Sermon Tone Analysis

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a joy to share in the exposition of the Word of God for the edification of the saints and the conviction of the unconvinced.

I’d like to open this morning with a poem written by Myra Brooks Welch:

‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer

Thought it sacredly worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But held it up with a smile:

“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,

“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”

“A dollar, a dollar”; then “Two!” “Only two?

Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?

Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;

Going for three…..” But no,

From the back of the room, a gray-haired man

Came forward and picked up the bow;

Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,

And tightening the loose string

He played a melody pure and sweet

As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,

With a voice that was quiet and low,

Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”

And he held it up with the bow.

“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?

Two thousand!

And who’ll make it three?

Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice,

And going, and going,” said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,

We do not quite understand

What changed its worth.”

Swift came the reply:

“The touch of a master’s hand.”

We are entering the waning weeks of this series through the book of Colossians entitled “Living the Christian Life.”

We have looked at deep theological truths that inform and transform our conception of the Lord, Holy and Divine.

We have seen the Supremacy of Jesus goes beyond what we could ever =We have seen that our Faith informs and transforms our religion, that is what we actually do with what we believe.

We have seen that there are voices coming from the dark world that would seek to distract and disqualify us from service to the Lord, to muddy the waters so that truth is obscured and ministry hampered.

We have seen the sufficiency of Christ to be well above anything this world would offer us.

We have seen the eternal security believers have by grace through faith.

We have seen the hope everlasting held by the redeemed.

We have seen the wrath in store for the disobedient.

We have seen the virtues we are to strive for as we battle the flesh.

We have seen the great need for Christian Community and the grace that is the Local church.

We have seen the very practical ways in which our faith informs the roles and positions we have both within the family and vocationally.

And most recently, we have seen that truly living the Christian life is not a calling for celebrity or fame, but it is simply living the role God has given you for his glory, praying for His kingdom come and sharing with others in order that His will be done.

There is life changing truth in the teaching from the book of Colossians and we still have much to glean from its final verses.

But I want to make two observations in accordance with the poem that we just read.

First of all, like that old, battered and scarred violin, from the perspective of the world, the Christian’s life is nothing notable.

This simple life consecrated to the Holy God will not appear impressive.

In fact it may very well be seen as disgusting and dispensable to the common eye.

Secondly, like that old violin, the life of the Christian only truly has value because it has the touch of The Master’s hand!

Our worth, our identity, our lives are wholly and completely informed and transformed by the touch of the Master who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us and bring us into His family.

From the outside we may still look like the same broken mess, unimpressive to the world, but internally we have been justified, are being sanctified, and looking forward to day where we will be glorified!

Though it may not look so on the outside, for touched by the Master, saved by His grace through faith in Christ, everything has changed.

Today we are going to look at people who don’t look like much, that is until we peel back the layers and see that they have been touched by the Master’s hand.

Open your Bibles to Colossians 4, if you haven’t already.

Today, we are picking up in verse 7.

This section through the end of the chapter is subtitled in many Bibles, Paul’s Final Greetings.

The letter to the Colossians is wrapping up and there Paul is sharing with the church many of the people that helped get them this teaching.

But here is the thing that we can all be encouraged by as we walk through this text: These are all real, ordinary people, who helped Paul carry out an extraordinary ministry for the sake of an extraordinary.

I love this church dearly, and I would say that we are all very ordinary.

The magnificent encouragement we should all take is that God loves using the ordinary to continue His extraordinary work.

Our value is not found within ourselves, but in the Master who touched our lives and shapes them for His glory.

Let us begin in Colossians 4:7-8

Paul begins his conclusion by mentioning the name of Tychicus.

Now, I’ve played Bible trivia with brother Larry before and he honestly smoked me, so I’d like to put you on the spot, brother.

How many times is Tychicus named in the Bible?

You were either going to get that and I was going to be massively impressed, or you helped illustrate the point that we are talking about a very minor character in the Bible.

Tychicus is only mentioned by name five times in the entirety of Scripture.

But don’t let the lack of notoriety fool you.

Tychicus was doing great things because he was serving the Lord.

What do we know about Tychicus?

We know that he worked with Paul.

He was from Asia Minor.

That is the area in which Ephesus can be found.

That is the destination of the book of Ephesians.

While it is not explicitly stated in Scripture, it is possible and likely that Tychicus would have been a convert during Paul’s years spent ministering in Ephesus.

It is likely that Tychicus was born in Ephesus, lived in Ephesus, and by the grace of God found new life in Ephesus under Paul’s ministry.

He could have been part of the group who previously practiced magic arts and upon conversion burned their spell books which in total valued 50,000 pieces of silver.

He likely would have been witness to the great riot that subsequently rose against Paul, causing the pair and their companions to leave.

He would then go with Paul to Jerusalem.

He, and Dr. Luke stayed with Paul throughout Paul’s imprisonment, the appearances before royalty, the shipwreck, all the things we see playing out in the book of Acts.

This Tychicus, though we know little specifics about him, we do know that he was immensely devoted to God and, by extension, Paul.

We know of two specific duties Tychicus was given.

We see here in Colossians 4 that he was chosen to deliver this letter to the church at Colossae.

That is how he would have opportunity to tell them about Paul’s activities.

We also know he was the one who delivered the letter to the Ephesian church.

It also seems from the end of Colossians 4 that Tychicus had another letter to deliver to the church of Laodicea.

R Kent Hughes notes that Tychicus, “left no writings that survived.

He did no feats that were though worth preserving by Dr. Luke in Acts.”

To put it shortly, Tychicus was vocationally nothing more than an errand boy.

A footnote in biblical history.

He is the common, scarred violin.

“However, God used him as a part of His divine symphony, and the music was beautiful.

Look at how he is described in verse 7.

He is first called a beloved brother.

That is dearly loved one whom shares the same faith and eternal destiny of Paul.

The word for beloved, agapetos is only ever used in Scripture to describe the love between Christians united with God or each other.

It is the word used by God the Father in reference to Christ when He says in Matthew, “My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Walking through the beginning of the New Testament, at least the first 7 times this word “beloved” is used, it is God the Father speaking of Christ.