Men of Example (Part 1)

This is a very exciting. Thing for our church, we have 10

people that are getting baptized on Sunday and a lot of, a lot

of, of new Christians, if you will, a lot who are, who have

really maybe maybe you fit into this category too.

But a lot of people who have never been discipled and who

have never had somebody take them through the fundamental

doctrines of the faith have have never been taken through the

fundamentals of the faith. And so once we finish up with

Colossians here, we're going to start doing that on Wednesday

night. Some of you will be familiar

with this because we did it last year a little bit on Tuesday

nights. I think we did some Thursday

nights, the 52 discipleship lessons.

And what I'm, what I think I'm going to do is, is just kind of

start back at the beginning and do that on Wednesday nights and

take everybody through that. It's always good to have a

refresher course on that. Many have never been through it.

The ones who, who may know a lot of these things will benefit

from it as well. Because you can take that and go

teach it to somebody else. And that's the whole purpose of

it, right? We should be getting to the

point where we can teach others also is what the Bible says.

And so very, very exciting. We got, we got young people,

older people, everybody in between that are getting

baptized on, on Sunday morning. And of course it takes us a

little while of, of, you know, people getting saved to be able

to do it 'cause we don't have it just sitting out.

Otherwise we'd probably do it as soon as people were ready.

But it's a little bit of a setup process for us and everything

else. But I got to, I got to mention

this. So we, we did the baptism class

on Wednesday night after church or sorry, Sunday night after

church just to, you know, a lot of, a lot of the ones that are

in that class are going through the first steps for new

Christians. And, you know, we're kind of

individually discipling everybody and, and taking them

through that. But everybody had gotten to the

fifth section, which is about baptism.

And so rather than going through that with everybody

individually, I just decided to do a whole class and, and, and

put everybody in there together and talk through it.

And after we finished up with all of that stuff, John and

Marlisa came into office and just got to talking and, and

we're doubting their own salvation.

And both of them accepted Christ as their Savior on Wednesday

night. So they had already been through

the baptism class, so they're going to get baptized on Sunday

as well. So very, very exciting.

And, and actually the reason that they had come into the

office in the 1st place was talking about joining the

church. So they're going to do that

after the service on Wednesday as well.

So very exciting to be able to have them as part.

And Josh was already planning to get baptized, which is why they

were in the class in the 1st place.

So make it a family affair and just get them all at the same

time. So, but very exciting, very

exciting and just just excited to be a part of what God's

doing. And you know, God's using you.

And I've said this many, many times, you know, if God, you

know, God called me to pastor the church obviously, and start

the church and everything else. But if it was just me, there

wouldn't be much of A church. And if it was just me, you know,

trying to do all the work by myself, once we had people

coming, there wouldn't be much of anything going on.

So it takes everybody working together and going forward.

And, and I believe that's why God's blessing is because we

have a lot of people who are willing to be involved, a lot of

people who are involved in the outreach and in the different

ministries of trying to get the gospel out.

And God blesses it. You know, we may not always see

results come from the, the direct ministry, although we

have, you know, especially from the Bibles and things we've seen

people get saved. We've seen people come to church

because of it. Certainly the door knocking and

things we've had people come and, and the visitation and all

of those things are, are, are things where we have seen people

come. But God just gives the increase

when you're doing what he tells you to do, and he brings the

people here that that maybe you never even had a contact with.

And we've seen that happen many, many times.

So it's exciting to be a part of that.

But as we come to the end of Colossians chapter 4, Paul

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

really has given the Colossians everything that they need, the

church there at Colossae, everything they need to know

doctrinally. And now he begins this roll call

of his colleagues, his companions in the ministry and

really finishes out the whole rest of the chapter that way.

So let me let me just read the rest of the chapter and kind of

give everything to you in context.

By the way. In fact, I was just having a

conversation with with with Frank the other day.

And you know, there's a couple of things that we have to

remember when it comes to studying the Bible and

understanding doctrine and, and not getting pulled away by some

of these doctrines. OK, perfect example is, is the,

is the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation.

There are verses that if you read that one verse makes it

sound like baptism is necessary for salvation, right?

Peter said, repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the

name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, right?

It makes it sound like in order to have your sins taken care of,

to have your sins remitted, you have to be baptized.

But there's a couple things to remember #1 you have to take

every verse in context of the chapter, You have to take every

chapter in context of the book, and you have to take every book

in context of the entire Bible the the context.

Of the entire Bible certainly does not tell us that we have to

be baptized in order to be saved.

In fact, there's a lot of things that show us that you don't have

to be baptized in order to be saved, but what we have to.

Remember that I think a lot of people forget is that the

chapters and the verses are not inspired, right?

The word of God is inspired. Every word of God is inspired.

But the chapters and the verses were not added until the 1500s.

They were put in there to help us find our places in the Bible

quicker, right? And I think, I think it for the

most part, they're, they're put in a good place and they help us

to, to, to read through the chapters.

And I can say turn to Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

And you don't have to open your scroll and follow along to try

to figure out where I pick up reading, right?

