Colossians 4:7-17
Text Introduction: Paul expected the early Christians to communicate with each other, to encourage each other, and to treasure each other. Passages like this one remind us of that.
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Introduction: Do you remember the little game we used to play with our folded hands? You know how it went: Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the door, and see all the people. It was fun in its way but it missed an important point. That ornate building with its steeple is not the church. Those fingers—some stubby, some grubby, some with hangnails, some with warts—represent the church: the people.
Paul spends several verses naming some people who were part of the church of Jesus Christ. Some were with him, some were in Colossae. Some have names we know—or at least have seen on hospitals and churches. Some are completely unknown to us.
History has given some of them the title, “Saint;” history has given some less noble titles. Yet, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians, Paul seems to have been saying, “Here are several folks who are living examples of the principles I’ve been writing about—and at least one you shouldn’t copy.”
Some of these folks were in the forefront of the action, some were in the background. Paul seemed to treasure both.
There’s a variety of people on this list. There are young people and older people on this list. Some of these people were well-educated, some may have had little education at all. There are Jews, Gentiles, and one woman listed here. Paul, the Jew who once would have despised the Gentiles and belittled the woman, honored the contributions of each.
With all this in mind, let’s take a closer look at this band of people.
We see Tychicus, the messenger of encouragement.
Tychicus may have been from Ephesus. In any case we first meet him as part of the party accompanying Paul to Jerusalem as the apostle takes the collection to that church which was suffering from famine. This may suggest he was a man known for his integrity.
He stayed by Paul even when he was sent to Rome in chains. He stood ready to do whatever task he could to help
In an age without telegraph, telephone, fax, or even a reliable mail service, Tychicus was performing a valuable service. Still, a minister in the first century church, he could have argued that being a messenger boy was too menial a task, but he was willing to be used however he might be used. He would not simply deliver information; he would encourage the Colossians as well.
It was understandable if the Colossians were concerned about Paul, there were probably many rumors about him and his situation. Some may have even heard he had been executed. They needed to know the truth and they needed encouragement. Tychicus was the one to bring both.
We need people willing to do the “small” jobs with grace and efficiency. Above all, we need people who will be encouragers.
We see Onesimus, the slave who was Paul’s brother.
You’ve already heard the story of the runaway slave who met Paul and was converted. Paul doesn’t mention his being a slave, but he does call him “brother.” That reflects part of the impact Christianity would have on class, economic, and even racial distinctions. Paul values his faithfulness and says so.
At the same time, remember that Onesimus was a new convert. Paul’s testimony about him ought to prompt us to challenge new believers to open their lives to God, to let him shape them for his service.
We see Aristarchus, no stranger to trouble.
Aristarchus, a Jew from Thessalonica, shows up for the first time in Acts 19:29, when he was seized by the angry mob in Ephesus, the mob protesting the impact of the gospel on the idol-making trade. Were not told all that happened, but we can be sure the frenzied crowd did not treat Aristarchus or his fellow-hostage Gaius with great tenderness.
Once everything settled down, no one would have blamed Aristarchus if he had asked for some “R&R,” time to get over his ordeal. He might have even said, “You know, I’ve done my bit, it’s time for someone else to step up.” Instead, he went with Paul to Jerusalem and then on to Rome. He’s described here as Paul’s “fellow prisoner” so he was enduring the same things Paul was enduring.
Someone has said that Jesus promised his followers that they would have great power, know incredible joy, and be in constant trouble. Aristarchus seems to have proven at least part of that promise to be correct.
In an age when many people are concerned only if a church will meet their needs, or if a church will help them have a more comfortable life, we need the kind of commitment which is open to taking the tough times along with the blessed times, the kind of commitment which understands that those times may be the same.
We see Jesus Justus, the man named in hope.
He was a Jewish Christian in Rome who was known to the Colossians. What had been the origin of his name? “Jesus” was a common name, a form of “Joshua” which meant “savior.” Did his Jewish parents give that name to him because they hoped for a “savior” who would make a difference? We don’t know, but in Jesus Christ he found the One for whom all true Jews had been hoping.
