Tychicus. This man is first mentioned in
Acts chapter 20 as one of Paul's traveling companions during his
third missionary journey that we read of in the book of Acts
through Asia. And I'm sure that Tychicus knew
a lot of conflict by being a traveling companion with Paul because Paul
said in that same chapter that in every city, bonds and afflictions
abide me. Wherever I go, I'm going to get
either thrown in jail or I'm going to get whipped for preaching
the gospel. And I have no doubt that Tychicus was involved in
that as one of his traveling companions. And I couldn't help
but think of what Paul said to Timothy. Be not thou therefore
ashamed of me, the prisoner of the Lord, Be not therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Now, I have no doubt that Tychicus
was such a man and how blessed he was to be a traveling companion
with the Apostle Paul. Can you imagine what a blessing
that would be to travel with him, to hear him preach? What
a blessing. Paul tells the church at Ephesus
and the church at Colossae that he was going to send Tychicus
to them. He was somebody Paul sent. He's also mentioned in 2 Timothy
as being sent out by Paul. And in Titus, he said, I'm going
to send Tychicus to you. He was obviously a man that Paul
trusted as a representative and an ambassador of the gospel. Now, I remember many years ago,
Henry Mahan making this statement to me, and it made a real impression
on me. Here's the statement. In a new work, you're very judicious
about who you want to send, whether people or preachers. There are
some people that you wouldn't Hesitate to send you know that
they would be good representatives of the gospel and there's some
Preachers and some people that you would not be comfortable
in sending and you're not saying they're not believers But you
would not be comfortable with the influence they would bring
or the impression they'd leave I Have to ask myself the question
which kind of person am I? Which kind of person am I? And
I think that that is very pertinent with this thing of Tychicus.
Paul five times has said to send him somewhere. He's someone that
Paul had a lot of confidence in, in that sense. Now, Paul
called him a beloved brother. Notice in our text, verse 21,
but you may know our affairs how I do, Tychicus, a beloved
brother, and a faithful minister in the Lord. Now, the way we
would usually say this is a minister of the Lord, but that's not the
way Paul says that. He says a faithful minister in
the Lord. And in Colossians, he's also
called a fellow servant, literally a co-slave. And I like that because
just that very thinking destroys the idea of clergy and laity. co-slaves, not one more important
or less important than the other. You know, well, you're the preacher,
aren't you more important? No, no, I don't believe that
for a second. All of God's people are brethren
and he's the master, he's the Lord. Now, let me repeat this
thing of he's a faithful minister in the Lord, not of the Lord,
but in. And the entire gospel is comprehended
in this little prepositional phrase, in the Lord. In the Lord. Look in Ephesians chapter one.
This phrase is found 34 times just in the book of Ephesians.
But look at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. Not he will
bless us. He hath blessed us. That means
every blessing he has to give, we possess. He hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Every blessing that God has to
give, every believer possesses, and they're all given in Christ. That's speaking of our eternal
union with Christ. Look in verse four. According
as he hath chosen us in him. What is election without in him?
It's just some kind of arbitrary choice. There's no love involved,
but all his choice is in him. Before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him. In love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Now, Tychicus has claimed
to fame was that he was in Christ. If I'm a believer, if you're
a believer, here's our claim to fame. We're in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, somebody might be asking,
well, how do you get in Christ? You don't. You don't. You're either in him or you're
not. You're either eternally in him
or you're not in him at all. If you're in Him, you know what
your greatest desire is? To be in Him. That's what you
want more than anything else. You want to be found in Him. You don't want to have anything
to do with God on your own. You simply want to be found in
Him. Everybody who is in Him has one
desire, to be found in Him. And the people that aren't in
Him, it's not even important to them. In what? What are you
talking about? It's not even something really
that interested in. But, oh, those who are in him
say with Paul, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. Now, what this is speaking of,
in Christ, is the eternal union of God's elect in Christ Jesus. And here's what this means. 1
Corinthians 1.30, of him are you in Christ Jesus. You didn't
get in him, you're in him. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. Wisdom. Now, how wise is the
Lord Jesus Christ? That's how wise I am. Because
He is made unto me wisdom. I am someone fit for fellowship
with the eternal living God. He's made into me wisdom. He's made into me righteousness. That's what it means to be in
Christ. It means to have his very righteousness as your very
own personal righteousness before God. He's made into me sanctification. You know, I get somewhat provoked
hearing preachers talking about sanctification in such a way
as Sanctification is you do this and you do that to become sanctified.