So it's helpful to have the verses and the chapters and

everything else, but they're not inspired.

And you have to remember that books like this, Colossians was

a letter that Paul wrote, right? Could you imagine if somebody

took one sentence out of the letter that you wrote to

somebody, took it out of context and made it say something

completely different than what you intended to say?

But that's what a lot of people do with the word of God because

they find this one verse and look, this verse is the verse

that I can point to that says this.

But you're not taken in context of the, the, the whole chapter

or the whole passage, whole paragraph of what the writer was

intending to say. And so we have to remember that

as we're studying God's word, that you have to take everything

in context of the passage and then obviously of the book and

then of the whole word of God. But Paul has taken a lot of time

here throughout the book of Colossians to correct this,

this, this idea of Gnosticism. And he, you know, he kind of

ends by just leaving these Gnostics to their apostasy.

And, and he's embracing the people who are of like precious

faith. And that's what he does here at

the end. So we pick it up in Colossians

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and verse #7. All my state shall Titicus

declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful

minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto

you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and

comfort your hearts with Onessimus, a faithful and

beloved brother, who is one of you.

They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoners, saluteth you and

Marcus, sister son to Barnabas, touching whom you received.

Commandments, if they come unto you, receive him.

And Jesus, which is called justice, who are of the

circumcision, these only are my fellow workers under the Kingdom

of God, which have been a comfort unto me.

A Paffris, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you

always, laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may

stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you, and

them that are at Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.

Luke the beloved physician. And Dimas greets you, salute the

brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphis, and the church

which is in his house. And when this epistle is read

among you, 'cause that it be read also in the Church of the

Laodiceans, and that she likewise read the epistle from

Laodicea, and say to Archopus, Take heed to the ministry which

thou has received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.

The salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds.

Grace to be with you. Amen.

You can tell that this is a letter that Paul is writing to

this church and he's he's greeting these people and he's

saying, hey, these other guys that are with me want to greet

you as well. But these men, these are men

that stood for the truth, stood for the faith that was delivered

from the apostles. And this is by no means all of

the people that Paul could have included.

I'm sure there was probably no doubt many more people that were

part of this ministry that Paul could have have put on that

list. And of course, these men are not

perfect. One of them, we find out later,

was a backslider who left Paul because he loved the world.

The other one that we see here later on, Archipus, he had to be

chastised. He had to be rebuked because

apparently he just wasn't taking the ministry seriously or

something along those lines. But Paul was essentially giving

the Colossian church men that he could point to as examples that

they could look up to. These were men who had rejected

the ideas of, of, of apostasy and Gnosticism and all of these

other things that were coming into the church.

And they had chosen the side of the truth.

They had chosen the side that Paul had drawn a line on.

And they, and they were on the right side of those things.

And so, you know, going through the Bible and getting acquainted

with the people in the Bible is a huge undertaking.

There's a lot of names in the word of God, a lot of people in

the word of God. Christianity was not born and

bred in ivory towers. It was not, it was not hidden

behind fancy walls. It was not some collection of,

you know, theological propositions and, and people who

are who, you know, were sitting behind a desk all day and just

writing for a living and everything else.

Christianity, especially in these in these early days, was,

was lived out by the men that that work to spread the message

of the gospel. And Paul was, was privileged to

be able to work with them. They were privileged to be able

to work with him. But the truths of the word of

God and Christianity are lived out through the people that we

find in the Bible, which is why we can say, hey, this is what

Paul said. Hey, this is what, what Epaphras

did. Hey, this is what this man did.

This is what this man did. God put them in the Bible for a

reason. They were, they were, they were

to be an example to us. And they're not all men.

We have some women in the Bible who are great examples as well.

But Paul ends his epistle by mentioning by name 10 people and

then adding his own name to the list and saying his final

farewell to this church at Colossi.

But their names many times just seem to be mentioned and then

lost to obscurity. We don't most of these names, we

don't even recognize most of these names.

We certainly don't know. But these were real people.

They, they lived, they loved, they sacrificed, they suffered,

they sorrowed, they laughed, they cried.

They were real people. And I think sometimes we forget

about that. Even with the even with the more

well known ones, even with the Apostle Paul, we say Paul said

this, Paul did that. But but imagine if the apostle

Paul was one of you just living amongst us.

Imagine if brother Matt was the Apostle Paul.

I mean, that's that's what Paul was like.

He was just a normal person, right?

He was doing things for the Lord.

He was busy serving the Lord and and he was writing for the Lord.

And of course, he was in a little bit different position

because he was an apostle, but he was just a person who labored

among them, just like all of you are, just like all of us are

together. But they had, you know, they had

their moments of, of excitement. They had ambitions.

They had, they had aspirations, they had hopes, they had dreams,

they had fears. These were real people.

They were normal people just like you and I are.

And I want you to realize that. But these stories, their, their

stories, all of the ones that we have here in Colossians and of

course, all the way through the rest of the Bible, their, their

stories are written and done. Our stories are still.

