This is a very exciting. Thing for our church, we have 10
people that are getting baptized on Sunday and a lot of, a lot
of, of new Christians, if you will, a lot who are, who have
really maybe maybe you fit into this category too.
But a lot of people who have never been discipled and who
have never had somebody take them through the fundamental
doctrines of the faith have have never been taken through the
fundamentals of the faith. And so once we finish up with
Colossians here, we're going to start doing that on Wednesday
night. Some of you will be familiar
with this because we did it last year a little bit on Tuesday
nights. I think we did some Thursday
nights, the 52 discipleship lessons.
And what I'm, what I think I'm going to do is, is just kind of
start back at the beginning and do that on Wednesday nights and
take everybody through that. It's always good to have a
refresher course on that. Many have never been through it.
The ones who, who may know a lot of these things will benefit
from it as well. Because you can take that and go
teach it to somebody else. And that's the whole purpose of
it, right? We should be getting to the
point where we can teach others also is what the Bible says.
And so very, very exciting. We got, we got young people,
older people, everybody in between that are getting
baptized on, on Sunday morning. And of course it takes us a
little while of, of, you know, people getting saved to be able
to do it 'cause we don't have it just sitting out.
Otherwise we'd probably do it as soon as people were ready.
But it's a little bit of a setup process for us and everything
else. But I got to, I got to mention
this. So we, we did the baptism class
on Wednesday night after church or sorry, Sunday night after
church just to, you know, a lot of, a lot of the ones that are
in that class are going through the first steps for new
Christians. And, you know, we're kind of
individually discipling everybody and, and taking them
through that. But everybody had gotten to the
fifth section, which is about baptism.
And so rather than going through that with everybody
individually, I just decided to do a whole class and, and, and
put everybody in there together and talk through it.
And after we finished up with all of that stuff, John and
Marlisa came into office and just got to talking and, and
we're doubting their own salvation.
And both of them accepted Christ as their Savior on Wednesday
night. So they had already been through
the baptism class, so they're going to get baptized on Sunday
as well. So very, very exciting.
And, and actually the reason that they had come into the
office in the 1st place was talking about joining the
church. So they're going to do that
after the service on Wednesday as well.
So very exciting to be able to have them as part.
And Josh was already planning to get baptized, which is why they
were in the class in the 1st place.
So make it a family affair and just get them all at the same
time. So, but very exciting, very
exciting and just just excited to be a part of what God's
doing. And you know, God's using you.
And I've said this many, many times, you know, if God, you
know, God called me to pastor the church obviously, and start
the church and everything else. But if it was just me, there
wouldn't be much of A church. And if it was just me, you know,
trying to do all the work by myself, once we had people
coming, there wouldn't be much of anything going on.
So it takes everybody working together and going forward.
And, and I believe that's why God's blessing is because we
have a lot of people who are willing to be involved, a lot of
people who are involved in the outreach and in the different
ministries of trying to get the gospel out.
And God blesses it. You know, we may not always see
results come from the, the direct ministry, although we
have, you know, especially from the Bibles and things we've seen
people get saved. We've seen people come to church
because of it. Certainly the door knocking and
things we've had people come and, and the visitation and all
of those things are, are, are things where we have seen people
come. But God just gives the increase
when you're doing what he tells you to do, and he brings the
people here that that maybe you never even had a contact with.
And we've seen that happen many, many times.
So it's exciting to be a part of that.
But as we come to the end of Colossians chapter 4, Paul
really has given the Colossians everything that they need, the
church there at Colossae, everything they need to know
doctrinally. And now he begins this roll call
of his colleagues, his companions in the ministry and
really finishes out the whole rest of the chapter that way.
So let me let me just read the rest of the chapter and kind of
give everything to you in context.
By the way. In fact, I was just having a
conversation with with with Frank the other day.
And you know, there's a couple of things that we have to
remember when it comes to studying the Bible and
understanding doctrine and, and not getting pulled away by some
of these doctrines. OK, perfect example is, is the,
is the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation.
There are verses that if you read that one verse makes it
sound like baptism is necessary for salvation, right?
Peter said, repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, right?
It makes it sound like in order to have your sins taken care of,
to have your sins remitted, you have to be baptized.
But there's a couple things to remember #1 you have to take
every verse in context of the chapter, You have to take every
chapter in context of the book, and you have to take every book
in context of the entire Bible the the context.
Of the entire Bible certainly does not tell us that we have to
be baptized in order to be saved.
In fact, there's a lot of things that show us that you don't have
to be baptized in order to be saved, but what we have to.
Remember that I think a lot of people forget is that the
chapters and the verses are not inspired, right?
The word of God is inspired. Every word of God is inspired.
But the chapters and the verses were not added until the 1500s.
They were put in there to help us find our places in the Bible
quicker, right? And I think, I think it for the
most part, they're, they're put in a good place and they help us
to, to, to read through the chapters.
And I can say turn to Colossians chapter 4.
And you don't have to open your scroll and follow along to try
to figure out where I pick up reading, right?
