Good evening. Good evening everybody.
It's great to be here to worship with you together and I'm
excited to be with you on our midweek to refocus to
re-energize around what matters. It's been a great night so far
of worship to sing about things that we can truly hopen and
truly look forward to the rest of this week, to ground
ourselves in tonight. We're going to be continuing our
chapter study through Colossians chapter 4.
And tonight we have verses 7 through 13, so if you'll please
turn with me. There will walk through those
verses beginning in verse 7 of Colossians chapter 4, he's going
to get into the the closing right here.
And it, it's a closing, but it has a little bit of meat to it
has some things that we're going to try to unpack a little bit.
They're reads tickets. You kiss a beloved brother
faithful Minister and fellow servant in the Lord will tell
you all the news about me. I'm sending him to you for this
very purpose that he may know your circumstances and comfort
your hearts with onesimus. A faithful and beloved brother,
who is one of you they will make known to you all things which
are happening here. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner
greets you with Mark the cousin of Burma's Mark, the cousin of
An abyss about whom you were seat instructions.
If he comes to you, welcome him and Jesus, who is called
Justice. These are my only fellow workers
for the kingdom of God, who are of the circumcision.
They have proved to be a comfort.
To me, epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ
greets, you all always laboring fervently for you and prayers
that you may stand perfect, and complete and all the will of God
for. I bear him witness that he has a
great Zeal for you. And those who are in laodicea
and those in hieropolis. So these are verses.
These are verses for consideration tonight and we're
going to go in to start off, talking about ticha kiss, there
is mentioned in the verse 7. The question that we have here
is who was ticha kiss and what does this word Minister Min?
So I was so thankful that Frank put together these questions
because I've gone through these closings before and had a little
bit of trouble pulling something out of them and not read.
Just reading over them I've tried before to, you know, okay.
What does this mean? But some of the questions he
asked for simple but they helped me to think about it a little
bit and so, ticha kiss. Did you kiss?
His word literally means casual, or by chance.
My studies didn't get me anywhere to where I found that
to be somewhat symbolic but I'm, maybe you will, or maybe we will
in the future, find some something of interest there.
So, ticha kiss is a man who accompanied Paul on his trip
from Macedonia to Jerusalem. Right here.
He's being used as a as a letter Bearer.
He and onesimus are the ones. Carrying this letter to the
Colossians. And it says he was, we learned
that he was likely a native of Ephesus.
And so, being a native to this area Ephesus colossi, this area
is kind of close together. He was very useful to them as
being a mailman and delivering the message for them.
And it says that he was so involved with Paul that he could
relay the message of what is going on.
So he go, he is Paul here says that that onesimus and tickets
are able to tell them all the things that are going on.
And so, if a man is that involved with Paul to to our
politics says, hey, I'll let him cover.
This, this man is obviously, in there with, in the thick of it,
with Paul, he's in there putting the work in with him.
And it's interesting what we're going to learn, because he's not
probably as famous as Paul, but he's right there.
Only side and through all of his work.
It says there in the second half of verse 7.
So in verse 8, it says I'm sending him to you for this very
purpose that he may know your circumstances and comfort your
hearts. So here this man ticha kisses,
is recorded in the Bible will be remembered forever and one of
the few things that says about him is that he's going to be
there to know their circumstances and comfort.
Their hearts, that is so simple. Just to listen to them, to talk
to them and to comfort them. How many of you here can do
that? How many of us have the ability
to just do something simple like that to listen and to comfort?
And this man is recorded in the Bible.
We'll go on down through history for the simple act, he performed
and this is I think one of the greatest lessons I learned from
touches here is that he is may be contrasted to Paul and his
Fame but he is valued strongly by Paul.
It's, you know, a lot of people think of a man's role is being
preaching, someone who's going to lead song and someone who's
got to be a public leader. And that's fair, that is man's
role but he is listed here is a man who is tender enough to do
something that is just sitting and talking.
So it's never think that a man's role is limited to just things
that are are quantifiable and visible.
Like in the worship service let's remember these other roles
are very important as well. He is described as a faithful
Minister. This word faithful as someone
who can be relied on. So as we start to see a picture
of this man, ticha kiss, I spend more time on him than anybody
else, so don't worry. But this man ticha kiss, is kind
of just a reliable get down. And does the work kind of guy to
stand beside Pole? Now this word Minister, this
we're asked what this word Minister means in the questions.
And this word Minister means he is he is a servant this word
means one who executes the commands of another especially
of a master. He carried the most prestigious
title the church has to offer because we're told by Jesus,
those who serve and those who are lowly are those who are the
greatest and in this title of ministry holds is because he is
one who's willing to sacrifice. Are in Luke 19 verse 46 to 48.
It says an argument arose among them as to, which of them was
the greatest, but Jesus knowing the reasoning of their hearts
took a child and put it, put him by his side and said to them.
