Episode 81: What Tychicus Teaches us About the Local Church

Christ the King and the Necessity of the Local Church

To the Ruled Church Podcast.

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, big-a-boy congregation.

How many turkeys you got, Ed?

Man, you know, I'm not a turkey hunter. Although, I would love to go kill a turkey, but I'd never have to.

We've gone a couple times, springtime in Arkansas, but it's been to no avail, so.

Well, the first morning seemed like pretty good, but yesterday it was all windy, and today it's super foggy.

Yeah, yep, that's the way it goes, and plus it starts too late, and plus my kids are playing baseball, and all this, this is how it goes.

Oh, come on, man, if the priorities are baseball or wild turkey, you go to the turkey.

I'm a Baptist, I don't know what wild turkey is.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Welcome, that's a good spot to say welcome.

To the Rural Church Podcast. I am your co-host, Alan Nelson, pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. With me, Eddie Ragsdale, the wild turkey man from Marshall. I didn't know that was the way you guys do things up there in the hills.

Yeah, that's how reformed we are.

Yeah, all right, all right, bro. Well, I gotta text my wife real quick. She just tried to call while we're recording. All right, brother, we are looking at a passage today from the end of Ephesians, that's where we're at.

Guess what, Eddie? I think in the next few weeks, we're actually gonna finish the book of Ephesians.

So how many sermons have you preached from Ephesians?

This week

200, have you preached 200?

Oh, no, we're not gonna get to 200.

So I'm 180, have you preached 200?

No, this week is 140.

Oh, okay, oh, yeah, I was way overshooting it, everybody.

Well, I mean, yeah, 140 versus 200, that's a whole nother year.

Yeah, okay, 140 is a lot of sermons. That's like Martin Lloyd-Jones. You're like the Martin Lloyd-Jones of Perryville.

I'm no Martin Lloyd-Jones, brother, but we have had a good time and a lot of things

That's awesome.

A lot of things have changed. Only God is awesome, Eddie, but we've had a lot of things change in our church.

Thank you, Jonathan Murdoch.

We've had a lot of, so we started in September of 2020, and now we're recording this on April, what is today? The 17th of 2024, three and a half years or whatever. But there's interesting things in the Bible.

The Bible's so packed, and sometimes there's just these little, seem unimportant verses. I actually have a lot of content there to consider and teach us. So here we are at the end of the letter to the Ephesians, and there's some things in here that I wanna draw that I think are pretty relevant.

I think they're relevant. I didn't tell this to you, Eddie. I think they're relevant to the Southern Baptist Convention. I think they're relevant to Bible Belt Christianity. I think they're relevant to the church.

So let's jump in. I'm gonna read it for you.

Details in Scripture and the End of Ephesians

Well, hold on.

Yeah, go ahead, bro.

Before we get into this specific passage, I do wanna just say on what you, commenting on what you just said, that one thing we wanna note is all of the details that God puts in the word, in the scripture, are there for a purpose.

Yeah.

I just think it's so important that we remember they're all there for a purpose, because I think we're tempted to read over details like there was no reason for them to be there. Now, they may be descriptive details that aren't telling us something we should do, but they still matter for us to understand what God is wanting us to learn out of the passage.

And so whether it's an Old Testament narrative that'll have, you know, we're going through judges right now and there are some amazing details in those passages, and they matter. Everything, if God chose to put it in the scripture, it matters.

And especially with this text, I think so often the beginning and the end of these letters, we tend to almost treat like, oh, that was just them signing off. I mean, it's not really important, but it is.

I think that I'll speak on the other side. I think there could be a danger to go too much to try to overread, you know, but like you say, a hundred percent agree, brother. I mean, that's right. The letter doesn't stop.

The epistle doesn't stop with verse 20. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit doesn't stop with verse 20. So just something to consider. So the text says Ephesians 6, 21. So then, oh, sorry. So that you also may know how I am doing and what I am doing, Tychicus.