You become more sanctified by putting down the flesh more and
sinning less. They don't even know what sanctification
is. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our holiness before
God. He's made unto me redemption.
He's my full deliverance. Now, if you're in Christ Jesus,
he's made unto you wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. 1 Corinthians 15, 22 says, as
in Adam, all die, even so in the same manner in Christ shall
all be made alive. Now in Adam, what's it mean to
be in Adam? Well, it means same thing it means to be in your
dad or your mom or your grandfather, your great-grandfather, your
great-great-grandfather, you're in his loins. So that what he
did, you did. By one man's sin entered the
world, death by sin. So the death passed upon all
men in that all sinned. Being in Adam when he sinned,
I sinned. It's not simply that his sin
was charged to me, I personally sinned when Adam sinned. That's what it means to be in
Adam. Whatever he did, that's exactly
what I did. Not so much my federal representative,
he's my seminal head. In him, whatever he did, I did. And it's the same thing in Christ.
In Christ shall all be made alive. Whatever Christ did, I did. When he kept the law, I really
did kept the law. When he died, I died. When he
was raised, I was raised in Christ. Now, one of the beautiful illustrations
of this, and this is so, the scriptures is filled with illustrations
of this, but one of my favorites is a man in the Old Testament
by the name of Jonathan. Jonathan was King Saul's son,
and he was David's best friend. It's beautiful to look at the
relationship between Jonathan and David. And a covenant was
made in 1 Samuel chapter 20, if you'll turn with me there.
1 Samuel chapter 20. Beginning in verse 11, and Jonathan said unto David, Let us go out into the field.
And they went out, both of them, into the field, these two men
who loved each other so dearly. And Jonathan said unto David,
O Lord God of Israel. Now, is that a mistake? No. That's the way the original states
this. Somebody says, explain that to me. I can't explain that. You know that David in his person
is not the Lord God of Israel. But the typology of this story
is so powerful that he calls him this because David is certainly
going to represent the Lord God of Israel. But this is what Jonathan
calls him. Jonathan said unto David, O Lord
God of Israel, When I have sounded, my father, about to-morrow, and
at time of the third day, and behold, if there be good toward
David, I then sin not unto thee, and show it to thee. The Lord
do so much and more to Jonathan. But if it please my father to
do thee evil, then I'll show it thee, and send thee away,
that thou mayest go in peace, and the Lord be with thee, as
he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not only, while
yet I live, show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not,
but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house. Now, he didn't have any children
yet, but he's going to. Those are the people in him. Oh, what a special man this man
was. But he said, not only do I want
you to show kindness to me, I want you to show kindness to my descendants,
my children, the people who are in No, not, verse 15, no, not when
the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, every one of them from
the face of the earth. He often knew that was gonna
take place. And as a matter of fact, it is going to take place
in 20 some years. He's going to be the most powerful
man in the world. The scripture actually says the
fear of David fell upon every nation. Now that is the power
this man had because the Lord putting his enemies under his
feet. He's going to be just not the petty kingdom of Israel. It's going to become the mightiest
kingdom during his reign. And the fear of David, I mean,
nobody would mess with David. They were scared of him. I mean,
he is going to be the most powerful man in the world. And Jonathan
knows that. Verse 16, so Jonathan made a
covenant with the house of David saying, let the Lord even require
it at the hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to
swear again because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved
his own soul. The Lord Jesus Christ loves his
father as he loves his own soul. And this covenant is made with
Jonathan and Jonathan's seed, those in Jonathan. Now, years pass, and David has
destroyed all of his enemies, and speaking from the position
of absolute power in chapter nine of 2 Samuel, you're familiar,
many of you are familiar with this story, the story of Mephibosheth. Now, from the position of the
most powerful man in the world, He says, and David said, is there
any yet that is left of the house of Saul? David's enemy. Now he was awful good to Saul,
but Saul wasn't good to him. And what they did back in those
days is when a new king came in, what he'd do is destroy all
the descendants of the old king. He'd get rid of them to make
sure they don't try to rise up against him. And that was put
in practice so many times throughout Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, you
can read about it. That's the way they did things.
