Colossians 4 - Proper People

Malcam helps us discover what it truly means to be 'proper people' in God's kingdom through the lives of five remarkable men. Paul's descriptions of Tychicus, Onesimus, Mark, Epaphras, and Archippus reveal a beautiful tapestry of Christian character.                                               

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Transcript

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A young minister was filling in for a very famous preacher, Norman Vincent Peel, at the Marble Gate Cathedral. Sending up to the pulpit, the young minister felt very inadequate. He looked around at the magnificent colored glass windows. He then began by telling the congregation, you know, these beautiful windows remind me of your preacher, his wonderful, eloquent sermons. However, by comparison, I'm afraid I'm a lot more like that small piece of cardboard over there in the broken window over there. There's no way I feel like I can measure up to him his wonderful, his eloquent speeches. From there he continued on with his sermon, doing his very best he could, and after finishing his sermon, he descended from the pulpit. He went to the main door to greet everyone as they were leaving. One little old lady warmly shook his hand and gazily, fondly looked up at this young preacher, and trying to encourage the young man, she gushed, Oh preacher, you weren't just a piece of cardboard. You were a real pain. I've had that compliment before. Sometimes it was, well, at least you tried. You know, Paul, as he's finishing up his letter to the church in Colossae, wrote about several people who deserved recognition as real people, proper people, people who are living the right way. Today I want to focus in on five of these men who are listed for us here in Colossians chapter 4. And since I plan on only sharing about five, I'm going to be covering all the people. You can look at that in the chapter. But I believe there's enough with just these five men to learn the proper way to live as people of God. But first let's start with prayer. Lord, I do thank you for your love, and I thank you for this chapter and all the various people that Paul writes about here. Help us, Lord, to learn from these five. Help us to see what it means to be a real proper person in your kingdom. In Jesus' name. Amen. Although there's at least ten people mentioned in this passage, there's only five I'm going to concentrate on today. What it takes to be a proper person. The first one I want to consider is a guy named Ticicus. Ticus. Find the remote here. There we go. Ticicus. Verses seven and eight. Let me read those verses. As to all my affairs, Ticicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord, will bring you information. For I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know about our circumstances, that he may encourage your hearts. Paul makes at least four statements here about Ticus that we'd all do very well to try to have said about ourselves. First of all, he talks about Tychicus being a beloved brother. There are several other things that we can bring up about Tychus being Paul's beloved brother. First of all, did you notice that none of these men in this chapter are called by some title like Pastor Ticchus or Pastor Paul or Pastor Anesimus or Pastor this one? Instead, none of these men seemed to desire titles to distinguish or honor them. None of these men demanded those things. Instead, they just go by their names, Tichicus, Paul, Anesimus, all these guys. And some of you grew up in churches where you had to call the preachers pastors. You probably find it really strange that I ask you guys, don't call me pastor. Just call me by my name, Malcolm. When I read about the people in the first century, they didn't worry about those titles. You don't read that. You don't read, well, Pastor Jesus, Pastor Peter, Pastor Paul. They just go by their names. And so I don't really like those titles. And I don't think if we don't have to honor those great men of faith in the Word of God with a name Pastor, you certainly don't need to honor me with such a name. I don't need that title. Second, Paul calls Tychicus, beloved brother, using a form of the Greek word agape rather than phileho, which would indicate brotherly love. I think this is kind of funny. It would seem logical to me. If he's talking about brotherly love, he's my beloved brother, he should have used phileho, brotherly love. But that's not the one he uses. Paul doesn't use phileho, he uses agape. He wants to show that his love for Tychicus wasn't based upon the fact that Tychicus is always nice to him. Instead, his love was committed to love him no matter what. Simply because he was a brother in Jesus Christ. And that's the kind of love we need to have for every person. If we're going to be a proper person for Jesus Christ, we need to have times we need to love people. Even when they rub us wrong, even when they offend us, we still need to learn to love them. And Paul talks about this agape, brotherly, my beloved brother. Third, when Paul calls Tychicus a beloved brother, he refers to him as brother. And I think that's really important that we understand that we who are in Christ Jesus, we are brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in the family of God, with Christ Jesus being the head of the church, and we are brothers and sisters. The Bible college where I went to had a lot of great men of faith who were teaching there. And those men, even though they had master