[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       We conclude our study of Colossians today, and next week we will have a final message on discussing what has already been talked about. Anyhow, starting in verse 12 of Colossians chapter 4: ‘Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (ESV).

       Back in chapter 1 of Colossians, we read the following about Epaphras: “He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit” (1:7-8, ESV). So, today, we learn that Epaphras is physically with Paul in Rome, as Paul of course is in prison while he is writing this letter to the church at Colossae. Paul heaps even more praise on Epaphras than what he already has—in saying that he is a “faithful minister of Christ.” Undoubtedly, Paul had to be greatly encouraged to receive as a visitor someone who was representing the body in Colossae, and not only that, the actual likely founder of that church. In the course of Paul’s poor fortune in being locked up, this had to be something which brought joy to this heart. To see that the Colossian church was doing well, and was being lead by a fellow who was indeed faithful. He had told Paul all about the church body, and how they loved one another in Colossae. That’s what he emphasized most, for that’s what Paul brings to the forefront in describing the believers. Love. The foundation principle of love.

       Notice, nonetheless, in our text today in chapter 4, what Paul actually emphasizes in regard to Epaphras himself. What does he point out? If we look at the text after his greeting, “always struggling on your behalf in his prayers.” This surely insinuates that both Paul and Epaphras had been spending a lot of time in prayer. Really, that makes sense considering there wasn’t a whole lot Paul could do anyway while he was locked up. So, why not pray? Many of us can probably relate to this in some degree of a similar occurrence, like, for instance, when we are sick and we are bound to our beds. It does seem like when that happens that more time can be spent in prayer. We pray because we don’t feel like doing much else, and really can’t do much else. But what Paul noticed within Epaphras’ praying is that he seemed to focus on his own church, which certainly makes sense. This also shows what is part of the responsibility for one who leads a church, for a minister, and that is to literally spend a significant amount of time praying for one’s church members, and the church body as a whole. And this just wasn’t easy praying, but Paul, believe it or not, points out that Epaphras was “struggling” in his prayers for the body. He was putting great effort and likely particularities into his praying. They weren’t simply general circumstances he was praying for, but specific circumstances as well.

       Thankfully, Paul just doesn’t leave us there, but he lets us in on some of the specifics of what Epaphras was actually praying for, when he says, “that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (ESV). So, we have two specific things in point of fact, that which pertains to maturity of faith and also assurance of faith, assurance particularly in God’s will, and what that will is for them. This first area of maturity probably shouldn’t surprise us, for it is what Paul has been discussing specifically in chapters 3 and 4 in addressing the believers, when he has gotten down the basics of a godly life, and how that godly character in each individual is supposed to look, and really, how it’s not supposed to look. That’s what he had talked about. He summarized the whole section, remember, by telling us what we should “seek” and what we should “set [our] minds” on. That’s the two areas, what are actions actually are, what are desires really are, and what we think about in our minds. It is through these two areas that the rest of chapter 3 falls into place. And Paul spent a great deal of time telling us what behaviors shouldn’t be found in us, and any more if we were converted at an older age. He also spend a large section telling us what good attributes we should have—good character traits, and also how the marriage relationship is to work,

       All these directions then leads to maturity, what we do, and what we don’t do, and it was these instructions that Epaphras prayed about. So, this action from Epaphras obviously leads to the point that the prayer of the minister of God does have an impact upon the church. As we discussed a lot in both chapters 1 and 2, prayer simply isn’t ceremonial. It simply isn’t a ritual wherein the prayer is simply accomplished to be obedient to a command from God. Rather, the prayer specifically makes a difference, and it could be also that the amount of prayer might truly make a difference. The mind is wondering just how important people actually think that prayer is. What is meant is, do people feel it is important? Do people really think that it makes a difference? Stop and consider. If people really believed that prayer made a difference, wouldn’t they pray regarding more things? Epaphras obviously believed that prayer indeed made a difference, that God was persuaded by his prayers, and that’s why he spent so much time actually praying. We only know what the answers are that we see with our eyes, but what many answers are there that we don’t see with our eyes? What if it is that God saves us from bad circumstances we never even know of from our prayers? What if a lot of prayer we don’t believe is being answered, but in reality, it truly is. We merely don’t see the answers.

       Anyway, taking all this roundabout back to what Paul said, he finished the verse here after talking about the Colossians maturity and went on to talking about the assurance in the will of God. Everyone needs that from time to time, that of assurance. Assurance that we are going in the right direction. Assurance that what we particularly believe is the actual truth. There is a lot of competition these days, unfortunately, to the truth. Other avenues are presented before us as alternatives, as different ways we could go instead of following what God has told us. That’s, again, why Paul spent so much time in chapter 3 going over maturity of character. The world has its ways, ways of usually just following impulses within the flesh without regard to any aspect of holiness. All of us have a sin-nature, and all of us could live following that sin-nature. A lot of us used to live that way. And not to mention that the people of the world have even justified that way of living, the way of following the sin-nature, by taking God out of things. The Creation account is rejected and replaced with the theory of Evolution. If everyone has evolved, it is believed, then there really isn’t any right or wrong. We’re all simply animals living on a planet spinning through space, going nowhere really. If that’s the mindset, then what we do doesn’t matter. Epaphras wants his church members on the right track.

