2022-2-20, Christ Above All, What's in a Name? Onesimus, Aristarchus, Luke, Nympha Colossians 4:7-18
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Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
2022-2-20, Christ Above All, What's in a Name? Onesimus, Aristarchus, Luke, Nympha Colossians 4:7-18
Review
Review
Colossians is Paul’s letter to a good church he’s never been to, which is struggling with encroaching heresy (pre-gnostic, Jewish legalism & folklore, asceticism). They face the temptation to diminish Christ and His work.
Paul has
exalted Christ,
the gospel,
and charged the Colossians to live for the Lord in their hearts, their homes, their church, their work, and with outsiders.
In his farewell, we learn about his companions and partners
1. They were committed to the cause of Christ before all else. They served the Lord without distraction.
2. They rarely worked alone, but they leaned on the God-given gifts and abilities of their partners as they made their own contributions.
3. They were faithful in the work. They were a trustworthy and reliable bunch. They did the little things well and were entrusted with greater things.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
4. They followed the Apostle Paul’s leadership
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Passage
Passage
This week we are going to look to some of Paul’s other companions and what their characteristics were. We are going to continue to mine this passage for information about Paul’s context.
As we discover traits and facts about the work of the early Church, there are going to be a lot of things we want to evaluate and see if we should repeat it in our context.
So let’s dive in...
Slaves and Free
Slaves and Free
7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
After Tychicus, Paul mentions Onesimus.
He was assigned to accompany Tychicus with the letters to Ephesus, Colossae, and Philemon. He and Tychicus are authorized to give testimony to Paul’s situation in Rome. These are highly trusted partners.
We are going to talk more about Onesimus in the coming weeks, but the thing you need to know is that Onesimus is a runaway slave (at least he was before the letters were delivered).
Yet, he has also come to be known by Paul as a “faithful and beloved brother.”
It gets even more interesting, Onesimus is of the Colossians. He was a church member.
**We find out from the letter to Philemon that Onesimus legally belongs to Philemon according to Roman Law. (The same Philemon who will receive a letter.)
Onesimus has come home.
Paul is facilitating a reconciliation between these two. This is going to be a big test to see if the Gospel of Christ can triumph over social and economic distinctions between the two.
He says in Philemon 15-16
15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Paul’s words about Onesimus tell us that in the church, the community of Christ, there was equality before God between people that society classified as slaves and freemen.
This was revolutionary in a society that often didn’t view slaves as human. In the perspective of God, every human being, slave or free, has dignity and equal worth.
In the community of Christ, the man-made classifications of slave or free evaporate and we are all children of God through Jesus. We are brothers and sisters who share a common mission. There is but one class. We are fellow heirs of the inheritance, and should treat each other as such.
The counsel is for Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother instead of as a slave.
Paul’s companions prove that in the Christ community, every person is of equal worth and dignity before the Lord, regardless of social standing.
In the church, there are not to be separations between us based on social class. We are one in Christ.
Illustration
Application
Do we treat people differently in the church based upon social or economic standing? It’s very easy to do.
Have you ever judged someone as a “less than?”
Because they have not as much as you? Do you have preference for people who look nice, smell nice, are intelligent, or appear to have their act together? Those who live in a nice house or drive a nice car?
Do people who are of some status get better treatment from you?
Maybe it is the reverse for you and you resent people who look like they have money or have standing.
People who are prisoners, yet they have called on Christ for salvation.
The point is that we are called in Christ to look at others who are believers as peers. We are to treat them as brothers and sisters in Christ.
How do you think such treatment should look?
The treatment is to be very affectionate and kind.
Jews and Greeks
Jews and Greeks
Wow, this is heavy and meaningful! What else can we learn from these companions of Paul?
In verses 4:10-11, Paul sends greetings from companions who are with him in house arrest.
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
Here Paul mentions Aristarchus, John Mark, and Justus.
Aristarchus was a prisoner. John Mark is Barnabas’s cousin who was present in Rome and supporting Paul. We don’t know much about Justus. What we do know about these three is that they are Jewish Christians.
They have ministered to Paul and comforted him.
But then you go down the list...
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.
You see Epaphras, Luke, and Demas. These men are also supporting Paul (along with Tychicus), yet these men are Gentiles.
Paul points out that only three of his companions are Jewish Christians.
Paul is emphasizing that the gospel is for the Gentiles as much as it is for the Jews. He emphasizes that in Christ, there is no distinction of standing between Jew and Gentile. They are both children of God and co-heirs of the promise.
Further, the many people whom Paul worked with were from different continents and nationalities.
Paul’s companions prove that the community of Christ transcends race, ethnicity, and nationality.
In the church, there are not to be separations between us based on racial, cultural, or national differences. We are one in Christ.
They fought to overcome these differences. It was important that there was not a Jewish church and a Gentile church. They were just a church.
Churches of mixed races, nationalities, and even languages. For the point to show that our first identity is that of Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
The dividing wall has been broken down.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Differences can be beautiful and God glorifying. They should be used to point to the power of God to make one people out of so many.
However, they can also be used to divide. This happens when we choose to make our identifiers greater than our unity in Christ.
We need to make a point to reach out to people who are different than we are in order to communicate that the power of the Gospel unifies different peoples.
Refugees, ethnic churches.
A question might be what is a necessary act of brotherhood to see less segregated congregations on Sunday mornings.
Men and Women
Men and Women
Go a little further. What do you see?
15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
Paul asks for greetings to be given to Nympha. We know very little, but most agree that this is a woman, and she has a house large enough to host a house church.
Paul addresses her, a Gentile woman, directly. He sees her as a valid partner who is serving a critical role for the cause of Christ.
In Paul’s other letter to a church he had not been too.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
This Phoebe must have been a remarkable woman. She was committed to the cause of Christ. She was faithful in the work. She served Paul in the work.
So must have been Prisca (or Priscilla)
So, even in Roman and Jewish culture, which generally viewed women as inferior, Paul demonstrates that in the church the distinction of standing between men and women has also disappeared. Women are of equal value in the eyes of the Lord.
There may be different roles that God has given based on gender (which is God’s purview) , but there is equal standing.
Illustration
Application
It is important for us to value women and girls in Christ. Women are not second rate or second class citizens in the Lord’s church. They are critical to the Christ community.
Think of the Women’s Missionary Union, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, Edna McMillian.
Think of Sousanna Spurgeon
Remarkable women who influenced the world for the cause of Christ.
Very important.
It’s important that we emphasize to women their value.
Galatians 3:28
Galatians 3:28
So, for our purposes today, I want you to see that Paul lives out his words in Galatians 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that all differences are taken away and God sees us as a homogenous group.
No, he made us different in many acceptable ways. Yet, In the church, our first and greatest identifying feature is Christ. Christ above all.
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Friends, in the church, it is not right to let any identity come before Jesus and cause us to separate from each other. We are going to be together as one in the end, so we are called to be together as one now.
We are called to be at work in for the cause of Christ as one.
We need to live like it.
Look to brothers and sisters who are different from us and love them.
Mary’s class with Ken and Sifra
Suspending judgment on folks of a different financial standing than you (tolerate those rich, poor, and middle class people with their ways)
Work to support the Gospel message going to the nations. The power is in the message. This is our first concern of all types of people. The gospel is best served on a platter of agape love. Meeting needs and sharing Christ.
Give them our time, energy, and talents. Build trust. Truly partner. Teach our children to see unity in Christ first, while admiring the differences that make us a testimony of God’s glory.
Missions partnership.
Love others.