Fellowservants in Christ - Jerald Birky

Good morning, Christian, greetings to all of you, each of

you here this morning. Welcome to you. Whether you're a

member here, a regular, a visitor, it's a privilege too.

It's a privilege to take this time, spend this spend

these minutes, two hours, one hundred and twenty minutes of

your week, gathered, gathered to gathered to be encouraged, gathered

to be instructed, gathered to think. For a text this morning,

you can turn them see some may sound a little

bit like a record stock record clautions. Brother Gary started

in claus this morning, and I planned to begin there

as well, but chapter four instead of chapter three. So

I was I was glad for that, for that bit

of context this letter. And then during the Adult and

Youth Sunday School class talking Dan table that question about being,

you know, radical, should should you be radical? I realized

that I would plan to introduce my subject this morning

with a bit of a radical statement. And this statement

was directed at myself and or my wife and at

the same time, and it was in response to a question,

the question was I believe this man was? Was was

asked a question and within the question that we asked him,

I don't even remember who it was Jewel or myself.

But we had the word in there was the word belief,

and this guy kind of bristled and he said, I

you know, I don't care. No. He talked about himself first.

He said, you know what, I have never told you

about my beliefs, and I've never asked you about yours,

and I don't care about your beliefs. It sounded rather radical.

He said, I don't care about your beliefs. I only

care about how you live. Christians. He said, there's there's

way too many Christians who want to trumpet around and

talk about their beliefs, but they don't live it. They

live terribly kind of a radical thing. You don't care

about what I believe, modified moderated by, but I care

about how you live. This man happens to be and

I can't. I would give you his name, and I

don't remember it. A practicing Buddhist, a Buddhist man who

read the Bible in an effort to disprove the Bible.

He read the Old Testament and he said that was

that was a piece of cake. You go through there,

and those guys were a bunch of jerks. They lived

like they lived like Heathens. There was all kinds of

reasons why why the Buddhist faith was better than that?

But he said, then I got to the New Testament,

read the teachings in Life of Christ, and that is perfection.

But he's maintaining his Buddhist ways, so speaking of the

invisible Church that looked invisible to me. So anyway, in this,

in that down that vein of of what you say

versus what you believe? What do I say about my

beliefs versus how I live? I thought this morning we

would look at three New Testament characters, and their names

come up here in this, in this last chapter of Calautions,

and I'd like to simply look at look at these characters,

kind of break them apart, and have some thoughts about them.

I have a little article I'm gonna read about one

of them. But the setting here this letter to the

Clauss written by Paul the last the last verse of

chapter four, as he's getting done, just one of the

kind of the the off the cuff sentence in the

middle of three or four sentences, Remember my bonds. He

was writing this from a from a place of I

guess he had plenty of time to write prison rented house,

hired house, I think it's called in one place. But

he wrote this letter to the Colossians, and you know

he had he had various things to say to them,

and actually more than just the Colossians. He you know,

I have this the beginning of chapter two. You know,

I have this conflict for you and for those that

lay out to sea. I want your hearts to be comforted,

he said in verse in verse two. And then chapter

three he was giving giving I guess what he what

he would have seen some of the reci before that,

how you should live. And he gets done with this

long letter, and then we go into these personal these

characters that I'd like to look at. I'm going to

read this beginning with verse seven. Well, verse six, let

your speech be all the way with grace, seasoned with salt,

that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

And then he kind of switches the focus to himself personally.

All my estate, shall Tichicus 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 Onisimus, a faithful and beloved brother,

and brother who is one of you. They shall make

known unto you all things which are done here. Our Starcus,

my fellow prisoner, saluteth you. And Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,

Touching whom you received commandments. If he come unto you,

receive him. And Jesus, who is 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. Epiphrius, who is one of you, a

servant in Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervent for you

in prayers, that ye 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 in Laodissea and them in Hiropoulis. Luke, the

beloved physician in Demus, greet you. Salute the brethren which

are in Leaodicea 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 Laodysseans, and that ye likewise read the epistle from

Ladyesa and say to Arcuipas, take heed unto the ministry

which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill

it thy the salutation by the hand of Me Paul,

remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. That's how

he finished his letter. And so the first man here,

I would like to pull out and just do a

bit of a bit of a character study on. And

as we go through these these three characters, as we

think about them, I guess the practical side is the

practical side or the practical exercise for you and for

me to do is to is to flip this around.

You know, there was we can we can look. We

can look here into history and ask the questions and

wonder and make guesses and projections. But these remember this,

these were these were real people. They did not know.

