More First Century Church Members

I mentioned this morning being at a family reunion last night and they called attention to a large board where they had little pins that everybody was all the family members. From any branch of the tree we're from and when I saw that board I thought of my grandma Hollinsworth and the board she used to have in her bedroom. It was a board that had a pin in it for every child, grandchild, great-grandchild and where they lived and she prayed for us faithfully every day. Now the last 12, 15 years of her life she wasn't able to get out much but she prayed faithfully and I believe had a great ministry in prayer. And there are some of you here who I know do that very thing. I know some who do that with missionaries, I know some who do that with others and what a tremendous ministry that is. To be a prayer warrior for someone else and to pray faithfully diligently for them. It's a great thing. We're going to see one of those prayer people tonight in Colossians chapter 4. So let's open our Bibles to Colossians 4 last week. We looked at five of those lesser lights if you will. Five people who don't get much ink in the New Testament don't get a lot of press but they were very, very important to the Apostle Paul. Paul mentions them in his closing of the letter to the Colossians and references them for their faithfulness and for how much of a blessing they had been to him. We're going to look at five more of those people this evening and draw attention to what he says about them, who they are and what he says about them before he closes the letter in verse 18. We begin in verse 12 this evening with a man by the name of a paffress. In verse 12 Paul says, he is a paffress who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus since greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm and all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Leotusia and Herapolis. Who was this man? Well, if you go back to chapter 1 you find that he is obviously the man who was, if you want to call him this, the pastor of the church at Colossi. Chapter 1 verse 7, Paul is talking about the gospel in his introduction and he says in chapter 1 verse 7, you learned it from a paffress, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the spirit. So, he paffress is the one who brought the gospel to Colossi. You may recall some time ago now when we began the series on Colossians that Paul did not visit Colossi. Paul had visited Ephesus and from Ephesus, where he ministered for a couple of years, the Bible says the gospel went out to all of Asia, including the village of Colossi. And it was evidently a paffress. Paul didn't visit all of those towns and cities. Evidently a paffress was either brought to the Lord through Paul's ministry in Ephesus or affected in some way by Paul's ministry and took the gospel to Colossi and established the church there. He had been there, one people to Christ and started the church and he had been there pastor. And so that's the man that is referenced here, both in chapters 1 and 4, by the apostle Paul as being a man who ministered in Colossi. Now what he says about a paffress really gives us information about the kind of man he was, but I believe also gives us a model of a pastor and what a pastor should be. So I want to preach to me and Jim for a little bit here tonight, okay? And the rest of you can tune in and listen in if you want to. But this is what a pastor should be. And really what you should have every right to expect of a pastor. Five things he says about him. First of all, he says in verse 12, he is one of you. Now that doesn't mean necessarily that a pastor has to have come from the place where he's ministering. The Lord has blessed me to be able to do that here. But I think what it does mean is that a pastor must identify with his people. He must be one of them. I have found that wherever I have gone, ministry has been much more effective if I could learn to identify closely with the people who were in the church where I was serving. And you lose a little bit of your identity to become one of them. I think that's critical. I think it's important for pastors to identify with their people. And not just be one of them in the sense that, yeah, you're from that town or you live in that town, but be one of them much like we expect a missionary to be one of the people when they get on the field. When we send a missionary to the field, what do we expect them to do? We don't really expect them to live as Westerners, as United States citizens in that country and be so different from everybody they're ministering to. We really expect them to learn the culture. We expect them to learn the language to be able to fit in with the people there to be as much as possible one of them. Well, I think that should be expected of a pastor as well. I think that a pastor needs to be one of the people in the sense that there is an identification culturally and in every way possible. In fact, I found some very practical ways to do this as a man. Now, some of you ladies will not appreciate this, but I found that wherever I've been, if I could identify with the sports teams in that area, then I could become one of them. Now, some of you think that's awful worldly. Grow up. Get a life. Seriously, in order to minister to men and be effective with them, I found that when I was in North Carolina, if I said, man, I'm a mountain near fan. Well, I didn't get very far with guys there. They didn't even know what a mountain near was. They didn't know there was a West Virginia University. I had to become a Carolina fan and a Duke fan and a state fan all at once. But I never quite lost that. But when I went to Indiana, I found that if I was going to relate to the people there, I had to know how to talk about Indiana basketball. Not Carolina basketball, but Indiana basketball, not West Virginia basketball or football, but Indiana basketball. And when I learned to become one of them, even in that very simple way, that's when I found that I was drawn into the conversations. I was really made one of them. And so I became a big Indiana fan. I am still a closet, Carolina fan, and a closet Indiana fan. But I am truly at heart a mountain near fan. And kind of a Virginia tech fan, I understand that here too. So, you know, I root for them if they're not playing West Virginia. So all of that, I think, that may sound silly to some of you, but really it's important to become a part of people. And so in North Carolina, I did everything I could to learn about chicken farming. You know, I went out with some of the guys and worked with them in the chicken farms when I had occasion to do that. And I visited all the old ladies there in the church. And one of the reasons why I did that so frequently is I found that in that culture in rural North Carolina, when I was there in the early and mid 70s, you know, a lot of our older folks had been born back in the late 1800s. And they had a culture that when you come to their house, you eat. I found that out pretty quick. So I made regular rounds, you know, scheduled them just right. And we would, I would go to Koy and Florence, Comers House or Martha Garner's House or Bertha Scott's House or Birdie Scott's House, all these dear old widows. And they would, they would put on a full meal for you. And I just learned that's part of the culture there. So if I'm going to visit them today, I need to make sure that I don't eat lunch before I go. And to fit into the culture was very, very important. I think that's critical for a pastor to be effective in ministry to people, to be able to fit into the culture wherever he is to be one of them. But notice the second thing he says about a paffress. Not only is he one of you, but notice he says he is a servant of Christ Jesus, a servant of Christ Jesus. You have every right to expect that a pastor be a servant of Jesus Christ. And every pastor needs to understand that we serve first and foremost Jesus Christ. We are a servant of God's people, yes, but our taskmaster really is Jesus Christ. And really that's a high and a holy calling, but it means this. It means that we should not be in this for self glory or for prestige or for position or for anything we get out of it. We are simply a servant of Jesus Christ. And that perspective is often lost in ministry. But pastors oftentimes have an attendancy to kind of get inflated with their self importance and feel like they're building their own kingdom. And we must always remember that we are servants, no better than, no less than, but no better than servants of Jesus Christ. Then he says something else about a paffress. He says after sending greetings, he says they're in verse 12. He is always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. A paffress was a man who knew what it meant to labor in prayer for the people in Colossi. I think it's important that pastors know how to pray for their people. You know, it's true in the early church, they really understood that. I'm not sure that we understand it as well today. I'm not sure that I understand it as well today, but they understood that. You remember in the very early stages of the church when the apostles were being overrun with administrative details? And in chapter 6, they said, no wait a second, if we start tending to all these administrative details, like making sure all the widows are being treated equally and getting fed and all of that, then we're going to be so consumed with that that we will miss the main ministry God has called us to. And that is what they said was the ministry of the word and prayer. It's not just the word, it was prayer as well. And that was first and foremost on the job description of the apostles. Now, not every pastor has the same responsibilities when you in a church are size and there are there's a larger staff and you have various responsibilities. This ministry over the years has grown not only in size but complexity of ministries that are taking place and need to be overseen. Not every pastor has the same responsibility, but I'm convinced that the pastor who also does the bulk of the preaching is responsible to have a prayer ministry for the people of the church as well. I'm convinced of that. And so I believe that's important. A ministry of prayer and here was a man, a paffress who labored in prayer. And those things which concerned the church at Colossi, he took to heart, he took that seriously and he spent time in prayer for this church. In fact, he prayed, the Bible says here in verse 12, that they would stand firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured. In other words, that there would be nothing that would hinder their growth, that they would be growing to be fully mature believers. And anything that would hinder that, any attack of Satan, any temptation of sin that might get them off of the path, any of life's clutter by way of material things or cares and concerns of this world that might choke out the impact of the Word of God and might derail believers in their growth. Those were things of concern to ephapharas and he prayed about them. And he prayed that these collusion believers would be growing in their maturity and would rest fully assured in their faith in Christ. So he was a man of prayer and you should expect pastors to be people of prayer and people of the Word. And then fourthly, he was concerned for God's people and I've just mentioned that, he was concerned not only wrestling in prayer but that they would stand firm and be mature and fully assured. So those things which were of concern to the people were of concern to him. He had a real heart concern for people. And then fifthly, it says in verse 13, he was working hard. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Leotusia and Herapolis. Leotusia and Herapolis are neighboring towns of Colossi and ephapharas evidently was ministering primarily in the church at Colossi. I see we don't know what size it was but he also had a ministry to people in Leotusia and Herapolis whether or not they came and joined with their church. We don't know how it worked exactly but he had a ministry of working hard for these people. I will never forget a comment that was made to me. It still rings in my ears. A comment that was made to me in my first church back in the 70s. I was early in my ministry there and I was visiting the home of an unsaved young man. His mother attended our church and she had asked me to visit him and I was visiting with him. And he was very resistant to the gospel, just very antagonistic to the gospel. And he looked at me with a sneer on his face and he said, boy, I wish I had your job. Must be easy just to work one day a week and he meant it. He meant it. I never forgot that statement because I made a covenant with God right then. Lord, I don't ever want to be that kind of pastor. I have not always been extremely successful at that covenant but I understand and I believe that pastors need to work hard. And we all agree on our pastoral staff that just as a measure of that that we ought to work at least at least 50 hours a week. The reason is most of you who are in the work world work at least at least 40 hours a week. In fact, most of you work a good bit more than that. And then you come to church services and you serve in ministries of the church. At least if you do all the church services and serve in some ministry, maybe somewhere between 8 and 10 hours a week, I think pastors owe you at least and owe the Lord at least at least that much time. At least 50 hours a week. Now we don't, we're not legalistic about that. We don't have a time clock and so forth but we talk about that at times that that should be our goal and our expectation that we do work hard. I want to tell you something. It's good to preach on these kinds of things because it gives me an occasion to say some things about some people that I don't often get a chance to do publicly. I want to tell you something about this man sitting right down here in this third pew, Jim Naufsinger. You know, most of you, a lot of what Jim does is behind the scenes and so many of you don't understand what he does every week. That man works hard for you. I want, I just want to tell you that he works hard. He'll be embarrassed that I'm saying this but he works hard for you. Just as an example of that. He called me yesterday. Jim drove the bus for the ladies to go to the Bethmore conference, which you'll get some time off a purgatory for that. Jim, I'm sure. I'm going to exit that door after this service. No, I'm sure he had a wonderful time. But Jim drove the bus to get the ladies there and took them back and forth to the conference and so forth. And in the time he was there because he had to stay there to provide transportation. And he just mentioned this to me and passing as he called me to make me aware of a need. He said, I was working on some things here. I had my laptop with me. I've been looking at the church prayer page and I realized that someone has just put Blanche Cox on there and she's critical in the hospital. And so I thanked him and took it from there. But Jim is not expected to work on Saturday. But even on that time of providing ministry to other people in the church, he was using the extra time he had diligently to do some work. And I could share with you a lot of other things about him and some of the other pastors as well who diligently serve you. And I thank God for men like that who serve alongside me here. Model pastors like Jim. And the paparus was one of those men. But he's not the last guy mentioned. Look at verse 14. There's another man mentioned here. I think one of the most interesting men in the New Testament. Verse 14 says, our dear friend Luke the doctor. And to stop there because then he mentions another guy. Our dear friend Luke the doctor. Luke was a special man to Paul. And to read through the book of Acts, you will find, by the way, Luke wrote the book of Acts and he wrote the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke. If you read the book of Acts, you will find when you get to chapter 16, if you read verses 6 through 10, we won't take the time to do that tonight. But if you were to read verses 6 through 10, you would find that whoever's writing, and we know by process of elimination of people who were with Paul, it had to be Luke. Whoever's writing starts using the pronoun we. Evidently at Troas, which is probably the place where Luke was from, at Troas, he joins the apostolic traveling group. And he starts traveling with Paul. And then by the end of the chapter, the end of the ministry in Philippi, he reverts back to saying they did this and they did that. And evidently wasn't traveling with him anymore. But in chapter 20 and verse 5 of Acts, we find, once again, Paul's coming into Troas and he starts using we again and we is used through the rest of the book of Acts. So evidently at that point, he joined Paul on his journeys and stayed with him all the way through Paul's imprisonments in Jerusalem and being sent to Cessaria for two years where he was held in prison and then being sent to Rome. Luke was with him. And when he writes this letter to the Colossians from Rome, Luke is still with him, sending greetings. And you know what? If you read 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11, this is the last letter Paul wrote before he died. He was imprisoned for a second time in Rome. And Paul says there in 2 Timothy 4-11, he says, only Luke is with me. There's a little something sad about that because he talks about some other people that have left, some of them not for good reasons, some of them because he sent them to do ministry, but he says, only Luke is with me. Now Luke is identified here as a doctor and you get the impression that quite possibly, I can't prove this, but the implication of the scripture seems to be that Luke had a special ministry to Paul because he was a doctor. It's quite possible that Paul had some physical ailments. And in fact, we know that he had what he called a thorn in the flesh, which may have been a physical ailment. He tells us in Galatians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 that he suffered physically and the Galatians knew about that. And verse 13, he says, you would have even given me your own eyes if you could have his physical affliction may have been an eye disease. But evidently, Luke became in a sense his personal position, one who saw an opportunity to be used of God and to travel on a missionary journey with Paul and minister to his physical needs so that Paul could then minister to the needs of other people. But not only that, Luke being a good doctor was a careful researcher. And so what better man when you're going to write one of the accounts of the life of Christ for the Lord to choose than the doctor Luke? And if you read the first four verses of the gospel of Luke, you find out that he says to this man he's writing the gospel for the opalus, he says to him, he says, a lot of people have undertaken to write an account of the life of Christ, what we have seen since the beginning. And he said, I have carefully researched, he says in verse 3, I've carefully investigated all of these things and I am sitting down and account myself of the life of Christ. God used a man who was used to doing careful research to pin what many consider the most thorough account of the life of Christ. Now that tells me something, here was a man who was a doctor who saw the ability to use his skills in ways that would benefit the church and the kingdom of God. And again, I just want to say how grateful I am for people who do that here. We have some doctors who are using their gifts on the mission field. Dr. Clay going this week, Dr. Faulkner who's been to the mission field as well. I'm grateful for folks who say, hey, I have some things that I believe I can offer the Lord. And it's not easy for them to do or other adults who go on mission trips from this church, they pay their own way. Sometimes in some cases it means their office has to be shut down, they're using vacation time, that's a sacrifice. And I thank God that there are people who will say, I'm willing to go. And let me go a little further, it's not just doctors, I'm just using doctors because Luke was a doctor, but there are others of you who have gone as well. I think of Blake and Sue and their ministry in Venezuela. They have skills to give by way of construction and other skills that God is using them. And they have other goals in mind for being used of God on the mission field. And I just love that. I love seeing that in our church and seeing a broad worldwide vision for how God can use our skills. It's a sacrifice of time and effort and energy. Yes. And not everybody can do that. I certainly understand that. But I'm thankful that God is putting it on the hearts of some people like he did Luke to say, I've got something I believe God can use. And it's not that I'm a preacher, it's not that I'm an evangelist or a Bible teacher, but I have some skills that I think God could use on the mission field. Luke evidently felt that way. And I'm thankful for everybody who says I will contribute some to the kingdom. And there are others who do that here who say I have some skills and abilities that I want to contribute some time to the Lord's work. What a great ministry that is. And I just want to say publicly tonight, thank you for all that so many of you do in that regard to offer the skills you have to Christ, however he may use them. That was what Luke meant to Paul. But then there's another man mentioned in verse 14. And I wish the report was good about him, but it's not. Demise sends greetings. Paul says at the end of verse 14. Demise has mentioned here and also in Philemon, verse 24, the end of that letter. Remember the letter to Philemon was written at the same time. The letter to the Colossians. Philemon was living in Colossi, probably housed the church, probably the church met in his home. Certainly there is mention of that in the book of Philemon. But Demise mentioned in those two places and one other reference. One other reference. You might want to look at it. Hold your place here in Colossians and look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10. Verse 9. Paul writes to Timothy, do your best to come to me quickly. Again, Paul is in prison knowing this time he's going to die. Just before his life ends, he says to Timothy, do your best to come to me quickly. Verse 10, for Demise, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. This is one of those sad stories. This is one of those stories of a young man who probably started out well. But we don't know what happened. All we know is that he deserted Paul because of his love for the world. Now whether or not he was ever a genuine believer, we don't know. We don't have enough history in the New Testament to let us know whether or not he ever came back to the Lord. Whether or not he was a genuine believer who just got derailed for a while and eventually came back, we really don't know. But is it possible that Demise who was with Paul in Rome during Paul's first imprisonment because of the letter of Colossians, we know that? Is it possible that the heart commitment wasn't really there? He got to Rome and he saw the glitz and the glamour of the capital, big city. All of the things to offer, all of the sin offered there. Could it be that his alurments, his eye got on the wrong things? His heart was taken away from his commitment to Christ? Whether or not he was ever saved, we don't know, but something happened in this man's life that caused him to turn his back. It's interesting that there is no commendation of Demise even in Colossians. Most of these people, Paul has something good to say about. He has nothing to say about Demise. I wonder if Paul suspected, not always right in Demise's heart. I can't say that for sure, don't know that for sure. But you just wonder, something happened to this man that happens to a lot of people who get so consumed and caught up in what this world has to offer, that their eyes get off of Christ, their eyes get off of his work and serving him, and they become consumed with the things of this world. I'd like to know if Demise ever got right with God and came back. Maybe someday we'll be able to ask Paul that when we see him in heaven. But a sad story that we really don't know the ending too. And then notice if we will, verses 15 and 16, a couple of other folks mentioned here. Verse 15, give my greetings to the brothers at Leotacea. Remember Leotacea is a neighboring town with evidently its own church. And then he says, and to Nympha and the church in her house. Some of you may have a translation that reads Nymphas and the church in his house. It's a little difficult from the Greek to tell whether this is masculine or feminine. And so that's the reason why the difference in the translations. But probably was a lady who offered to have the church in her home. Now since we know from the book of Philemon in the first three verses that Philemon had the church house at Colossi, the church met in his home there, maybe this woman had the church in her home in Leotacea or maybe Herapolis, which is also mentioned in the context. We don't know for sure. But she had a house church. By the way, all churches in New Testament times met in houses. There were no church buildings until 325 AD, almost 300 years after Christ died on the cross. The early church did not meet in buildings like this. They made in homes. A lot of that was because of persecution. But it wasn't until Constantine became the first, quote, unquote, Christian emperor that church buildings began to be built. And so you find several references, three, in fact, in Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 16, and here in Colossians 4, to churches that met in someone's home. Nymphos evidently one of those ladies who had a home that could accommodate some folks and she opened it up offered her home for the meeting place for the church in one of these towns. And then another way to minister for Christ, to give of the things that you have opened them up, give them to be used for the Lord Jesus. And then it's interesting in verse 16 that Paul says, after this letter has been read to you, see that it has also read into church of the Leotaceans and that you in turn read the letter from Leotacea. Now that is a fascinating little verse because it tells us two things. It tells us that New Testament epistles were circulated around churches, at least in this case. And there's evidence that other letters were treated the same way that Paul's letter to one church would be circulated to another church. And it's quite possible that within a few years, many of the churches had most of the apostles' letters. And that's how collections began. We know from church history how collections began of the New Testament books and eventually they were collected and put into what we know today as the New Testament once they were recognized as being inspired of God and written by the apostles and so forth. But here is a letter mentioned, and this is the second interesting thing about this verse, a letter mentioned that was written to the Leotaceans. So Paul not only wrote a letter to Colossi, he wrote a letter to the church in Leotacea. Where is it? It's not in our Bible. But you know there are a couple of other references in the New Testament that indicate Paul wrote other letters which are not in our Bible. We can tell from his comments to the Corinthians that he wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians, only two of which are in our Bible. So what does that mean? Does that mean we got lost books? No, not at all. By virtue of the fact they are not in our Bible, we know that they were not intended to be there. God providentially preserved the books that he intended to go in our New Testament, those that were inspired of him and were designed to teach us God kept and were put in our New Testament. There were other letters written by the apostles to other people and churches and those were not inspired of God. We're not intended to be in our New Testament, therefore they're not there. Such is the letter to the Leotaceans, but it was worthy of being read and was to be read in the church, both at Leotacea and at Colossi. And then one other guy in verse 17, tell our Kippus, see to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord. Who is our Kippus? Well again, Philemon gives us a clue, the little book, right before Hebrews that Paul wrote to his friend in Colossi. He addresses Philemon in verse 1 to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, to Aphia, our sister, to our Kippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. Now because of the way this is phrased, many people believe that Aphia was Philemon's wife and our Kippus was their son, because the church that meets in your home, your is plural, which evidently refers to all three of them. So the church that met in Philemon and Aphia and our Kippus's home, maybe husband and wife and son. So the implication is here is a young man that Paul is trying to encourage in the work of the Lord. And so at the end of the book of Colossians, he says to him, our Kippus, see to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord. I would love to know why he said that, was our Kippus a little slack in his work, or was he just a little timid, or because of his youth, was he concerned about what people would think of him and what an old enough, and did he just need a little nudge, did he need some encouragement, whatever it was, we know that Paul understood that, and he encourages him, encourages him. The work you've received in the Lord, make sure you complete it, stick with it, do it well. Paul's encouragement to a young co-worker, and then he closes his book by saying, I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Probably indicating he was signing the letter in his own hand. Again, we know from other books that Paul used someone, he dictated his letters, and someone else actually wrote them down. In fact, in one letter he tells us the man's name, it was Tertius, was the one who wrote the letters for him. Paul dictated them, as God gave them to him. And again, probably because Paul had bad eyesight, and it was difficult for him to write. But he always, in several of his letters, he indicates that he would sign his own name so that they would know the letters were genuine. They were from Paul. The only exception to that is the book of Galatians, where Paul ends the book by saying, see with what such large letters I have written to you. And Paul evidently because of the urgency of the book of Galatians, there was a lot of false teaching there. Paul needed to dash off a letter to them quickly, didn't have one some readied, someone readied hand to take down the letter for him, evidently scribbled it out in large letters that he could see, and sent it to them. Another way that people helped Paul, to be able to get his letters written and sent out, you know you really miss a lot of what went on in the New Testament church. And a lot of application to us today about people who are worthy in the kingdom of God, when you leave out these folks. I just want to take a moment to honor people who send out our letters here at the church and do so much more. Darleen and Vanda, thank you for your faithful ministry at Johnston Chapel, even though only one time does Paul mention the name of someone who helped in the office work for him, certainly a worthy vocation and service to Christ. Thank you for the work you do for him in that way. Paul closes by saying, remember my chains, in other words pray for my imprisonment and grace be with you. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for these people, people that we don't hear much about, but people who played such an important part in the New Testament church. And in the ministry and life of Paul, Lord, it's easy for us to think of Paul being such a great man of God. Lord, you've given us a little bit of insight here to realize that he had a lot of help. And he certainly would not have been able to do what he did without these fellow workers, these people who gave of themselves without desire for recognition, but gave of themselves so that the ministry might go forward. Lord, I want to thank you for people here at Johnston Chapel who are like that. People who serve on staff, people who just are faithful Christians in the pews who serve you in many ministries of the church, what I thank you for them. Someday when the record of this church is revealed in heaven, I believe there will be a lot of names, Lord, like this, that are worthy of your note and your reward, and we thank you for them in Jesus' name. Amen.