Was he also a prisoner? Probably not since Paul doesn't mention it as he did with Aristarchus. He was involved in the work of the kingdom, perhaps preaching and teaching. Of special importance to Paul was his ability to bring comfort to the imprisoned apostle. In fact, Paul mentions that several of his friends performed this ministry of comfort.
We need comforters, people who stand with us in the hard times so we may stand. The wonderful thing is, these comforters may be young or old.
We see Epaphras, the man who was too busy not to pray.
Epaphras was known to the Colossians because he came from the region. However, the path of following Christ took him away, but he did not forget his roots. He maintained a constant ministry of prayer for the Colossians. He prayed especially for their spiritual maturity with regard to obedience to God's will.
Paul describes Epaphras as “always wrestling in prayer for you.” This was no casual, “Lord, please bless the Colossians.” This was prayer born out of the recognition that the Colossian Christians were in real jeopardy. They were in danger from those on the outside who would destroy the church and in danger from those who claimed to be on the inside who would distort its message.
McDonald writes,
“Paul knew too well, and Christian experience confirms too sadly, that it is not easy to keep on praying. It needs grit as well as grace. All too soon do knees weaken and minds wander. All too easily, in the thick of the battle, can we lose sight of God and stupidly imagine that our success depends on the skill of our swordplay, and our ease of movement. But the battle is the Lord’s, and it is prayer that nerves the arm for fight; to fail in this regard is to beat the air and miss the adversary.”
But Epaphras was also a hard worker once he rose from his knees. He had helped to found the Colossian church and may have been instrumental in founding other congregations in the area. In Philemon Paul calls him “my fellow prisoner.” This may be a figure of speech, suggesting that Epaphras voluntarily stayed with the imprisoned Paul or it may mean that Epaphras had been arrested since arriving in Rome.
Every church needs those who will do the hard work of prayer. Earlier in this chapter (4:2-4) Paul had encouraged the Colossians to pray for the spread of the gospel. Now, he seems to point to Epaphras as an example of that kind of praying and seems to be saying, “If your church is growing, part of the reason may be the efforts of this man on his knees here in Rome.”
We see Luke, the Christian Renaissance Man.
Did you know that if you simply count page numbers, Luke wrote slightly more of the New Testament than Paul? But what do we know of this man?
Paul tells us he was a Gentile. He had committed his life to a Jewish carpenter Jesus of Nazareth and to work alongside a Jewish rabbi who was determined to tell as many as possible about this Jesus.
He was a physician. That claim has been challenged but never disproven. Some believe he used his skills to help care for Paul who was often sick or injured.
He was a historian and scholar. Sir William Ramsey, like many in the nineteenth century, assumed the New Testament was full of errors. To prove this he began to study the Book of Acts in detail. The more he studied, comparing Luke’s observations to what was known and being discovered about the Roman world, the more he became convinced that Luke was a careful historian. At the same time, the Greek of Luke’s gospel and Acts is the most polished in the New Testament.
Luke was what we sometimes call a Renaissance man, one who is skilled in many areas of knowledge. Yet, he was a man of faith. Too often those who have good minds are persuaded to join the skeptics and scoffers; too often they believe their own genius will give them all the answers. Luke is a reminder that real genius is willing to open itself to mystery, to trust the God who cannot be seen.
At the same time and, perhaps more important, he was Paul’s friend. This man who could have settled down and enjoyed a peaceful life, could have slept comfortably in his own bed at night, chose to go join Paul as he traveled tirelessly for the gospel. Luke was shipwrecked with Paul, threatened by the same mobs who threatened Paul, endured the same bad food Paul endured. He was almost certainly with Paul until the very end when the executioner ended the apostle’s life but not his influence. Foxe says he was hanged by angry pagan priests. Whether or not that’s true, an ancient writer says, “He served the Lord without distraction… and at the age of 84 he fell asleep in Boeatia, full of the Holy Spirit.”
