"Ministry Matters"
Colossians 4:7-18
Preached by Bart Erlebach on 23rd March 2025
Scripture
7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
(ESV)
Generated Transcript
So if you'd like to take your bibles, our reading today is from colossians chapter 4, verse 7 to the end, page 1 1 8 4. So verse 7, ticket us will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister, and fellow servant in the lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances, and that he might encourage your hearts. He's coming with Anesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is 1 of you.They will tell you everything that's happening here. My fellow prisoner, Aristotle sends you his greetings as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas. You have received instructions about him if he comes to you, welcome him. Jesus who is called Justice also sens greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of god, and they have proved a comfort to me.
The Paphras, who is 1 of you, and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He's always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of god, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at leisure Sia and hierapolis. Our dear friend, Luke, the doctor, and Dimas send greetings. Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Lea, and to NIMFA and the church in her house.
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the laodiceans and that you turn in turn read the letter from laodicea. Tell archpuss to see it to it that you complete the ministry you've received in the lord. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, remember my chains, Grace be with you. Great. Will please keep the passage open in front of you, page 1 1 8 4, and let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your words. Every bit of it, we thank you for the passage just read. And we pray, please, that through it, you would nourishes, teachers, encourages, changes, and help us to be equipped to serve you, amen. So as has been said, today, this is the last sermon in the colossian series. Next week, we start a series of, where we're building up to Easter.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited to, be doing that 1. We're gonna be in Mark's gospel, picking up on various passages are from Jesus riding into Jerusalem up to, you know, of course, the crucifixion and resurrection, but we're looking at riddles that there are in that section. Jesus doing strange things, unusual things where you go What's that about? So we're looking at different passages building up to, Easter.
But that starts next week. This week, we finish off colossians. Now I'd like to ask you a question. Just do a little hand up. Don't worry.
There's nothing riding on this. You won't embarrass yourself with this. Well, you might have I when you get to the end of a book, are you the kind of person who reads the acknowledgements at the end of the book, hands up if you if you do? Interesting. Hands down.
Thank you. You guys Welled and girls. Well done, you clearly want to get your money's worth when you read a book. That is bold of you, but there are plenty you don't. This end of colossians maybe has a little bit of a feel like that.
It is the greetings. And very often, this will be a bit, which maybe you might think, well, maybe we could skip over this bit. As it was reg, you might have thought, what are we gonna get out of this? And that was exactly my feeling as well at the beginning of this last week. As I came to prepare the passage, I thought, what are we gonna get out of this?
But there is food in this passage. Some passages you, the food is more obvious. The passages in the Bible you've got to uncover food a bit more, but there is food there. After all, all scripture is god breathed, and that includes this bit as well. And therefore, the lord has things for us to learn from it.
And what we have here, as we say, is the greetings So, Paul is sending the letter with a couple of people, the first couple of verses, first 3 verses, of our passage versus 7 to 9 are him talking about the people he's sending with the letter. Then you get the greetings from people who are with Paul. He sends greetings from people with him to the colossians. Then you have Paul saying greetings to particular people in colossi. And then at the very end, the last verse, he grabs the pen himself and then a flourish.
He signs the letter off himself. So that's kind of the structure of where we're going. Now the food for us in this passage is seeing Paul relating to other people in ministry. And that's what we're gonna pick out from these versus. We're gonna maybe dot around a little bit to see, Paul's relationship with others in ministry and what we can learn from that.
And the first thing that we're gonna pick out is Paul makes much of the ministry of others. Make much of the ministry of others. In general, as Paul goes through this list of greetings, particularly those he's sending greetings from, those who are with him, He doesn't just list the names. He says something about them. He calls them fellow servants, faithful people, fellow workers, and dear friends.
You see, what you have here, the feeling you get is that with Paul, there is a band of brothers working together. Serving together, slaving together. There is that feel of, the band of brothers. There is, a quote which says, culture eats strategy for breakfast. I think that's related to a business context.
I've heard it related to sports context. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. What's the culture Paul's got around him? It is of those who he really values in ministry, working together with him, very closely dependable people he can rely on. And we see here he makes much of their And that means entrusting ministry to others.
So let's look at, the first person that he mentions. Tichicus. We know Tichicus has served with Paul before, he traveled they traveled together, they've ministered together. And here we see Paul delegating Ministry to Tichicus. So he mentioned in verse 7.
