Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
I invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the fourth chapter of Colossians and find your place at verse 7. Last week we talked about the fact that, as we've been going through Colossians verse by verse, we talked about the fact that Paul identifies outsiders, meaning he identifies those who are not part of the body of Christ, and he says that we are to walk in wisdom toward outsiders.
And by using that phrase he identifies the fact that there are those who are of the faith and those who are not of the faith, those who are in the body and those who are outside of the body. And we talked about last week the importance of going to those who are outside of the body and, in a wise and gracious way, being able to give an answer for the hope that is within us.
And to not be a reclusive church but to be an intrusive church, a church that goes into the world, intruding into the world, taking the gospel out into the world so that God's gospel can be believed and men and women can be saved.
And today we're going to adjust our attention because last week was so much attention was given to the outsiders. Today we're going to focus on those who are inside the body. While we cannot divorce ourselves from those who are outside, our deepest relationships, our most fruitful blessings of friendship come not from those who are within the world but from those who are in Christ.
And I think about the fact that when we think of relationships, the first thing I think of when I think about this whole concept of relationships is that relationships are hard. Okay, I was waiting for an amen, but I thank you David, you're my amen corner, I appreciate you.
Relationships are hard. And I don't know about you, but the last few years have been very strange on the world stage. And there's been a feeling within the world stage that there seems to have become almost a disconnection of intimacy within friendships.
As we begin to run away from the communities and and hide ourselves behind our house and our front doors and live inside and only communicate to each other virtually, we come to a place where our relationships have become digital rather than physical.
And more and more our connection, while we may know more people and be connected to more people, and I get emails from people in Africa and Asia and all kinds of places, while we may be connected to more and more people, it seems like our relationships are becoming more and more shallow and we're feeling isolated.
And that feeling of isolation is very much making its way into the church as people begin to divorce themselves from the local body and and find themselves spending more time having church through the online experience and more through the virtual experience.
And I saw recently, and I know that this is not a shot at Roman Catholicism, but I saw a drive-through confessional, which is, you know, you can go get a burger and go get a blessing, you know, you can do it all in one shot.
But the church can never be virtual. The church can never be truly digital. Ministry is something that must be done together. Always had companions. You realize that no matter where we see the Apostle Paul, save one time that I can think of, and if you can correct me later I'm willing to be corrected as always, but I could only think of one time that Paul was alone and that was when he was in Athens, and you know what he was doing in Athens?
Waiting for the guys to get there. He was doing ministry, but with the purpose of, he says, I've got guys coming who are gonna love me and support me and minister with me. I'm not doing this alone. I'm only alone for a short time.
I've got my entourage on their way. And we think about the scripture, which is so clear. The Bible tells us in so many places that we are not in this alone, and no one man makes a ministry. The book of Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one, and they have a good reward for their toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has no one to lift him up. Ministry is not alone. Ministry is not one man. The Bible says the body does not consist, this is 1st Corinthians 12, it says the body does not consist of one member, but of many.
As I was studying for this week's message, and obviously you know the title, it's on the board, the title this week is the Christians Partners. This is the third in a series in Colossians where we talked about the Christians prayer life.
We talked about the Christians, last week we looked at the Christians public witness, and this week we look at the Christians Partners as a good Baptist that's an alliterated series. But as I was studying for this week's message, and I saw Paul give his list of men that are serving alongside of him at this time in his life, I began to think about the years and the men that God has provided here at our church, and God has been very gracious.
I became the pastor in 2006, and at that time I served with only one man who is still here as a, not the only man who's still here, but the only man who was an elder there, elder then who is still here, and that's Brother Jack Bunning, who has served this church longer and more faithfully than any of us in the sense of time, having been an elder for over half a century.
This church began in 1958, and he served as an elder off and on during all that time, and he served with me, and he was a good friend and continues to be a good friend to this day, and I wouldn't be standing here likely if he wasn't there to support me through a very difficult time in ministry.
And I think about Richard Taylor. We need to pray for Richard Taylor. He was diagnosed this week with Parkinson's disease. It's very difficult. He was one of our elders for many, many years, and now he's suffering.
His son called me and said that they may have a need in their family, so we need to pray for them and pray that that need would be met. He obviously is no longer here with us serving, but served for many years.
Byron Starkweather served as a faithful elder. Mike Collier, who stood here just a few moments ago and prayed for me and Andy, was praying for the three elders that we serve right now. Andy, of course, could spend...
