Paul Friends his Messengers

So we got a little bit of a diversion here this morning. We've kind of waxed very, very doctrinally last week, and I'm trying to put a little doctrine in today's, but we'll see how that goes. So let's read from 1 down through 9. Who would like to read this morning?

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven. Continue in prayer and watch the same with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. All my state shall Tichitus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you that shall make known unto you all things which are done here. redeeming the time, and letting your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. How many people would like to raise...never mind.

Carol Ann, this was not what we were looking for here this morning. Alright, let's proceed with the three verses, seven through nine. So ticket this. A, by the way, the beloved is a better interpretation here. This is a special guy. It's not just a beloved brother, but the beloved brother. faithful minister and fellow servant of the Lord will tell you all the news about me." So, in the Interlinear it reads quite different. I mean, it's the same kind of interpretation. All my state, meaning Paul, shall ticket us, declare unto you who is a or the beloved brother. I mean, sometimes the Interlinear Greek, you know, it's tough to stumble through and kind of see what the rich, but here I think it really states it much more clearly. Alright, so is A versus B important here?

I may have alluded to that in my comments. Think out loud with me. I would think it is, because B is very different than A, who could be anyone. There could be many. Tom's got an idea. Thank you, Margaret. Go ahead. It's fine to remind me of the fact that Tychicus is further along in Italy of the Lord and able to teach. Alright, B rather than A. Other thoughts about that? and who he's writing to here. The Colossians never saw Paul face to face. It's pretty key. Ticitus I think is best. It could be Ticitus, but I think Ticitus is easier.

He's Paul's go between. He's critical of Paul's ministry to these people. He's the brother who's bringing false good news. Alright, good lead in then. Tickitus appears to be an entrusted friend. Now we got an interesting further modifiers here. Adelphos, a Christian brother. He was also a faithful minister, diakomos, and a fellow servant, syndoulos.

And actually syndoulos is really, it's got the term doulo in it, which was a bond slave. So literally a fellow bond slave. So how do we interpret that? Him being a fellow, what do we think of when we think of bond slave? Well, didn't Paul think of himself as a bond slave to Christ? And so wouldn't that, if he's saying a fellow bond slave, that would be tikkakus. Tikkakus would be a fellow, I mean he would be a believer, a strong believer, who had the same kind of view that Paul did. Well give me a history of bond slaves, what do you think of?

I mean, outside of Christianity, right? Well you said it's for life. So, we're bond slaves for life. And it really fits well with the Christian life, that we are the Lord's bond slaves. Margaret has a little bit better perspective from the south in terms of bond slaves. These were people historically in slavery that became really part of the extended family. Margaret, do you want to share a little bit about that? Right.

With our family, those slaves that were then released, they took the name our last name. I mean, that's what they did when they had a slave owner that they respected and they liked. They took that name. And so those people were like part of the family.

They were taken care of. They were. And they traveled with you? Yes. When I was growing up, that's right. These were not bond slaves at the time, but these were members of our household for sure. But they took the Scarborough name. Yes. And tell just a minute about what happened when you went into a restaurant. This was back in the 50s.

My father was so... These people that were with us, they were part of our family. We were very offended, even though we were from the South and we knew what the rules were. My dad was very insistent that they would be able to eat with us. He rented places where we could stay so that we could all stay together because he wouldn't stay in a hotel. without them being with us.

I think that's a great example. The black servants, if you will, became part of your family and your father insisted they be included. That's what we're talking about here. This goes beyond simply someone who is a former slave to the world system, now is a bond slave to the Christian message and to Paul. To what do you think this being a bond slave is related? We talked about that.

Who is this guy, Tichitus? Well, we need to look elsewhere in scripture, so let's look elsewhere. In total, there are five citations to Titicus, including the one here, whose name, actually the literal interpretation of his name is Fortunate. And there's somebody in, I think, in 1 Thessalonians, I'm not sure I remember exactly where, who was named Fortitunus. and it's been debated whether that fortitude is really Tichitus' sixth time in scripture, but it's not clear.

