Christian master would not have been possible. But now it is possible. Not only did

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God save Onesimus due to his electing love and predestination, but God saved

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Onesimus through his work of providence. Clearly this is seen beautifully.

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So not only is there sovereign grace in God's election, but there must be sovereign grace in God's providence also.

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And God's providence is simply God ordering events according to his purpose that he has decreed. If the elect are going to be saved, it is going to be through God's providence.

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Providence is similar to the word provide. We have used this illustration in the past. Many of you made provision for your

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Sunday afternoon meal, perhaps. Originally when I used this illustration

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I said many of you ladies, but then I was mindful of Stan. He is always preparing, so I made it generic.

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Many of you had made preparations for a Sunday afternoon meal ahead of time.

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You planned what you would provide for your family. You purchased what you needed. Perhaps some preparations have already been made.

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The final preparation will be made just before you and your family sit down together to enjoy what you designed and provided for them.

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Similarly, in God's providence, he very skillfully prepares for the conversion of the

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Ones that he elected to himself in eternity. So the providence of God is his carefully managing of events ahead of time to bring out his purposes.

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You have, through your providence, arranged for a meal. God, through his providence, arranges for the salvation of his elect.

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In every one of us, it has come to Christ. We don't know it when it is happening, but when we look back we can probably see the hand of God quite clearly, can't we?

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Now, we could consider God's providence in a negative way. When we speak of God's providence, we generally speak of positive things that fall out.

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God will see to it, in his providence, that the wicked reap what they have sown.

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I had an Old Testament passage I was going to quote here, but I realized we don't have the time. But the prophet speaks about the man fleeing, trying to escape the judgment of God.

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He flees. He runs to his house. He goes into his house. He puts his hand on the wall and gets bit by a snake and dies.

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I mean, you can't escape when God is out to get you, basically, is the warning.

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God's providence can be spoken of negatively. But we most commonly speak of God's providence. But again, this often comes in the form of what on the surface may seem to be great difficulty and trouble.

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For God in his sovereignty, his all -powerful control over all events, uses all events, both good and bad, both sinful acts of men and those that are not grace in his people.

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And so consider the providence of God in Onesimus' life. Philemon had been a good master to Onesimus.

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Now that's an assumption, but I think it's legit. Philemon was a Christian man. I suspect that Philemon would have seen to it that his entire household, including his slaves, attended the church service that was conducted weekly in his house.

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Onesimus would privilege to hear the word of God regularly. But God in his providence sent

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Onesimus to far -off Rome. And so God used

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Onesimus' sin of thievery, rebellion, and escape to bring about his salvation. This is similar to what

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Joseph could say to his brothers who had years before mercilessly beat him, sold him into slavery.

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Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? In other words, God controlled all these things. But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive.

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Insert Onesimus in there. The same thing is true, isn't it? Onesimus had no intention of seeking

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God. He wanted to get away from that household. It probably sickened him, grieved him, to have to sit there and listen to this stuff in church.

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I know there's some money there. I know where it is. I'll grab it and run off to Rome, and I can be a free man and live the way

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I want. Some of us may question God regarding what we're encountering in life or what's encountering in people that we know.

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Why, Lord? Well, the response might be as Paul gave to Philemon in verses 15 and 16.

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And Paul is not saying that he understood the details of God's providence. That's one of the secret things of the

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Lord. You and I don't have that kind of wisdom, as we've tried to say repeatedly in the past.

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But Paul supposes, sets forth the possibility, for perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose.

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In other words, perhaps God allowed it for this purpose, that you, Philemon, might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, how much more to you, both in the flesh and the

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Lord. I think we ought to trust God in his providence. Let us also be mindful of God's providential dealings in people's lives when we are seen there having problems.

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How do you know it's bad? I love that question from that metaphor of the old

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Chinese farmer. I won't repeat that now because of the time. But, you know, the

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Lord knows what he's doing. And we might, you know, be wringing our hands, because we're watching those for whom we're concerned.