I could write a book about both of these men, several comedic chapters for both of you, but wonderful chapters as well. But it's not just the elders. It's everyone here, the deacons. The service doesn't happen on accident, and we're going to get to the text in a moment.
I'm just telling you, I'm trying to build up the idea of what Paul's going to do. I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to say that there's a time where we need to step back and consider the fact that God has blessed us with partners, that God has blessed us with friends who want to minister together, who want to serve the Lord arm and arm and charge the gates of hell together.
What a blessing that is. And as we look at this section, as we finish out today the book of Colossians and we look at these miniature biographies, and that's what it is, it's 12 miniature biographies.
As we look at these words that Paul writes about these men, we are reminded yet again that while Paul was certainly a massive figure in the history of the church, Paul was not alone, and neither are we, and neither should we.
So let's stand together and read God's Word. We're going to begin in verse 7, we're going to read all the way to verse 18. I normally don't cover this much, but for the sake of the fact that this gets all of it, all of the men Paul talked about, we're going to read verses 7 through 18.
And it says, Titchicus 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.
And with him is Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions.
If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice, these are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf, and his prayers 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. Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house.
And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the 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 Lord.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Father God, I pray that even now as we begin to open the word together and consider all that it says, Lord, that you would keep me from error, knowing that I am a fallible man, capable of preaching error.
I pray that you would keep me from that for the sake of your name and for the sake of your people and for the sake of my own conscience. I pray, Lord, for the believers in the room, that they would understand the need for fellowship, the need for partnership, the need to be part of the body and not be a severed limb, straying, but, Lord, to be united with the body.
And I pray, Lord, for those who may not yet be a part of the body of Christ, those who may still be on the outside, those who may still be yet unconverted. Lord, that you would, by the work of your Spirit and the power of God, give them the gift of life, the gift of faith, that they would turn from their sin and that they would receive Christ.
For your Word says, as many as have received him, to them he gives power to become the children of God. We pray this in his name. Amen. Today we are concluding a lengthy exposition of the book of Colossians.
This is our 40th message in the book, so this brings us to an end. I am going to do one additional message next week entitled, What Have We Learned?, because we are going to do an important re-overview because sometimes I think we miss the forest for the trees.
We miss the big picture because we get so focused on the minute parts. So we'll have in total 41 messages, but this is what brings us to the end of the exposition today. Paul is concluding his letter with greetings from his companions to his audience, which is the church at Colossae.
And in this we get a glimpse of Paul's entourage. As I mentioned earlier, this is a section of people that we often read through quickly. We just, I don't know about you, but when I'm doing my Bible reading, a lot of time I'll come to these lists of names and I just sort of just read through the list and I'm not necessarily always considering each man and what each man means and who he was.
I just sort of just, as I'm reading, but this is a time to stop and focus on something that Paul felt important enough to write, God the Holy Spirit felt important enough to preserve, and we should feel is important enough to study.
A lot can be learned by looking at who Paul surrounded himself with. This passage contains 12 names. I put the names up here. Two of them are the letter bearers themselves, that is Tychicus and Onesimus.
Two of the men are gospel writers. I put those in red. You'll see Marcus, the cousin of Barnabas, is the author of the Gospel of Mark, the writer used by the Holy Spirit to write a theological biography.
That's what the Gospels are, a theological biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course Luke who also wrote a theological biography of the life of Christ. So this is the list of men that Paul mentions, including of course himself.
Now in addition to this list we also see three letters mentioned. Well let me say it this way, we see one letter mentioned, one letter implied. Rather, let me back that up because I said three. We see one letter specifically mentioned, one letter mentioned by a different name than what we're used to calling it, and one letter that's implied.
And I'll help understand that as we go. And as I said, you have several faithful brothers in this list and what we're going to do is we're simply going to look at this amazing list and learn from these men something about the type of men that Paul surrounded himself with in his earthly ministry.
So let's look first at verse 7. The first two men on the list are the ones that we call the letter bearers. He mentions Tychicus and Onesimus. Notice what he says about Tychicus. Some people call him Tychicus, it really matters little.
But it says this, it says, 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.
Notice the three lofty titles that are given to Tychicus. He is called first a beloved brother, but then very quickly Paul adds that he is also a faithful minister. The word minister here is the word diakonos and it is where we get the word deacon.
Now I think sometimes we get confused about the word deacon because oftentimes we think the word deacon always applies to an office in the church. We think of the two offices in the church are the office of elder or pastor and the office of deacon.