Being written and we're. Going to talk about these men

and this is just kind of the this is the first of what's

going to be a couple weeks of of finishing this book out because

I I want to highlight some of these men of example that's what

they are they're men of example that were given to us as

somebody that we can follow things that we can take from

these men's life and follow them the way that they followed

Christ and I want to look at three of those men tonight, but

essentially the way that we'll describe each of these men is

probably something that could be written on their tombstone.

What? What will be written on your?

Tombstone, when you're gone. Oh, you always talk, talk about

somebody that's dead in glowing terms at their funeral, right?

Oh, he was such a good person. Bless his heart.

He had a lot of faults, but he was such a good person, right?

That's the way they tell. That's what that's why they talk

about it when you weren't a very good person, right?

But but what, what could be written on your tombstone?

What do you want to be written on your tombstone?

Maybe that's a better way to put it.

That's something to think about. And hope you do that as we go

through this. This, this lesson tonight, this

message tonight, and I hope some of these things will ring true

with you a little bit as we go through them.

But let's pray we'll talk about three of these men that Paul

mentions here tonight. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity we

have to study your word. I thank you that we have these

examples, these men of example in the Bible that we can follow.

I pray that you'd help us to learn from their example.

God, may we follow their example as they follow you.

And of course, all these men that we have in the Bible did.

God, may we follow you first and foremost.

May this message be a help to us tonight, but thank you again for

all that you do for us. In Jesus name, Amen.

The first one that we have mentioned here in verse #7 is

Tichikas, and I never knew how to pronounce his name.

I was Tichikas. Tichikas, how do you say it?

So I went back and looked it up. And you know how you can type in

how do you pronounce this word? And, and then I listened to a

couple different versions, not versions of the Bible, it's King

James Version, but a couple different people reading, a

couple different readers who are reading the King James Version

of the Bible and. One of them pronounced it

Tikakis. One of them said Tikakis.

And I said, all right, I got to get to the bottom of this thing.

I went to YouTube and I said, how do you pronounce?

And that guy said Tikakis and he sounded like he knew what he was

talking about. So I'm going to use, I'm going

to go with Tichikis. But the thing that we find about

Tichikis here is that he was a faithful man.

And we first actually are introduced to Tichikis in Acts

Acts 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20. He's and you can turn over there

if you want to. We're going to get to Acts

Acts 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20 in a little bit. But he's mentioned briefly as

one of Paul's companions on his third missionary journey.

And it's likely that he was saved at some point during

Paul's stay at Ephesus. Paul stayed in Ephesus for quite

some time, and more than likely he was from Ephesus.

Tichikis was from Ephesus, and that's where he was led to

Christ. But Paul had actually been

forced to leave Ephesus in in quite a hurry because of the

riot that broke out there. But he crossed over into Europe

and they decided that he was going to go to Jerusalem because

the Spirit of the Lord was leading him to go there.

He was bound to go to Jerusalem as he said it.

But he was accompanied on this trip, and it was quite a long

trip by a really a remarkable group of friends, mostly from

the churches that he had founded.

But these men were bringing financial aid to the church at

Jerusalem. It was impoverished by that

point because of all the persecution and because of all

the really the persecution of other Christians there.

It wasn't just physical. A lot of it was physical.

But in many cases, if they found out that somebody was a

Christian, they wouldn't shop at their businesses.

They were just, they were doing everything they could to to just

completely ruin them. And so seven men were named in

Acts chapter 20. And Titicus is one of those men

Acts 20 · chapter mention

that was with Paul. And during that long journey to

Jerusalem, no doubt Paul came to know Titicus very well as they

work together, no doubt he they came to know each other very

well. And he marked him down as a man

of promise in the things of God. And then Paul's arrest comes.

When he gets to Jerusalem, he has a long detention at Caesarea

Maritimo, which is right there on the Mediterranean coast.

That's where Paul actually wrote a lot of his letters.

The prison epistles were written from that that point, or some of

them were but his witness before governors and kings.

Eventually he makes his way to Rome as a prisoner.

He's in house arrest there, and he wrote more books when he was

in prison there. But we don't know whether

Tichikas was with Paul that entire time.

But we do know that he was with him for at least part of that

captivity, and he gave Paul devoted service at that time.

So Paul then sends him off to Colossi to tell the believers

there what's going on. This is what he's saying.

All my state shall Titicus declare unto you, who is a

beloved brother and a faithful minister and a fellow servant in

the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that

he might know your estate and comfort your hearts.

Paul is saying, Hey, you go there, Titicus.

You know that area well. You know them, they know you.

You go there and find out what their estate is.

Paul hadn't really heard from them since he had been in

prison. And you tell them what's

happening with me. Paul knew that he could trust

Titicus to do that job. So Paul really gives us a kind

of a two things about this man Titicus.

And first thing is that he gives us a look at his character.

He gives us a look at his character.

He was a beloved brother. The Bible says he was a faithful

minister, the Bible says, and he was a fellow servant of the

Lord. And I believe that Paul really

valued the friendship of this man.

And I don't know, there's, there's probably, there's a few

things that you can say about somebody that would be more

enduring in the New Testament than that He was a beloved

brother. You think about that, a beloved

brother. When you say that about

somebody, you're, you're pretty close to that person, right?

