Colossians 4 — Colossians 4

0:00 I was enjoying that last hymn, Be Thou my vision, Lord of my heart, not Be all else to me save that Thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word, I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I thy true Son, thou in me dwelling and I with thee one, be thou my vision. Keeping our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, I would say it's the most important thing we could possibly do.

0:45 And if somehow I'm able to communicate that during this message and make the Lord Jesus a little bit more our vision, that would be my objective. Today, my assignment is to speak on the fourth chapter of the book of Colossians, starting with the second verse. Colossians four:two. And I'll just jump right into it. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

1:28 How wonderful to point us to the communication with our Father God. I brought in my take on this verse, are four distinct thoughts that are there. The first one is from the word continue. And it's the thought of perseverance in prayer. So that we might be praying always for all things.

1:55 And I came up with four verses that I thought really captured the idea of this continuing. The first one, and I'll just read these. First one is Ephesians six eighteen, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Praying at all times, praying always. And then a companion verse to that is one Thessalonians five seventeen, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

2:29 Pray without ceasing. And then we ought to pray everywhere. And first Timothy two:eight says, I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands in Christ Jesus, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. First Thessalonians five seventeen... Or excuse me, first Timothy two:eight.

2:54 And finally, we ought to pray in every circumstance. We should pray in every circumstance. In everything, notice how absolute it is, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God in everything. So it's praying all the time, praying everywhere, and praying in every circumstance. So prayer is something we are to persevere in, praying always for all things.

3:32 The second thing is praying earnestly. And the idea of this is the idea of fervency, diligent, zealous supplications to God, earnest entreaty, imploring God, beseeching God, appealing to God is the burden of prayer. And I think that perhaps the most outstanding example we have of that in all of scripture is found in the Gospel of Luke twenty-two 44, if you would turn with me to that, Luke twenty-two 44. It's funny, this is the first time I've ever used PowerPoint up here and I'm finding myself distracted by it. That's why I'm moving over like this.

4:33 I'm trying to get away from that computer. It's sort of overpowering like you're just studying the computer, you know, and trying to talk from it. Wait a minute. That's not the way I wanna do it. Luke 22 and verse 44, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

4:52 Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Now, in in our verse, it says continue earnestly in prayer. And was there ever an example that really matched the example of our Lord Jesus as he was there in Gethsemane and as he had before him the whole prospect of Calvary, the whole prospect of the sufferings, both the physical sufferings and the sufferings for our sins as he suffered there on the cross. And as he stared these, so to speak, in the face, it says that he prayed earnestly. He prayed earnestly.

5:36 And I thought, well, what does that mean? And it says that his prayer was such that as he prayed, the sweat stood out on his brow. And it says it became like drops of blood falling down to the ground. So you can just see that sweat coming off. And my take on that is that the stress was so great that it actually broke some of the little blood vessels there and actually, it was actually red as it came off.

6:06 So it's amazing when you consider that. I was thinking of that time, however many years, I guess it was in 2001, it was maybe year 2000, my son Nathan was kidnapped And he was gone for, I think it was thirty six hours. And it was quite a trial, as you might well imagine, for the family. But you can imagine that we were praying earnestly. Can you imagine in your heart, we were praying earnestly.

6:45 I was so impressed too that the Lord brought the entire church family together here that Wednesday night. And it just about filled up the building and there was such earnest prayer that went out for Nathan. And thank the Lord, he was returned to us and without injury after thirty six hours, we believe it was an answer to prayer. But I'm thinking of the spirit in which we prayed. It was earnest, earnest prayer for our son and for the rest of you, for your brother in Christ.

7:19 And then the thing that I pondered afterward was, what does it take to make us pray earnestly? What does it really take? Well, in this particular case, it was a situation which endangered somebody's life and we didn't know what was happening and we were looking to the Lord for help. And that's wonderful. But it seems to me like our earnest prayer shouldn't have to wait for that, should it?

7:50 So, what does it say? It says, continue earnestly. And it's interesting, isn't it? Continue with that same fervency of prayer. Now, going back to our verse, it's being vigilant.

8:36 Ephesians chapter six. And I'm going to be reading verse 18. But before I do, I'd like to put the context on this verse. This verse is at the end of the portion on the armor of God. And in the eleventh verse, it says, put on the whole armor of God that she may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

9:00 So, do we understand that we have a wily enemy out there, one who is the enemy of our souls and would like to see us being great failures? So, he continues to say, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. They were undergoing some physical persecution. They were thrown into prison and beaten. Paul is saying, no, no, no.