And so like in this church we have three elder pastors and we have three deacons, I'm sorry four deacons. But the word deacon doesn't always apply to an office in the Bible. Sometimes the word deacon is applying to an action, the action of service, because that's what diakonos means.
A deacon is a servant in the church and therefore when it calls Tychicus a beloved brother and a faithful deacon it may be referring to the fact that he is serving in that office or it may simply mean that he is serving as a servant in this role.
But the most important part of that is not the word deacon, however we are to understand it, the most important word is the word faithful. The Bible says that a servant is to be found what? Faithful. That the Lord calls us not to success but to faithfulness and man who is faithful will be successful because he has been faithful.
That is success, is to be faithful. And Tychicus is called a beloved brother but he is called a faithful deacon or a faithful minister. And then Paul uses the word sundoulos. The word sundoulos means a fellow slave.
Remember a few weeks ago we talked about the word slave and we talked specifically about how the Apostle Paul uses the word slave to identify our relationship with Christ. He says that we are slaves of Christ.
We were once slaves of sin. We were once servants of unrighteousness. We were once those who were bound in darkness. Jesus set us free and became our new master. We are now his servants. We are set free from the bondage of sin and we are now made free to serve him as our master.
And Paul says he uses the word sundoulos which sundoulos puts that that that prefix at the beginning of a word in the same way that we use the word like synergy or synergistic to means to be together.
And Paul says this man is the sundoulos. He is the one who works with me. He is the fellow slave. He is right here beside me working alongside me as the fellow servant of Christ. Now I think about this when I think about Tychicus as I've thought about all 12 of these names all week long.
I think about this one powerful thought. What do you want said of you when you leave this earth? Now I've said many times quoting the old Puritan that it is best to preach the gospel die and be forgotten for that is the should be the minister's goal that it not be about us but be about Christ so preach the gospel die and be forgotten.
But at the same time if you are remembered in what way would you want to be remembered? Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to hear that you were remembered as a beloved brother, that you were remembered as a faithful minister, and that you were remembered as a fellow servant of Christ.
As I said these are lofty titles that Paul has given to this man and while we won't get to spend as much time on each of these men because there are 12 and our time as always is limited I think it's important for us to just remember that this man is being really introduced to the people of Colossae and he's being introduced as a true man of God.
And why is it so important that he's being introduced this way? Well I believe it is because he is the one carrying this letter. Now I must say that that is reading in between the lines because the text doesn't say he's carrying the letter but it does say that he is the one coming to you.
And my assumption is because they didn't have UPS and they didn't have the United States Postal Service that the one coming to them would be the one coming to them to bear the letter. And many commentators agree with me not that that makes them right or me right but I I'm just arguing the fact that I think it's it bears witness to the fact that this man is likely not only all of these things but he's also a man trustworthy enough to say here I've written this very important letter to the church and I'm going to I'm going to roll it up and I'm gonna I'm gonna give it to you so that you can take this letter to the church.
Oh and by the way there's another letter too and we're going to talk about it later it was the letter to Laodicea or the letter from Laodicea actually. And there's another letter this is the one that I said goes without being mentioned but there's likely another letter in Tychicus's bag and that was the letter to Philemon because notice the next man who is mentioned the next man who's mentioned in this list is a man named Onesimus.
Now who is Onesimus? Onesimus is the person about which the entire book of Philemon is written because the entire book of Philemon was written to a man who lived in Colossae who had a runaway slave whose name was Onesimus and that man Philemon had heard Paul preach the gospel and had gotten saved while his runaway slave also heard Paul preach the gospel and got saved and he became a minister alongside Paul ministering with Paul and is sending Onesimus back to Philemon to rectify and reconcile their relationship because their relationship was divided over Onesimus' running away and if you want more on that story just go read Philemon.
It's Paul's letter to this man saying I want you to receive him as a brother because he has been a faithful help to me and notice what he says about Onesimus in this again like I said these are micro biographies very short but notice what he says about Onesimus in verse 9 speaking of Tychicus he says.
And with him Onesimus our faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. Notice he points that out he's from Colossae. He's from there. He's one of you. And they will tell you everything that has taken place.
You know what I love about verse 9 is Paul doesn't mention oh yeah remember he was that slave that ran away. Paul doesn't say you know Onesimus. He's that guy who caused all that problem when he when he ran away from his master.
