Currie, Jim: Men Of Colossians Chapter 4

Sit together in Colossians chapter four, commencing reading at verse seven. All my states shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall make known unto you all things which are done here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom you received commandments, if he come unto you, receive him. And Jesus, which is called Justice, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. Way back in the Old Testament, in the book of Amos, we have words that are well known to us, often quoted. Can't two walk together unless they be agreed? And I think you would agree with me that any who walked with the Apostle Paul in any measure of intimacy in his service for God, they must have been men of like mind, of like spirit, of a similar heart. And certainly the men of whom we have read, seven men and then Demas, these seven men very evidently showed a very similar spirit to the Apostle Paul, as we will see in looking at some of the things that are recorded concerning them. In Philippians one the Apostle Paul says, for me to live is Christ. Now that, of course, was Paul's sole aim in life. It was his desire to be as like the Lord Jesus Christ as it was possible for a human to be here on earth. I believe that's what he meant in the same epistle in chapter three when he speaks about attaining onto the out resurrection from among the dead. In other words, the Apostle Paul had before him what he was going to be like, because at the end of that chapter, you remember, he says that this body of his humiliation would be changed and made like onto the body of glory that our Lord Jesus Christ possesses. In the Philippian letter then, in chapter two, the apo- chapter three, the Apostle Paul has before him what he will be like when glory finally dawns. Meanwhile, he so de- so desires to be like the Lord Jesus Christ that when the final change does come, it won't be such a big one after all. Now, I don't think, brothers and sisters, you and I can aim any higher than that, to be as like our Lord Jesus Christ as it's possible to be right here on Earth. Now, this epistle from which we have read today, it's one that doesn't in any way criticize in any sense at all the brethren to whom Paul writes. There was nothing that Paul felt he had to correct, except for this fact that they were being exposed to evil teaching that was detrimental to the person of the Lord Jesus. The teaching that they were being exposed to was taking away from the glory of Christ. And so if you go through the epistle very carefully, you will find that, first of all, in chapter one there's the reality of Christ's preeminence, and that's expounded by Paul there. In chapter two you'll find that it's the subtlety of this teaching, Gnostic teaching, as it's sometimes called, and the apostle exposes that for what it really is. But the latter part of the epistle, he's dealing with practical things, basically from verse one of chapter three when he tells those to whom he writes, set your affections on things above, and then the practical outworking of that right through to about verse six of chapter four. Then comes the list of which we have read. So then in chapter four, in chapter three rather, it's the quality of Christian life that the Apostle Paul is explaining. And coming into this chapter that we have read from, he's speaking very lovingly of the affinity that he and his fellow workers enjoy in the things of God, in the things of Christ. There are four little phrases that, in a sense, we might say, sum up the epistle from which we have read. You'll find one each and one in each of the chapters. In chapter one, um the Lord Jesus is spoken of in verse fifteen as the image of God. That speaks to us, as it does in the very chapter, of his divine supremacy. But then in chapter two he's spoken of as the mystery of God, and that would remind us too that he was essentially superior in his own being, as well as revealing all of God. When we come to chapter three we find that there are the words the elect of God. This tells us very specifically of the unique power, the unique authority that the Lord Jesus has with regard to his own. And finally, here in chapter four, we have the little phrase, the will of God, and that, I think, would speak to us something of the complete sufficiency that the Lord Jesus exercises with regard to his servants, some of whom are named in the readings that we have had this afternoon. Seven men. These men illustrate for us something of the practical side of Paul's teaching in this epistle. He deals, as you know, from verse one of chapter three with the domestic, the assembly, the personal, and the social lives of the believer. Now we have men set before us, seven men, who illustrate something of the things that you and I should show in our lives as well. For example, the first man that is mentioned here, Tychicus. Our brother Mr. Paisley read some names for us, and Tychicus was mentioned there in Acts chapter nineteen. It could be said of Tychicus, for Paul calls him that, a faithful minister. We read in the first verse that we are dealing with in verse seven: all my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. And then he speaks of Onesimus, and he says, they