So it's helpful to have the verses and the chapters and
everything else, but they're not inspired.
And you have to remember that books like this, Colossians was
a letter that Paul wrote, right? Could you imagine if somebody
took one sentence out of the letter that you wrote to
somebody, took it out of context and made it say something
completely different than what you intended to say?
But that's what a lot of people do with the word of God because
they find this one verse and look, this verse is the verse
that I can point to that says this.
But you're not taken in context of the, the, the whole chapter
or the whole passage, whole paragraph of what the writer was
intending to say. And so we have to remember that
as we're studying God's word, that you have to take everything
in context of the passage and then obviously of the book and
then of the whole word of God. But Paul has taken a lot of time
here throughout the book of Colossians to correct this,
this, this idea of Gnosticism. And he, you know, he kind of
ends by just leaving these Gnostics to their apostasy.
And, and he's embracing the people who are of like precious
faith. And that's what he does here at
the end. So we pick it up in Colossians
chapter 4 and verse #7. All my state shall Titicus
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 Onessimus, 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 prisoners, saluteth you and
Marcus, sister son to Barnabas, touching whom you received.
Commandments, if they come unto you, receive him.
And 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.
A Paffris, 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 at Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
Luke the beloved physician. And Dimas greets you, salute the
brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphis, and the church
which is in his house. And when this epistle is read
among you, 'cause that it be read also in the Church of the
Laodiceans, and that she likewise read the epistle from
Laodicea, and say to Archopus, Take heed to the ministry which
thou has received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.
The salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds.
Grace to be with you. Amen.
You can tell that this is a letter that Paul is writing to
this church and he's he's greeting these people and he's
saying, hey, these other guys that are with me want to greet
you as well. But these men, these are men
that stood for the truth, stood for the faith that was delivered
from the apostles. And this is by no means all of
the people that Paul could have included.
I'm sure there was probably no doubt many more people that were
part of this ministry that Paul could have have put on that
list. And of course, these men are not
perfect. One of them, we find out later,
was a backslider who left Paul because he loved the world.
The other one that we see here later on, Archipus, he had to be
chastised. He had to be rebuked because
apparently he just wasn't taking the ministry seriously or
something along those lines. But Paul was essentially giving
the Colossian church men that he could point to as examples that
they could look up to. These were men who had rejected
the ideas of, of, of apostasy and Gnosticism and all of these
other things that were coming into the church.
And they had chosen the side of the truth.
They had chosen the side that Paul had drawn a line on.
And they, and they were on the right side of those things.
And so, you know, going through the Bible and getting acquainted
with the people in the Bible is a huge undertaking.
There's a lot of names in the word of God, a lot of people in
the word of God. Christianity was not born and
bred in ivory towers. It was not, it was not hidden
behind fancy walls. It was not some collection of,
you know, theological propositions and, and people who
are who, you know, were sitting behind a desk all day and just
writing for a living and everything else.
Christianity, especially in these in these early days, was,
was lived out by the men that that work to spread the message
of the gospel. And Paul was, was privileged to
be able to work with them. They were privileged to be able
to work with him. But the truths of the word of
God and Christianity are lived out through the people that we
find in the Bible, which is why we can say, hey, this is what
Paul said. Hey, this is what, what Epaphras
did. Hey, this is what this man did.
This is what this man did. God put them in the Bible for a
reason. They were, they were, they were
to be an example to us. And they're not all men.
We have some women in the Bible who are great examples as well.
But Paul ends his epistle by mentioning by name 10 people and
then adding his own name to the list and saying his final
farewell to this church at Colossi.
But their names many times just seem to be mentioned and then
lost to obscurity. We don't most of these names, we
don't even recognize most of these names.
We certainly don't know. But these were real people.
They, they lived, they loved, they sacrificed, they suffered,
they sorrowed, they laughed, they cried.
They were real people. And I think sometimes we forget
about that. Even with the even with the more
well known ones, even with the Apostle Paul, we say Paul said
this, Paul did that. But but imagine if the apostle
Paul was one of you just living amongst us.
Imagine if brother Matt was the Apostle Paul.
I mean, that's that's what Paul was like.
He was just a normal person, right?
He was doing things for the Lord.
He was busy serving the Lord and and he was writing for the Lord.
And of course, he was in a little bit different position
because he was an apostle, but he was just a person who labored
among them, just like all of you are, just like all of us are
together. But they had, you know, they had
their moments of, of excitement. They had ambitions.
They had, they had aspirations, they had hopes, they had dreams,
they had fears. These were real people.
They were normal people just like you and I are.
And I want you to realize that. But these stories, their, their
stories, all of the ones that we have here in Colossians and of
course, all the way through the rest of the Bible, their, their
stories are written and done. Our stories are still.
Being written and we're. Going to talk about these men
and this is just kind of the this is the first of what's
going to be a couple weeks of of finishing this book out because
I I want to highlight some of these men of example that's what
they are they're men of example that were given to us as
somebody that we can follow things that we can take from
these men's life and follow them the way that they followed
Christ and I want to look at three of those men tonight, but
essentially the way that we'll describe each of these men is
probably something that could be written on their tombstone.
