Colossians 1, verses 7, read
with me, verses 7 through 9. And all my state shall Tychicus
declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, faithful minister, 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."
Now, at first glance, all these verses are a mere closing salutation. That's how it ends, a salutation
by the hand of Paul, meaning a farewell, as we would end a
letter, hope the Lord's with you and so forth. But it's much
more than that. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, profitable for doctrine. approved for correction, instruction,
and righteousness. There are several names mentioned
here. I think 16. I forget. Romans 16 is the end
of Romans. That's a long book end. And he
mentions 35 names. The whole 16th chapter, the concluding
chapter of that great book of Romans. 35 people that he commends. And he brings them before the
church to honor and commend them for their service to Christ and
each other. And this is the same, a short
book, about half the names. But all these names, some of
them are not too familiar to us, like Tychicus, but they were
well known by the church back then. If I was writing you a
letter and said, Dan Ogle says hello. You think of somebody
that you know and you love and you've been around a long time
and very familiar to. Well, all these people that he
mentions were well-known by the church. And they all tell a tale. Every one of them were saved
by God's grace and tell a tale to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Psalm 90 says we spend our lives
as a tale that is told. Our tales have been told. Our stories were pre-recorded,
predestined, written in God's book of life long before we were
born and everything about us down to the hairs on our head,
or not in our head, were predetermined by our Lord, and everything about
it, and written in a book, and it happened exactly the way the
Lord purposed it to happen. All good. And all these people
ended up in glory, to the praise of the glory of His credit. And
so shall we, all of God's people. So, that's a wonderful thought,
isn't it? A wonderful thought. What the
world hates, Sovereign predestination of His people and all things.
We love. We're so glad. So glad. Tychicus
shall tell you of my estate, he said. I've sent to you for
that purpose to tell you. And he says he's a faithful,
beloved brother, a minister, a fellow servant in the Lord.
A fellow servant. Paul is in prison. He's suffering. He's suffering. And yet he's
more concerned about the people he's writing to than himself.
He's more concerned about everyone else. He said, he shall comfort
your hearts. Well, didn't Paul need comfort? Yes, he did. He said, who's weak and I'm not
weak? Who's offended and I'm not offended? Who gets troubled
and I don't get troubled? He said, but I'm comforted, he
said, by your comfort. He was dying in his last hours,
and that this virus had hindered the preacher's school. There were a lot more strict
down there. And it hindered the preacher's school from meeting
for a little while. And in his dying hours, he heard Betty or
Andrea or somebody told him that the preachers were meeting back
together for the preacher's school. He's lying in his bed. He closes
his eyes. He said, victory. Victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? So Paul is comforting God's people
with the same comfort wherewith he is comforting. There's one
source of comfort in it, our sovereign Lord on the throne,
our sovereign Christ. He's done all things well. And
would you like to have Paul's faith? Would you like to have
Paul's peace? He's in prison, but he has perfect
peace. He said, I'm content whatever
state I'm in. Would you like to have Paul's
joy, Paul's comfort, Paul's courage? Well, start here. Let this mind be in you. Think
on things of others. That's what he did. He said,
nevermind my troubles. Other people have troubles. And
that's who he was thinking about. And it comforted his heart. So
start there. Tychicus, he'll tell you about
my estate. Now he mentioned several people,
Tychicus and others. Who is more important, the apostle
Tychicus, look at the last I got the wrong glasses, the wrong
prescription. The last line, look at the last line, right
below the line, look at it, verse 18. This is written from Rome
to the Colossians by Tychicus. Tychicus, Paul had an eye problem, very nearsighted, I guess. And
someone had to write most of the epistles for him. And it
says Tychicus did this. and Onesimus. I'll get to him
in a minute. But Tychicus did this. Who's
more important, the writer or the deliverer of the message?
Who's more important? The messenger or the one who
delivers the letter? Nobody's more important. Who's
more important in the body of Christ? The hand or the foot?