They did not know that they were living in antiquity.

They did not know that they were living at what

we consider kind of the beginning of the history book

as far as the New Testament Church is concerned. They

were simply living. They were simply facing life with its questions,

with its problems, with its projects. So go to the

verse seven, This this man tikkus, and I don't we

don't have h we don't have a lot of his

pedigree and then where he was from and all of that.

But we have we we have here some descriptive terms

dropped by the apostle Paul, this, this writer of letters

to churches, this writer Paul, who well we know, we

know his story Bible. Bible students know that story. Paul,

the one who was he had we know more of

his pedigree, the writer he was, he had, you know

he was he was born to the right family or

in the right circumstance, schooled at the right schools, taught

by the correct professors, and then was converted. Had a

had a had a dramatic spiritual experience, physical spiritual, knocked

down on the road to Damascus, knocked down by light

blind for three days, something that something that was very

real to him and altered altered the course of his life.

So that's the man who was writing these things where

we're getting these these these hints or these these descriptions.

So Paul gave him a job, and his job was

he was going to get sent and it's verified elsewhere

in scripture. I guess that that that that happened. He

delivered these these letters. But I'm going to give him

a project. And the project is he's going to he's

going to carry these letters. And it was actually this

one and I think the one to the Ephesian Church

as well as a letter to phi Lehman. So there

was two of these, two of these guys. Verse nine

gives us another name, Onissimus. These two were the two

that carried the thing. So apparently they went. He went

did his thing. He was he was given several projects.

One carry the letter two the number two or does

it say that he was going to tell them or

maybe in another place. Anyway, he was going to tell

them about Paul's situation. And then he was also going

to collect information. That was the next thing. That he

may know your estate, gather information who I've sent it

to you for the same purpose that he may know

your estate. So he was he was to communicate. He

was he was a go between. He was a communicator.

He was going to communicate to them, gather some information.

I guess to take that back to Paul all at

some point that he may comfort your hearts. Is how

that that verse ends. And that was another that was

another thing so apparently this wasn't just simply a hard,

cold factual thing in the interest of in the interest

of these people and in the interest of this church,

he was I guess Paul was convinced. Paul was was

was believed that when Tickecus arrived and and and did

did the interactions, that it would be a positive thing

for those people other other credentials. Paul called him beloved

brother verse seven. Yeah, all my states, shall tike gus

declare unto you you'll you'll be told by a faithful

or beloved brother, someone that Paul apparently liked. He called

him beloved he he had good things to say about him,

and a faithful minister. The next credential, faithful minister he was.

He was not a slacker, not one. I don't think

Paul would have been, describing him as as a man

with with blackberries and nettles growing up over his over,

over the facade, over the over his face, over his heart.

A fellow servant in the Lord verse seven, he refers

to him as that what would that mean if, yeah,

if Paul were here today, would he would he use

that term on you? Would he use that term on me?

Fellows servant in the Lord. Now, fellow servant gives you

the idea of a fellow employee. In other words, the

guy that's standing beside me and we're doing this project

for well, if you're a servant. A servant isn't very

often in doubt where his orders are coming from. He

knows that. What did fellow servant to Paul mean? Think about?

Think about Paul Saul? Saul, the zealous Paul the I

mean he was. He was zealous. He he had a

lot of steam behind him when he was persecuting. He

wasn't wasn't a man known for getting nothing done. And

that energy or that zeal or that drive to keep moving,

keep doing the next thing, meant that he was. He

was active. His fellow servant, I think, I think the

people that Paul used that term with actually were also

moving with him. This, this Paul, this Paul who at

this point is is in prison, probably prison in Rome,

I believe. Previously in his life, in his journeys, in

his his starting of churches, this evangelistic work, at one

point in one of those cities, he said he was

when writing a letter to them later he said, but

when I was there with you guys. I wasn't. I

wasn't a leech to you. I die. I was chargeable

to no man, I think was the words he used

the King James. I didn't just simply take. I worked

for a living. I carried my own weight. I wasn't.

I wasn't trying to take from you. So in addition

to in addition to starting churches and and advancing God's kingdom,

he was. He was working, he had he had things

to do. This one of one of his projects. Then

writing letters to churches. That and that may have been

more from from the prisons, I would suppose, but active,

boarding the next boat to somewhere, read the book of Acts.

He he kept moving. He was and well, boarding a boat,

boarding a boat and heading out and telling the captain

that no, we shouldn't leave because the weather's going to

get rough and we might get shipwrecked. That's not a

lazy man, that's that's not a man who who was

willing to sit walking toward the next conflict or danger.

