Colossians 4 7 Personal Relationships.

we're coming to the last part of the book of colossians uh we've dealt with a lot of colossians and we're in chapter four and at verse seven paul begins to wind down now you can say at this stage the letter to the colossians is basically finished but uh paul reveals something about his personality the way he deals with people his relationships and so he says tychicus uh will tell you all about my activities well and then he said he's a beloved brother and faithful minister fellow servant in the lord well uh it just lets us know that paul had a personal life now many of us are fascinated what is a person that's famous has high profile what do they really like some people don't care about things like that i do i i am curious about what a person is really like i had the privilege of knowing dr mark lloyd jones better than almost anybody and i know a little bit about colin and amanda die louise and i consider them personal friends it's a privilege to know a person uh like that well now the nearest we're going to get to understanding the apostle paul what was he like uh we asked the question i came up with this phrase is he ever off duty i'll tell you where i got that phrase for a number of years lyndon bowring and i with his friend alan uh kenny think of his name right now lyndon allen and i when we were in israel we had a special friend and uh sometimes we would see him but alan made the comment that this man is never off duty he's always on duty when he's with us that means he never lets his hair down or anything like that i've often thought that jesus had his personal friends lazarus mary martha and maybe then jesus was off duty but not really because even when he was just there for a meal you remember how mary was angry that uh no martha was angry that mary was sitting at the feet of jesus and martha was doing all the work and and she complained to jesus and and thinking that jesus would say to martha well now go help your mother but instead jesus said martha martha you are troubled about many things and then said mary has chosen the good part she's done the right thing that's a good hint to let us know that the best way we can spend our time is in the presence of jesus that said i doubt jesus was really off duty then because he was having to to minister well these are thoughts we have and paul obviously had a good relationship with these people and he wants the colossians to esteem them this is the interesting thing paul was wanting everybody to like the people that he's getting ready to describe and so he mentions tychicus uh he's the one that took the letter to the colossians he probably did this to the ephesians as well how would you feel if your only ministry uh was doing something like that like carrying paul's bags or just he's going to be doing nothing but giving the letter but that would be a great honor chances are chances are that tychicus got to see it first he may have read the letter and he considers it such an honor to be able to do this you know there's several gifts of the spirit mentioned 1 corinthians 12 and many of us would like the gift of prophecy or miracles or healing the least gift of all and some perhaps don't even think about it maybe they don't want it because it carries no prestige paul calls it the gift of helps or the gift of helping others would you be willing for that to be your gift well i can tell you it's kind of like having an organ in your body the pancreas or small intestines they don't have any profile but the body would fail would die without him and so in 1 corinthians 12 he refers to the gifts that have more profile like the head the eyes and then he says there are those gifts that are more like our unpresentable parts and refers to the organs in the body these have no profile in the church but very important and that's the way i see tychicus so that's the thing think about this and then he refers to onesimus now he was the converted slave that apparently had let somebody down and philemon is that person the book of philemon one chapter is all about when paul writes to philemon and says i realize that onesimus let you down but he's been very valuable to me and he's not the same onesimus and so please accept him that's what the whole epistle is about it just shows how paul is wanting to get people to make up maybe you have followed that with someone uh somebody that you've esteemed and you've loved and somebody lets you down he's going to refer to mark in a few minutes uh mark let paul down you see these things happen in the body of christ uh a relationship can turn sour and you wonder why does god let things like this happen uh one of my closest friends many many years ago goes back to when i was in ashland kentucky he was one of my earliest mentors and i esteemed him so highly i tell you he was just like next to jesus and i thought a lot of people have disappointed me but i don't think this man ever would you know what he did he did and we made up in later years and became fairly good friends but never once never once did he say i'm sorry i let you down i don't know it would have made me feel better but he didn't and i loved him anyway and there are those who they do obvious things that make you feel bad and you think can't they see it but everybody has his or her blind spot i've got mine and i'm sure there are people out there maybe somebody watching me for all i know but there are people in the world that would say about me i let them down tell what i've learned i've lived long enough to say every person that i began to admire a little bit too much sooner or later disappointed me and now look that's not their fault nobody's perfect it's my fault for astining them too highly i think that's been a danger of my own for years i i put people on a pedestal and i don't want to be like that but i have been like that and i would say to you be careful anybody that you esteem they have their weaknesses it's only a matter of time that you will find out what their weakness is and uh and then will you still admire them will you still love them because what if the whole world could see everything about you uh wouldn't you die a thousand deaths if everybody can see what god knows and what a lot of people know i think of a phrase it goes like this the truth is worse than what they know well we are aware of what some people know but god knows the truth and the wonderful thing is and never forget this one of my favorite verses of all the psalms is psalm 103 verse 14. god knows our frame he remembers that we are dust well if god can remember that we need to remember that about one and others now uh paul now in verse 10 here's the way he puts it he said our aristocar aristarchus i can't pronounce it very well my president prisoner greets you and mark the cousin of barnabas and uh he said we give you this he's not using the royal we but the truth is paul did have people with him