shall make known unto you all things which are done here. The name Tychicus means fortunate, apparently. This man was indeed very, very fortunate. He had the complete trust of the Apostle Paul. He was one of the men who was used by God as a messenger of the churches, entrusted by Paul to, in the carrying of monies down to the city of Jerusalem. Tychicus was such an individual that Paul had this complete confidence in him that if he was sent along to the believers, he would be able to tell without any subtlety, but straightforward, just exactly as things are, the things that Paul wanted the folk to know concerning himself. He was then, in every sense of the word, a fully trusted colleague of the Apostle Paul. Now, brothers and sisters, in the practical sense, is that not something that we should value among us today? Very particularly those who take a lead among us, whether they be elders in the local sense or those who move further afield. If there's one thing we need, it's men who have the trust and the confidence of the Lord's people, so that when things are mentioned to them, things are spoken to them, advice is sought, then it will be known that these men can be trusted to keep their own counsel, and that the things that they say or the things that they have been told will not be spread all over the place. Sadly, as we know, that that is not often the case. Many, many a time, things that are told are often breached, told in private and then spoken in public at times. Well, in the assembly of God's people in this day in which we live, we need men who can earn and have earned the trust of the people of God, perhaps as this Monticicus had done. He certainly had earned it as far as Paul was concerned. There are eight words in the New Testament that speak of service. It reminds us of the vast variety, of the richness of the service of the people of God which we can render to our God. Two of these words are used concerning Tychicus. He's spoken of as being both a household and a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder, then, that he was a man who had the confidence of Paul, the fellow minister, the fellow worker, the one in whom Paul had so much confidence? But the next man that is spoken of here is called Onesimus, one of whom we know a little. Some of these other men, we don't know too much about them, but Onesimus's story is one that speaks to our hearts. If Tychicus could be called the faithful minister, we could certainly call Onesimus without any problem at all, that he was the forgiven thief. Apparently he had stolen something from his master, as the little appendix to the Colossian letter, the letter to Philemon tells us, if you owe a fiat, charge that to my account. Now, here is a man, he was originally a runaway thief, and yet here he is now going back to the city of Colossae to his master, and Paul says, well, concerning him, he's one of you. Not only that, but he says, uh, he is a faithful brother, like Tychicus. Now, what has happened? Well, brothers and sisters, a change has taken place. And if there's one thing that God's salvation should do for us, if there's one thing that God's salvation must have done for us, and that has brought about a change in these lives of ours. Is that true? Some of us have been a long time on the road, but I wonder today, is there anything more of Christ-likeness in my life today than there was fifty six years ago when I first trusted Christ? I certainly do hope there is, and I'm sure you would enter into the same sense of prayer before God, a change. Salvation calls for that. Salvation demands that. And brethren and sisters, day by day, there ought to be a- an ongoing change, if you will, more and more being transfigured and transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we who were perhaps standing alongside Onesimus, maybe not in the practical sense, maybe not to that degree, but nevertheless, in exactly the same position he was in, needing forgiveness. If there's any measure today of that evident change, drawing us closer, making us more like the Lord Jesus Christ, that we can be called, with regard to the Assembly of the Saints, one of you. A faithful servant. Thank God for that. I'm sure Onesimus, if he had been able to, if he stood with us today, the words that would rise from him, his lips would be words that you and I know well and sing so often. Because here is a man who very evidently was the recipient of matchless grace. He didn't deserve anything. Do we? Did we? We certainly did not. We do not. But it's the grace of God, and we sing in all truth, oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. And we would cry, as we often do, I'm sure, let thy love, Lord, like a fetter, bind this wandering heart to me. There's one thing that would keep us close to our Lord Jesus Christ on our daily walk. It's a realization that we deserve nothing but to be banished from his presence forever, and grace, and grace alone, has brought us to the position we occupy this afternoon. But then the third man that is mentioned here, Aristarchus. Of him, Paul says he's a fellow prisoner. When he occupied a prison cell with Paul, or maybe on a separate occasion, we don't really know. All we do know is that this man, Aristarchus, must