He did. Paul didn't stop and tikkus. He's calling him,

his his fellow servant, someone walking with him, someone moving

with him, shared burdens. I think I'm going to take

the time here to read this, read a little writing

on Tikekus. We're going to go on to verse ten,

just shortly to Aristarchus and Marcus some of those, but

before that, sharing burdens. I think that's another thing that

Tikkus was doing. That part of that fellow servant category

or designation or description Tikkus sharing burns. And this is

not my writing, this is from Oh a Chariot Victor publishing.

Tikkus shared Paul's Roman imprisonment, and no doubt was helpful

to him in many ways. Paul chose Tikkus and Anesthemus

to deliver the Ephesian Letter and the Colossian Letter. Of course,

they also took the personal letter to find Lehman. Paul

instructed Tickeykus to share with the Colossie Christians all the

details of his situation in Rome. Paul's description of Tikekus

reveals what a splendid Christian Tichacus really was. He was

a beloved brother, willing to stay with Paul even though

the situation was difficult. How encouraging it is to have

a Christian at your side when everything seems to be

against you. Tichikus was also faithful minister. His love revealed

itself in action. He ministered to Paul. He also ministered

for Paul to assist him in as many obligations. Someone

has said that the greatest ability in the world is dependability,

and this is true. Paul could depend on Tikeycus. Tikakus

was also Paul's fellow servant. Though he was not an

apostle himself, he was assisting Paul in his apostolic ministry.

Paul and Tichakus worked together in the service of the Lord. Later,

Paul was able to send Tichikus to Crete and then

to Ephesus. It was not easy for Tikkus to be

associated with Paul the prisoner, for Paul had many enemies,

nor was it easy for Tikkus to travel as he

did assisting Paul in his various tasks. Tikkus did not

take the easy way, but rather the right way. Our

churches could use more members like Tickeykus. I thought that

was a very very descriptive writing from from this story.

Who else is mentioned in this passage. Let's let's go

back to the Colautionis four verse ten. Well, Onisimus kind

of just jumped over him. There's a there's a study

that could be done there as well, but moved to Aristarchus,

my fellow prisoner. So a fellow prisoner sends his greetings,

you know, hello high from high, from Aristarkus and Marcus,

Barnabas's sister's son, the nephew of Barnabas and Jesus, which

is called Justice. So he's in these these two verses

are yeah, nine ten and eleven versus nine ten eleven

versus tenn eleven. He's referring to three different people, are

as Arcus, Marcus, and Justice. These three who are of

he calls them, says they are of the circumcision. Are

these these three he's identifying here as as Jews, as Jews,

which who were were were the people that had given

Paul a lot of grief. But there were some of these,

some Jews who apparently were helping. These are not only

my fellow workers under the Kingdom of God. These only

were only these three Jews, my fellow workers under the

Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me.

He was, he was, he was happy to give them

recognition for their benefit to him. In prison verses twelve

and thirteen. Kudos to Epiphraus, Epiphraus, who is one of you?

So Epiphraus, one one from Colossi, apparently one of you,

a servant of Christ, salutes you as well, always laboring

fervently for you in prayers that ye may stand perfect

and complete in all the will of God. This Epiphraus

was known for his praying and his praying for their

perfectness and completeness, that you may stand perfect and complete

in all the will of God. Very a tribute, a

tribute to Epiphrus verse fourteen, Well, verse thirteen, he's still

talking about Apifrus. I bear him record. He he has

a great zeal for you. You know, I'll go down

here on record as saying Apiphrus wants what's best for you.

Verse fourteen. Luke the beloved physician, and Demus greet you Luke,

and Demas says, howdy. There they're a greeting scent. And

then he goes into more more verse fifteen, into more

person or more directives, salute the brethren in Leydesea, and

then the nuts and bolts instructions. So the other two

people that I'd like to zoom in on just a

little bit more here are Luke the beloved position at Demus.

Not a lot, not a lot said about these two

here in this passage, but they're but they're listed here

with with the with the ones who were with Paul H. Luke.

Who is he? I believe this this this Luke referred

to as Lucas in another in another play. Well, I

think that may be in phi Lemon. No, what is

phi Lemon Colin's file em right, it is Philemon twenty four.

That is his name came up again tail end of

another letter. Yeah, he's called Lucas there, Marcus Arcus rist Tarcus, Demas,

Lucas my fellow laborers, Luke called a fellow laborer Luke,

the writer of the book, the Book of the Book

of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts.