Big toe or little toe? It's just toes. The mouth or
the ear? You don't need an ear if you
don't have a mouth. You don't need a mouth if you don't have
an ear. Right? Who's more important? Nobody. We're all members of the body
of Christ. The one that's important is the head of Christ, right? We're all just fellow laborers. So Paul commends them all. Onesimus. You know that story? Philemon. It's the story of a runaway slave,
a young man, Treated well, loved by his master, probably even
loved by Paul. He was a runaway and apparently
ended up in Rome. And he evidently heard Paul preaching
and the Lord saved him. He's a rebel, a runaway. No good. We think he stole some money
from his master Philemon and ran away. And Paul wrote a letter
to Philemon telling him, Onesimus, he's one of us now. He was unprofitable,
but he's now profitable. He was just a rebel. Now he's
a brother. He said, receive him. And all
that's a picture of Christ interceding to the father on our behalf.
And that Philemon, Paul had Onesimus take that letter to the one he
offended. You take this to him, you tell
him to accept you. And he did. And he had Onesimus
take this letter to the church of Colossae. Don't you think
that excited him? Let me go. Let me bring it. You
don't have to preach, I'll just say, here, read this. What a privilege to serve the
cause of Christ in any way, isn't it? Just sitting here, what a
privilege. What a privilege. I just happen
to be the mouth. You're the ear. All members of
the body. Alright, he said, verse 10, Aristarchus,
my fellow prisoner, saluted to you. Aristarchus. He was apprehended
at Ephesus. I remember when Paul went to
Ephesus to preach and Luke was with him and Aristarchus was
his constant companion. He was from Macedonia. Aristarchus,
a beloved, it says in verse, my fellow prisoner, they apprehended
him in Ephesus just for being one of them. And they would have
torn him apart if the Lord hadn't shown mercy to him. And now they
let him go. But then Paul was apprehended
and taken to Rome. And it doesn't say that anybody
else was incarcerated or taken with Paul, but apparently Aristarchus
voluntarily stayed with him in the prison. I don't have anywhere
to go. I don't have anybody I'd rather
be with. Can I just stay here in prison? I'll just stay here
and attend to you. Would you lay down your
life for the brethren? Would you? It's a good question. He that saith his life shall
lose it, but he that loseth his life, gives up his life, and
his own personal interest for the cause of Christ and God's
people will find it. Look at the next person, Marcus,
sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom, verse 10, touching whom
you receive commandment. If he come unto you, receive
him. Marcus. Do you know who he is? This is
Barnabas' son. Perhaps he's unknown to you,
but you know the Gospel of Mark? That's who wrote that. son, sister's son, his nephew.
That's who wrote the Gospel of Mark. What about Luke? Was Luke
an apostle? The apostle of Luke? No. No. They just wrote it down. But
God puts their names right there with Matthew, the apostle, and
John, the beloved. Mark? Mark? Who's he? Well, Barnabas' nephew. Well,
who is, where's he from? Nowhere. But God had him write
that gospel. Some believe he got it from Peter,
that Peter told him the whole story and Mark wrote it down. But John Mark. And you remember
Paul and Barnabas had a falling out. Very bad. Paul didn't think it. wise for
John Mark to go with them to visit the churches, and Barnabas
did. That's his nephew. So they had
a falling out, and they separated. Well, and it was over Mark. There's
no separation now. He's writing saying he's our
brother, so apparently he's back, and he said, if he comes to you,
you receive him. You see, he's a fellow laborer
also. Verse 11, Jesus, which is called
Justice. Now, Jesus was a common name,
Joshua. Jesus, the Greek name of Joshua,
a common name in the Old Testament. People loved and esteemed Joshua
very highly. And if you had a boy, you might
name him Joshua, right? And, well, this man's name was
Jesus, but they called him Justice. And I thought, maybe they thought,
no, nobody deserves that name in one person. We don't call
him Justice. Jesus. What about him? Well,
we don't know much about him. But he's of the circumcision.