Whoever receives this child in my name, receives me and whoever
receives me receives him who sent me for, he who, is least
among you all. Is the one who is great.
This man ticha kiss embodied that he took his job, whatever
his job. Was and he did it well and he
was recognized for it. So maybe we start to speculate
about this man's personality. You know, maybe he was a
common-sense man willing to be trouble with small secular
details with a hearty love for God.
You know, he wasn't one who is above any details?
That were simple like I'm not going to carry the letter.
I want the one, you know, you get to you get to be the one who
wrote and gets all the glory for that Paul.
No, he's just willing to get down and do the delivery.
Do what needs to be done. Maybe he was there for to do the
rough work to do the dirty work for Paul and there is a there's
an old saying I ran across that. I think I feel like the scribes
the worth of a man like tissue kiss.
It says that a horse went about for want of a nail.
He lost his nail. And so he didn't have his shoe,
a man went without a horse because that because that horse
didn't have his horseshoe nail. The battle went, the battle is
lost because the man was not involved and the king and the
Kingdom lost. Because that man was not
involved. Just kind of illustrates simply
the value of a small piece, in a puzzle.
It doesn't important job not to this man.
Did you kiss was and business school?
We're taught that you need the whole supply chain to take care
of customers. You don't just need the the
salesman out front, making the sales.
You need the, the ones in operations management, the ones
behind the scenes getting the product out in time, the ones
behind the scenes, getting things out.
So that the quality is assured, there's so many pieces to a
puzzle and we can see that touch kiss is one of those.
How astonished you think he would have been if anybody had
told him that, these two precious letters that he helped
deliver would allow without last this city without last
everything about this city. And that he would be known
toward to the end of the world for the simple things that he
did. So he is someone who shows us
the simple things we do are Eternal moving on to onesimus.
Goes on to say, in verse 9 with onesimus, a faithful and beloved
brother, who is one of you, they will make known to all the all
things which are happening here. So who is onesimus onesimus, his
name, actually, means profitable and Paul tells Philemon in the
letter that he was unprofitable to Philemon, but he has now
become profitable to Paul because what happened is
onesimus was the runaway slave he got away and he ran into Paul
on the way and he was converted became a Christian Oh, and when
Paul learned of all these things, he sent him back to
Philemon to make all this right. And so onesimus hasn't made in
character in that he gave up his physical Freedom.
He gave in and submitted to, to what needed to happen for the
true Freedom. That was in Christ and so it's
cool to see him worked into this closing as he's developed, a
relationship with Paul and he's developed a name in the church
and he is described as faithful or trustworthy.
And that's great for a man to see that the change in somebody
like that to to do whatever it takes and Come a reliable person
when maybe in the past. He wasn't like that.
And I like that. Paul does not involve the
personal issues of him being a runaway slave in this letter,
this letters to colossi and those issues don't pertain to
all them. He leaves that out the letter to
Philemon was to handle the business with Philemon, but the
personal matters were personal and he didn't kind of call him
out in front of everyone for that.
Going on to question 3. What do we know about the
following men and were introduced to First aristarchus
in verse 10? It says aristarchus my fellow
prisoner greets, you, and Mark the cousin of and with Mark the
cousin of Barnabas. Okay, so aristarchus.
His name means best master, like literally.
And I guess some think that he was a bishop of app Amia, but he
is from thessalonica and It acts 19, verse 29, he's involved in
some other situations and acts. He was the one who was grabbed
with Gaius. When there was the silversmiths,
had the riot over the issues that that, you know, the god,
the Temple of the Goddess. Diana wasn't getting the sales
from the silver anymore and so, the silversmiths would mad.
They lost their business because they were, they were rejecting
the gods of the area. And so there's a rebel.
There was a riot and among the silversmiths.
And, and aristarchus was the man with Gaius.
He was grabbed Paul got out of there, but these two men were
grabbed and I think one of the things we can learn is how
aristarchus was kind of was established by these, this
thing, he went through, he was in danger for Christ.
He was grabbed by a mob and that would have been a scary thing.
Put yourself in that position a bunch of mad businessmen ready
to ready for heads to roll because they're losing business.
And he seems to be established by that event, because we go on
to find out that he's here with Paul.
And then he's goes on to be a prisoner with Paul.
And eventually tradition says that he was martyred by Nero, so
he was killed for Christ and let us always have that mentality.
That will be grounded in remain firm in Christ through our
trials and through the things that try us like aristarchus
because it seems to have made him only stronger.
Going on to Mark. And from what do we know about
Mark? Mark is a relative of Barnabas,
and he worked with Paul and Barnabas and previous missionary
travels, Mark has an interesting story because he was on a good
track, he was traveling with them.
And then, he decided to abandon Paul at pamphylia, when they're
going to more difficult work, he wanted to stay back with
Barnabas and said, hey, I'm not going any further from here and
that caused some serious tension between Paul and Mark.