The church always needs those who will commit their talents to God’s service and who will commit themselves to being there for God’s people.
At this point Paul stops sending greetings from special people and begins to send greetings to special people.
He greets Nympha, the saint with the pagan name.
What were her parents thinking? Perhaps they were attracted to the stories of the beautiful goddesslike maidens known as the forest and sea nymphs. In any case, her name reminds us that she came from a home enamored with the pagan world-view. Yet, somehow she became a Christian; she broke with the past and embraced the biblical world-view for herself.
We don’t know if she was a widow or if she was always a single person but, in any case, she opened her home as a place for the church to meet. Her home became a center of Christian activity in Laodicea.
Although she certainly reminds us that, because of the grace of God, our past need not dictate our future, she also reminds us of a couple other things. She reminds us that by no means was the church intended to be an “old boys’ club.” Women played a key role. And she reminds us that the church is ever dependent upon volunteers.
He sends a message—indirectly—to Archippus, the man who needed a push.
Archippus is usually thought to have been a member of Philemon's household, possibly his son (2). He may have been the minister of the church in Laodicea.
Just what occasioned this word of challenge, which would be read to the whole congregation (in Colossae and Laodicea), isn’t clear.
Perhaps, like young Timothy, he just needed a nudge to keep going, especially in the face of those who would have disrespected him because of his youth. It’s funny, surveys show that today’s congregations often discount ideas because they come from folks who are older yet, at one time, the church seems to have discounted ideas because they came from folks who were young.
Paul reminds us that both positions are unwise.
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If you’ve been paying attention, you know I’ve left out two names. I want to spend some extra time looking at them.
One of these men was in the thick of the action in Rome, Paul calls him a “fellow worker.” We recall him as…
Demas, the deserter.
We don’t know much about Demas. Like Luke, he was a Gentile but that’s not really significant. He worked alongside Paul, Luke, Epaphras, and some of the other heroes of the faith. He himself would have probably been numbered with those heroes if it weren’t for Paul’s remark in 2 Timothy 4:10: “…Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.”
Some have pointed out that Demas is simply said to have deserted Paul, not deserted Christ. If that’s true, it casts Paul in a bad light. It portrays him as vindictive and self-centered. Demas had the right to pursue ministry elsewhere if he felt so led. Yet, Paul’s comment seems to suggest that something more was at work. His comment suggests that Demas’s priorities were out of alignment. He deserted “because he loved this world.”
We’re not told the specific motivation for his desertion. Maybe he got tired of the solitude which was sometimes part of serving Christ. Maybe he didn’t like the suffering which was part of serving Christ. Maybe he chafed under the stigma which came from suffering Christ. We can make too much of this, but I think it’s interesting that the name Demas means “popular.” Maybe he found that people who preached against sin and held up only one way to salvation weren’t popular—just like they’re not popular now.
This is all just speculation. What’s clear is, Demas will forever be known as the deserter.
In 1945 three young evangelists were capturing the attention of the American church. One was Billy Graham. It was still a couple of years before the famous Los Angeles Crusade would catapult him to national attention but he had already spoken to crowds as large as thirty thousand.
While Graham’s gifts were undeniable, in 1945, many people expected even greater things from the other two evangelists, Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford.
In fact, in 1946, the National Association of Evangelicals published an article on the men who were “best used of God” during the first five years of its existence. Templeton was mentioned, Graham wasn’t. Templeton had potential.
In 1945, Bron Clifford, was only twenty-five but he was already thought to be one of the most gifted preachers to have graced the church in centuries. When Clifford spoke at Baylor University the president ordered the bells silenced so the students could remain in chapel to hear him. The students remained attentive for his two and a quarter hour sermon. Compare this to Ken Chafin’s experience. When he spoke in the Baylor chapel in the late 1960s, President Honeycutt told him, “You really had their attention; I saw some of them put down their newspapers.”
Clifford set more attendance records than any other clergyman his age in America. National leaders sought his attention and Hollywood even offered him a role in “The Robe.”
You know about Billy Graham.