9:28 That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the warfare against the spiritual powers of wickedness. So, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. So, he's saying to us that there's a great army of wicked spirits that are out there and their whole purpose is that we would not be able to follow faithfully our God.

10:07 And so he's bringing this before them. And then he brings out the six different pieces of armor. And many of us have all puzzled, why is there just six? Shouldn't there be seven? Seems so many times there's seven.

10:24 Why are there just six? And then after the six are presented, then there's another thing that's presented, it's prayer. And so I like to think of prayer as being the seventh, the completing piece of armor that we have. And not so much now because of the advance in technology, but back in the Second World War, when they would send their troops out, say, jungles there in Southeast Asia, they would send along a communications man. Back in those days, he'd have like a 70 pound radio and battery pack that was attached in his knapsack.

11:03 And he was the communications man because the important thing is that they keep communications with their captain back there. And for us, it illustrates so well our need to be in communication with the captain of our salvation. And so in the eighteenth verse, it says, praying always with all prayer and supplication, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And so, we find the word watchful here. And so, it's not only watchfulness for ourselves.

11:40 Peter was told, pray lest ye enter into temptation. That's a prayer for ourselves. But also prayer for our brethren. And so as we look around, you and I are given both the opportunity and the responsibility to pray for our brethren in Christ, that they might be kept and they go on faithfully for the Lord. So that would be the idea of vigilance or watchfulness.

12:36 Turn with me to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four and verse six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The idea is that we believe God.

13:13 We believe God, and he's our father God. And so we simply take it to him and we leave it with him. And it's an issue of faith where we believe in him, and so we just leave it with him. I had given a talk on prayer about five years ago, and I wrote this statement, and I'm going to read it because I read it and I said, I like that. This is what I had written.

13:42 Effective prayer is the fruit of an unhampered relationship with the father God whom we trust completely in our inner man to fulfill what is best for us. Now, we know that as parents, I'm a father of five, we know that as parents, we oftentimes cannot give, could not give, they're all grown now, we could not give to our children exactly what they asked for because we knew sometimes it just wasn't good for them. It wasn't wisdom or was inappropriate in some way. So the idea is not that we trust that God will give us exactly what we ask for, but we trust in God that he is faithful and as a father, he's going to do what's best for us. I'm gonna read it over again.

14:41 Effectual prayer is the fruit of an unhampered relationship with a father God whom we trust completely in our inner man to fulfill what is best for us. And so basically, that's what yields thanksgiving as we leave it in his hands. Then in the next two verses, it continues saying, meanwhile, also for us that God would open to us a door for his word to speak the mystery of Christ, which I am also in chains, that I might make it manifest as I ought to speak. So the first principle is that we should not neglect to pray for our brethren. Excuse me, I get my notes straight here.

15:54 My apologies. Okay. So I was myself was looking down through the I apologize. If you will forgive me, I left my notes under my chair. My apologies.

16:57 What am I gonna learn from this? Well, I would say two things. Number one is don't be afraid to ask for prayer for yourself. If someone is so astute as the Apostle Paul would ask others to pray for him, then we can ask others to pray also. And then those of us that are being asked, let's be careful that we do not neglect to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

17:21 So the first thing that Paul asked for in his prayer was he asked that God would open to us a door for the word. So we're talking about doors of ministry, the ability to be able to enter into some work for the Lord. And so I was going back in the book of Timothy, I believe, uses the remark. It says that Timothy was, I'm forgetting, I apologize, I can't remember exactly how he worded that there was an open door that was placed before him. I got the wrong one, it was Corinthians.

18:08 That's why I couldn't think of what it was. It's in Corinthians that he mentions twice in the book of Corinthians that God had opened a door of service to him. And then here, the Apostle Paul makes a request that it be an open door for him to minister the word. And also, in two Corinthians two, it says, Paul says that he had an open door for the gospel. So, are opportunities that are opened up for the believer to do service for God.

18:48 And so, we'd have to ask this question, who is it that opens this door? And of course, the answer is quite clear, that it's God that opens the door. Turn with me to Revelation three for a verse that seems to me like it's appropriate. Revelation chapter three and verse seven, it says, the angel of the church of... To the angel of the church of Philadelphia write, these things says, he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.