Paul himself can't go to Colosi. So he entrust this to Tichicus. It trusts him to take the letter to the colossians. And he says Tichicus has 2 things he needs to do. Verse 8.
I'm sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. Paul's very happy to hand over the ministry to Tichicus. To go to them and tell talk to them about what's going on with Paul, about Paul's life and imprisonment and ministry. But also the Tichicus, he says, I trust him. He's gonna come to you, and he's gonna encourage you in the faith.
Which is a reminder to us. We need to entrust ministry to others in the church family. 1 danger in church life is to think the ministry is only done by 1 person or by a small group of people. I think, people sometimes talk about ministry as being like people going to watch a football match. You've got the 22 people on the pitch doing all the work and then hundreds of people in the sands watching, thinking that they could do it better.
And sometimes church ministry can be like that. But, of course, that's not the way it should be. It should be a sharing of ministry, entrusting ministry to others. And you know notice the things mentioned that should be looked for in those who are entrusted with ministry. It is character above gifting.
We see this consistently throughout the new testament. Those who should be entrusted with ministry are people with character is not about gifting necessarily, although gifting is not unimportant. But he doesn't say about Tichicus, oh, yeah. I'm sending you to him to you. He is an awesome preacher.
His illustration rank among among the highest I've ever known. He he's got jokes that'll, you know, make you roll around in the yard when he preaches everyone listens. No. He he never does. In fact, Paul never rarely talks about people's gifting.
It is far more about Carrick or isn't it? What does he say about Tichicus? Verse 7, Tichicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother or beloved brother. Loved by Paul and by others.
He's the kind of person who when you meet him, when you talk about him, raises a smile, he goes, yeah, he's beloved. And he's a faithful minister or fellow servant, a faithful minister and fellow servant. He is totally dependable, and his attitude in ministry is right. It wasn't all about him and his ministry or him using his gifts. It was all about him serving the lord and serving god's people.
And you go, yeah, that's the kind of person you want to entrust ministry to. It was character above charisma. Servantheartedness. So as we look for people to be involved in ministry, as we wanna share ministry, these are the kind of people we want to look for. Do they have the right character?
Paul valued that, the ministry of others. And so delegated it to dependable people. So he makes much of min others' ministry. We see that with Tichikas. He he delegates to him, but not only that.
Paul also values the ministry of others as they relate to him. So verse 10. My fellow prisoner, Aristotle, sends you his greetings as does Mark and the the cousin of Barnovas, you've received instructions about him, If he comes to you, welcome him. Jesus, who is, who is called Justice, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of god, they have proved a comfort to me Paul is not a self sufficient island in ministry.
He needs the comfort and strengthening of others. No. We see it here. We see it elsewhere as well. In other books of the bible, it talks about people being sent to Paul to minister to his needs.
Some of that was financial, but some of that would be other things. And here, we see he's comforted by others. Strengthened by others. Now again, we need to remember this. It isn't only that leadership involves involving others in ministry, depending on others, giving others ministry, but it also means actually being minister too as well.
The image Paul uses is that of the church as a body. We thought about this in our first vision evening, but the church as a body where every part has every part has a bit to play. Every part has a job to do. And you need that to be going on so that the body is being built up. And our temptation might be to think, but, yes, surely the pastor doesn't need that from others, or surely the elders don't need others to build them up because they're the ones leading the way.
Surely, they're the ones they could, if anyone could be on their own and be fine, surely it's the pastor, or the elders. But that's not the image. Is it? The image Paul gives is the whole body needs to be working to build 1 another up so that the whole body can be built up. And the parser and elders are just as much of that as others.
We need to be built up by you just as you need to be built up by us. And might I suggest The 1 of the reasons why we have seen a significant number of church leaders falling spectacular spectacularly, maybe part of the reason is, and this this is not the whole reason. I mean, there are many other things that have gone into it, but maybe partly it was because we and they thought that they didn't really need the ministry of the body. They didn't really need others to hold them to account or to build them up. We just thought they're fine on their own.
And maybe they thought that too. Paul Tripp, who sort of passed his other past in America says, it says, what's, of course, true? The pastor does not grow out of his need for the rest of the body of Christ. He says a pastor is just as in need of the rich nutrients of the body of Christ as everyone else. And interestingly, he says, the local church should set up the means for the pastor to be pasted.