He apparently traveled extensively with Paul and was just kind

of at at his elbow. Again, the term fellow laborer Demus.

We're going to spend a little more time, a little

more time on him, because we have a Demus is

one that in the New Testament. Here he's only mentioned

three times, but the first time here it's just very brief.

Demus greets you Phi Lehman, chapter verse twenty four. In

that in that letter, he is he's he's put in

the category of fellow laborer, in other words, someone who

was who was helping, assisting, helping Paul get the work done.

So who is he? What? What were his credentials? He

sends his greeting, he's the fellow laborer. We don't know

a whole bunch of things about him. There's there's guesses,

there's there's historical writings. John Bunyan. John Bunyan in Pilgrim's

Progress paints kind of a colorful picture of DMUs to

the negative side. He was looking at his his latter life.

Apparently he was the oh what I forget what he

was called. Now he was a keeper of a silver

mind or some some something fairly negative. Well, we don't

know about him, his age, his marital status, his immigration status,

social status, some some project that Demas was a was

a slave, that was it was Paul's slave, that's why

he was with him. But apparently converted and apparently a help.

Return to second Timothy, we're gonna read, We're gonna look

at those those verses. Second Timothy four is where where

we find Paul's continuing statement about DMUs and and in

the Book of Tewod Timothy Tewod, Timothy, Paul is writing,

and if you look at verse verse nine, do thy

diligence to come shortly unto me? Paul is giving up

in this in this letter to Timothy, then he gave

him a fairly a fairly upbeat or positive letter. You know,

if you look at verse chapter one, he refers to

Timothy's faith. You know, your your your I'm trying to

stir up the gift of God that's in you. Warnings

chapter two, be strong verse one, be strong in the

grace of the in Christ Jesus. Verse three, I mean

chapter three, perilous times will come. You know, there's gonna

be problems. Yes, there's gonna be There's gonna it's gonna

be difficult verse twelve. Yeah, and all that will live

godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. He's no doubt

referring to himself as well as as well as the broader,

broader humanity. Beginning of chapter four, I charge thee Therefore,

before God and the Lord Jesus, who shall judge the

quick and the dead, preach the word in other words,

get these things done. Paul is writing writing here almost

you can almost sense the the speed of the script,

of the speed of the the scrawl. Preach the word

be instant. Do these things and then verse nine. But

get coming. Do do thy diligence to come shortly unto

me Verse ten. For Demus hath forsaken me, having loved

this present world, and has departed into Thessalonika. Christens to Galicia,

Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark

and bring him with THEE, for he is profitable to

me for the ministry taking us. Have I sent to

Ephesus the cloak that I left at Tryus with Karpus.

When thou comest, bring with THEE and the books, but

especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil,

and the Lord reward him according to his works, of

whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly withstood

our words. At my first answer, I think that would

mean be like a hearing or a trial. At my

first answer, no man stood with me, but all men

forsake me, forsook me. I pray God that it may

not be laid to their charge. Note they're the similarity

with Christ's words on the cross. Father, forgive them, for

they know not what they do. I pray God that

it not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord

stood with me and stre me that by me the

preaching might be fully known, and that all the gentiles

might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth

of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from

every evil work and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom,

to whom may be glory forever and ever. Amen. And

then he goes into the salute this and just yeah

verse twenty one, do thy diligence to come before winter?

Just he's back to back to exerting a little pressure.

But in this, in this what I call a high emotion,

high emotion writing, we have here the verse ten, verse

nine and ten, do thy diligence to come? Four or

because Demus hath forsaken men? Demus Demus ditched me get

here quickly. I am lonely only Luke. Verse eleven Demus

went to thak Slanaika. King James Harriet translates he uses

a word forsake, demas hath forsaken me, and I think

that there's a little that's probably noteworthy. It's a little

bit larger or a little more. Well, there's two things

there forsaken me, he writes, not just his left or

is gone, or went there or I sent him, but

it was It seems like Paul is referencing here some

some well, something almost personal from Demus. He used, he

used stronger, stronger terminology, and it's thought by many and

again we don't have We're left to guess exactly what

happened here with Demas. But Paul gives the hint, having

the just the one, the one phrase, the one sentence,

having loved this present world, was that finances? Was it money?