Now, some say Tychicus, Tychicus, Tychicus. I'm saying Tychicus, but however you want to say it, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I've sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

So we're getting into a little bit of discussion today of Tychicus, but also some little details here that I'd like to bring up about the church. I guess one of the main things I want to mention today is that, and I know we've said this before, surely I've said this before, but you know how you miss the forest for the trees.

You know, you're sitting here and you're looking at the trees and you're like, yeah, but I don't even see the forest. Well, that's how people do with the local church. Right, like, yeah, but where does the Bible say you have to go to church to be a Christian?

Like, dude, you cannot understand the New Testament. I think I can prove that to you today, even just from this passage. But here you have this man, this little known man, I should say, little known to us, not apparently little known in the New Testament world.

He's the beloved brother. But most people, if you mention the name Tychicus, they would not know who you're talking about. So what my argument is, there's this man who is not well-known to us today, but is a faithful brother in the Lord and loved the church.

I'm gonna talk about that more in just a minute. And this is how we should have more of that. So for every Paul, there should be a lot of other brothers around like a Tychicus. I don't know how you say Tychicus in the plural.

No, that sounds good. Tychicus. Tychikikai.

Yeah. But I've got some more things I wanna say. That's just kind of my introductory spiel. Anything you wanna add there?

Well, I just think it's amazing when you think about, Paul says here, so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing, that Tychicus is gonna tell them everything. And I just think, man, you kind of almost wish you could have heard that.

Ah, wonder what everything was. And yet another lesson we have to learn, you have everything the Lord intends for you to have.

That's right.

Whatever that everything was, we don't need it. They needed it, but we don't need it.

So Tychicus appears several times in the scripture. He's in Acts 20 at the riot, helping Paul, the riot in Ephesus. Probably was, or he is an Ephesian, maybe born in Ephesus, this maybe hometown guy. He's in Acts 20.

He's mentioned in 2 Timothy 4, which I'll mention this. You've got, isn't Demas mentioned in 2 Timothy 4 as well, I believe. But you can, maybe you can double check that. But you have people in the scriptures like Demas who were at one time with Paul and then they leave.

And then you've got faithful brothers like Tychicus that stick around. And that matters, that kind of faithfulness matters. He's mentioned, so he's mentioned Acts 20, 2 Timothy 4, Titus 3, Colossians 4.

So he crops up several times, but I wanna say this. He loves the church. I'm gonna get to a point in just a minute, I think that you're gonna like. But he loves the church, Eddie. And one of the ways that we know he loves the church is that he's this, oftentimes this letter carrier for Paul.

And willing to serve and say, I wanna, in fact, the text says in verse 21, he's a faithful minister but the word, the Hebrew there is the word for deacon. So he's a servant. Now, let me ask you this. He loves the church.

So where does he learn that love for the church? I'm just asking you, where does Tychicus learn his love for the church?

Paul’s Conversion and Love for the Church

Yeah, I would say he has to learn it in the church.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm just making the comment, I know you didn't know where I was going with that, but I'm just making the comment here that he learns it from the man.

From Paul.

Yeah, he learns it from Paul. So why don't we do this? Why don't you go to Acts chapter eight? I think I'm gonna tell you the right verse, I hope. Acts chapter eight, verse three, and read that for us.

All right.

This will be interesting. Have I told you the right verse?

So, but Saul, having ravaged the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Okay, so let's just think about this for a second. You have this man named Saul, which we understand Paul, and before he was converted, he ravaged the church. He hated the church. He persecuted the church.

By the time you get to Ephesians chapter six, verse 21, what is Paul's concern for the church? So that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. He has a love for the church at Ephesus. He moves from hating the church, ravaging the church, despising the church, to now he says, hey, I'm gonna make sure that you guys, I'm so concerned that you guys understand how I'm doing.

I'm gonna send Tychicus to you. So what changes between Acts eight and Ephesians six?

Well, obviously Paul was converted and he loves the Lord and loving the Lord spurs us on to a love for the Lord's people. But another thing to think about is Paul had spent an extensive amount of time in Ephesus.