We probably tend to think, oh, yes, of course, the past and elders need, they need pastoring as well, but maybe that we think that should come from outside the local church gathering. That's when you go off to a conference, you're ministered to there. But why would that be the case? I after all, this is the body. We need to build 1 another up.
So it shouldn't just be coming from outside, which is why, so we've been talking about small groups, home groups, that kind of thing you're gonna hear more about that on Wednesday, and it takes deciding what we're what we're planning, what we're thinking about. I think it's gonna be really good. I would think that, though, wouldn't I? But it's it's really good. But we as elders thought, okay, do should I lead a group?
And we actually came to the conclusion. I don't have to lead a group, 1 of the home groups. And, initially, again, when I was listening to Paul Tripp, he was saying, actually, it's a good thing if within the church, the pastor is part of a group that he is not leading because that then says the pastor actually needs to be ministered to as well. So Paul values the ministry of others. He delegates ministry to others to teach because But he also says, look, I'm benefiting from from others in the church others with me as well.
I'm comforted by them. I need that strengthening. And lastly, within this, making much of the ministry of others, he also does instruct others to get on with ministry. So you get the cryptic verse 17. Tell archippus, see to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the lord.
Why wasn't archippus getting on with it? We don't know. Had he grown tired? Did he grown bored? Was he, was he worn down?
Was he distracted? We have no idea, and it doesn't benefit you for the preacher to speculate on these things. But all we do know is that he's that Paul is saying, just get on with it. You need to complete that ministry that you've been given. And maybe there are some here who you need that encouragement to.
You started something but have tailed off or given up, and you need to be encouraged to see it through. So we see Paul here making the min much of the ministry of others. And as I reflected on just on this point over this last week, I just thought, actually, there are many people in Hope Church who are for whom I give great thanks to god for their ministry. I'm not gonna start listing though. Maybe I should in light of this.
You know, I need to I stand here and I greet this person. But there are many people over this last year who have committed and done so many wonderful things in service to get Hope Church up and running. And I thank god for you, many who are involved, and maybe that's part of the beauty of church plant that you join it, many join it with an attitude of where we're going to serve together. And it is wonderful. And I thought, I mean, our way of expressing this was if I needed to send people away to another church to go and encourage them.
There are many here who I would think, actually, yeah, I think you do agree. That could sound really bad that I wanna get rid of you. Yeah. You go and encourage another church. Maybe that's what Paul is.
No. No. No. You go. No.
No. You go. No, right. You wasn't doing that. Mhmm.
But there are many here you go. Actually, you'd be a great encouragement to others. I thank god for you. So make the much of the ministry of others. Second, gospel reconciliation.
We see this in relationships here. There are a couple of people in this list who, actually have slightly record pasts. So onesimus is 1, verse 9. He is coming with onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is 1 of you. They will tell you everything that he's happening here.
So Tichicus, as he goes with the letter to Colosi, he's going with Onisimus, who is going with him. And we know Onisimus, from another book in the new testament, philemon. You see, Anisimus was slave, and ran away from his master. His master's name is Phie Leman, and they lived in Colosi. It says, him, that, Anesimus is 1 of them.
He's from Colosi. So he's a slave is run away. And you've got the other letter, the letter of philemon, which is Paul writing to his master to welcome him back. And in the book of philemon, Paul says this, I appealed to you, so it's up on the screen. I appealed to you for my son Anesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.
Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he has become useful to both you, and to me. So Anitimus having run away, from his master, then met Paul and clearly became a Christian. And Paul is now sending Anitimus back to his master to philemon in colossi. And it's likely that when Paul sent Tichicus with Anesimus, this is Anesimus coming back to meet his former mass or his master. And the instruction to Philemon, when Paul writes in that letter, is to welcome Monisimus back.
He says no longer as a slave, but better than a slave as a dear brother. And in colossians here, as he mentions Anesimus coming back, it's significant significant, isn't it? Now Neesom is coming back. He must have been known. I would think to the church as this runaway slave.
How are they gonna treat him? Well, Paul says, interestingly, he is 1 person that Paul doesn't describe as a fellow servant or a slave of Christ, but rather calls him our faithful and dear brother to thing how significant that is for onesimus, that he is described as, not a slave, but a brother, how significant to come back to the church, and we welcomed Live Out to come back to Philemon, who if he obeys what Paul says, will welcome him as a brother. Well, that's what the gospel does. It reconciles people as we put our trust in Jesus, the gospel gets us together with 1 another as brothers and sisters knocks down the barriers, takes away relational rifts. It's hard work at times, but there's reconciling But there's 1 other person who was reconciled as well.