Paul doesn't say I'm sending to you Onesimus the runaway slave. He says I'm sending you Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother. Because Jesus changes our biography. Jesus changes our life. One of the one things I'll talk about brother Mike for a minute.
One of the one things that brother Mike when I met him he never asked somebody if they're saved. He always says how has Christ changed your life. Did you ask a southern person you saved. Everybody saved.
Right. That's I mean you go the fair with us when we go out and do evangelism. Are you saved. Yeah I'm saved. How has Christ changed your life. And that's a beautiful question. Onesimus would have had a great answer.
I went from a slave to a son. I went from a runaway slave to a faithful and beloved brother. He changed my biography changed my life. And these are the two men I believe Paul is sending Tychicus of course taking the lead.
Onesimus going with him. Taking these three letters. The letter of Paul to Colossae. The letter of Paul the Laodicean letter which we'll talk about the history of that in a moment. And Paul's letter to Philemon.
And now Paul says I'm going to send you greetings from some other men. So we have the two letter carriers which we just looked at. That's Tychicus and Onesimus. And now he begins to go down the list with Aristarchus.
Looking at verse 10 he says Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you and Mark the cousin of Barnabas concerning whom you have received instructions if he comes to you welcome him and Jesus who is called justice.
These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God. And they have been a comfort to me. Notice verses 10 to 11 includes Paul's little side note that these three men are unique among the 12 that he is mentioning.
And the way that they are unique among the men that he is mentioning is he says these are the only three men who are Jewish who are serving with me. Notice what he says again in verse 11 he says these are the only men of the circumcision.
That phrase of the circumcision is used in Galatians. It's used in Romans. It's used all throughout the New Testament as Paul identifies the Jewish followers of Jesus as being those who are of the circumcision.
Because remember Gentiles were not called to receive that sign. In fact the Apostle Paul says if a Gentile receives that sign for the purpose of seeking to become a believer that that was wrong. And he actually is cutting himself off.
He said don't do that. That's not right. Doesn't mean that circumcision itself as an act is wrong. But if it's being done for the purpose of establishing a covenant with God we're not in that covenant.
We're in the new covenant in Christ. And we don't receive the sign of circumcision as a way of joining that covenant. And so Paul says there are three men that have served with me who are of the circumcision which is interesting.
That seems like a relatively small number and even in this group it's only a fourth of the group. But remember Paul identifies himself as what the Apostle to the Gentiles. That doesn't mean that he didn't minister to Jews.
Did it. No it says everywhere he went he went to the synagogue first. But what happened when he went to the synagogue. Many a time they didn't want to hear what he had to say. Sometimes they stoned him and kicked him out of town.
They they did not want to hear Paul's ministry. So he took his ministry to the Gentiles. So it makes sense that he would have a smaller group of Jews working with him. But he identifies these three men.
The first one is Aristarchus. Now Aristarchus is one of my favorite characters that doesn't get a lot of attention in the Bible. But he's my favorite character in this sense is that he's always in the thick of it.
Every time we see him he's either he's a man from Thessalonica and he's with Paul on his third missionary journey. And of the five times he's mentioned in Scripture it's almost always in a time where there's some kind of a struggle.
If you look in Acts chapter 19 you'll see he's Paul's companion. He's Paul's companion while there is a riding mob. If you look at chapter 27 he's Paul's companion as the ship is going down. Aristarchus is there in the most difficult times and he calls Aristarchus my.
And the word here fellow prisoner actually means one who is a prisoner of war. That's the word that's it actually the actual Greek word means caught with a spear. And the word caught with a spear means one who is caught in battle because spears were used in battle.
So the idea was this is a fellow prisoner of war. Now MacArthur has an interesting thought about Aristarchus. MacArthur seems to think Aristarchus wasn't actually in prison with him but rather is ministering to him while he's in prison.
And he bases that somewhat on the word that the word use here. I tend to disagree even though I know John MacArthur gets a lot of respect and he should he's a great man of God. But I it simply says my fellow prisoner and and I think that that means they're likely in prison together.
But if I'm wrong I'm willing to say I'll apologize to him when I get to heaven. But but the likely account here is what we have is a man who is always in the thick of it with Paul he's he's the one who's in the battle.