What? What will be written on your?
Tombstone, when you're gone. Oh, you always talk, talk about
somebody that's dead in glowing terms at their funeral, right?
Oh, he was such a good person. Bless his heart.
He had a lot of faults, but he was such a good person, right?
That's the way they tell. That's what that's why they talk
about it when you weren't a very good person, right?
But but what, what could be written on your tombstone?
What do you want to be written on your tombstone?
Maybe that's a better way to put it.
That's something to think about. And hope you do that as we go
through this. This, this lesson tonight, this
message tonight, and I hope some of these things will ring true
with you a little bit as we go through them.
But let's pray we'll talk about three of these men that Paul
mentions here tonight. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity we
have to study your word. I thank you that we have these
examples, these men of example in the Bible that we can follow.
I pray that you'd help us to learn from their example.
God, may we follow their example as they follow you.
And of course, all these men that we have in the Bible did.
God, may we follow you first and foremost.
May this message be a help to us tonight, but thank you again for
all that you do for us. In Jesus name, Amen.
The first one that we have mentioned here in verse #7 is
Tichikas, and I never knew how to pronounce his name.
I was Tichikas. Tichikas, how do you say it?
So I went back and looked it up. And you know how you can type in
how do you pronounce this word? And, and then I listened to a
couple different versions, not versions of the Bible, it's King
James Version, but a couple different people reading, a
couple different readers who are reading the King James Version
of the Bible and. One of them pronounced it
Tikakis. One of them said Tikakis.
And I said, all right, I got to get to the bottom of this thing.
I went to YouTube and I said, how do you pronounce?
And that guy said Tikakis and he sounded like he knew what he was
talking about. So I'm going to use, I'm going
to go with Tichikis. But the thing that we find about
Tichikis here is that he was a faithful man.
And we first actually are introduced to Tichikis in Acts
chapter 20. He's and you can turn over there
if you want to. We're going to get to Acts
chapter 20 in a little bit. But he's mentioned briefly as
one of Paul's companions on his third missionary journey.
And it's likely that he was saved at some point during
Paul's stay at Ephesus. Paul stayed in Ephesus for quite
some time, and more than likely he was from Ephesus.
Tichikis was from Ephesus, and that's where he was led to
Christ. But Paul had actually been
forced to leave Ephesus in in quite a hurry because of the
riot that broke out there. But he crossed over into Europe
and they decided that he was going to go to Jerusalem because
the Spirit of the Lord was leading him to go there.
He was bound to go to Jerusalem as he said it.
But he was accompanied on this trip, and it was quite a long
trip by a really a remarkable group of friends, mostly from
the churches that he had founded.
But these men were bringing financial aid to the church at
Jerusalem. It was impoverished by that
point because of all the persecution and because of all
the really the persecution of other Christians there.
It wasn't just physical. A lot of it was physical.
But in many cases, if they found out that somebody was a
Christian, they wouldn't shop at their businesses.
They were just, they were doing everything they could to to just
completely ruin them. And so seven men were named in
Acts chapter 20. And Titicus is one of those men
that was with Paul. And during that long journey to
Jerusalem, no doubt Paul came to know Titicus very well as they
work together, no doubt he they came to know each other very
well. And he marked him down as a man
of promise in the things of God. And then Paul's arrest comes.
When he gets to Jerusalem, he has a long detention at Caesarea
Maritimo, which is right there on the Mediterranean coast.
That's where Paul actually wrote a lot of his letters.
The prison epistles were written from that that point, or some of
them were but his witness before governors and kings.
Eventually he makes his way to Rome as a prisoner.
He's in house arrest there, and he wrote more books when he was
in prison there. But we don't know whether
Tichikas was with Paul that entire time.
But we do know that he was with him for at least part of that
captivity, and he gave Paul devoted service at that time.
So Paul then sends him off to Colossi to tell the believers
there what's going on. This is what he's saying.
All my state shall Titicus declare unto you, who is a
beloved brother and a faithful minister and a 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.
Paul is saying, Hey, you go there, Titicus.
You know that area well. You know them, they know you.
You go there and find out what their estate is.
Paul hadn't really heard from them since he had been in
prison. And you tell them what's
happening with me. Paul knew that he could trust
Titicus to do that job. So Paul really gives us a kind
of a two things about this man Titicus.
And first thing is that he gives us a look at his character.
He gives us a look at his character.
He was a beloved brother. The Bible says he was a faithful
minister, the Bible says, and he was a fellow servant of the
Lord. And I believe that Paul really
valued the friendship of this man.
And I don't know, there's, there's probably, there's a few
things that you can say about somebody that would be more
enduring in the New Testament than that He was a beloved
brother. You think about that, a beloved
brother. When you say that about
somebody, you're, you're pretty close to that person, right?
You call somebody a brother or you call him a friend.
Well, you call somebody a beloved brother.