He's one of us. He has the marks. Worships God
in spirit. Rejoices in Christ. No confidence
in the dead. That's the true circumcision.
Verse 11, these only are my fellow workers under the kingdom of
God. They were with him at that time, which have been a comfort
to me. They've been such a comfort to
me. All workers, fellow laborers
together with Paul, all necessary, all have a job to do and contributed
to the care of Paul and the ministry of the gospel. Comfort to men. He tells us to do the same thing.
Comfort one another. Comfort one another. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people is what he told the prophet Isaiah. All of us are told to comfort
one another, exhort one another daily and so much more as you
see the day of Christ approaching. We were to comfort one another,
we'd exhort one another. I've told you that story many
times about Donnie Bell and I climbing the peaks of Otter, you know,
and he'd want to quit and I'd want to quit, and I'd want to
quit and he'd want to quit, and we exhorted one another until
we got to the top. We forgot all about the climb,
the difficulty. It was so beautiful, so wonderful.
So we exhort one another. Our Lord, He said, is there any
clouds in the sky today? It's the dust of his feet. He's
stirring. He's right at the door. You see
all these things? No. He's at the door. Lift up
your heads. When you see all these things,
the world is in trouble. The world is in a mess. Well, lift up your heads, because
you're in redemption trouble now. And the Lord is going to
come with 10,000 of his saints. Mike is coming with him. And
you know what all of them are going to say? He told you. We told you. It's all true. He said there'd been a comfort
to me. Comfort to you, comfort to you, my people. I told you
the other day of somebody that hurt me, critical. But at the
exact same time, I received a card from someone. telling me how thankful they
were that I was their pastor. It's still on my desk. It may
stay there for a year or more. I needed that so bad. It was
just priceless. Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. Comfort one another, great comfort. Is something ringing? My ears. So he says in verse 12, Epiphras,
who's one of you, the servant of Christ. He saluted you. Epaphus
was a preacher. And it says in verse 12 that
he was laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God. This man Epaphus
was a preacher, but what Paul noted about him was that he's
fervent in prayer, laboring in prayer, always praying, and that
fervently. that you may stand fast in the
Lord. Be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. And we're complete in Him. We have men in here that pray,
don't we? We'd love to hear them pray. And I've got to mention
one man. Don't you love to hear John Davis
pray? Fervently. From the heart. He doesn't want
to hear this. But it's true. From the heart. Praise for me. Praise for you.
I love to hear him. The Lord has blessed him. The
Lord has given him the gift to pray. Others have said that from other
churches everywhere. I love to hear John pray. Fervent
in prayer. Fervent means sincere. Verse
13 says, I bear him record he hath a great zeal for you. Zeal. What's zeal? The word means
heat. Gets heated up in a good way. Zealous, like a bottle ready
to burst. Needs to give vent. Zeal. Our
Lord said, the zeal of thine hath eaten me up. I love zeal. One time I was apologizing for
shouting. One of the men came to me and
said, don't you dare apologize. Shout louder. I'm shouting for
you. Some of you want to. I wish you'd
go ahead and start. Men and women, maybe after the
second message you will. The second message is, Amen!
Amen! Zeal. Zealous zeal. That comes
from a heart. Heat. Heart heat. Did not our
hearts burn within us? He opened up the Scriptures just
by the way. Great zeal, earnest desire, fervency. Greatly desiring. He said, He has a zeal for you
that is greatly desiring that you will Staying fast in the
Lord. And for them at Laodicea, where's
that? We don't know much about Laodicea.
There's a letter written to them in the Revelation and the Lord
rebukes them. But it's mentioned three times
here. They were well known. Like, what
if I said Crossville? How many names come to mind?