But anyway, let's look at the verses. In Acts 24, and Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia, and also Ardiarchus, we're going to come back to him, and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tichitus, and Trofimus, these are Asians by birth.

What do we mean by Asia during that time? Turkey was part of Asia. And that's where Ephesus is and Colossae and Corinth. All those places are really in Turkey. We're not talking about Japan here or Korea, right? We're talking about that part of the Middle East, Mediterranean. Oh, I apologize for this. I didn't take time this morning to get this animation correct, so we'll just go through it.

Ephesians 6.21, but that you may also know my affairs and how long I'm doing. Take of this, a beloved, again, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will make all things known to you.

That's almost a parallel kind of section in Ephesians chapter 6. Timothy 4, 12, and Tichitus I've sent to Ephesus. So that relates back to the Ephesians 6, 21 verse. Tigis 312, when I send Artemis to you, or Tichitus, be diligent to come to me in the Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

So anyway, this guy gets mentioned periodically. There aren't too many people whose names we consider kind of secondary, people we don't think about that are mentioned this many times. So he must have been a dear brother, Christian brother to Paul. and he quotes Lightfoot as saying, Tichitus was charged by Paul at the same time with a more extended mission. He was entrusted with copies of the circular letter which he was enjoined to deliver in the principal churches of pro-consular Asia. this mission would bring him to Laodicea, which was one of the great centers of Christianity, and as Colossae was only a few miles distant, the Apostle would naturally engage him to pay a visit there too.

So, anyway, that's Wiest's commentary quoting Leifrit. He quotes Leifrit a lot, doesn't he? I mean, but we don't have, I don't know if we have, is there a printed set? I've seen Leifrit a lot, but never actually, you know, So if this were better animated, the question would be posed without some suggested answers.

So why did Paul send Tichitus with this letter? Well, I have kind of a couple of thoughts. I think first of all is to provide an update about himself. I mean, where's Paul? He's in a Roman jail here, right? So this letter to the church at Colossae was an update about what's going on with Paul. We don't have those details outlined in scripture.

But that was one purpose, I think, of the letter. And secondly, it was probably a note of encouragement to the Colossian believers. I mean, think about Paul in jail going through all the trials and tribulations, writing these letters of encouragement to the churches throughout Asia.

It's pretty special. So any other thoughts on Antichrist here we might reflect on? Alright, so Tichitus looks like a star in the new church of the age. Alright, I've combined verses 8 and 9 here into kind of one segment. So I'm sending him to you for this very purpose. So in a sense, the question I just posed, so why did Paul send Tichitus with this letter is kind of being addressed here in 8 and 9. I'm sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances, and some versions say estate or affairs.

Again, pardon the lack of animation, and comfort your hearts, there's the encouragement, with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you, and they will make known to you all things which are happening here. Alright, so relate knowing their circumstances versus comforting their hearts. So we think of the body today. It's tough to comfort hearts without kind of knowing. Tom, go ahead. I get the funny feeling that he did a lot more praying to the Lord over them than just merely comforting their hearts. Okay. Are you reading between the lines here? Yeah, I'm just thinking that Paul is a faithful servant and he proved it by just letting people know it's there. OK.

Knowing the Gnostic ways of the people of Klossy, what kind of encouragement might this be? Possibly they were being persecuted. Because the whole area was so full of pagan beliefs, you know, and Gnosticism was certainly coming into the church. OK. What else? The Judaizers are around. They're still around. He wanted to make sure that the Colossians were going to get vaccinated spiritually.

That's just stupidity. Well, that's an important point, Tom, because previously in this epistle we see that the Jew and the Gentile are ultimately looked at as needing to be one rather than separate as they historically have been. So, no here is, interestingly enough, So that's, you know, no could be, I know, I'm not sure that's the pronunciation is correct, factually no facts.

Gnoska is a more experiential and intense knowledge. And epigonoska is really the ultimate term, the superlative that really relates to even a higher level of knowledge. So knowing was not simply knowing they were going through issues there in Colossae, but ultimately knowing their circumstances. And that's why it says knowing their estate, their affairs, their circumstances. He's there to help out, to bring clarity to what they're going through. Weiss deals with comfort as parakaleo, actually to comfort is to mean to encourage.