You call somebody a brother or you call him a friend.

Well, you call somebody a beloved brother.

That's a pretty tight bond. That's a pretty close

friendship. And, and I think it speaks of a

kinship that's that closer than any earthly tie.

He wasn't the only one that earned Paul's commendation in

this way, but he was one of them.

He earned the Lord's commendation as well.

Matthew chapter 25. And if you want to turn over

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

there and just look at this passage, I'm not going to read

the entire thing, but Matthew chapter 25, verse 34 through

Matthew 25:34

verse 40 talks about some of the things.

And Jesus is, is, is saying this, but you know, whosoever

give it, give it somebody that needs a drink, a drink or

whoever clothes, somebody that needs clothes.

He said I was in prison and you came unto me.

And and then he says is is blessed to everybody who does

that. I was in prison and you came

unto me, that Jesus said that man was blessed of my father.

And he also said that he was to inherit the Kingdom prepared for

you from the foundation of the world.

Paul had a way of attracting those kind of people to himself.

But Titicus did that very thing that the Lord blessed.

He visited Paul when he was in prison.

He stood by Paul in the face of danger.

He stood by Paul in the face of death.

You think about this. Paul was a political prisoner.

And to go to Paul and associate yourself with Paul when Nero

more than likely had very close eyes on Paul and and the others

who were moving around him. He probably had spies among

Paul's prison guards, maybe even among Paul's prisoners, fellow

prisoners. But no wonder Paul called

Tichikas A beloved brother. But Paul valued this man's

fellowship as well. He was a beloved brother.

He valued his friendship, but he valued his fellowship.

The Bible says in Colossians chapter 4 and verse #7 not only

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

is he a beloved brother, but he was a faithful fellow servant, a

fellow servant. Literally, it's a fellow slave.

It's somebody who is sold out out to the same master.

And then he says he was a faithful minister.

Paul knew that he could that that he would he could trust him

to follow diligently that that plow all the way to the end of

the row. He was not going to quit.

He was not going to back down. He was going to he was going to

continue plowing all the way through to the end.

And he mentioned a fact turn over to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Titicus obviously is mentioned here in Colossians.

He's mentioned in. Acts.

A name that really we we skip over many times.

But he's also mentioned in Ephesians, and I think this is

really interesting. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

#21 Now this is written to the church at Ephesus, obviously a

very different church than the church at Colossae, but that ye

also may know my affairs and how I do Titicus.

Here it is again. A beloved brother and faithful

minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I

have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our

affairs and that he might comfort your heart.

He's doing the exact same thing for the church at Colossae as

he's doing for the church here in Ephesus.

But but, but Paul uses the same phrases in the same term for

him, fellow servant, faithful minister.

He's also named in connection with Trophemus in Acts chapter

#20 that I think if gives us the indication that Tichicus and

Trophemus were both Ephesians and came from the same place.

Acts chapter 20 and verse #4 And there accompanied him into Asia,

Acts 20 · chapter mention

Sopater of Berea and of the Thessalonians, Thessalonians,

Aristarchus and Sekundus, and Gaius of Derby and Timotheus,

and of Asia, Titicus and Trophemus.

So he was with Paul too, later on during his second

imprisonment when the danger was very great.

Fact, turn over to Second Timothy, chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Paul, I, I think, appreciated this, the fact that Tichikas was

willing to put his life on the line for Paul and they sent him

back to Ephesus, I think, to get him out of harm's way.

He knew that that that Tichikas his life was in danger the same

way that his was and the longer he stayed around the the the the

the more danger his life was in. But in Second Timothy chapter 4

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

and verse #10 here's yet another passage where he's mentioned.

And of course Demas is mentioned in Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

And sadly the story of Demas didn't end well.

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,

and is departed into Thessalonica creations to the to

Galatia Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.

Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to

me. For the ministry and Titicus

have I sent to. That was a later time.

This was the second imprisonment.

But Paul now gives us a look at the Commission that he gave to

Tichikas at the time of his first imprisonment.

And if you go back over to Colossians chapter 4, he's

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

saying whom I have sent verse #8 unto you for the same purpose,

that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts.

But Paul sends his faithful partner to Colossi to F

physician, then on to Colossi. But the other thing that's very

interesting, we know about Onessimus from from the book of

Philemon, but Titicus and Onessimus were together on this

trip Verse number. Nine, with Onessimus, a faithful

and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall make known

unto you all things which are done here.

Paul knew that he could trust Titicus.

He seemed to, I think, carried both the Ephesian and the

Colossian letter with him. Of course, Oneessimus had the

the letter to Philemon that he was carrying back with him,

which we'll talk about that in just a little bit.

But the the letter to the Ephesians was actually supposed

to be a circular. Letter.

It wasn't written. It was written to the church at

Ephesus, but it was supposed to be read by all the other

churches around there as well. And as soon as he had delivered

it to that church, no doubt he took copies to all the other

churches in the area as well. So you you think about this,

it's not it's not hard to picture Tichikas just going from

church to church 1 area to the next at Ephesus in in danger of

losing their first love and Smyrna about to face the fiery

persecution they didn't even know was coming yet.

