Colossians 1:7-8 - A Faithful Minister (2)

INTRODUCTION

Let’s open our Bibles together this morning to the first chapter of Colossians.

We will look again at verses 7-8, but I will read verses 3-8 once again to remind us of the context.

[READ COLOSSIANS 1:3-8]

Last week we began looking at the “faithful minister”, Epaphras.

And we are looking specifically at the three things Paul and Timothy mention about him that show him to be a faithful minister, a faithful servant for our Lord.

The first thing they point out is that he kept the gospel primary.

We looked at length at that last week.

All I will add to that this week is that much of the trouble the church has, theologically and with rifts, is a result of failing to demand the primacy of the gospel.

We engage the world with the world’s arguments in worldly ways;

We try to provide the world the evidence it claims to want.

But all the time we know that only the Spirit of God can convert a heart;

Only the Holy Spirit can make spiritually dead men live.

And the idolaters and philosophers of this world can strut around brimming with confidence in their vast knowledge;

And yet miss the word of the truth, the gospel, that is found only in Him.

The faithful minister will hear these prideful opinions of those who would distract you from the gospel and press straight through them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:1–5 “I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

The second thing we see about this faithful minister is he persisted in his appointed service.

Verse 8 tells us: Colossians 1:7 “He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf”

Paul and Timothy didn’t have to add that last part - “on your behalf”.

Wouldn’t it have been a grander compliment to Epaphras that he is a faithful minister of Christ for HIS UNIVERSAL CHURCH?

Or even not to have listed anyone - to say only that he was a faithful servant of Christ.

But it isn’t the purpose of the Holy Spirit, breathing the scriptures through this letter, to magnify a single servant;

The Bible isn’t here to brag on an individual saint.

So the recognition of the good work of Epaphras is very particular:

His work was on behalf of the Colossian church.

It was for them - meaning both that his work was done toward them, as a shepherd,

And it was done in their stead, as an evangelist and servant for the larger church.

But for a few mentions of his name in the scriptures, he could easily have lived, worked faithfully, and passed into eternity with only those closest to him knowing his name.

And in the context of history, we really don’t know a great deal more than that about him than to recognize his name.

We know he is with Paul and Timothy when Colossians is written, probably from Rome.

We know he is called a fellow-prisoner, but we have no idea of the circumstances of his arrest, or if he also was martyred for his faith like Paul.

And that makes Epaphras very much like the thousands of faithful ministers of the gospel throughout the history of the church.

Those who teach each week,

Who gently correct members if needed,

Who patiently do the work of service,

And who will be largely unknown to the church at large,

And who are well-known to God, because it is of such as these that the church on earth is built.

Ephesians 4:11–13 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,”

The one common trait you will find in every faithful minister of the gospel is that he was trained, sermon by sermon, week by week, by another faithful minister of the gospel.

And there is no greater weight on a preacher from this pulpit than to realize that you are preaching, every single week, to God’s beloved children,

And you are, week-in and week-out, preparing the next leaders of THIS church.

How many ministers of the gospel have railed against the idea that they will be unknown, uncelebrated by the denomination or the church at large?

How many neglect the sheep of their flock that the Holy Spirit has entrusted to their care while they seek the accolades from far away?

Epaphras was a minister at a church that, so far as we know, every apostle and missionary had passed by.

A small town, past its prime, struggling in the economics of the Roman Empire.

But he is FAITHFUL in his service because he stood his post.

He served THIS church,

Taught THIS church,

Ministered on on behalf of THIS church,

To the glory of God.

And he did it because God had put him right here.

God sent HIM to shepherd this church.

Not Paul.

Not Timothy.

Not Peter.

I realize my next words won’t make me popular, but I am tired of preachers who are looking for the next, bigger church to serve.

Who think the ministry bears some resemblance to a career path.

No doubt some might quote the verse that says, “You have been faithful in the little things, so I will give you more.”

But are you BEING faithful in the little things if you are trying to climb beyond where God has planted you?

God can certainly call men from one congregation to another, particularly to one who has no eligible men to be elders,

But I can’t imagine being a faithful minister HERE if I was querying other congregations to serve,

Especially if the only reason I might seek them out is that they are larger congregations.

The church of our day doesn’t need a professional ministerial class;

It needs faithful ministers who will bloom where God has planted them.

The church in our day has bought into the lie that a faithful minister needs to do great works;

That a REALLY good ministry will be acknowledged by Christians everywhere.

It’s the same lie that would tell us that the most faithful churches are the ones with the highest attendance each week,

Or the ones with the biggest buildings,

Or the ones with the most programs,

Or the ones with the most plays on YouTube,

Or the ones that get their name out in the community more.

We’ve forgotten that the most faithful churches are those that live and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ,

Whether they have a dozen or a thousand who listen to the preacher on Sundays.

The church in Colossae and the church in Rome were EACH churches made up of faithful believers.

