Some First Century Church Members

Some of the most treasured things that we remember in life and experience in life are the smallest things. Who can ever forget the first smile of a baby or the first laugh of a baby? A word spoken at the right time, just small but very important. And so some of the most treasured things we have in life are the smallest things. So the same is true with people. Some of the greatest people I've known are unknown people. People that are not known very widely outside just a circle of friends or a few associates. And so I want to have you open your Bibles to the fourth chapter of Colossians this evening. We're going to see some names that are not real well known that we don't hear a lot, you just get the sense that Paul could not have done what he did without these people. That Paul's ministry would not have been near what it was without the people we're going to see tonight. Now Paul has finished really the book of Colossians as far as the argument of the book is concerned, the basic message of the book. And it would be easy to close the book at verse 6 and say we've really looked at what the book has to say. The rest of it is just kind of hello and goodbyes and see you later and that kind of thing. And it's really not that important so we'll just skip that. Early in my ministry I used to do that kind of thing. I used to just kind of end a book and say well the rest of it's just greetings and we'll get to something else next week. But I began to realize that I was missing and our congregation was missing a lot of important information about the first century church. And getting to know those people and how the church functioned. And so I don't do that anymore and I find great wealth of information and blessing and challenge and lessons from these kinds of names and these kinds of people insights into how the early church works. Tonight we're going to introduce some first century church members. Some members of the church of Colossi or if they weren't members there they were members of some church and they were working with the Apostle Paul in his ministry. We're going to just look at four or five of these people tonight. I did not produce an outline for you tonight because this is not the kind of message that you outline real neat and nice. We're just going to talk about these people. What I want to do is just go through as we they are named in the text. We're going to find out who they were first of all maybe trace a little bit of their history through the New Testament and then we're just going to see what Paul says about them here in this passage. The first one is mentioned in verses seven and eight. His name is Tickicus. Verse seven says Tickicus 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 you may encourage your hearts. Who was this man? Well Tickicus was a man who traveled with the Apostle Paul and he seems to have been a special messenger of the Apostle Paul. He was a man that Paul could send with great confidence just about anywhere. If you hold your place here and turn back to Acts chapter 20, we have our first introduction to this man. Acts chapter 20 where Paul is finishing up his third missionary journey, leaving Macedonia, the area where Philippi was and so forth and heading on his way to Jerusalem. The Bible says he was about to sail out of Greece for Syria but found out there was a plot by the Jews against him so he decided to go by land rather than going straight across to Syria. He decided to go up from Greece through Macedonia and back down to Troas and so forth. And notice if you will verse four. It says he was accompanied by Sopritor son of Paris from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaeus from Derby, Timothy also, and Tickicus and Trophemus from the province of Asia. It says these men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. This is our first introduction to the man and there's not much said about him, not really anything said about him here except that he was with the Apostle Paul and traveled with him. But we know from other passages that he was one of the persons that Paul felt comfortable sending to check on things and there were not many people like that in Paul's ministry. But Tickicus was one of those men. He is sent with the letter to the Colossians. He's the one who delivers the letter and he's coming to report as Paul says to the Colossians as to how Paul is doing in his first imprisonment. He will also deliver the letter to Philemon because Philemon is a member of the church at Colossian. Those two letters were sent the same time. Probably the letter to the Ephesians was sent at the same time and he may have also carried that letter. He's a special messenger of the Apostle Paul. Titus chapter 3 in verse 12. We won't take the time to look at these but Titus 3-12 tells us that Paul sent him to Crete so that he could help Titus and check on Titus and be an encouragement to Titus. Second Timothy 4-12 says that Paul sent him to Ephesus to help Timothy. Timothy was working in the church at Ephesus at the time and so whatever Paul had something that needed to be done particularly at this time when he's in prison and he himself cannot travel, he sends Tickicus. Here's a man who has the confidence of the Apostle Paul. A man that Paul can say it would be as though I were going myself and I can send him and he'll check on everything and it will be just great. The reason why he was sent is found in verse 8. He says I'm sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances. They may encourage your heart. Remember Paul's in prison. He's not able to really contact many people except by letter and he wants to know and he wants those people to know how he's doing. Remember he had just asked the Colossians to pray for him that he would be able to have opportunity to spread the gospel. We