Maybe they maybe they thought there was something that was on

the horizon, but about to face fiery persecution from

everything we know about them. He goes to Pergamus, where the

the heresy of Balaam would eventually take root.

He goes to Thyatira, where the Bible says that woman Jezebel

would soon make her evil presence felt.

Sardis, a church that was boastful of the reputation that

they had. He made his way more than likely

to Philadelphia, where the revival fires burned, and then

on to Laodicea, where where love of money was already becoming

the root of all evil. All of these churches that,

that, that that Titicus is visiting and carrying these

letters with him as that letter is circulating throughout the

throughout Asia and throughout that area.

But doubtless he went to Colossi where Titicus began that circuit

from Ephesus and everywhere Paul's friends and converts and

supporters. You, you just can imagine would

be full of questions. How is Paul doing?

Is is, is his life going to be spared?

Are they going to kill him? What's going to happen?

Is he going to be able to come visit us?

I mean, all of those were questions.

You, you couldn't just hop online and find out what was

happening. It's not like you can just go

get a, a copy of the newspaper and read it and figure out what

was going on with the Apostle Paul.

Nobody knew, but these were all churches that he had been to and

churches that he had helped start and converts that he had

won to Christ who went back to some of these places and started

these churches. They had a lot of a lot that was

invested in knowing what was happening with the Apostle Paul.

And here at Tichikas, he he he can trust him to take not only

these letters back to them, but also to tell them of what's

going on with Paul and then find out what's happening with them

so he can report it back to Paul when he comes back to where Paul

was in prison. And basically Tichikas was given

A2 fold Commission. First he was get information

about the Colossians. Paul probably hadn't heard

anything else from the church in Colossae.

Just a little market town. Wasn't a big town at all.

In fact, if if we didn't have the book written to the

Colossians, you probably never would have heard of Colossae.

It's well known to us. But it was a tiny little town.

And it wasn't long after the book was written to Colossae

that the town kind of fizzled down to pretty much nothing.

But Paul would have been eager For more information.

How? How?

How great had the inroads of the cults been?

How, how much heresy had entered the church, which families had

sided with the heretics in and which ones had had chosen the

side of the truth? Who's who's still there?

Who's left? Who's giving up the faith?

Who's kept the faith? How what's the what's the church

look like? Are more people being added or

people being saved? Paul was interested in these

things. You remember he said this many,

many times. I'm praying for you and I'm

praying fervently for you. Could you imagine doing all of

that praying and not knowing what was happening with the

church? That's why he was sending

Titicus to go see how this church was doing.

He wanted information. It wasn't just that he was

looking for gossip. He wanted to know, is it

working? Is it helping?

Are they, are they still going on for the Lord even with it,

without me? Being there and without others

being there. But I think also Paul would want

to know what the response had been to his letter.

And not only that, but he had tucked this little note away in

Oneessimus's bag that he was on his way to carry 2 Philemon

there as well. But the second thing that Paul

wanted Tichikas to do was to give inspiration to those

Colossians. Obviously, he had a letter to

him to to them that he was supposed to deliver.

And a lot of things in that letter, as we've already talked

about, are encouraging things, but it's also some things of a

very strong warning. I mean, he said he said many

good things about them, but he was trying to comfort their

hearts. The, the problem is that heresy

was going to leave its scars and it wasn't long.

It didn't take long before the heresy started to sneak in.

By the way, you know, you have a lot of these people today who

say, well, why can't we just why do we have to have

denominations? Why can't we just be non

denominational? Why can't we just all be the way

it was in 1st century Christianity?

There were no denominations in Christ's day.

It was just Jesus and they followed Jesus and that was it.

There was no, none, There was no denominations.

Why do we have to have all these things?

Well, look, in the first generation after Christ died and

rose from the dead, already there were things that were

sneaking into these churches that were that, that, that were

trying to, to turn them away from Christ.

And the problem is some of those churches latched on to that

heresy. And the churches who latched on

to the heresy were not the same as the ones who held true to

the, the, the faith that was first delivered to them by the

apostles. And so there is a need for

separation. There is a need for

denominations. Now, we're Baptist not because

that makes you that, that that sends you to heaven, right?

But I say, why not go to heaven first class?

But we're Baptist because of what the Bible says.

And and we believe that the Baptist doctrine is the closest

to the word of God. That's why I'm a Baptist.

It's not because that's what I grew up in.

It's not because that's what I just happened to land in.

No, I'm a Baptist because that's the closest to the Word of God,

and I'm a Baptist because I want to make a distinction between

the other denominations that are out there that are preaching

things that are not in God's Word.

And that's exactly what Paul was doing.

Hey, you've got to understand there is error that's creeping

in, and you need to separate from that error.

The problem is some of them didn't separate from it.

Some of them kept it and I don't think it stayed in the church,

but I don't think many of them left the church completely.

I think some of them went off and started their own churches

and, and, and took that heresy with them.