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And we think, you know, they're not going to be converted in the way they're going and what they're doing. You never know what

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God is setting the stage for. And we ought to pray to that end. And so let us trust

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God to deal with us wisely in his providence. Let us also be mindful of God's providential dealings in people's lives when we see that they're having problems.

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No doubt, okay, Paul, no doubt, saw in Onesimus. For perhaps the

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Lord is bringing events about to glorify himself in manifesting his saving grace. And that's exactly what

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God was doing. Well, not only in God's providence, but we also displayed in the life of Onesimus the grace of God in conversion.

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God in his providence brought Onesimus to Rome. Also brought Onesimus to come into contact with Paul. Paul in jail.

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Maybe Onesimus was thrown in jail too. In the same cell as Paul. Surmising, I don't know.

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But somehow he and Paul came together. And he heard the gospel and was converted.

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How was it that Onesimus received the message in Rome that he failed or refused to receive in Colossae?

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Well, we would argue it was in God's purpose. It was in God's decree. Was it because Paul could make the gospel more clear and convincing than those in the church at Colossae?

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Not necessarily. No, people are not converted because of the style.

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You know something that's humbling to a pastor? And I've been in this for 42 years. I've seen it repeatedly over the years.

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You try and teach something and force something and you think people get it and they understand it. And then they go and visit somewhere or hear something on the radio.

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Pastor, you should have heard the truth I just learned. And they repeat it. You know what

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I say, I've been teaching that for 10 years, you know. But, you know, they've learned it.

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And the Lord is sovereign in that too. Was it because it was necessary for Onesimus to have hit the bottom in Rome?

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Say, as the prodigal son, to do so in a far -off country? Was it all of a sudden because Onesimus was now willing because he was in Rome where before he wasn't?

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And although some of these things might be true, ultimately, again, there's only one answer why

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Onesimus was converted in Rome and not in Colossae. It's because God purposed to do it that way.

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God, by His grace, elects sinners. God, by His grace, directs the sinner to himself and his providence. God, in His grace, converts the sinner to himself in his own way, in his own time.

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It's by the grace of God we are what we are. John Newton, of course, penned the words,

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I was blind, but now I see. And to what did he attribute the change? God's amazing grace.

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God has to bring the blind sinner to see his sinful condition and his guilt before God for his sin.

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God must give him a holy concern. He taught my heart to fear. And by His grace, my fear is relieved.

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This is what the hymn declares. This is God opened the heart of Lydia to attend to the things which are spoken by Paul.

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God opened the heart of Onesimus to attend to the things which were spoken by Paul. Paul described his own conversion that way.

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This is why we need to pray, as we've been emphasizing the last few weeks. God calls people to salvation.

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He calls people through our gospel. But He's got to do it. Because all the simplicity and shouting and teaching doesn't bring forth fruit.

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Who can bring forth life from the dead? I can't. You can't. And if your son or daughter goes off into the world to live in sin, it's not necessarily your fault, not necessarily my fault, although we might have contributed to it,

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I don't know. But they're sinners. And unless God changes them, they're not going to change. And all the more reason for prayer.

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We also see in Onesimus' life a transformed man, don't we? No longer did he want to live in a so -called liberty or freedom, but he wanted to please the

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Lord and return home to make things right with the one he offended.

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He must have thought back and thought about the kindness that his master had been and shown to him, and how he abused that kindness in his thievery and probably in his rebellion, defiantly stubborn, resistant, grumbling, and he wanted to set things right.

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And Paul felt he needed to set things right. And so he sent him back. Onesimus possessed a desire to make restitution.

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How sorrowful he must have felt for his former attitudes and his behavior.

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Onesimus is a great story in the New Testament that illustrates for us how

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God brings salvation to sinners. All right, let's look now at the next division of this concluding section of Colossians.

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Greetings from Paul's Companions, verses 10 -14. The third person that's mentioned is

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Aristarchus. We read in Colossians 4 .10, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you.

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And including this reference here in Colossians, Aristarchus is mentioned five times in Scripture. Three times in Acts, here in Colossians 4, also in Philemon, verse 24.