saw that a couple weeks ago. And he's sending Tickicus to explain to them what's happening in the palace guard. You remember we looked at that and he's being able to witness all the palace guard and many of the people in the palace guard are coming to know Christ. And so he wants the Colossians to know how well he is doing and Tickicus will be his messenger to explain that. But I just want you to know this quickly, the three things he says about him there in verse 7. He says he is a dear brother. That means there was close fellowship between these two men. You know we don't know a lot about Tickicus and I just love to I guess kind of daydream or think between the lines and just imagine Paul in prison and when he would call on someone who would he call on to have special times of fellowship with and to really encourage his heart. Tickicus must have been one of those men. That was very close to Paul. He's a dear brother and the word deers a word which means deeply loved, highly valued. So here was a man that you know not many people will remember tucked away in just a few references of the New Testament but to Paul he was a dear brother. He was one that Paul depended on heavily. But he was also Paul says a faithful minister. The word minister literally means a servant. We typically think of it in terms of those who are in full-time ministry but the word simply means a servant. Someone who's serving in some capacity serving the Lord. And here's a man who has the best qualification to be a servant and that is he's faithful. Whatever tasks he's given to do he carries out faithfully. And that is the best that can be said about anyone who serves the Lord that they are faithful to their tasks. That obviously is why Paul had confidence to send him places. Whatever he asks him to do he knew Tickicus would do it faithfully. He wouldn't have to worry about it being done or the quality of the work that would be done Tickicus would be faithful. And then he says thirdly there in verse 7 that he is a fellow servant in the Lord, a fellow servant. And that says I guess as much about Paul as it does is about Tickicus being a fellow servant. Paul sees this man as an equal. And that says something about Paul too. Paul could look at Tickicus and say you know we're on the same level. We're fellow servants. It's not like I'm the Lord and Master up here and you do my bidding. We're fellow servants. We work together. We're equals in the ministry of the Lord. And I think the greatest lesson we can probably learn from Tickicus is to be faithful no matter what God gives us to do. If it's a position that is more in the limelight that is more recognized be faithful. If it's a position that's behind the scenes that carries out the bidding of others or makes it possible for them to do what they do for the Lord better be faithful in those tasks. Tickicus was such a man. And he was favored of the Lord and blessed of the Lord and rewarded of the Lord because of that. Look at the next man that we have listed here in verse 9. His name is Onesimus. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. Now this is one of the ways we know that Philemon was a member of the church of Colossi because Onesimus is being sent back with Tickicus. And he is listed here as a member of the church, one of you in Colossi. If you know anything about Onesimus, if you remember the little letter to Philemon that Paul wrote, Onesimus is the main subject of that letter. Onesimus was a slave. He was a slave of a friend of Paul's in Colossi named Philemon. And evidently, if you read through the book of Philemon, what you can pick up is that Onesimus had probably stolen from Philemon and had run away. And evidently made his way to Rome and somehow there comes to know the Apostle Paul. Maybe a little bit of conjecture here, but it's quite possible that Onesimus having stolen from his master and taken off. He's a slave. He could be caught by the authority. He's looking for the biggest city he can find to get lost in so he goes to Rome. It's possible that he spent what money he had or maybe got in trouble in some way. Maybe he landed in prison too. And there met the Apostle Paul. But we know in some way he met Paul and it was through Paul that Onesimus came to know the Lord. And the letter to Philemon is a letter written to his master to tell him, Philemon, I'm sending back to you Onesimus. I'm sending him back to you not as a slave but as a brother. And I'm asking you to forgive him. And if he owes you anything, just put it on my account. I'll pay that. But remember Philemon, you owe me your life. That little thing tucked away in the book of Philemon. That reminder. But Onesimus was a slave who had run away, had come to know Christ and was being sent back to Colossi to be reunited and things to be worked out again with his master Philemon. Now, what does Paul say about him? In verse 9, notice how he introduces him. He's coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. It's interesting that he says three things about Onesimus. He commends him first of all as a brother. He's no longer a one of what, run away, slave. He is a brother. And he should be seen that way. Whether or not he goes back to his occupation as a servant in Philemon's household is left between the two of them to decide. But he is now to be recognized as a brother. He is to be seen as a brother in Christ. And he is, Paul says, a faithful brother. That's the exact opposite of the dishonesty that he had shown earlier. And so he's not to be seen now as dishonesty, he's to be seen as faithful. And then he is a dear, faithful and dear brother. He is not to be scorned. He is to be seen as one to be loved, one who is dear. And I think the lesson we can learn from Onesimus is that the past can be forgiven. When someone has harmed you, when someone has hurt you, when