He's fighting alongside Paul. He's struggling alongside Paul. He is a man that Paul can trust and not to put too fine a point on it. But men you need men and women. I keep saying men. I mean that in the generic mankind sense men and women all of us need people that will fight with us that will battle with us that will link arms together with us and struggle in our own battles that we can call at 12 o 'clock at night people that we can struggle with in the most intense moments someone who will be there in the riot and the shipwreck.
And Paul said that was Aristarchus his fellow prisoner. And then he mentions Mark. Now I put Barnabas as the 12th name and and Barnabas is here only mentioned as a reference to Mark. So Barnabas isn't in this list as a as a one sending greetings.
But Mark is mentioned and how Mark is identified is the cousin of Barnabas. Now again I I could have taken and done 12 sermons. I could have done a sermon on each one of these guys. So I'm limiting what I'm saying.
But if you are unfamiliar with the history of Mark who's also in some places called John Mark identifying him differently from the other Johns you know there's there's James and John the brothers and and and those different Johns who are mentioned John the Baptist.
And then you have John Mark and that the reason for that is because they had a they had their Hebrew name and they had their Greek name so John would have been his Hebrew name very common Hebrew name and Mark would have been his name that was his Greek name.
And so he often went by Mark. And this is what is happening here. It says Mark is sending a greeting. Mark is an interesting character in this in the narrative of the Bible because Mark begins as a failure.
Mark begins by going on a missionary journey with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas who is Mark's cousin according to this text and they go on a missionary journey together. And somewhere at the beginning of the missionary journey Mark bugs out and goes home.
Mark defects from the mission and the next time they're preparing to go out on a missionary journey the next time they're ready to go out the Apostle Paul and and Barnabas are are as it were suiting up for the next battle the next fight.
And and Barnabas says let's take Mark again. And Paul said no I'm not taking the guy who bugged out last time. I'm not taking the guy who who who wasn't able to cut it last time. And the Bible says that a dispute arose between Paul and Barnabas and Paul ended up taking Silas and Barnabas ends up taking Mark and they go their different ways which it's interesting how God uses a dispute to multiply the ministry because now you have two very awesome ministry teams rather than just one.
So God uses this moment in the life of the Apostle Paul to double his ministry efforts and Paul goes and does his ministry. But later as we look and we see Mark come up through the story we see Mark in various places in the scripture.
And one of the places that he comes up in is he comes up in the epistle of Peter. Interesting place. But Peter identifies Mark and he calls him my son now that's not Peter's physical son but much like Paul when talking about Timothy talks about Timothy as his son in the faith.
Peter talks about Mark and says Mark is my son in the faith. Which is an interesting historical note. Because you know Mark wrote the gospel of Mark but he didn't write it based upon his own experience.
According to history and the early church fathers in a tradition I believe is accurate according to the history of how we got the Bible the gospel of Mark was written from the account of the Apostle Peter.
So Peter's experience with Mark was one of pouring into his life. You see Barnabas took him back out into ministry. Mark Barnabas who is the son of encouragement by the way Barnabas takes him out and reinvigorates him for ministry uses him and builds him back up.
Peter takes him trains him teaches him loves him. He becomes his son to at the very end of Paul's life. When Paul's writing 2nd Timothy he says Mark is very valuable to me. He who wasn't valuable before he who had failed before now becomes a man useful to the Apostle Paul again.
God can change our story. God can change our life. God can take us in a different direction. God can use a failure and change his life. That's what we see here. We see God changing men's lives. The next name on the list is the name Jesus and he says who is also called justice.
And I assume he's also called justice because the name Jesus would have probably been easily confusing but understand this the name Jesus was not a unique name to our Savior. In fact we have a book of the named after Jesus.
It's called the book of Joshua because the book of Joshua in Hebrew is the same name. The Hebrew name Yeshua is the name Joshua. It's the book. So the name Joshua Jesus is not uncommon. But this man was also called justice which means righteousness.
My son is actually named the same JJ. His name is justice James. We named him that the name justice means righteousness. Justice with an ICE is the application of righteousness. That's when you say someone deserves justice.
But it's spelled differently in English because justice is righteousness and justice with an IC is the application of justice. So this man justice is mentioned here. Not much is mentioned about him only that he is sending greetings.
And we see him also in other places as well in the Bible. So we have three Jewish names here. Three Jewish men and Paul says they have been a great comfort to me. The word comfort there is important. The word comfort means a consolation a relief.
It's actually a medical term. It's only used once in the New Testament. And it's right here you think. Wait a minute. In the Holy Spirit called comfort. It's a different Greek word. It's the same English word but a different Greek word.