Hereby bringing Paul's tidings and exhortations to the church and that's being ultimately transmitted by Nesimus. How does this relate to the body of Christ today? Is this just some distant historical event or does it have purpose today? And Roy is sharing with us the experiences of some of our mission support field out there and so does that relate at all to this?

Somebody say something here. It's like when you and I went to the Thrive Gala where we heard about the missionary who was in Afghanistan with her husband and her children and how they were being persecuted and it was when you hear the stories of some of these missionaries it's just you know when they're in the field your heart goes out to them and they need a lot of prayer and support for emotional support you know so relating that to here we learned of the circumstances that were present in Afghanistan right okay for that couple All right, other thoughts? Yeah, Pat? It's just a simple idea that you need to understand what people are going through, get to know them, what circumstances they're facing in order to be able to help them. One thing I was reminded of just a few days ago, we probably need to repeat the questions of the people who are doing the podcast and hear that. So you said basically we kind of need to understand. To get to know people and to understand what circumstances they're facing and what things they're going through in order to know how to speak. We need to know the circumstances, what people are going through, get to know them in terms of how to adequately pray for them. I mean the Lord knows all this, right?

But we have to be effective in prayer. By the way, when we pray, are we praying? We're praying for people, we're praying for their circumstances, but isn't prayer really something that ministers to us personally? I mean it's not simply we're raising up requests to the Lord, but in fact we grow through prayer, don't we?

And I asked Miles Stanford before he went home to be with Laura a number of years ago, it must be 30 some years ago, when I kind of came to the Lord and I was growing early as a, you know, chewing on, drinking milk actually, not really chewing on meat yet. Yeah, that's right, and the flavor was ultimately lost as I continued to chew it.

But that's a good analogy. I said to Miles, Miles, what's prayer? You know what his answer was? He said that's a very good question. That's all he said. And I still don't have an answer. So Miles took all that wisdom home and he didn't answer my question.

So, you know, if we could spend, maybe PERS should be our topic, right? We're going to be ending Colossians, what, in about four weeks or something like that? So Roger's already got something up his sleeve. And that's why your sleeves are rolled up here today. All right, so let me turn my page here.

So who's this guy, Onesimus? Well, he's another brother that Paul knows very well. And that interaction, I didn't study that part. So where do we find most information about Onesimus? Anybody know? Book of Philemon. Book of Philemon. What do we learn there? We're going to look at a couple of verses from there.

Onesimus had run away from his owner. Philemon was the owner. Onesimus had run away. He came in contact with Paul. Alright, good. Let's look at that. He was from Phrygia and formerly a slave in the house of Philemon. and had been led to the Lord by Paul while in Rome and is now stated to be a beloved brother to Paul. So this guy escaped closure, if you will, and sought a new path and the Lord used Paul to bring him to the Lord. So I'm going to look at 4 verses 10-13, then we're going to skip ahead to 16. We could basically read the whole book. appealed to you for my son Inesipus, whom I have begotten while in my chains." So he came to the Lord while Paul was in Rome.

"...who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me." So he's speaking, who's he speaking to here? I believe him. No. He's speaking to the church in Colossae. And I'm sending him back. You therefore receive, sorry again about the animation, you receive him that is in my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.

How is he ministering to Paul now? Paul's in chains in Rome, he's sending this letter to Colossae, how is that ministering to him? Well, let's say you're sharing the Lord or sharing things of the Lord with a brother in the Lord and ultimately he or she goes elsewhere. I mean, the ministry to us is to know the word of the Lord is being spread, correct? And the ministry is being furthered. That's how he's ministering to Paul to get some satisfaction that the Lord is working through him indirectly through the messenger who's out in the field.

And now we're in verse 16. No longer as a slave, as Patty indicated, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, but in the flesh and in the Lord. Wow. Neat story, huh? Guy that escaped slavery, comes to the Lord, and now he's out in the field spreading the word. that Paul would be comforted and the ministry would be brought to the church at Colossae. Special guy here.