       Paul continues. Verse 13: “For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis” (ESV).

       The same language that Paul had used of himself in the beginning of Colossians 2, he now expounds upon in referring to Epaphras. Again, the insinuation is that of prayer—that it is concretely prayer which is the “hard work” being undertaken. Probably pretty foreign to us, in twenty-first century America. It doesn’t appear that many of us spend so much time in prayer that we would call it “hard work.” Perhaps there are a few noble souls out there who really do effort in prayer a great deal. But it must be doing something if Epaphras spends so much time at it. That’s what Paul has witnessed anyway, and has partaken in himself. And we note that Epaphras wasn’t only spending time in prayer for his own church, but also for the churches in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. We haven’t even likely heard of this second church. But it’s interesting to note that, even though he wasn’t the pastor of these churches, that he nonetheless prayed for the believers at the churches in those cities. It rings in the verse that Paul spoke to the Philippians believers, when he stated, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4, ESV). That’s interesting; that’s interesting. To show interest not only for what we want but also for the wants of others. That truly is self-less. Thus, it’s time well spent, paying tremendous dividends, and still yet if we don’t directly see them.

       Moving along. Verse 14: “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas” (ESV).

       We spent last week discussing a good deal as pertains to Mark—who, we know—is the the Gospel writer of the book that bares his name, and Paul mentioned him in this letter to the Colossians in verse 10. Now we are presented with another famous Gospel writer, that of Luke. We are told that Luke is a “physician,” and this is the verse where this understanding pertaining to Luke comes from. It has even been suggested by some that Luke was actually Paul’s own physician who traveled with him for that very purpose, which may be the case. Hard to say for sure. It is suspected that Paul had some kind of alignment that affected his eyes, remember, the one that the Lord didn’t heal him from, but he rather let it remain in him as it worked to remind Paul that he wasn’t invincible or some kind of Christian superhero. Perhaps Luke helped him with that alignment. Could be. Nonetheless, we can also note from this that Luke was likely a Gentile, because Paul said in verse 11, which we covered last week, he said in mentioning the three men before that that they were the only Jewish brothers with him. This would seem to denote that Luke was not Jewish, though, some argue that he truly was.

       Anyhow, in moving along to Demas, he is noted as working in Paul’s group for the kingdom of God. He is also mentioned in Paul’s letter to Philemon as being a fellow worker (see Philemon 24, ESV). What probably comes to our minds, though, is what Paul would say in regards to him at the end of his life. If we look at 2 Timothy 4, starting in verse 9, Paul said to Timothy, “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (ESV). So, Paul mentions Demas as a traitor. This goes to show the importance of what was being discussed a little bit ago in talking about Epaphras’ prayers for the church, and this obviously would have included church leaders and missionaries. Not to discourage—that’s not the point of this—but rather to show the importance of prayer. Most of Paul’s companions were likely actually faithful. Many of you can probably relate to someone who has been known to be a faithful brother or sister at one time but who then later in time turned out to not be that way. The speaker can bring to mind a woman who was known in the past that seemed to be very faithful, active in her own ministry, who later would go on to betray the church, and those she had worked alongside, in love with the present world, and would totally abandon everything, including her own family. And it broke the speaker’s heart, not to mention the hearts of countless others.

       Verse 15: “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house” (ESV).

       The reason Paul could tell the Colossians to give his greetings to the church members in Laodicea was because the city of Laodicea was close by, a neighboring city around nine miles from the city of Colossae. As Paul will say in the next verse, there is a reason for this. Nonetheless, it appears also that in addition to the church in Laodicea that there was another church close by—likely not a competitor, or another denomination as might think today. Perhaps a church more in the countryside? That seems reasonable, and it could also explain the obviously lower numbers of attendees considering the believers met in the house of a woman named Nympha. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about Nympha other than that they were an off-shoot of the Colossae church which met in her house. Probably good times being so close-knit. It doesn’t seem reasonable, in our context of this Letter from Paul to the Colossians, to suggest that Nympha was the leader, or head pastor of the church. We know that elsewhere, specifically to Timothy and also to the Corinthians, that God guided Paul to prohibit women from teaching, and this would probably count for any leadership role that would have authority over men or lead to standing in front of men to give an account. We also know, and this as been touched upon in the past, the God certainly appears to call women to be Bible teachers and to leadership roles in our day and age, and at least in America and western societies. This is an interesting contrast, but it is one that is experientially true. For the speaker himself has benefited greatly from specifically a couple women teachers in his lifetime thus far.

       Verse 16: “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea” (ESV).