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Let's quickly consider these. Acts 19, we read of the riot that occurred in Ephesus due to the uproar caused by idol makers.

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Hey, we're going out of business. It's because of the Christians over here. You know, people don't want to buy our idols anymore.

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They had a big riot in the amphitheater. I've been there, a huge place where the whole city was in an uproar.

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And here we first read of Aristarchus. So the whole city was filled with confusion, rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized

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Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.

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And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him. And some of the officials of Asia, there's

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Asia Minor where Ephesus was, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

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See, some of the leaders, the government officials were Paul's friends by this point. I mean, the whole world was turned upside down.

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But even at this early time, Aristarchus was a member of Paul's ministry team as they evangelized

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Asia Minor and established a church in the city of Ephesus. And then in Acts 20, verse 4,

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Aristarchus left Ephesus with Paul. They traveled across the northern Aegean Sea to Macedonia, where the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea were located.

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We read there, after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia.

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Now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed there three months.

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And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

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He went back up north. So Peter of Berea accompanied him to Asia.

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And here it is, also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians. And Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus.

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These men going ahead waited for us at Troas. And so here we see Aristarchus was originally from Thessalonica.

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Tychicus was from Asia Minor. Colossae Aristarchus was from Macedonia. In fact, Thessalonica, the city.

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And he had been traveling with the Apostle probably quite some time. And then in Acts 27, this is at the end of Paul's ministry, traveling to Rome.

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The long voyage of Paul while under guard, taken to Rome from Caesarea in Palestine, after Paul had been in Jerusalem.

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And so in Acts 27, we dive in. When it was decided we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named

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Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment. So entering a ship of adromitium, we put to sea, meaning to sail across the coast of Asia.

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Here it is, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us. And the us includes

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Luke, Paul, and at least Aristarchus, and probably others as well. And so we have confirmed that Aristarchus was from Thessalonica.

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And here he is with Paul, traveling from Palestine to Rome. He had been with Paul a long time, serving with him in the

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Gospel. And then he's mentioned in Philemon 24, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner,

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Demas. And so Aristarchus is described as one of several labors in the law.

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And then of course here in Colossians, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you. He was there in prison with Paul when

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Paul wrote this epistle. Aristarchus greets you too. The fourth person mentioned,

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Mark. This is also found in verse 10. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions.

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If he comes to you, welcome him. And so Mark also greeted the Church, along with Aristarchus and Justice.

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There is a time when Paul would not have commended Mark to the Church, as he did here, when

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Barnabas wanted to take Mark with him and Paul, because, of course, on their first missionary journey,

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Mark perhaps became cowardly, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.

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And that reference in Acts 13, it says John, but that would have been John Mark. His name was

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John Mark. Sometimes he's called John. Other times, most of the time, he's called Mark. However, when the debate arose between Barnabas, who's described as the son of consolation, when the heat arose between Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas insisted on taking

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Mark with him, and so Paul and Barnabas split. And Paul went with Silas, of course, on the next missionary journey, and Barnabas, we read, went to Cyprus, taking

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Mark with him. And in the intervening years, apparently Barnabas, the

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Lord, of course, but maybe through Barnabas, the son of consolation, restored Mark to a place of usefulness.

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And so, later, when Paul writes to Timothy, Get Mark, bring him with you.

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He is useful to me for ministry. Earlier on, it said, we're not going to take in that guy.

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We can't depend upon him. But now, bring him. He's useful to me. This shows how the

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Lord is able to restore Christian brethren who maybe fail or fall in the past.

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Thankfully, there's always opportunities for restoration and for fruitfulness.

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Some people might think because of a failure or whatnot that they may as well write off their future potential for fruitful service.

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That is not the case. John Mark is evidence of that. And Barnabas is commended.

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I think Paul did right, you know, obviously. And the Lord had his purposes in that. Sometimes differences between good

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Christian men cannot be resolved. God had his purpose in setting them in two different directions.

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But God blessed Barnabas, apparently, for serving his nephew,

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Mark, and bringing him back into fruitful service. Fifthly, and I know the time is rapidly going away, we're going to go fast.

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Justice. Just a brief word about justice. He's called Jesus, of course, which was a popular name, but it can be referred to as justice.

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In Greek, Jesus would have been more the Hebrew name. Justice is not mentioned anywhere else in scriptures.

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And yet here he greeted the church through the apostle. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, and Jesus, who is called

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Justice. These three men listed together, Aristarchus, Mark, and Justice, were

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Jewish men. In fact, Paul says they're the only Jewish Christians who were serving actively with the apostle

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Paul in the work of the kingdom. That's interesting, isn't it? He indicated that these are the only men of the circumcision, the only

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Jewish men, among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

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And so, by the way, I want to point out that here's a good point of reference, where Paul is talking about the work of the gospel.

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The gospel is not just a message of justification, as important as it is. It's the good news of the kingdom.

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And here these were fellow workers of the kingdom. Jesus Christ, the promised son of David, the promised king of Israel, or the kingdom of God.

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He had inaugurated that kingdom, and he overrules it. He rules it as king. And so these

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Jewish men, these three, there weren't a lot of them, there was a remnant. They understood that Jesus Christ was the promised, realized son of David, and the promised kingdom to Israel was what they were attempting to further and promote through their gospel ministry.

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I think that's important. Sixth, Epaphras. We read of him back in verse 1.

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Now here in chapter 4, verse 12, he's always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of God.

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You want to see some maturity among us as a church? You're going to have to be prayed to that end as one of the means that God has appointed.

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Okay? And this man was faithful to them. Back in Colossians 1, we read that they originally heard, who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

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So he's always struggling on your behalf. Prayer is struggling. And he describes

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Epaphras, he's worked hard for you. How does he work hard for you? By praying for you.

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People who are praying for you are working hard for you. It doesn't come easy, does it? If you're doing it faithfully.

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It's struggling. You know, you struggle because you're trying to focus your attention, you've got things distracting you, you've got physical issues, you've got other issues, drawing your attention away.

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The phone call comes at the most inopportune times. It's a struggle to be faithful in this matter.

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So many other things distract us, can pull our attention away from this important labor.

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And it is labor and work. I'm not saying it can't be enjoyable, but it's work. And we have to struggle if we're going to be faithful.

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And, by the way, it says he also was faithful and struggled on part of those in Laodicea, as well as in Hierapolis.

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Laodicea was about, well, Colossae was about 100 miles east of Ephesus, right on the Aegean Sea, inland.

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And then 10 miles to the west of Colossae was Laodicea in the valley. And then just 5 or 6 miles north, right in the foothills, out of the valley, is

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Hierapolis. It was, in Roman days, a resort, mineral baths.

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And it is today. It's quite a resort area. It's called Parmucale.

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And you can go online. I did. I Googled it last night, and there's some pictures of it. You'd think you were looking at the mountains of snow, but it's all white minerals, and they carve it out, and they have pools coming down, cascading.

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It's a beautiful place. And my friend Rick and I visited there, and this is where Hierapolis was.

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And I remember driving up to where the resort was, but to drive through, you had to go through this huge field.

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It seemed like it was like a mud, grass growing up. Again, it was in the foothills. But there were the ground stones, and they were tombstones, and sarcophagus, strewn all over the place, as far as you could see.

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And they were buried there, like an old graveyard. Very fascinating. But here,

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Hierapolis is mentioned, and it's the only place that's mentioned in the New Testament, here in Hierapolis, in Colossians chapter 4.

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Page 10. Quickly, Luke is mentioned. Here is a Gentile, by the way, and Epaphras was a

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Gentile. And, of course, we know about Luke, the beloved physician. And here is the only place he's mentioned as a physician, the beloved physician, if I recall right.

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And then you have Demas. Now here, Demas is described as a faithful man, but he becomes an apostate later, where Paul says,

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Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. He became an apostate, a hypocrite.

