Colossians 4:7-18
Prison Letters Colossians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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7 Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful servant, and fellow slave in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.
8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts.
9 He is with Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.
10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, as does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin (concerning whom you have received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),
11 and so does Jesus who is called Justus. These alone of the circumcision are my coworkers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always contending for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.
13 For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.
14 Luke, the dearly loved physician, and Demas greet you.
15 Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her home.
16 When this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
17 And tell Archippus, “Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it.”
18 This greeting is in my own hand—Paul. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.
Pray
I love this short list of people who served along side of Paul.
I think it would be easy to skip these verses and not give them any attention. If we skip them, then we will miss so much.
What we see in these verses is the Body of Christ at work. We also get to see a few of the people that contributed to the work of ministry as Paul is in prison.
These scriptures caused me to reflect on the work of ministry here at Bridge of Faith.
So many people have contributed to the success of ministry in Rockaway Beach. It would be hard to list them all.
I think of all the Wednesday night workers, mentors, interns, construction workers, mission teams, Bible study teachers, staff, thrift store volunteers, people who have gave financially, and people who have encouraged.
I was thinking about ministry over the years.
I will never forget the year we did the city wide cleanup event. We scheduled a planning meeting with all the who is who of Branson
We met at the Ollis, Akers, and Arney conference room.
We invited all the big players of Branson. Jack Herschend was on board and so he sent out invites on our behalf. (No one would have came if I was the one making invites)
Jack invited people. People know Jack uses his time wisely and would not waste their time and so if he invites you to a meeting then you show up.
They showed up to. We had bank presidents, City administrators, city officials, business owners, politicians and so many key people in the room.
I invited my mentor Neil Franks to be there with me.
It came to my turn to speak and I shared on Kingdom Economics. I started by talking about wages and how it was the responsibility of Christian Business owners to take care of their people.
I was so gifted at putting my foot in my mouth growing up and now in adult life here I am again. We came to talk about doing a clean up in Rockaway and I gave a sermon on wages in Branson.
I will never forget debriefing the meeting with my mentor Neil Franks.
He said man I am just glad that was you and not me. (I was like what is that supposed to mean)
He said when they all started to say that this was not possible and we could not pull it off and we should plan for a year to get this done. He said, “I will never forget how you responded in that meeting, You said well gentlemen we are planning to do this. You have to decide if you want to do it with us.”
Oh my goodness! If I didn’t have faith in our team back in Rockaway and all the people who had supported us before there is no way I could have made that statement.
We ended up pulling it off and it was a weekend to remember in Rockaway Beach. We have over 200 volunteers come and do city wide projects.
7 Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful servant, and fellow slave in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.
When Paul left Ephesus, there were seven other believers among them. One of them is Tychicus. These men Acts 20:4 were helping Paul deliver the love offering from the Gentile churches to the poor saints in Judea.
Tychicus and Onesimus delivered the letter of Ephesians and Colossians and also the letter to Philemon.
Paul describes Tychicus as
our dearly loved brother
He was willing to stay with Paul even in difficult situations. It is great to have a brother who is willing to walk through trials with you.
Faithful servant
He ministered to Paul and he ministered for Paul. He assisted him in his many obligations. Being in Prison caused him to have to rely on others to carry out the work of ministry.
Some has said that the greatest ability in the world is dependability.
Paul could depend on Tychicus to get the job done.
Fellow slave or servant in the Lord.
He was assisting Paul in the ministry. They worked together to server the Lord
Tychicus is associated with Paul the prisoner. Who is in prison because of the Gospel of Jesus. Paul had many enemies and Tychicus is a fellow servant of Paul’s
This is a great description of an excellent church member. Dearly loved brother or sister, Faithful servant, and Fellow slave in the Lord.
He will tell you the news about me
I think this is closeness and expresses a great community. He will tell you the news about me.
Have you checked on someone else besides your family enough that you can report the news about them. Are you close enough to them that you can share their news on their behalf.
This week Soup Campbell was teaching on marriage and he had a friend tell him that he had the resources to send he and his wife somewhere in the world and they could pick anywhere.
He immediately said mediterranean. He said you better talk with your wife and get back to me. Soup said I don’t have to. We have already talked about this and she told me that she would want to go to the Mediterranean.
He knew is wife well enough. (Practice the place of peace and presence)
I didn’t even grab the right laptop this morning. Ugh.
8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts.