Believer, YOUR ministry is great when you are doing the work of the gospel right here.

And if God calls you personally, and confirms it through the church, to depart from here to proclaim the gospel among unreached people,

Then you will still be a faithful servant in that case.

Remember, even Paul and Barnabas and Silas were sent out BY A CHURCH (Antioch);

They didn’t just go out on their own.

Brother, sister - how do you faithfully serve THIS church right now?

For all of us, faithful service includes BEING HERE.

Participating in the life and worship of the church.

But each of you has a role, a ministry, among your brothers and sisters.

Not necessarily anything so grand as to have an official title or a chart of responsibilities.

Most of the greatest saints of God have little recognition of their activities;

But everyone in the church gains by their faithful service.

Be content with the smallest services the Lord gives you all the time;

The opportunity to encourage each other;

The opportunity to pray for and with each other;

The abundance that you can give to others;

It is tempting to seek only to do the GREAT things for God, the things that make us stand out;

Like Naaman the leper after the Syrian soldier was angry that Elisha told him he would be healed of his leprosy after dipping in the Jordan seven times:

We might be willing to do something great, but these simple things seem too small to be of any effect. (2 Kings 5:10-14)

But it is of these small and simple things that the church is built up and strengthened by.

Moments of faithful service strung together by the Holy Spirit one blessing at a time.

Faithful believers persisting in service to one another every day.

Which brings us to the last thing a faithful minister does: He loves his church.

We see it in verse 8: Colossians 1:8 “and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

Paul and Timothy hadn’t seen this love with their own eyes -

But Epaphras MADE them see it through his.

He MADE KNOWN their love -

Not just “told us” about your love -

Made known,

Made SURE we knew about it.

Over and over again.

Continuing to right now.

I don’t know it for sure, but I can imagine Epaphras listening with glee as Paul dictates the first draft of the letter,

And every now and then, in his excitement, interrupting Paul to give him some more detail about the people he loved so dearly.

He loved his church, this church at Colossae.

And we are the richer for it:

Consider that were it not for Epaphras’s constant conversation about his beloved church, Paul might not have written this epistle to them.

Paul and his companions may not have known much about Colossae, but Epaphras made sure they knew about the love they had for each other and the work of the gospel.

Epaphras’s message to them was not about the trials he had personally experienced,

But the love and faithfulness of the church that had sent him to encourage Paul.

He spoke of them like a grandmother showing endless pictures of her granddaughter to anyone who would listen.

He couldn’t carry photographs with him - they wouldn’t be invented for another 1800 years,

But he carried their faces with him just the same.

Holding them in his heart, unageing, unchanging, with a love that made him long to be with them.

So the next best thing was to have a letter from the apostle Paul sent to them.

It was what he could do.

Do you love your brothers and sisters here in that way?

Or do you think it’s even possible to love God but not His children?

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

1 John 3:11 “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

I say to your credit that of all the churches I have been a part in my life, the love here in this congregation is qualitatively different.

Stronger, thicker, than I have ever known before.

But maybe you struggle with loving someone;

In the church or somewhere else.

Is there a way to cultivate that love, or are we left to simply wait for God to stop their annoying habits?

I think Epaphras cultivated his love for this church.

And he did it through SERVICE.

Think about it - each believer in the church likely had a direct line to his evangelism or teaching.

He knew them;

Knew their struggles.

Knew where they had difficulty grasping the gospel.

He knew when they wandered, when they fell.

And like a shepherd, there were some he stayed very close to, carrying them close to himself.

When you serve someone else, it not only changes them due to gratitude;

It changes YOU.

You care about them.

You get to know them.

You carry them with you in your thoughts.

You hold them up in your prayers to God.

The most loving people are the ones who serve the most.

And I think we miss the cause and effect.

We think people are servant-hearted because they are naturally loving people.

When I think the opposite is true: we love BECAUSE we serve.

When we serve each other, our love for each other grows.

So Epaphras loved his church greatly because he served them greatly.

But notice, not only did he speak of his affection for them, he spoke of THEIR love:

Colossians 1:8 “and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

When you love and serve someone else, you begin to recognize only the love they are displaying.

I have been in some churches where people got bent out of shape over some supposed slight, whether intentional or unintentional.

“She ignored me”, or “He interrupted me”

If you are often offended by your brothers and sisters here, I suggest you up your serving game.

Serve them more;

And that will lead to loving them more,

And that will lead to being less offended by them.

1 Corinthians 13:4–5 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;”

1 John 3:16–17 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

The best way to stop being offended by people is to serve them more;

They may not change a bit -

They may truly be jerks.

But YOU will change;

And the sin you see in them will bring pity from you rather than judgment;

And you will be able to more gently and rightly lead them to the truth of the gospel.

Matthew 5:9 ““Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

So, to recap - three things that mark a faithful minister:

1. Keep the gospel primary.

2. Persevere in service where God puts you.

3. Love your church.