He went to Thessalonaika, if that was his home, maybe

we could almost understand that. But many, many believe Bible

scholars believe that Paul was referring here not only to

leaving a departing and leaving forsaking of Paul in the

city of Rome, but also of turning his back on Christianity,

or or for if not turning his back on Christianity,

for sure putting his his focus, his his life's ambition

was going toward something else, something apparently in Thesalonaika. We

look at Demas, or I could look and scratch my

head a bit saying that, why why did Demas walk away?

I mean, we we as humans, in our dealings with

other people, we look at people and we kind of

look at who they're who they're hanging out with. Who

are they who, who are they hanging who are their associates,

what are they doing? We tend to judge or assess

a man to some degree by his associates. The people

you hang I mean, the people you hang out with

tend to represent your values or what is important to you.

At the very minimum, the people that you spend the

most time with generally have the most influence on your life.

Those are just some of those rules. Demos should have

opened his eyes. He was he was hanging out with

the heavy hitters, the the evangelist, the writer of the

writer of the Gospels. Now, from our advantage point, we

could see that he probably just viewed Luke as that

doctor that did his thing, was around and sitting in

his corner writing in his books all the time. I

don't I don't know how he viewed Luke. We look

at it and say, well, Demus, you were you were with,

You were with really good people. The big name evangelist,

and he apparently spent enough time there that he was

called a fellow laborer. But the word of warning for

us influence alone didn't stop Demus from loving this present world.

I suppose Demus left for a number of reasons, danger prudence.

I mean, if indeed Thessalonika was home, going home would

be it would be logical. I mean, if I put

in my time, I've done my thing. He's going home,

home where things are easier. I mean, young man, there's

not much. There's not a lot of negative about going home.

I mean, Mom will least have some food for you,

super ready to eat when I get there. Are not

wrong things in themselves, but these things that aren't wrong

in themselves, for you to place them at the top

of your priority list could have you in conflict with

what God has intended for you to do with your life.

And apparently from this this little bit of a negative, negative,

negative statement of Paul about Demus, I think Paul believed

Demus to have his priorities mixed up. Paul was speaking

or writing from the premise of the deserted One, so

thinking about the deserted thinking about Paul the deserted one,

and or just the reality Demus deserted or abandoned Paul

and Crewe whatever whatever project was left there. Years previously,

the apostle Paul, who was then Saul, on the road

to Damascus, heard a voice, saw light, heard a voice,

had interaction with Jesus. Saul was not persecuting Jesus, he

didn't think, But the reality is Saul was, and Jesus

corrected him, said no, no, I am Jesus, who you persecute?

Paul was like, no, I was going to get those people.

Saul persecuted both who he could see and who he

could not see. Dem Us in this situation, when he

abandoned Paul, he abandoned both who he could see and

who he could not see. Is both of those follow

that follow that line of logic? And I'll pose this question,

can you abandon the church without abandoning the Lord of

the church? Just I'll just leave let let your mind

work on that. So do you or I? Do you?

Or do I? Would I be described? Would Paul describe

me like he described demas having? Just he's he's in

love with the present world. If it's fair to state

that about DMAs, it's fair to ask that same question

about myself. Love this present world. Now, some homework for

you loving this present world? What would that look like?

We have a term that's used sometimes worldliness. Can you

define worldliness? I got a homework project for you. Figure

out what worldliness is from the New Testament and a

hint that word's not there. You're gonna have to look

for the concept one John two, last couple verses of Jude.

Those are some places you could start looking. Titus too,

verses eleven to fourteen. For the grace of God that

bringeth salvation. Hath appeared into all men, teaching us that

denying ungodliness and worldly loss sounds kind of like worldliness.

There we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this

present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious

appearing of the Great God and our savior, Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us

from all iniquity and purify him unto himself. A people

zealous of good works. Another point here from Demus, there's

just a sobering reality, sobering fact. Your last decision could

annull or erase all of your previous work in the

minds of the or your previous credibility. Demus had credibility

in the end history, and we tend to look at him,

and I'm not going to I'm not gonna judge and

not gonna insist that I understand all of that. But

Paul had Paul had some a negative to say about him. Closing,

as we look at these three men, Demus gets a

lot of attention. Don't be a Demus, don't forsake God's

people for the world, but rather be a look or

a Tichicus. Faithful, not necessarily the forefront, but I see Tichicus.

I go back to his that his his credentials of

steadily faithfully assisting others in their Christian life in the

pride object of spreading the Gospel. And so that's that's

the challenge I want to take for myself. Leave with you.

Don't be at EMUs, rather be rather be the Tichicus.

Rather be the one who is consistently continuing to assist

people in their search for God. Let's have a clue