have been, to begin with, I would call him a patrician. His name means first ruler or best ruler, if you will. It's hardly likely that, say, a family as mine was, living in the lesser se- section of the city, and with very, very little money and very few possessions, it's very, very likely a family like that would take a son and call him first ruler or best ruler. I'm sure that in the view of the Greeks as it was then, the educating of young men to take over the rule of the country in what they called democracy at that time, that was the idea of democracy, training their best in order that they might rule for the people. Like as not, the family had that in mind, first ruler. But instead of that, he becomes, as we find here with the Apostle Paul, a fellow prisoner. He was a sharer with Paul. He stood with Paul, you remember, at the time of the riot in the city of Ephesus. That's probably his own city. It would appear as though that Tychicus and Trophimus, of whom we were reading earlier, that they probably came from the city of Ephesus. And now, of course, there's a riot there. That doesn't stop Tychicus standing alongside the Apostle Paul at the time. He's also found with the Apostle Paul during the time of shipwreck. And now Paul says, with regard to him, he's my fellow prisoner. One way or the other, he shared with Paul imprisonment. He's like the prison- the princes of Issachar, away back in the Old Testament, who were with Deborah in the fight. What does it suggest to us? That here was a man, as they were in the Old Testament, who stood alongside the servant of God through thick and thin. They weren't about to give up. Is that not what so often marks so many today in which we live? Assemblies perhaps have difficulties. They mostly do wherever you go, whether it's this side of the Atlantic or this side of the Pacific or the other. It makes no difference. Problems abound like as not. But brothers and sisters, what we need are men like Aristarchus, who are willing to stand and stand firm and stand alongside their brethren so that they can be looked upon as faithful servants, as this man certainly was, enjoying the confidence, enjoying the companionship and commendation of the Apostle Paul. Then the fourth man that is mentioned here is Mark, and a little more of him is known to us than some of the others. We could call him the former failure, because he was that. He did have that failing in his experience. I suppose at times most of us are a little hard on Mark. I have a peculiar idea, I don't know whether my brethren would agree with me or not, but I'm inclined to believe that Mark went home because he was just plain homesick. Young man going forth as he did with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, his uncle, raised as he was apparently in a rather conservative, probably a quite a strict Jewish home, and he's thrust into a Gentile world where they eat all kinds of things that he had been raised to look upon as being absolutely evil, unclean. We have had a Jewish family, a ritual, uh, a li- an Orthodox Jewish family sitting with us in our home in Tokyo, and uh, when he spoke about, we were very careful not to serve them anything like that, of course, but when he spoke about pork, you could just see the absolute contempt in the man's face. And I know that some of you, at times, when you hear that we yonder in Japan, the Japanese, they eat raw fish, you react in almost the same way. But it was probably a lot more than that because it was ritual, and as far as Mark was concerned, being thrust into these families, these Gentile families, was just too much to take. That and other conditions may be, to give him the benefit of the doubt, the young man went home. Well, later, of course, the Apostle Paul, you remember, he wasn't prepared to take him with him so quickly. Like it's not, he wanted a little more time to let Mark get his feet from on- under him properly. At any rate, we do know that later on, and particularly here as he speaks of Mark, the apostle does so in commentatory terms. Barnabas's nephew. Now, it reminds us of two things, or teaches us two things, that the apostle Paul was big enough man to admit that he'd been wrong. He doesn't say so in so many words, but the very fact that he acknowledges that this young man, Mark, is now profitable for the work shows, I do believe, that Paul realized that, having been given a second chance by God, Mark was fulfilling the ministry that God gave him. Of course, thank God, brothers and sisters, that as it was in Jonah's case, we have shown, we have proven in our own lives over and over again that God does indeed give us a second chance. There are times when our feet go into bypass meadows, but God in his grace brings us back again. Paul was big enough to acknowledge his former mistake, at least that it was now rectified. Not only that, but he speaks of him here, and he speaks of him in friendly terms as being nephew to Barnabas. You remember the division between them was so severe that they had to part ways, part company. Not anymore. Mark, he's profitable, he says, and he, of course, is Barnabas's nephew. Well, these are lessons that we must learn too, brothers and sisters, in practical, down to earth, everyday Christianity. Knowing