But not David. David said, is there yet any
that's left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? Why? For Jonathan's sake. And that's exactly what God the
Father says. Is there any of the house of
Adam that I can show kindness to? for Christ's sake. And there was at the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they'd call him
unto David, the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And he said,
thy servant is he. And the king said, is there any,
not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son. But he's not worth much. He can't fight for you. He can't
serve you. All he can be is carried. That's
the case of this man. He's lame on both of his feet. And if you read about how he
became lame when Saul The house of Saul was fleeing out of fear.
The nurse of Jonathan, or of Mephibosheth, that's his name,
dropped him lame through a fall. Lame on both of his feet through
a fall. Such is the case of this man,
Mephibosheth. And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him. There's been several messages
over the years entitled Fetching Grace. If he would have waited for Mephibosheth
to get there, it wouldn't have happened, would it? He's lame
on both of his feet. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makar, the son of Ameliel of Lodabar.
Now when Memphibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul
was coming to David. Now remember, probably he thought
he was going to be executed. He didn't know about this covenant.
Didn't know a thing about it. His daddy was already dead. when
he was dropped. He fell on his face and did reverence. Now what that is called is worship. And he wasn't worshiping a man
as a man, but here the typology is so clear. Remember what Jonathan
called David? The Lord God of Israel? And there's
only one thing to do in his presence, fall down and do reverence and
see what he is going to do with you. Not telling him what to
do, but you fall down and do reverence before the great king. And David said, Mephibosheth, I want you to think, when David
said that, how much he was thinking about Jonathan. You know, I dare
say, I'm speculating now, but I bet he looked just like his
father. I bet when he looked at that boy, he looked just like
Jonathan did. And he was thinking of Jonathan,
and the love he had to Jonathan, and the covenant he made with
Jonathan. Mephibosheth, and he answered, behold thy servant,
And David said unto him, fear not. I guess he was quaking in
his boots. I don't guess he had anything.
He's lame. I don't know. But he was scared. He was scared.
He didn't know what to do. Fear not, for I will surely show
thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. That's the reason. Is any other reason needed? No. No. This is all because of that
covenant that was made before this man was born. I will surely
show thee kindness for Jonathan, thy father's sake, and will restore
thee all the land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread
at my table continually. And he bowed himself and said,
what is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead
dog as I am. Now this gives us some idea of
what it means to be in Christ. What did it mean to Mephibosheth
to be in Jonathan? It meant everything, didn't it? His whole salvation was found
there. Now, Tychicus is called by Paul
in our text, turn back to Ephesians chapter six, He's in the Lord, that's the
first point, and that's the most important point, really, in the
Lord. No more important concept than
that, being in the Lord. But Paul calls him a beloved
brother, a beloved brother. Now, This term brother can be
used in so many senses, and they're all good senses. You know, I
can look at any son of Adam and say, you're my brother. You're
my brother. I always like to hear people
calling each other brother. You know, just, I'm a son of
Adam. We have the same father. Come
out of the same blood. And then there are brothers who
are siblings. Brothers in the same family,
and what a blessing that is. Brothers. And then there are
brothers that are united to a cause, and they feel a brotherhood.
