Unsung Heroes 2 - What are You doing for Christ?
Colossians - The Preeminence of Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:53
0 ratings
· 19 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Let’s notice first of all the
Faithful Couriers
Faithful Couriers
Tychicus - A Servants Compassion
Tychicus - A Servants Compassion
7 All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:
8 Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;
Onesimus - A Sinful Chronicle
Onesimus - A Sinful Chronicle
9 With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.
Supportive Companions
Supportive Companions
10 Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)
11 And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
These next three men are also valued by Paul as workers for the kingdom of God. They provide comfort and solidarity, reflecting Christ’s own ministry of presence and support.
The church needs those that are simply a supportive presence.
Let’s look at the third man, Aristarchus, verse 10.
Aristarchus - A Sympathetic Concern
Aristarchus - A Sympathetic Concern
Aristarchus is the man with a sympathetic heart.
You know what pastor’s and leaders who are in the Lord’s work need?
We need some people who are just around to feel our burdens with us.
We need some burden-bearers.
These people aren’t whirlwinds at anything, they just care.
They don’t put on great programs and do great things and astounding prominent out-front things, they just care.
I need people like this, and Aristarchus was one of those people with a sympathetic heart.
10 Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)
Fourth, Mark, verse 10, the man with a surprising future, the man with a surprising future.
Marus - A Second Chance
Marus - A Second Chance
10 Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)
And so Paul’s friends; a man with a servant’s heart, a man with a sinful past, a man with a sympathetic heart, a man with a second chance. What a team!
I’m going to introduce you to another one here, are you ready for this? The man with a strong commitment—
Justus - A Strong Commitment
Justus - A Strong Commitment
Jesus Justus. You say—I never heard of him. You’re about to. Jesus Justus—you say, That’s a great name. Yeah, but it’s tough to live up to.
You say, Well, what was his name? Well, look at it in verse 11;
11 And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
“And Jesus, who is called Justus.”
You know why they called him Justus? To distinguish him. Jesus Justus … to start with his name Jesus was special. Jesua—Joshua in Hebrew, Savior.
That’s a tough name to live up to.
You want to know another tough name to live up to? Christian, that’s a tough one. It means little Christ. How are you doing? How would you like to be named Jesus?
The next group is
Prayerful Confirmers
Prayerful Confirmers
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
13 For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
We need those in ministry that are in the intercessory role for us. People that pray which are the spiritual support, the lifelines of any church.
Probably the least noticed of all these ministers but definitely the most important are the unseen efforts in prayer that sustain the church's work.
So, lets look at
Epaphras - A Single Craving
Epaphras - A Single Craving
Here’s one you might remember. We call him Epaphras the man with the single passion.
Look at verse 12,
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Verse 12; “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ.”
And incidentally, he was the founder of the Colossian church and most likely its pastor.
“Greet you.” And you say—What was he doing there if he was the pastor of the Colossian church, why was he in Rome? Because he had come to Rome to tell Paul the trouble that the errorists and the false teachers had brought to the Colossians. And Paul is writing this letter to the Colossians in answer to what Epaphras has told him. And he wants to stay a while, spend more time with Paul. So Paul says he sends his greeting.
Now listen to this, “He is always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God
13 For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
Those are the two cities within a ten mile radius of Colossae. He’s one of you. He’s your pastor, your founder. What a man. It says he’s a servant of Christ, doulos again, a slave.
But verse 13 says; “I bear him witness, he has a zeal.”
The word zeal incidentally should be translated pain p-a-i-n; he has great pain for you.
In fact in Revelation 16:10 and 11 and Revelation 21:4 the word is used to speak of intense pain. The man is in intense pain over you. He hurts for you. I’ll tell you, people, that’s a pastor’s heart. He hurts.
You say—Well, what can he do so far away if he hurts so much? I’ll tell you what he can do. He’s always laboring fervently for you—how? In prayer.
The word laboring fervently, I want to hit this because it reiterates what I told you about 4:2—about perseverance.
Listen, laboring fervently is the word to agonize. He was on his knees agonizing in a prolonged, intense, effectual, fervent prayer. It says always laboring … working at it, agonizing in prayer. This is what we’ve been talking about.
Prayer is not simply flipping up little thoughts to God, it is agonizing, it is struggling, it is wrestling with God like Jacob and saying—I’m not going to let go until You bless me, God. It is the word used in 1 Corinthians 9 of an athlete who runs a long race and beats his body to make it go—drives it, agonizes it.
You want to hear something interesting? This same word in John 18:36 is translated—fight. He fights for you in his prayers. He wrestles with God for you. He persistently struggles with God for your blessing.
36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
In Romans 15:30 Paul says—
30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
“I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake for the love of the Spirit that you fight together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Again he uses the same word.