I have sent him to you for this very purpose
He is coming to share the news of me to you.
I have delegated this to him.
Listen to him and so that he may encourage your hearts.
I have trusted him with this task so you need to receive him in the way that I have trusted him.
9 He is with Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.
Onesimus was the runaway slave who belonged to Philemon and had been won to Christ through Paul’s ministry in Rome.
Onesimus is described as faithful and dearly loved brother
He had only been a believer a short time and yet he had already proved himself in the short time.
I think we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that you can’t experience quick spiritual growth because you have not been saved as long as someone else.
I see quick spiritual growth from those who are committed. They show up, they read the Bible as much as they can, they apply themselves, they are present, they have a seeker mentality to learn from others around them, they will take notes and you see fast growth. They are like a sponge that soaks everything up.
Don’t mistake how long you have been saved for the amount of Spiritual growth you have experienced.
They will tell you about everything here.
10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, as does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin (concerning whom you have received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),
11 and so does Jesus who is called Justus. These alone of the circumcision are my coworkers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
Paul was a friend maker
There are more than 100 different Christians (named and unnamed) associated with Paul in the book of Acts and in his epistles.
He named 26 different friends in Romans 16 alone.
I think we need to keep pushing for the Christian faith is more community oriented and we have pushed for our faith to be individualized.
We need to push back against this and recognize the value of community faith. The community helps me grow. The community pushes me to be better.
Aristarchus
He is identified as fellow prisoner. He was from Macedonia and was one of Paul’s traveling companions.
He was originally from Thessalonica and willingly risked his life in that Ephesian riot of Acts 19:28-41.
He sailed with Paul to Rome, which meant he also experienced the storm and shipwreck that Luke described in Acts 27.
Aristarchus stayed with Paul no matter what the circumstances were, a riot in Ephesus, a voyage, a storm, or even a prison.
Fellow prisoner probably means that Aristarchus shared Paul’s confinement with him so that he could be a hep and comfort to the apostle.
He volunteered to be in prison so that he could help Paul for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.
John Mark
In Acts 13, John Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas and returned home to Jerusalem.
Later, Paul and Barnabas wanted to go on a second journey and Paul refused to take John Mark along.
John Mark is encouragement to everyone who has failed in his first attempts to serve God. He did not sit and sulk. He got back up and served the Lord.
I think Barnabas might have been key in encouraging John Mark to keep serving.
Jesus Justus
Don’t know anything about him but he was faithful.
They are my coworkers for the kingdom of God and they have been a comfort to me.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always contending for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.
He founded the church in Colossae. Also very likely that he founded churches in the neighboring towns of Colossae.
He prayed:
He is always
He prayed constantly for them. He did not pray only when he felt like it but he was always praying.
Contending:
The word here means agonizing. It is the same word used for the Lord’s praying in the garden Luke 22:44.
This word is also used to describe the Greek athlete as they gave themselves fully to their sports.
Can you imagine if we treated prayer at the same level that we treat sports in this country?
We would be getting together a lot more often to pray and we would also be throwing prayer parties instead of super bowl parties.
Personally
For you. He centered his prayer on the church that he planted. He carried them in his heart and prayed for them personally.
His prayer was direct
so that you stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.
Epaphras was concerned that these Christians know and do the will of God.
Everything God wills
13 For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.
14 Luke, the dearly loved physician, and Demas greet you.
15 Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her home.
16 When this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
Letter from Laodicea
Many speculate that this is the letter to Ephesians
17 And tell Archippus, “Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it.”
When we compare Colossians 4:17 with Philemon 2, we get the impression that Archippus belonged to the family of Philemon. Possibly, he was Philemon’s son and the pastor of the church that met in Philemon’s house. We cannot prove this, of course, but it does seem a logical conclusion. This would make Apphia the wife of Philemon.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 153.
So He is encouraging Archippus. Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord so that you can accomplish it.
Stay focused. Maybe he is discouraged or what if he is the son of Philemon and Philemon is getting all this attention and he says to perhaps his son, Stay focused on the ministry you have recieved in the Lord so that you can accomplish it.
18 This greeting is in my own hand—Paul. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.
Remember my imprisonment (I think we rightly name this sermon series prison letters) Remember me and pray for me. I think it is also receive this letter knowing where I am and how I am writing.
GRACE be with you
Grace the unmerited or undeserved favor of God on your life.
God’s favor be on you
