Christian Restoration S15e21 Col4:10

Christianity is a marathon, not a sprint.  He's asked us to walk faithfully over a long period of time and serve with the imperfect people that make up the church.  That is going to require some forgiving, some recovery and some restoring broken relationships.  

John Mark is such a success story.  He goes from bad to good; from broken to recovered.

Demas is not such a story.  He goes from good to bad, and that is the last we hear about him.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

Good morning, my brothers and sisters Welcome to episode number 21. In be with me, season 15 means the book of Colossians. We're actually in chapter four in his final greetings, and we're going to title today Christian restoration. And the reason being us, we're going to have two examples today one of a person that started bad and turned out good, and another guy who, at this juncture is good, but he's actually going to turn out bad. It's amazing that this is even in the Bible. You would never put this in the Bible if it wasn't a spiritual book directed, inspired by God. So here it is. We're in Colossians chapter four. And I want to mention, we'll finish with tickets we did DM him yesterday, and that you may know how we are and that he took a kiss me encourage her. That's from Colossians four, verse eight. And then verse nine and with him and dismiss our faithful and beloved brother, who was one of you, they will tell you of everything that has taken place here, we're going to hold on in this mess and talk about him in our next book, which is fine, Lehman, verse 10. Era, starkest my fellow prisoner greets you. And then here's, here's the guy for today and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, parentheses concerning whom you have received instruction, if he comes to you welcome him. So Mark, the cousin of Barnabas is in the fold. He's in the connection of, of Christianity now. Christianity is a cast of wonderful characters. Now we have to know who this John Mark guy is. Because he eventually ends up writing the Bible, he writes the book of, of Mark, but here's the thing. He starts out on the 18th. He starts out on the Dream Team. In the first missionary journey. This was 1513 or 15 years before this and 46 Add, Mark, as a young man as a helper goes on the first missionary journey, at least he starts with it starts from Antioch which was the ascending church at that time, he goes to Cypress, so on this dream team is is Paul, who, you know, writes half the New Testament. And in Barnabas, they go on the first missionary journey, and they go with John Mark. And as soon as they leave Cyprus, so they take one boat to Cyprus, they leave Cyprus, and they, they go up to central Turkey, Turkey to Perga. And on that leg of the journey, John Mark abandons them. This is from Acts 1313. He left he leaves them and returns to Jerusalem. So John, Mark leaves Paul and Barnabas and returns to Jerusalem. So there's this rift in the missionary turret and a team. Well, it gets worse than that. So then three years later, after they get back, they're gonna go ball and Barnabas supposedly are gonna go on the second missionary journey. They have this idea, let's return to the same places again, and go check out the churches, and then an x 1536 and 37. Now Barnabas, remember Barnabas is the cousin of John Mark wanted to take them with them. So then the team would be again, let's get the old band together, Paul and Barnabas and John Mark. Now Paul's thinks, Paul and verse 38 thinks it best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them makes perfect sense. And then he, Paul has this argument with Barnabas. Remember, John, Mark's cousin, it's his blood, and they have this sharp disagreement. So the second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas, they split up the band. And Paul goes on the second missionary journey with Silas. And Barnabas goes with John Mark apparently in Christian service and in faithful Christian service from from that point on. So here's the thing is Paul had some sort of a disagreement with Barnabas, and probably with John Mark here for a banding of them. But But 15 years later, we get an update. So this book at the Cullen conclusion of Colossians is the update. And what we find is Mark John Mark has been restored to fellowship with Paul. So kind of like a marriage. And you know, marriage is about recovery and forgiveness and restoring and maybe even a little forgetting, in fixing broken fixing the broken relationship on an ongoing basis. And similarly here Mark is a good example of had had a breach with Paul and now is serving Paul and mentioned to Paul and is in Paul's Ark. Alright, so there's another guy here we have to mention and that's Dimas, in verse 14. So he says Luke, the beloved physician greets you, as does DMOZ. Now the good news about Dimas is at this moment in time, he's described as greeting the church and in fine Lehman for 24. He's described as my fellow worker. That's the good news. The bad news is he falls away. In Second Timothy 410, it says For Dimas, in karma in love with the present world has deserted me, and has gone to Thessalonica. So he deserts, Paul physically and spiritually in a time of great need. And he describes him as being in love with the present world, which is, that's never a good thing. And Christianity, in first John 215, it says, Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's kind of Christian code for you if left the faith, or maybe never were in the faith. All right, so we have one guy here, John Mark, who starts bad and ends up good, which is a great story. Then we have this other guy DMOZ, who started off on the team. And then at the final thing we hear about him, and in Paul's last letter, he's off the team, and we never hear that he gets back on the team. So here's the concluding points. Number one, Christianity is a marathon, not a sprint, conflict between individuals. It should be you know, normal, but they have shrapnel that affects others. So this conflict between John Mark affects Barnabas and affects the missionary journey. And it's just, you know, try not to get into this position. So be faithful to your position, do the acre that the God has given you to be responsible for your area of responsibility, for we're all on, have a position on the battlefield, and people around you may fall or fail and what are you going to do? Let's have some skills of restoration and forgiveness. So the question for today is, who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to ask forgiveness? You might you might be the person that has failed and then you need to ask for forgiveness. And let's commit to be on the Lord's team in the body of Christ five years from now, which is what DMOZ did not do. And let's plan on being there with this motley crew of fellowship people that God has placed us in people that require forgiveness, and maybe forgetfulness and certainly restoration. Let's be people of restoration when appropriate. Let's be marked by restoration. Let's be marked by forgiveness. Let's be marked by Christian restoration, just like John Mark was. Thanks for listening.