Kingsport. How many names come to your mind? How many faces? How many people
that we know and love dearly? We pray for them, though. Pray
for our brethren as much as we can when they come to our memory. And them at Hierapolis. Who's
that? We don't know. They did. The
Lord knows. And there are many we don't know.
But we try to pray for our brethren everywhere. At least 7,000 have
not bowed the knee. Listen to how the Lord said it.
It was Elijah that said, I'm the only one. I'm zealous for
you. I'm the only one preaching the
truth. The Lord said, Elijah, I have
7,000. Now, that's not many compared
to the millions. But yet, he said, I have 7,000
I've reserved for myself. I've chosen them. I've called
them. I've redeemed them. I've brought
them. I've taught them. I've bought
them. I have reserved them. They are reserved for me, for
my glory. I did it. They have not bowed
the knee to Baal. They are like Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. They are not going to bow the
knee. And they're going through the
furnace like you, Elijah. No, you're not the only one.
You're not the only one. And neither are we. But they're
just few and far between. Few and far between. God knows. Verse 14, Luke, the beloved physician,
Luke, the beloved physician, he was Paul's constant companion
according to the Lord's providence. The Lord and His providence.
Paul, if you've read his account of all that he went through,
beaten five times with forty stripes, It's 240 some stripes. Most people did not live through
one Roman beating. He had five times. Twice, was
it thrice, with rods, clubs beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, on and on
and on. Oh, he was, his body was, he
was brutalized. And the Lord had a, him a personal
physician. Go with him everywhere he went. Luke. Luke. What a blessing, huh? Now there
are not many wise men after the flesh, they're called. But it
doesn't say not any. You've got to be wise, you've
got to be smart, intelligent to be a physician. There are not many mighty, but
it doesn't say not any. David, named David. None mightier
than David, right? It doesn't say not any, but not
many. And we're all a bunch of nobodies,
really, in the kingdom of heaven. Some just physicians, others
patients. doctors, but the rest of us are
just sick. But the Lord saves all manner
of men, doesn't He? And He says, pray for them. Pray
for them. Luke, the beloved physician.
Now look at the next name. Demas. Demas Gretchen. Demas was with Paul. Constantly. Demas. Loved Paul. Seemed to. Demas. Seemed to love the gospel.
Demas. Constant companion. Demas. Demas. Everybody knew Demas. And he
wrote to Timothy right before he died. He said, Demas hath
forsaken me. Why? It's always one reason. It's always one reason. You either
love the Lord or you love the world. He says, Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. Oh, that's a warning, isn't it?
All these names, all these faithful, all these supporters, all these
constant companions of Paul, one left. And he left Paul, he
left everybody else too. But at the time, I'm out. Isn't that a warning that we
should examine ourselves, whether we be of the faith, that we should
know ourselves that Christ, don't you know that Christ is in you,
except you be relevant. That we should take heed, lest
there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief, departing
from the living God. Shouldn't we? Shouldn't we exhort
one another so much more as we see the day approach? Brother,
this world is not worth forsaking Christ for. It's not worth it. Love not the world and the things
of the world. Don't do it. Don't run with the world. They'll
steal your heart. Oh, may those words dwell richly
in us and all wisdom. May we take unto us the armor
of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil and all the devil uses is this world. He's a master at it. He's a deceiver. Don't let him deceive you. By
the grace of God. So he says in closing, verse
15, Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea. Salute them. And Nimbus, who's
that? I don't know. But he did. Paul did. He's just a nobody. The church knew. And the church
is in his house. Apparently he had the church
in his house one time and couldn't meet anywhere else for persecution
or something. The early church suffered a lot
of persecution and they had to meet in people's homes. They
did. Well, we did too. We met in somebody's house. Was
that not one of the sweetest services you've ever been in?
I wouldn't take anything. The House of Davis. You remember the story of David
and bringing the ark back and it was on a cart. Bringing back
the ark and it was on a cart. Not supposed to be on a cart.