You know, it's amazing, it is amazing how in a very short amount of time, the Lord can knit our hearts with other brothers and sisters. You can meet a brother and in a few minutes, it's almost like you're best friends because you both love Christ.

That is amazing how that can happen. And we both experienced really growing strong relationships with brothers because we took short-term trips. You know, you guys go to Mexico, you've built strong relationships with the brothers and sisters down there.

You know, I went to Utah several times and built good relationships with brothers and sisters there. So it's amazing how that can happen. But imagine that you went to, you know, is it El Chapote?

Is that right?

That's not actually, I don't know.

El Chapote, yeah.

But let's say you went down there and you stayed for two years. Oh man. I mean, as much as you love them now, can you imagine how it would be different then if you had spent two years teaching and preaching and helping to plant churches in that region and then you're writing a letter to them?

I very seriously doubt anybody in this, on listening to this podcast is gonna disagree with this point, but it's just a point that I wanna press and emphasize. But there is no love. So if you say to yourself, well, I love the Lord, but I don't love the church.

You're either greatly self-deceived or you're just lying. Because you see, like Paul moves from hating the church to loving the church. He teaches Tychicus. I mean, a little bit of speculation there, but not much to love the church because Tychicus is a faithful servant in the Lord.

He's a faithful minister in the Lord. He's willing to give up his time risk. You know, we say delivering letters, that's not a big deal, but I mean, maybe today driving across the United States, not a big deal, but you risk life and limb as it were to serve the church and let the people know how Paul is doing.

And so the point I'm trying to make is you don't love the Lord without loving the church. And that's everywhere in the Bible, but sometimes you come across these little obscure passages here, and it's actually being taught here.

It's being exemplified because Paul is someone who ravaged the church. Now he's someone who's concerned that the church would know how he's doing.

And even like in Colossians 4, let me just read this, because it's very similar, but it maybe gives us a little bit more. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and 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. So just listen that Paul, the idea of Tychicus traveling to these different churches and communities is to encourage the hearts of the Christians.

Encourage the local churches.

Missionaries, Churches, and Full Disclosure

Right, yeah.

So this is everywhere. So here's something else, Eddie, and this is, I made an SPC comment, but I'm just going to just kind of flesh this out. Another thing is, he wanted the church to know how he was doing because the church is, now obviously Paul's relationship with the church is a little different.

I understand he's an apostle, but there's a responsibility of the church to know how her missionaries are doing. So can you imagine, and I'm not trying to take your, I'm not just trying to look for an opportunity and just throw a sucker punch, but can you imagine Paul sending Tychicus and then say, now, but don't disclose everything.

Don't tell them everything. Let's hold some stuff back. Can you imagine him being like the North American Mission Board and saying, oh, now you don't need, you're not, and the church asks for it.

We don't share the apostolic salaries.

Yeah.

We don't do that.

Yeah, like, oh, no, no, no. We're not going to let you know everything, you know? So what I'm saying is like, there's a clear pattern here in the New Testament of like the local churches, the necessity and responsibility of the local church understanding in transparent fashion, what's happening.

Now, and by the way, this is Paul, like I want to be transparent. I want you to know what's happening. And so it's like, it should be a mutual thing. So like the churches, now I'm just going to give some application.

Churches should want to know how her missionaries are and the missionaries should want the church to know how they're doing. This is just like, again, you kind of this obscure little verse here and you're like, maybe I'm just going to even skip over this.

So yeah, we're done with Ephesians. It was like, no, there's actually a little bit of weight here to consider to teach us the relationship between a local church and her missionaries. Any thoughts to that?

Well, yeah, I mean, even as we've said right here in the text, you know, in Ephesians, Tychicus will tell you everything. In Colossians, Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. As you said, it's just this full disclosure and it is actually hearing about Paul, what Paul is doing in planning churches and preaching the gospel.

That is what's going to encourage the hearts of the church.

Yeah, yeah.

That's what's going to encourage them. It's not like Tychicus is sent with, hey, here's, you know, here's a special poem to share with the church. That'll be encouraging to them and tell them the stuff I'm doing.