This particular Greek word is only used here. And then we move to the next name. This man's name is Epaphras. Some people say Epaphras was the proper pronunciation again matters very little. But Epaphras is mentioned twice in the book of Colossians.
He's mentioned here at the end. But if you'll remember back in October when we began this series he was also mentioned at the beginning and it says that they received the gospel from him. It says that Epaphras was the one who was a faithful minister among them.
And it is my conviction my belief. Again read it says Epaphras who is one of you a servant of Christ Jesus greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and faithfully assured in the will of God.
I believe that this man if he is not the pastor of the church at Colossae he is at least one of the leaders because he is the one who has gone to Paul. He's gone to Paul about what's going on in Colossae.
And at the beginning of the book it says he was the one who brought them the gospel. So here's what I think happened. I believe Paul or Epaphras heard the gospel from Paul in Ephesus because Paul hasn't been to Colossae according to the letter Paul hasn't been there.
So Epaphras hears the gospel from Paul in Ephesus. He goes 200 miles inland from Ephesus and he goes to the Lycus River Valley which was made up of a tri-city area which was Colossae Hierapolis in Laodicea.
And he plants churches in those cities raising up leaders having heard the gospel from the Apostle Paul. Now again I you know I I believe that's what happened. I'm telling you what I think based upon certain things that are in the text.
But what we know for certain is that this man is the reason they heard the gospel. And this is a man who's committed to praying for them. If you go back to act 6 it says what is that. What is the role of the of the of the Apostles and by extension later the elders it is to preach the gospel and pray.
And that's what this man is all about. So again leading to how do I come to my conclusion. Well this guy is all about two things giving people the gospel and praying. And so Epaphras becomes a beautiful picture here of a man who loves and loves the people.
Notice what it says. It says that he struggles on their behalf in prayer. He struggles at that word there agonit. So my of course you probably have heard me talk about that word before to agonize to to to to fight to struggle.
I think about Jacob who was later called Israel. Why was he called Israel. Israel means wrestles with God struggles with God. He wrestled all night with the Lord. He held on to him. He he said I won't let go until I receive the blessing.
This is a picture of a path for us who is struggling in his prayers for his people. I hope you know that you are prayed for if you are part of this body. I hope you know that our elders pray for you. I hope you know that our deacons pray for you.
And I hope you are praying for one another. And you are praying for us. And I hope we are actually struggling in our prayers for one another. What is the picture that the Lord Jesus gives us in the parable of the woman who comes to the king that she came over and over and over she's called the what the persistent widow are we persistent in our prayers.
Epaphras was a persistent prayer warrior for his people. The next name we see is the name Luke. Of course we're very familiar with Luke and the only thing mentioned here is that he is one a beloved physician and two he sends his greetings.
I've often wondered what being in the medical profession in the first century would have been like because even 200 years ago the medical profession was nothing like it is today. My wife and I recently listened to a podcast that was about the history of presidential assassinations.
I know that sounds weird but it was talking about different events in American history and it just happened to be presidential assassinations. And it talked about Garfield having been shot and it said that he would have survived had they not tried to take the bullet out with unclean hands and unclean instruments.
And he lived like nine months and he ended up dying not of the gunshot wound but of sepsis because they were not properly sterilizing their instruments or washing their hands while they were digging around for the bullet.
I just found that interesting to think that's less than 150 years ago from a medical perspective. And so when I think about the Luke the beloved physician he's traveling with Paul. He's his personal doctor.
But what's he given him. He don't have aspirin. Maybe I'm thinking too much into this. Maybe I mean what is it what you know what the doctors do 2 ,000 years ago. I don't know. I have no idea. I know.
Jordan you're in the medical profession. Maybe you can educate me a little bit more sometime but I think about this just this is a doctor a doctor who is committed his life educated man. You know one of the things I talked about this in my Sunday school this morning one of the things that the Apostles were normally accused of was being agrammatos which is Greek for uneducated or unlettered.
They're stupid right. So that particular phrase that particular term could never be applied to Luke because Luke was a doctor. So the last name in this group before we get to the final group is the name Demas.
Now my time does not allow me to give the adequate attention to Demas. But I will simply say this not much is said here of him but one thing that we know for sure is that Demas at some point after this departed from Paul.
If you want to see this just for a second just turn over to 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy go to chapter 4 in verse 10. Now Demas is mentioned twice before this. He's mentioned in Colossians. He's mentioned in a positive way.