Macaulay, Onesimus is going to Colossae under a different set of circumstances than Tychicus. The book of Philemon provides the details and then there is no mention of his offense. There is no call to confess it to the church. Sin's guilt has been forgiven by God and the rest was a personal matter between him and Philemon. So that's history at this point. And Esimus has a whole new life in Christ that he is now implementing in Colossae.

So what does one of you indicate? Let's go back to the verse. A faithful and beloved servant, who is one of you? So what does one of you indicate? Sounds like he's in the body. Okay. He's a brother. Okay. What else might identify him with you? I think in context it must mean that he's no longer in his past life, but in fact he has new life in Christ Jesus. He's one of you, so listen to this guy. He's got a message here. And he's not only giving you an update of what I'm doing and what I'm going through here in Rome, but also he's one of you, so he has a message to bring. So simply a brother in the Lord, a former bond slave or what? So I think we kind of dealt with that there. and describe what a faithful and beloved brother looks like in terms of today's church. If I can give a personal example, my brother Mike and Lisa had a very bad car wreck.

Unfortunately, they got over it. The latest news, and this is less than a week old, is that my brother John and I decided among ourselves that we would help them pay for the replacement car. Not all of it, but a good chunk of it. So I managed to get the funds to Mike just a few days ago. And that was a noteworthy encouragement to both Mike and Lisa. They were appreciative because it covered one third of the payment that they would ultimately pay out to get the thing paid off in installments. And that may not have been so easy either. Yeah, for them especially.

Ironically, the one that works part-time at the airbase, Mike, she works in a combination flower and gift shop. for her work efforts. So both appreciated the help. That's one example of people helping other people in the Lord. That's a very practical example of what it means to be a faithful brother.

Let's think beyond that. Other thoughts about what a faithful and beloved brother looks like. or sister I mean you know generically we're talking about men and women both here. All right and prayers I mean again we could talk about prayer for months in terms of what it is and what it's not again Miles's answer is appropriate what he said that's a good question so but yet praying is to our own I mean we lift up the Lord I mean yesterday the series of circumstances worked out for Margaret and I last night there were kind of must have been answers to prayer but anyway all that aside Faithfulness is what? How do we define faithfulness?

Faithfulness, the Lord commends faithfulness a lot. Well done my good and faithful servant. Faithfulness talks about no matter what the job is, what your ministry is, it could be anything from the pastor to the janitor so to speak. The Lord is interested in your faithfulness and doing that task. importance, but the holiness of the task is your faithfulness.

And that's why it's really cool, you know, a mom at home taking care of the kids. She is a faithful servant too, just like the minister is, or whoever it might be. In the world system we live into, if a woman admits she's a mother in the home, that's looked down upon, isn't it, in terms of the world's view? A faithful woman is to her husband and children. I remember my late wife, I mean, we had five children and Sharon would say, my acting, my faithfulness is not getting involved in everything in the world but being a good wife and a good mother to my children. Anyway, Margaret?

Well, I was also going to say that that faithfulness has to do with Whatever it is you're doing, doing it with a cheerful heart and out of love for the people you're trying to lift up, the people you're praying for, as opposed to You know, you run into people who it's sort of like they feel like it's a duty or it's not really a cheerful, it's not on their heart, but they're in this position and they have to do this thing, whatever it is, but it's not with a cheerful heart. They shouldn't be doing that, whatever that is.

Good example of it here is we don't pass an offering plate, right? Maybe so many, I don't have data here, but there have been people who have come here who are very surprised, when is the offering plate going to be passed? Yes, Tom? I think the biggest reason for people discontinuing the offering plate is the phrase, pass the buck.

Jargon applied. Let's do it differently. I think part of, at least in my mind, part of being faithful is just consistently doing whatever you're doing. Whether people are recognizing it or not but it needs to be done so you just keep doing it and get it done and keep connecting with them. I'm going to build on that a little bit. Is it doing or is it being? Being. Gary agrees. But being relates to doing. And Peter here gets tired of me saying this but it's not what you do but it's who you are. And once you know who you are, then what you do is an evidence of who you are.