When, Paul mentions the 3 people verse 10, he mentions Aristotle who sends greetings, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas. And the commentators agree, this is the Mark who was the cause of a big falling out in the book of act. If you were to turn, we went turn to it. But in acts chapter 15, Paul, and Barnovas and others are saying they're gonna go on a journey together. Now Mark is there, and Paul says, we shouldn't take Mark with us.
Mark has abandoned us in the past, and therefore, Paul seems to think Mark isn't the right person to go on this journey. But barnabas thinks he should. And it says the disagreement was so strong that they ended splitting and going in different directions. So you have Paul, ends up going off with silas 1 way, and Barnabus and Marc go a different way. In been a falling out.
Well, here we have. It says this is sometime later that Mark is 1 of those who's with Paul. Isn't that good to hear? Back with Paul. And not only that, he is described as a fellow worker.
They're working together again, and that he comforts Paul. He's 1 of those ones who comforts him. Isn't that great? They're back together. And they are not just together grudgingly, but joyfully and working together, and Paul's saying, yeah, we we pulled together.
The gospel has brought them together. This is the living out of what Paul has said in colossians 3. Just cast your eyes over to the other page. Callossians 3 verse 13. Bear with each other and forgive 1 another if any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the lord forgave you.
This is what the gospel does in our relationships. Yes. It brings us back into relationship with the lord god, but also with 1 another. And makes us brothers and sisters and pulls us back together. And where there are rifts, where there are problems, it brings us back together.
This is what we want as a church family to see, this is what we need to see. This is the supernatural work of the gospel the gospel that you you have people who will come together who maybe have fallen out in the past, but actually it's the gospel that brings us back because verse 13 tells us how it happens. Verse 13 of chapter 3 says forgive as the lord forgave you. As the lord's forgiveness works on our hearts, so we're then able to forgive 1 another. I wonder if you have anyone you need to be reconciled with, whether it's anyone here or from a former church where you need to say actually, I do need to be in touch with them and to be reconciled.
Yeah. If there are there can be some circumstances where you say there should still be restrictions on things. And particularly if they've been, you know, it's not just a falling out, actually, there's been significant things going on there, which need to be dealt with, or if there's safeguarding issues, you know, there can still need to be restrictions. But what we really want to get to is to a point where you go actually, we we're we're brothers and sisters again, and we can work together for the gospel, and we can encourage 1 another proper reconciliation. Is that needed?
Is there someone you need to be in touch with? So reconciliation is seen in this name list of names. And lastly, our last thing is rest sling prayer. We come to Epaphras, mentioned in verse 12. We know Epaphras from earlier in the letter.
He is the 1 who brought the gospel to the colossians. He came with the message acclaimed it, people believed, and so the church was established. It's that Epaphras. And now we find out what he's doing in verse 12. Epaphras, who is 1 of you, and a servant of Christ Jesus sends greetings, he's always rest sling in prayer for you.
He's wrestling in prayer. Now we've learned about prayer before. We've talked about prayer before quite recently. But I wonder whether there's something to learn here about a way of praying, a wrestling I'd quite like to have watched Epaphras praying. What's he doing?
How does it how does that look? What's that like? Would you say you've ever wrestled in pre the the language used there is is language of fighting. It's almost competing in prayer. You done competitive praying?
I've never done that. I don't know quite how that works. He wasn't really competing with others, but, but, you know, he he's rest sling for them in prayer. What was that born out of? Because I take it, I Epfras wasn't doing this for everyone.
This is particularly for the colossians. And it's not that everyone Paul was with was praying quite like this. It looks like epaphras was was particularly involved in this, you know, particularly concerned for them to pray in this sway. What was it born out of? Well, he knew them, didn't he?
That he'd been with them. He was, like, the midwife at their birth as a church. He he was there to proclaim the gospel and just saw converts. He knows them. But also, we see something from what he was praying.
First 12, second half of verse 12. He's always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand in the will of god, all the will of god, mature and fully assured. What's he praying that they would stand firm? Now this is significant in light of the context of the whole letter. Because we've seen throughout the letter, there is a chance they won't stand firm.