then when it's right, and surely it's never wrong to acknowledge that you've done something wrong or made a mistake, perhaps grieved brethren or sisters in the assembly, but put it right as best we can, and have that heart big enough to take in those who perhaps have had a turning aside, but whom God in his grace has restored, and that they're now able to walk with us to the degrees. Now, of course, that must be in some way conditional. There are things that make a man disqualified for the work of God publicly, probably for the rest of his life. But having said that, the attitude of all of us ought to be as Paul's was here with regard to Mark. The fifth man on the list here is called Jesus the Just. Paul says concerning him that he with others, they have strengthened me, they have stood by me. Here were some who stood with the Apostle Paul, and they were, of course, Jews like himself, Mark and Justus. I believe he's referring to those two, and he says with regard to them that they have strengthened him in what he's doing. Mark is sister's son to Barnabas, and then Jesus, which is called Justice, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers under the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. The idea of a comfort unto me here seems to have been that they stood with Paul at a time of some danger or difficulty. Here's a man who bears an honorable name, Jesus the Just. We don't know anything more about him, but surely with the very name that we have here, we need, we know all we need to know. It is said that Alexander the Great, at one occasion, was going around the camp and found one of his guards half asleep, certainly not on guard as he should have been. Alexander the Great, he called him to attention and then asked, soldier, what is your name? And the story goes that the young man said, Alexander, sir. Alexander the Great spoke to him and said, well, either you change your behavior or change your name. Well, now that's exactly the challenge, as it were, as it were, that you and I face too. We bear, says the apostle, or says rather the writer James in his letter, that the world around us blasphemes that blessed name by which we are called. We've already heard today that we have but one name that is called upon us all, and happily we bear it, Christians. But here is a man who bore the name of Jesus, and it is said of him, he was the just one, or he was a just one, Jesus the just. Brothers and sisters, true, we also face an ungodly world as they did. Certainly we must, as far as this world is concerned, bear with dignity and bear with good, clean, clear testimony that name by which we have been called, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Epaphras, the sixth man in the list, we can say of him that he was the fervent laborer. Chapter one reminds us of that. He was one of the Colossians. He was now in Rome, but, says Paul, he labors for you night and day in prayer. And again, we have a, a condition here or a characteristic that ought to mark us. Epaphras, very evidently, was one of those, perhaps the one, who carried the gospel to the Lycus Valley, and the Colossians may have been, most of them, led to Christ by him. Now he's in Rome. He's with the Apostle Paul. He's a long, long way from his friends in Colossae. Has he forgotten them? He certainly has not. Says Paul, he's laboring for you night and day in prayer, that you might stand strong in all the will of God. Now, what about ourselves with regard to our prayers, one for the other, in the assembly of the people of God? Are we like those who perhaps, well, out of sight, out of mind type of people? If that is the case, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Mind you, we have to speak to our hearts, the speaker included. How many, many times have we heard of individuals who have had or are going through times of severe, severe testing? Maybe for a week or ten days or two weeks, their names come before us in our daily prayers, and then gradually they're forgotten. But here was a man who, long away from the city of Colossae, the saints in Colossae were remembered daily, and his prayers were such that he was laboring for God on their behalf. Mr. Paisley has told us, and we didn't need to be instructed in this, but it's a good thing to be reminded of it, that our prayer meeting is the one meeting that is perhaps the poorest attended, and that's true across the face of the globe. Brethren and sisters, if there's one thing the assemblies of the people of God need today, and I surely must speak to my own heart as well as to anybody else's, it's praying men and women who will lay hold of God on behalf of the saints, on behalf of the assemblies, and on behalf of the testimony in the gospel too. Epaphras was one, and he struggled for the saints at Colossae. Then, last of all, we have a man called Luke, and all we know about him is written here in this very chapter that we've read together this afternoon. Luke, the beloved physician. And yet we can read between the lines and see something of this man, Luke, and how he must have been a tremendous comfort, a tremendous encouragement to the Apostle Paul. He was, of course, to begin with, apparently a highly educated man, because I'm sure that in the