so having referred what he did to he says we in verse 10 he refers to mark now this is the same mark that gave us the gospel of mark we wouldn't know this if paul didn't tell us for example did you know that he was the cousin of barnabas now barnabas as far as the scriptures which showed nearly everything about barnabas is good uh he's referred to as a good man and barnabas was the one who when everybody was scared to death of the apostle paul i mean they were terrified because they couldn't believe that saul of tarsus who was killing christians and and arresting them he suddenly converted and the christian jews just weren't sure about that barnabas barnabas went to them and said this man is okay and they took barnabas his word and so barnabas is a bit of a hero he's he's like that but then it's interesting he says mark the cousin cousin of barnabas concerning whom you have received instructions if he comes welcome him now i reckon there was something the fact that barnabas was the cousin of mark had something to do with the fact that when paul and mark had their falling out are you aware of this we read it in acts chapter 15 where paul refused to take mark on the journey uh it's it's a very uh interesting passage of scripture it just lets you know that not everything in the earliest church was perfect it just happens that people had their faults and so here's what we read in 1 corinthians 15 15 where after some days this is starting in verse 36 acts chapter 15 so acts 15 after some days paul said to barnabas let's return and visit the brothers in every city where we have proclaimed the word of the lord and see how they're doing well now barnabas wanted to take with them john mark john called mark it's the same mark but paul thought best not to take them because he had withdrawn from them in pamphilia and not gone with them and so paul lost confidence in mark and it turns out that there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other so barnabas took mark with him and sailed away to cyprus and paul chose silas and departed having been commanded by the brothers to the grace of the lord and he went through syria and cilicia strengthening churches now here's the thing barnabas decided to stay with mark as michael eaton pointed out the fact that they were relatives may have had something to do with it uh we're partial to those that are related to us you might say that barnabas shouldn't have gone but then maybe he didn't maybe michael's speculation is ill-founded but you can't help but wonder if the reason barnabas was willing to take mark is that they were related and paul wouldn't have anything to do with mark at that time so he takes silas now here's the interesting thing when you consider the great divisions in church history and there are many there are many not just this one that we're describing today uh but uh i could give you one story after another famous people who just didn't get on with each other and uh would go pretty far in calling names and i'm not going to go into that but here's the thing even after paul refused barnabas refused mark takes silas god uses paul and silas now you wonder did the devil get in when paul wouldn't have mark does the devil get in to make paul turn against mark or was this god's purpose can you bear with me if i give you again my own illustration when you want to know what is the difference between what god is predestined and what he has permitted and here's my way of putting it there was a day when moses saw the burning bush and the bush should have burned up it was on fire but it wasn't burnt up and paul barnabas sorry i'm making all kinds of mistakes today i couldn't rerun this but i think you'll just have to forgive me i'm sure that you will moses said to himself i'm going to see what is going on here and he runs up to the bush on fire to see why it's happening and god says stop stop stop don't come any closer take off your shoes you are on holy ground god did not want moses to know what moses wanted to know there are some things we want to know and if god doesn't want us to know what we want to know we've got to allow that now what happens is if we don't know we make up a conclusion sometimes we will let logic governess i would say whenever we want to know the difference between what is predestined and what is permitted remember the burning bush it's holy ground take off your shoes don't try to figure it out there are some things god doesn't want you to figure out so don't i would urge you don't go to logic and say well that means this don't do that just be willing not to know everything and so in the case of paul and barnabas falling out of what we know is this that god used silas who was chosen and the stories about paul and silas especially when they were in philippi and they were in the jail and they were singing praises to god at midnight and an earthquake came and and the jailer was converted it just shows that god can overrule and people he may choose for you to work with you may not want to work with them at first and you think i don't think i like that person the kingdom of god matters more don't go by what is personal what seems good to you understand that god could have a higher purpose you're not supposed to know everything what we know is this and you can go to the bank with this one all things work together for good to them that love god to them who are the called according to his purpose well that's what god wants us to see so mark who wrote the gospel of mark actually was rejected by paul now there's one thing i should point out in 2 timothy chapter 4 verse 11 paul says bring mark this is it is last epistle just before he dies and he says bring mark he's profitable he's useful all right then people say that shows paul was willing to admit that he was wrong and mark was a good man or others would say no it shows that mark had changed and therefore paul says he's okay things like that we will never know when we get to heaven we'll find out did paul change his mind about mark and say i was wrong is a good man or was it that mark changed and paul says bring him in any case it just goes to show we must never tell the score in the middle of the game as some one put it to me don't tell the score it's not over or as yogi berra would say it ain't over till it's over and so maybe the person that you have fallen out with and you think well good friends for a while it's over maybe and maybe not and understand that the best of people and and paul is just letting us know about these people and then here's something kind of funny i think i hope you're going to smile at what i'm getting ready to tell you and then he says there is jesus who is called justice whoops did he make a mistake no he says uh he's talking about a man whose name was jesus and it's not our lord jesus christ you've got to remember in those days many people were called jesus and so not only the the son of joseph and mary