degrees and doctorate degrees, and some of them had multiple doctorate degrees, did not ask us to call them doctor so-and-so. They said brother. And we called them brother so-and-so, brother so-and-so. And they would in turn call us brothers. I thought it was really strange at first, and then I started realizing they realized that we are all in the family of God. And they didn't think they needed to be exalted and above everybody else. They were just brothers in Christ. And despite the fact they were extremely knowledgeable, and they did not ask us to do that. They just said, hey, we're all children of God. We don't need titles, let's just call us brothers. In fact, Paul went from calling him a beloved brother to the very next description of Tychicus that he's a faithful servant. He's trustworthy. The word literally means what he said, he did. He didn't tell you one thing and then change it. He didn't go behind your back and say something differently. He was faithful, he was trustworthy. You could count on him to get things done. He was truly a faithful servant. And the word there in the Greek for servant here is the one that probably most of us recognize in a church because it's deaconess. Deacon. It's mean deacon. We use the word deacon from it. And deacon is simply a servant, someone who's willing to run errands, an attendant, a waiter, a servant. Some versions will translate it as minister, because that's what ministers and deacons, we are basically the same thing, servants of the Lord who serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And apparently Tychicus was a Christian who was attending to the needs of Paul, and that's a proper way for people to be, helping one another. In fact, if we don't get to hire somebody as an associate minister to work alongside of Jared, we're going to need a lot of people to step up and be fellow servants to help Jared along. Thankfully, we've got a temporary interim person hired for that. But we do need somebody to come in and be hired full-time, but some of the rest of you are going to have to step up and help with things. And Paul then goes on to describe Ticicus as a fellow bond servant. This time, instead of using the term deacon, Paul used the Greek word sundalos to refer to those who have a common master. And Paul is stressing the thought that Ticicus and Paul were on the same team. We got the same master, we got the same goal. And as Christians, that's a proper way for us as people of God to be, to understand that we are all fellow bondservants, all serving the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to be all on the same team, working for the Lord, for his overall goal. We may serve in different ways, but we all need to be working for the same master. And Paul saw that Ticchus wasn't below him or above him. He was a beloved brother, a faithful servant, a fellow bond servant in the Lord, and then he pointed out that he was an encourager. He was sent to the church in Colossae to share a report and encourage them. And that's the proper way people are supposed to be. We're supposed to be encouragers. We all need encouragement. We all need to be have encouragers. And one of the things I enjoy about this congregation is how many of you try to be encouragers to other people and even to me. There are certain people at our church who are absolutely amazing at going around giving a hug, giving a word of encouragement, checking upon other people. They have figured this out. That it isn't just about coming to church to be encouraged, it's also to come and encourage one another and help other people to understand that they are very valuable in the kingdom of God. And that's what Tychicus was for Paul and for the Christians in Colossae. Tychicus definitely exemplified what I would call proper people. And Paul goes on to mention another one in this book chapter. He deals with Onesimus in verse 9. Let me read that verse. And with him, speaking about, and with Tychicus, Onesimus, our fellow and our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number, they will inform you about the whole situation here. If you're familiar with the Bible, you probably recognize this man's name, Onesimus, from another book in the Bible. Book of Philemon. And Philemon, you'll recall that Philemon writes about Onesimus, well, Paul writes about Onesimus to Philemon. Onesimus was a runaway slave of Philemon. He had been a slave of Philemon, he ran away, and somehow Paul had encountered Onesimus. And while Paul was still in prison, Paul taught Onesimus about Jesus Christ. And Onesimus went from being a useless person, as Philemon verse 11 says, to now being a useful person, which is what Onesimus literally means, useful. And he aided Paul while he was in prison. And Paul could have looked down his nose at Onesimus because Onesimus was a runaway slave. That puts him pretty low on the totem pole, you know, for society. Especially at this time that he's getting ready to see, send Onesimus back to Philemon with a letter, a letter that we call Philemon. But instead of looking at him as somebody lowly, he calls him a faithful brother. Faithful and beloved brother. He's a faithful brother. Even though he had called Tichicus, who was a free man, a faithful servant, a fellow bondservant, notice what he calls Onesimus, who was a runaway slave, a faithful brother. He doesn't call him the bondservant, the faithful servant. Did you catch that when you read that? Paul's wanting to emphasize that even though Onesimus had been a servant, he has turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He's been born again, born of the water and the spirit. He's become a child of God. And now Paul emphasizes he's a faithful brother. Doesn't emphasize slave. He emphasized faithful brother. And that impresses me because he puts himself on an equal stance with Onesimus, Paul does, that they're equal, brothers in Christ. Do we see this? Do we understand this? Do we see that whether or not a person was literally free or enslaved, whether they were a Jew or Gentile, male or female, what they are equally brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We're all on the same team with the same master. Brethren, we don't need some exalted title or title of honor beyond being called brethren or fellow servants. And that's a proper way for the body of Christ to work. He calls him a faithful brother and a beloved brother. And he calls Onesimus his beloved brother using that same term in the Greek, agape, as he did with Tychicus. And even though Onesimus has spent time with Paul and helped him in many different areas, Paul doesn't say that his love for Onesimus was just Philho, brotherly love. He says it's agape. I'm committed. I have decided to love him. And that's the proper way we as Christians should be. Having a love that decides I'm going to love no matter what. Doesn't matter if you've ever wronged me, doesn't matter if you've ever said something that upset me. I will continue to love. And Paul then makes one more thought about Onesimus, pointing out that he was one of them. Why does he say that? Because Onesimus came from Colossae. He had escaped from there from his master Philemon. Paul has met him in prison. Paul has taught him and he has watched Onesimus change his life around. Now Paul is ready to send him back to the very people, not simply to be viewed as a slave, but Paul calls him a faithful and beloved brother. And I keep looking at this. Do we see how God changes people's lives? I mean, that's what Paul could see in Onesimus. Even playing on his name when he writes to Philemon, the guy who used to be useless to you because he would run away slave, he has now become useful. Onesimus. And proper people live in such a way that people will see us as faithful, beloved, and useful. Proper people live in such a way that other people get excited about the changes in their lives. They can trust them that they are going to be faithful. And even when they are sent elsewhere, can you imagine the trust that Paul has to have in this guy who used to be a runaway slave to send him with a letter to go back to his former master? Oh yeah, as soon as I'm out of sight, I'm not heading that direction. No, he has full confidence in Onesimus. Tychicus has proved to be a proper person, being a beloved brother, a faithful servant, a fellow bondservant, an encourager. Onesimus has proved to be a proper person, being a faithful brother, a beloved brother, and one of them. And then he writes about this guy named Mark. Mark is also proved to be a proper person. Let me read verses 10 and 11. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings. Also, Barnabas's cousin, Mark, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And also Jesus, who was also called Justice, these are the only fellow workers of the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me. Each of these men we have looked at has something special about him. Tychicus was known to be a great brother, whereas Onesimus was his slave who had run away, that Paul now has brought to Christ, he sent him back to his master as a faithful brother. And now we have Mark, Barnabas' cousin. Mark, who had traveled with Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey, but somehow, midway during that journey, for some reason, not stated in Scripture, Mark had turned around and went home. And as Paul got ready to travel on another missionary journey, the second one with Barnabas, Barnabas says, Hey, let's take Mark along. Do you remember what Paul said? No way. The guy turned back last time. I'm not letting him go. No. And Paul had this previous problem with Mark. Whatever caused Mark to turn back the first time, Paul was so concerned that Mark was going to do it again. And Paul did not want to deal with another time of Mark deserting him. He didn't want to deal with another possible problem with Mark. He was so adamant about it that if you read over in Acts chapter 15, starting verse 37 through verse 40, Paul parted his ways and refused to go with Barnabas. Said, Barnabas, you want Mark to go along? Well, you take him, but you go that way. I'm going to take Silas, and we're going to go this way. Because I'm not dealing with Mark again. There is no dealing with him. What impresses me here is that Paul is writing to the Christians in Colossae, and Paul doesn't bring up, you know Mark? That's the guy who was the deserter. That's that guy we couldn't trust. He doesn't write about that. Instead, Paul writes about Mark and he calls him, along with Jesus, who was called Justice, a fellow worker. He doesn't write about, well, you know, he at one time he was good and then he was really bad. And now he's kind of back, but but but don't trust him. He doesn't write that. He says he's a fellow worker. He's changed his life. He has proved to live and work and labor for the Lord. And Paul doesn't give his praise to this fellow worker with some sort of conditional clause. Keep watching out for him. He'll probably desert you. He'll probably stab you in the