That's a pretty tight bond. That's a pretty close
friendship. And, and I think it speaks of a
kinship that's that closer than any earthly tie.
He wasn't the only one that earned Paul's commendation in
this way, but he was one of them.
He earned the Lord's commendation as well.
Matthew chapter 25. And if you want to turn over
there and just look at this passage, I'm not going to read
the entire thing, but Matthew chapter 25, verse 34 through
verse 40 talks about some of the things.
And Jesus is, is, is saying this, but you know, whosoever
give it, give it somebody that needs a drink, a drink or
whoever clothes, somebody that needs clothes.
He said I was in prison and you came unto me.
And and then he says is is blessed to everybody who does
that. I was in prison and you came
unto me, that Jesus said that man was blessed of my father.
And he also said that he was to inherit the Kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world.
Paul had a way of attracting those kind of people to himself.
But Titicus did that very thing that the Lord blessed.
He visited Paul when he was in prison.
He stood by Paul in the face of danger.
He stood by Paul in the face of death.
You think about this. Paul was a political prisoner.
And to go to Paul and associate yourself with Paul when Nero
more than likely had very close eyes on Paul and and the others
who were moving around him. He probably had spies among
Paul's prison guards, maybe even among Paul's prisoners, fellow
prisoners. But no wonder Paul called
Tichikas A beloved brother. But Paul valued this man's
fellowship as well. He was a beloved brother.
He valued his friendship, but he valued his fellowship.
The Bible says in Colossians chapter 4 and verse #7 not only
is he a beloved brother, but he was a faithful fellow servant, a
fellow servant. Literally, it's a fellow slave.
It's somebody who is sold out out to the same master.
And then he says he was a faithful minister.
Paul knew that he could that that he would he could trust him
to follow diligently that that plow all the way to the end of
the row. He was not going to quit.
He was not going to back down. He was going to he was going to
continue plowing all the way through to the end.
And he mentioned a fact turn over to Ephesians chapter 6.
Titicus obviously is mentioned here in Colossians.
He's mentioned in. Acts.
A name that really we we skip over many times.
But he's also mentioned in Ephesians, and I think this is
really interesting. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
#21 Now this is written to the church at Ephesus, obviously a
very different church than the church at Colossae, but that ye
also may know my affairs and how I do Titicus.
Here it is again. A beloved brother and faithful
minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I
have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our
affairs and that he might comfort your heart.
He's doing the exact same thing for the church at Colossae as
he's doing for the church here in Ephesus.
But but, but Paul uses the same phrases in the same term for
him, fellow servant, faithful minister.
He's also named in connection with Trophemus in Acts chapter
#20 that I think if gives us the indication that Tichicus and
Trophemus were both Ephesians and came from the same place.
Acts chapter 20 and verse #4 And there accompanied him into Asia,
Sopater of Berea and of the Thessalonians, Thessalonians,
Aristarchus and Sekundus, and Gaius of Derby and Timotheus,
and of Asia, Titicus and Trophemus.
So he was with Paul too, later on during his second
imprisonment when the danger was very great.
Fact, turn over to Second Timothy, chapter 4.
Paul, I, I think, appreciated this, the fact that Tichikas was
willing to put his life on the line for Paul and they sent him
back to Ephesus, I think, to get him out of harm's way.
He knew that that that Tichikas his life was in danger the same
way that his was and the longer he stayed around the the the the
the more danger his life was in. But in Second Timothy chapter 4
and verse #10 here's yet another passage where he's mentioned.
And of course Demas is mentioned in Colossians chapter 4.
And sadly the story of Demas didn't end well.
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,
and is departed into Thessalonica creations to the to
Galatia Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to
me. For the ministry and Titicus
have I sent to. That was a later time.
This was the second imprisonment.
But Paul now gives us a look at the Commission that he gave to
Tichikas at the time of his first imprisonment.
And if you go back over to Colossians chapter 4, he's
saying whom I have sent verse #8 unto you for the same purpose,
that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts.
But Paul sends his faithful partner to Colossi to F
physician, then on to Colossi. But the other thing that's very
interesting, we know about Onessimus from from the book of
Philemon, but Titicus and Onessimus were together on this
trip Verse number. Nine, with Onessimus, a faithful
and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall make known
unto you all things which are done here.
Paul knew that he could trust Titicus.
He seemed to, I think, carried both the Ephesian and the
Colossian letter with him. Of course, Oneessimus had the
the letter to Philemon that he was carrying back with him,
which we'll talk about that in just a little bit.
But the the letter to the Ephesians was actually supposed
to be a circular. Letter.
It wasn't written. It was written to the church at
Ephesus, but it was supposed to be read by all the other
churches around there as well. And as soon as he had delivered
it to that church, no doubt he took copies to all the other
churches in the area as well. So you you think about this,
it's not it's not hard to picture Tichikas just going from
church to church 1 area to the next at Ephesus in in danger of
losing their first love and Smyrna about to face the fiery
persecution they didn't even know was coming yet.