And even in the 1st century Christianity, we see

denominations already. We didn't call them by those

different denominations, but you, you can see a separation,

you can see a distinction between them.

But you think about this, I mean, I'm sure there was

families that were divided in those churches.

I'm sure they were friends who were divided in those churches.

Loved ones would become traitors to the cause of Christ.

Paul knew enough about Tichikas to know that his very presence

in colossi when that epistle was delivered and read would be a

blessing to the believers. They knew Tichikas, they knew

that he had spent time with Paul.

They knew his reputation. And Paul said he was a faithful

minister. Titicus was an old campaigner.

He would he would stiffen the resistance of the church to the

cults that were trying to snake their way in.

But that's the man that Titicus was.

He represented some 10 years of faithful service, part of it

during the the time that Paul was was in detention at Rome.

Much of it spent in in dangerous and even wearisome journeys that

he was along with the apostle Paul.

But Paul regarded this man Tichikas as his fellow slave.

As if to say, I've I've composed this epistle, Tichikas, but

you're the one that's going to have to deliver this thing.

We're in this together. You start delivering this letter

and it's intercepted and they find that you're in trouble too.

Not just me, it's you. We're both.

Willing to be captives for our Lord.

I think of how astonished Tichikas would be.

I found the day when he boarded that boat to make his trip over

to Colossi and he had Onessimus with him, who also had a little

letter stuffed in his bag that he was taking back to his

master. If Tichikas could have actually

known, how many people over the centuries would read that letter

that he was carrying in that bag?

And how many? People would be encouraged by

the letter that he had in that bag, the millions and millions

and millions of Christians in the 2000 years that followed

that would be reading that letter that he had that he was

about to deliver to the Colossians.

He was just, he was a real person and he was delivering it

to a real church. He was delivering it to people

who had real struggles, just like you and I have when it

comes to our faith and people who go through ups and downs in

their spiritual life. But that letter that he had,

that he was carrying, what, outlast the Roman Empire?

Empire, it'll be translated into thousands of languages.

Could you imagine if Tichikas knew that that's the letter that

he was carrying in his bag that day?

He didn't. But he was faithful and he

delivered that message. And millions and millions of

people not only read the message that he delivered, but they're

reading about him. And he's a man of example for us

because the Bible says he was a faithful man.

He was a faithful minister back in Colossians chapter 4, verse

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

#9 Obviously we have Titicus that is going and delivering

these things. But it says with Onessimus, a

faithful and beloved brother. Who is one of you?

They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

Well, I think the thing that we can say about Onessimus is he

was the fugitive man, but it's not just that he was a runaway

slave. I think this is very

interesting. Onessimus was a runaway slave

with a price on his head and probably the shadow of death by

crucifixion laying on top of him.

Crucifixion was a common method of.

Death for a slave who? Had run away.

If he was brought back to his master, his master, it was very

commonly accepted in that day, would would devise some serious

torture methods and ultimately usually would would put him to

death by crucifixion. He was trying to make an example

out of that slave. You better not run away or this

is going to happen to you too. And that was commonly accepted

in that day. Slave owners just assumed that

any master that recovered a runaway slave would be very

harsh and and ultimately put that slave to death.

Onessimus though, had one hope. Philemon, his master was a

Christian. And now Onessimus was a

Christian as well. Could you imagine what must have

been going through Onessimus? His mind?

He had spent time around the Apostle Paul.

He had been around Tichikas. He had been around all these

other men, faithful men, and obviously they treated him just

like one of them. He was no different before the

Lord. But just because you get saved

does not mean that all of your problems go away.

Both he and his master owed their conversion to Paul, and in

his bag on estimates was carrying a letter from Paul to

Philemon, which was the master that he had run away from.

He was a free man in Christ, but he was still a runaway slave,

and now he is carrying essentially the possibility of

his own death sentence back to his master.

He'd been pardoned by God for all of his sin, but he still had

to face the consequences of the wrong that he had done.

And conversion, as I mentioned, does not cancel moral,

financial, even social debts. People who get saved still have

to deal with the consequences of the life that they chose before

they got saved. And I believe God in his mercy

will allow the consequences of those things to not necessarily

be as bad as what they could have been.

But, you know, somebody who smokes their entire life before

they get saved doesn't automatically get healed of

their lung cancer. Somebody who drank and drank and

drank before they got saved does not mean that their liver is

just going to automatically be healed because they got saved.

There are consequences and there are things that we have to deal

with. Somebody who had poor financial

habits and just lived a life of debauchery and everything else

does not mean that all of their money problems go away because

they got saved. There's still some consequences

of those things that we have to deal with.

But like Tichikis Onessimus, Paul said, is a beloved brother,

which is such a wonderful thing when you think about it.

Here's this man who in society was just considered a slave,

kind of the lowest of the low. Paul leads this man to Christ

and he treats him like a brother.

And not just a brother, but a beloved brother.

We're on the same level here. There is no difference between

the Jew or the Greek, the bond or the free.

There is no difference between us in Christ Jesus.

And so he's a fellow member of the body of Christ by the by the

virtue of the fact that he has been converted, but unfaithful,

however unfaithful he might have been before he got saved.

