Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

The Revelation Bible Study is this Thursday at 6:30pm.

This is great way to connect!

We hope to see you there!

There will be a link sent out for those that would like to join us online.

Angel Tree- we have 5 angels yet that need to be adopted.

See Kathy for information.

3.After church today, we need strong men to help remove the air conditioner and put it away for the winter.

4. Please reach out to pastor John if you have announcements.

Introduction

Well, good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time, one book at a time.

We are so glad that you have joined us for this special day.

Today, we we finish the book of Colossians where we learned about the eminence of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer and in the life of the church.

So lets not delay, but rather dive in.

We have come as far as verse 12.

Read Colossians 4:12-18

Prayer

Lord God, we humbly come before your throne to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need!

And man, do we have many of them.

So rather than list them all, we ask that you would fill us with your Spirit and that you would teach us the truths that you would have us to know.

Lord, please remove all distractions and please heal our hearts this day and set the captives free.

Thank you for your Word for it is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

So please God, make us more like Jesus today and teach us that being a disciple of your’s is a team sport and last help us to understand today how much we need others in our life.

In Jesus Name we love you, Amen!

Review

Last week we looked at Ecclesiastes 4 because we see here in Colossians a three-fold cord with Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus.

Notice that the text reads when he falls!

For we all fall sometimes, right?

Would you say that some of the greatest lessons in life have come from falling?

We learned about working, walking, warmth, and watch-care comes with numbers or if you may being connected to each other.

We learned that not only did Paul need brothers and sisters, but Moses as well.

Moses needed others to hold up his arms when they were heavy church:

Moses was a strong man whose hands became heavy church and he needed someone to hold them up.

When Moses hands were raised they would be winning the war against the Amalekites, but when they fell they the would be losing church.

But we must note that when Hur and Aaron stepped in and helped Moses they won the war.

Church, it is the same for us.

We need others in our lives to hold up our hands when we become weary or weak.

Heavy- ka’bed- heavy (weary) adj.

— marked by great psychological weight; weighted down especially with sadness or troubles or weariness.

If you look back over your life, you will find that some of the greatest battles in your life were not one alone, but rather with God and others.

Scholars believe that Paul led Epaphras to Jesus in Ephesus.

After his conversion, he was so zealous for the Gospel that he started the church of Colossae in Philemons house.

When the false teachers started coming into the churches in Colossae, Laodecia, and Hieroplolis, he traveling 1300 miles to find Paul and get counsel because he loved his brothers and sisters and did not want them to be lead astray.

Do you have brothers and sisters in your life that are truth tellers?

These are the kind of folk that are willing to speak those hard truths into your life and not just be passive about everything?

Do you have friends that are willing to let you know if you are going astray?

We must remember the elect can be deceived!

Notice what Paul said about him:

He was a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was souled out for Christ church!

He was always laboring fervently in prayers for those in Colossae, Laodicea, and Hieroplolis.

Laboring Fervently-agonizomai (agonize)-to enter into a contest, contend in the gymnastic games, to contend with adversaries, to fight.

Metph- to contend and struggle with difficulties and dangers.

Here we see the same word being used when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Here we see the same word used which is strive together in prayer

Do you agonize in prayer or have brothers and sisters that agonize for you?

Notice what he prayed for :

3. The goal of Epaphras’s prayers was that the Colossians stand perfect and fully complete in all the will of God.

Perfect is from teleios and means “complete,” “mature,” or “fully developed.”

Fully assured is from plērophoreō and could be translated, “persuaded,” or “satisfied fully.”

Epaphras, like Paul wanted the Colossians to be mature and satisfied in all the will of God.

Only those who live in obedience to God’s will can grow to the fullness of Christ and be content (cf.

Eph.

4:13–14).

He wanted them to mature in Christ church, because this was their only defense against the false teachers trying to teach them all that it was Christ plus works, or Christ plus the Gnostics secret knowledge.

Praying with Your Family

When Dr. Richard Halverson was the U.S. Senate chaplain, he spoke before a group of evangelicals who had expressed their anger about Congress’ inactivity on the subject of school prayer.

They were irritated that congress had not acted with a strong initiative to restore prayer in schools.

To these who were seeking greater initiative from the government, Dr. Halverson asked, “How many of you have prayed with your children this month, outside of church?”

Nobody raised their hand.

Spiritual initiative starts in the home, not on Capitol Hill.

Here we have two other team members of Paul’s.

Luke was Paul’s personal physician, as well as his close friend.

He was a Gentile believer (cf.

4:11) who traveled frequently with Paul on his missionary trips.

In fact, have been Paul’s recurring illnesses on the first missionary journey that prompted him to take Luke along on the second.

Like Paul, he was an educated, cultured man, as evidenced by the literary quality of his Greek in his gospel and the book of Acts.

Luke actually wrote 1/4 of the NT.

Luke is mentioned by name only two other times in the New Testament.

All three times his name appears, it does so in Paul’s writings from prison (cf.

Philem.

24; 2 Tim.

4:11).

Church, it should be noted that Mark, Luke and Paul were all in Rome who combined wrote about 60% of the New Testament.

This partially explains the great unity of the 260 chapters of the New Testament; for approximately 155 were written by these three men.

You can be sure they were checking notes.

Soem scholars believe that he traveled with Paul throughout his ministry career because Paul had an eye affliction.

It is clear that Paul had an eye affliction that God used for his glory!

I think it is important to notice the he was beloved physician

Demas-

Demas, as far as Paul knew, at the writing of this letter, was a fellow worker in Christ.

(Phil.

24).

He is mentioned three times in the Word here and two others times.

Once in the salutation of Philemon and then here in:

We do not know the hearts of man, but we do know that God does.

It is clear that Demas deserted Paul, left him, abandoned him when Paul most needed him.

Some commentators think Demas deserted Paul because he felt that to stay with him would mean his own death.

The word “world” should be translated “age.”

Demas, they say, loved this age more than the future age and so was afraid to die.

However, other commentators, and I agree with them, think more is implied in this verse.

Demas deserted Paul because he loved this present age.

Demas loved this present age more than the future age to come - heaven.