Supposed to be on the shoulders of the priest, the Levite. And
they were doing it all wrong. It was on that cart. And Uzzah,
this young man, reached up to steady the cart because it was
shaking. Don't you touch, don't you lay your hand, don't you
put a finger on God's truth, God's gospel. Don't you add anything?
It doesn't need your help. God doesn't need you. The ark's
not stumbling. He's able to say, He doesn't
need you. And God killed him. That's a
whole gospel story right there. David scared him, scared him
bad. He said, we haven't done it right. Well, they took that ark and
said, what are we going to do? They were all afraid, fear of
the Lord. And a man named Obed, a man named Obed said, bring
it to my house. Bring the ark into my house and
we'll watch over you. reverently, reverently, fearfully,
carefully. Bring the ark into our house.
And it said the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom because
that ark was there. It was there a long time and
the Lord blessed them. Honey, why is our crop growing
and everybody else's failed? Honey, why is every one of our
bills being paid and everybody else is doing without the gospel? You support the cause of Christ,
He'll support you. That's right. The Lord blesses
the house of those who are in His cause and support His gospel
and His people. Verse 16, and now when this epistle
is read among you, not if, but when, you read it. One time,
you remember 1 Thessalonians, it says, I charge you by the Lord that
this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren, and the other
epistles that are laid to sea. Remember one Wednesday night? That's all we did. The whole
service, that's all we did, was read 1 Thessalonians 5. Wasn't that a blessing? You remember
that? You want to do it again? We will. We're told to. Read it. Read,
read, read, read. When you read this, cause it
to be read to the church at Laodicea. He had a fondness for that church,
didn't he? And that you likewise read the
epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, verse 17,
say to Archippus, who's that? Who's Archippus? Well, he's another
constant companion, it says, over in Ephesians. He's mentioned
in Ephesians. Constant companion of Paul, always with him everywhere.
And apparently he was a young preacher. And he said, tell Archippus
to take heed to the ministry which thou hast perceived in
the Lord, and tell him to fulfill it, like he told young Timothy.
Timothy, preach the Word. Hands have been laid on you,
you've been called to the ministry, preach the Word, Timothy. Encourage Archippus to preach. Who should we tell that to? Cody
Henson. Tell him, write him, call him,
brethren, call him, write him, say, Cody, I've been thinking
about it, I've been praying for you, wherever you go, where are you going?
Well, I'm going to Danville this week to pray. May the Lord bless
you. That's what we're about. This
is what the church is about. Our conversation. Our life. And others in the church. Verse 18, a salutation by the
hand of me, Paul. Salutation by the hand of me,
Paul. Apparently he signed it. He's
very poor, I said, but he signed it. By the hand of me, Paul.
We recognize, we think that Hebrews was written by Paul. I'm almost
certain of it. You can tell it has the marks of Paul. It is
closing, grace be on you. He said that after every epistle.
Grace of every person. And Hebrews said, but it's not
signed. Why? We don't need to know who
wrote it. We don't need to know. Here's
the thing. Paul wrote this, but now hold
on. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. Paul took dictation. He took
dictation. The Lord told him. Paul is the
pen. The hand is God. The hand is
God. But the people esteemed Paul
so high as an apostle. They knew, they believed that
he was a man sent from God. They knew it was. And so they
esteemed him high as such. And they followed him, as should
we. But so Paul said, I wrote this. This is not somebody else.
It's me. But it's God who told him what
to write. And so they received it, not
as it is in truth, the Word of God, but from their beloved brother,
Paul. What if I said to you, I've got
a letter here from Cody Groover. Would you sit at it? Would you
listen? Would you love it? Sure you would. Remember my bonds, he said. Remember my bonds. Oh, in closing,
I'm in chains, but I'm okay. Hope you're fine. Boy, isn't
that love? Isn't that something? I wish somebody got worse than
that. Grace be with you. And he ends it the way we should. Amen. What do you say? Amen. Okay.