But Paul says now he is faithful and Paul had put him to the

test. The fact that he's now on his

way back to Philemon to face the music, as we say, is an

indication of that new trustworthiness, the new, the

new life that he found in Jesus Christ.

And that's a great example of how we ought to come to Christ.

When we get things right with God, we ought to be willing to

make it right with whoever we wronged.

Think about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus came to know Christ as

his savior, and he realized that he had wronged a lot of people.

But what did Zacchaeus do? Well, I'm a Christian now.

All my debts are gone. Don't worry about that.

It's under the blood. He said no, I've wronged these

people. I need to make it right.

And I think as as much as we possibly can after we get saved,

we ought to make things right. Some things maybe you just

can't. Some things you don't remember.

Some things are things that are just under the blood, but if you

can make it right, you ought to make it right when you come to

Jesus Christ. But Paul says, They shall make

known unto you all things which are done here.

Winning souls like Oneessimus to Christ was one of those things.

Great things were going. On and I don't have time to read

through Philippians chapter 1, but Paul in Philippians chapter

Philippians 1 · chapter mention Philippians 1 · chapter mention

1 is telling all of the people there in Philippi about the

things that are happening great things were going.

On and obviously he gets back. Onessimus gets back and Philemon

does accept him the way that a Christian should accept him.

But Paul says about Onessimus, he was a fugitive man, but he

was faithful. He was faithful.

Number 3IN Colossians chapter 4. And very quickly as we close

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

here, we read about another man in verse #10 Aristarchus, my

fellow prisoner, saluteth you. Now that's interesting.

My fellow prisoner Aristarchus. We don't read about Aristarchus

being captured and put in prison.

We don't read about him preaching the gospel and being

captured for the sake of preaching.

He's not necessarily. We don't read about him being

alongside the Apostle Paul in one of these places where they

drag him out of the city and stone him.

Doesn't mean that he wasn't, but we don't read about that.

In fact, turn over to Acts Chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Aristarchus was actually from Thessalonica, and he was a

faithful companion of the apostle Paul.

He became a companion of Paul's On his third missionary journey.

He accompanied him to Ephesus. He was captured and killed,

almost killed by the mob in the riot that was raised by

Demetrius and the silversmiths. And we read this in Acts chapter

Acts 19 · chapter mention

19 and verse #29 The whole city was filled with confusion, and

having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia,

Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with 1 accord into

the theater. Now, if you've never been in one

of these places, never been to Israel, never been.

I haven't been to Ephesus or some of these other places.

I've seen a lot of pictures of it.

I know some of you have been in those places and seen it, but if

you never actually seen one of these theaters, it's hard to.

It's hard to get this in your mind.

But some of those theaters were very, very big and they would

fit a lot of people. And it's not like the people,

you know, a lot of people. And there's, I don't, I don't

really feel like going to the theater tonight.

I'm just going to sit home and watch TV or I'm going to sit

home and read the newspaper. I'm going to sit home and, you

know, scroll through YouTube or Facebook or there was nothing

else to do. So when they had things like

that that were going on in the town, almost the entire town was

there. And you get all of these people

riled up at just a couple men and these, you know, Demetrius

and the silversmiths and, and obviously, you know, Diana of

the Ephesians and, and they had been making all of these statues

and, and they had been bowing down to these statues forever

and ever. And now here's these two guys,

they're coming in and they're trying to upset that.

And you think that it's OK. That's not OK.

And Demetrius, probably a, a, a silver tongued silversmith, got

up there and got all the people riled up against these men and

they almost killed him. But then he accompanied Paul to

Greece and from there back to Asia Minor.

In fact, if you turn just maybe a page over to Acts chapter 20

Acts 20 · chapter mention

and verse #4 and they're accompanied him into Asia.

So Pedro, Berea and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and

Sekundis. Then he accompanied Paul back to

Rome in Acts chapter 27, Acts chapter 27 and verse #2 and

Acts 27 · chapter mention Acts 27 · chapter mention

entering into a ship of Adriam Mightiam, we launched meaning to

sail by the coast of Asia, one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of

Thessalonica, being with us. So here he's sharing in the.

Shipwreck with the Apostle Paul. Remember, they were shipwrecked

during that voyage. We don't know at what point

Aristarchus was made a prisoner because the Bible doesn't say

that, but evidently that was the price he paid for his allegiance

to the Apostle Paul. Paul is writing and Paul

obviously is, is, is kind of the focus of many of these things.

Not necessarily that he's putting that focus on himself,

but we're given the story of the apostle Paul in a lot of places.

And we know a lot of the things that Paul suffered and a lot of

things that he went through, but he had a lot of men that were

with him. Some of these men, like

Aristarchus, were caught up in all of those things.

Tradition has it, the Bible doesn't say this, but tradition

has it that he was martyred by Nero.

It's very likely that's a possibility.

But one suggestion is that Paul's friends took turns in

keeping Paul company while he was in prison.

But in order to actually be there in prison with the apostle

Paul, they had to offer themselves as a prisoner.

And maybe that's where you get this idea where Paul says

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteth you.