He's mentioned in Philemon again the sister letter being sent mentioned in a positive way. But when we get to the end of Paul's life 2nd Timothy is his last book. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 he says this of Demas.
He says for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. There's not much there. I want to tell you I wrestled with that for a while this week because I don't I don't quite know what to make of it except I know that much has been written about it.
Many commentators run with this. Is this an example of someone who was saved and lost their salvation. Is this an example of someone who was saved fell into a time of deep and dark turning from God and came back.
History doesn't tell us. And that's somewhat frustrating but it does remind us of something so desperately important that we need to remember. And that is we may be serving with people today that one day hate Christ or turn from Christ.
And that is heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking to see someone that you have that I know I've seen it see someone that you have put through the waters of baptism only later to turn from Christ and turn and run after the things of the world.
It's absolutely devastating. Paul tells us they went out from us. I'm sorry John tells us in 1st John chapter 2 they went out from us. But what they were not of us. For if they would been of us they would have remained with us.
But they went out from us to demonstrate that they were not of us. In the book pilgrims progress which I know is pretty popular among many of you. And the book pilgrims progress Demas is used as a character by John Bunyan.
Demas is used as a deceiver one who beckons pilgrim the pilgrims rather to hill of lucre. Lucre is another word for worldly goods or money. Remember filthy lucre. It is a sad thing to think that among these men one of them chose not to continue.
I started today by saying look at Titicus. He is a beloved brother. He is a faithful minister. He is a fellow servant. And now we come to Demas. Nothing much is said of him but we know his future is one that will be fraught with turning and leaving.
And again an entire sermon could be done on the dangers of the world and how the world beckons us away. Like did Demas and pilgrims progress beckoning them to hill lucre. It's a sad thing. It's a sad reality when you think about what Matthew chapter 7 says.
And if you don't remember Matthew chapter 7 when Jesus is talking he says on that day many will come unto me and say Lord Lord did we not cast out demons in your name and do mighty miracles in your name.
And he will say what. Apart from me I never knew you. What a scary what a terrible thought to think that there are those sitting in the body who are not truly part of the body. Now I it is not ever my goal to sit here and and and heap upon you doubt.
But it is always the goal that that every week we come to this table and and we come to this table to be reminded that we are to take and examine ourselves not examine the person next to us. That we're not called by the Apostle Paul to examine our neighbor but to examine ourselves.
And what are we said to make your calling an election. Sure right to examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. I wonder if Demas ever examined himself. We don't know. The chapter finishes with Paul beginning to greet groups.
He greets the brothers at Laodicea. He greets Nympha and the church in her house. Now some Bible say Nymphus and the church in his house. This can actually be a male or a female name depending depending on how it's rendering.
And the the pronoun is in some manuscripts masculine in some manuscripts feminine. And that is not because they didn't understand how pronouns worked. It is simply an example of what we call textual variation.
And I am not certain I don't. Really it doesn't matter to me whether it was a man or a woman. But I do believe that the the female rendering is the is is the more difficult reading. And often when you study textual criticism you'll find that the more difficult reading tends to be the one you lean towards because it's less likely someone would change it to the more difficult reading.
It's more likely they would change it to the easier reading. But verse 16 he says this. And when this letter has been read among you have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
Let me ask you this question. Can you take your Bibles and turn to the letter to Laodicea. No. And that has caused some people some questions and some difficulty. They say well wait a minute I can't open my Bible to the book of Laodicea.
Does that mean there's books of the Bible that are missing. And I know that you've probably all seen. If you've ever been watching television late at night you'll see these things come up missing books of the Bible or lost books of the Bible and all these these great fanfare for all these specific things that are supposed to be missing.
Well let me tell you something. The book of Laodicea is not missing from your Bible. Most likely what he is referring to is the book of Ephesians. You say why do I think it's the book of Ephesians. Well several different reasons.
But I'll give you a few. Ephesians was a letter that circulated throughout the early church was clearly a sister letter to Colossians. I've shown you guys that throughout the study that there's many things that are said in Ephesians that are said also in Colossians.
Sometimes almost the exact same wording is used between the two books. Both refer to Paul sending Titicus Ephesians chapter 6 verse 21 and Colossians 4 7 both refer to him as the one delivering the letters.
And if you look at Vaticanus and Sinaiticus which are the oldest Greek manuscripts we currently possess of the whole Bible. If you go to the book of Ephesians it does not say to the Ephesians. It says to the Saints.