someone has done something against you, and then they come to know the Lord or they get their lives right with God, I think we find an example here of what God would want us to do. And that is to forgive that person and see them in a different light. See them now as a brother, faithful brother, a dear brother, one that we can fellowship with and not hold their past against them. So the lesson we learn from Onesimus is that the past can be forgiven and things can be different in the future. The third man that Paul mentions in this text is Aristarchus in verse 10. My fellow prisoner, Aristarchus sends you his greetings. Now, nothing else is said about Aristarchus, but he's an interesting man. If you'll again hold your place here and go back to Acts chapter 19. We find a little bit of information. The first time we find Aristarchus mentioned in the New Testament is in Acts chapter 19. He's part of a riot. He's one of the good guys in the riot. Paul was in Ephesus and he had been there for quite a while and his ministry was so effective that the gospel was spreading out from that, that was kind of a headquarters from which the gospel was spreading out through all of Aschiminer. And some businessmen in Ephesus got upset about Paul's success in ministry. The businessman who got the most upset was the one who was in charge of making idols for the goddess Diana or Artemis, depending on the name you use. And so he gathered his guild of fellow artisans together and they stormed into the Colosseum there in Ephesus and they started basically a riot protesting against Paul and this church and these Christians. If you're in Acts chapter 19, verse 28, when they heard this they were furious and began shouting, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized gas and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia and rushed as one man into the theater. Verse 30 says that Paul wanted to go. He didn't want his fellow workers to go without him but the believer said, no, Paul, you can't go. I mean, Paul was the lightning rod for this whole movement and so probably his life would have been in greater danger and the brothers in Christ persuaded him not to go. But Aristarchus went and was willing evidently to suffer with and for the testimony of Christ and with the Apostle Paul. In chapter 20 we see Aristarchus as well mentioned in verse 4 as being a traveling companion. Evidently things worked out okay. We know that the riot was quelled and concerned was expressed by the city leaders as to how this would look in Rome. And so evidently the brothers that had been arrested were let go and Aristarchus is now back traveling with the Apostle Paul. The interesting thing is he continues to travel with him all the way to Jerusalem is with him through the arrests when he's arrested in Jerusalem and then sent to Cessaria for a couple of years. And when he goes to Rome, when Paul travels to Rome in Acts 27, Aristarchus is the one who has mentioned as being with him still. Very interesting that through Paul's sufferings, Aristarchus is with him and as he writes collotions, Aristarchus is with him and he's called a fellow prisoner. I think the lesson we can learn from Aristarchus is here's a man who was willing to suffer for the cause of Christ and was not ashamed of Paul in his suffering. There were people who when Paul suffered fled or left or kind of snuck back into the woodwork but not Aristarchus. Here was a man who was willing to be imprisoned with Paul, travel with him wherever he would go, lay his life on the line just like Paul did. Those kinds of friends and companions are few and far between. Those kind of people who would say I would risk my life for you are dear friends. And although we don't know a lot about this man, we know he must have been extremely valuable to the Apostle Paul as one who would risk his life for him. The next man that's mentioned however is a very interesting man and there's a lot about him in the Bible, we'll just summarize it. Verse 10 says, My fellow prisoner, Aristarchus, send you his greetings as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, you have received instructions about him if he comes to you, welcome him. I'm not going to take the time to look at all these passages but Mark has an interesting history in the New Testament. It is quite likely that this is the same John Mark who has mentioned a number of times in the New Testament and who was the writer of the gospel of Mark. Now if so, Mark may well have been the one that he himself mentions in his gospel in Mark chapter 14 as being with Jesus after all the other apostles had fled. A young man the Bible says was with Jesus after all the other apostles had fled and Mark did not name himself in his gospel and many New Testament scholars believe that probably he was referring to himself. We know also that Mark had been one to the Lord by Peter, first Peter chapter 5 and I think verse 13, Peter lists Mark as his son in the faith. And so he's one that Peter had one to Christ. There's a sense in which Mark's gospel is Peter's account written by his disciple Mark. Now Mark has an interesting history. The next time he's found in the New Testament is Acts chapter 12 where Peter is in prison and you remember the church is praying for Peter and they're meeting at the house of a woman named Mary who the Bible says was the mother of Mark. So Mark is a young man at this time who is in a very good family whose mother opens up her home for the prayer meeting of the church. That may be one reason why so close to Peter. Peter was the leader of that church, one of the leaders. And so Mark evidently came to know the Lord early in Acts chapter 12 and Acts chapter 13 then when Paul and Barnabas leave after their first missionary journey or after some travels to Jerusalem and they go back to Antioch, Mark goes with