And what's faith? Faith is believing what God has revealed, right? And as that faith builds up in us, that faithful servant is someone who is living out to bring glory to the Lord. being a beloved brother or whatever. Above all other things that would distract you from that. How do you define beloved? Describing being a brother. Not only faithful but beloved. It has to do with fellowship I would think. With other believers. And what kind of love is that? Agape. Agape. And what kind of love is agape love? Unconditional.

Well, right. And is that something you work at? No, that's something by faith that you are. And we're really not capable of that. How are you doing loving your neighbor? I mean, I'm not doing well at that. That's because I'm trying to like my labor and love them because I like them. It's got nothing to do with it. I mean, that's something that's hard for us to put on and experience on a day-to-day basis. But in the body, that beloved nature is the faithful, Demonstration of that is ultimately who we are and the Lord providing circumstances for us to reach out. And that's what Paul is doing through Ticitus and through Inesibus. Yes, Roy. From the missionary environment, one of the most faithful people working in Guatemala was Don Antonio, who lived on the property where the transmitter was.

And we had ten and a half acres that he cut with his machete meticulously every day. Ten and a half acres for the machete? Yeah. And we got some more, a gravely more, and put it on there and tried to teach him how to use it. It was a disaster. He could come up to our... never mind. He could keep that grass down consistently with a machete. He was so paid for that. There was one brother that... I remember to this day, he's a beloved, like Vanessa was here, a beloved man of God. So those of you out there in cyberspace, Royce described a brother in the Lord in Guatemala who with a machete took care of ten acres, kept the grass cut, right? Is that a good summary of that? So how do we measure this? Do we measure this? What is it to be a beloved and faithful servant? I think we can recognize it, but we can't make it. But when you see it, to whom gets the glory?

I mean, that's what we're all about, right? Absolutely. To God be the glory. Actually, this faithfulness can occur at all levels. I mean, you know, to be a faithful brother and sister across the whole body. It shouldn't be that way. It says, by love serve one another. I always like that verse. We should be, in the Lord, striving to serve one another. It doesn't matter who it is. You think about the disciples, how the Lord washed their feet. So that picture is all through scripture about serving one another.

You know, we don't measure it. We don't look horizontally and give grades to servitude, but nevertheless we witness it and the glory goes to the Lord. And there are many in this room we've all witnessed doing great things for the body. We're here to encourage one another and ultimately be faithful and beloved in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ enacted by the Spirit. That's our life.

So, we went into a little more detail here because I think the text is pretty complete here. But I think what I'd like to do now is look back at the verses that precede this. And I'd particularly like to look at verses 5 and 6 that we covered last week that I kind of posed as an inquiry to the class at the beginning of the day.

So let's think about Tychicus and Onesimus in terms of Paul's letter that he's transmitting to the Church of Colossae. Walk in wisdom towards them that are outside redeeming the time. As we think about this letter being transmitted by these two beloved servants of the Lord, put that into perspective. Walking in wisdom, so wisdom is What, in terms of walking in wisdom?

We're trying to apply the previous two verses to what has occurred subsequently, the three verses we've covered today. Now it says them that are outside, meaning without the faith. Now do you think that ultimately with their mission in Colossae that ultimately there might have been an opportunity to witness to the world outside the body of Christ? Of course. Paul didn't tell them that. But it's interesting that Paul writes this right after he talks about walking in wisdom. So I suspect that this ministry could have been not only to the body but encouraging them in the faith so they had a better witness to the unbelieving world around them.

Is that reasonable to assume that? Well, isn't that what we do too? I mean, that's what we're called to do. Well, redeeming the time, what's that mean? Remember how we interpreted that last week? What's redeeming the time? Waiting for the coming of the Lord? Or the end times? Redeeming the time is the circumstances that surround us day in and day out. Just think, sometime today we might have that opportunity.