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He departed for Thessalonica. He abandoned Paul. Well, in the last section, you have

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Paul's greetings to various friends. Give my greetings to the brethren at Laodicea, and to Nympha, and the church in her house.

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Nympha, that's a feminine name. This is a woman, probably a prominent woman. I assume that the church at Laodicea met in her house.

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And although Paul had never been to Laodicea or Colossae or Hierapolis, he knew of these people. And so he was greeting

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Nympha. I have a word about house churches.

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The church was in her house. And I made that comment in the past, but I felt I needed to make it again.

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Some people today, you probably have friends, I know some of you do, who think that really the way to restore vibrant church life today in today's world is to be in a house church.

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They think there's something more pure and more holy, more righteous, more blessed of God by being in a house church like in the first century.

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And they advocate that. And there are people that will not come to this church because we're an established church and we have a building.

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They think they're going to be more holy or more blessed of God in a house church. And this is completely unbiblical.

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And I have commonly found many people that gravitate to those kinds of things kind of have an anti -authoritarian view of life.

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And they want to be on their own and not be accountable, frankly, if I can say it that way.

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In reality, the early churches, yes, met in houses because they weren't that large. But you shouldn't think a church owning a building is something unspiritual.

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Paul talked about renting the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus for two years.

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And then, of course, you have throughout the New Testament how the people of God met in synagogues, purchased, built for that purpose.

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And churches later would follow that pattern, of course, when they were no longer persecuted by Rome. They bought property and built buildings to have the worship of God, service of God conducted.

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And our Lord Jesus grew up in a synagogue, a place of worship, a physical place owned by the people of God in the community.

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And this is legitimate for churches as well. And so don't fall into that trap.

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The place of gathering is irrelevant. And then lastly, Archippus. He's the last person mentioned.

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Say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry you've received from the Lord. Well, how would you like to hear the letter being read before the church and you're sitting there and you're

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Archippus and then you get this word. Tell Archippus you need to be faithful in the ministry. Archippus is mentioned in Philemon.

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And Paul addresses Philemon and then, who is it? Appiah? And then you have

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Archippus. Philemon was probably the father. Appiah was probably the wife, the mother.

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And Archippus was probably the son who had a responsible ministry in the Church of Colossae.

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And Paul must have heard that Archippus wasn't being as diligent and faithful to his ministry as he should be.

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You tell this man that he needs to be faithful. I mean, that's a little bit of a rebuke, isn't it?

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Pretty strong exhortation. And we would argue that here we have reinforced to us that men of God receive their ministry from the

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Lord. There's a call to the ministry. And this man was the object of that call.

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And he had a responsibility to be faithful to it.

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And then Paul concludes, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains.

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He would commonly dictate his letters to a secretary. But at the end, he always signed his own name in his own handwriting.

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I think he had eye problems and he couldn't see well. I think this was probably his thorn in the flesh that he struggled with.

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He dictated his letters. But there were letters falsely attributed to him.

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They were circulated claiming to be of Paul. And so in order for Paul to authenticate his letters, this is from me, he would sign it with his own hand.

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And at the end of the Epistle to the Galatians, he says, see what large letters I write. And you can imagine a man who's almost blind scribbling his, you know, the last words.

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But it was like a seal of authentication. This is Paul's Epistle. And I think that that's what he's indicating here.

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I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. And then the last word, remember me and my chains. You know, his difficulty and grace be with you.

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And thus we have the Epistle to the Colossians. A wonderful epistle, much to learn from, and much to encourage us and instruct us.

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Let's pray. Thank you, our Lord, for your word that you've given us. Thank you, our

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God, for the record that we have of these individuals too. Of those who are faithful, and then of those who are unfaithful as well.

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We thank you, our God, that you are accomplishing your good purposes in grace, that you have decreed from eternity, electing sinners to salvation, predestinating them,

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Lord, to a glorious end in Christ, through your providence, Lord, bringing about their salvation through the gospel, converting them, and then transforming them.

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And we thank you for this work of grace you're doing in our lives, our God. May you continue to do so, even on to the end.

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And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Stand, please.