In 1950, Chuck Templeton left the ministry to become a radio and TV commentator. He renounced his faith, deciding he could no longer believe the claims of Christ. He died a couple years ago, after sadly remarking that he “missed Jesus.” He never regained his faith.
In 1954, less than a decade after he had held the Baylor students spellbound, Bron Clifford was selling used cars in the Texas Panhandle. He had abandoned his wife and their two Down’s syndrome children. Suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, he died that year in a cheap motel on Amarillo’s sleazy west side. Some pastors in Amarillo took up a collection to buy him a casket and send his body back East where it was buried in a cemetery for the poor.
You know about Billy Graham. In his ministry you see something of the power of faithfulness. Now, you know something about Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford. You know they have joined the ranks of Demas.
At the time he wrote the Colossians Paul may not have known what would happen to his young co-worker. There may have been those who would have never believed what eventually happened.
Demas reminds us that success in the Christian life is not measured by how well you begin the race; it’s whether or not you’re there at the finish. Demas stands as a warning that any of us can fail if we take our eyes off Christ.
By no means do I want to end on a down note. So we’re going to look at one more member of Paul’s “gang.” This is …
Mark, the man who proved Paul wrong.
Mark was the cousin of Barnabus, a prominent evangelist in the early church. Mark even accompanied Barnabus and Paul on their first missionary journey. He was not invited to join them because of nepotism; both Barnabus and Paul thought they saw great potential in the young man.
Then, when the team reached Pamphylia, Mark ran back home. We don’t know why he left. Maybe the threats of the crowds frightened him. Perhaps the prospect of disease worried him. Perhaps he missed the comforts of his affluent home. We don’t know why he bolted just that he did.
Later, when Paul and Barnabus were back in Jerusalem making up the roster for the second missionary journey, Barnabus wanted to include Mark. Paul wouldn’t have it. And who could blame him, if Mark ran once, he might run again. In fact, Paul may have learned that Mark had a habit of running.
In the Gospel of Mark an incident is recorded which isn’t found in any of the other gospels. It takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane at the time of Jesus’ arrest. Here’s the note:
MK 14:51 A young man, wearing nothing but an [expensive, imported] linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, [52] he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.
Most commentators believe that young man was Mark. After that streaking incident, Mark found faith but faith doesn’t necessarily make us fearless. Marl, as we’ve seen, would flee at least one more time.
The conflict over Mark was so intense that Paul and Barnabus parted ways. Paul went one direction; Barnabus went another, with Mark.
Years passed. Something happened. We don’t know what but happen it did. Now Mark and Paul were together again, working for the Kingdom of God. In fact, Paul was apparently planning to send Mark to Asia Minor on an errand for him. He would still be there when Paul wrote 2 Timothy. Paul, in the verse following his sad comment about Demos, asked Timothy to bring Mark with him to Rome because, in Paul’s words, “he is helpful to me in my ministry.” Time and the grace of God had changed Mark and Paul’s opinion.
In fact, Mark worked closely with both Paul and Peter. He may have been the only person in the New Testament church who did that.
Like Luke, Mark also wrote a gospel. Some say he had already written it at this time, some say he would write it later. It doesn’t matter. Mark, according to tradition, eventually ministered in Egypt where he died a martyr in Alexandria.
Mark is a reminder of the power of encouragement. Mark is a reminder of the danger of rushing to judgment. Mark is a reminder that success in Christian service is not measured by how often you fall in the race but whether or not you pick yourself up and start again.
CONCLUSION
I want to end by reminding you of all those faithful Christian men and women who have helped to build the church, who have ministered in the name of Christ through the centuries.
Among those men and women there have been failures but, more important, there have been comebacks. Among those men and women there have been rich and poor, educated and uneducated, the flamboyant and the quiet. Each has been a valued part of the team.
If you wish everyone in the church was just like you, you haven’t grasped God’s vision for his people.
If you’ve failed on your pilgrimage, you can make a comeback.
If you think you’ve nothing to contribute, you haven’t begun to discover what God can do with you.