back. Watch out. No, he praises him like a fellow worker. He doesn't even try to say that, well, you know, he once deserted me, so he's kind of a lower class worker. He says he's my fellow worker. Fellow worker of Paul the Apostle. You know, all of us. Even some of us who once struggled in our labors for the Lord, and maybe we went backwards for a while, but now we're come back. We're still supposed to be working in the family of God. And let's not hold grudges against a person who has gone backwards. Instead, we can look at them now and say, hey, they're my fellow worker. They're working together with me. And Paul praises him for that. Paul even says in verse 11 that he has proved to be an encouragement. Yes, Paul let me down in the years before in my missionary journey. He doesn't bring that up. But since then, Mark has changed his ways, and Paul just calls him an encouragement. And that's what we've all been called to be encouragements for one another. And the word is slightly different than the word that Paul used about Tychicus. This one he uses the word in the Greek peregoria or something like that, which literally means he has come alongside of me to console and comfort me. Paul is in prison, and Mark, who at one time had been a huge disappointment to Mark and has caused a split between Paul and Mark and Barnabas. Now he has come alongside of Paul in prison for the purpose of aiding and consoling and comforting Paul. He's visited Paul in prison. He's taken care of Paul and Paul's needs. He has probably prayed for Paul. He's given encouragement and words to Paul so that Paul is able to stand firm for the Lord while he's in prison. And that's the kind of people we need to be in order to be proper people for God. And therefore, Paul's comment about he makes about Mark in verse 10 is I want you to welcome Mark. Despite the fact that Paul had let Paul, or Mark had let Paul down in the past, Mark has changed his ways, and Paul is encouraging Christians in Colossians, you welcome him. Don't you think about his past, you welcome him. Let's press forward, let's love, let's welcome him, and that's what proper people do. If something bothered you in the past about something, you know, about something they've done, you know, maybe that's happened. Get it worked out and then let it go. Don't keep holding on to it. Well, we've got to remember, don't you remember the year that so-and-so did that? Let it go. Welcome them and love them. Put aside all your grudges, go beyond. And I think this is so cool how Paul does. Hey, look at this guy. You welcome Mark. You welcome him. So we got Tychicus and Ninesimus and Mark, all proper people living proper life. They should be noticed as brethren. And then Paul goes on to this guy's name, Epaphoras. Ooh, what a name there. Epaphoras. Verse 12 and 13. Epaphorus, who is one of your number, a bond servant, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify of him that he is a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hieropolis. Epaphras, like Onesimus, was one of them. Came from Colossae. But he's with Paul now. Paul says about him what he has said about Tychicus, that he is a bond slave. He has the same master that Paul has, serving the Lord God with all of his heart. He doesn't need a title of respect, for he realized that he was called to serve, not make the rules, not make the laws, not bind his own ideas on others, but he's a fellow servant, even meaning that he is leaving home. He's traveled miles to go help another Christian. And then Paul adds two more facts about this guy that he hasn't said about the others. One of those facts is that he was always laboring earnestly in his prayers for others. How did Paul know that? You know, the scriptures don't tell us. Why would Paul say this about a paper when he doesn't say it about the other men? What made a apaphrist stand out so much that Paul would say this about him, always laboring earnestly in his prayers for him? You know, since the scriptures don't say it, tell it tell us clearly, I have to think about what makes me recognize certain people as laboring earnestly in their prayers for others. You know, there are certain people, there's a characteristic about them that they pray a lot. They're probably the person who has set aside specific times day and night to pray. They probably have a prayer journal. They probably take our prayer list and put them there somewhere so they can get into praying for people. And when they hear somebody say, Hey, I've got this prayer concern, they're the kind of people that would write it down. They're probably very extremely quick to pray. If you let them know I have a prayer need, can you pray about this? Probably their first statement is, well, then let's pray. Pray. And they will pray right then. And wherever they are, no matter what it is, they are ready to pray. And not everyone is tuned that way. I have noticed that. There are some people who pray daily for hours, but they may be slower to say, hey, let's pray. But I think Epaphoras is probably one of those men who immediately would have said, Well, let's pray. Let's pray now. Let's pray about this. And Paul has seen this man spend time in prayer, laboring in it, and Epaphorus put efforts into praying because he knew that that's what we do. We pray. He probably even had a deep concern for others. He mentions that. In my feeble mind, I see Epaphras as this guy who not only was he constantly praying about everyone, he was probably also the guy when he saw those people he was