       A couple of points can be noted. The first is that it would appear that this letter Paul is sending to the Colossians is to be read publicly before the church, much like a sermon is delivered. It could also be the case that the letter would be passed around one on one and read by the members. That’s possible, and probably did happen to come degree. We are a little less familiar, it would seem, to having the public reading of a letter in our day and age. In 1700 and 1800s America, it probably would have been a more common occurrence. We are familiar with people standing up and reading prepared statements, but that’s probably about as close as it gets for us. Those are usually short. But it definitely seems to shed new light on a Biblical book when it is read out loud, or in our case in present day to listen to an audio version of the book. When it is heard out loud, it seems to sometimes change the way the information is interrupted. One thing for sure is that it brings a greater collective or communal vibe over the text rather than that individual vibe we are very used to in reading the text over and over to ourselves. Interestingly, the speaker came across an interesting piece of information lately (and it’s not recalled from where) that said the personal reading of documents is more of a modern thing, say in the last several hundred years. The personal reading of documents doesn’t appear to have existed much at all in prior times, but that most documents were read publicly. Pretty interesting that is, and something that folks might want to look into on their own time.

       Regardless, Paul mentions a letter from Laodicea, and that the Colossians should also read that letter. Obviously, this is a letter that’s not in the Bible, not in the New Testament canon. So, even if we had it, it wouldn’t be inspired from the Spirit of God, but certainly would be interesting. Surprisingly, some theologians seem to think that this letter might actually already be in our Bibles. That is, some think that this letter from Laodicea that Paul is referring to is Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, and that it was a circulating letter that just happened to be currently in Laodicea. One reason for this belief is that supposedly the earliest manuscripts don’t include the city of Ephesus in the beginning of the letter. Of course, care needs to be taken in accepting that, because it has also been purposed that some of the earlier manuscripts that we have were actually Gnostic manuscripts, and may be corrupted to some degree. And it is then argued that this is why the King James Version would be a more accurate translation because it doesn’t rely in anyway on those earlier manuscripts. This has not be personally studied, but it does sound like it could be possible. Seems a reasonable assumption the Gnostics would have corrupted the very Scriptures themselves, and remember, that just because something is the oldest doesn’t necessary mean that it’s the most accurate. And, what if the Spirit of God wanted something added before the “inspiration” of the document was closed? Ever think about that?

       Went a little down a rabbit hole there. But moving on. Verse 17: “And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord” (ESV.

       This is probably the same Archippus as the one mentioned in the beginning of Paul’s Letter to Philemon, which would be Philemon’s son then. Other than that possibility, we really don’t know much else. Paul did say something along the same lines to Timothy, when he was writing him, in his second letter to him, when he stated, “fulfill your ministry” (ESV). Whether this was a divine word Paul had from the Spirit of God, or whether this was by word of mouth in that someone else told Paul what going on (like Epaphras), there is no way to know for sure. Nonetheless, it can be an encouragement to anyone who has a ministry, like a minister or Bible teacher. It’s important for people to continue along doing all that the Lord wants them to do, and to not end it unless the time has come for that. The Lord will guide that process. In reality, all ministries, no matter what they are, have an end. We are familiar with that as we see some beloved Bible teachers getting older and older, and some whom have passed on to the next life. Too, some who no longer carry along their ministry for whatever the reason, both good and bad. The point though is that if further it is to be carried along, that it is carried along per the Lord’s desire. The statement from Paul insinuates a choice, and it’s a choice that has to be made by the person in question—to fulfill that ministry.

       Our final verse in our study of Colossians. Verse 18: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.”

       A lot of times it was Paul’s custom to speak his letter and it would be written down by a transcriber. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case here in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Rather, Paul said he wrote it out with his own hand. It may have been a problem from him to write his own letters, if his physical alignment he seems to have referenced on other occasions had to do with his eyes. Perhaps he couldn’t see well, or couldn’t see well up close. In another epistle he would note that he wrote with large letters, specifically to the Galatians. Interestingly, if it was the case that Paul had a problem with his eyes, that isn’t what he basically asks prayer for at the end. Instead, he asks the Colossians to remember his chains, to remember that he is in prison. He wants to get out of prison in order to do additional work for the Lord. He doesn’t want to be bought in prison. Recall, he told us this earlier in this chapter, when he expressed, “pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Colossians 4:3, 4, ESV). Even though he currently isn’t experiencing grace, he wants the Colossians to experience it. And so, he leaves us with that familiar salutation, that of grace being with the believers.

       There is also the aspect in “Remember my chains” wherein we need to remember the reason behind why Paul was doing what he was doing. And that, for sure, is the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul has written this whole letter to the Colossian church to begin with, the remind and further elaborate on what Christ has done for each of the members, indeed, really for everyone, in dying on the cross for the sins of the whole world. For making each person’s sin debt erased before God—for anyone who will accept the gift of restitution with God. And we know that Jesus rose from the dead, so that anyone who believes in him can also do the same when they die—so that they can rise to a new life, to eternal life. A life free from the enslavement of sinful flesh, from a body of sin. A life in which correct decisions are always made going forth. Where there is complete peace and harmony with everyone, with everyone in the new world. Heaven isn’t just some place of fantasy, or for children’s stories, but it is an actual place that is to be experienced, one of which comes true living, true life, true experience with God and with others. This is the grace that Paul is referring to, the grace that he wished to be with all the Colossians believers, and it is the grace God wishes to be with us. Anyone can have it. Anyone can make that choice to believe in what Jesus accomplished today.

- Daniel Litton