They have the same cause. Or you even see athletes calling
their teammates, these are my brothers. And these are good
in all their senses, but not like this. This is the same kind of brother
when Ananias came up to Saul, who just three days before had
been killing Christians. and said, Brother Saul, receive
thy sight. What an incredible blessing of
grace to be in the brotherhood. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one, for the which cause he's
not ashamed to call them. Brethren. This is the brotherhood
we're talking about now. For whom he did foreknow, them
he also did predestinate, that they might be conformed to the
image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. What a blessing to be in the
brotherhood of grace, the family of God. Same father, same elder
brother. There's nothing more special
than being in this family. Having the Lord Jesus Christ
as that brother born for adversity. The friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. What a brother. But notice he's
also called a beloved brother. Now, just because you're a brother,
that makes you beloved. He that loveth him that begat,
loveth also him that's begotten of him. If somebody's a brother,
they're beloved to every believer. It's called the love of the brethren,
and it's very real, the love of the brethren. But I believe
that Paul is using the word in this sense. The writer to the
Hebrews said, provoke one another to love. and to good works. Now I ought, I can say this with
conviction, probably many times I haven't, but I ought to conduct
myself and treat you in such a way as to provoke you to love
me. The way I treat you, you can
say, man, I love that guy. I just, I love him the way he
treats me. This is what Paul is saying about
this man. He was an encouragement. And
you know he had your best interest at heart. This beloved brother,
somebody you know he has your back. This was a humble man,
a loyal man, a giving man. He loved Christ and that made
him lovable. But beloved is an adjective,
a beloved brother. Don't you want to be that person?
A beloved brother. And he was also called a faithful
servant. in our text. He's a beloved brother. This is the man that Paul felt
comfortable sending all over the place. He knew he was gonna
represent the gospel in an honorable way. And he sent him here and
he sent him there. I mean, he's mentioned as going
five different places. What an honor, his name is recorded
in the scripture. He's a beloved brother and he's
also a faithful servant. Now, think of this word, faithful. a faithful servant. If somebody
is your steward, responsible for your goods, your actions,
your representative, he's got access to your bank account and
he's going to take care of it. He's got access to your goods,
your home. He's the one that you've entrusted
with that. What do you want out of that
person? That's not hard to answer that
question. Great talents is not really necessary. Good looks
is not necessary. Great education is not necessary. What's necessary? Faithfulness. It's required in stewards that
a man be found faithful. And this man was a faithful servant. What is faithful? Well, you believe
and you can be believed. You trust and you can be trusted. You rely and you can be relied
upon. I think of what the Lord said
about the unjust steward in Luke chapter 16. He said, he that's
faithful in that which is least is faithful in that which is
much. And he that's unjust in that which is least is also unjust
in that which is much. I want to be a faithful steward. I want to be a faithful husband.
I want to be a faithful father. I want to be a faithful pastor.
I want to be a faithful friend. I want to be like Caleb, the
faithful dog who followed the Lord Our God is faithful. The Lord Jesus Christ is faithful. And I love the description of
all of God's elect in Revelation 17, verse 14, every one of them. He's King of kings, Lord of lords,
and they that are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. That's the description of every
believer. He's a faithful, minister, a
faithful servant. What is a servant? Well, I think
of what the Lord said, the Son of Man came not to be ministered
to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And there is no greater aspiration
than to be a servant. He that would be great among
you, let him be servant of all. And it was Martin Luther King
who made this statement in that message on I Have a Dream. I
don't know what he knew about the gospel, but I love this statement. It doesn't take talent, wealth,
or riches to be great. It doesn't take great gifts to
be great. It doesn't take intelligence to be great. All it takes is
to be a servant. And that's what the Lord said. Now, Paul also calls Tychicus
a fellow servant, literally a co-slave, having the same master. And what
that reminds me is that there is no hierarchy in the kingdom
of heaven. I don't know of anything I despise any more than this
clergy laity attitude that preachers or priests or whatever, it's
offensive. We're brethren. We have one Lord,
one master, and we are all brethren. There's not one that's more important
in the kingdom of God than the other. The scripture makes that
clear, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So don't anybody think, oh,
I'm not... Every believer is one in Christ
Jesus, and every believer is of significance to the Lord,
and there's not one that's more important or more valuable than
the other. I remember one time, me and three
other preachers were getting on a plane to go somewhere, and
one of the preachers said, there's no way this plane's going to
crash. We've got four gospel preachers on this plane. I thought,
this is my last day alive. I mean, and I said that too.