Maybe they maybe they thought there was something that was on
the horizon, but about to face fiery persecution from
everything we know about them. He goes to Pergamus, where the
the heresy of Balaam would eventually take root.
He goes to Thyatira, where the Bible says that woman Jezebel
would soon make her evil presence felt.
Sardis, a church that was boastful of the reputation that
they had. He made his way more than likely
to Philadelphia, where the revival fires burned, and then
on to Laodicea, where where love of money was already becoming
the root of all evil. All of these churches that,
that, that that Titicus is visiting and carrying these
letters with him as that letter is circulating throughout the
throughout Asia and throughout that area.
But doubtless he went to Colossi where Titicus began that circuit
from Ephesus and everywhere Paul's friends and converts and
supporters. You, you just can imagine would
be full of questions. How is Paul doing?
Is is, is his life going to be spared?
Are they going to kill him? What's going to happen?
Is he going to be able to come visit us?
I mean, all of those were questions.
You, you couldn't just hop online and find out what was
happening. It's not like you can just go
get a, a copy of the newspaper and read it and figure out what
was going on with the Apostle Paul.
Nobody knew, but these were all churches that he had been to and
churches that he had helped start and converts that he had
won to Christ who went back to some of these places and started
these churches. They had a lot of a lot that was
invested in knowing what was happening with the Apostle Paul.
And here at Tichikas, he he he can trust him to take not only
these letters back to them, but also to tell them of what's
going on with Paul and then find out what's happening with them
so he can report it back to Paul when he comes back to where Paul
was in prison. And basically Tichikas was given
A2 fold Commission. First he was get information
about the Colossians. Paul probably hadn't heard
anything else from the church in Colossae.
Just a little market town. Wasn't a big town at all.
In fact, if if we didn't have the book written to the
Colossians, you probably never would have heard of Colossae.
It's well known to us. But it was a tiny little town.
And it wasn't long after the book was written to Colossae
that the town kind of fizzled down to pretty much nothing.
But Paul would have been eager For more information.
How? How?
How great had the inroads of the cults been?
How, how much heresy had entered the church, which families had
sided with the heretics in and which ones had had chosen the
side of the truth? Who's who's still there?
Who's left? Who's giving up the faith?
Who's kept the faith? How what's the what's the church
look like? Are more people being added or
people being saved? Paul was interested in these
things. You remember he said this many,
many times. I'm praying for you and I'm
praying fervently for you. Could you imagine doing all of
that praying and not knowing what was happening with the
church? That's why he was sending
Titicus to go see how this church was doing.
He wanted information. It wasn't just that he was
looking for gossip. He wanted to know, is it
working? Is it helping?
Are they, are they still going on for the Lord even with it,
without me? Being there and without others
being there. But I think also Paul would want
to know what the response had been to his letter.
And not only that, but he had tucked this little note away in
Oneessimus's bag that he was on his way to carry 2 Philemon
there as well. But the second thing that Paul
wanted Tichikas to do was to give inspiration to those
Colossians. Obviously, he had a letter to
him to to them that he was supposed to deliver.
And a lot of things in that letter, as we've already talked
about, are encouraging things, but it's also some things of a
very strong warning. I mean, he said he said many
good things about them, but he was trying to comfort their
hearts. The, the problem is that heresy
was going to leave its scars and it wasn't long.
It didn't take long before the heresy started to sneak in.
By the way, you know, you have a lot of these people today who
say, well, why can't we just why do we have to have
denominations? Why can't we just be non
denominational? Why can't we just all be the way
it was in 1st century Christianity?
There were no denominations in Christ's day.
It was just Jesus and they followed Jesus and that was it.
There was no, none, There was no denominations.
Why do we have to have all these things?
Well, look, in the first generation after Christ died and
rose from the dead, already there were things that were
sneaking into these churches that were that, that, that were
trying to, to turn them away from Christ.
And the problem is some of those churches latched on to that
heresy. And the churches who latched on
to the heresy were not the same as the ones who held true to
the, the, the faith that was first delivered to them by the
apostles. And so there is a need for
separation. There is a need for
denominations. Now, we're Baptist not because
that makes you that, that that sends you to heaven, right?
But I say, why not go to heaven first class?
But we're Baptist because of what the Bible says.
And and we believe that the Baptist doctrine is the closest
to the word of God. That's why I'm a Baptist.
It's not because that's what I grew up in.
It's not because that's what I just happened to land in.
No, I'm a Baptist because that's the closest to the Word of God,
and I'm a Baptist because I want to make a distinction between
the other denominations that are out there that are preaching
things that are not in God's Word.
And that's exactly what Paul was doing.
Hey, you've got to understand there is error that's creeping
in, and you need to separate from that error.
The problem is some of them didn't separate from it.
Some of them kept it and I don't think it stayed in the church,
but I don't think many of them left the church completely.
I think some of them went off and started their own churches
and, and, and took that heresy with them.
And even in the 1st century Christianity, we see
denominations already. We didn't call them by those
different denominations, but you, you can see a separation,
you can see a distinction between them.