No, no, tell them what we're doing for the gospel, how Christ is winning souls and planning churches. That's what will encourage them.

The Gospel Advancing in the Face of Opposition

Yeah, and even in the face of persecution, you know, maybe another shot here in a sense, but I'm not trying to, I'm not a little bit tongue in cheek here, but Rome's not becoming a Christian nation or whatever,.

Right?

But the gospel is going forward, right? The gospel is defeating her enemies in a sense, even in the face, and this is, you know, you know that my position is all millennial. My position is like, even in the face of her enemies, the church is going to prevail.

Right.

It's not Christ conquering governments that makes the gospel powerful. It's Christ conquering in the face of wicked governments. Now I'm all for, again, not to get too far into this, but I'm all for having a Christian government for sure.

I'd way rather want that. But the point I'm trying to say is, even if that's not happening, the gospel is still going forward. That's what's happening in Paul's day. He's in prison and he's letting the church know, guess what?

The gospel is still going forward. And again, just this note here, a full disclosure of how things are going with Paul. And we've created this conglomeration of entities in the Southern Baptist Convention.

That's just not like this. Like if you call up to a, and I know this, this is not speculation. I know this personally. If you try to get information from an entity, it's just shut down. And I'm just saying, isn't that sad?

I mean, like we could rail on that, but I'll just mention this. When you look at the New Testament scriptures, it's just sad. It's sad that that is the type of relationship that missionaries and missionary enterprises try to maintain with the churches.

When the apostle Paul of all people, if he wanted to pull the authority card of all people, he'd say, no, you don't need to know that. But he is willing to and desiring for the church to understand, hey, here's what's going on.

You know, it's interesting. Paul says, so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. But first he says, how I am. You know, Paul knows that the Ephesians love him. He knows that they love him.

They really care about him. And I'm not even stepping just on the SBC here. I think this goes far beyond the SBC, what I'm about to say. But oftentimes, what is sent out about missionaries or from missionaries sometimes is sent back to churches that don't really know them.

And it's just so that we can say, we let you know some things so that you'll send some more support. It's really about support gathering. As opposed to, and then I think a lot of those missionaries are struggling with, does anyone even care?

I'm out here and I feel all alone and I don't think anybody. I mean, I know the Lord cares, but I don't think anybody actually cares about us. And so here we have Paul and Paul knows that the Ephesians care about him.

So he says, I'm sending, you know, Tychicus is gonna come. And he's gonna, so that you may know how I am, because I know you guys care about how I am, how I'm doing. And that strengthens Paul for his ministry and encourages the saints in Ephesus and in Colossae.

So yeah, I think it's so important that we, that, you know, our missionaries need to know us and we need to know them so that we can have a real care for them and they can know that they're not alone.

And then at the same time, that ought to encourage our hearts as we hear about how they're doing and what's being accomplished.

You know, the New Testament, we might say here, is actually not as silent as some might try to pretend it is when it comes to missionary efforts, missionary enterprises, you know, we've gotten a little bit off topic here, maybe, not really, but you know, the idea of Tychicus teaches us that the missionary enterprises of the New Testament are centered in and around, and even in one sense for, the local church.

And that there should be a relationship, a tangible relationship, between the New Testament church and our missionaries. That's why at the end of these letters, you have off so often all these names. And you're like, why do you have all these names?

Because as even as spread out of these people were, there was a network, they knew each other. Now, Christianity has gotten so big, and this is good, but Christianity has gotten so big that it really is not quite feasible for every Christian to know every other Christian.

However, and I find this in our world, like the Reformed Baptist world, like it doesn't take long, and you begin to know people and churches. And this is the way New Testament missions really should be done.

We're praying for, we're not just sending some, look, you go over, you build wells or whatever, okay. I'm not gonna disparage that. But the idea is long-term, I'm not just popping over a week into Haiti and giving a pastor's conference or whatever.

Like I'm connected to local churches. I know them, they know me. We've got to stop this one week pop in, pop out, man, that was great, take some pictures, put it on social media. That's not what's going on in our text.