So Mark has a little bit of some rough history with Paul but it's
great. It's awesome to see that he here
is mentioned in Paul's letter, in the closing specifically.
So this was the situation where Paul took Silas and Barnabas
took Mark and they went their separate ways and this is
actually the first mention of Mark since then, so it's kind of
a big deal for him to be spoken of here but then the second
Corinthians chapter 3 Mark is re recommended by Paul.
Paul said he is he's kind of restored to him in a way that
he's seen that he's useful for the cause of Christ and he
appreciates that in him. Going on to Barnabas Barnabas is
name is actually Joseph from birth, but they gave him the
name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.
And that's a pretty cool name that you could be known for your
encouraging attributes. Another character in this, in
this little ending, who we can see, simple things that define
him. He was an encourager.
Let's not forget these, these examples.
And as I studied these, these people started to become real to
me, I guess it's kind of hard to describe in a quick 15-minute
order, but I can encourage you to sit and think about these
people and it helps you connect to them, instead just being
someone on a map. What if this is, you know, not
just aristarchus if that's something like oh, what if it
was, you know, aristarchus of Bakersfield or Fresno.
And all these people were local to us.
They're just people and they really did live.
He was a levite from Cyprus. And Barnabas has a strong role
in the early church. It says that he put his kingdom
first with all, put the kingdom first first with all of his
possessions, he has his first recorded action and in the book
of Acts was that he sold a field that belong to him and brought
the money and laid it at the feet of the Apostles.
He took what he owned and invest in the church wholeheartedly.
He got rid of the things he had and was willing to sacrifice for
Christ Paul acknowledges him and First Corinthians chapter 9, for
being for supporting himself financially, instead of relying,
on the churches, to give him money, Barnabas went out put to
work in. Made the money he needed to to
survive and did the work of the church on his own cost and
didn't require money from the church.
So, Paul welcome engine. For that.
Barnabas was the one who when Paul was early to the just
getting started with the church, there was a lot of doubt about
him, like who is this guy? He was the one persecuting us.
Mr. Was the one who stood up for him when it didn't it didn't
look good for Saul or for Paul, in Acts 15 verse 35.
It says that he was when he came and saw the grace of God when he
was sent to Antioch. He was glad and exhorted them
all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose for
he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a
great. Many people were added to the
Lord. So someone's spirit whose Filled
with the Lord and filled with an encouraging Spirit helped.
Add many to the Lord. Don't forget that your attitude
matters. Kevin encouraging Spirit, he
fasted and prayed with Paul in Acts chapter 13 when they're
trying to decide where they were where they were going to go on
their missionary journey, that was him.
He was the one their fasting with Paul and pray.
He did have a couple bad spots in Galatians chapter 2 verse 13,
Paul called him out for being led astray by the Jewish
circumcision party and and that's presumably before the
Jerusalem Council. So he didn't he wasn't all
perfect. He had his mess-ups to.
But overall, he is a great man in the church.
The next person is Jesus, who is called Justice?
And the only thing I could find on him, was that his Justice may
have been his Roman name and his Jewish name maybe Jesus, so
obviously not Jesus the Christ but that's all I found on him.
But I love what Paul said there is that they have proved to be a
comfort. To me, he's saying that they're
my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, who were of the
circumcision. So, Paul is looking at these
guys who came from, where he came from, and is saying, you
know, these guys have comforted me and I can see this being
especially comforting to Paul because you know what, if you
had left, everything you ever knew known.
What if you left? Your family, all your people.
You left everyone to raise you and train you and you went
against them. How awesome would it be to have
people who came from now same system to come up behind you and
say, hey man, you're doing the right thing.
We can validate you in that. We also are studying God's word
and we found that you're right, and Jesus is the Christ.
And these men need need to change their ways, who we left,
how encouraging that must have been for pull.
And also it was encouraging, I'm sure because of what he says in
Romans 9, Paul was extremely sorrowful for his room for his
Jewish Brethren. He says that he wished, he could
give up his own salvation so that they could be saved.
And so it must have been very encouraging for him to at least
have a few rather than like this who came over from Judaism with
him came over from the circumcision.
And we're willing to to adopt Christ principles.
Going on to the fourth question. What is meant by the phrase?
A bondservant of Christ. It means to be devoted to
another to the disregard of One's Own interests, one
extending an advancing Christ cause among men by selfishly
sacrificing And he goes on to say that he was laboring for for
them in prayers. He regarded this, this work of
praying for them diligently, as a laborer as a work.
That's a powerful work and it's acknowledged here by Paul.
And finally, we're was hieropolis, it was an ancient
Greek city, just north of laodicea about six miles and it
wasn't too far from colossi. So it's a little Inland from the
coast and in Asia Minor there. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
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