I don't know, the Bible doesn't say that.

But more than likely he became a prisoner himself just so he

could keep Paul company and keep Paul encouraged Aristarchus, my

fellow prisoner, the fearless man.

The name of a loyalist such as Aristarchus included in this

letter would have been another nail in the coffin coffin to the

cultists there at Colossae. It would have helped strengthen

the hands of those who are fighting against those cultists

in against that cult. Aristarchus was bold in

proclaiming the gospel. He was willing to do what needed

to be done to be an encouragement and a friend to

Paul as well. What you think back in the Old

Testament with Aaron and her holding up the hands of Moses,

Moses was the one who essentially was front and

center. Moses was the one who

essentially. Got the credit if if credit's

going to be given to anybody for the victory that day.

But it was Aaron and her who stood there and held up his

hands, and had Aaron and her not been there to hold up the hands

of Moses, there would have been no victory that day.

And I believe it's the same thing that we find with all of

these people that Paul is mentioning.

Paul is mentioning these people because he's saying, hey, these

men are here holding up my hands.

They're here. They're fellow prisoners.

They're faithful men. They're faithful servants.

They're they're fellow servants. They're they're, they're beloved

brothers. If it wasn't for them, I don't

know if I could have made it through what I've made it

through. If they weren't there to

encourage me, if they weren't there to help me, I don't know

if you would be getting these letters that you're getting to

the Colossians and to the Ephesians and to Timothy and to

these others that were, that were written in a time when

Paul's. Future and when his life was at

stake. But here Paul is mentioning

these men, men of example, one by one.

Hey, Tichakis, he's just a man like you and me, but he's a

faithful man. Oh, Onassimus, he's a fugitive

man, but he's faithful. He's a beloved brother, too.

And oh, Aristarchus, he's been with me on a lot of these

journeys. He's been through a lot of the

same things that I've been through.

He's almost lost his life a couple times as well.

But he's a fearless man. He's bold and speaking the

truth. He's bold to help me.

He's a dear fellow servant. God put them in the Bible for a

reason. Every single word we would say

this, every single word in the Bible is there for a reason,

would we not? You think about all the, all the

things, the, the history of the entire world is wrapped up in

this book right here. Think about all the things that

could have been written. Think about the the volumes and

volumes and volumes and volumes of books that have been written

about world history. There's not a lot when it comes

to all of those things. So God, for a very specific

reason, picked who and what He wanted in His Word, and He

inspired the men to write the things that He wanted to not

just last till the end of time. But guess where this book is

going to be a million years from now?

It's going to be there in eternity with us, and these men

that He gave us as examples are men whose names are going to be

spoken throughout all of eternity when it's associated

with God's Word. He put them in there for a

reason. He put them in there for a

reason, and it was because He wanted us to follow their

example. There's seven more men in here.

We're going to talk about those men, maybe not as in as much

detail as we did with his first few, but there's seven more men

that are in there as examples to us.

I think we do well to follow their example.

Titricus, he's a faithful man. Onessimus, he's a fugitive man,

but he's faithful as well. He's a beloved brother.

And Aristarchus, he's a fearless man.

He's not afraid to stand next to God's man when God's man was in

prison. He's not afraid to speak the

truth of the gospel. When his life was on the line,

he was fearless. He's a fellow prisoner.

What a great example from some of these men that we have that

we can follow. And we'll talk some more talk

about more of them later. But I think we'd do well if we

just get these three down. But what if that was on their

their tombstones? Tichikas a faithful man.

What about if that was on your tombstone?

Would you want to see that on your tombstone?

Aristarchus, fearless man for the gospel sake, what do you

want on your tombstone? What would you want to have said

about you? Because look, you might have

some accomplishments, you might have some things that you've

done, you might have a lot of money, but those are not the

things that are going on your tombstone.

More than likely, if you had one phrase that you could put on

your tombstone that would wrap up your entire life, what would

it be? What would you want it to be?

And if what it would be is not what you want it to be and you

need to make some changes so that what you want it to be is

what will be when you die. Because usually you don't get to

pick what you want on your tombstone.

You're not there to chisel it. Somebody else does that for you.

You can't just make stuff up these guys that that's I don't.

I'm sure there's no. Tombstones where these guys are

buried. But that's what would be on it.

Faithful, fearless, beloved brother, fellow soldiers, fellow

slaves, fellow prisoners. What do you want on your

tombstone? What do you want on your

tombstone? Hopefully what you want is what

will be put because it's the way you lived.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us and we thank you for the opportunity

that we have to be here tonight and study for just a few minutes

out of your word may be a help to us.

God, may we consider our lives and if our lives will be summed

up in just a short simple phrase, I wonder what would be

said about us. He loved money.

He loved things. We had an impact in the world in

a physical way. God, may every one of us live in

such a way for you that our tombstones will be marked the

same way these men are marked. Faithful, beloved brother,

fellow servant, fellow prisoner. May those be things that could

be said about us because we lived in a way that's pleasing

to you. Thank you again for all you do

for us. Jesus name Amen.

If you would stand at.