Real Fellowship and Long-Term Mission Networks

Yeah, and even this idea of being encouraged by what's happening there, we have a brother and sister in South Africa that we are partnered with, that we support, Marco and Laura Scovert. And Laura Scovert is Jim Ellis' daughter.

And so, and every week Marco sends us updates and he sends us things we can be praying for. And it's such an encouragement because, I mean, I haven't seen Marco in the flesh in a couple of years, maybe three years, but still we get these regular updates on what's happening with them, with their family and with the ministry.

And so that is very encouraging because we actually know them. And what you were saying about, Christianity is too big for us to know everybody, that's right, but we all have our own network. You are especially gifted in networking, but all of us, and it may be that your network's pretty small, that's okay, but pray for and support the brothers and sisters that the Lord has given you those relationships because we all do have a network of people that we can name, or at least we should have a network of people that we can name in local churches where we have real fellowship and real agreement.

We ought to have that.

Yeah, we should know one another. And I'll say this too, like we don't have any letters in the New Testament of a church to Paul, but it should be a thing. It's not just the missionaries keeping the churches up to date.

The churches should keep the missionaries up to date too and let them know how things are going and staying connected and encouraging them, letting them know, because again, in both of these texts that we've read, Ephesians six and Colossians four, Ephesians 6 .22 is when he says that I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

So Paul wanted the churches, Colossae and the church of Ephesus to be encouraged by the work that was happening because, and also specifically this too, you think this is Paul, Paul's in prison, okay, everything must be stopped.

And Paul's reminding the church like, no, I may be bound, but the word of God's not bound. And Christ is having the lamb for which he died. Sorry, the lamb, I missed that, the bride for which he died.

The lamb who was slain is worthy to receive the full reward of his suffering. So the lamb is receiving the bride and inheritance of nations. And so the missionary, Paul wanted the churches to be encouraged, but churches need to do a good job of encouraging the missionaries too.

But anyway, you have this faithful, we haven't talked a ton about him, but you have this faithful, trustworthy brother that I think is worthy of our imitation,.

Tithing.

We should love and serve the church even at our own peril at times. We should serve and love the church like Tychicus did. It's okay, not everybody's gonna be a Paul. Not everybody's gonna be the man that everyone knows in the sense of the out front guy, the man on the preaching conference tour, if you will.

And not that that's bad, I'm not saying that's bad. Many brothers we love, let's use a brother we love, Votibachum. Not everybody's gonna be a Votibachum. That's okay. For every Votibachum, there needs to be faithful brothers just putting their hands to the plow, plugging along, loving Christ, loving the church, serving the church, being a faithful brother, a beloved brother like Tychicus.

That's right, that's right.

And like you said,.

Tychicus as a Model of Trustworthy Service

It reminds us that this service, this is normal, this is the way the church just ought to work. Like, it's not, it seems extraordinary to us, doesn't it? It seems, wow, this guy, he was just, Paul was just sending him, it was what?

He sent him to Ephesus, so that was a long trip. And then once he gets there, he goes to Colossae, that's another, what, 80 miles or something?

Well, he's got Onesimus with him.

Right, right.

And so he's got this letter to Colossae, he's got this letter to Philemon, he's got this letter to Ephesus, presumably all at the same time, right? Yeah, yeah. And that's a lot of weight too, by the way.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, yeah, go ahead.

Well, my point is just to say, and this is just, I think they just seen this as, yeah, this is what you do when you're a servant of the Lord.

You serve.

Yeah, so I wanna say based on that is like, this is literally New Testament Christianity.

Right.

This is New Testament Christianity. I don't know what some of us have tried to make it, I understand the gimmicks and the games and the grand things that we try to do as churches sometimes, but like, this is New Testament Christianity.

Love for Christ, love for the church, seeking the furtherance of the kingdom, serving one another, encouraging one another. You know, like, that's a whole different podcast episode. We need more encouragers in the church, you know?