But you think about this, I mean, I'm sure there was
families that were divided in those churches.
I'm sure they were friends who were divided in those churches.
Loved ones would become traitors to the cause of Christ.
Paul knew enough about Tichikas to know that his very presence
in colossi when that epistle was delivered and read would be a
blessing to the believers. They knew Tichikas, they knew
that he had spent time with Paul.
They knew his reputation. And Paul said he was a faithful
minister. Titicus was an old campaigner.
He would he would stiffen the resistance of the church to the
cults that were trying to snake their way in.
But that's the man that Titicus was.
He represented some 10 years of faithful service, part of it
during the the time that Paul was was in detention at Rome.
Much of it spent in in dangerous and even wearisome journeys that
he was along with the apostle Paul.
But Paul regarded this man Tichikas as his fellow slave.
As if to say, I've I've composed this epistle, Tichikas, but
you're the one that's going to have to deliver this thing.
We're in this together. You start delivering this letter
and it's intercepted and they find that you're in trouble too.
Not just me, it's you. We're both.
Willing to be captives for our Lord.
I think of how astonished Tichikas would be.
I found the day when he boarded that boat to make his trip over
to Colossi and he had Onessimus with him, who also had a little
letter stuffed in his bag that he was taking back to his
master. If Tichikas could have actually
known, how many people over the centuries would read that letter
that he was carrying in that bag?
And how many? People would be encouraged by
the letter that he had in that bag, the millions and millions
and millions of Christians in the 2000 years that followed
that would be reading that letter that he had that he was
about to deliver to the Colossians.
He was just, he was a real person and he was delivering it
to a real church. He was delivering it to people
who had real struggles, just like you and I have when it
comes to our faith and people who go through ups and downs in
their spiritual life. But that letter that he had,
that he was carrying, what, outlast the Roman Empire?
Empire, it'll be translated into thousands of languages.
Could you imagine if Tichikas knew that that's the letter that
he was carrying in his bag that day?
He didn't. But he was faithful and he
delivered that message. And millions and millions of
people not only read the message that he delivered, but they're
reading about him. And he's a man of example for us
because the Bible says he was a faithful man.
He was a faithful minister back in Colossians chapter 4, verse
#9 Obviously we have Titicus that is going and delivering
these things. But it says with Onessimus, a
faithful and beloved brother. Who is one of you?
They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.
Well, I think the thing that we can say about Onessimus is he
was the fugitive man, but it's not just that he was a runaway
slave. I think this is very
interesting. Onessimus was a runaway slave
with a price on his head and probably the shadow of death by
crucifixion laying on top of him.
Crucifixion was a common method of.
Death for a slave who? Had run away.
If he was brought back to his master, his master, it was very
commonly accepted in that day, would would devise some serious
torture methods and ultimately usually would would put him to
death by crucifixion. He was trying to make an example
out of that slave. You better not run away or this
is going to happen to you too. And that was commonly accepted
in that day. Slave owners just assumed that
any master that recovered a runaway slave would be very
harsh and and ultimately put that slave to death.
Onessimus though, had one hope. Philemon, his master was a
Christian. And now Onessimus was a
Christian as well. Could you imagine what must have
been going through Onessimus? His mind?
He had spent time around the Apostle Paul.
He had been around Tichikas. He had been around all these
other men, faithful men, and obviously they treated him just
like one of them. He was no different before the
Lord. But just because you get saved
does not mean that all of your problems go away.
Both he and his master owed their conversion to Paul, and in
his bag on estimates was carrying a letter from Paul to
Philemon, which was the master that he had run away from.
He was a free man in Christ, but he was still a runaway slave,
and now he is carrying essentially the possibility of
his own death sentence back to his master.
He'd been pardoned by God for all of his sin, but he still had
to face the consequences of the wrong that he had done.
And conversion, as I mentioned, does not cancel moral,
financial, even social debts. People who get saved still have
to deal with the consequences of the life that they chose before
they got saved. And I believe God in his mercy
will allow the consequences of those things to not necessarily
be as bad as what they could have been.
But, you know, somebody who smokes their entire life before
they get saved doesn't automatically get healed of
their lung cancer. Somebody who drank and drank and
drank before they got saved does not mean that their liver is
just going to automatically be healed because they got saved.
There are consequences and there are things that we have to deal
with. Somebody who had poor financial
habits and just lived a life of debauchery and everything else
does not mean that all of their money problems go away because
they got saved. There's still some consequences
of those things that we have to deal with.
But like Tichikis Onessimus, Paul said, is a beloved brother,
which is such a wonderful thing when you think about it.
Here's this man who in society was just considered a slave,
kind of the lowest of the low. Paul leads this man to Christ
and he treats him like a brother.
And not just a brother, but a beloved brother.
We're on the same level here. There is no difference between
the Jew or the Greek, the bond or the free.
There is no difference between us in Christ Jesus.
And so he's a fellow member of the body of Christ by the by the
virtue of the fact that he has been converted, but unfaithful,
however unfaithful he might have been before he got saved.