In Luke 22 the same word appears in verse 44, I think it is. You can see the meaning of it there comparatively.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was (as it were) great drops of blood falling to the ground.” Jesus prayed with such agony and such strain and such persistence that He began to ooze blood.
Epaphras prayed like that. He prayed in an intense, spiritual wrestling with God. And when it says in Acts 6:4 that the Apostles gave themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word, that’s what it was.
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
They were like Epaphras they prayed and they wrestled with God for the lives of people. I think we give up too easy. I don’t think we know the meaning of that. We say Ahh, I’ve worked on so-and-so, they don’t come around. Maybe we’ve never known what it is to pray the way they prayed.
And you say—Well, what is he praying for?
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
“That you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
He wants you perfect, mature. He wants you telios, complete, mature, filled-out, fully developed, fully convinced.
Incidentally, the second word, the word complete is an interesting verb that means fully assured. He wants you mature and confident that the truth is the truth and not having your minds messed up by false teachers. He wants your doctrine to be mature and he wants your behavior to be mature.
Now this guy’s got the view of the ministry.
Every pastor in the world should have this same desire that his people be mature and convinced in their mind and assured that this is the truth. And only when they’re mature will they be assured because Paul says in Ephesians 4—
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
And so Epaphras had one desire—I want to make them mature so that when they’re mature they’ll be fully assured of the truth and these false teachers won’t have an affect.
How do you make them mature?
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
It is the Word that brings maturity. Epaphras, believed in teaching God’s truth. He wanted his people mature. He wasn’t satisfied that they were there, he wanted them grown-up. He wasn’t satisfied that they gave their money; he wanted them assured that the truth was the truth so they wouldn’t fall into error because he cared, because he loved them. What a man. I call him Epaphras—the man with a single passion.
Epaphras—the man with a single passion … that his people be mature. He was a prayer warrior and he had a single passion—that the people be mature.
You can imagine what a blessing he was to Paul.
Can you imagine what an encouragement he was to all the other guys working with Paul to see this guy praying like that, day after day after day and to see Paul praying day after day after day night after night after night—can you imagine the impact that the lives of those two men had on everybody else? And he knew what he was praying for … for the maturity of the saints.
You know something? Somewhere along the line we’ve got to get past-their broken legs and their bodily diseases and get praying for what really matters—you know that? It’s fine to pray for physical things but sometimes that’s an excuse, I think, almost a cop-out for not really laboring about people’s spiritual welfare.
We have seen the couriers, the companions, the confirmers, and lastly
Cherished Contributors
Cherished Contributors
14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
15 Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
16 And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
18 The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.
Every individual contributor is remembered and valued within the body of Christ. In Christ, every person counts, and every small action contributes to the greater mission.
Let’s meet another one. Luke—Luke,
Luke - A Specialized Capacity
Luke - A Specialized Capacity
I call him the man with a specialized talent, the man with the specialized talent. You know what it was. Verse 14;
14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
“Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.”
What was Luke? He was a doctor. I don’t think he was a phony, I think he was the best kind you could have in that day. He was a physician. You can see that in the New Testament many places. For example, Mark will say about someone, about the lady with an issue of blood, she suffered many things at the hands of many physicians. But you won’t find that in the book of Luke. Luke talks about the same incident, leaves that part out. We know he’s a physician. And you know what he was? He was Paul’s personal physician. I love this. This just thrills me. Here was a man who had a specialized talent. He was a doctor. That’s what he did. But it’s interesting to note that on Paul’s first missionary journey he was sick all the time. And it’s interesting to note that when he went on his second journey he took Luke. He felt the need of a personal doctor. So he took him along.
God’s work needs specialists, folks. Everybody doesn’t have to go to seminary. There are some people who can do something else and fit in. And you say—Yeah, but you might get stuck doing that all the time. Listen, I don’t know what he gave up. He may have given up a lucrative practice if practices were lucrative in that day. I don’t know. But he must have been kind of fun for Paul to have along because he was an educated man, a cultured man, so was Paul and they must have had some great inner-action. I’ll bet they were just bosom-buddies because when Paul was dying in 2 Timothy, he says—And only Luke is with me. I mean, they were close. He knew every pain and every sear on the body of Paul. He was his pal, and his doctor. And he calls him beloved physician. I like that.
Luke is a great illustration of a man who had a specialty to offer.
Now watch … and he gave his specialty to God and God took his specialty and gave him back a privilege he never dreamed would even happen.
Do you realize that Luke wrote the majority of the New Testament? 52 chapters of the New Testament? The whole book of Acts and the gospel of Luke.
You say—How did he get to do that? How did he get such a glorious task? Because he had a specialty and he gave it to God and God took him where he was and used him where he never dreamed he could be used. He is living proof of Ephesians 3:20 ;
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
God takes people with special talent and gives them the ability to do things they never dreamed they could do and that’s the way He works.