19:38 So we would have to draw the conclusion from this verse that these doors or openings for ministry are in the Lord's control, and the Lord is able to open up doors of ministry. And so when the Apostle Paul asking for prayers for himself, he said, I'd like to have an open door. I'd like the Lord to open up the door. And I believe that it wasn't in Ephesus that the Apostle Paul said, A great door and effectual is open to me. And so the apostle Paul understood this principle that God is able to open doors of service and we should request that.

20:24 Then the apostle prayed that he might speak the mystery of Christ. And the idea, I believe, is that Christ himself would be ministered. The mystery of Christ is simply the previously unknown truths about Christ, which which before the time of of the New Testament times were closed to men. They did not understand the Christ. They knew that a messiah was coming, but they didn't understand fully what it was.

20:53 So the Lord Jesus Christ is the subject of our ministry. He is the subject of our ministry. That's why I read the verse out of Be Thou My Vision, that we might have our eyes upon the Lord Jesus, and he might be the focus of our ministry. And so that seems to me to be the idea of what the Apostle Paul is saying when he said that, pray that the Lord would open the door that I might speak the mystery of Christ, that I might be able to express it and might be able to tell people effectively about it. Then he says, for which I am also in chains.

22:01 He was saying, Why are these things happening to me? And I was just, I didn't know exactly how to minister to them. I couldn't actually give them a whole lot of comfort, but the idea is that the Lord actually can sustain us no matter what. So pray for endurance for our brethren in every circumstance. And then, that I might make it manifest as I ought to do.

22:26 So, praying for an effective ministry for our brethren. Finally, we're going to go to the idea of witnessing. So, in the next two verses, verses five and six, we get wisdom for witnessing to the unbelievers. Okay? So, it says, Walk in wisdom towards those that are outside, redeeming the time.

22:58 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you might know how you ought to answer one another. The first thought, walk in wisdom towards those that are outside, is that we might be wise in our personal relationships with unbelievers. And I was trying to think of an example. I thought we could certainly use the example of the Lord Jesus as visited with the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter of John because of the gracious way that he talked to her. But I got to thinking, I thought, well, maybe I'll talk about the Apostle Paul instead.

23:40 When he was in Athens, he got hung up in Athens for longer than he intended. And he was wandering around in Athens and he got into conversations with people and he attempted to minister the Lord to those around. And eventually they started getting curious. What is this guy talking about? What is he talking about?

24:03 And so they took the Apostle Paul and they sort of led him up to the Areopagus where these kind of philosophical discussions were going on. And there, the Apostle began to graciously minister to them. And he starts off and he says, Men of Athens, I perceive that you're very religious. Now, that was something they probably thought, Yeah, we are, aren't we? Look, look at all those idols.

24:29 All around, as far as you could see, there was idol after idol around them, particularly up in the Areopagus. And so then he began to tell them, he said, as I was going along, I an idol or I saw saw an altar to the unknown god. And he's going to now go to something in their culture and he's going to pull it out, something that they can sort of focus on. He's going to pull it out and he's going to use it as a stepping stone to minister to the Lord. And so he goes from there to say, you know, this God whom you don't know, this unknown God, I'd like to declare him to you.

25:12 So, he begins to tell how God created the heavens and the earth and how that God put each people in his own place and put each of us in the circumstances of our environment. And then he gets to this little key verse where he says, the purpose was that men should seek after the Lord. That is, he's telling them, you have a responsibility to seek after God. And then he goes from there to that key verse that says, God now commands all men everywhere to repent. So he brings in sin and the necessity to repent.

25:49 Then finally, speaks about Jesus and the fact that the Lord Jesus will be the judge. Well, that point, he stepped away from logic to faith. And many of the people turned right away because they didn't have faith and they weren't willing. So this is what the Apostle Paul actually said to them. It says, God has appointed the day in which he will judge this world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ, whom he hath ordained, wherever he is given assurance unto all men and that he has raised him from the dead.

26:25 So the Apostle Paul used such wisdom in how he starts off in such a way that they're drawn after his way of thinking, and then he reasons to them about God himself. Then he goes to their responsibility, and finally, he goes to them, he tells them there is going to be an ultimate judgment and that there's someone who died and rose again who will be the judge. And then from that point, I'm sure there more gospel that was put before them. Anyway, that was kind of the wisdom. The next thing it says in the verse is walk in wisdom towards those that are outside, redeeming the time.