them. As a young man he travels with them from his home in Jerusalem to Syria to Antioch. And when the church sins Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey, Mark goes with them. He's listed in Acts 13, 4 and 5 as going with them. But something happens. They travel to a few cities, they do some ministry and verse 13 of Acts chapter 13 says, once they left to go to a new city, John Mark turned back and went back to Jerusalem. Doesn't say why, doesn't explain anything. But then when we get to Acts 15 we find out it was not a good situation. Because in Acts 15 Paul and Barnabas are ready to start on their second missionary journey and Barnabas says, let's take John Mark again. We know from this passage that Barnabas is his uncle. Barnabas is an encourager. Barnabas wants to help this young man grow stronger in the faith but Paul says, no way, we're not going to take him with us. And Paul gives the reason there in Acts 15 verses 35 and 36. He talks about the fact that Mark deserted us. Now that indicates that Mark evidently maybe because of his youth, maybe because of his experience, he went back home. And Paul saw that as a desertion from duty. And so Paul said, there's no way I'll take him on another missionary trip. And that was the occasion where Paul and Barnabas split up. And Paul took Silas Barnabas, took Mark. Paul and Silas continued to blaze through the chapters of the book of Acts and their names are prominent. And Barnabas and with him Mark kind of falls off the map. We don't hear about them anymore. Until, until, couple of Paul's letters. At the end of this letter in Colossians, Mark is mentioned again. And he's mentioned by Paul. And he says, if he comes to you, welcome him. At the end of 2 Timothy, chapter 4 and verse 11, he encourages Timothy to welcome Mark because he says, Mark is profitable to me for the ministry. So there's a lot of unknown here, but in some way, probably because of the influence of the encourager Barnabas' uncle, Mark did do well. Mark came back. And because he had failed once, he didn't stop. Barnabas, I don't think, would let him stop. You know, all of us need Barnabas' in our lives. All of us need people who will say, okay, you failed, you blew it. You deserted us. You left when the going was rough. Got a little too hot for you. I want you to learn from that. I want you to grow from that. And John Mark evidently did. And later in his life, and later in Paul's life, Paul would see him as one of his close fellow workers that was profitable to him. And John Mark would go on to write one of the four gospels. What a story that young man is. A man who had a great beginning, great family started out well. And then kind of, you know, ran off in the ditch for a while and messed up, but later on comes back and really shines for the Lord, a lesson there of not holding people's failures against them. And of not letting your own failures destroy you, but to pick up and go on and serve the Lord. And the guy I want to mention is mentioned in verse 11. A man by the name of justice. But look at his first name in verse 11, Jesus, 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. Here's a man that is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. We don't know anything else about him. Evidently, his given name was Jesus, which was a very common Jewish name, by the way. A lot of Jewish mothers named their children Jesus because it was from the Old Testament word Joshua, Jehoshua, Jehovah saves. And many Jewish mothers, you know, in the hope and dream that they would be the mother of the Messiah, probably named their children Jesus. And I think it's quite possible that after his conversion, justice either requested or maybe the church just kind of renamed him because Jesus, there's only one Jesus to the church. And so they renamed him and his name became justice, which by the way is a great name. It means faithful, just or righteous. So it evidently was a name that was given because of a characteristic of his of being a righteous and just man. We don't know anything else about him. But again, Paul speaks of him along with these others as being a great comfort to him. You know one of the interesting things to me about passages like this, these interesting Bible characters, they played a very important part in the early church. They were such a help to Paul. And you know, I kind of want to when I get to heaven, I kind of want to look up justice and aristarchists and ticacus and some of these guys and say, come on, sit down, tell me what it was like to travel with Paul. Tell me your story. I want to hear it from your perspective. I don't know if we'll get to do those things in heaven. I hope we will. But wouldn't you like to hear more from some of these guys? They were very critical to Paul, important to him in his ministry. And you know, I think of so many of you who are this way in this church. Your names are not found on the webpage. You know, you're not prominent. Your name may never get in the newspaper when Johnson Chappell is referenced. But that stuff doesn't count anyway. It's not really important to God. It's a really important thing of the people who are faithful, like these people, who are a comfort and an encourager and a helper to everyone else and just serve the Lord and serve one another so faithfully. And as I look out among you, I just see so many of you like that who just serve the Lord faithfully without any desire for a claim in so many different ways. And I thank God for you because this church would not be what it is and would not be able to do what it does without you and your faithful ministry. I just want to say to you, whatever part you're playing, whether it seems small to you or not, whatever part you're playing, just continue to be faithful in that. God will reward you and honor you for that someday in heaven.