uh was called jesus but there was a man now here he is he's converted but understandably he doesn't want to be called jesus i can understand that and we call him justice said said paul and i'm sure that's ex exactly what this man wanted now that reminds me of a funny story maybe some of you know gerald coats he's a friend of mine and he told me the background being that in latin america there are a lot of people who are still named jesus jesus they do that i don't think many in britain or america would name their child jesus but they do that and there was a mexican restaurant in los angeles that gerald went to with an american evangelical friend and they were going to have lunch and so gerald added when he gave his order he said i will have a glass of red wine and the american evangelical went like that and gerald put up his hands and he said jesus jesus jesus save me from these wretched americans a mexican waiter ran over to gerald and said did you call me his name was jesus well forgive me for telling you that i couldn't help but but think of it and then we learned something more i find this so interesting he said they're the only man of the circumcision who are with me mark bring him and this man called justice he said these are the only men of the circumcision with me among my fellow workers for the kingdom of god and they've been a great comfort to me and what does this tell you he's talking about jews who are christians and he had many gentiles around him and most of his ministry was with gentiles and never forget this that god called paul to be the ambassador to the gentiles can you imagine what that was like for paul i don't know if you are aware that the culture of jews and that of gentiles black and white difference not even to be compared and there was a certain type of jew whether paul was one of these possibly who every day would pray this prayer i thank god that i am not a gentile that i'm not a woman and that i'm not a dog that's what certain jews would pray the point is they had this culture well now here is paul writing from prison and he said i've got a couple jewish friends with me they're the only ones with me and he said they have been a great comfort to me well let's let you know that paul is more at home with with jews they have the same culture and i suspect some of you you're from uh ghana and you went into a nigerian uh you get on with them okay but if you run into somebody from ghana i say oh great to see you it's a little different uh we're all a bit like that we gravitate naturally to those if we've had the same culture it's just a natural thing well that's all paul is saying he's actually saying that uh here i am in prison and i've got a couple friends jewish friends and they've been a great comfort to me he didn't need to share that but that tells you just a little bit about his personality so when i think of how in right after saul of tarsus was converted and then became known as paul he was said i have called you to the gentiles i would imagine that inwardly paul would say oh no do i have to but that was his ministry his preference would have been to reach his own people in romans nine verse one he says right the beginning his heart was with the jews that's where his heart was and yet his ministry was to gentiles i wonder if there's some body listening to me right now god has put you where you wouldn't want to be but maybe where you are you're doing a better job because you're not with those you personally naturally like and maybe you're called to a certain kind of ministry and it's different from what you want and it's not where would you like to be and the people you have to work with they're not your kind of friends you wouldn't want to go on vacation with them you wouldn't want to go on holiday with them but you're you're with them well this has been the case over the many many years may i share a personal word when i was at westminster chapel i'd been there for 23 years at this moment and i'm saying to myself i don't know why i had these thoughts but i did i said to myself you know how long am i going to stay at westminster chapel now i'll be honest with you what kept me there as long as i was there to be if you want to know i kept hoping that we would see revival i live for that and i'll come clean and tell you i live for that to this day here i am 85 years old god may have a few years left for me he may not but as long as i'm alive i'm hoping for revival well i hope for that at westminster chapel but i've been there 23 years and i thought how long am i going to stay am i going to stay forever i said to myself i think i'll say 25 years that sounds about right 25 years and then i thought what will i do when i go back to america because nobody over there knows me and i began to panic i thought well fair enough i'll just be become a fisherman fish 25 hours a day in my retirement and i was having that very thought and in that moment i heard these words i promise you i heard these words your ministry in america will be to charismatics i thought oh no please oh jesus do you know what my ministry since retiring in america has been 80 to charismatics now i need to make a point here and i'm just being honest again charismatics in america are different from charismatics in england i mean huge difference in england the charismatic movement is mainstream mainstream i mean the greatest churches like holy trinity brompton the present archbishop of canterbury i mean i'm telling you and god has called me to be friendly with these people i've preached at htb i preached for focus uh many times and i know about british charismatics they're just all together different the american charismatic you know embarrassed me they scream hard jump up and down and i could go on and on but that's where god has put me now i do get to come to england once in a while i thank god for that but mostly it's been charismatic in america not what i would choose i promise you but that's where god has put me and i honestly don't know if i'm doing much good maybe i am it's hard to say but here's my point sometimes god calls us to people and places that we are not familiar with so we will get joy from serving god and not get our joy or happiness from circumstances and so sometimes god uses circumstances to get your attention to drive you to your knees and pray harder and you are not in it for the fun the people that you like naturally and god may put you people you wouldn't care to go on holiday with as i said but that's what i get from these verses colossians chapter 4 verses 7 to 11. well next time when we get together we will finish colossians and uh and i'm sure by that time uh we will see that we've treated colossians long enough until next time god bless you see you again

Channel: RT Kendall

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Id: TOA8hWMg_tM

Length: 28min 48sec (1728 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020