But Paul says now he is faithful and Paul had put him to the
test. The fact that he's now on his
way back to Philemon to face the music, as we say, is an
indication of that new trustworthiness, the new, the
new life that he found in Jesus Christ.
And that's a great example of how we ought to come to Christ.
When we get things right with God, we ought to be willing to
make it right with whoever we wronged.
Think about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus came to know Christ as
his savior, and he realized that he had wronged a lot of people.
But what did Zacchaeus do? Well, I'm a Christian now.
All my debts are gone. Don't worry about that.
It's under the blood. He said no, I've wronged these
people. I need to make it right.
And I think as as much as we possibly can after we get saved,
we ought to make things right. Some things maybe you just
can't. Some things you don't remember.
Some things are things that are just under the blood, but if you
can make it right, you ought to make it right when you come to
Jesus Christ. But Paul says, They shall make
known unto you all things which are done here.
Winning souls like Oneessimus to Christ was one of those things.
Great things were going. On and I don't have time to read
through Philippians chapter 1, but Paul in Philippians chapter
1 is telling all of the people there in Philippi about the
things that are happening great things were going.
On and obviously he gets back. Onessimus gets back and Philemon
does accept him the way that a Christian should accept him.
But Paul says about Onessimus, he was a fugitive man, but he
was faithful. He was faithful.
Number 3IN Colossians chapter 4. And very quickly as we close
here, we read about another man in verse #10 Aristarchus, my
fellow prisoner, saluteth you. Now that's interesting.
My fellow prisoner Aristarchus. We don't read about Aristarchus
being captured and put in prison.
We don't read about him preaching the gospel and being
captured for the sake of preaching.
He's not necessarily. We don't read about him being
alongside the Apostle Paul in one of these places where they
drag him out of the city and stone him.
Doesn't mean that he wasn't, but we don't read about that.
In fact, turn over to Acts Chapter 19.
Aristarchus was actually from Thessalonica, and he was a
faithful companion of the apostle Paul.
He became a companion of Paul's On his third missionary journey.
He accompanied him to Ephesus. He was captured and killed,
almost killed by the mob in the riot that was raised by
Demetrius and the silversmiths. And we read this in Acts chapter
19 and verse #29 The whole city was filled with confusion, and
having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia,
Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with 1 accord into
the theater. Now, if you've never been in one
of these places, never been to Israel, never been.
I haven't been to Ephesus or some of these other places.
I've seen a lot of pictures of it.
I know some of you have been in those places and seen it, but if
you never actually seen one of these theaters, it's hard to.
It's hard to get this in your mind.
But some of those theaters were very, very big and they would
fit a lot of people. And it's not like the people,
you know, a lot of people. And there's, I don't, I don't
really feel like going to the theater tonight.
I'm just going to sit home and watch TV or I'm going to sit
home and read the newspaper. I'm going to sit home and, you
know, scroll through YouTube or Facebook or there was nothing
else to do. So when they had things like
that that were going on in the town, almost the entire town was
there. And you get all of these people
riled up at just a couple men and these, you know, Demetrius
and the silversmiths and, and obviously, you know, Diana of
the Ephesians and, and they had been making all of these statues
and, and they had been bowing down to these statues forever
and ever. And now here's these two guys,
they're coming in and they're trying to upset that.
And you think that it's OK. That's not OK.
And Demetrius, probably a, a, a silver tongued silversmith, got
up there and got all the people riled up against these men and
they almost killed him. But then he accompanied Paul to
Greece and from there back to Asia Minor.
In fact, if you turn just maybe a page over to Acts chapter 20
and verse #4 and they're accompanied him into Asia.
So Pedro, Berea and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and
Sekundis. Then he accompanied Paul back to
Rome in Acts chapter 27, Acts chapter 27 and verse #2 and
entering into a ship of Adriam Mightiam, we launched meaning to
sail by the coast of Asia, one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of
Thessalonica, being with us. So here he's sharing in the.
Shipwreck with the Apostle Paul. Remember, they were shipwrecked
during that voyage. We don't know at what point
Aristarchus was made a prisoner because the Bible doesn't say
that, but evidently that was the price he paid for his allegiance
to the Apostle Paul. Paul is writing and Paul
obviously is, is, is kind of the focus of many of these things.
Not necessarily that he's putting that focus on himself,
but we're given the story of the apostle Paul in a lot of places.
And we know a lot of the things that Paul suffered and a lot of
things that he went through, but he had a lot of men that were
with him. Some of these men, like
Aristarchus, were caught up in all of those things.
Tradition has it, the Bible doesn't say this, but tradition
has it that he was martyred by Nero.
It's very likely that's a possibility.
But one suggestion is that Paul's friends took turns in
keeping Paul company while he was in prison.
But in order to actually be there in prison with the apostle
Paul, they had to offer themselves as a prisoner.
And maybe that's where you get this idea where Paul says
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteth you.
I don't know, the Bible doesn't say that.