praying for, he asked them, So how are you, and how is the Lord taking care of this problem what we've been praying about? He's the guy who probably asked others, Have you heard any update on so-and-so? I mean, I loved it all day long. I've heard different people asking me, have you heard an update on our brother? On Fred? People were asking about that. And because that's those are the people who are praying from. Epaphorus is an example of the proper way Christians should be. That we're humble enough to be servants, laboring one for one another, earnestly praying for other people, having a deep concern for other people, wanting to know, hey, how's so-and-so? Have you heard how he went through the surgery? Have you heard about so-and-so? You know, that's what he was, and that's a great person. Elders are supposed to be shepherds of the sheep, deeply concerned for every person in the flock as a shepherd cares for a sheep, knowing their names, caring for them. We need, each one of us needs to have a deep concern for the people in the church, taking care of them and praying constantly. The last person that I want to bring up that Paul mentions from this passage is Archipis. Yeah, there's a good name. I think we would just call him Archie. Archipis. He's mentioned verse 17. Let me read that verse. Say to Archipus, take heed to the ministry which you have received from the Lord, that you may fulfill it. To me, these instructions are real simple. Two points. Number one, remember your ministry. Take heed of the ministry of which you have received from the Lord. We need to realize that this actually could be written directly to each and every one of us. You could take out the word Archipelus, put your own name there. Say to Malcolm, take heed of the ministry with which you have received from the Lord. Put your name Jared in there. Take heed to the ministry with which you have received. Say to, put your name there. Take heed of the ministry that you have received from the Lord. I mean, when we were going through Romans, remember we hit Romans chapter 12. When we were going through 1 Corinthians, we hit 1 Corinthians chapter 12. In both of those chapters, it talks about the Holy Spirit of God giving various ministries out to each and every one of us. My ministry is that God has given me this ministry to be a preacher, a teacher, sharing the Word of God with others, to build them up, to equip the church for the work of service. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 12. Brother Jared has the same ministry, and soon he's going to be stepping up into this very position here, being the preacher, not just part-time, but full-time. We have two men who have been given the ministry of being elders, overseers of the flock of God, to guard the flock. They themselves to make sure that the savage wolves won't come in and speak perverse things and drag away the disciples. Acts chapter 20, verses 28 through 30. We have four other men who are in the ministry of being deacons, servants of the body of Christ, serving each other, and see it, serving the people in the body of Christ. Acts chapter 6, verses 2 and 3. We have various people been given various musical talents. And Karen helps lead the worship songs for us. And we got people like that. We got Chip up there playing guitar. We got Billy coming in singing pretty much every single week for us. Once in a while I try. Brother Jared stepped up and played drums while Fred is gone right now. We have various people who step up with these things. And this could be written to you. Take heed of the ministry with which you have received from the Lord. Remember it. Remember to do it. Every one of us in the body of Christ should have a ministry. Earlier this spring, Brother Claire was teaching us a Tuesday Bible lesson. And it was all about finding your ministry and doing something in the body of Christ so we would grow together. Take care of that ministry. Remember it. And after we remember it, Paul then finishes his instructions to Archipus and to each one of us. Fulfill your ministry. That you may fulfill it. Do it. Don't worry about whether or not someone else is in their ministry and doing theirs. You do your ministry. You do what God has called you to do. If that's to preach, preach. If it's to shepherd, shepherd. If it's to teach, teach. If it's to serve, serve. If it's to encourage, then encourage. You might notice there's a little pattern there. And you might also notice there is no ministry called bench warmer. There is no ministry called spectator. There is no ministry of criticism. There's no ministry of being a pain in the neck. There is no ministry of being the boss or the head. Because that's Jesus' job. And he, Paul points out in this chapter that we are all fellow laborers, fellow servants, fellow workers, laboring together. With Christ being the head. And all ministry needs to be used to build up the body of Christ Jesus. Find your ministry, the Holy Spirit is given to you. And will you be a proper person in the body of Christ, fulfilling your ministry? Lord, I thank you for this passage and I ask, Lord, that you help each one of us to think about these proper people. What made them proper? Are we willing to be proper? Are we willing to serve as you have called us to serve? We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings you give to us. Help us, Lord, to realize that we're all in the body of Christ. We're all fellow laborers, fellow workers. Let us work and labor together in Jesus' name. Amen.