And there's a blank and most likely the reason for that is because the book of Ephesians while it was to the Ephesians was also meant to be an encyclical letter that went to all the churches in Asia Minor and therefore it would have been known as Ephesians.
It would have been known as Laodiceans because it went to these various churches. But here's one additional thought. In the 2nd century there was a man by the name of Marcion. Now Marcion was a heretic.
He was one of the earliest and most dangerous heretics. His goal was to try to take out the parts of the Bible that he didn't like. He took out the whole Old Testament and most of the New Testament that referenced the Old Testament.
He hated the God of the Old Testament. And if you've ever heard my sermon I have a sermon called the Marcion's are coming and it's about Mars. How modern-day people do the same thing. They take out parts of the Bible they don't like.
Right. Well Marcion had a list of New Testament books and it had books like Romans and Colossians and things like that. And he had a list that included the book of Laodicea. But it wasn't it was Ephesians.
That was what he called it. So even though he was a heretic it proves that in the early church the book of Ephesians was also known as the letter of the Laodiceans. So it is my opinion that when Paul talks about the letter to the latter from Laodicea he's referring to an encyclical letter written and what we would have in our Bible known as the book of Ephesians.
Paul mentions two more names including himself Archippus. He says I say to Archippus fulfill the ministry that you have received from the Lord. Now Archippus is most likely Philemon's son and he is possibly the one who is ministering in the place of Epaphras who has left.
And the charge that he receives from Paul is see to it which means watch out watch out that you fulfill the ministry that God has given to you. That ministry was the ministry of the gospel a ministry which was going against all of the false teaching which was trying to make its way into the Colossian Church.
So Paul says don't be afraid but fulfill the ministry Paul has given or God has given to you. I know that this has been a lot of information a lot of facts. This has been a long sermon in regard to biographies but let me finish with a few thoughts and we'll close.
Paul lists 12 names including himself and I didn't even mention what he says about himself. He he mentions that he writes this with his own hand meaning he signed the letter. It was written by an amanuensis which is a secretary like person who would write the letters and Paul used that throughout many of his letters but he would always sign at the end showing it was his name.
And he says I signed this with my own hand remember my chains meaning he was imprisoned. But Paul has given us here a list of men a list of men with varying gifts with varying roles and with varying faithfulness.
And Paul reminds us the church is not made of one type of person and one person does not make a church. This last week I told the Deacons about this. We had a Deacons meeting Thursday night. Someone sent me a video and it was a video of Michael Jordan.
Michael Jordan was one of the greatest. I just said he was the greatest basketball player ever lived. You LeBron fans can argue with me later Michael Jordan met Michael Jackson. Now whatever your opinions are about Michael Jackson one could not argue that Michael Jackson wasn't one of the best breakdancers in the history of the world.
He was. Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson met to do a video together. Half of the video was Michael Jackson playing basketball with Michael Jordan and the other half of the video was Michael Jordan trying to dance with Michael Jackson.
It was great. It was one of the best five minutes of my week. But the reason why I bring it up to close out this portion of the sermon is when you see a man doing what God has gifted him to do it's a beautiful thing.
And when you see a man trying to do something that God hasn't gifted him to do it can be comical. And to see the greatest basketball player in history try to do a moonwalk was quite comical. And to see Michael Jackson dribble was hilarious.
And I say all that to simply say this in the church. God has gifted each of you in a different way. And he has gifted each of you to be a part of his body for the purpose of building up one another in our most holy faith.
And the hand can't say to the foot. I have no need of you. The eye can't say to the ear. I have no need of you. If you are part of this body God has brought you here for a reason. If you've been visiting this body and you're not yet a part of this body God may be beckoning you here for a reason.
He may be drawing you here because you have a gift that is needed here. But know this no part of the body is irrelevant or unvaluable. Everyone who is called of God born again by the spirit is given a gift to build up the church.
May we all seek to do what Christ has called us to do as part of his body. Let's pray father I thank you. I thank you so much for giving us this time of study. And Lord I know it. It's a lot to consider all of these different biographies.
But Lord what an amazing thing to be reminded that each and every one of us has a place in the kingdom. And so Lord I pray that all of us would seek to find where you would have us serve. And that we would serve with all of our hearts.
And we like Titicus would be known as beloved brothers faithful servants and fellow slaves. Lord let us be in Jesus name. Amen.