first century, any who had the degree of doctor were men who had gone through some fairly decent schools. He was one. But as far as his relationship to Paul is concerned, it appears as though that all the time he's praying, he's playing second fiddle. He's actually accompanying the Apostle Paul, and for the most part, he appears to be accompanying Paul in order to help look after the man and perhaps even render to him some medical assistance. Now that's, of course, all, as I say, trying to read between the lines, if we may be permitted to do that. But there's more to it than that. This man, Luke, was a very, very strong influence on Paul the Apostle. Now, I'm sure you will agree with me that the Apostle Paul, probably one of the greatest servants that God ever had, I'm inclined to think the greatest, but I know that some might disagree a little with that. Certainly, to say the least, one of the greatest servants that God ever had. Yet the Apostle Paul must have been a man of very strong character to bear what he did bear. You've only got to read the Second Corinthian Epistle and see what he endured for Christ's sake. And yet this man was very, very definitely influenced by Luke. In Paul's letters, there are twenty one medical terms that are found only one other place in the New Testament, and they're all found in Luke's gospel. You can see what I mean. Here was a man whose very vocabulary, Paul that is, whose very vocabulary was influenced by Luke, and you can certainly be sure that he was influenced in other ways as well. And I don't for one moment imagine that the influence that Luke had on the Apostle Paul was not for good. Well, what about us? And what about our influence in the assembly of God's people? As I come and go among you, as you come and go in the assembly where you are, is there an influence that is for good and helps encourage and strengthen and help raise up the hands, the feeble hands that hang down among the saints today. Such a man as Luke is certainly very, very necessary. Sadly, we don't end there. Seven men who very evidently give to us an example in different ways. One more man. What we have to say about Demas is that he was a feeble follower. He's mentioned three times in the scriptures, and the Apostle Paul mentions him twice without saying a thing about him. Here, of course, or rather in Second Timothy chapter four we are told, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this pleasant age, and he's departed on to Thessalonica. The two times, this is one of them here in Colossians, the two times that the Apostle Paul speaks of Demas, he doesn't say anything. And I would suggest possibly that what the Apostle Paul is actually saying is, Demas, no comment. No comment. He couldn't commend him, and there was something about him, possibly, that the Apostle Paul sensed, and when the test came, as we find it in second Timothy chapter four, Demas pursued the apostle and went off to Thessalonica. Now, it's generally accepted, I think almost entirely said when Demas is mentioned, that he was a backslider. Well, he was that, and probably that's true enough. But again, brothers and sisters, I think there's a challenge here. Here was a man who knew that if he stood with the Apostle Paul in Rome at this particular time, like as not, his life too would be forfeit. He couldn't face that. And whatever it means that he had forsook the Apostle Paul, he left Rome and went back, went back there to Thessalonica. He was face to face, shall we say, with the ultimate challenge, and he failed. Well, now you and I, for the most part, have never been called upon to face that ultimate challenge. And I'm sure that if you have any sense of earnestness in your own lives with regard to, well, our own weaknesses, there are times when you think of that, and you just imagine, as I've done, and particularly up yonder in northern, uh, North Korea, in the city of Pyongyang, when we were very, very much under scrutiny, and they had said to us, that is the commune people, we don't think what you, we don't think you are what you appear to be. And we wondered if we were going to be taken into a cell and perhaps a gun placed to our head. Now, I'm exaggerating a little bit. A gun placed to our head and said, it's either renounce Christ or die. I wonder how I've, how would I have reacted? We all have those thoughts. Of course, we're not faced with it, and if the day ever came like that, God forbid that it should, but if it ever came like that, God gives grace, as he's done in so many lands. But the point is, brothers and sisters, how far are we willing to go to stand for Christ on a day that denies him and an age that makes so little of him? Demas, when he faced the test, sadly, he failed. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, that it's only a life lived zealously for God here and now, plus one day to up anchor, as the Apostle Paul says in Timothy chapter four, and say, I am now ready to be offered for the day of my departure is at hand. Is it not time we were up and at it, preparing for that time when the Lord either takes us home or we are caught up with all the saints to meet him in the air? May the Lord help us then to follow in some of these examples that we've been reading about.