Demas - A Sad Collapse
Demas - A Sad Collapse
Let’s look at the last in the portrait. This is the fly in the ointment.
14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
“And Demas greet you.”
Demas is the man with a sad future. This is the last man in the photograph and he’s a sad man. Oh here it isn’t sad, he says—Demas’ greets you.
And at the end of the book of Philemon it talks about Demas.
Man it sounds good, good old Demas, hanging in there. He’s been around. I think he was around at least two years. I do know that he was with Paul in both imprisonments. That’s … that’s substantial commitment. But there’s a sad thing about him.
Because it says in 2 Timothy 4:9, Paul says to Timothy, listen to this;
9 Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
“Do your diligence to come shortly to me,” now listen,
10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Isn’t that sad?
Yeah, he says—Demas was around the first imprisonment, Demas was around the second imprisonment, my fellow worker. But he left me because he loved the present system. So he went to Thessalonica.
He abandoned Paul because he fell in love with the world. You know something? There are some of those kind in everybody’s ministry. That’s right.
Jesus had His Judas and Paul had his Demas and all of us have the same kind. They’re all there … somewhere. And they show up and it’s sad. And what’s so sad about it is the privilege and the opportunity and the learning, the exposure that they had somehow never caught. And those are the people I know in my own life, those Demas’ that have been in my life, those are the people that haunt me because I don’t understand it.
But it’s comforting to know that you can’t be a winner all the time. That even the best are going to have those that fail. And like Paul’s heart, they’ll break our hearts. And we’ll never forget and the scars will be deep and the questions will always be there.
Well, that’s the picture, Demas, A man with a sad future, Luke, a man with specialized ministry, Epaphras, a man with a strong commitment, Mark, a man with second chance, Aristarchus, a man with a sympathetic heart, Onesimus, a man with a sinful past, and Tychicus, a man with a servant’s heart. Quite a team, isn’t it? That’s the Pauline Evangelistic Association, headquarters—jail, Rome. A great bunch.
Nymphas - A Sensible Contributor
Nymphas - A Sensible Contributor
15 Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
Let me help you draw this together by closing with the book in verse 15.
Listen to what he says, this his final words—“Greet the brothers who are in Laodicea,” incidentally the letter was going to Colossae to he just says—say hi to everybody at Laodicea.
“And Nymphas, and the church which is in his house,”
“Greet the brethren in Laodicea” and the church in Laodicea met in the house of Nymphas.
It’s interesting that the churches in those days met in houses. It wasn’t until sometime later, third century, the church buildings developed. So he says—Say hi to everybody.
16 And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
“And when this epistle is read among you,” and that’s the way they did it, it’s good insight into how these epistles were dealt with, they were read publicly. “Cause also that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans,” and watch this, “And you also read the epistle from Laodicea.” So after you’ve read it, pass it to Laodicea. And here’s another indication that when these letters were written they weren’t ever intended for one congregation, they became circular letters. They went all through the church.
And you know what they would do when they got a letter? They would copy it so they would have an abiding copy and then they would send it on.
Suggested Challenge
Suggested Challenge
Archippus - A Substantial Challenge
Archippus - A Substantial Challenge
And then I want to sum it up with verse 17.
17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
“And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfillit.” Well, when I read that, it just knocked me over. You know why it knocked me over? Because I had just heard about a whole bunch of people who were so faithful to fill out their ministry.
And I think Paul has just put a whole pile of illustrations right on the back of the neck of Archippus. And said—Say, by the way, Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord and fulfill it. Tychicus has. Onesimus has. Aristarchus has. Mark has. Jesus Justus has. Epaphras has. Luke has. I’d like you to.
That’s the exhortation to you tonight. I’ve showed you these different unsung heroes of ministry. All but one have been faithful and I guess finished faithful.
And it all comes down to this. You’ve been given a ministry. I don’t know what it is or in some cases I do know what it is. God knows what it is. You received it, notice, in the Lord, it’s a divine thing—fulfill it.
Listen, the Word can’t be accomplished in the world. The kingdom can’t be advanced without a little help from our friends. Without you. Whatever your area of ministry—got to have it. Got to be done. Got to be faithful. Got to fulfill it.
And then he closes.
18 The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.
“The salutation by my hand, Paul.”
I’m writing my own name now, folks. He dictated the letters and somebody else wrote them but he signed them so they would be known to be authentic.
“Remember my bonds.”
Don’t forget me, I’m in jail still. Just because things are successful it doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. You pray.
“Grace with you. Amen.”
What does the closing of this letter say to you tonight? It says to me this—Donny, you’ve just seen a group of unsung ministry who made the ministry of Jesus Christ possible.
Are you doing your part? You’re Archippus.
You’ve just seen all the examples. Now fulfill your part that the kingdom may be advanced. I hope it says that to you.