Redeeming the time, walking in wisdom, as Tichitus and Onesimus had a task of bringing encouragement and updating them about Paul's imprisonment in Rome. All right, verse 6, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. So that's an extension to some extent of verse 5 in terms of walking in wisdom and redeeming the time. What speech that's always with grace, but also seasoned with salt? To revisit what we talked about last week. Even to the body, by the way.

I mean, sometimes I think that within the body, you run into believers here, there, and everywhere, and you find out you're both saved, and you kind of get on with sharing your faith a little bit, but suddenly there are kind of barriers that exist to having a more in-depth conversation. How do we put on grace in terms of those types of interactions? Anesimus and Tichitus may have experienced that. Grace has to come from the Lord because to be honest we are not capable of doing that but I think the Lord also can give us an insight into what the appropriate way to speak to someone and the things to bring up and the way to talk to them. From last week I got that seasoned with salt is more kind of listening to the truth. I mean knowing what the truth is and trying to communicate with those people in truth.

Back to Miles again. Miles often would say it's more difficult to share the position we all have and are secured in. and a life that's Christ than it is to bring someone to the Lord who is not saved. Other thoughts about this? I think again with the body, they're there to inform and they're also there to encourage. Their walking in wisdom, redeeming at time, can relate to those outside the body, but also within. Other thoughts about today's verses? We're trying to build upon verses that are built on what preceded this in terms of the application.

I don't know if this applies or not, but walking in wisdom is the correct application of what you know to be the truth. And I think we just talked about that. It's using what is true correctly. in the circumstances that we are living in, whether they be a circumstance with a boss, or ease, or in a fellowship where you're learning from God's word, or in a home where you have a mother, and a father, and children, and a relationship. In all of those things, what we know to be true needs to be wisely handled so that every moment of the day is consistent with Christ being seen through us. That's well said. It reminds me of a truth that came from almost 40 years ago.

In the academic sphere in which I've worked, you know, publish or perish is kind of a theme of the job description that I had. One of the first research studies that I was carrying out as a new faculty member here in the early 80s, like 1981, 1982, The issue of authorship on papers is an issue, and generally the first author gets the most credit for any piece of work that's published, and then the senior author is kind of second. Now today many papers have 15 or 20 authors on it, so all the people bunched in the middle have some role in the project, but the first author and the senior author get the most credit. So one of our first studies was a very, I think, at the time a field furthering study and Craig Sitter was a fellow with me and Craig was a lovely Jewish man and here I am a new believer. But anyway, all that aside, Craig wanted to be the first author on this paper and this is my first grant from the NIH and this was a very, we published this in a high-impact journal And I came home and I said to my late wife Sharon, I said, I am so disappointed. Craig wants to be the first author and I really don't want him to be.

I want to be that. And she said to me, She was always ahead of me. She said, grow up spiritual. I'm paraphrasing. At that point in time, this idea of coming to the end of ourselves to let this new life become apparent for who we are was really apparent to me.

That was the beginning of me seeking the Lord to start chewing on meat rather than drinking milk. The fact that I was disappointed in the circumstances, I wanted to be the first author on this paper, and I was disappointed, and ultimately she sent me to Newell's Romans 6 to be disappointed with yourself as to have trusted yourself.

Anyway, it's a small example of just how this plays out in our life. So, you know, when we walk by faith, you know, our expectations in the flesh sometimes are not met. And the frustration that exists there really is a time to grow in grace. So I'm only sharing this to the extent that to share the Lord with a believer who is drinking milk or under law is a difficult task sometimes.

And I think this is where this wisdom applied, even within the body, has to have some salt connected to it. That doesn't mean we don't love them in Christ, they're part of the body. Our love is for the body. Our love is not for the world system. our loves for the body.

And I think for a Messimist and Tickitist to really think about what they've learned by knowing Paul and coming to the Lord probably through Paul for both of them had a lot of application related to it. Any other closing thoughts this morning? Tom, would you close us in prayer please? May the Lord bless what you've shown to us from Colossians, from the messengers that Paul dealt with, and how your Holy Spirit worked in the meantime to each one of them. Lord, as you gift us and grow us in grace, give us an idea, day to day, what your plan is, and trust and rest in how you teach us moment by moment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks.