Col No.38 Introducing the Team

Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 4, and beginning at verse 7. Paul writes, Titicus 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 more about our circumstances, and that he may encourage your hearts.

He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. My fellow prisoner, Aristarchus, 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 sends greetings.

These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is 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 Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha 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, in turn, read the letter from Laodicea. Tell Archippus, see to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.

Remember, my chains, grace be with you. Amen. We are looking forward very much to the day of prayer on Friday.

We'll be glad for your interest, not only for you to be with us in spirit, but we'll be grateful for your thoughts, but we'd like bodies attached to spirits to come through the premises of the building and to join us in one or two or even more sessions of prayer before the living God. And then we look forward to you being present this evening at the gospel service. I remind you that this is the Lord's day, the whole day, not just a Sunday morning, not just a Sunday afternoon, but a Sunday evening too.

And we have the tremendous privilege of coming around the Word of God and listening once again to the gospel being proclaimed. And we look forward to your presence. Now let's turn to Colossians chapter 4. You should know how to find Colossians in the New Testament after 37 addresses from this little epistle.

And now we're drawing towards the end, and I want to direct your attention to the verses from the 7th through to the 14th. When I gave my secretary the title of our meditation this morning, I confess I hadn't had opportunity to look at the content of those verses in any great detail. And when I did have that delightful privilege of sifting the Word of God, it seemed to me that the title that I had suggested was somewhat anemic.

It was right to a degree, but not right in gathering up the full implication, the full content of this passage of Scripture. For here the apostle is not only referring to Christian friends, that they were these men whose names are incorporated into these verses, but they were more than just friends of Paul. They were colleagues of Paul.

They were men who were standing by him in the ministry. They were part of the body of Christ operating in Rome to proclaim the gospel. And it seemed to me that a much more accurate representation of what's found in these verses is to entitle our little address, Introducing the Team.

Introducing the Team. Now, you may know the apostle Paul has argued on many an occasion, and particularly in the letter that he writes to the Corinthians, that every person who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ is equipped with a ministry. The kingdom of God he equates with a body of Christ.

And he says that every part of that body, stimulated by the power of the Holy Spirit, has something to do. And nowhere in the New Testament do you find any right at all for that old-fashioned, unbiblical concept of a one-man ministry. Never in the Old Testament do you come across the word elder in the singular.

It's always in the plural. And whenever you read about the affairs of a local church, you're brought face to face with men, again in the plural, who are responsible spiritually and administratively for the affairs of the church. Now, so it was with Paul, when at Rome, responsible to a degree, though a prisoner if you please, for the ministry in that hub of the empire.

And yet alongside him were men who were greatly used of the Lord. His co-laborers, his fellow workers. That's how he describes them.

For example, in the 11th verse, he refers to Jesus' justice as one of his fellow workers. He refers in the 7th verse to Tychicus as being a fellow servant in the Lord. So when you think of evangelistic activity in Rome, says Paul, think not just of me, but those who are alongside me, my team members, those who have specific responsibilities and are flying the flag for Jesus Christ in the center of the empire.

And you know, as it was in Rome in Paul's day, so it must be in the tabernacle in the 1980s. I am never impressed, I'm never in any way complimented by any comment which may suggest that the ministry of this church is totally my responsibility. Whenever some remark like that is passed, I think of the ignorance of the person concerned, who does not realize that beside me are a veritable army of elders and deacons.

And within our youth work, a very well qualified team of something like 30 odd people who are working for the cause of Christ. And so we could go right through the fellowship of the tabernacle, singling out people whom God has given us in positions of leadership, or those who are in a secondary capacity, working almost as the back room people, behind the doors so to speak, yet vitally doing something for the advance of the ministry here in this church. I argue this, that there is never the advance of the gospel of Christ unless there is a team of workers who are prepared alongside one another to live for and to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Paul here is not just referring to Christian friends, more than that, he is introducing his team, the men who are alongside him in row. So let me try and show you a little bit about these men, not by going through their experiences one by one, but suggesting several headings to you. And the first general observation I would make about these eight or so brothers whose names are here listed is this, they came from a variety of backgrounds.

They came from a variety of backgrounds. Paul is an old man. How do I know that? Well, a letter that he writes along with Colossians, one to an individual called Philemon, in the ninth verse of that short letter he refers to Paul the aged.

Paul, if you like, the pensioner, though he never got a weekly sum of money. At Rome, requiring help, glad to have the support of several brethren who come from a most diverse set of circumstances. The aged Paul passes on in this letter to the Colossians greetings from two men who are natives of Colossae.

Look, for example, at the ninth verse where reference is made to Onesimus. You know Onesimus, says Paul to the readers of this epistle? Why, he's one of you. He's one of you.

And also in the twelfth verse he makes reference to another national, another native of Colossae, Epaphras, who also is one of you. These two men have been at the side of me in Rome. I'm glad of their fellowship, and they send greetings through the medium of this letter.

But there's a second class of people to whom the Apostle makes reference, and these are Gentiles. Men, for example, whose names are listed here, Tychicus, in the seventh verse. He's the one who's been entrusted with the letter.

He'll take it from Rome to Colossae and deliver it to the brothers and sisters in this church who are anxiously waiting news of their beloved Paul. There's Tychicus. He stood by me in the gospel at Rome, says Paul.

And also in the fourteenth verse he refers to two more Gentiles, Luke, the beloved physician, and also Demas. So there were two men who came from Colossae itself, and they were on Paul's team. There are three other Gentiles for whom Paul is grateful to God for their ministry.

And then there were three Jews who are referred to in the tenth and the eleventh verses of this chapter. One by the complex name of Aristarchus. And then there's a fellow who we remember from the Gospels.

There's Mark, John Mark, the sister's son to Barnabas. And then there's a man by the name of Jesus, or to give him his Old Testament name, Joshua. Joshua Justice.

Justice was a common name amongst the Jews in those days, like Smith may be in the United Kingdom. Joshua Justice. He stood by me.

These three men, Aristarchus, John Mark, and Jesus, or Justice. They're just of the circumcision. And of all the large Jewish community in Rome, alas, there's only these three men, representative of that body, who are getting alongside me in my ministry.

So you see the point. Here is Paul, and he's introducing his team. And his team come from very, very differing backgrounds indeed.

But he's grateful to God for each one of them. Now that applies in the twentieth century. Here we are in this tabernacle.

A large company of people. We come from a variety of backgrounds. One or two from different nationalities.

And yet God has called us to federate together. To come together. To do what? Well, to serve the Lord Jesus.

Because the ministry here cannot be sustained without the help, as I've already argued, of many people who have committed their lives to Jesus. And who believe that the gospel message is something that they are responsible for transmitting. With the help of their brothers and sisters.

No man is an island, says John Donne, in tire of himself. And no man is a Christian on his own. There is no justification at all for a solo Christianity.

The Lord has set those who are orphaned in families. The isolated, he has brought them together to fellowship as one unit. To be a team.

And that's how I would describe a local church. A team who have one objective. One goal to aim at.

And that is getting the gospel out. So that sinners are brought to a knowledge of Jesus. In a football team, not everybody can be centre forward.

Not everybody can be goalkeeper. Every member of the team has a specific task. Plays in a certain area of the field.

But they all work together. The eleven men coordinate together to secure the objective of getting the ball into the goal. And it's the same with the local church.

There is no such thing in Christianity as a spectator sport. We're all participants. We are all involved.

The four or five hundred people who constitute the membership of this tabernacle have no right to be members. Unless in some area, to some degree, in a prominent or a less prominent position. They are advancing the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So people with a variety of backgrounds come together within this church. They've confessed Jesus as Lord. This is the one thing that binds us all together.

We're all sinners. We all needed to come to the foot of the cross. We all confessed that Jesus had died at Calvary to save us.

We received the forgiveness for the crimes that we had committed when we broke the law of God. And together we've been made part of the new humanity. And we exist, we relate, we fellowship.

One with the other for the advance of that gospel. Made part of the team. Yes, we're different.

Some more educated than the others. Some richer than the others. Some men, some women.

Some professional, some not professional. Some young people, some older people. It doesn't matter what aspect of those categories that I've just listed you come under.

The thing that binds us together is a thing of supreme importance. We have a gospel message entrusted to us. And as best we can, we're communicating it in this neighborhood.

So as Paul introduces his team, he tells us of men who come from a variety of backgrounds. But moreover, he explains that these are brothers who perform a number of ministries. They perform a number of ministries.

I often think of the ministry as being akin to a jigsaw puzzle. And jigsaw puzzles, as you know from your own experience in doing them, maybe in younger years or perhaps you still do them now, are little bits of cardboard that all intersect. And when you've got them all in the right place, one lovely picture emerges.

Now it's the same with the ministry. Not everybody is called to the same function. But when all the ministries are placed alongside one another, there's cohesion, there's symmetry, there's something that's beautiful.

It forms into a nice picture which pleases God. And so Paul, when he's listing the names of these men, makes reference in degree. I'm sure there's some overlap.

But he makes reference to the type of ministry that they have been fulfilling in Rome As they stood alongside Paul, as his co-laborers, as his fellow workers, there's Tychicus. This man, who had his origin in Asia, has been a companion of Paul on a number of occasions. And he, as you will remember, has been entrusted with this particular letter.

It seems as though Tychicus, on this occasion, may have been Paul's secretary. Although he was a minister himself, he could proclaim the Gospel. On this occasion, he was acting as a stenographer, taking down what Paul was saying.

And he would communicate not only this message, not only this letter, but he would fill in details when he got to Colossae and answer the questions of these Christians about the well-being, or otherwise, of their beloved Paul. And then he refers to Onesimus. Here is this man in the ninth verse.

This brother, who is very much appreciated by Paul. He says of him, Onesimus is a faithful and beloved brother. He's been faithful to me.

He's helped me. And I love him. And I praise God for his fellowship.

And we praise God here for the fellowship of many people whose function is like that of Onesimus, who encourage and stimulate us in the ministry. When Tychicus and Onesimus get to Colossae, says Paul, they've got a lot to share. Not only this letter, but some of the circumstances in Rome, some of the things that we've been doing, the way the gospel has been penetrating even the household of Caesar.

They'll tell you all about these happenings. And then, in this whole area of variety of ministries, the apostle refers to Aristarchus. Look at the tenth verse.

You first come across Aristarchus when Paul is in Ephesus, actually. And you may remember from your knowledge of that incident in the Acts of the Apostles how Paul and his companions, including Aristarchus, were propelled before the magistrates. And they would have been very cruelly treated by the citizens of Ephesus.

And because of this tremendous test in that Greek city, when Paul thinks of Aristarchus, he does so with gratitude to the Lord. He's a man who's borne burdens with me. He's been my fellow prisoner, not only in a spiritual sense, but possibly also in a literal sense.

He's been one who has stimulated and helped me. And here at Rome, he voluntarily shares my life. He's come into my cell.

He's come into the house where they're keeping me as a prisoner. And my situation has become his own. He also refers, thus Paul, to the ministry of Mark and of Jesus' justice.

These men who are from the Jewish community, what does Paul say about them? And he's including Aristarchus also in this comment. He says, there'd been a comfort unto me. A comfort.

I find that a very lovely acknowledgement by Paul. Sometimes we feel that Paul was a superman. He didn't have the human deficiencies and weaknesses of ourselves.

There weren't times when he needed a shoulder on which to lean. He didn't need to be stimulated at all by other Christian brothers or sisters. But how little you understand Paul, if that is your hasty conclusion.

There were times when Paul needed somebody to comfort him. I tell you, there have been many, many occasions in the past ten years, trying to exercise some of the preaching ministry in this pulpit. When I've needed a comforter.

And a great deal of what happens in the pulpit here is very directly related to the brother or the sister who at times has been able to encourage me. Not excluding my dear wife in that area too. All these various ministries, you see, interlocking.

So necessary for Paul. So necessary for the Church of Jesus Christ at Rome. And not only does he refer to Aristarchus and Mark and Jesus' justice in terms of comforters.

He goes on to make reference to Luke and to Demas. Luke, the beloved physician. Paul, you remember, does give some hint at any rate in certain of the letters that he writes of his physical pressures.

There are those, and I tend to agree with them, who suggest that Paul had at one stage contracted malaria. And it's very interesting that when the apostle moves around the Roman world, Luke is often with him. Dr. Luke, this beloved physician.

He actually catches the same ship as Paul. As Paul moves from Jerusalem and then to Cyprus and on to Rome. Luke has no need to be there.

Why is Luke a companion of Paul? Is it because Luke, this godly doctor, who has given his life to Jesus, realizes that the expertise of medicine will be necessary to ensure Paul's well-being? If this is so, and I'm just thinking out loud, but I think with some degree of evidence, if that is so, then the reason why Paul praises God for this brother is because he has so often come to his aid medically. And it's Luke, you remember, the man with the trained mind, the doctor, who is used by the power of the Holy Spirit to author the third gospel. Luke, who will become not only a doctor, but a writer.

You see the ministries, then, that this man has. Now, you stack them all together. Tychicus, Epaphras, Aristarchus, Marcus, Jesus Justice, Epaphras, and so on.

Place the whole team together, along with Paul, and you've got a lovely picture. Of what? Of men who are working for Jesus, whose ministries compensate for and interlock with each other. And as it was in Paul's day, so it is today.

I praise God, not only in the context of the tabernacle, but in the privileged position that I have sometimes of visiting missions abroad, to see the way that this principle is still in operation in the 20th century. One of the reasons why the Africa Inland Mission has done so well in Kenya, in Zaire, and now moving out to the Comoros Islands, as well as into northern Sudan, is not just because of one charismatic figure, but because of a group of people who have formed together in evangelistic teams, who have locked together in the talents that God has given them. And so they've gone to the tribes, sometimes to the Maasai in central Kenya, at other times to the Turkana on the borders of Kenya and Sudan.

And these men, these women, they've been joined together by the power of the Holy Spirit. There's been the preacher, there's been the evangelist, there's been the stenographer, there's been the secretary, there's been the nurse, there's been the teacher, there's been the doctor, and so on. The principle is always the same, my friend.

When God wants to do a work, He does so by ensuring that there is a team of men and women who are able, together, to pool their ministries and to work for the advance of the Gospel. So Paul here introduces his team. This team which comes from a variety of backgrounds.

This team which performs a number of ministries. And finally, a team which on analysis represents some great surprises. It represents some great surprises.

I'm often amazed when I think through the disciples whom Jesus selected to consider why it was that they were so privileged. Because when Jesus appointed His disciples, He didn't appoint them like some of us who perhaps have sometimes been responsible for interviewing people and offering them a job. There are many who we would have overlooked.

And it's the same, I think, when you evaluate Paul's team here. There are some great surprises. In fact, the biggest surprise of all is perhaps Paul.

The team leader. Who would ever have thought that he would have become an ambassador of Jesus Christ. This man who had been a bigot.

This man who had persecuted the early Christians. And yet God in His grace brought Paul to a knowledge of Himself as He stopped him on the Damascus Road. But passing over Paul, let's come to this character Onesimus.

Would you ever have believed that Onesimus might become a worker for Jesus and such a valuable companion to Paul that he describes him as a faithful and beloved brother? Who was Onesimus? He was a slave. A runaway slave. He declared UDI and he left Philemon and the household at Colossae.

And he went where everyone else went who got nothing particular to do in those days. He went to Rome. And there is a down and out, perhaps tramping the streets of Rome.

Wondering what on earth could possibly happen to him to make life worth living again. He comes into contact with someone who leads him to Paul. He listens to the Gospel.

And Onesimus, this man from a terrible background. This man who has broken the law is brought to a knowledge of Jesus. But it doesn't just stop there.

Paul is so grateful to the Lord that within Onesimus, this runaway slave, the Holy Spirit is giving gifts. Bringing forth potential and talent. Onesimus means profitable.

And when Paul writes a letter to go alongside this one to the Colossians, to Philemon who owned Onesimus, he makes a play on this word. He says, once your slave was profitless. He was worthless.

But through the uncommon operation of the Holy Spirit, Onesimus, who wasn't worth a thing, has become so valuable. A beloved brother to me and also to you. I say that one of the most unlikely candidates in the team of Paul at Rome was Onesimus.

And if you knew my background, if you knew my personality, if you knew my weaknesses, you would appreciate that likewise, it is just due to the greatness of God that someone as inadequate as myself could become a preacher of the gospel. God takes the most unusual people. He goes into the most unattractive situations.

And there he finds men and women whom he can use for himself. Job was on the rubbish tip outside his city, indicating that he felt his life was so bad that he was only fit to sit there. When God eventually awakened Job to all that he had for him to achieve in his purposes, and Job realized that in the sight of God he could be valuable.

It's an amazing way in which God takes men who are most unattractive, without any qualification, and he uses them for himself and for the advance of the gospel. You wouldn't expect Onesimus to be within the team. Neither would you expect John Mark, verse 10, Marcus' sister's son to Barnabas.

Why? Well you see, Mark had been with Paul before, on the first missionary journey, but things got tough. He had a sea trip. Maybe as a result of that he wasn't a very good sailor, let's suggest, but perhaps that gave him a desire to go right back home to mother.

And so he left Paul. Paul was most annoyed about this. He didn't like the idea of a young fellow putting his hand to the plough and then turning back and going home.

He thought that Mark had betrayed him. But the day came when God's hand was so upon Mark and Mark comes to Rome, that Paul becomes grateful for his fellowship and Mark, who had left him previously, becomes one of the great consolers of the apostle. Do you remember how Jonah ran away from God's purposes? We read in the Old Testament book that bears his name, the word of God came to Jonah a second time.

My friend, if there's a possibility that Onesimus can be used by God at Rome, if there's a possibility that John Mark can have another chance, there's a possibility for you and for me to be used by the living God in the 20th century. I've run out of time, so let me try and close down. There's another surprise there, and that is that Demas, verse 14, that Demas should be incorporated into Paul's team.

And this shows the honesty of the Bible, because you see, Demas eventually left Paul. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he made a request that certain people might come to join him. He says in the last chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, and the ninth verse, Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, because Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.

Only Luke is with me. Take John Mark, bring him back with you to me, because he's profitable to me for the ministry. Here's Paul on another occasion, and he's so lonely, and he wants his friends.

And Demas, who once was with him, is with him no longer. Demas, who seems to have been under the shadow and the enthusiasm of Luke, came to a realization that his faith was not one that was really grounded in Jesus. Worldly attractions came along, and Demas defected from Paul's team, having loved the world more than he loved the gospel of Christ.

Yes, my friend, we'll have our Onesimuses today. We'll have our Epaphrases. We'll have our Lukes.

We'll also have our Demases. There will be those who will defect from us. They'll have been in the team for a while.

We thought they were the Lords. We thought that they were really filled by His Spirit, but we were wrong. They left us, and they didn't continue as part of the team.

But praise God for those who slot into the categories of those other seven men whose names I've brought to your attention this morning. They have their counterparts in the ministry in the Tabernacle. So, as we've looked at Paul somewhat hastily introducing his team, we praise the Lord that in the 20th century, here in our church, there are those who correspond to these men, and we bless God for all whose ministry is in the background but is vital to the advance of the gospel here in this church.

Amen. Now, Father, we do thank you for the ministry of the gospel and for all that you have given your church down the centuries and in the present decade to perform the variety of functions both in the foreground and in the background. We praise you for our brothers and sisters here, helpers, Father God, in the work that we do to do it well for Jesus.

We praise you for the concept of a team ministry here in this Tabernacle. Continue to bless it and own it for your glory. For Jesus' sake, amen.