Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Who would have ever imagined that a 5’ 7” actor and comedian would become an international hero who would boldly lead his people as they faced an invasion from one of the most powerful nations in the world?

But that is exactly what Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become right before our eyes.

He is the latest example of a seemingly ordinary person who rose to the occasion to become an unsung hero.

Tension

I don’t think most of us really think of ourselves in those terms, though.

Nor did most of those who were instrumental in the spread of the gospel and the development of the early church in the years following the resurrection of Jesus.

Sure we know about Peter and James and some of the other disciples.

We know about the gospel authors - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And we certainly know about Paul, who wrote the letter that we’ve been studying for the last couple of months.

But there were many others, most of them whose names we’ll never know that played an equally significant of a role in spreading the gospel in the first century.

Today, we’re going to learn a little more about a few of those people.

And my prayer is that this will be a great encouragement for all of us to do our part in furthering the kingdom of God and developing mature disciples of Jesus.

Because whether we realize it or not, we all have a crucial part in that process.

Truth

Today we will finish our current sermon series - Rooted.

In this series we’ve been studying the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Colossae - a church that he never personally visited.

These last 12 verses comprise a section of Scripture that most of us are likely to just kind of skim over.

To us, it looks like a list of people that really doesn’t seem very relevant to us.

But, as I hope you’ll see before we’re done, there are some very practical things that we can take away from this passage.

Think about this.

In this letter, Paul only devoted one verse to lust and greed, one verse to anger, one verse to wives, one verse to husbands, one verse to parents and one verse to children.

Yet he spends the last 12 verses of this letter to mentioning the various people who worked alongside him in his ministry.

So this must be important!

And this is not unusual at all for Paul.

He mentions a total of over one hundred people by name in his New Testament letters, including the ten we find in today’s passage.

While we often tend to view Paul as some kind of superhuman apostle, the fact is that he could not do ministry alone.

He was in a deep relationship with other disciples who were the unsung heroes of his ministry.

I really debated how to approach this passage, but as I studied this week I became more and more intrigued by the various individuals who were part of Paul’s team.

So I’m going to briefly share a little bit about each one and see what we can learn from their ministry.

So I’ve left some space in your sermon outline for you to make whatever notes might be helpful to you as we talk about each of these people.

But before I do that, let’s set the stage by identifying the overall principle we see here:

To be rooted in Christ, I must be part of a team of faithful people devoted to developing mature disciples

With that in mind, we’re going to work through this passage a verse or two at a time and see what we can learn about each of the people Paul mentions here:

Faithful messengers:

Tychicus

Tychicus is the mail carrier.

He is the one who delivers Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae.

That was no easy task.

It would have required a journey of over 1,000 miles by ship and on foot.

Based on what we read in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, it is likely that Tychicus is also carrying that letter, which he will deliver as well.

From the accounts in Acts and some of Paul’s other letters, we also learn that Tychicus was a frequent companion of Paul on his missionary journeys and also during his imprisonments.

It also appears from Paul’s second letter to Timothy that Tychicus was sent to Ephesus as an interim pastor when Timothy came to visit Paul.

Notice how Paul describes him here:

a beloved brother

faithful minister

fellow servant

He is a great example of someone who was faithful with little things who came to be entrusted with even greater things.

Onesimus

Tychicus is also carrying a third letter with him - Paul’s letter to Philemon.

Onesimus was Philemon’s runaway slave and he is accompanying Tychicus on his way back to his master.

Onesimus had likely come to faith in Jesus under Paul’s mentoring and in Paul’s letter to Philemon, he was urging Philemon to take back Onesimus, not just as a slave, but as a fellow disciple of Jesus.

Paul describes Onesimus as a “faithful and beloved brother”.

He serves to remind us that in Christ we are all equal and that we are not limited in our service of Jesus based on race or social status or any other external characteristics that might otherwise divide us.

Jewish co-workers:

Paul identifies the next three people as “men of the circumcision”, which identifies them as Jewish.

Aristarchus

From the book of Acts, we learn that Aristarchus was a Jew from Macedonia who had been seized during the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:29).

Later, he was also shipwrecked with Paul on Malta on the way to Rome (Acts 27:2, 41).

Here, Paul calls him “my fellow prisoner”.

It is not completely clear whether Aristarchus was actually imprisoned with Paul at this time or of this is just a reference to the fact that, like Paul, he had also been imprisoned for his faith.

Aristarchus is an example of someone who contributes to the ministry just by being a faithful friend regardless of circumstances.

Mark

Mark had a long history with Paul, not all of it pleasant.

He was the son of a wealthy widow, which may be why he ended up abandoning Paul and Barnabas on Paul’s first missionary journey.

So later, when Barnabas wanted to take Mark on Paul’s second missionary journey, Paul refused to do so.

So Mark and Barnabas left for Cyprus while Paul took Silas with him.

It is possible that by now Mark has written the gospel account that bears his name.

But whether or not that is the case, we see here that Paul and Mark have reconciled and that Paul instructs the Colossians to welcome him.

We also know from Paul’s second letter to Timothy that Paul asked for Mark to come to him during his final imprisonment in Rome (2 Timothy 4:11).

Mark serves as a great reminder that God is not finished with you yet, even if you’ve failed Him in the past.

He is a God of second chances.

Just as Mark was restored to ministry and had a tremendous impact on the kingdom of God, God can do that for you, too.

Jesus called Justus

Jesus was a common name in that culture, but for obvious reasons, Paul refers to him by his second name - Justus.

This is the only place he appears in the Scriptures, so we really don’t know anything else about him.

However, we do know that Paul was constantly being persecuted by the Jews.

In spite of that Paul maintained a heart for his fellow Jews and it must have been a great comfort to him to know that there were others who shared that same concern and who could have an influence for the gospel among the Jews.

Justus reminds us that sometimes just standing with our fellow Christians as they face opposition can be a tremendous encouragement and an essential aspect of ministry.

Gentile co-workers:

After mentioning three fellow Jews, Paul next mentions three Gentile co-laborers.

Once again Paul demonstrates that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

Epaphras

We were introduced to Epaphras at the very beginning of the letter.

He was likely the founder and pastor of the church in Colossae and apparently also ministered in the churches in the nearby towns of Hierapolis and Laodicea.

Paul focuses on two characteristics of the ministry of Epaphras:

First, he was a prayer warrior.

The verb translated “struggling” is the Greek verb from which we get our English word “agonizing”.

It’s also instructive to note what he prayed for.

He was concerned that the believers there in Colossae would mature in their faith and that they would be assured in all the will of God.

So his focus was on the spiritual development of the people in the church.

Second, he “worked hard” in his ministry.

The verb Paul uses there indicates that his ministry was difficult and painful.

Epaphras demonstrates the idea that ministry is a balance of dependence on God and hard work.

If either of those characteristics are lacking, our ministry is not likely to be profitable.

Luke