Less complainers, more encouragers. But all this is like, we're literally just reading this from the scripture. Like, this is New Testament Christianity. And I think, yeah, go ahead.

Well, like you said, we don't wanna read in the text things that aren't there, but we probably can kind of imagine the type of guy that Tychicus had to be, right? If he's encouraging all these churches,.

Bringing this to you. And trustworthy. You're handing him these letters, bro.

I mean, this is big.

And also, remember the whole thing, we hadn't gotten into this with Philemon, but he's got, like, he's in charge of bringing back Onesimus.

That's right.

So like, this is a trustworthy man. He's a leader. I don't think that's overreading. I mean, it's just No, no. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's just there. And Paul trusts him. You know, the letter, you think about the letters. Well, as long as the letter gets there, that's written down on paper. But Paul also trusts him that what he's gonna tell them is gonna be accurate.

That's right. Yeah.

But he's not gonna tell them something that's not true about how Paul is or what's happening there. He's not gonna spread his own agenda.

Yeah, no, that's good.

When he gets to the church and try to sow discord or something like that, he's just gonna come. It's gonna be an encouragement. He's gonna share what's really going on. Like you said, he's trustworthy.

So yeah, we can get some idea about the kind of man he was, even from the work that Paul's given him to do.

And I would say, again, this, again, should be normal. These are the type of, as far as men go, these are the type of men that we should be. We should be trustworthy men, servants of the church. So again, this is just reading the New Testament scriptures and understanding Christianity based on the New Testament.

Whatever type of Christianity we're trying to practice that is in competition or not under the New Testament, it's false Christianity.

That's right.

And that's the problem. And this is a whole different podcast episode too, but back down in verse 24, it says, "'Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ "'with love incorruptible.'". And the problem, I think, with many in the Bible belt is if you say, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, yeah, we love Jesus. Problem is they don't love the Jesus of the New Testament.

That's right.

And if we don't love the Jesus of the New Testament, and if we don't love the church of the New Testament, whatever it is that we're practicing, you can't actually call it Christianity.

That's right, that's right. Yeah, well, and the reason why people say, yeah, I love the Lord Jesus is because they define love as he lets me do anything I wanna do instead of love as what Jesus said, which is keep my commandments.

If you love me, obey my commandments.

Yeah, they misdefine love, they misdefine Jesus. So, yeah. But anyway, so I just encourage our listeners, the love for the church and the idea of the church and how a church is to function and even intertwined in its missionary endeavors and all, like it's everywhere in the New Testament, even in sometimes just these kind of obscure places.

There are brothers in the New Testament that we should know more about, and Tychicus is one of those that we should seek to emulate, to seek to pattern our lives after someone like him, not because he's anything, but because, and again, this is another, we could even talk about disciple-making here, but Paul into Tychicus into us, like we should, that's the kind of disciples we should be making, men like Tychicus.

So lots to consider there. It shines forth the beauty and practicality and necessity, sufficiency of the word of God for us. You've got anything you wanna add to that?

No, I think that's good. You know, just let's endeavor to have these kind of relationships of faithful connection with brothers and sisters that are serving the Lord, that kind of networking we talked about.

Man, we need to have that. We need to encourage one another.

And I would say that, you know, maybe a final thing to say is like, that's possible even in the rural church world. You know, this is the rural church podcast. This is applicable, not just to the rural church, but I will say this, even in the rural church world, this is absolutely applicable.

We can network and know one another and should. You don't have to just live out there on an island, especially in a technology like today. Well, I'd even say this, Eddie, someone's listening to this and like, yeah, but I am on an island and you don't understand.

Reach out to us. Let us see if we can have our worlds collide and see what the Lord may do with something like that.

That's right, that's right. We would welcome it.

Well, as always, brother, enjoy talking to you today. It's funny, we're talking about being in the spring. This is, I don't know when this is gonna come out, but we're definitely ahead. So maybe by the time someone listens to this, I'll actually have killed a turkey.

Maybe I'll actually have at least seen one.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, brother, sign us off.

We'll see you guys next week.

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you gonna respond?