I'm out. And I'm thankful the plane landed,
but at any rate, there is no hierarchy in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, look at our text in Ephesians chapter six. But that you may also know my
affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and
faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things. Now, first of all, he was sending
Tychicus to tell them about Paul. You know, I'd wanna know, wouldn't
you? I'd want to know how he's doing. I'd want to know what
he's doing. I'd want to know how he's doing.
I love him. I want to know. And he says,
I'm sending Tickicus so you can find out the truth about me.
And you know, Tickicus, he would have told the truth. I was listening
to a preacher the other day, and it tickled me. He said, he's
talking about Baptists. He said, you know, Baptists have
a real hard time inflating numbers. In other words, lying, you know,
about how many people we got, how many is in the convention,
You know, if you ask a Baptist how many members are in their
church, divide it by six or seven, and you might get closer to the
truth. That's just the way Baptists are. Well, I'm not picking on
the Baptist. Sounds like I am. Whatever. Scratch that. That wasn't in
the notes. But he sent him not only to tell
how he was doing and tell the truth, given accurate representation,
but also to comfort your hearts, that you may know, verse 21,
but that you may know my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, 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
hearts. Now you know what that's with,
the gospel, the gospel. He goes on to say, peace be to
the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Say unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. She
hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And I think the comfort that
he brings is found in verse 23. Peace be to the brethren and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I love this thing of peace, the peace of God's sovereignty. Have we ever in our lifetime
lived in a weirder time than what's going on right now. No. But you know what? I have such peace. Not because of me, but because
God is on the throne and everything that's taking place is his will
being done. Whatever it might be. Oh, I love
that. The peace of his grace the peace
of the blood of His cross, what His cross actually accomplished,
my complete redemption, the peace of justification. I wish every
one of us could get a hold of justification. I fear that we
too often look at it as the doctrine of justification. No, if you're
justified, that means you've never done anything wrong. It
means you stand before God without sin. You don't have anything
to worry about. You're perfect in God's sight.
Perfectly righteous. You know when people talk about
a believer's works being judged and somebody getting a
higher award than another, that's a complete denial of justification.
That's all that is. The peace of His providence. Romans 8, 28, and we know that
all things work together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. The peace of
His intercession. These things have I spoken to
you, these are the Lord's words. These things have I spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. In the world you'll have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And
love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how
can I know if God loves me? He says, peace, from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and love from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how can I know He loves me?
Now the very idea of universal love where he loves everybody
makes his love meaningless. If he can love somebody and they
wind up in hell, what good did his love do for that person?
Absolutely nothing. And I know this, if he can love
me and I can go to hell, I know dead sure I will go to hell if
that's the case. I'll mess it up somehow and that's
where I'll be. So how can I know if he loves
me because he doesn't love all men without exception? And I
make no apology for saying that. Jacob ever loved, Esau ever hated. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. That's a pretty big demographic,
isn't it? Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. How can I know,
how can I know if he loves me? One question that'll answer this.
Are you a sinner. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died For the ungodly, if you are a sinner,
I can say to you, smile, God loves you. He really does. There's no sinner that's ever
been that he doesn't love. If you're a sinner, God loves
you. Love from God the Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to these words. These
are Christ's words. As the Father hath loved me, So have I loved
you. I wouldn't dare believe that
if the Bible didn't say it, but the Bible says it. As the father
hath loved me, so have I loved you. And then he says faith.
Notice what he says in verse 23. Peace be to the brethren
and love with faith. from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, this thing of faith, this
is what, this thrills me, this thing of faith, it's from Him.
It's not the product of me. If I had anything to do with
me believing, if it was because of something I did, I wouldn't
have any confidence in it at all. If my fingerprints were
on it, it's no good. But this faith comes from God
the Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ, the
one who's called the author and the finisher of faith. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Now, don't forget what faith
is. Faith doesn't have anything to do with what you believe about
yourself. Nothing. Faith has wholly to do with what
you believe concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What think ye of Christ? What God thinks of you. is what
you think of his beloved son. What think ye of Christ, whose
son is he? Now, it's the gospel that comforts,
the peace that comes from the gospel, the love that comes from
God, the faith that he produces. And I want to be like this man,
Tychicus, a beloved brother a faithful minister and a fellow servant
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.