But more than likely he became a prisoner himself just so he
could keep Paul company and keep Paul encouraged Aristarchus, my
fellow prisoner, the fearless man.
The name of a loyalist such as Aristarchus included in this
letter would have been another nail in the coffin coffin to the
cultists there at Colossae. It would have helped strengthen
the hands of those who are fighting against those cultists
in against that cult. Aristarchus was bold in
proclaiming the gospel. He was willing to do what needed
to be done to be an encouragement and a friend to
Paul as well. What you think back in the Old
Testament with Aaron and her holding up the hands of Moses,
Moses was the one who essentially was front and
center. Moses was the one who
essentially. Got the credit if if credit's
going to be given to anybody for the victory that day.
But it was Aaron and her who stood there and held up his
hands, and had Aaron and her not been there to hold up the hands
of Moses, there would have been no victory that day.
And I believe it's the same thing that we find with all of
these people that Paul is mentioning.
Paul is mentioning these people because he's saying, hey, these
men are here holding up my hands.
They're here. They're fellow prisoners.
They're faithful men. They're faithful servants.
They're they're fellow servants. They're they're, they're beloved
brothers. If it wasn't for them, I don't
know if I could have made it through what I've made it
through. If they weren't there to
encourage me, if they weren't there to help me, I don't know
if you would be getting these letters that you're getting to
the Colossians and to the Ephesians and to Timothy and to
these others that were, that were written in a time when
Paul's. Future and when his life was at
stake. But here Paul is mentioning
these men, men of example, one by one.
Hey, Tichakis, he's just a man like you and me, but he's a
faithful man. Oh, Onassimus, he's a fugitive
man, but he's faithful. He's a beloved brother, too.
And oh, Aristarchus, he's been with me on a lot of these
journeys. He's been through a lot of the
same things that I've been through.
He's almost lost his life a couple times as well.
But he's a fearless man. He's bold and speaking the
truth. He's bold to help me.
He's a dear fellow servant. God put them in the Bible for a
reason. Every single word we would say
this, every single word in the Bible is there for a reason,
would we not? You think about all the, all the
things, the, the history of the entire world is wrapped up in
this book right here. Think about all the things that
could have been written. Think about the the volumes and
volumes and volumes and volumes of books that have been written
about world history. There's not a lot when it comes
to all of those things. So God, for a very specific
reason, picked who and what He wanted in His Word, and He
inspired the men to write the things that He wanted to not
just last till the end of time. But guess where this book is
going to be a million years from now?
It's going to be there in eternity with us, and these men
that He gave us as examples are men whose names are going to be
spoken throughout all of eternity when it's associated
with God's Word. He put them in there for a
reason. He put them in there for a
reason, and it was because He wanted us to follow their
example. There's seven more men in here.
We're going to talk about those men, maybe not as in as much
detail as we did with his first few, but there's seven more men
that are in there as examples to us.
I think we do well to follow their example.
Titricus, he's a faithful man. Onessimus, he's a fugitive man,
but he's faithful as well. He's a beloved brother.
And Aristarchus, he's a fearless man.
He's not afraid to stand next to God's man when God's man was in
prison. He's not afraid to speak the
truth of the gospel. When his life was on the line,
he was fearless. He's a fellow prisoner.
What a great example from some of these men that we have that
we can follow. And we'll talk some more talk
about more of them later. But I think we'd do well if we
just get these three down. But what if that was on their
their tombstones? Tichikas a faithful man.
What about if that was on your tombstone?
Would you want to see that on your tombstone?
Aristarchus, fearless man for the gospel sake, what do you
want on your tombstone? What would you want to have said
about you? Because look, you might have
some accomplishments, you might have some things that you've
done, you might have a lot of money, but those are not the
things that are going on your tombstone.
More than likely, if you had one phrase that you could put on
your tombstone that would wrap up your entire life, what would
it be? What would you want it to be?
And if what it would be is not what you want it to be and you
need to make some changes so that what you want it to be is
what will be when you die. Because usually you don't get to
pick what you want on your tombstone.
You're not there to chisel it. Somebody else does that for you.
You can't just make stuff up these guys that that's I don't.
I'm sure there's no. Tombstones where these guys are
buried. But that's what would be on it.
Faithful, fearless, beloved brother, fellow soldiers, fellow
slaves, fellow prisoners. What do you want on your
tombstone? What do you want on your
tombstone? Hopefully what you want is what
will be put because it's the way you lived.
Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us and we thank you for the opportunity
that we have to be here tonight and study for just a few minutes
out of your word may be a help to us.
God, may we consider our lives and if our lives will be summed
up in just a short simple phrase, I wonder what would be
said about us. He loved money.
He loved things. We had an impact in the world in
a physical way. God, may every one of us live in
such a way for you that our tombstones will be marked the
same way these men are marked. Faithful, beloved brother,
fellow servant, fellow prisoner. May those be things that could
be said about us because we lived in a way that's pleasing
to you. Thank you again for all you do
for us. Jesus name Amen.
If you would stand at.