27:27 First Peter three fifteen. I'm reading from the New King James. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason of the hope that is in you. Now, I was raised on the old King James Bible. And so when I read this, I said, that's not the way I remember that verse.

27:52 So this is the way I remember it from the old King James. It says, Sanctify Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason of you of the hope. And I actually like that a little better. Matter of fact, I looked in some other translations and some other ones, including Mr. Darby, translated answer instead of defense.

28:13 I kind of like it better because I don't think that we necessarily have to be defensive at all about the gospel. But what we do need is to have the answers. But I think that the sense of the verse is this, that you and I would have in our hearts a readiness to speak something for the Lord. And so it says this, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, like setting apart our hearts for the Lord. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready.

28:48 Like it's an attitude, a readiness. Always be ready to give an answer to anyone ask of you, the hope that's in you. So someone comes along and says, so why do you do that? Or why do you say that? Or what's different about you?

29:02 And there was a story recently about a young woman up in Toronto who was she was not outgoing at all. But she went into this, she got this new job and she worked there and really didn't go out and witness to anybody. But after a while, came to her and said to her, Something's different about you. What is it that's different about you? And so her very life was a witness to the Lord.

29:38 And when that person asked her that, she was able to tell her, it's the Lord Jesus Christ that's different. I have the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. And if I remember the story correctly, she was able to lead that person to the Lord. It was a beautiful story, actually. The next thing it says is, it says, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.

30:01 So first of all, we talk about the idea of grace, gracious words, speaking our words carefully, that opens up opportunities oftentimes to give somebody the gospel because we spoke in such a way that they were willing to continue a conversation and to speak about the Lord. So, gracious words do open doors. Besides that, we have to remember that God himself is gracious. I was just doing a word search on gracious and one of the things that popped out and I just kind of marveled at it was the number of verses in the book of Psalms that says, The Lord is gracious. It uses sometimes different other words around it, but it says, The Lord is gracious.

30:58 Do you know we have a gracious God? We have a gracious God. Maybe we can be gracious like he is. Maybe that's the idea. Let your speech always be with grace.

31:09 Also, I enjoyed one verse about the Lord Jesus Christ. I think Wayne actually read this at the City Mission last Tuesday. It goes like this. It says, They wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. It's like they were amazed.

31:29 They wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. That was our Lord Jesus. We can follow his examples, right, his example, and it will help us in our ability to witness to others. Then it adds this phrase, seasoned with salt. Let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt.

31:51 And so salt as a seasoning enhances flavor and it creates thirst. So do sometimes it helps to have thought over some little sayings ahead of time, things that you could say that are going to like pique somebody, are going to stir their curiosity or give them thirst to hear more. And so, we need to be careful how we say things. And perhaps it would be wise to think over some ways of answering people or maybe as you answer someone and afterwards you say, I could have done that better, then think about the way you might be able to say that better in such a way that they would be drawn to the Lord Jesus. And so it's a seasoning.

32:46 It also creates thirst. So people want to hear more. So the Apostle Paul says that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Okay? So seek wisdom through the Holy Spirit to speak effectively for God.

33:42 So I'm going to choose five of these and run through them as quickly as I can. Okay? The first one is Tychicus. In the seventh verse, Tychicus was called a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. Now, Tychicus was one of the traveling companions of the Apostle Paul.

34:05 And you find in Acts 20 when he went through Ephesus that Tychicus is mentioned as being with him. Furthermore, Tychicus was chosen several times, three different times, we're told in scripture that Tychicus was chosen to deliver messages for Paul to various places. And the book of Ephesians was delivered by Tychicus. And then here in Colossae, the epistle to the Colossians was delivered by Tychicus. And I found it interesting that even Titus, when the epistle to Titus was written, guess who delivered it?

34:48 Tychicus. Tychicus delivered it to Titus. He's called a faithful brother, or rather he's called a beloved brother. There was something about him that a bond between him and the apostle Paul formed, and they were just so close. It was a brotherly love.

35:07 And then he's called a faithful minister because he had enough maturity and wisdom to be able to go into a situation like this and to faithfully deliver this message from Paul and not only do that, but to try to understand what the spiritual state of these people were and to be a help to them. And so that was what was given to Tychicus. He was a faithful brother. He was a fellow servant. The second one is Onesimus.