Paul has warned them about people who might deceive them, the collage that they might be taken captive by fine sounding arguments that will take them away from Christ. The main point of the letter has been that Paul is urging the colossians to stick with Christ. That's why we said, our key verses, our chapter 2 verses 6 and 7. It just cast your eyes back to them. Would you just turn back to 2 verses 6 and 7.
It says, so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as lord, continue to live your lives in him. Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. You see Paul's main concern for them is stick with Christ. Be rooted in him, don't be taken away from him. And we saw through the letter, there were a couple of things that could draw them away, find sounding arguments to do with traditions or spiritual experiences.
And Paul is really genuinely concerned. They might fall away. And now they hear epaphras is concerned for them to pray for them that they would stand firm. Epaphras is sparked into this wrestling in prayer, presumably because he thinks they might not. He is really concerned for them.
Now I want you just to think for a moment, in application, of this. Is there someone who comes to your mind, someone who's known to you, who you are particularly concerned for that they might drift away from the lord. Is there someone who comes to mind? Just have to think about it. Is there someone particularly on your heart where you think I want to pray for him?
No. I'd I need to pray for them. I particularly know them, and I'm concerned they're going to fall away. Will you spend time praying from them? Don't get too caught up with how you rest sold in prep?
What how do I actually wrestle with? Just pour your heart out to the lord for them. Maybe not just pray, lord, please help them, but actually take a little bit of time in prayer for them. This is hard work for them. So Paul describes it as epaphras prays.
This is hard work. Will you engage in that for that person? Maybe take some time today to pray for them. Maybe this week, maybe reshape your praying this week rather than praying for a whole load of other different things. Maybe this week, just pray for them.
And would you, what do you think about mess suggesting them about it to say, look, I'm praying for you. You might need to think whether this is particularly right in your circumstances and for that person. I wonder who you're thinking, maybe you're thinking of people from camp last summer, who you led, maybe it's other people, people from previous church, maybe maybe it's whole church. It was for a path for us. Where you're concerned for them, you think maybe they're gonna fall away.
I I feel I I must pray for them. How about messaging them to say you're praying for them? If if they're younger people, you've gotta do it in a safeguarding appropriate it way. Okay? But if it's others, what about messaging them?
After all, what would it do to the colossians to hear that Epaphras was praying for them? It'd be a huge encouragement, wouldn't it? Epaphras, 1 of us, loves us. Is praying for us. So it acts as a great encouragement, but also acts as another urging to stick with the lord and stand firm.
They hear epaphras is praying that they would, maybe they're more likely to go, we do need to stand firm, don't we? So maybe it'll be a great encouragement to someone else to hear from you. I'm praying for you that you will stand firm in the lord. Can we engage in wrestling and prayer? Have this week.
Well, the letter draws to a close draws to a conclusion. Paul sends some more greetings. We see he, sends greetings from Luke the doctor who probably wrote the gospel of Lukanat and then wrote acts as well. And we read verse 14, he sends greetings from Demus. Now Demus is a bit of a warning to us because we learn from later on in the new estimate dimas for love of this world deserted pool.
And maybe that makes our praying all the more urgent. And he instructs them to swap letters with the church in Layoda Sia, who he's also written to instructs archippus to complete the ministry and then verse 18. And with this we finish, Paul grabs the pen. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chain's grace be with you.
And that last sentence is particularly significant, isn't it? In the light of the letter? Grace be with you. The grace of god, which means that people like you and me and the colossians and Paul and others who were enemies of god, but have been reconciled to god through these the awesome lord Jesus described in chapter 1, in whom all the fulness of god dwells, and through Jesus' body reconciled to god by god's grace, through Jesus' death. And now we, even people like you and me, by his grace, have Christ in us, and we are in Christ.
And therefore, we have everything thing. Everything we need for this life and for eternity, we have fullness in Christ, and that is god's grace to us. That's 3. Emily father, we praise you for the book of colossians and all that we have learned from it. Thank you.
You have spoken to us every time it's been read and preached. And we pray these truths of minister street would hit home in our lives and in, our life as a church family, that we would make much of the ministry of others, that we would be reconciled to 1 another through the power of the Goss school and that we would wrestle in prayer for 1 another and for others who we are concerned might fall or way. Father, please work in us and through us, and may your grace be with us? Amen.