35:37 Onesimus is mentioned in the ninth verse with, With Oneisimus, so Oneisimus went along with Tychicus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. Okay, so here's a man named Onesimus that we say, well, he apparently had at one time lived in Colossae. And so how do we find out of it? Well, we would have to go to the book of Philemon to find out who Onesimus was. You see, Onesimus, we find if we read in Philemon, was a slave.

36:13 He was a slave that belonged to a man named Philemon. But somewhere along the way, Onesimus said enough of this. Apparently, was not the Lord's. He had said enough of this and he ran off. He was a runaway slave.

36:26 Not only did he run away, but we were given the sense that he also stole some valuables too. So there was some actual material loss that occurred to Philemon by the unfaithfulness of this man, Onesimus. So Onesimus wants to get as far as he can from Colossae. And so he ends up in the city of Rome. And who should he meet but the Apostle Paul.

36:52 And the Apostle Paul was used to lead this man to the Lord Jesus Christ. And no longer is he a runaway slave who is a thief, instead of that, he is a faithful and beloved brother. He's sent back with a letter, the book of Philemon, which asked for forgiveness for him. Interesting. The third one is Aristarchus in the tenth verse.

37:48 He was a silversmith. And so the Apostle Paul comes into Ephesus and he starts preaching the gospel and people get saved and they stop worshiping the idols. They stop buying idols, right? So it starts hurting the pocketbooks of a few of the artisans of, among them, Demetrius. And so Demetrius gets angry.

38:09 He was irate. Demetrius says, I'm gonna do something about this. So Demetrius goes out and he stirs up a mob in the city of Ephesus, a regular mob. And they mob, and they're after the Apostle Paul. And so they break into the house and they get there and Apostle Paul's not there.

38:29 I don't know whether he left when he heard them coming or whether he just wasn't there, but they're going to get Paul, but they don't find him. So who is it that they got? Well, they capture two of Paul's traveling companions. One of them is Gaius and the other is Aristarchus. And so Aristarchus is carried by a mob.

38:47 They take them and push them, shove them. They take them up to the officials, and Demetrius has got a plan here. So, starts stirring up the mob. Suddenly, the mob starts screaming out, great is Diana of the Ephesians, great is Diana of the Ephesians, over and over and over again. And we're actually told that they did it for two hours straight.

39:15 Amazing. It went over there. Well, eventually the officials were able to quiet down the mob and Aristarchus and Gaius were released. We find that eventually Aristarchus ends up going we're told that he went on the same ship with Paul to Rome. I assume then he was already a prisoner because he's called a fellow prisoner.

39:39 The next one is Epiphras. I'll just take a moment with Epiphras. Epiphras was also one of you. He was actually did not go with this letter, but Epiphras, we're told in the first chapter of the book of Colossians, Epiphras was the one who actually brought the gospel to the city of Colossae. And we're told that he labored earnestly for his brethren in Colossae in prayers.

40:09 The final one that I want to talk, final man that I singled out, I really want to talk about this man, is in the seventeenth verse. And it's a public exhortation that was given to a single man. And this is verse 17. I say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. We might ask this question, why would the Apostle Paul have put an individual personal exhortation to a man into a book which was going to be so public?

40:52 And I think that I know the answer. I think the answer is this, that the exhortation that was given to Archippus is an exhortation that any one of us might well take for ourselves. The exhortation that we should take heed to the ministry that we have received from the Lord that we might fulfill it. And so, brethren, each one of us is granted certain gifts and certain open doors in which we could minister, whether it be a mother who's ministering as she raises her precious children, or whether it be a school teacher, or whether it be Don Morris going down to the City Mission, whether it be Debbie Bingham ministering in the Good News Clubs, wherever it is that the Lord has given us a place to serve, what is he saying to us? He's saying, Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.

42:20 We ask you, Lord, for your grace that we might be fulfillers of the ministry, which has been granted to us to do, that we might be faithful in whatever God puts in front of us, that we might be redeeming the time, that we might be grabbing those opportunities that are put before us to serve you. Help us, Lord, to be faithful and help us, most of all, to keep you before ourselves as the vision, the one that we adore and the one that we love and the one that we minister, one that we remember. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.